Pythons for the Vikings

The battle of the wall on the wall, the confrontation of the brothers, the attempt to introduce polygamy and family showdowns - the Vikings returned to the Canadian History Channel , immediately dumping a heap of events on the viewer after the not particularly dynamic end of the last season. The stories here, however, are still given a secondary place, let the name of the channel do not mislead you.

The creators of the Vikings initially laid high hopes for their brainchild-after all, the first game series History Channel and at the same time the first MGM TV product after bankruptcy. The audience received not the most historical story about the Vikings, but also not a soap opera with attempts for originality, such as Black Sails and other products of the Starz channel. Rather, we can talk about an attempt to answer the “Game of Thrones”. The popular HBO series in the Vikings resembles a picture (cold saturated tones), familiar landscapes (mainly in Ireland), the relative similarity of the eras - although the action takes place in the early Middle Ages, and the quasi -medium -sized world of the Game of Thrones combines features of different periods. Finally, the elements of the fantasy: Valkyrie, one, which clearly emerged from the fairy tales of Princess Aslag, let the scriptwriter of the Vikings say that fantasy is not interested in him.

Michael Hurst who came up with the “Vikings” used to be engaged in the era of lush costumes, knights and court intrigues. On his account, the films “Elizabeth” and “Elizabeth: the Golden Age”, the series Showtime “Tudors”, he is one of the producers of the series “Borgia”. That is, the specialization of Hurst is colorful and spectacular dramas that can bring historians horror, but completely arranging millions of spectators. The Vikings attracted Hurst's attention again because of English history: reading books about the struggle of King Alfred the Great with the Danes, he became interested in warlike northerners. “I liked their culture and their gods,” Hurst said enthusiastically in an interview with Vanity Fair . Well, it’s never too late to learn new things. But in addition to the general interest in the scriptwriter’s Vikings, the scriptwriter was attracted to the fact that, in his opinion, little is known about this period (the statement is quite dubious), and the history of the Vikings “wrote hostile witnesses, Christian monks, and so on.” That is, any poetic liberty in the series is originally justified, although Hurst emphasizes in every possible way that he seeks to correspond to the specifics of History Channel .

It is no accident that the main character was chosen not a really existing character, some Eirik Red or Harald Hardda, but the legendary Ragnar Lodbrock, known mainly from sagams. Surely Hurst remembered the “Vikings” of 1958, where it was not without Ragnar, this Hollywood story was also a heroic fairy tale. It is important that such a choice immediately sets a certain tone for the series, showing that the Creator needs not so much a historical character as the collective image of the great king, the personification of the very “rage of the Normans” that devastated the coast of Britain, Ireland and Western Europe. By the way, King Danov Khorik, who also found a place in the series, is just one of the possible historical prototypes of Ragnar.

As a result, the series is similar to a good comic book, in which when neatly, when the excerpts of reader and printouts from Wikipedia are not very glued. Now we will read to you the “Denmine of the Valva”, here are a few phrases in Anglo-Saxon, here is the story of the god Riga Hamdall, but the scene of the burial of a noble viking according to the description of Ibn Fadlan-all this with an inimitable accent resembling Norwegian emigrants from the “Underground Empire”. Some scenes are really taken from chronicles and historical sources, others are clearly fantastic. For example, in the first season, Ragnar offers Rabu-Christian (!) To divide the bed with his wife, the pagan sanctuary in architecture looks like a Christian church, the Yarl has almost unlimited power and owns all the ships. The Anglo-Saxons from Northumbria arrange massive cavalry attacks and do not know how to use the “wall of the shields”, represented as know-how Viking, although the Anglo-Saxon warriors just used this construction and dismounted for the battle.

The situation with costumes and decorations also evoke mixed feelings. On the one hand, as already mentioned in an article on mediawalism , there are practically no winged and horned helmets that tightly grew up to the Vikings in mass culture, as well as military axes with two blades. The abundance of leather shirts and pants can also be accepted by recalling the nickname of Ragnar himself (“Lodbrook” is often translated as “leather pants”), although in the series it seems to be not played out in any way. But the priests, free -eyed or with failed eyes, black -bundled, with shaved heads, strange tattoos, in incomprehensible hoodies and tunics, as if 300 Spartans of Zachi HBO “Rome” had left the “300 Spartans”. Specific hairstyles of the main characters generally arose by accident: when Travis Fimmel appeared on the set, he had too short hair, and then decided to choose them on the temples. As a result, it turned out something resembling American Indians. However, this does not contradict the spirit of the series too much.

All this with an inimitable accent resembling Norwegian emigrants from the Underground Empire.

Hurst’s Vikings are cruel, charming and noble barbarians in their own way, and the clash of two worlds, Christian and pagan plays a crucial role in the series. Here, crosses are chopped with relish, robbing, kill the monks that boast from fear and attack the Christian city at a time when all local warriors are at the other and leave weapons outside the church. To make this conflict more dramatic, Hurst famously redraws the story. The meeting should occur for the first time, otherwise the effect is not the same. Therefore, the local Vikings do not know the sea route to England (only Ragnar manages to find it), and the Monastery of St. Kutbert on the island of Lindispharn becomes a random victim of the first raid of Ragnar warriors. In fact, the Vikings plundered the monastery in 793, about forty to five years before the campaigns of Lodbro (or his historical prototypes). But the scriptwriter must have included this episode in the series, because the landing of sea robbers on Lindyxfarne has long symbolizes the beginning of the Vikings era. The series is called “Vikings”, and not “Viking”, “Conung” or something like that, is another claim for generalization, the creation of the image of the era, just as Ragnar is a collective way of the great king.

Hurst Viking, as we already know, loves and depicts them not without tenderness, while Christians are allotted much less enviable place. True, in the bias of Hyrst, it is not always possible to blame: the Northumbril King Ella really, according to the chroniclers, was unpleasant person. Nevertheless, even the only pretty Christian character, the Saxon monk Atelistan, with a black man laid out Ragnar all the information about his homeland, prershes himself as a pagan, and three times renounces Christ. The brother and rival of Ragnar Rollo accepts baptism, let it, if necessary, and not at his own free will. Not everything is clear with this character either: the first Duke of Normandy Rollon was his prototype. Only now Rollo (Rollon) is a Latinized version of the Scandinavian name Rolf (Kholph), and in the baptism of Normann he generally took the name Robert. In the series, the name of the character is Rollo, and in baptism he becomes Rolf. What can you do, Hurst got confused in all these names.

Priests, free -eyed or with uprooted eyes, black -lined, with shaved heads, strange tattoos, in obscure hoodies and tunics, as if 300 Spartans left.

Against the background of this conflict, the formation of the protagonist occurs. In the series, power comes to Ragnar not by birth and origin-Hurst makes him an ordinary strawed-bond, who achieved only thanks to his courage, strength and ingenuity. In this sense, the serial Ragnar is a very heir to the Mona -Serving Konans, Culls and other fantasy barbarians, with a sword of the kingdom and rising from mud to the buncture. At the beginning of the second season, a sharp fracture occurs in the fate of Ragnar. If earlier he was confident to the goal, now he is more likely trying to keep the world diverging at the seams. Rollo opens against his brother Ragnar, Ragnar himself changes his wife Lagert. By the second season, she became the same important character as Ragnar: a strong and independent warrior who came out of the Scandinavian sagas. If we talk about the actors, then the main batch is played by the Trio Travis Fimmel - Katherine Winnik - Clive Standen (Ragnar - camp - Rollo), although the first season, of course, was decorated with the presence of Gabriel Burn in the role of Jarl Haraldson and the eternal Viking Vladimir Kulich (Kulikh). Hurst noted that he specifically chose the roles of Ragnar and the camps of physically developed and tightly tailored actors (Winnik is the owner of the black belt in judo).

Everything can be understood and forgiven, but this is why the famous snake pit of King Ella, who appeared in the first season and plays an important role in the series, filled with pythons? Where did the pythones come from in Northumbria? They brought Ella ambassadors from distant warm countries? It is clear that the pythons look more spectacular on the screen and are less dangerous for filming than vipers, but there are computer graphics and installation, in the end, there was enough for the Valkyrie, but they regretted the viper, then? There, in the “Game of Thrones”, the actors complained that they had to iron a dummy instead of a real wolf, but nothing, they cope. Such little things can pretty much spoil the impression of the Vikings. If you attach a meaning to them, it is better not to waste time and revise any of the films of the brave Güdnlegson . But if you calmly relate to Northumbrian pythons, brothel -headed priests and threesome with a slave, the Vikings will greatly help to pass the time until the new season of the Game of Thrones.