If only the TV series could have been authentic, like this.
I’m going to grouse about the History Channel Vikings series one more time. Because it’s still on my mind. I’m still working on my piece about it for the American Spectator, too, which helps explain my obsession.
The responses I’ve gotten on Facebook have been interesting. Some people have been as negative as I am, or more – which may have had the effect of egging me on. Others have said, “Hey, it’s an interesting story, well acted, and it may interest people in the Vikings, so count your blessings.”
I think my reaction is partly self-centered. What I’m really thinking, deep in my lizard brain, is “I’ve been toiling most of my life accumulating sufficient information on the Viking Age to enable me to write believable novels – and I still get stuff wrong sometimes. So how come these Hollywood punks get to scribble a couple of facts on sticky notes and insert them into an otherwise fantasy script, call it a story about Vikings, and get paid enough money for me to retire on?”
I suspect that what these people really want to do is “A Game of Thrones.” And they can’t tell the difference.
I know they didn’t wear horned helmets. What else am I missing in that picture?
I was mostly thinking of the horns. But the short-sleeved tunic is also a no-no, and cross-garters seem to have been reserved for great chieftains (I’m not sure if Leif Eriksson, who this is supposed to be, would qualify).
Dear Mr Walker:
Regards your article in AmSpec about THC’s version of the Vikings. Perhaps a jazzed up name for your pending book on the Vikings for the American market should be, “Blood Eagle, Norway’s Savage Root!” The term Savage Root also hints at forced sodomy. (Maybe it should be “…Savage Rut!”) Whatever, the dilettante, Stupid-That-Can’t-Be-Fixed American audiences should lap it up.
But the Kirk Douglas depiction of the Vikings is-so far-THE standard. I must’ve seen it a dozen times as a kid. Loved it. Didn’t learn about the Blood Eagle till I got to college. Wow. What a great bunch of savages.