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.

13

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'

14

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.

16

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

17

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

18

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

19

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

20

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.

21

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

22

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

23

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

24

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

25

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

26

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

27

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

28

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

29

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

30

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

31

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.

32

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

33

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

34

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.

35

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

36

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

37

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).

38

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.

39

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

40

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

41

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

42

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

43

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

44

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

45

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

46

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.

47

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.

48

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62

APPENDIX ONE

63

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

64

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

65

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.

82

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

83

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

benedictcoffin@hotmail.com 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