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ISABELLE FLETCHER
HOW HISTORICALLY ACCURATE IS VIKING
WARFARE IN THE MEDIA & POPULAR CULTURE?
Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the finals requirements of the BA
Honours degree in Archaeology & Journalism Studies
MARCH 2015
UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER
Figure 1: A reconstruction battle by re-enactors (Taken by the author)
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Abstract
This study consists of analysing various types of media with a view to discussing how
historically accurate Viking Warfare is portrayed in popular culture to the general
public. An analysis of media has been undertaken by examining music, films, books
and museums as just a few examples. It is trying to determine how the Vikings are
genuinely perceived to the general public in various media formats.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Nick Thorpe for his guidance throughout this study and The Viking
Society in their help in aiding on the correct authenticity of costumes. I would also like
to thank Gregory Pearson, Frances Koehler, Joseph Solomon, James Robertson,
Jamie Porter, my siblings; Ellena, Florin and Oliver and my parents; Mandy and Chris,
for all their much appreciated, continued guidance and support throughout this study.
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Contents
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………….1
Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………...1
List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………….4
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….6
Review of Current Literature…………………………………………………………...7
Academic Literature……………………………………………………………………….7
Media & Literature in Popular Culture…………………………………………………10
Aims of Research………………………………………………………………………...11
Limitations…………………………………………………………………………………12
Media (Music, Games Film, & Television)……………………………………………12
Music………………………………………………………………………………………12
Games……………………………………………………………………………………..15
Film…………………………………………………………………………………..........18
Television………………………………………………………………………………….22
Graphic Novels, Comic Books, Entertainment Books & Historical Fiction……27
Graphic Novels & Comic Books………………………………………………………..27.
Entertainment Books…………………………………………………………………….30
Historical Fiction………………………………………………………………………….32
Newspapers, Magazines & websites………………………………………………….34
Newspaper Articles……………………………………………………………………….34
Magazines…………………………………………………………………………………37
Websites……………………………………………………………………………………38
Re-enactment, Living History & Museums…………………………………………..40
Re-enactment & Living History…………………………………………………………40
Museums………………………………………………………………………………….43
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………....49
Appendix One……………………………………………………………………………..62
Appendix Two…………………………………………………………………………….67
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Appendix Three…………………………………………………………………………..72
Appendix Four…………………………………………………………………………….75
Appendix Five……………………………………………………………………………..78
Appendix Six………………………………………………………………………………86
Appendix Seven…………………………………………………………………………..83
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List of Figures
Figure 1: A reconstruction battle by re-enactors……………………………………..0
Figure 2: An example of what a Viking Warrior would have looked like…………...7
Figure 3: Bathroy album cover 'Hammerheart………………………………………..13
Figure 4: An example of Viking influence of Enslaved's album covers…………….14
Figure 5: Enslaved's album cover for Eld……………………………………………..15
Figure 6: Screenshot of War of the Vikings…………………………………………..16
Figure 7: Skyrim screenshot - example of horned helmets…………………………16
Figure 8: A virtual recreated battle of a Viking invasion…………………………….17
Figure 9: Still image of the 1928 film The Viking…………………………………….18
Figure 10: Kirk Douglas' famous studded waistcoat…………………………………19
Figure 11: Viking attack in the 2007 film Pathfinder…………………………………21
Figure 12: Vikingdom's depiction of Thor……………………………………………..22
Figure 13: The Vikings TV series depicted with Ragnar Lothbrok, third from the left............................................................................................................................24
Figure 14: The Mighty Thor 1966 television series………………………………….25
Figure 15: The main characters of Thor: Tales of Asgard…………………………..24
Figure 16: Example of how Horrible Histories make history entertaining…………26
Figure 17: Prince Valliant fighting the Vikings………………………………………..27
Figure 18: An example of a Hagar the Horrible strip…………………………………28
Figure 19: 'Lady Thor' in Thor #2……………………………………………………….29
Figure 20: A cover issue of one of the Northlanders novels. ……………………….28
Figure 21: The Viking Invader written in a newspaper format for children's entertainment……………………………………………………………………………..31
Figure 22: Portrays illustrations of the Lewis Chessman on the book cover………32
Figure 23: Images used by Gee from the Danish reconstruction film……………...35
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Figure 24: Image of Thor used by Keegan……………………………………………36
Figure 25: Minnesota Vikings logo……………………………………………………39
Figure 26: An example of authentic costume worn by a re-enactor……………….40
Figure 27: An example of a skirmish by Viking re-enactors………………………...41
Figure 28: Example of Viking combat carried out by reenactors…………………...42
Figure 29: A Reconstruction example of a Viking tent at Dublinia…………………42
Figure 30: The reconstruction of the Roskilde 6 ship discovery……………………44
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Introduction
For almost 250 years what now is known as Britain suffered attacks from
Scandinavia. The so called ‘Viking Age’ was spread over three centuries, according
to historical evidence, with the first major Viking raid during the year of 793 AD at
Lindesfarne (Magnusson 1980:7). There is much debate as to when the ‘Viking Age’
actually ended. Most describe the year AD 1066 as the end of the Viking era. This is
due to the Battle of Stamford Bridge and the invasion by the King of Norway, Harold
Hardrada. There is some debate as to whether this was the end of the Viking Age
due to fundamental changes that made the Vikings completely different to that of the
beginning of the era (Stephenson 2012: 15).
The Vikings are often portrayed in the media as being barbaric and a society full of
rape and destruction. However, this is not the case. Most evidence suggests that
they were a society of warriors, tradesman and explorers and indeed a rather
advanced civilisation for their time. An increased growth in our archaeological
knowledge and an empire coping with the after effects of two World Wars in less
than half a century has tended to make Viking Warfare academically unfashionable.
However, in the academic world, Viking warfare is usually viewed as one aspect
while in the public image, it remains the dominant image (Stephenson, 2012: 14-15).
When the terms ‘media’ and ‘popular culture’ are used, for previous generations it
used to mean newspapers, books, comics, films, television and magazines. While
these terms for current generations include social networking systems, websites and
music that is marketed to draw upon culture and lifestyle for marketing (Marshall &
Sensoy 2011).
This study will be looking at as to whether the media holds a historically accurate
relationship with Viking warfare and their civilisation in general. This will not just be
focusing on the ‘Vikings themselves’ but instead specifically at Viking Warfare and
also of how fantasy popular culture has been based on this specific time period. It
will look at common misconceptions that have been interpreted but are now indeed
discredited, such as horned helmets but also as to how these came about.
A typical Viking warrior was most likely to have carried a spear as a main weapon,
swords were expensive and only really used by the wealthy. A short-hafted axe was
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also a commonly used weapon. It is
believed bow and arrows were not
commonly used due to the use of shields.
Chain mail became more apparent in the
later Viking period (shown in figure 2).
Although the horned helmet is becoming
less apparent in the media, Vikings are
often portrayed as wearing helmets which
although can be archaeologically correct,
helmets were only likely to be worn by the
wealthy due to them being made from iron.
There have been suggestions that
hardened leather or wooden helmets
would have been more commonly used to
protect vulnerable heads. Unfortunately
there is little evidence found to confirm this
(Siddorn 2003:19).
Review of Current Literature
Academic Literature
The Vikings are often portrayed as being barbaric and a society full of rape, pillage
and destruction. Research by archaeologists and historians over the last three to
four decades tend to all come to the same conclusion. They were a society of
warriors, tradesmen and explorers that were rather skilled in warfare and enjoyed
fighting in battles (Carroll et al 2014; Dougherty 2014; Gitlin 2013; Graham-Campbell
& Kidd 1980; Griffith 1995; Magnusson 1980; Pentz et al 2014; Richards 2001;
Richards 2004; Stephenson 2012). It was seen as an honour to die in battle and it
would see warriors to a glorious afterlife (Grant 1996).
Figure 2: An example of what a Viking Warrior would have looked like
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It is quite clear that archaeology plays a vital role for academics into gaining an
understanding of the Vikings. This is due to the lack of historical texts of the period.
The main historical source is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles which are obviously
heavily biased towards the Saxons and over exaggerate the number of Vikings
present during the invasions. There are seven of these surviving manuscripts, each
with a slightly different perspective when describing events in regards of the Vikings
(Richards 2001: 13). Although they were ferocious, this was due to the
advancement in weaponry compared to the Anglo-Saxons and the fact that the
Vikings took them by surprise. The original purpose of the Chronicles was “an
attempt to trace back the heritage of the origins of the ‘English’ people” so that there
would be a written record rather than a solely oral one. Although later authors still
continued to make passage entries, they began to write of events of the present time
of each year. (Richards 2001: 13).
The only primary documents written by the Vikings descendants known as the
Icelandic Sagas, they should not merely be taken as the ‘window’ in to Viking life
quite commonly viewed. Instead they should be viewed in a similar way as the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicles or as an ancient historical fiction bearing in mind the
obvious bias. They were written in the twelfth or thirteenth century meaning after the
height of the Viking era. However, it has been argued that they were oral stories
passed down. (Stephenson 2012: 19). Yet again, stressing the point that these are
likely to be biased, is these can change overtime, aspects of the stories forgotten.
Two of the main reasons believed to be behind the Viking expansion is climate
change which caused overpopulation as well as the advancement in farming
technology. In addition to this, they were conquering new lands to settle (Siddorn
2000: 18). Recent evidence found has suggested that the Vikings travelled further
globally than previously thought (Pentz et al 2014) and that the earliest Scandinavian
towns were developed earlier than expected (Persson 2014).
The majority of common misconceptions of the Vikings appear to be of Victorian
origin. The Victorians had a huge fascination with Viking culture. Before then, terms
such as “Viking era” or “Viking” would have never been heard of. It was the
Victorians who came up with the assumption that Vikings presumably wore horned
helmets due to the discovery of finding two drinking horns buried in a grave
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alongside a helmet in 1880 (Wawn 2002). Although archaeological evidence for
horned helmets has been found, the condition of them suggests they most likely
served the purpose of being used for ceremonial occasions (Dale et al 2014).
Another often misleading myth surrounding the Vikings is that surrounding the
Vikings is that they were unruly and barbaric. Indeed, they were fearsome warriors
but they were explorers and once having raided a settlement, they would often settle
down for years to become farmers, great craftsman and participate in a lot of trading
which is evident if you examine northern towns and cities in England, particularly
York (Carroll et al 2014). Most academics take the view that they carried out
atrocities no worse than any other cultures of their time but that they were criticised
heavily due to their Pagan faiths. It must be taken into consideration that such
behaviour associated with the Vikings would have quite simply been part of everyday
life (Short 2009). In fact, archaeological evidence of a mass grave of slaughtered
Vikings has been found to suggest that despite their successes, they did not win
every battle (Pentz et al 2014).
There is a large complexity surrounding the word ‘Viking’ in itself and a number of
theories surrounding where it originated from. It possibly is related to the Old Norse
word ‘vik’ – this meaning either bay or creek. ‘Viking’ could therefore mean a person
“kept his ship in a bay, either for trading or raiding” purposes. Another possibility is
that it could have derived from the Old English word ‘Wic’. Although, according to
Icelandic Sagas, the term ‘Viking’ was used to refer to a person on expedition.
Although there is much debate over the origins of the word ‘Viking’, it agreed by most
that not all Scandinavian people were Vikings. They were and still are referred to as
the ‘Norse, Norseman or Danes’ or even ‘Heathens’ due to their lack of Christian
faith in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles (Magnusson 1980). Thus meaning, during the
discussion of this study, if the word ‘Norse’ is used it is referring to the Scandinavian
people whilst if the word ‘Viking’ is used it is referring to the Scandinavian warriors.
In short, all Scandinavians are known as Norse but not all were a Viking unless a
warrior setting sail. An interesting point raised by Stephenson (2012: 13) is that the
word ‘Viking’ does not define a thing in the same way other words do. The image
created depends on a personal perspective. Today, the word means so much more.
The Vikings will be defined by the general public which may differ from an academic
view.
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There is no ‘typical’ Viking Warrior as they would vary regionally and nationally as
despite being advanced for the period, the Vikings were not a military of organisation
in comparison to militia of today but instead it is widely considered they were a
number of varying tribes that even had wars with each other. The understanding of
Viking Warfare in Britain is far better than anywhere else in the world due to
archaeological and representational evidence. Despite this we do not have complete
evidence but this is where other aspects of the Viking world are drawn upon to help
complete the picture (Stephenson 2012: 12).
Academic research written on the Anglo-Saxons comes to the conclusion that the
behaviour of Viking warriors towards the Saxon settlements caused great shock.
This could be because they were unprepared (Hawkes 1989; James 2003; Lavelle
2010; Underwood 2001; Yorke 1990). There also appears to be little weaponry
development after the arrival of the Vikings. It could be argued that this could be due
to their similarities in weaponry. It appears that the majority of academics take the
opinion that the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons were very similar in a lot of ways.
However, the largest difference they had was religion which is seen in the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicles as a reason the Saxons view the Vikings as being barbaric.
Media & Literature in Popular Culture
The majority of varying media and sources of popular culture tend to give a well-
rounded impression of the Vikings. Warfare still has a major impact when portraying
or discussing the Vikings. However, there is also more emphasis on the settlement
and everyday lives of the Norse people. Although warfare is still largely depicted in
films to create excitement and engage with the audience, rather than focus primarily
everyday life as this would become slightly tedious. By simultaneously adding
elements of fantasy, or basing a story arc on Norse Mythology, it quite clearly
creates a greater story arc for the audience in all aspects of media. A likely
possibility of the popularity of Viking’s being portrayed barbaric warriors could be due
to the genre of crime having greater popularity in current day film and television (Lam
2013: 12). Especially with what the Vikings are famously renowned for, this creates a
perfect storyline especially as it shows a world unfamiliar to the world in the present.
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The more recent film releases tend to have less of a ‘Hollywood glamorisation’
approach and are more likely to have been released by European independent film
companies. However, some of these are still a little far-fetched. Some films include
elements of Norse Mythology but with the ‘Viking influence’ being more of a
secondary role to the story arc rather than being the main primary element.
Although there are a number of academic studies similar to this research, they only
appear to focus on certain aspects of media and not a general focus of media on
Viking Warfare overall. For instance, there is very little written about newspapers and
magazines but this perhaps is due to them being updated constantly in comparison
to literacy sources such as books or journals. Books, film and television are quite
similar in the sense that they can be categorised into Entertainment and Educational
while still be simultaneous (Deary n.d.; Hirst 2013). Entertainment usually tends to
have an element of fiction.
Despite the use of horned helmets largely being disproved they are still of huge
popularity amongst Danish football fans, Hollywood film directors, comic books,
television, festivals, to name a few examples. It can also be noted that the use of
weaponry and clothing can be depicted incorrectly in many aspects of media which
perhaps leads to the conclusion that more focus has been placed on the portrayal of
the type of media and the impact it has on its audience rather than to place
emphasis on the historical accuracy (Fleischer 1958; Halim 2013; Nispel 2007).
Nevertheless, perhaps it could be argued that this would not interest a general
audience lacking an in-depth knowledge of Viking accuracy.
Aims of Research
The aim of this research is to shed new light on the way that Viking Warfare is
portrayed in popular culture and to conduct a more in-depth study in to this than has
previously been carried out. It will be able to appreciate the full amount of literature
and provide evidence towards this research’s question in greater detail. This
research will contribute further by going in to far greater detail than any other
previous sources have in relation to this research. As can evidently be seen, most
popular culture is loosely based on Norse Mythology and archaeological and
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historical evidence. If the media industry did not have any influence on how the
Vikings are portrayed in popular culture perhaps it would not be seen as entertaining
and as popular as it currently is today.
This research will consist of studying historical re-enactment groups, various
museum visits and of studying academic sources such as journals and books for
both archaeological and historical evidence to compare and contrast with popular
culture and what historical and archaeological sources they rely on. The popular
culture research will consist of looking at historical fiction and entertainment books,
graphic novels and comics, films and television, video games and even including the
influence it has on music. Other sources this study will take into account are
newspapers and magazines which are used to inform the general public on any
information of either Viking history or archaeological evidence found.
Limitations
There are a number of limitations in this study due to the vast majority of sources
broadly available on the Vikings. This includes that only a select few sources of
media have been selected to be analysed within each chapter and its sub-category.
As well as this, the number of museums visited is limited due to the travel of them.
Therefore, the museums primarily looked at are in Britain and Ireland with
Scandinavian museums discussed through academic sources. There were also a
number of limitations in images due to website protection.
Media (Music, Games, Film & Television)
Music
Viking imagery has always been a feature of hard rock from its beginning as a
distinct music genre. As well as Heavy Metal rising as a sub-culture towards the end
of the 1960s, with its interests in occult, Shamans, nature and pre-modern modes of
living. According to Pluskowski & Trafford (2007), Led Zeppelin along with Black
Sabbath are arguably the bands that did most to define and popularise the style due
to being the earliest and best-known exploitation of Norse themes to be found.
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Examples of this are the lyrics of ‘Immigrant Song’ and ‘No Quarter’ as they conjure
allusions to the characteristic and familiar Viking behaviours (See Appendix Three).
Although they contain no reference to the word ‘Viking’, the lyrics are assumed to be
a reference towards Viking identity (Pluskowski & Trafford 2007: 57).
Many other mainstream hard rock and heavy metal bands from the 1970s to the
present day have followed with songs that draw upon the popular Viking iconography
and themes, but normally laying most stress upon the violence, chaos and danger
which are their most lurid and attention catching features. In music in general, there
are very few allusions to any early medieval culture or people other than the Vikings
(Pluskowski & Trafford 2007: 57).
Pagan Metal arose in Northern Europe as a Metal sub-genre at the end of the 1980s
and early 1990s. It is quite certain Pagan Metal began with Viking Metal as the
Vikings were the last to become Christians in Europe (Bennett &Western 2013).
Pagan Metal bands can be grouped in to three clusters; ‘Neo-Paganism’, ‘roots
Paganism’ and ‘Chauvinistic Paganism’. The group that is the focus of this
discussion is ‘roots Paganism’ which is based around ancestral pre-Christian
cultures, particularly warriors and ancient Norse gods of the Vikings (Bennett
&Western 2013). However, some bands took this even further by starting to adopt a
Viking based persona which according to some was taken too far. An example of this
is the band Manowar. They include regular references to the Vikings and Norse
Mythology in their lyrics. In fact, it was from Scandinavia itself where far more
extreme Death and
Black Metal bands
from the late 1980s
onwards that began to
identify far more with
Vikings. (Pluskowski &
Trafford 2007: 62)
Despite Manowar’s
references to the
Vikings, they did not
dedicate their whole
albums to them in a
Figure 3: Bathory album cover for 'Hammerheart'
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way that Bathory did; an example is ‘Hammerheart’ cover (1990) (See Figure 3). It
was not until the early 1990s a different form of Pagan Metal was forming known as
Viking Metal. The sub-genre is believed to have emerged from Scandinavia as a
variant taking influence from Scandinavian folk traditions and music (Ashby &
schofield 2014: 6). It is thought to have been initiated by the band Bathory, due to
their songs being stories of the Viking era; ‘Shores in Flames’ describes Vikings’
mayhem.
The imagery used in Viking Metal tends to be formulaic but is not exclusively based
on Viking material culture. It includes some of the ideal semiotics values favoured by
Black and Death Metal bands, specifically the rejoicement of violence and hyper-
masculinity through weapons and battlefields as well as the consistent interest in
ancestral roots. Black Metal is traditionally Satanic or Anti-Christian whilst Viking
Metal would simply be better being described as Pagan (Ashby & Schofield 2014: 6).
Practically all Viking Metal bands believe that
they are of Viking descent (Pluskowski &
Trafford 2007: 70). Thor’s hammer, as an
example, is a recognisable Viking and Pagan
symbol and has become a central image
projected by Viking Metal bands. A lot of Viking
Metal bands underline their interests by
dressing in black, leather, chainmail and
carrying weapons. They often use a backdrop
of Scandinavian forests or fjords and
mountains. Due to the distinct lack of
references to modern, western civilisation this has been viewed as an extreme
reaction against mainstream popular culture (Pluskowski & Trafford 2007: 67). This
is evident in the iconography of the most influential Viking Metal bands; an example
is Enslaved which actually include artefacts on their album covers (Figure 4). The
band’s artwork essentially spans the whole Viking era (Pluskowski & Trafford 2007:
65-66). With the exception of Enslaved, there are very few bands that can be
mistaken for re-enactors (Figure 5). The band’s logo name is constructed out of
Viking style knot work and incorporates the shape of Thor’s hammer at the centre of
it. (Pluskowski & Trafford 2007: 67)
Figure 4: An example of Viking influence on Enslaved's album covers
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The popularity of Pagan Metal has
considerably risen since the beginning of
the 21st century. There are now hundreds
of Pagan Metal bands or of its sub-genres.
The majority of these bands are from
Europe due to the roots of ‘Paganism’
quite clearly being European. According to
the online Encyclopaedia Metallum (n.d.)
there are currently 385 band entries under
‘Viking Metal’ and 840 entries for ‘Pagan
Metal’. It also lists a band’s exact sub-
genre; for example ‘Viking Folk Metal’ and
country of origin. The largest numbers of
Pagan Metal bands reside from Germany, followed closely by Poland and Russia
according to Bennett & Western (2013).
Despite its popularity, it is not viewed this way by all. This is due to the event of the
deliberate burning of a Norwegian twelfth- century wooden stave church in 1992, it
has been viewed as ‘a classic event in Norwegian Black Metal history’. In fact, it has
been described as ‘negative heritage’ by destroying ideas of cultural value to re-
shape in to a preferred narrative of identity (Williams 2012: 59-72). Such examples
do not praise the Metal sub-genres in the eyes of critics.
Games
Video games tend to focus more on the game’s characters as Norse gods or rather a
warrior having to defeat the gods rather than just playing a ‘standard Viking battle’.
Each video game’s storyline that is based around Ragnarok appears to have a
different take on it. Examples of this are Viking: Battle for Asgard (The Creative
Assembly 2008), Valhalla Chronicles (Paradox Interactive 2003) and Heroine’s
Quest: The Herald of Ragnarok (Simoons 2013). The introduction to Battle for
Asgard starts with a comic strip storyline, a warrior is needed to help defeat the
battles against mythical creatures in Midgard which is quite obviously the character
of the player. Heroine’s Quest: The Herald of Ragnarok takes a different approach to
Figure 5: Enslaved's 1997 album cover for Eld.
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other games by using a female character as the game’s lead player role (See
Appendix Six).
However, other games appear to have taken a different approach with Ragnarok by
mixing an element of a modern warfare, apocalyptic world with the world of the
Vikings. An example of this is Too Human (Dyack 2008). The cause of Ragnarok
was due to war machines creating nuclear weapons, leaving only a number of
humans left on Midgard, the characters played by the player are Norse gods having
to defeat these machines.
Some video games tend to
rely more on fantasy with a
Norse-based theme added to
them. An example of this is
one of the most recent
popular video games The
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Dragons are the player’s
enemy and they need to be
defeated in order to restore peace to Skyrim. Although the warriors appear to wear
horned helmets which is not historically accurate apart from ceremonial purposes
(Dale et al 2014), the game relies more so on its fantasy theme rather than the
accuracy of a Norse-based theme.
Some games include
incredibly brutal killing
strategies; an example of
this is War of the Vikings
(Paradox Interactive 2014).
This game is more
accurately based on battles
and the player can choose
and design their character
as either an Anglo-Saxon or
a Viking. The style of the game appears more so to be based on warfare strategy
Figure 6: Skyrim screen shot - example of horned helmets
Figure 7: Screen shot of War of the Vikings
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and tactics which could be compared similar in game play to that of modern warfare
games such as Call of Duty (Arem 2013). It seems to not have much of a storyline
apart from that you are either a Viking ransacking towns or a Saxon defending from
the Vikings. While choosing to be a Viking, the player gets the choice of being a
Warrior, Skirmisher or a Berserker. These characters are based on what is known
about Viking Warfare tactics with exception of the Berserkers as it is unknown as to
whether these existed as no evidence has been found apart from them being
mentioned in the Icelandic Sagas (Stephenson 2012: 21).
Civilisation does not appear to play a significant part in video games although it is
obviously
included for the
purposes of the
location of
characters.
Furthermore
some games do
include this to
provide a full
understanding of
Viking life, an
example of this is
Mount and Blade: Viking Conquest (Taleworlds Entertainment 2014) (See Appendix
Six) (Figure 8).
Despite their popularity, video games are not the only type of gaming strategy.
Another type of gaming is known as role-playing games and although incredibly
popular, they are more so popular to a niche market. These “offer people the chance
to actively take part in their alternate expressions of identity, exploring parts of
themselves that were previously submerged or repressed by the dominant culture
and the requirements of daily roles” (Bowman 2010: 8).
The first official role playing game, Dungeons and Dragons, was created in 1974
(Bowman 2010: 3). The game’s setting is based on a combination of the Middle
Ages and the Medieval period. Types of characters range from Centurions, Vikings,
Figure 8: A virtual recreated battle of a Viking invasion
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Knights and Cavaliers, as well as Samurai or Persian warriors. (Marshall 2007: 171).
The character of a Viking takes form as ‘Barbarian’ with ‘Berserker’ tendencies which
gives the character; fearless rage, fury and violence. All characteristics associated
with the Berserkers of the Icelandic Sagas (Crawford 2014: 49).
The actual Norse people themselves are believed to have been very fond of board
games that are still played today and ball games very similar to baseball and cricket
games of today as a way of entertaining themselves during their free time
(Ladegaard 2012) (See Appendix Six).
Film
‘Medieval Films’ are not just primarily historical; in fact they do not necessarily have
to set in the Middle Ages, this includes films specifically about the Vikings. The
Medieval “genre is comprised of films with medieval themes, stories, or characters
that can include, besides films set in the Middle Ages, Spaghetti Westerns, science-
fiction movies, neo-gothic films and even Hong Kong action cinema’ (Bernau and
Bildhauer 2009: 1). Viking films tend to be either be based on historical evidence or a
complete work of fiction.
The eldest films ever created about the Vikings were released in 1908; The Viking
Bride (Fitzhamon 1908) and The Viking’s Daughter, the Story of the Ancient
Norseman (Blackton 1908). Unfortunately neither of these appears to be in existence
anymore but it quite clearly
shows that in early
Hollywood films, the Vikings
were a popular choice to
create films on (See
Appendix Two). The earliest
film on the Vikings that is still
available is the film The
Viking (Figure 9) (Neill
1928). A completely silent
film but includes background Figure 9: Still image of the 1928 film The Viking
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music as its soundtrack, it was the first sound feature released in technicolour (The
American Widescreen Museum 2003). Although the film’s opening credit takes the
Victorian perception of the Vikings “plundering and ravaging”, the actual film primarily
focuses on a love interest rather than rape, pillaging and warfare. It has the classic
‘golden age’ theme of Hollywood where they are given this heroic and noble
persona. The opening credits also describes the Vikings as leaping in to battle with a
song, although it potentially could have been true, it gives a rather romanticised
perception of the Vikings.
The claim made by Aberth (2003) that Viking films have had their heyday in the
1950/60s when the over exposure of the genre was made all too clear by the number
of cheap, cringe-worthy films released during this period is not necessarily true.
Perhaps long gone are the Hollywood classic glamorisation style films but then
Hollywood at this time is considered the “classical period”. People were dealing with
the aftermath of a world war and saw cinema as a source of entertainment (Dirks,
2015).
The 1954 film Prince Valliant, on the other hand, is more so based on the Prince
Valiant comic books rather than the actual Vikings. This is supported with the fact
that some characters are seen wearing horned helmets as they are portrayed in the
comic book (Harty 2007). Rather than focussing on ‘evil’ Vikings ‘pillaging and
raping’ the film more so focuses on the portrayal of Knights and Medievalism, as well
as Sir Galahad in his quest for the Holy Grail.
The (Fleischer 1958) film
The Vikings is viewed as
the most iconic
Hollywood attempt of
portraying Vikings;
starring Kirk Douglas and
Tony Curtis. Aberth
(2003) describes the film
as presenting a ‘Hagar
the Horrible’ (see comics
section) kind of Figure 10: Kirk Douglas' famous studded waistcoat
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stereotype of Viking bravado and brutality but perhaps is to be expected in a film that
appeared before the revisionist history on the Vikings during the 1960s. While the
film’s iconic music and images may still firmly remain depicted in popular culture,
others describe the film as being little far-fetched (Harty 2006: 46). Examples of this
are when the character played by Kirk Douglas manages to jump across a moat to
open a drawbridge whilst dodging axes thrown by other Vikings. Despite the views of
Aberth (2003), re-enactors are not seen wearing the leather, studded waist coat
worn by Kirk Douglas (Figure 10) or the winged bird helmet (Abrams pers. Comm.
2015) (See Appendix Seven) nor is there any evidence to suggest that the Vikings
themselves did either. However, regardless of its flaws and despite now looking quite
dated, it can still be described as a ‘classic’ for its time.
After the revisionist history of the Vikings, much later films contain a much more
realistic approach or one of mixed with fantasy compared to the days of Classic
Hollywood. A recent film that portrays a more realistic style of Vikings’ is Viking: The
Berserkers (Smith 2014). The Vikings featured appear to become ruthless, barbaric
and almost like savage animals in behaviour which is due to them consuming either
some sort of herbal remedy or hallucinogenic substance. As such, the Vikings
capture a group of young Saxons and try to kill them all. The film is portrayed as
Vikings versus Saxons with the Saxons obviously being the helpless, ‘good guys’.
The portrayal of the Berserkers in this film is fairly historically accurate to the
Icelandic sagas as they would consume some substance to create a hallucinogenic
state of furious rage to scare their enemies in battle (Dougherty 2014). Thus creating
a Berserker to be a great enemy in an Anglo-Saxon perspective film.
Hammer of the Gods is quite clearly a low budget and straight to DVD film. It
portrays Vikings as being more realistic in the sense of acting incredibly ‘laddish’ with
a colloquial form of dialect rather than being portrayed as formal and noble like the
Asgardians in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Thor (Branagh 2011) (See
Appendix Two). It uses modern, heavy music such as Dubstep to emphasise and
enhance the scenes of the film. It portrays the Vikings as using guerrilla warfare
tactics than running into battle with shield wall tactics. As well as this, it gives a more
realistic approach of Viking life and warfare rather than a ‘typical heroic’ film of
‘Hollywood glamour’ like The Vikings does.
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However, despite the revision in history on the Vikings, there are still a large number
of films that appear to rely more so on fantasy rather than primarily on historical facts
of the Vikings. There are also less well-known examples of “Hollywood
glamorisation” in films such as Berserker (Matthews 2004). It is a very far-fetched
action-horror film about Viking vampires and influenced by Norse Mythology.
An example of Vikings
mixed with fantasy is
Pathfinder (Nispel 2007).
This film is based on the
Viking invasion of North
America and attack a
Red Indian tribe, whilst
leaving behind a child
who then becomes
encompassed with the
remaining group of Red
Indians. The Vikings are
depicted as evil and
brutal which includes savage attacks on their own people if they are believed to have
betrayed them. Their helmets are incredibly far-fetched with decorations of wings
and skulls on them. The Vikings have some sort of fantasy persona which, from a
personal perspective, portrays them as being more comparable to Tolkein’s Orcs
than actual real people. These Vikings seem to carry morning stars as a choice of
weapon (Figure 11). This specific style of morning star was not created until the
fourteenth century AD and so therefore were certainly not of use by the Vikings
(O’Bryan 2013: 147).
The film Vikingdom (Halim 2013) is a mixture of both fantasy and historical events.
The film begins with the scene of the Viking invasion of Lindesfarne in AD793 with
the mighty god Thor leading the Vikings in to the shore. However, Thor is portrayed
as having un-naturally bright red hair. He is also portrayed as ‘evil’ for opening the
gates to Valhalla and becomes the enemy that needs to be defeated for the film’s big
finale (Figure 11). The actual warriors are able to fly over walls, with incorrect armour
and kite shields which would certainly not have been used by the Vikings until
Figure 11: Viking attack in the 2007 film Pathfinder
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around the eleventh century
AD (Gitlin 2013). Some
warriors also appear to be
wearing horned helmets as
well as the use of an incorrect
style of swords being used.
However, the film has been
created by an Asian film
company so is likely to be aimed at an Asian audience who perhaps have little
knowledge of the Vikings in comparison to Europe.
Another recent film that includes an element of fantasy and Norse Mythology is Thor:
The Hammer of the Gods (Chapkanov 2009). It is based on the gods but they are
portrayed as being mere mortals in a quest to find a relic that belongs to the gods. It
is based on the Norse tale of Thor defeating the Midgard serpent Jörmungandr after
he died. The film portrays him as being reincarnated into a mortal human. However,
Thor has to defeat Loki’s son Fenrir and his werewolf henchmen to enable this.
Although created by Universal, it was a film created for television and quite obviously
on a fairly low budget due to the poor CGI (computer based imagery) to create the
graphics of the wolves. Although, Thor is meant to be a reincarnation it is not a
particularly impressive portrayal of Thor.
Television
There are two different category types of television shows that portray the Vikings:
entertainment and educational. Although there a number that include both of these
categories to further enhance engagement with the audience. This also depends
upon whether the programme is aimed at adults or children, or considers both.
Programmes aimed more at adults tend to be in the format of documentaries whilst
children’s shows tend to have more of a plot line story that develops in to characters
and their adventures. Documentaries will be discussed in detail followed by
entertainment shows. Only a number of documentaries have been selected to be
discussed in detail due to the vast number of them.
Figure 12: Vikingdom's depiction of Thor
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Viking Wars: The Norse Terrors (Pegasus Entertainment Ltd 2003) is a fairly
engaging documentary for its time but its views are slightly outdated today, with new
archaeological evidence emerging to help engage our understanding of the Vikings.
The whole documentary is narrated with very little narrative from anyone apart from
expert historians or living historians playing the part of a person of the period. The
programme’s perspective appears to be biased towards the Anglo-Saxons and relies
very heavily on the chronicles as the main source of evidence. It describes the first
Viking invasions as “short, sharp, violent, plundering forays.” With the result of “every
raid being the same… robbery, pillage and slaughter!” Ancient Warriors: The
Normans & The Vikings (Maslin 1995) is of a similar time but varies quite
significantly in its programme’s structure in comparison to the Norse Terror
documentary. It contains no featured interviews with expert historians and living
historians opinions, only that of the narrator. However, it does not rely so heavily on
the evidence of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles and gives a more all-rounded
perspective of the Vikings. Both documentaries use a variation of informative
graphics showing geographical settlement, ship reconstructions, as well as
contemporary imagery when explaining about the Norse gods and also old
illustrations to portray primary sources. When discussing warfare, they both use film
image of battles recreated by re-enactors to emphasise this.
The History Channel’s documentary The Vikings (History Channel 2009) is very
centrally focussed on the invasion of the North Americas. The episodes are set in the
order of the invasion of North America then followed by the invasion of Europe,
giving the impression that the Vikings conquered the Americas before other parts of
Europe which is incorrect. It creates a rather dramatic atmosphere for the viewer with
the choice of music and reconstructed scenes by re-enactors of invasions to portray
how tense these battles were likely to have been. Expert historian interviews are
featured along with a narrator that tries to create a dramatic tense atmosphere for
the viewer, emphasising the ‘barbaric and ruthless’ descriptions of the Vikings.
Although some documentaries will emphasise more on reconstructions of the Vikings
to enhance the engagement of the audience as opposed to relying largely upon
historical texts and featured interviews of expert historians. Examples of this are the
Vikings: Warriors from the Sea (BECKMANN VISUAL PUBLISHING 2007) and The
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Dark Ages: The Viking Invasion of Wessex 878 AD (Pen and Sword Digital & BHTV
2011).
These both use the reconstruction of living historians and archaeological evidence to
recreate settlements and battles of the Viking era. They both also go in to great
detail about weaponry and clothing worn by re-enactors and that it is based on
archaeological evidence found. When explaining about warfare tactics, these are
demonstrated for the viewer to comprehend their practicality. Whilst Warriors from
the Sea also focuses on the settlement, including women and children, The Viking
invasion of Wessex… features a lot on how the Anglo-Saxons and King Alfred were
preparing themselves for war against the Vikings. The former uses a narrator while
the latter is presented by a couple of military historians that personally interview
other historians. With this variation, both documentaries are more engaging for an
audience than simply just talking about historical texts.
Other programmes, such as the BBC (2012) Vikings series presented by Neil Oliver,
instead of focussing on the Vikings through living history and historical texts, it
focusses on the origins of the Vikings through archaeology. Oliver travels to
Scandinavian countries and other places the Vikings conquered to examine the
archaeology left behind, as well as visiting museums. It also includes him having
discussions with other historians and he is also an archaeologist himself so therefore
is able to present his own knowledge of the Vikings.
As previously
mentioned,
some
programmes
tend to focus on
both
entertainment
and educating
simultaneously,
an example of
this is the
History Channel
Figure 13: The Vikings television series depicted with Ragnar Lothbrok, third from the left
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drama series The Vikings (Hirst 2013) (Figure 15). The series focusses on the world
of Ragnar Lothbrok, whom was an actual historical figure in the Icelandic Sagas
(Radish 2014). The series introduces the audience to the settlement life of Ragnar to
portray this as well as allow the characters to develop in-depth rather than they just
‘raped and pillaged’ image. While also building up the suspense of the characters
setting off to sail at sea to essentially go ‘Viking’. It does not simply white wash brutal
torture strategies used by the Vikings but portrays a more realistic example of Viking
life, it includes examples such as the ‘Blood eagle’ (Radish 2014) (See Appendix
Four).
One of the most significant Vikings of
twentieth century culture is Thor in
Marvel’s comics. However, due to the
popularity of these comics, there have
been a number of programmes created of
Thor and his adventures. Those specific to
this discussion are the (Lieber 1966) The
Mighty Thor animated series and Thor:
Tales of Asgard (Liu 2011). The Mighty
Thor series (Figure 14) portrays Thor as
disguising himself as being a typical
businessman but becomes Thor to prevent
trouble being caused to the human race.
His main nemesis is Loki. In this series,
Loki is referred to as the ‘God of Evil’ but in
Norse Mythology, Loki is in fact the ‘Wizard
of lies’ (Grant 1996). The illustrations are
very similar to that of the comics and the series is quite clearly of its time with a
1960s touch to it. Tales of Asgard, on the other hand, takes more of anime style of
illustration approach and instead portrays a young Thor, before he becomes ‘Mighty’
and has trained well enough to master the use of his trusty hammer Mjolnir. This
series is based on Norse Mythology rather than set on Midgard and is therefore a
different Marvel Universe. Some of the Vikings are seen wearing horned and winged
helmets as well as some of the subsidiary main characters having Norse-sounding
Figure 14: The Mighty Thor 1966 television series
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names yet being Marvel fictional characters rather than that of Norse gods.
Throughout the
film, Loki is
portrayed as being
a fair and pleasant
character that likes
to practice magic
until the end of the
film where his
character changes
as if he is starting
to show signs of ‘becoming evil’.
The Horrible Histories series (Figure 16), based on the books and formatted in a
similar way, takes on the approach of providing both entertainment for all ages as
well as supplying historical facts for the viewer (See Appendix One).
Despite the variations of the Vikings portrayed in film and television, a lot of it comes
down to the fact of the time it was released and how knowledge is increasing on the
Viking era though archaeology which is developing our understandings of the
Vikings. It also
depends upon whether it has been created for entertainment with an emphasis on
fantasy or whether it was
created purely for the use
of education values.
Unfortunately, despite our
ever increasing knowledge
of the the Vikings it is
likely they will remain the
‘bad guys’.
Figure 12: The main characters of Thor: Tales of Asgard
Figure 16: Example of how Horrible Histories make history entertaining
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Graphic Novels, Comic Books, Entertainment Books &
Historical Fiction.
Graphic Novels & Comic Books
There is very little difference between a comic book and graphic novel. A comic book
is similar to a magazine format and approximately published with twenty-eight pages
while a graphic novel is essentially a comic book that exceeds fifty pages and can be
bound in a hard or soft cover. To comprehend the distinction between the two is to
simply remember “all graphic novels are comic books, but not all comic books are
graphic novels” (Fisher & Frey 2008: 31).
One of the longest running
comics containing Vikings is
Prince Valiant, created in
1937 and still going strong
today. Prince Valiant is
depicted as a knight of the
fifth century AD around the
time of King Arthur and the
Knights of the Round Table,
although a lot of the medieval
style armour worn is quite
clearly influenced by the high
Medieval period from the high
medieval period. The Vikings
that Prince Valiant has to defeat are wearing horned helmets and is prior to the
Viking Age. It is therefore based on medieval fantasy rather than historically
accurate. Asterix comics are quite similar in the sense that it only features Vikings
rather than being about them. It is primarily based on a Germanic tribe, the Gauls,
but some characters are Normans who are of Viking decent (Brown 1994: 16).
These Normans are depicted as wearing horned helmets with clothing that looks
Figure 17: Prince Valliant fighting the Vikings
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nothing like Norman
style clothing and is
quite obviously based
on fantasy and
entertainment value
that historically
accurate. The comic
strip Hagar the
Horrible, featured in
newspapers since 1973, was created for similar entertainment values as Asterix.
Although Hagar primarily is Viking, he is depicted as a comical figure, with a horned
helmet and a bright red beard and hair, rather than a fearsome, mighty warrior. It
focuses on jokes relating to everyday life situations rather than violence and warfare
or historical interpretations of Vikings.
One of the longest-running and significant comics in twentieth century popular
culture is Marvel’s Thor. Since its launch in 1962 (Imagine Games Network n.d.),
Thor has had a number of spin-off comics (these will be discussed in detail later on)
and is still a popular Marvel character today in films and television as well as in the
comics. Marvel draws heavily on Norse Mythology for their backstory to Thor.
Although he has also been given a backstory of the twentieth century one of these of
which being Hitler’s attempt to get Thor’s aid during World War II. A story of
complete fiction but it includes historical figures to give some aspects of reality to
Thor being the Asgardian Protector of Earth (Marvel database n.d.) Marvel does not
depict Thor in a typical style of armour, rather altering it to sustain a more superhero
image instead of a Dark Age warrior.
Figure 18: An example of a Hagar the Horrible strip
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There have been a number of
spin-off comics featuring
characters from the Thor
comics and some new
additions due to the rising
popularity of Thor. The most
recent release to this edition is
Thor #2 which essentially is
‘Lady Thor’ (Figure 19). Thor
still features in these comics
but due to unknown reasons he is unable to wield his hammer. It is only then that a
mysterious young woman is able to pick up Mjolnir to inherit similar powers to Thor
which enables her to defeat his enemies and to save the Earth. It has been said that
Marvel created this character to gain a stronger female readership to comic books
(Kadner 2014). Another spin-off comic of Thor is Loki: Agent of Asgard, released in
June 2014 due to the popularity of Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston, in the recent
Marvel films. Loki becomes the anti-hero, working for the All Mother, a trinity of
Asgardian goddesses – perhaps based on the Three Norns (Guerber 2010: 116)
(See Appendix Four), against the Avengers. There is another Marvel comic series
known as Original Sin, which both Loki and Thor are both featured in and that they
also have a sister (Guerrero 2014). In Norse Mythology, there has been no
suggestion that Thor had a sister.
Figure 19: 'Lady Thor' in Thor #2
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In contrast Graphic Novels, whilst still being
complete works of fiction, tend to have a more
serious storyline instead of the typical character
set featured in comic books. Examples of this
are Viking (Brandon 2009) and Northlanders
(Wood 2008), which appear to be located in
England although which not specifically stated,
and Draugr in Dublin City (Hunt 2012). Viking is
about two outlaws based in the ninth century
AD. They are not Vikings, nor do they seem
particularly loyal to Saxon tribes but are
incredibly ruthless towards anyone and have
killed groups of Vikings for their weapons. While
Northlanders characters are complete creations
of fiction, the actual story arcs contain historical
events relating to the Vikings such as
Lindesfarne, presumably some editions are set in England while others quite clearly
are set in other parts of Europe which shows that the creators have taken in to
account of the Vikings travels. However, these characters are Vikings and every few
issues the characters vary to create new story arcs. Draugr on the other hand, is
based in modern day Dublin. Presumably based on Norse Mythology as a Draugr
was a Viking corpse that would rise from the dead to attack the living (Rosen 2009:
200). Although Draugr’s portrayal in the novel is quite similar to that of Norse
Mythology and although there have been a small number of Viking coffin burials (Mc
Carroll & Robinson 1990: 111), it is of questionable accuracy that a Viking would
have been buried in a coffin or in a grave yard.
It is apparent that Scandinavian countries, specifically Denmark, produce less of
their own comic books and graphic novels but instead translates a lot of foreign
comics (Bluhm n.d.). Although, there is one comic series that originates from
Denmark, Valhalla, though it is not particularly well known. Similar to the Marvel Thor
comics in the sense that they are both based on Norse Mythology, Valhalla is purely
set in the Norse Mythological world rather than mixed with modern day scenarios
(Madsen n.d.).
Figure 20: A cover i ssue of one of the Northlanders novels
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Entertainment Books
The entertainment books being discussed here are various children’s historical
entertainment books as they are not merely works of fiction but are of educational
value too. Only a selection of these has been selected due to the vast majority of
literature available.
Vicious Vikings (Deary 1994), from the Horrible Histories series, is written in a very
informal way which is ideal for children. It is of more entertainment value to engage
children rather than always full of correct historical facts. An example of this is the
Woeful Second World War book in the series that refers to Anne Frank as a fourteen
year old girl when she died (Deary 1999). By examining her birthdate she would in
fact have been sixteen when she died (van der Rol & Verhoeven 1993: 109).
However, it is a source of value to interest children in history with the use of its
cartoon illustrations and its comical jokes about historical events and figures. It does
not take a biased view towards the Saxons or the Vikings but describes them as
simultaneously being as bad as each other and that this was due to “living in harsh
times” (Deary 1994: 92). Deary has also written a whole series dedicated to the
Vikings based on historical events but written them in a similar style to the Horrible
Histories series but also with more of a story arc. Instead of giving an overall history
of the era, each book focuses on certain aspects of Viking life. An example of this is
The Sword of the Viking King (Deary & Cook 2010) which is based on King Alfred
and the battle of Wessex. A book very similar to Deary’s series is What They Don’t
Tell You About the Anglo-Saxons (Fowke 2013). This takes the same approach as
Deary portraying the Saxons being similar to the Vikings. The book is also written in
a similar style to Deary’s including cartoon illustrations and comical jokes about
history.
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Other historical entertainment books take
a different approach in educating children
about the Vikings. Examples of this are
The Viking Invader (Fleming et al 1998)
and Viking: The Norse (Unofficial)
Warrior’s Manual (Haywood 2013). The
Viking Invader (Figure 21) is again,
written informally and quite clearly for
children’s entertainment value. It is
formatted in the style of a newspaper
with bright colourful cartoon images of
primary historical or archaeological
sources, such as the Bayeux Tapestry.
The cartoon images are also depicting
swords and helmets but as if they were
advertisements to buy these. A
newspaper is quite clearly not a Viking
invention but it is something of familiarity for children that can help engage their
interest. The same could be said about the Norse Warrior Manual. It is written in the
present tense as if to convince the reader to join a Viking army. It explains a lot more
in depth as to what a Viking actually is, warfare tactics and the ability of weapons
than the previous books. Unlike the other previously mentioned books, it explains
battles by comparing them to actual battles but discussing ‘future battles’ as if the
reader were to take part in them and what their chances of survival would be. It also
includes illustrations but these are not comical like Deary’s but are depictions and
photographs of artefacts or re-enactors to emphasise warfare.
Historical Fiction
Historical Fiction is defined as “the genre of literature comprising narratives that take
place in the past and are characterised chiefly by an imaginative reconstruction of
historical events.” (Random House Dictionary n.d.). Only a selection of these have
Figure 21: The Viking Invader written in a newspaper format for children's entertainment
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been discussed due to the vast amount of literature available. Historical Fiction is not
just written for adults but also for children.
Two examples of children’s historical fiction are
There’s a Viking in my Bed (Strong 1996) and The
Sleeping Army (Figure 22) (Simon 2011). The
former is about a rather useless Viking, named
Sigurd, who ends up falling off his crews’ ship, gets
left behind and then washes up ashore in the
twentieth century. He ends up in a little town known
as Flotby that contains lots of places and buildings
with ‘Viking’ in the names due to invasion which he
is able to read. Both these things are very unlikely.
A Viking would not have understood the term
‘Viking’ nor would he have been able to read.
Although the place may be fictional, it is likely that it
is based on settlements like York that actually do
contain a lot of street names influenced from the Vikings (Carroll et al 2014). Sigurd,
himself, is depicted as being from Hedeby which was an actual major trading place
during the Viking era (Essential Content n.d.). Sigurd is portrayed with the
stereotypical Viking image of long hair, beard and a horned helmet. However,
instead of being fierce and mighty he instead was friendly and silly with no etiquette.
Both books contain little illustrations of the characters. Instead of being based on the
Vikings,The Sleeping Army is based on Norse Mythology; the main character Freya
disturbs the Lewis Chessman in the British Museum. This causes them to come to
life as they become the Norse gods and take Freya on an adventure with them to
Asgard. There is, however, no evidence to support the theory that the Lewis
Chessman were named after the Norse gods. Certain figures are believed to have
been based on the Berserkers due to the sword biting position which according to
Icelandic Sagas Berserkers used to do this to frighten the enemy in battle
(Stephenson 2012).
Examples of adult historical fiction are the Viking: King’s Man (Severin 2005),
Shieldwall (Hill 2011) and Runemarks (Harris 2007). Viking: King’s Man and
Figure 22: Portrays illustrations of the Lewis Chessman on the book cover
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Shieldwall are both works of historical fiction but based on historical events whilst
Runemarks is a complete work of fiction based on the gods of Norse Mythology.
Viking King’s Man follows Viking historical events of the eighth and ninth century of
the personal life of a young lad that grows into a Viking warrior. It is all written from a
first-person, point of view and has been praised for its historical accuracy and of
historical figures. The description of warfare is very real and emotional due to the
style of writing. It includes the description of Viking settlement such as kingdoms and
monasteries. However, they are featured as location settings rather than contributing
to the main story arc. While Shieldwall is also based on historical events and figures
of Godwin, earl of Wessex and Edmund Ironside, it is viewed from the eyes of the
Anglo-Saxons and written in a third-person perspective. Rather than the story being
viewed from one certain character’s perspective, it does not primarily focus on one
set character but a number of various characters. It gives a great number of details
towards the warfare tactics of Cnut, King of Denmark, and his invasion of Britain in
1016.
Runemarks focuses on the main character, known as Maddy, who is considered to
be an outcast of her village due to her bizarre shaped runemark birthmark. Maddy is
sent on a quest to the underworld by her friend One-Eye (this later turns out to be
Odin) to retrieve a relic of the gods. She later realises that she is the daughter of
Thor. According to Norse Mythology, Thor had a daughter known as Thrud (Grant
1996: 18). Although a work of fiction, the portrayal of the featured Norse gods, such
as Odin, Loki and Freya appear to be fairly accurate to their depictions in Norse
Mythology; for example, Odin is wise, Loki is a trickster and Freya is the goddess of
desire.
It appears that comic and entertainment books are produced to entertain the reader
by amusing them, adding in relatable jokes and comical sketches. Graphic novels
and historical fiction, on the other hand, are written still written to entertain but with a
more gripping and serious story arc. They are not written so much for comical effect
but give a more realistic approach that plays on other emotions of the reader. It could
perhaps be argued that they are aimed at different audiences.
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Newspapers, Magazines & websites.
Newspaper Articles
Broadsheet articles in general tend to have been written by university lecturers,
leading scientists or actual archaeologists which provide a great deal of academic
information or which has been supplied by other experts within similar fields. In
comparison, although they may have been sourced from expert sources, tabloids
appear to have been written for entertainment value purposes, without sounding
condescending, for those with less educated knowledge on the Vikings. A lot of
articles published in newspapers and their online counterparts may gain information
on published reports through scientific and academic publications websites such as
Alpha Galileo (n.d.).
What is interesting is that articles with personal views on Viking warfare and culture
tend to give a lot of modern day comparisons to conflict in Syria, the S.S.
(Schutzstaffel)/Nazi Germany and 9/11. They are probably trying to explain the
atrocities in perspective and in relatable terms for the general public; these views
appear incredibly extreme and particularly biased. However, the general opinion
from the point of view of academics tends to be that the Vikings carried out no worse
atrocities than anyone else at the time but it was probably likely that they were more
successful.
Cockburn (2014) raises an interesting point of view but it appears to have a rather
biased and not particularly well rounded overview on the Vikings. Although the
Vikings carried out horrific crimes, so did other people and cultures of the time. An
example of this is the 2009 discovery of a Viking mass grave discovered in Dorset
(Pentz et al 2014: 95). However, it has been argued by historians that the reason the
Vikings have been so badly criticised is due to them holding Pagan beliefs when
most of Europe had already adopted Christianity. They were not so interested in
mass killings, sacking towns or destroying harvests but more so wanted easy loot
that could easily be carried away (Short 2009: 2). Cockburn argues that the Vikings
committed crimes that “today would have seen them charged before the International
Criminal Court”. However, many Viking-style operations were conducted by many of
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the non-Viking Germanic races before the Vikings even erupted onto the scene thus
should not be viewed as being unique (Griffith 1995: 40).
An article (Gee 2015) published in the Mirror uses the hypothesis that the likely
reason of the Vikings
being so angry and the
reasons behind their
“raping and pillaging” was
due to parasites, this
should not be taken at
face value. The article
itself appears to have
been written for
entertainment purposes
rather than academic
reasons and for people
that know very little on the Vikings. Perhaps Gee (2015) knows very little himself.
The images used are from a reconstruction film created by the National Museum of
Denmark (Science Nordic n.d.) but this is unclear in the article. The article overall is
very unclear as to who carried out the study and who the experts interviewed are. An
article on the same subject has been published by Science Nordic (Sjøgren 2015)
that gives a lot more in-depth detail of the study in comparison. It also links to the
original publication published through The Journal of Parasitology (Fredensborg et al
2015).
A similar point could be raised
with another Mirror article
(Keegan 2014) published on
Ragnarok. Images of Thor are
taken from Marvel’s Thor films
(Figure 24). Although despite
this depiction of Thor being
based on the Norse
Mythological God, he is not
the same Thor that would
Figure 23: Images used by Gee from the Danish reconstruction film
Figure 24: Image of Thor used by Keegan
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have been worshipped by the Norse people. Although the article states “Thor has
remained a cultural icon as a hero of Marvel comics” – The article is most likely
written for an audience with very little knowledge of Vikings and Norse Mythology. It
does briefly describe the story of Ragnarok and characters are mentioned but not
named.
Although a number of the articles from broadsheets contain a few facts that are not
actually correct. An example of this is the Anglo-Saxon King Athelstan being referred
to as Alfred the Great’s son, however this was rectified and stated that it was a
mistake and that he should have been referred to as Alfred’s grandson. Although this
was not corrected until twelve days after it was originally published (Brown 2009).
Another example is horned helmets being referred to as “still popular with Viking re-
enactors today” (Croughton 2014). When in actuality they do not. The Vikings
Society claims that it is “renowned for the high standard of presentation, historical
accuracy and attention to detail” and to therefore keep this reputation as well as to
abide to strict rules on historical accuracy, it is highly unlikely that any Viking re-
enactors wear horned helmets (The Vikings society n.d.).
According to a University College London Professor DNA testing for people’s
ancestors is incredibly hard and that no one is a pure descendent of any ethnic
group that has stepped foot in Britain over the last thousand years (Thomas 2013).
However, studies like this do not stop the people of the Shetland Islands believing
that they are of Viking descent according to Rowley (The Telegraph 2014). One local
is quoted as saying “It’s about… Having our own identity… And seeing ourselves as
distinct from Britain”. However, according to the local museum’s curator, the
Islanders’ are “fairly ill-informed” with the only element of their festival’s being Viking
are in name. He describes their costumes as being Roman and the festivals as being
a “mishmash of trash” (Rowley 2014). Such festivals are likely to have become
apparent due to the Viking culture being popular amongst the Victorians.
Furthermore, another article from The Independent has compiled a number of
experiences essentially for living history enthusiasts to participate in Viking life of the
past which is likely to be exceedingly popular amongst tourists such as a holiday on
a reconstructed longship (Hendrie 2014).
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A number of articles appear to be slightly misleading in regards of the headlines. An
example of this is “How to eat like a Viking” (Lambert 2015) which is basically
describing Scandinavian style food with which a couple of dishes may have been of
Viking influence. A comparatively short article captioned ‘The Vikings at No 42’
(Telegraph 2009) states that due to a Cambridge study we could learn from Viking
history about the “assimilation of immigrants” rather than discussing the Vikings in
greater detail. Another example is a headline “Think again about the pillaging Viking
warriors – it wasn’t just the men who raided Britain” thus creating a misleading
statement about female involvement in Viking raids Although the article later on
states that DNA evidence suggests that “Norse women were involved in the
colonisation process” (Connor 2014). However, according to Griffith (Griffith 1995:
43-44) this should be viewed with suspicion as there is relatively little evidence of
Vikings moving great numbers of people out of Scandinavia. He explains that the
effect of merely a few invaders was usually enough to create a local perception that
the area had been ‘Vikinged’.
Magazines
These tend to not go into detail of the overall history of the Vikings as much as
newspapers tend to. They appear to be written to an audience for the purpose of
educating rather than entertainment purposes as tabloid newspaper articles are.
Although these magazines are not specifically dedicated to the Vikings, they do,
however, use academic sources and the magazines tend to be linked to or a sub-
category from a larger, global and scientific organisations that have been in
existence since either the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. Examples of
these are National Geographic (n.d.), Current Archaeology (n.d.), British
Archaeology (n.d.), Archaeology Magazine (n.d.), Smithonian (n.d.) and Time (n.d.).
Featured articles from these magazines tend to be written by expert scientists within
the field or rely on scientific evidence; they contain no biased perspectives and are
also edited for a broader audience of general interest. However, in comparison to
newspapers, these magazines are usually published weekly or monthly and have a
much less broad centre of focus of what the magazine should feature before being
considered for publishing.
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An article published by National Geographic, for instance, focuses on explaining the
materials and artefacts found at an excavation of Viking settlement in Canada and
the excavation itself. It also briefly explains about the native people and that material
recovered is unlikely to be theirs due to the specific style being of Norse origin
(Pringle 2012). Again, another example of a brief article contains a large selection of
photographs of Greenland’s population enjoying the warmer climate “that allowed
Vikings to colonise it in the Middle Ages” (Folger 2010).
Another example is an eight-page feature from Time Magazine that gives an overall
history of the Vikings and has quite clearly been well researched and written from a
modern academic perspective of the Vikings. Magazine features tend to contain
professional photographs of the subject or interpretational images (Dorfman &
Lemonick 2000). The magazines with ‘Archaeology’ in the title are more centrally
focussed on the subject of archaeology. These tend to be written by expert
archaeologists but for a general audience rather than a purely academic perspective.
Websites
The term “Viking” does not just suggest websites on Viking history but other
unrelated sources have used the word
for their company name. For instance,
Viking Line International (Viking Line
n.d.) is a Norwegian ferry company that
quite clearly used a name from their
country’s heritage. Another is a pizza
company based in York known as
Viking Pizza (Vikings Pizza n.d.);
again, likely to be due to the heritage of
York. There is also the American
Football team the Minnesota Vikings
(Minnesota Vikings n.d.) which
produces a lot of websites in relation to them. An interesting point to raise is that the
Minnesota Vikings (Figure 25) and the Viking Pizza company both use a cartoon
image of the stereotypical image of a Viking; A blonde haired, bearded, masculine
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looking figure wearing a horned helmet. Such images probably do not help towards
the general public’s idea of Viking attire.
All of the magazines, as mentioned previously, have their own websites. These
provide plenty of information and
snippets of features yet to come in future issues of the magazine plus archived
information of previously published article features. Each museum that contains
Viking exhibitions includes brief information on the Vikings and relevant information
towards the artefacts on display (See Appendix Five).
A number of other websites that actually relate to the history of the Vikings can be
helpful towards academic purposes for children. An example of this is The Viking
Lady (n.d.), a website clearly created by someone with a great depth of knowledge
on the Vikings aimed at those in education to provide help and guidance with
homework as well as find books and other types of academic sources. This author of
the website is quite clearly a keen enthusiast due to having previously written articles
in the 1990s, before creating her own website and having been in charge of writing
newsletters for a branch of The Society for Creative Anachronism Inc. (n.d.) - an
international re-enactment society. The BBC history (n.d.) page is no longer updated
and so currently archived. However, it is still useful for academic purposes,
specifically for school children as it gives a general overview of the Vikings as well as
entertains by including quizzes and games to test their knowledge.
A different type of website is a foundation known as the Sons of Norway (n.d.). This
was set up in the USA at the end of the nineteenth century ‘to promote and preserve
the heritage and culture of Norway’. Their website keeps members updated on
events, how to join and news information on Norwegian culture for Americans of
Norwegian and American descent. The foundation also has a monthly magazine
called ‘Viking Magazine’ and claim to be the ‘largest Norwegian-American
organisation in the world’.
Re-enactment, Living History & Museums.
Figure 25: Minnesota Vikings logo
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Re-enactment & Living History
While re-enactment has long been considered a ‘marginal cultural phenomenon’, it
has only been since the beginning of the twenty first century that it has been seen as
a source of great significance by academic historians (Agnew 2007). According to
Agnew (2007) recent scholars have used the term to include everything from living
history museums, technical reconstructions and ‘nostalgia’ toys to literature, film,
photography, video games and television
shows.
“The hobby of ‘living history’ does not simply
mean exact reconstruction of known
archaeological finds but tries to bring a whole
era back to life” (Nurmann et al: 3). Such
events are popular all over Europe and as
recalled by Kobialka (2013) at the Swedish
Museum of Forteviken living history event, it
was described by the museum as “Time
Travel!”. He states how this is likely why
mobile phones or beer cans are rarely visible
within the Viking reserve. However, this is due
to re-enactors (or in Britain at least according
to the rules of the Viking Society (n.d.) having
to abide to exceedingly strict rules on what
they can be seen doing in front of the public eye. If you are in character and unless it
is considered to be ‘authentic’ it is not appropriate; an example of this is smoking as
it had obviously not yet been invented during the Viking period. Although the
weaponry may not always match the costume in the level of class, this is very
unlikely to be noticeable to the general public. For instance, the sword is a common
weapon choice amongst re-enactors which during the Viking period would have been
a weapon used only by the rich. The same goes for brightly coloured clothing as they
would have had the wealth to keep re-dying it (Pers. Comm. Pearson 2014) (Figure
26).
Figure 26: An example of authentic costume worn by a re-enactor
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Re-enactment events are also
seen as a good source for
building upon public interest.
However, these public events
that recreate authentic life
present problems of their own.
An example being that an
impression of a craftsman may
indeed be represented
perfectly but unfortunately a
skirmish re-enacted will always
fail due to the necessary safety
precautions in place for re-enactors (Figure 27) (Nurmann et al: 3). Re-enactors
usually tend to work incredibly closely with museums and archaeologists for props to
be made based on artefacts. Living history events tend to play an important part in
correcting mistakes caused by historical impressions. In fact, it has been known that
the practical use of period features have answered questions for both historians and
archaeologists (Nurmann et al 1997: 3). Such experiments include weaponry and
warfare tactics and ship building that have been sailed on the sea, using the same
methods as the Vikings (Figure 29) (Malam 2003: 24).
Figure 27: An example of a skirmish by Viking re-enactors
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Examples of Living
History museums in the
UK and Ireland are Jorvik
Viking Centre, located in
York and Dublinia Viking
Exhibition, located in
Dublin. Rather than just
merely being a standard
museum with a display of
artefacts, instead these
museum create replicas
of archaeological
artefacts for visual guidance on what they would have been used for. Both of these
museums are based on excavations located in the city of their location which has
determined them as ‘Viking towns’ (Jorvik Viking Centre n.d.; Dublinia: Experience
Viking & Medieval Dublin n.d.). The exhibitions draw on this replicating the
civilisation and lives of the Viking-Norse
communities. Jorvik was one of the first of
its kind and a hugely popular success thus
being an influence for many similar
museums being created around the world
(The Times 2011). Re-enactors are also a
useful key for these types of exhibits as with
their knowledge of the era and visual aids,
they are able to answer questions from the
general public as if they are speaking to a
‘real-life Viking’. Visual aids and exhibition
replica displays are incredibly useful in
making these exhibitions popular thus
making it easier to understand, specifically
to younger audiences, as well as one being
able to affirm the authenticity of the other (Figure 29).
Figure 28: Example of Viking combat carried out by reenactors
Figure 29: A Reconstruction example of a Viking tent at Dublinia
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Museums
Museums serve the purpose of being places for anyone to gain understandable and
reliable information. They also include the aims of being able to educate any age
range with interactions of life of the past (Dierking 2000 et al: 2).
The most recent exhibitions in relation to the Vikings were the British Museum
exhibition: ‘The Life and Legend of the Vikings’ and the National Museum of Ireland
as well as Trinity College Dublin which recently simultaneously held the exhibition on
the 1000th anniversary of the battle of Clontarf. What makes the British Museum
exhibition significant compared to the last one, over thirty years ago, is that they both
have different aims of representations of the Viking Age. The Vikings 1980s
exhibition had the aim of trying “to readdress the ‘brutal image’ the Vikings used to
have and to an extent, currently still do.” (Graham-Campbell & Kidd 1980: 7).
However the Life & Legend exhibition had the aim of “showing the wealth of
established and new evidence about the Vikings and to demonstrate their wide
range of contacts both inside and outside of the Viking world.” (Pentz et al 2014: 8).
The main comparisons appear to be new research, new technology and presentation
in the way the exhibitions have been displayed.
From a personal perspective, the ‘Life and Legend of the Viking’ exhibition was
incredibly crowded and plaques were positioned quite often where people were
standing so were hardly visible. The information placed on the plaques was quite
clearly aimed at an audience with no prior knowledge of the Vikings as it was
exceedingly basic knowledge of their culture. The permanent exhibition held at the
British Museum on the Anglo Saxons and Vikings is very much centrally focused
around the Sutton Hoo discovery and has little emphasis on the Vikings. However,
the ‘Life and Legend…’ exhibition was very much a general overview of the Vikings.
Reviews of the ‘Life and Legend...’ exhibition tend to be of mixed opinions as some
praise it while others find it disappointing and raise different issues in comparison to
others. The metal ship replica, a reconstruction of Roskilde 6, the largest ship find
ever found discovered in Denmark in 1969; has been described by one journalist as
a “ghost ship… Solid yet empty, there and not there” as well as describing the
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exhibition overall as “a pedantic exercise in pure archaeology that fails to shape its
subject into a stimulating
narrative” and that it lacks
interaction for children
(Jones, 2014). While other
article reviews have credited
the exhibition as enlarging
“our image of the Vikings”
and not attempting to
“whitewash it” (Janszczak,
W. Sunday Times). When the exhibition was first held in at the National Museum of
Denmark, the exhibition entailed a Viking market, including a Viking meal for the
visitor to sit down and enjoy (Wienberg, 2014: 292–295). Unfortunately this was not
included at the British Museum. The Vikings tend to be much more centrally focused
in both Ireland and Denmark in the museum exhibits advertised on their websi tes in
comparison to the British Museum (The British Museum n.d.; National Museum of
Ireland n.d.; National Museum of Denmark n.d.).
What makes the Irish exhibitions on the battle of Clontarf, National Museum of
Ireland: Clontarf 1014: Brian Boru and the Battle for Dublin and Trinity College
Library: Emperor of the Irish, significant is that it provides both an archaeological and
a historical perspective on the battle itself. It also contains a number of new artefacts
found. Despite being one of the best well known battles in Irish history, it is also one
of the least understood (Trinity News et al., 2014).
The Clontarf 1014… exhibition was more centrally focused on Brian Boru, the battle
of Clontarf and the Viking invasion/aftermath of Ireland. These plaques were more
descriptive than at the British Museum but could be somewhat bewildering when
plaques containing Irish Gaelic were placed next to the ones in English. The
‘Emperor of the Irish’ exhibition very much centrally focuses on the life of Brian Boru
and highlighting him as an Irish ‘national hero’. The Book of Kells is also an
important focus of the exhibition; the actual copy is on display for visitors to see as
well as pages having been translated in to Gaelic and English. Towards the end of
the exhibition, it contains a series of graphic interpretations emphasising important
events such as significant battles in Brian Boru’s life.
Figure 30: The reconstruction of the Roskilde 6 ship discovery
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Conclusion
In order to understand who the ‘real Vikings’ were, one should not search through
the mythical people and places portrayed in Hollywood or other aspects of media, as
argued by Richards (2001: 13). Instead this should be researched through academic
materials as quite clearly shown throughout this study to gain a better understanding
of the ‘real Vikings’.
The Vikings warfare tactics that quite often give them their reputation owed their
influences to the Archaic Greek period. It saw a continuation of warfare tactics until
the nineteenth century and it has also been argued some of these are present in
modern day armies (Stephenson 2012: 94). However, even the writings of the
Icelandic Sagas portray the brutal torture strategies carried out by the Vikings. Such
examples being the Blood Eagle where the victim’s lungs are torn out by breaking
the ribs from behind and then draping the lungs over the front of the victim’s body to
represent that of an eagle (Frank 1984). Suffice to say that the Vikings could treat
their enemies in brutal ways but perhaps this could be because of the harsh times
they lived in. It was a time where tortures, like the Blood Eagle procedure, would
have appeared the norm with the Saxons having their own procedures.
As previously shown, although the Vikings may not be depicted historically correct in
various types of media they are not always conveyed as villainous monsters. As
shown in books, television and films for children, as well as examples for adults too.
Despite their previous reputations, they quite clearly are a culture that still fascinates
us today. The world of the Vikings with their Old Norse stories quite clearly creates
fantastic stories of entertainment for us today whether it is in fantasy or purely based
on the Vikings. It is likely that warfare is the primary theme in films, television,
games, books and comics due to it playing a major part in everyday life of the
Vikings. Civilisation is beginning to play a larger role in these types of media, as
even in fantasy worlds, warriors would not simply have been fighting all the time.
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Despite this, media in the forms of newspapers and magazines are publishing new
scientific research found about Viking society all the time that gives us another small
insight in to what life was like for the Vikings not just in Britain but in Scandinavia and
other various places they voyaged to as well.
Although the perception of Vikings is slowly changing in the media perhaps it could
be argued that Hollywood specifically could create films about voyages of discovery
and the convert to Christianity. (Aberth 2003: 61). However, it could be argued that
although there is evidence for Viking settlements, warfare is where we have most
knowledge of the Vikings through archaeological artefacts and the small number of
historical sources there are. It is this which creates much of the media persona
surrounding the Vikings.
One thing that is for certain is that the myth Vikings wore horned helmets is starting
fade out. This is due to the expansion in scientific archaeological techniques and
new discoveries enhancing our understanding and enlightening us about the Viking
world. As well as the ever growing popularity in archaeology creating a broader
interest to people generally on history.
It can be concluded that with the popularity of fantasy fiction quite often based with
Medieval themes, Vikings arguably create the basis of this kind of popular culture.
Due to their impressive artwork, clothing, religion and warfare, they are a society of
fascination of present day and likely to for a long time in the future. As argued by
Tolkien that the success of a fantasy world depends upon an act of sub-creation,
generating a believable world which anyone’s mind can enter (Marshall 2007: 171).
With this thought in mind, media based on the Vikings with elements of fantasy
create a new world based on another for the value of entertainment.
Conclusively, this study could lead into further research looking even more in-depth
to Viking warfare in the media and popular culture by looking at other aspects of
media that has not been included in this particular study.
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If programmes have not been referenced these are notes that have been personally made by myself.
Viking Wars: The Norse Terror – Uses re-enactors to emphasise on warfare.
Old illustrations used to emphasise old documents; e.g. Anglo-Saxon
Chronicles. Narrated by Brian Blessed, so very little discussion from anyone
else apart from experts or living historians reenacting Saxon Monks. The
documentary is very much a documentary of its time, very dated and 1990s.
The documentary’s perspective appears to rely heavily upon the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicles as the primary source of evidence as all the battles described are
seen through the eyes of the Saxons. Chronicles refer to the Vikings as
“Heathens” due to their Pagan religions. The documentary places great
emphasis on portraying Norse religion. Although the Chronicles are portrayed
as being slightly biased, it describes the result of “every raid being the same…
robbery, pillage and slaughter”. One theory suggested for the reasoning of the
Viking raids was due to the wars in France with Charlemagne the Great. The
Vikings had a significance in warfare due to missile power; e.g. the shield wall.
The Edda Icelandic Saga is the best source of giving an insight of the Vikings
before they left Scandinavia. Berserkers can be simultaneously compared to
Japanese Kamikazes pilots of World War II. Contemporary imagery included
as well as informative maps showing geographical travel and settlements. A
‘reconstruction interview’ with an Anglo-Saxon warrior speaking in Old English
about the Viking raids but there is no such equivalent with a Viking warrior.
Ancient Warriors: The Norseman & The Vikings – Uses reconstruction
imagery of Viking re-enactors battles and three dimensional constructional
imagery of boats. No ‘experts’ featured interviews or from living historians, only
the narrator. This is another documentary that is starting to look very of its time.
It does not solely rely upon the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles as a primary source
and gives a brief overview of the Viking period. Use primary sources for
imagery; e.g. Bayeux Tapestry. Suggests the defeat of King Harold at the Battle
of Hastings could have partly been to invasion of Harold Hardrada and the
battle of Stamford Bridge. This plays as a factor in Harold’s defeat at the Battle
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of Hastings with the fact of not being able to fight two wars at once nor was his
army likely to have been fully replenished after the victory of Stamford Bridge.
Culture Show Special: Viking Art – Sensationalist view due to its opening
with Vikings film. Features interviews; e.g. Reverend Canon Kate Tristian, St.
Mary’s Church, Holy Island, believes that they invaded at night. There is no
evidence for this. She perceives the Vikings with a biased point of view
regarding them as the “equivalent to modern day terroists”. Vikings were not
interested in books, anything invaluable was burnt. The ship that was displayed
at the British Museum, only twenty per cent of this ship survives. It was found
by chance under the Roskilda Viking Museum. Other ships have been found
when expanding the museum. The remains of a ship found in Oslo are believed
to have been from 820 AD. The presenter’s opinion is that Viking long ships
‘are shaped like a whale’ to float and cut through water. Various Jewelry styles
found represents evidence of Anglo-Scandinavian integration.
Vikings (History Channel) – An American documentary series about the
Viking invasion of North America and various parts of Europe. The episodes
have been set in order to portray the Viking invasion of North America first; this
could perhaps be perplexing to the viewer in the sense that it implies the Vikings
invaded North America before the rest of Europe. It is an exceedingly dramatic
documentary due to its opening scenes being an invasion reconstruction
created by re-enactors. This also includes lots of screaming from civilians and
warriors themselves, as well as the use of a dramatic music soundtrack. The
narrator of the documentary describes events in an incredibly dramatic way.
Interviews with expert historians are featured but not particularly in much detail,
practically one sentence explanations. The documentary states that Viking long
ship reconstructions have recently sailed from Europe to America – this time
with people cheering as opposed to the complete opposite of almost a thousand
years previously. ‘Raiders, attacking, looting’ and ‘masters of savagery’ – words
used to describe Viking invasions. The documentary claims that the Vikings
usually invaded on the days of festivals to take victims by surprise. Factors to
go ‘Viking’ were due to advancement in technology, population growth and
changes in the weather. Reconstruction battles are used every time violence or
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fighting is mentioned. The documentary includes contemporary image
depictions of the Vikings (mainly Victorian), churches, monks singing and
quotes from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles to emphasise what is being discussed
by the narrator. The documentary overall gives the Vikings a violent image and
is the general gist of the documentary. It claims if payments were not made,
victims would be given slits in their noses. “Viking quest for conquest would not
DIE!!” are the closing words used aggressively by the narrator.
Vikings: Warriors from the Sea – Use re-enactors reconstruction of battles to
emphasise about warfare being discussed, as well as interview re-enactors.
The documentary also creates ‘reconstruction feature interviews’ with Norse
women explaining ‘oral stories’ and her role in society, as well as entertaining
the children round an open fire. A narrator is also featured to explain the
majority of the documentary to the viewers. The documentary claims the axe
would have been the most popular weapon used by Vikings. Bows would have
been used but more likely to for the hunting and killing of animals than a weapon
used in warfare. If helmets worn at all, likely to be made from iron or leather.
Towards the end of the Viking period, chainmail became popular but only worn
by the wealthy, although it was still a rarity. Although a Dane axe was used, this
was more of a popular weapon choice in southern Europe. Some graves were
marked in the shape of ships believing that it would carry the deceased on
towards the next world.
The Dark Ages: The Viking Invasion of Wessex 878 AD – The documentary
is presented by military historians Tim Saunders and Andrew Duff. It uses living
historians and archaeological evidence to recreate the Battle of Wessex 878
AD. The documentary refers to Vikings as ‘pirates’ and as ‘raiders’ - “More
traders and raiders than pillaging”. Various theories, most likely overpopulation
due to warmer climate. Viking ships represented naval technology of the time,
average speed 12-10 knots, earlier ships had enough space for approximately
thirty men whilst later ships during the mid-late ninth century AD had space for
up to seventy to eighty men. Rivers were used as equivalent to motorways are
today, ships were light enough that they could be carried if needed. Historians
and re-enactors are interviewed about warfare tactics, armour, weapons and
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clothing. Dyed underwear and curtail with deep colours = sign of wealth so
would keep needing to be re-dyed to keep dark colour. No dyed or lightly
coloured clothing = sign of low class. The documentary was made in 2011 so
is neither particularly dated looking or biased towards the Anglo-Saxons. The
documentary uses geographical depictions to show where battles took place
and visit the site locations to explain about specific battles. It applies a lot of
focus to explain how the Saxons and King Alfred were preparing for battles
against the Vikings. The Saxons carried out raiding and guerrilla warfare on
areas the Vikings had created settlement, seen as the way of survival by the
Saxons by taking the battle to the Vikings. Alfred became that desperate he
had taken to stealing from his own people. The Raven symbol depicted on the
Vikings flags was seen as ‘damaging’ to Viking morale if in the hands of the
Saxons. Only ‘professional’ warriors would have worn helmets, helmets worn
by living historians known as the Conical helmet and have to be worn for health
and safety reasons. Every warrior in battle would have carried a shield. A
‘professional’ warrior would have been someone upper or middle class status,
etc.
Horrible Histories (TV Series) – An entertaining programme aimed at all ages,
based on the books, it takes on the approach of making learning history fun. It
teaches history through songs (historical) Wife Swap and (historical) Master
Chef. More specifically on the Vikings, for example, it creates a scene of
‘Valhalla Tours’ to describe Valhalla in an entertaining way. It also creates
cartoon depictions of Norse Mythology stories; e.g. when Thor pretended to be
a woman and defeated the giants to retrieve his hammer.
APPENDIX TWO
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If films have not been referenced these are notes that have been personally made by
myself.
Hammer of the Gods – A film about a group of young Vikings that transform
into brutal warriors in the search for one of the character’s brother. The film’s
opening credits introduces the actors’ names with slow motion titles. One
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character called King Bagsecg was an actual Norse King who was defeated at
the battle of Ashdown (Hickman n.d.). The film portrays an incredibly realistic
aftermath scene of war, showing physical injuries and how painful, bloody and
gory this period actually was. Very colloquial use of language rather than noble
and formal as portrayed in other films, presents a ‘laddish’ sense of acting. The
film’s soundtrack features incredibly heavy modern music; such as Dubstep.
Includes a scene where a female is being brutally tortured by random
presumably Saxons. The main characters kill these men and free the female
but she turns on them which leads them no choice but to kill her. The film gives
a more realistic portrayal of the Viking era rather than a ‘typical, heroic, glamour’
of the period. The attire worn by the actors and their weaponry are not entirely
accurate but it is not particularly noticeable. Warfare tactics such as guerrilla
warfare rather than shield wall tactics used but this could be due to the main
characters only being a small group of Vikings. After one character is dying, in
order to go to Valhalla, he tries to strangle another character. This film is likely
to be low budget due to the incredibly obvious use of filters to darken the sky.
It is also unclear as to where the film is geographically set, presumably Wales.
Vikingdom – An incredibly unrealistic portrayal of the Vikings; an unforgotten
king needs to defeat the evil god of thunder, Thor. Although it includes the
Viking invasion of Lindesfarne, Thor is portrayed as the Vikings leader. He has
unnaturally brightly coloured red hair with an exceedingly inaccurate sword that
looks like a prop used for cosplay. He is also portrayed as evil for opening up
the gates Valhalla to Midgar. The warriors use kite shields which obviously did
not come in to use until around the tenth century AD and their armour is
incorrect. The use of a double ended axe is also inaccurate due to it being
unrealistic to use (Pers. Comm. Pearson 2014). The film’s Computer Generated
Imagery is incredibly unrealistic due to a fight scene of one character single-
handedly killing a bear and the use of helmets, despite containing horns, look
very cheaply made and unrealistic regardless.
The Viking Bride – The very first Viking film released in 1908, produced in
black and white, and completely silent. Unfortunately it is unavailable which
could due to it not being in existance anymore. The film’s story arc is about the
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marriage of one Viking and his bride. It portrays the group of Vikings in
picturesque costume. Unfortunately the bride gets captured by a neighbouri ng
tribe but is successfully recovered again to be reunited with the bridegroom.
(IMDB).
The Viking’s Daughter, the Story of the Ancient Norseman – A love story,
the film’s story arc revolves around the love interest of a Saxon prisoner, named
Alfred. He briefly meets the daughter of the Viking who has held him captive.
She is portrayed as a ‘damsel in distress type of character’ and stays in the
tower of her father’s castle; forbidden to have any further meetings with Alfred
to prevent her from pursuing him as a love interest. It is not until the castle
catches fire and that she is trapped from escaping the castle, Alfred is released
by the priests to come to the rescue and save her. Her father is grateful,
releases Alfred and allows his daughter to marry him. (IMDB).
Both of these films length are released in feet rather than length of time on AFI
(American Film Institue n.d.).
Marvel: Thor – Due to his arrogance, Thor has been kicked out of Asgard, by
his father Odin, in order to live on Earth and learn to live amongst humans. Here
he falls in love with a scientist called Jane, she teaches Thor much-needed
lessons and how to live as a human. However, he is needed to return back to
Asgard to defeat Frost Giants trying to destroy Earth. He then returns to Asgard
promising to return to Jane one day. (IMDB).
Faintheart – A romantic comedy about the life of a dedicated re-enactor who
puts his hobby before his family. It is not until his family leave him that he
realises what is most important to him. Although it is not a serious film, it gives
the viewer an insight and understanding as to how much work re-enactors place
in to their training for living history events for the general public, as well as
considering the authenticity of their costumes. (IMDB)
Thor – Known as the ‘God of Thunder’. Thor is responsible for the weather and
a good harvest, as well as potentially affected sea voyages. Thunder storms
are not regarded with dread by Norse but that it is Thor carrying out his duties;
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e.g. slaying of the giants. Thor is depicted as having long red hair, including a
beard and is portrayed as gluttonous.
Pathfinder – After a young boy was left behind, by the Viking tribe he originally
belonged to, after battling with a Red Indian tribe. He then becomes integrated
in to the tribe and becomes their saviour against the Vikings in later years when
he has grown in to a young man. The Vikings of this film are depicted as evil
and brutal, harming their own people and wearing winged helmets. One of the
warriors even wears a skull on his helmet. The Viking warriors are depicted
more like Tolkien’s Orcs rather than being humans. They do however, speak
some form of Germanic language but they carry morning stars which were not
used until the late Medieval period.
Thor: The Hammer of the Gods – Thor, along with his friends, travel to a
mystical island in search of a lost relic that belongs to the Norse gods. The
films characters are based on the characters of Norse Mythology. The group
ends up on an island plagued by werewolves which end up being children of
Loki. Thor keeps having visions of a hammer due to being a mortal
reincarnation of the original Thor due to Thor dying after defeating the Midgard
serpent (one of many stories in Norse Mythology featuring Thor). The actor
that plays Thor does not particularly play a stereotypical portrayal of Thor; the
acting of the film is also very poor. Some are re-enactors from the Viking
Society. The Computer Generated Imagery is also very poor, likely to be due
to low budget; examples of this are the werewolves heads and Fenrir – a
protector of the hammer and one of Loki’s children.
Viking: The Berserkers - A group of young Saxons are captured by a clan of
fearsome Vikings and used as prey in a ritualistic manhunt. The Viking warriors
are based on the Viking Berserkers as they appear to become ruthless, barbaric
and almost like savage animals due to consuming some sort of hallucinogenic
substance. The portrayal of Berserkers in this film is fairly accurate to their
portrayal in the Icelandic Sagas.
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APPENDIX THREE
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Bathroy – One of the pioneers of the first wave of Black Metal as well as Viking
Metal, the band named themselves after Elizabeth Bathroy. She was a
seventeenth century Hungarian noblewoman, who allegedly enjoyed bathing in
young woman’s blood to keep herself young (Encyclopaedia Metallum n.d.).
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Manowar – There are no official influences announced for the reasons behind
Manowar’s name but there is speculation that it is possibly of Norse influence.
Unfortunately there is not a single source to confirm this.
"Immigrant Song"
Ah, ah,
We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow.
The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!
On we sweep with threshing oar, Our only goal will be the western shore.
Ah, ah,
We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
How soft your fields so green, can whisper tales of gore,
Of how we calmed the tides of war. We are your overlords.
On we sweep with threshing oar, Our only goal will be the western shore.
So now you'd better stop and rebuild all your ruins,
For peace and trust can win the day despite of all your losing
(A-Zlyrics.com n.d.)
"No Quarter"
Close the door, put out the light.
You know they won't be home tonight.
The snow falls hard and don't you know?
The winds of Thor are blowing cold.
They're wearing steel that's bright and true
They carry news that must get through.
They choose the path where no-one goes.
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They hold no quarter.
Walking side by side with death, The devil mocks their every step
The snow drives back the foot that's slow, The dogs of doom are howling
more
They carry news that must get through, To build a dream for me and you
They choose the path where no-one goes.
They hold no quarter. They ask no quarter.
The pain, the pain without quarter.
They ask no quarter.
The dogs of doom are howling more!
(A-Zlyrics.com n.d.)
APPENDIX FOUR
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Variation in spelling of Old Norse names – Old Norse names are usually
made up of two syllables with stress imposed on the first syllable rather than on
both. As such, this is likely as to why the spellings of names vary; e.g. Loki/Loke.
The ‘e’ sound is only translated not with a specific spelling. However, it is most
commonly spelt as ‘Loki’ (Ager 1998).
Valhalla – This is the hall of Odin where the warriors’ slaughtered in battle are
brought to glorify in the afterlife; to practice fighting during the day and bask in
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enjoying unlimited food and mead in the evening. This ‘lifestyle’ appealed so
much to warriors, they would fall on their own spears in order to qualify for
inclusion into Valhalla (Grant 1996).
Odin – The chief god of the Pantheon. He only had one eye due to willingly
surrendering an eye for the continuing wisdom he would receive. He is often
worshipped for his nobleness and wisdom (Grant 1996).
Loki – Referred to as the ‘Wizard of Lies’ due to being a trickster and
manipulative. His character later on develops to become more ‘evil’ and
‘malicious’ within his acts which appear more with a vengeance (Grant 1996).
Frost Giants – These giants were the main enemies of the Gods. The giants
have super-human strength and live in the mountains (Højbjerg 2011).
Midgard – The world inhabited by humans (Grant 1996).
Asgard – The world inhabited by the Norse gods (Grant 1996).
Ragnarok – The final battle where all the gods succumb to the forces of evil
(Grant 1996).
Ragnar Lodbrok/Lothbrok – Depending upon the variation in spelling, Ragnar
was a popular Norse hero and a larger than life character. Featured a number
of times in the Icelandic Sagas, he is believed to have been a great Viking
commander. He supposedly received his surname due to the peculiar long coat
that he wore (Mahoney 2004).
Mjölnir – The name given to Thor’s hammer. It is a matter of complexion as to
whether he loved his hammer or his wife Sif more (Grant 1996).
The Lewis Chessman – Created out of walrus’ ivory and whales’ teeth, they
take the form of standard chess pieces with Norse influence and also are
believed to represent the class system of the Vikings (British Museum). For
example, the rooks take the form of Berserkers, fierce mythical warriors
featured in the sagas. These are thought to be Berserkers due to the figures
biting their shields (Stephenson 2012).
Blood Eagle – Believed to be a lethal torture strategy used by the Vikings to
cut out the victims ribs in to the shape of an eagle. The only evidence for this
procedure is recorded as being used in the Icelandic Sagas. The exact
procedure tends to vary in different texts but there is four victims named in the
Sagas (Frank 1984).
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The Norns – Also known as the Three Fates and characters of Norse
Mythology, they were three sisters with personifications of the past, present and
future. Their principle occupation was to weave the web of fate.
APPENDIX FIVE
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British Museum Exhibition – It gives a brief overview of Viking culture and a
brief description of what exactly the ‘Life and Legend…’ exhibition entails.
Under the website’s ‘online tours’ section, the website contains images of
artefacts with a description, as well as featuring a short film of a re-enactors.
Virtual screenings of the exhibition were shown in selected cinemas nationwide.
Dublinia Attraction – It portrays itself more so as a ‘living history’ attraction so
that visitors can ‘time travel’. It advertises all three of its exhibitions; they only
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are given a brief description with a small number of photographs included. This
is likely to prevent from giving too much detail about the exhibitions and entice
potential visitors.
National Museum of Ireland: Archaeology – A brief overview has been given
to explain when the Vikings inhabited Ireland, as well as giving brief
explanations on what artefacts the exhibition entails. For the temporary scenery
exhibition, eight videos have been created to explain and reconstruct what is
known about the Battle of Clontarf. The majority of the information given is
based on archaeological evidence.
Jorvik Viking Centre – It gives a brief overview about the actual Jorvik Centre,
exhibitions and events held there, and who the Vikings were. It also contains
information on the Coppergate exhibition, located at the site of Jorvik and what
the Centre was modelled on. There are very few images featured about the
exhibition this could be to captivate the visitor with the snippet information to
ensure their interest in potentially visiting the actual Centre and experiencing it
for themselves.
Science Nordic – Launched in 2011, a trusted English-language source for
scientific studies from the Nordic countries. It is established through the science
news services of Norway’s Forskning.no and Denmark’s Videnskab.dk. It also
has close collaboration with partners in Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Greenland,
The Faroe Islands and Aland (Science Nordic).
Smithonian.com – A magazine about history, archaeology and science. It
focuses on science, history, art, popular culture and innovation researched,
studied and exhibited by the Smithonian exhibitions and museums.
National Geographic - First began publishing in 1888; the society’s mission is
to “inspire, illuminate and teach”. They also fund a large number of science
projects so it is highly unlikely anything published by them is not well
researched beforehand.
TIME Magazine – First published in 1923 and currently published weekly, it
claims it is “one of the most authoritative and informative guides to what is
happening in the world of health and science, politics, business, society, and
entertainment”.
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Archaeology Magazine – “offers compelling narratives about the human past
from every corner of the globe and is edited for a general audience”. It has been
published continuously for more than sixty-five years and is a publication of the
Archaeological Institute of America, a one-hundred-and-thirty-three year old
non-profit organisation dedicated to the preservation of human heritage.
Current Archaeology – Established in 1967, it is the United Kingdom’s leading
archaeological magazine. It aims “to bridge the gap between the amateur and
the professional in archaeology”. Their articles tend to be written by
archaeologists but edited for a wider audience range.
APPENDIX SIX
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Heroine’s Quest: The Herald of Ragnarok - The game’s storyline is to
essentially destroy the Frost Giants as Ragnarok has caused an almighty
snowstorm. Due to its Norse-based theme, it is likely that the storyline is based
on Norse Mythology.
The Valhalla Chronicles – A three dimensional role-playing-game where the
player’s character is a warrior who has to interact with Norse gods, such as
Loke, Odin and Thor as well as other humans in order to complete the mission.
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Mount & Blade: Warband–Viking – This game is based on actual historical
battles, for instance the Viking invasion at Lindesfarne, and is one of the more
historically accurate based games. The game is exceedingly story arc driven to
engage the player. It recreates sea battles and missions to pillage settlements
and towns. As well as portraying settlement life and how Viking warriors
potentially invaded and corrupted settlement life of the Saxons. The opening
credits gives a general background into who your character is and as to why
they have gone on a Viking voyage, as well as including illustrations of Vikings
at sea. It includes Viking themed folk music to create a Viking ambience. The
player has the option of following the game’s story arc or in an ‘open world’
mode to have free reign to do as they please. The ‘seax’ is referred to its actual
name rather than just a ‘knife’.
Hnefatafl (pronounced ‘ne-fe-ta-fel’) – An example of one of many Old Norse
board games, this is still currently played today (Smithonian: National Museum
of Natural History n.d.). Unlike most ancient board games; e.g. chess and
draughts, etc. This particular game is one that is largely forgotten about. It is a
game of skill in which a king tries to escape, with the help of his men, from a
numerous besieging army (Walker 2015). Board and card games are believed
to have been incredibly popular with the Norse people during the winter
(Smithonian: National Museum of Natural History n.d.).
Knattleikr – Players are divided into two teams. A ball is thrown and caught by
one opponent to another of the opposite team who would try and hit the ball
with a bat. Presumably others would have taken the positions similar to that of
fielders in cricket. Unfortunately it is not known how the game was played as
no rules survive (Knattleikr English: Ballgame n.d.)
APPENDIX SEVEN
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This is a transcript of emails between Chris Abrams (Media Officer), Sandie
Gillbanks (Schools Liaison Officer) and myself about authenticity of costumes in the
Viking Society.
I.F: Hi,
I'm a third year undergraduate studying Archaeology, with my dissertation on
how historically accurate Viking Warfare is in the media and popular culture.
I was just wondering if you would mind letting me know as to what exact films
and television shows your society has been involved in.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards,
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Isabelle Fletcher
S.G: Dear Isabelle
Thank you for your enquiry. I have coped this reply to Chris Abrams of Action
warrior solutions, our media arm –however how far back are you
looking? Obviously we have been undertaking media work for some years
including the Magnus Magnusson programme The Vikings in 1979. I believe
there were some prior to that but not sure if we still have all the data easily to
hand
Sandie Gillbanks
The Vikings
I.F: Hi Sandie,
Thank you very much. That's much appreciated. Basically any information
you have really as I've been looking at films such as The 1958 Vikings film
with Kirk Douglas to present day documentaries and films.
Would you mind me asking if re-enactors sometimes wear a leather studded
waist coat like Kirk Douglas did in the film The Vikings? According to a book I
was reading the other day it is still a popular choice for re-enactors to wear. I
have tried to search evidence for this and also asked my boyfriend (who's a
Viking re-enactor) if he's ever known anyone to wear this to which he said no.
We've also both searched any merchandise websites for re-enactors and not
found any particularly similar clothing apart from for LARPing. If this is not the
case, I would just like a confirmed no.
Thank you for your time.
Kind regards,
Isabelle
S.G: Thank you I have copied this reply to Chris again.
No sorry but the waist coat is not authentic –its LARP. For more information
contact our authenticity officer Benedict Coffin
[email protected] and quote any books you may have read so that
he can check
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Is your boyfriend a member of The Vikings?
Sandie
I.F: Hi Sandie,
Ok thank you. I will contact him about that.
Yes he is, he's a member of the Salisbury group.
Regards,
Isabelle
C.A: Hi Isabelle,
We have had involvement UN lots of media productions, many dating back
beyond AWS time.
Off the top of my head her are a few.
Gladiator
Robin hood
Prince valiant
3 Shakespeare BBC productions
Hammer of the Gods
Regeds visitor centre film
And countless TV appearance's
Chris
I.F: Hi Chris,
Thanks for your response. Sorry for my delay in reply.
It's a book called 'Knight at the Movies: Medieval History'. On page 42 of the
book it says: "Replicas of Kirk Douglas' black leather jerkin studded with
silver stars that he wore in the film's battle scenes are currently offered by
specialty costumers to medieval re-enactors."
Thanks,
Isabelle
C.A: Hi Izzy,
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as great as the film is, and it is a classic, it has become a bain in our lives
when dealing with film production companies.
They do very little if any research regarding clothing for our period, hence
why we tend to get a mish mash of leather biker trousers, medieval style
gambesons etc.
The black jerkin worn By Kirk Douglas is a stylised copy. There is no
providence for any studding in anything found in graves etc. The issue is
properly researched kit isn't visually entertaining, hence why when we put
people on set, we have to be prepared to have our kit muddied, shoes or
boots wrapped in Hessian or as happened recently, given leather face masks
to wear.
Speciality costumiers are getting better, but places like Angels in North
London, who are by far the biggest, still insist on supplying stuff that was
used in 70/80's
BBC now are better and do try to get things right, and often take advice, as
do some film companies/films. Faintheart for instance took complete
guidance on what to kit their principle actors out in, and we even supplied
some things as well
Chris
I.F: Hi Chris,
Thank you for all your help, it's been really useful!
Thank you,
Isabelle