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After seeing the adverts for this I thought the lead was a bulked up Micheal Pitt. I agree the opening battle seemed a bit out of place. I was expecting the Earl's beef with Ragnar stemmed from that: "Oh hey we're back btw we lost everybody but me and my bro, what's for lunch?" The small history bits like the nature of navigation, shipbuilding, and the general land scarcity were a nice touch. The natural scenery was fantastic, between this and GoT it will do for Irish tourism what LOTR did for New Zealand.
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Mar 5, 2013 22:26
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What was up with Ragnar licking the Ancient One's hand? I'm assuming that it was something psychotropic because he said "I'll speak to the gods myself," and hallucinogenics were common for, well, speaking with the gods... but I didn't see anything in that creepy old dude's hand. Weird.
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Mar 5, 2013 22:41
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Moose King posted:I'm watching the second episode now. The teacher from Glee's crazy ex-wife is trying her darndest to be Cersei Lannister, and it's just not working, bless her heart.
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Mar 6, 2013 00:17
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wukkar posted:Huh? second episode? It's available online.
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Mar 6, 2013 00:18
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Historical accuracy is overrated in entertainment media anyway, I thought the end of Lincoln was loving stupid. He dies like a bitch
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Mar 6, 2013 03:30
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Thinking about getting in on this, but the last show I picked up after an enthusiastic OP in the TVIV was Last Resort and I can barely put into words how horrendously bad that experience ended up being. But from what little I've read about the show, there's not too much that can go wrong here, so I'm looking forward to it. On the other hand, as a german, I might have trouble ever taking a viking named 'Rollo' seriously again.
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Mar 6, 2013 08:38
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Mazed posted:Didn't Fadlan also come to respect them quite a bit as well? Or was that some other scholarly Arab dude who hung out with them? Fadlan generally had a favourable opinion, he even goes on to say he's never seen such perfect physical specimens at one point, but he also had these flourishes of absolute disgust at certain Viking mannerisms as was noted. There's is another scholarly Arab guy, Ibn Rustah, who also hung out with them and simply noted Vikings kept their clothes clean, wore gold armbands, were heavily tattooed and occasionally dressed in very exquisite clothing when things are going prosperously. He also noted that their slaves and servants are also well-dressed and treated very well* and that generally the Vikings treated their guests, visitors, foreigners and even refugees generously and wouldn't let anyone mistreat or even "annoy" them so long as they're under their roof. For contrast, Rustah does also note that some Vikings absolutely terrorized the Slavs, taking captives and loot in such quantities that they did not need to sow their own fields but lived completely off what they plundered. Supposedly, after a son was born, a father would present him a sword and say 'I shall not leave you with any property: You have only what you can provide with this weapon.' *Slave treatment is probably something that varied from time to time, and place to place. There's some evidence indicating that important, dead chiefs were buried with living slaves, and that there may have even been an rare slave-sacrifice here and there. Fadlan, for example claimed that the wives of Lesser Viking Chiefs were buried alive with their man's ashy remains but there's no other source indicating that Vikings practised suttee, it might've just been one group's thing. Mazed posted:Gender roles in old Scandinavian society seemed to be largely a separate-but-equal affair, if I'm recalling right, but didn't some of those cultures have kind of a thing, at least towards women, going something like, "If you want to do a man's work, fine, just expect to be treated like a man"? That looks about right from what I gathered as well. It seemed relatively egalitarian to me, relatively and for its time anyway. Women couldn't wear certain vestments, speak at Things, be judges, chiefs or witnesses and were, by law, under the authorities of their husband, but there were a few counterbalances. Another Arab Scholar, Ibn Diyha, accounts al'Ghazal's *possible but maybe fabricated* viking encounter and a viking lady supposedly said to him "Our ways are not like yours. Our women stay with their men of their own free will; a woman stays with her man as long as it pleases her, and leaves him when she wearies of their life together." Diyha notes that a woman equally has right of divorce. It comes up in quite a few stories/sagas where a Viking dude is being indecisive about preserving the family honour or obtaining revenge until his wife threatens him with a divorce if he doesn't do something. If a woman acquired considerable land from bereavement, her status as an owner and employer was equal to a man's. A woman could also have a man (who isn't her husband), severely fined for even an unconsensual kiss. Women could lead expeditions and raids but that didn't come up often. I suppose it's worth noting that women were allowed to do white magic and men couldn't. I'm sure someone else could better comment on this sort of stuff though. HenessyHero fucked around with this message at 10:41 on Mar 6, 2013 |
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Mar 6, 2013 10:37
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I thought it was okay as well. Unironically more historically accurate (not saying much) than the vast majority of garbage on the 'history channel' these days. I am also wonder if Byrne's character has a deeper reason for not wanting to go west. If you haul in the east is lacking, why not gamble with one boat towards the west. I mean if some farmer can build one, then I would assume you could just humor him, and send him on his mission. If it succeeds, you look brilliant. If it fails, you just blame him and cut your losses.
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Mar 6, 2013 10:52
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HenessyHero posted:I suppose it's worth noting that women were allowed to do white magic and men couldn't. I'm sure someone else could better comment on this sort of stuff though. That, I think, relates to some of the mythology. There was "men's magic" and "women's magic", and they were two very different things. Somewhere there's a story about Loki mocking Odin for practicing women's magic in his endless quest to know everything about everything.
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Mar 6, 2013 12:04
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unlawfulsoup posted:I thought it was okay as well. Unironically more historically accurate (not saying much) than the vast majority of garbage on the 'history channel' these days. I am also wonder if Byrne's character has a deeper reason for not wanting to go west. If you haul in the east is lacking, why not gamble with one boat towards the west. I mean if some farmer can build one, then I would assume you could just humor him, and send him on his mission. If it succeeds, you look brilliant. If it fails, you just blame him and cut your losses. I think it's more of a power thing. I'm sure he'd be willing to go west if it was HIS idea, but the fact that some farmer nobody is pushing for it makes him look bad, and Ragnar rebelling against his orders makes it seem like he's losing control of his subjects.
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Mar 6, 2013 15:27
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HenessyHero posted:
This is also where the term "Slave" comes from.
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Mar 6, 2013 15:55
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This show is pretty awesome through two episodes. Hard trying to convince people to watch a drama series on History Channel but pretty impressive they were able to develop a show of this caliber.
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Mar 6, 2013 16:55
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As a purebred Scandinavian, I really liked it. The tone was nicely downplayed, and they didn't fall into the trap of going overboard with DRAMA right from the get go. Every character got a nice little moment and I really, really liked the way it looked overall. The scenes with Odin I thought were downright chilling. The only thing that seemed off to me was the scene with the eyeless seer - it felt totally out of place, like it they had cut in a deleted scene from Game of Thrones or something.
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Mar 6, 2013 21:00
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"Latvia, 700something" *cue fighting in massive-rear end mountains and highlands* That's not how geography works.  All the Baltic states for the most part flat as pancakes, and while there are some hilly areas, they are/were certainly heavily forested.
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Mar 6, 2013 21:55
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pigdog posted:"Latvia, 700something" I thought they lived in Norway?
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Mar 6, 2013 22:07
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The show just says Scandinavia. Considering the talk of sailing West over open ocean its probably Denmark or Norway.
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Mar 6, 2013 22:22
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muscles like this? posted:The show just says Scandinavia. Considering the talk of sailing West over open ocean its probably Denmark or Norway. Ragnar Lodbrok was (briefly) king of Denmark/parts of Sweden and his wife Lathgerta was Danish, so I'm guessing the show is set somewhere in or around Denmark right now.
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Mar 6, 2013 22:40
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Never would have known about this. Thanks, thread.
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Mar 6, 2013 22:50
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Admiral Goodenough posted:I thought they lived in Norway? And the opening scene is in the Eastern Baltic.
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Mar 7, 2013 00:48
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Special credit goes to the awesome opening scene. Anyone know who sings the theme?NaturalLow posted:Ragnar Lodbrok was (briefly) king of Denmark/parts of Sweden and his wife Lathgerta was Danish, so I'm guessing the show is set somewhere in or around Denmark right now. Note that Denmark doesn't have any geographical location that even remotely resembles anything on the show. Although it might have been under Danish rule back then, it's probably set in modern Norway. Hakkesshu fucked around with this message at 02:16 on Mar 7, 2013 |
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Mar 7, 2013 02:13
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Hakkesshu posted:Anyone know who sings the theme? Really liking what I've seen thus far. For such a memetically badass culture, it's weird how few even halfway accurate Viking-centric shows or movies have been made. The main draw for me is how the show uses the characters and plot as a platform for exhibiting Viking culture, language, clothing, social mores, and other aspects of daily life. This isn't much different from the way previous nature or history shows have constructed a narrative to illustrate a concept, but "Vikings" follows it to the logical conclusion.
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Mar 7, 2013 08:24
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Crisco Kid posted:Do you mean this *snip* or something else? Yes, precisely, thank you.
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Mar 7, 2013 11:49
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Between this and The Hatfields and McCoys History has made two things that have been rather impressive as of late.
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Mar 7, 2013 18:12
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Edited for spoiler.
puredeez fucked around with this message at 00:24 on Mar 8, 2013 |
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Mar 7, 2013 23:04
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Hakkesshu posted:Anyone know who sings the theme? How could you possibly miss the answer to this being posted on the previous page? The thread is only 2 pages long and yet you apparently didn't read it. Sorry to be a jerk but this is a pet peeve of mine and I'm seeing it a lot around SA lately. On topic this show has been great so far and I'm really looking forward to the next episode. I've mentioned it to a few friends of mine and no one seems to have heard anything about it, so I'm trying to spread the word to anyone I think might be interested. Hopefully the show is popular enough to avoid being cancelled. ubachung fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Mar 8, 2013 |
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Mar 8, 2013 00:39
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I've already got my two best friends hooked, I'm definitely spreading the word. My mom and sister loved Game of Thrones so I might try them next.
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Mar 8, 2013 00:41
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ubachung posted:How could you possibly miss the answer to this being posted on the previous page? The thread is only 2 pages long and yet you apparently didn't read it. Sorry to be a jerk but this is a pet peeve of mine and I'm seeing it a lot around SA lately. I only read the OP for fear of spoilers and immediately went straight to the newest post after watching it, because I was pretty excited. I figured someone could probably answer the question really quickly so I didn't think much about going back and checking before asking. Sorry if I offended you, dude!
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Mar 8, 2013 01:10
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Hakkesshu posted:I only read the OP for fear of spoilers and immediately went straight to the newest post after watching it, because I was pretty excited. I figured someone could probably answer the question really quickly so I didn't think much about going back and checking before asking. No apology needed, I'm sorry I made an issue of it. I share your excitement about this show, I've always had an interest in medieval history and in particular vikings. Anyone got any suggestions for good viking based fiction to read? This show has revived my craving.
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Mar 8, 2013 01:51
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ubachung posted:No apology needed, I'm sorry I made an issue of it. Brian Wood wrote a series of comics called "Northlanders" that was published by DC through Vertigo. They're really good and since most of the arcs are self-contained, they cover a wide array of geographical areas across the whole viking age. There are only 7 trades and they're fairly cheap. If anyone could recommend some good novels, also, I'd appreciate it.
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Mar 8, 2013 01:59
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leidend posted:It was good enough. Not great, but worth giving a shot. The vikings did cause some interesting genetic changes, for example the rare redheads in places like Sicily can be traced back to the short lived Norman kingdom. Also here's a somewhat amusing look at the genetic influence for the UK: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/ncmh/lecture_notes/Hoylake_9Mar10.pdf etalian fucked around with this message at 02:20 on Mar 8, 2013 |
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Mar 8, 2013 02:17
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etalian posted:The vikings did cause some interesting genetic changes, for example the rare redheads in places like Sicily can be traced back to the short lived Norman kingdom. The BBC Blood of Vikings documentary mentioned in that PDF is available on Youtube. It's fairly interesting, although I think it could've been shorter than 5 parts. The BBC's Who Were the Vikings documentary (also on Youtube) has some overlap but also a good amount of non-British Isles material that's fairly interesting.
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Mar 8, 2013 03:07
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Ep.3 doesn't air until next Sunday right? I watched both episodes tonight and this show is pretty enjoyable.
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Mar 8, 2013 10:25
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One thing I noticed about the Sunstone mentioned in the first episode. I'd only seen it in a documentary ages ago, but the ABC News had an article on it yesterday. Very interesting. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-07/shipwreck-crystal-could-be-viking-sunstone/4557966
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Mar 8, 2013 11:04
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TemetNosceXVIcubus posted:One thing I noticed about the Sunstone mentioned in the first episode. I'd only seen it in a documentary ages ago, but the ABC News had an article on it yesterday. According to that article they navigated "even perhaps as far as North America". I thought it more or less universally accepted that the Vikings landed in North America, considering the archaeological evidence.
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Mar 8, 2013 14:53
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saganite posted:According to that article they navigated "even perhaps as far as North America". I thought it more or less universally accepted that the Vikings landed in North America, considering the archaeological evidence. Yeah it's pretty much historical fact they made it to Canada "Vinland" but never created permanent colonies due to being on the losing side of disagreements with the Native americans.
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Mar 8, 2013 15:05
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Originally decided to watch this because I wanted to see George Blagden but wow it had me hooked from the opening. It's great! Can't wait for the third ep.
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Mar 8, 2013 17:05
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For the people here who have studied Viking history is there a good solid text or something of that nature that's worth picking up? By good I mean from a Viking perspective of the culture not "they were just blood-thirsty slobs".
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Mar 8, 2013 17:09
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ubachung posted:I share your excitement about this show, I've always had an interest in medieval history and in particular vikings. Anyone got any suggestions for good viking based fiction to read? This show has revived my craving. Bernard Cornwell wrote a series of books about an englishman raised by danes, called The Saxon Stories. The first couple of novels are mostly from a viking centric perspective and quite fun. Eventually they include the sons of Ragnar Lothbrok as they raid England.
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Mar 8, 2013 22:25
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After reading this show wasn't all that bad, I was just expecting something completely average and maybe somewhat boring. While it probably is average as the show doesn't seem to do anything others haven't done better something about it is just fascinating. Much better than I expected. I wouldn't try and put it in some kind of top 5 list or anything, but after seeing the first episode, I'm actually eager for the second which I am about to watch. As long as the show can consistently keep up the quality, I'd really love to see it do well. I'm afraid despite being pretty decent, and absolutely great considering it's coming from History it won't pull enough ratings or something. I hadn't even heard of it until I stumbled on this thread.
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Mar 9, 2013 07:49
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I like pretty much everything about this show, except for the Jarl guy. Poor Gabriel Byrne. It would be weird but interesting if they were purposefully doing some kind of alt-history examination of what may have transpired if a mentally retarded man attained the status of Jarl during the Viking age. "Hi loyal servant guy! Thanks for being useful and competent! Let me just pointlessly terrorize and murder you for the sake of cheap drama! "Oh, a couple dozen of my best warriors are going to sail to what I believe is certain death? That's cool, this outcome is satisfactory to me. Also I'll just kill the loving blacksmith in my tiny village which I'm sure has plenty of skilled craftsmen to spare! I'm no history expert, but was't Viking lordship something of a meritocracy? There's really no good excuse or explanation for how someone who gaily gads about spitefully and arbitrarily killing useful members of society could achieve any sort of power in a culture where your rule has to actually provide some tangible benefits for the people you have power over.  The tone and logic of this show is bizarre, but mostly satisfying outside of the Jarl character. Man, the blacksmith's daughter had like the worst day ever huh? Anyway kudos to the History Channel for finally putting some effort into something.
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Mar 9, 2013 08:46
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