Ragnhildis Olafsdottir, also known as Ragnhild, (c.1115 - unknown) was the daughter of king Óláfr Guðrøðarson of the Kingdom of Mann and Ingibiorg Hakonsdottir,McDonald, RA (2000) p. 175 n. 55; McDonald, A (1995) p. 206; Anderson (1922) p. 255 n. 1; Vigfusson (1887) p. 210 ch. 110; Flateyjarbok (1862) p. 508 ch. 439; Anderson; Hjaltalin; Goudie (1873) p. 181 ch. 104. Most indirectly reference Ragnhild being a daughter of Ingibiorg. making her a granddaughter of Haakon Paulsson.
Ragnhild married the Norse-Gaelic lord Somerled,Power, R (2005), p. 33 king of the Kingdom of the Isles. As the mother of Dubgall, Ragnall, and Aonghas,Entry for the year 1102, Chronica Regum Manniæ et Insularum Ragnhild was the progenitor of Clann Somhairle and the ancestor of Clan MacDonald, Clan MacDougall, Clan MacAlister, and many other clans. Little is known about her life apart from her marriage to Somerled and her being a part of the royal lineage of the Crovan Dynasty.
Legacy Ragnhild is important to Clann Somhairle because she gives the clan and its descendants royal status on the basis of their descent from the Crovan Dynasty and the Uí Ímair Dynasty,Woolf, A (2005), p. 13 because her father Óláfr Guðrøðarson was the son of Godred Crovan. This is one of the ways in which Somerled's expansion is politically legitimised.Ellis, Caitlin. "Impressions of a twelfth‐century maritime ruler—Somerled: Viking warrior, clan chieftain or traitor to the Scottish king." Northern Studies 51 (2020): 1-14. Ragnhild's place in Manx dynastic politics also strengthened claims by further descendants.The Book of Clanranald p. 157
Historian R. Andrew Macdonald recounts how the Chronicles of Mann describes how the wife of Somerled was the "cause of the collapse of the entire kingdom of the Isles" because the kingdom would fall under the control of Clann Somhairle and would become divided which ultimately led to its collapse in the mid 13th century.
Fictional depiction Ragnhild was an important character in the novel Summer Warrior by Regan Walker.
See also List of Manx royal consorts British nobility Irish nobility
Citations
References
Power, Rosemary (2005). "Meeting in Norway: Norse-Gaelic Relations in the Kingdom of Man and the Isles, 1090–1270" (PDF). ISSN 0305-9219. Woolf, Alex (2004). "The Age of Sea-Kings, 900–1300", in Omand, D (ed.) The Argyll Book. Woolf, Alex (2005). "The Origins and Ancestry of Somerled: Gofraid mac Fergusa and 'The Annals of the Four Masters'". Medieval Scandinavia. Ragnhild ." Encyclopedia.com