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SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 27
was tortured by them, or anyone else ; all testimony BOOK i.
being that he was slain in battle in 867. 1 And CH ^L IL
further, if the Northern legend were true, Ella must
have captured Regnar Lodbrog some years before
Northumbria was -invaded by Regnar's sons. But,
there is only one authority for the statement that
Ella reigned, except during the years 866 and 867 ;
and, even supposing that Simeon of Durham is correct
in stating that Ella's reign commenced in 862, Regnar
must have invaded Northumbria, and have been
captured by Ella between that year and 866. Yet,
not only is there no record of such events, but there
is no record of any invasion whatsoever, or any land-
ing in Northumberland by Regnar or any other
Scandinavian during that period. 2
Northern historians also differ respecting the period
in which this celebrated leader lived. Nor do they
agree about his death they either make no allusion
to it, or differ about the date of it. And so glaring
are their anachronisms that Torfoeus suggests the
existence of two Regnar Lodbrogs, and Suhm of three,
with two successive Ellas, by whom the three Regnars
were killed. 3
All English history being thus opposed to the story Regnar LOU-
of Regnar's death in Northumberland, and the torture death in ireland
by the
Insh*
1 Chron. Mailros, A.D. 867. until after the middle of the ninth
3
Rafer, who was misled by the century, and was slain by Regnar
statements of Turner, says, in a Lodbrog's sons in 866.
preface to the Krakas Haal, Copenhagen,
1826, p. 40" Vers la fin
8 Torfoeus Series Dynastarum,
&c., Hafnise, 1702, p. 346. Suhm,
du huiticme siecle do 1'ere chrc- Hist, of Danemark, Kiobeh, 1828.
tienne Regnar Lodbrog, Roi de Mallet (Hist. Danemarc, Genete,
Danemark, fut fait prisonnier par 1787, vol. iii., p. 35) also supposes
son enneiui Ella," &c., &c. But that there were two Regnar Lod-
Ella did not commence his reign brogs.