Vikings on History Channel

[lars573]

What do folks think of Vikings on the History Channel. I am enjoying it thus far. There are several historical inaccuracies, but I feel these do not detract from it. I am mainly watching it for mindless entertainment and not for an education. The sets are interesting and I like the characters. I am interested in seeing where it goes from here.

Ragnar Lodbrok from this series is a fictitious character based on a fictitious character. Well the Ragnar Lodbrok from Ragnar's Saga is an aggregate of several real Norsemen. So the perfect character to build a series around. Since we know few actual Vikings in detail. Just push him into the past a few generations to have him be the anonymous Norseman who raided Lindisfarne.

Well though the events are a bit messed up and some characters are clearly there to appear to the modern day audience (Loki for example), I still enjoy it quite a lot. It's dirty and gritty, the combat is more or less realistic - no over the top LOTR movie type choreography, but dirty, messy business of killing people. I like that the axes (and weapons in general) are realistic, there are no ridiculous double-bitted axes and such, and the one-handed weapons are the right size.

Floki is nothing but a kooky man. Nothing supernatural about him. The most supernatural events in the show so far are Ragnar's visions of Odin. Which are pretty cool, and still believable. The company who produces this show also produces The Tudor's and The Borgias (a show I really enjoy).


And this is the show's theme song in it's entirety with some clips from later episodes. Where Ragnar and crew are fighting organized bands of Franks (I'm assuming since there are heavy cavalry) and Saxons.