Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

History Channel Gets Vikings Precisely Wrong
The American Spectator ^ | March 12, 2013 | Lars Walker

Posted on 03/13/2013 10:42:29 AM PDT by PJ-Comix

It’s been more than fifty years since Kirk Douglas and his production company produced what most people still consider the best Viking movie ever made, The Vikings. Within the limits of the information available at the time, they made a good faith effort to do the thing relatively authentically. We’ve learned much in the years since, especially due to advances in archaeology, and many reenactors around the world (of whom I am among the least) work hard to re-create authentic Viking Age life. Dozens of accurate replicas of Viking ships have been built and put to sea, to the wonder and delight of many. The time would seem to be ripe for a depiction of the Viking Age that would surpass Kirk Douglas’s film in portraying of one of the most exciting and colorful eras in human history.

The History Channel’s new series, Vikings, is not it.

(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: historychannel; vikings
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-112 next last
To: PJ-Comix
At that time I think they were still about 15 different nations ~ they're down to 10 now ~ the last speaker of one of the Eastern tongues died just a few years back.

You do realize that in Roman times it was necessary for most of the coastal populations along the Baltic to evacuate the area due to a stretch of really bad climate change ~ they relocated to Freisland in what is now Nederland. All of those islands were much larger at the time ~ but that's where the ANGLES originate ~ the really blond haired crowd. Through time as the climate changed to the better they rowed their tiny boats back across the Baltic to Southern Scandinavia.

Through that period whatever Sa'ami had lived in the South (they had been met by the Greeks BTW) withdrew further North to the Arctic where it was apparently nicer ~ lots of game, reindeer ~ etc. More like the Norwegian coast is today up in the North.

At the moment only Finland's Sa'ami use the term Lapland ~ and I don't believe they're the folks who passed on clinker building tech to the Norse. That'd be more likely the Northern Sa'ami.

41 posted on 03/13/2013 11:17:27 AM PDT by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix

“Oh, and yeah, it is RIDICULOUS to present the Vikings as being unaware of the existence of the British isles.”

I don’t know. It seems kind of reasonable to me given that so many liberals are unaware of the existence of the United States Constitution.


42 posted on 03/13/2013 11:17:45 AM PDT by MeganC (The left have so twisted public perceptions that the truth now appears pornographic.- SpaceBar)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Vigilanteman

Yes, I was stupid and gave them a 2nd chance. I’m still mad at myself.


43 posted on 03/13/2013 11:18:33 AM PDT by Valpal1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: Vigilanteman

Going to Russia was much easier than going to Britain ~


44 posted on 03/13/2013 11:18:34 AM PDT by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix

1066 is 400 years later ~ lots of stuff can happen.


45 posted on 03/13/2013 11:19:53 AM PDT by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: SevenofNine

The History Channel also brought us “Nazi UFO Conspiracy” and “Ancient Aliens.”

“I’m not saying it was aliens, but it was aliens.”

I haven’t watched in quite a while. Let me know when they have a show about Elvis’ clone revealing Justin Bieber’s secret Bigfoot diet.


46 posted on 03/13/2013 11:21:15 AM PDT by henkster (I have one more cow than my neighbor. I am a kulak.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Joe Boucher

On Iceland the Y chromosome is predominantly from Norway and the X chromosome is from Whales.


47 posted on 03/13/2013 11:23:27 AM PDT by allmendream (Tea Party did not send GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: muawiyah

I enjoyed the movie “The Vikings.” However, I describe that movie as featuring 2 Jewish Viking brothers with an Italian father. Check out the cast and you’ll know what I mean.


48 posted on 03/13/2013 11:25:50 AM PDT by PJ-Comix (Beware the Rip in the Space/Time Continuum)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: Dead Corpse

That is what I am saying. Vikings knew where they were going. Making it look like an exploration is ludicrous, and the writers should have known better.


49 posted on 03/13/2013 11:26:56 AM PDT by catfish1957 (My dream for hope and change is to see the punk POTUS in prison for treason)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Vigilanteman
BTW, just for dating purposes, King Ad gave away the family farm to the Saxons some time in the early 500s. The end of the world arrived in 535. We don't really get a good idea what was going on in what is now England until the 700s ~ about 200 years later, and by then lots and lots of baby Saxons had been born ~ and there were Angles hanging around pretending to be Danish ~ they were from Freisland. Those guys arrived and messed up everyone's neighborhood. Note that's the same crowd that began leaving Freisland to return to Scandinavia ~ about a good 400 year sojourn in Europe.

They show up later as Vikings ~ but they were not terribly well educated when they left Europe ~ a real Dark Ages type people.

So, Freis who went West ended up in England (that's the 'en' in England, and those who went North suffered the punishments of hell with recurring famines, plagues, and all that. Their technological prowess declined substantially until they got the boat design that enabled them to RAID EUROPEANS ~ which is another couple of hundred years later.

The Vikings are a 'culture', not a genotype.

50 posted on 03/13/2013 11:27:09 AM PDT by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix

Yeah and I was telling my wife that the percentage of blond people would have been substantailly more than what was cast.


51 posted on 03/13/2013 11:27:56 AM PDT by catfish1957 (My dream for hope and change is to see the punk POTUS in prison for treason)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix
By the time that timeperiod portrayed in the movie came along that could have very well been true.

Best estimate I"ve seen is that following that route North up the rivers to Scandinavia, you can count on both Jews and Italians in the region by the 10th or 11th century ~ the fur trade was a big item!~

52 posted on 03/13/2013 11:31:57 AM PDT by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator
“Remember when the History Channel was called “The Hitler Channel”?”

My brother called it “Master Race Theater”. ;)

53 posted on 03/13/2013 11:32:00 AM PDT by allmendream (Tea Party did not send GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix

The series certainly hasn’t touched on how the ancient aliens provided the Vikings their advanced knowledge of seafaring and navigation.


54 posted on 03/13/2013 11:34:02 AM PDT by kevao (.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: catfish1957

“Yeah and I was telling my wife that the percentage of blond people would have been substantailly more than what was cast.”

Considering the disaster of “The Bible” that’s been on lately I’m surprised they didn’t have Asians and a couple Australian aborigines cast as Vikings. Not to mention an African-American guy with dreadlocks to play a chieftain.


55 posted on 03/13/2013 11:36:22 AM PDT by MeganC (The left have so twisted public perceptions that the truth now appears pornographic.- SpaceBar)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: catfish1957
Did some in Denmark/Scandinavia knew it existed? Yes. Ragnar even discusses this with Rollo. It was convincing the Earl and the rest of the folks in his village that was the trick.

They didn't have Google back then and this place doesn't exactly have that bustling Metropolis look like Rome or Alexandria...

56 posted on 03/13/2013 11:46:55 AM PDT by Dead Corpse (I will not comply.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: henkster

Actually I think that show got cancel last season

Now Iced Road Truckers is coming back so is Trucker Lisa Kelly she is back


57 posted on 03/13/2013 11:47:18 AM PDT by SevenofNine (We are Freepers, all your media bases belong to us ,resistance is futile)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: Valpal1

I gave up on the series after the first episode.


58 posted on 03/13/2013 11:52:03 AM PDT by bagman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: MeganC
Yep, only the History Channel would make Sampson a Rastafarian.

After the Hatfields and McCoys I had a lot of hope that the History Channel had finally decided to make realistic looking Historical programs.

Terribly disappointed in both shows.

59 posted on 03/13/2013 11:57:11 AM PDT by catfish1957 (My dream for hope and change is to see the punk POTUS in prison for treason)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: Sirius Lee

Just watched the Lee Majors movie about a month ago. It has to rank high in the list of worst movies ever made.


60 posted on 03/13/2013 12:03:44 PM PDT by bagman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-112 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson