was simply called righ Lochlann ("the king of Lochlainn"), which more than likely referred to Ímar, whose death is not otherwise noted in the Fragmentary Annals. The cause of death—a sudden and horrible disease—is not mentioned in any other source, but it raises the possibility that the true origin of Ivar's Old Norse nickname lay in the crippling effects of an unidentified disease that struck him down at the end of his life. In 1686, a farm labourer named Thomas Walker discovered a Scandinavian burial mound at Repton in Derbyshire close to a battle site where the Great Heathen Army overthrew the Mercian king Burgred. The number of partial skeletons surrounding the body—over 250—signified that the man buried there was of very high status. It has been suggested that such a burial mound is possibly the last resting place of Ivar. According to the saga, Ivar ordered that he be buried in a place that was exposed to attack, and prophesied that, if that was done, foes coming to the land would be met with ill-success. This prophecy held true, says the saga, until "when Vilhjalm bastard (William I of England) came ashore[,] he went [to the burial site] and broke Ivar's mound and saw that [Ivar's] body had not decayed. Then Vilhjalm had a large pyre made upon which Ivar's body was] burned... Thereupon, [Vilhjalm proceeded with the landing invasion and achieved] the victory." Fictional portrayals Ivar the Boneless is a minor character in the 1969 film Alfred the Great, portrayed as an acrobatic and agile warrior. In the 2013 film Hammer of the Gods, Ivar the Boneless is portrayed as a reclusive, homosexual viking. The character was played by Ivan Kaye, who later portrayed King Ælla of Northumbria in the History television series Vikings. In Vikings, Ivar is portrayed as the son of Ragnar and Aslaug and a younger half-brother to Björn Ironside. He first appeared in season 2 as a baby, and later was played by James Quinn Markey and Alex Høgh Andersen. Ivar's invasion of East Anglia and killing of Edmund the Martyr are depicted in the video for The Darkness's song Barbarian. Ivar is a character in the 1993 novel The Hammer and the Cross. Ivar appears as a minor character in Bernard Cornwell’s 2004 novel The Last Kingdom, in which his epithet “the Boneless” is explained by him being very thin. Ivar dies off-screen