Vikings are hot. The History Channel is now airing the fourth season of the series of the same name starring ex-underpants model Travis Fimmel. Danish men and women sail in this at the end of 8 e century to the west to plunder the place. This results in bloody battles, intrigue, sacrificial feasts and sex. How big is the big thumb of the writers of the series? Kennislink asks Arend Quak, professor of Old German Philology.
The first scene of Vikings sets the tone right away. Main protagonist Ragnar Lodbrok sees – after a won battle in the Baltic region in 793 – the Viking god Odin takes his dead comrades to Valhalla. Dark colors, bloody wounds and ominous music.
Ragnar Lodbrok really existed and the exploits of this Danish king are described in the eponymous saga; medieval stories about the Viking Age in Old Norse. The tales of Viking Ragnar, the terror of England and France, are legendary rather than historically accurate. The sources we have about the Vikings do not come from the Viking Age (790-1050) itself. Only from the 12 e century, Christianized Scandinavians and Christian missionaries write about ancient heroes and customs from the Viking age.
In a coffin
How truthful is the series? Arend Quak is positive:"The writers have clearly taken the mythological saga about Ragnar as their starting point. The characters from this saga have existed and also appear in other sources, but their experiences are debatable.
In addition, the writers have taken appealing details from other sagas and then turned this into one beautiful story. Take Ragnar's ruse, for example, by which he supposedly died and entered the besieged city of Paris in a coffin. This did happen, but in a later saga and at a different city."
Chronologically, the series is often wrong. Rollo, Ragnar's brother in the series, is a good example of this. He was a well-known Viking leader and indeed besieged Paris, but only in the 10 e century. After looting the city several times, the desperate French king Charles de Domme assigned what is now Normandy to Rollo. This area was thus given the name of this Norman. This was a common tactic of the Vikings:they plundered not only for the riches, but also to be bought off next time by fearing kings or forcing agreements.
Shield Castle exists
The series looks truthful at first glance. It is clear that the makers of the sets and costumes have looked at archaeological finds, according to Quak:“There are plenty of examples of graves where clothing and weapons have been recovered. The Vikings were known for using the ax, and that is nicely reflected in the series. The shields also look very realistic. It is impossible to say with certainty how the weapons were used. In Vikings For example, the Danes form a shield fortress during a battle against the English:this principle also regularly returns in sagas, but we do not know exactly how it worked.”
The Viking culture was a wood culture and the houses without windows and furnishings seem realistic in the series, although the latter is more uncertain what exactly it looked like. It is known that Scandinavians made beautiful wooden furniture such as chests, chairs and beds. They themselves were not shabby either. They wore bronze and silver jewelry and vegetable dyes provided colorful clothing on the streets. The hairstyle also resembles what we know from the Vikings depicted, but whether they were tattooed as fiercely as in the series is open to question.
Go west
In Vikings Ragnar - then still an ordinary farmer - wants to travel west because of promising stories about the mysterious and rich England. However, the chief of the area, the Jarl, forbids it. According to Quak, several things go wrong here, mainly because of a lack of source material. The Danes were primarily a nation of free peasants who lived on large farms. They thought it was quite normal to have slaves to work the land and the slave trade increased enormously during this period.
The Jarl, however, was an elected chieftain and had to take into account the free peasants, otherwise they would revolt. In addition, there had been contacts with the Christianized continent before the Viking Age, through a trade network set up by the Frisians in the fifth century. England was therefore not an unknown country for the Danes.
Quak:“The Vikings probably went west as traders. But when it turned out that merchandise was just up for grabs, they didn't pay. Opportunity makes the thief, so to speak. They mainly attacked areas of internal turmoil, but don't think the Vikings were the only rough guys. The opposing sides were just as bad and they were not inferior to each other in wartime. Vikings were only much more homogeneous as a club during their raids. The battle went on immediately when a local peasant army faced them. If it took too long for the battle to be fought, for example because the Vikings had entrenched themselves in a fortification, the farmers returned to their farms. Vikings were therefore mainly bought off when the army could not remain at full strength long enough. And when a strong king went to build fortresses to protect the land and the people around it, they stayed away. They didn't like besieging.”
Typical for Viking attacks from the water was its speed, something you also see in the series. Quak:“Vikings who sailed a long and shallow warship, the longship type, did not need a harbor. The ships were fast and could just be pulled onto the beach. That's why the Vikings were so terrifying:they came out of nowhere, looted, and were gone before the king could summon his land forces.”
Please?
When the Vikings come ashore in the series encounter Englishmen, both speak a different language. Quak:“I liked that, although it wasn't quite right. The English do indeed speak Old English, but with a strange pronunciation and the language of the Vikings sounds more modern than Old Norse. In addition, the English and Vikings at that time could easily follow each other without the help of an interpreter. Those languages are close to each other. In old Scandinavian sources it is also written that the English had a bit of a strange pronunciation but spoke the same language.”
The Christian religion was also not unknown in the Scandinavian areas. In the series, Ragnar takes the monk Athelstan as a slave out of interest in his culture, after looting an English monastery. Monasteries were loved by the Vikings, not only because of their great wealth and lack of defenses, but also because they often served as a staple market. The raids had nothing to do with faith itself. Scandinavian traders often adopted second-class Christianity, the primsigna, purely to be able to conclude trade agreements with Christians. Here they were baptized, but otherwise they did nothing with the faith. In the 10 e century, many Viking leaders also converted to Christianity in order to form alliances and agreements with continental rulers.
Women fighting
Much is unknown about the Viking Age and the series creators have filled in the gaps quite realistically, but the entertainment aspect is of course paramount. For example, they give shield maiden Lagartha, Ragnar's wife, a prominent role as a tough fighter.
Quak:“However, I doubt the existence of female fighters like Lagartha. These women do appear in mythological stories, such as the legendary Brynhild from the Völsunga saga, but Viking society itself was a man's world. Women incite their sons to revenge instead of fighting themselves.”
However, not everyone agrees. Archaeologist Neil Price of Uppsala University believes he has found evidence of fighting Viking women. A warrior's grave has been found at the Swedish Viking settlement of Birka, buried with weapons and two horses. After bone analysis, the warrior turned out to be a woman. The writers of Vikings have used this fact to allow fighting women to participate in the looting campaigns. Of course, that always works well among female viewers.
Shield maidens or not, women were far from unimportant in Viking times. They literally carried the keys to the farm and kept things running at home. In a society of farmers, this is a position that should not be underestimated. In addition, the seer was an important woman in Viking culture.
In the series it is a man, but male seers do not appear in the sagas. It was always the women who put themselves into a trance and could predict the future and were respected by the community for that.
All in all, the series is nicely made and based on historical sources. What the makers didn't know because of a lack of source material, is sometimes a bit too modern. After all, it remains entertainment and the series with its beautiful heroes and heroines is nice to watch.