The Anglo-Saxon chronicler
Æthelweard records his death as 870. The
Annals of Ulster describe the death of Ímar in 873. The death of Ímar is also recorded in the
Fragmentary Annals of Ireland under the year 873. The identification of the king of
Laithlind as
Gothfraid (i.e., Ímar's father) was added by a copyist in the 17th century. In the original 11th-century manuscript, the subject of the entry 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==