VikingsTV Show 2013

Vikings is a historical drama television series created and written by Michael Hirst for the History channel, a Canadian network. Filmed in Ireland, it premiered on March 3, 2013, in Canada. The series concluded on December 30, 2020, when the second half of the sixth season was released in its entirety on Amazon Prime Video in Ireland, ahead of its broadcast on History in Canada from January 1 to March 3, 2021. A sequel series, titled Vikings: Valhalla, premiered on Netflix on February 25, 2022.[1]

VikingsTV Show | 2013

Vikings is inspired by the sagas of Ragnar Lodbrok, a Viking who is one of the best-known legendary Norse heroes and notorious as the scourge of Anglo-Saxon England and West Francia. The show portrays Ragnar as a farmer from the Kattegat who rises to fame by raiding England and eventually becomes a Scandinavian king, with the support of his family and fellow warriors. In the later seasons, the series follows the fortunes of his sons and their adventures in England, Scandinavia, Kievan Rus', the Mediterranean and North America.

Two new series regulars were announced on June 11, 2013: Alexander Ludwig, portraying the teenage Björn; and Linus Roache, playing King Ecbert of Wessex.[11] The second season undergoes a jump in time, aging the young Björn (Nathan O'Toole) into an older swordsman portrayed by Ludwig. The older Björn has not seen his father, Ragnar, for "a long period of time". Lagertha remarries to a powerful jarl, a stepfather who provides harsh guidance to Björn.[12] Edvin Endre [13] and Anna Åström signed up for roles in the second season.[14] Endre had the role of Erlendur, one of King Horik's sons.

Norwegian music group Wardruna provided much of the background music to the series. Wardruna's founder Einar Kvitrafn Selvik also appeared as an actor in the show during the third season, portraying a shaman.[15]

Vikings premiered on March 3, 2013, in Canada[33] and the United States.[4] Vikings was renewed for a fourth season in March 2015 with an extended order of 20 episodes, which premiered on February 18, 2016.[34][35][36] On March 17, 2016, History renewed Vikings for a fifth season of 20 episodes, which premiered on November 29, 2017.[20][37] On September 12, 2017, ahead of its fifth-season premiere, the series was renewed for a sixth season of 20 episodes.[38] On January 4, 2019, it was announced that the sixth season would be the series' last.[39] The sixth season premiered on December 4, 2019.[40] The second part of the sixth and final season was released in its entirety on December 30, 2020, on Amazon Prime Video in Ireland, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Austria;[41] and aired in Canada on History from January 1, 2021.[42]

In the UK, Vikings premiered on May 24, 2013, where it was exclusively available on the streaming video-on-demand service LoveFilm.[43] The second season premiered on March 24, 2015.[44] The third season began airing on February 20, 2015, on Amazon Prime Video.[45]

In Australia, the series premiered on August 8, 2013, on SBS One.[46] It was later moved to FX, which debuted the second season on February 4, 2015.[47] Season three of Vikings began broadcasting in Australia on SBS One on March 19, 2015.[48] Season four of Vikings began broadcasting in Australia on SBS One on February 24, 2016.[49]

The nudity and sex scenes are regularly edited out for American audiences. For example, the sex scene between Lagertha and Astrid in the fourth-season episode "The Outsider" only showed them kissing. The scene continued for airings in other countries and on home video releases.[50][51]

Monty Dobson, a historian at Central Michigan University, criticised the depiction of Viking clothing but went on to say that fictional shows like Vikings could still be a useful teaching tool.[66] The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten reported that the series incorrectly depicted the temple at Uppsala as a stave church in the mountains, whereas the historical temple was situated on flat land, and stave churches were characteristic of later Christian architecture.[67] The temple in the series has similarities with reconstructions of the Uppåkra hof.

Many characters are based on (or inspired by) real people from history or legend and the events portrayed are broadly drawn from history. The history of more than a century has been condensed; people who could never have met are shown as of similar age, with the history amended for dramatic effect. Season one leads up to the attack on Lindisfarne Abbey of 793 (before the real Rollo was born). In season three the same characters at roughly the same ages participate in the Siege of Paris of 845. By this time, Ecbert was dead and King Æthelwulf was already on the throne. Rollo is shown having his followers killed and fighting his fellow Vikings, whereas in history they were granted what became Normandy and continued to co-operate with their Norse kinsmen.

Little is known about Viking religious practice and its depiction is largely fictitious.[68] When Katheryn Winnick was asked why she licked the seer's hand she answered: "It wasn't originally in the script and we just wanted to come up with something unique and different".[69] The showrunner Michael Hirst said, "I especially had to take liberties with Vikings because no one knows for sure what happened in the Dark Ages ... we want people to watch it. A historical account of the Vikings would reach hundreds, occasionally thousands, of people. Here we've got to reach millions".[70]

In the fourth episode of the second season, the bishop of Wessex is shown inflicting crucifixion as punishment for apostasy, while it had been outlawed more than four centuries earlier by Emperor Constantine the Great,[71] and it would have been blasphemous for the Christian population.[72]

Zenescope partnered with the History Channel to create a free Vikings comic book based on the series. It was first distributed at Comic-Con 2013 and by comiXology in February 2014.[120][121] The comic was written by Michael Hirst, features interior artwork by Dennis Calero (X-Men Noir), and is set before the events of season one. In addition to featuring Ragnar and Rollo battling alongside their father, the comic depicts the brothers' first encounter with Lagertha.[121]

Vikings is an original Canadian-Irish series broadcast by the Canadian television channel, History except for the second half of the sixth season that aired on Amazon Prime Video in some countries prior to the History airings, created and written by Michael Hirst. Originally planned to only be a miniseries, as stated by initial reports and releases, the show was renewed for a second season after the strong support it got from critics and viewers and concluded after its sixth season. The title theme song is If I Had a Heart by Fever Ray.

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Grutle Kjellson doesn't think much, if any, of Vikings is accurate. Kjellson kept his complaints to the series' story and dismissed a question that implied he took issue with some of the show's actors not being from Scandinavia. The metal singer didn't give many specific notes on how Vikings could improve, although he did tell Diamond Oz later in the interview he appreciated the film Valhalla Rising because there was "less makeup" involved.

For all the heat he's getting from Grutle Kjellson, Vikings creator Michael Hirst has received acclaim elsewhere. Notably, the creator mentioned he was thanked by a museum curator in Oslo who said the show has increased people's interest in Viking culture immensely. Hirst also got props from the head of Scandinavian studies at Harvard, so one would imagine his adaptation of Viking life is not as awful as Kjellson would have folks believe.

As a fantasy writer, I would say that this show is well written, engaging, and full of interesting character development. The characters in this story seem real and I am genuinely interested in their life stories. The writers take an honest look at human society and portray people that are not perfect, but understandable. The women characters are as strong as the men and people are evaluated based on their actions and personality, not by facts of birth like their gender or class station. This is all excellent stuff.

The way I read the sagas is that, at a minimum, they show Viking culture: how they lived, what they believed, and how politics operated. Are all the names, locations, and facts always correct? Well, it depends. Modern scholars believe that some saga authors deliberately placed kings and other famous figures anachronistically together to make a better story, just like we do today. King Arthur is an excellent example of this phenomena, as he has been placed in Celtic England, Roman England, and High Medieval England, when really we are not 100% sure King Arthur even existed. This pseudo-historical phenomena can also be seen in the modern movies The Patriot, Gladiator, and Braveheart.

What makes the show even more like a Norse Saga is that there are other very real historical figures in the show, such as King Horik I and King Ecbert. Horik I was a king of Denmark in the ninth century who raided into Charlemagne territory and resisted conversion to Christianity when Harald Bluetooth, one of his relatives and co-rulers, converted in 826. Ecbert was really king of Wessex in the ninth century, and he fought with the kings of the other English kingdoms as well as with Viking raiders. So the timing for both of these kings with the general plot of The Vikings show is roughly accurate, although the fact that Horik is from Denmark and the show is set mostly in Sweden is a little iffy. Nevertheless, the show gets a few things right history-wise. I would hope so, being that it is on the History Channel. 041b061a72