Historical evidence in Vikings’ TV series: an episode analysis

Abstract

This paper is intended to analyse how the Viking Age has been depicted in audiovisual materials, namely in a present-day television series called ‘Vikings’. With that purpose in mind, some historical evidences on these Nordic people who settled Scandinavia during the eighth to eleventh centuries will be firstly introduced. A focus will be placed on their lifestyle and traditions together with a brief chronological timeline on their sea adventures and invasions of lands that satisfied the Vikings’ need for fight and wealth. The Vikings have reached us by means of Scandinavian sagas, archaeological findings and historical data which have certainly exerted a powerful influence in our times. These inhabitants of northern lands have been given prominence in many written compositions (e.g. ‘Vicke Viking’ by Runer Jonsson), musicals (e.g. ‘Yo, Vikings!’), theatrical pieces (e.g. ‘Meet the Vikings’ by Sue Rusell) and audiovisual productions like the one to be analysed in this paper. Thus, it will be tried to give an account of their impact throughout this paper. Finally, general information about the ‘Vikings’ series will be provided and an episode will be carefully examined to be able to see up to what extend it meets real historical data. Therefore, our main aim is to learn if historical events, places and characters represented in the television series can be trusted.