Posted on 03/13/2013 10:42:29 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
It’s been more than fifty years since Kirk Douglas and his production company produced what most people still consider the best Viking movie ever made, The Vikings. Within the limits of the information available at the time, they made a good faith effort to do the thing relatively authentically. We’ve learned much in the years since, especially due to advances in archaeology, and many reenactors around the world (of whom I am among the least) work hard to re-create authentic Viking Age life. Dozens of accurate replicas of Viking ships have been built and put to sea, to the wonder and delight of many. The time would seem to be ripe for a depiction of the Viking Age that would surpass Kirk Douglas’s film in portraying of one of the most exciting and colorful eras in human history.
The History Channel’s new series, Vikings, is not it.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
They were victims of unscrupulous Spring vacation tour operators.
>>They got the Viking political structure completely wrong. <<
Everyone knows obama was Viking #1! And moochele led them into battle (and bowled the enemy over with them hips and boob-belt)!
LOL. Good one.
If they wanted to put out a crappy Viking story they could have saved a bunch of money and just shown “The Norsemen” starring Lee Majors in a porn ‘stasche and Roman centurion costume.
Their amazingly seaworthy yet shallow draft ships enabled the Vikings to sail far and near, up rivers to raid inland cities such as Paris, down the rivers of Asia to interact w. the Arabs, raid Constantinople (or was it Istanbul by that time?). I’ve read that they pacified the warring tribes of the Rus, thus establishing the Russian nation. Vikings liked to establish civic order, after having had their way by force of arms, so to speak.
Suggest reading “The Vikings,” by Rob’t Ferguson, 2009 Viking Penguin.
I guess that’s why my clan all have Viking DNA. I’ve always had an urge to plunder and pillage.
“Allegedly, Mel Gibson is producing a Viking film.”
He’s allowing Angles and Saxons to be in it but no Jutes allowed.
However, the Viking Age did not begin until the day the Norse got a boat design that would take the pounding of the sea and the great rivers they were to travel in the future.
There is, off course, a reason the Greeks in the Classical Age came to the Northland on the routes out of the Black Sea ~ even they didn't have ships capable of handing the North Sea.
However, the Sa'ami had clinker built boat hulls that could handle the wild rivers in the far north AND the Arctic near the coast. Permanent contact began between the Sa'ami and the Norse sometime in the 8th century, but some place it later when it comes to trade. Still, a Norseman tired of rowing around in the Baltic region raiding his neighbors could see the advantages of that improved design.
With a few efforts at scaling up, the Norse finally mastered a real ocean going boat that could handle the worst that could come on large inland rivers. The Viking Age began ~ and life was never the same again in Scandinavia.
The remains of ancient Sa'ami built clinker built boats have been found along mountain rivers ~ they are obviously not as big as the later Viking craft, but they could handle mountain streams ~ which nothing else could.
It is entirely possible that the Norse were generally unaware of England in the early 8th century, but by the 9th century they were engaged in gripping encounters with Irish settlers moving into Alba! Eventually all those problems were worked out so today your typical highlander has no idea where his ancestors came from or how they got there! (See: MacBeth, his wife. He's a typical laird of his day ~ probably of mostly Irish and Welsh ancetry but his wife is the daughter of a Viking king ~ meaning a guy from Norway ~ and she's practicing the old tymme religion where you mix up an evil brew and see visions).
Iceland seems to have had some 8th century monks, but there's no sign of human habitation there before that time ~ of course 100% of everything on that island is regularly destroyed by massive overflows of lava.
5000 miles? To the US maybe... To Northumberland, it’s a straight shot of about 200 miles dead West from Denmark.
From what I understand, the series takes place around 800 AD. This is about when raiders started hitting the Isles.
At the end of the day, it’s a fictional series with the trappings of historical research. Don’t take it as gospel.
The History Channel has become a joke....much like National Geographic.
I saw a TV Show on a man who rebuilt one of their ships. It was based directly on an "original" that was found off the (Danish?) coast.
It was very unstable at low speeds. However, the faster it went, the more stable it became. Exactly the opposite of what you'd expect.
It was interesting enough to keep me up a couple of hours past my bedtime. :-)
Many years ago we were taught that the vikings were little more than barbarians whose first act upon meeting a new group of people was to hit them with a sword or axe to see if they were gods. We also learned that they cared nothing about personal hygiene, education, modesty or authority. It would be interesting to hear if any of that is considered accurate these days.
Sa'ami meaning Laplanders?
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles say Viking raiders struck England in 793 and raided Lindisfarne. That's LATE EIGHTH CENTURY ~ again, in the early 8th century they didn't have Viking Boats ~ which is the point. Without those boats they couldn't get away from the Baltic and were pretty much stuck with control over only a small bit of even the Norwegian West Coast.
Vikings did not have a single political culture. It is a loose term to describe barbarians from the North. They came from Denmark, Sandinavia, and Russia. No matter how their political culture was portrayed, a similar article could have been written. The biggest issue I had was not even mentioned in the article: the pact that they would all be equals in their journey. Very entertaining nonetheless. Beats American Idol.
The Author of that piece watched one episode and feels within rights to map out, and condemn, the entire series.
He’s wrong too... Yes, later political structures were much more democratic and refined. Earlier, they were just as warlordish and feudal as anywhere else.
Stay tuned, the season is exactly 3 Episodes old.
After that first violent contact, they often settled down and adapted to the surroundings. Normans are really Vikings who invaded Northwestern France, picked up the language, and within a few generations crossed the channel to become the rulers of England in 1066. Ironically, most of the Latin words in our language came to us via Frenchified Vikings (Normans).
They at least didn’t put horns on their helmets, did they?
Remember that the ancient Saxons (who would have most likely would have arrived via Denmark) were part of the British establishment by the 870 a.d. era depicted in the movie.
The Vikings raided Russia (or more precisely, the Baltic States) first not because they didn't know about the British Isles but because it represented a closer and softer target.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.