Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

History Channel Gets Vikings Precisely Wrong
The American Spectator ^ | March 12, 2013 | Lars Walker

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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: historychannel; vikings
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-112 next last
To: PJ-Comix

Those who enjoy Viking culture and history would be hard pressed to find a better narrative than in the book, The Long Ships, by Frans G. Bengtsson. It is truly one of the great novels of the Century, and a very good read.

Hugely popular in Sweden, it has been translated into 23 languages, and though there have been efforts to make it into a movie, they have never quite worked.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Ships


61 posted on 03/13/2013 12:05:58 PM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy (Best WoT news at rantburg.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: muawiyah

Of course the Vikings knew about the British Isles in the Eighth Century. When they weren’t plundering and pillaging, they were trading. As traders, they would have known about the British Isles.


62 posted on 03/13/2013 12:06:55 PM PDT by bagman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: allmendream
"On Iceland the Y chromosome is predominantly from Norway and the X chromosome is from Whales."

You, sir or madam, and your post, will soon become an Internet legend.
63 posted on 03/13/2013 12:08:43 PM PDT by frankenMonkey (A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." -- Sigmund Freud)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

To: frankenMonkey

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1288180/

A comparison with published mtDNA lineages from European populations indicates that, whereas most founding females probably originated from Scandinavia and the British Isles.

The ancestry of the settlers is more controversial. Historical evidence suggests that not all of the settlers in Iceland originated from Scandinavia (Jones 1984). At the very least, it is believed that the settlers included a number of women and slaves from Norse settlements in the British Isles. There are numerous references in Icelandic medieval writings to the keeping of slaves, many of whom were obtained through raids on settlements in the British Isles (Jones 1984). Thus, the Icelandic founding gene pool may have received a substantial maternal contribution from the British Isles.


64 posted on 03/13/2013 12:11:47 PM PDT by allmendream (Tea Party did not send GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: frankenMonkey

Wales, LOL.

Damn autocorrect! ;)


65 posted on 03/13/2013 12:12:55 PM PDT by allmendream (Tea Party did not send GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix

I saw a few of the commercials for this show and had no desire to watch it. Looks like a ripoff of that crappy biker show with Peggy Bundy in it.


66 posted on 03/13/2013 12:13:50 PM PDT by ozzymandus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: freedumb2003
Everyone will speak carefully reconstructed Vikingish.

Maybe they'll get Icelanders to act in it, and they can just speak their regular Norshish language.

67 posted on 03/13/2013 12:14:46 PM PDT by Max in Utah ("This is our land, mixed with our blood, strengthened with our bone. Ours!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: allmendream

Autocorrect.... yeah, that’s the ticket!
;-)


68 posted on 03/13/2013 12:15:33 PM PDT by frankenMonkey (A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." -- Sigmund Freud)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | View Replies]

To: Sirius Lee

I saw the trailer for that on youtube months ago. Thought it was hilarious and prime MST3K material.


69 posted on 03/13/2013 12:16:26 PM PDT by wally_bert (There are no winners in a game of losers. I'm Tommy Joyce, welcome to the Oriental Lounge.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: Stormdog

Huh?


70 posted on 03/13/2013 12:17:50 PM PDT by ansel12 ( August 29,2008 A Natural Born Reformer inadvertently unleashed within palace walls, change ensues.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: bagman
later later later ~ they were miserably ignorant people living in a primitive undeveloped part of the world in the 7th century ~ and most of the 8th wasn't that much better ~ it's the last of the 8th where they show up with seaworthy boats. That's also when they showed up on the Northern river systems with heavy duty craft.
71 posted on 03/13/2013 12:18:57 PM PDT by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: Max in Utah

Not the Icelanders, for authentic dialects you need to go to the Faroes Islands ~


72 posted on 03/13/2013 12:20:29 PM PDT by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 67 | View Replies]

To: allmendream
last scientific estimate based on DNA analysis had it down to 1 Norse to 7 Irish slaves ~ hence the red heads!

Remember, Snorri, first European baby history knows to have been born in America had a mother who was a daughter of the Irish high king ~ CARHAL

73 posted on 03/13/2013 12:23:05 PM PDT by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix

I think all the best Viking documentaries were made by Monty Python.


74 posted on 03/13/2013 12:24:17 PM PDT by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TurboZamboni

Sadly, the term “squander” has replaced “plunder” in association with the Vikings.


75 posted on 03/13/2013 12:26:55 PM PDT by philled (If this creature is not stopped it could make its way to Novosibirsk!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: muawiyah

Link? Never seen any estimate of norse ancestry that low.


76 posted on 03/13/2013 12:27:52 PM PDT by allmendream (Tea Party did not send GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

To: laplata

The Travel channel is a joke too. I’m trying to plan a trip to Europe and at least 90% of their shows are about food.

Of course being the brilliant planner that I am I use multiple other sources.


77 posted on 03/13/2013 12:31:08 PM PDT by rfreedom4u (I have a copy of the Constitution! And I'm not afraid to use it!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: allmendream

Vikings were manly men. They did what they pleased


78 posted on 03/13/2013 12:31:46 PM PDT by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 76 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix

I got them wrong too, I thought for sure they’d beat the Steelers in SB IX.


79 posted on 03/13/2013 12:33:41 PM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: muawiyah
Interesting stuff. I think the Saxons actually started arriving about a century earlier but, as you say, English history is rather sketchy before 700 a.d. or so.

To the English mix, one needs to add the arrival of North Africans (many of whom were probably the common ancestors of Berbers) which started roughly 200 BC, by encouragement of the Roman ruling class. Therefore, for the millions of people who claim English blood, a good share of them (particularly if they trace back to the Colechester area) have North Africans in the mix.

Colechester's origins actually date back to Ancient Carthage. A century or so after the Romans destroyed Ancient Carthage in the Third Punic War (146 BC), Julius Caesar allowed the city to be rebuilt. By 100 a.d., it had grown to a city of a half million, second only to Rome in size in the western part of the empire.

The decline begin shortly thereafter as the surrounding area begin to turn into desert. The Angles, Picts, Celts and Brits, meanwhile were a rather unruly lot and difficult to rule so the Romans actively encouraged their North African subjects to emigrate, where they founded Colechester.

The old nursery rhyme Old King Cole refers to the king of Colechester who was of North African stock. His blackness, of course, is subject to debate since even a bronze skinned Berber would look black to the fair skinned locals.

But, I digress. As you know, the various groups fought for control of the British Isles until the Normans (yet another group seeded by vikings) came out victorious in the pivotal October 14, 1066 Battle of Hastings. But that still didn't settle the matter completely as the Irish, Scots, Welsh and others will tell you.

BTW, I really enjoy your posts and added knowledge of history, even if I don't always agree. You appear to be very well read on the subject. Is it a professional specialty or just a hobby (like me)?

80 posted on 03/13/2013 12:38:15 PM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-112 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson