Ragnar Danneskjöld
The just pirate
Reclaiming wealth from the redistributive state.
Anarcho-CapitalistOne of 729 ideologies · enter the Anarcho-Capitalist hall →- Role
- Pirate-philosopher (fiction)
- From
- Atlas Shrugged
- Region
- (stateless seas)
- Social band
- Centre (no modifier)
- Placement
- +96 · −88 · +10
§ Where Ragnar Danneskjöld stands
3 axesRagnar holds that wealth belongs absolutely to those who produce it and that taxation and relief programmes are theft. He seizes relief cargoes and banks their value in gold for the producers it was taken from; in Part Two he hands Hank Rearden a bar of gold as a first repayment of the income tax extracted from him. Few fictional characters embody a purer case against redistribution.
Ragnar wages a private war on the redistributive state, refusing to recognise its claim to tax him or command his obedience. His targets are government relief ships, and he defends his piracy as the return of stolen property. Yet he acts as the enforcer of a rights-based order, not a nihilist, and in Part Three he joins the strikers who free John Galt from government custody.
Socially Ragnar is a rationalist individualist whose story concerns property rather than personal morality, which leaves him near the centre of this axis. Trained in philosophy by Hugh Akston, he prizes reason and achievement over custom, but Atlas Shrugged (1957) gives him no cause beyond restoring wealth to producers.
How close are you to Ragnar Danneskjöld?
Three statements, one per axis. Answer them and we’ll drop you on the compass next to them.
§ The story
FictionRagnar Danneskjöld is the pirate of Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged (1957). A Norwegian who studied philosophy alongside Francisco d'Anconia and John Galt under Professor Hugh Akston, he turns to piracy, seizing government relief ships loaded with goods taken from producers and sent abroad. Talked of for much of the novel as a notorious outlaw, he reveals himself to Hank Rearden on a dark road in Part Two and hands him a bar of gold.
Ragnar presents himself as the anti-Robin Hood: he robs the thieving poor to give back to the productive rich, banking the value of seized cargo in gold for the taxpayers it was taken from, Rearden among them. In Galt's Gulch he is married to the film actress Kay Ludlow. The character is the novel's starkest image of anti-tax justice and the only striker who wages open war; Rand presents his piracy as retaliation rather than crime, since the goods were seized by force in the first place.
Notable for
- 01Character in 'Atlas Shrugged'
- 02Robs the redistributive state
- 03Anti-tax philosopher-pirate
Key works & moments
- 1957Ayn Rand publishes Atlas Shrugged, featuring the pirate Ragnar Danneskjöld.
- Part TwoMeets Hank Rearden on a dark road and gives him a bar of gold.
- Part TwoExplains that he robs the thieving poor to give back to the productive rich.
- Part ThreeLives in Galt's Gulch with his wife, the actress Kay Ludlow.
- Part ThreeJoins the rescue of John Galt from government torture.
§ Minds closest to Ragnar Danneskjöld
All minds →
§ Also in the Anarcho-Capitalist hall
Enter the hall →§ Common questions
4 answersWhat is Ragnar Danneskjöld's political ideology?
Ragnar Danneskjöld embodies anti-tax, anti-state market justice in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged: on the 99ideologies three-axis compass, an Anarcho-Capitalist. Economically he sits at the far market end (+96), treating all taxation as theft and returning seized wealth to producers. On governance he is strongly anti-state (−88), waging private war on government relief ships, and socially he sits near the centre (+10), a rationalist whose cause is property rights rather than any wider social programme.
Is Ragnar Danneskjöld left-wing or right-wing?
Right-wing in the anti-tax, free-market sense, pushed to its most radical form. Ragnar's inversion of Robin Hood, taking back from the state what it took from producers, makes him a hero to opponents of taxation and redistribution. He is not a conservative figure, however: he is an outlaw who uses force against a government he considers illegitimate, which places him closer to anarcho-capitalism than to the law-and-order right, and closer to it than his creator, who rejected anarchism.
Why does Ragnar Danneskjöld attack the legend of Robin Hood?
Because Robin Hood stands for the idea Ragnar most wants to destroy: that taking wealth from those who earned it and giving it to those who need it is a virtue. In Atlas Shrugged Ragnar says the legend remembers Robin Hood as a champion of need rather than of property, and he sets out to reverse it, seizing from the state the goods it took from producers and returning their value in gold. For Rand, Robin Hood symbolised the morality of altruism that her novel attacks.
Which minds are closest to Ragnar Danneskjöld?
On the 99ideologies three-axis compass, the minds closest to Ragnar Danneskjöld are Linda & Morris Tannehill (95% alike), David D. Friedman (94% alike) and Walter Block (94% alike). The furthest is Pol Pot (0% alike).