Season 2’s Vikings blunder shamelessly messes up world history

If even the series title of Vikings is historically questionable, we shouldn’t be surprised that there are more historical errors crept into the narrative to have.

The range of missteps ranges from absurdly long undiscovered mass murders to Viking errors built especially for Ragnar star Travis Fimmel. But did you know that one mistake in Season 2 would even turn the world’s religious history upside down?

Vikings mistake: Athelstan’s crucifixion gets things wrong

Of the Monk Athelstan (George Blagden), whom Ragnar (Travis Fimmel) imprisons during the raid on the English monastery of Lindisfarne and who later becomes his good friend, does not have an easy fate in Vikings. His personal ordeal includes being imprisoned in Wessex in episode 4 of season 2 while Ragnar is away trying to retake Kattegat and crucified as an apostate becomes.

Though Athelstan survives his Vikings crucifixion thanks to King Ecbert’s (Linus Roache) intervention, the very act of the scene raised doubts among history experts. The moment is unquestionably shocking in its visual value (and arguably would have pleased Mel Gibson, too). Yet sites like Medievalists were skeptical of the series creator’s statement Michael Hirst, who claimed to have stumbled across a similar scene while researching history.

Because at this point in history (the Vikings series begins at the end of the 8th century) were Crucifixions have not been performed for a long time. As early as the 4th century AD they had been replaced by other methods of execution.

In addition, in the second step, it seems questionable whether Christians would have used this type of killing as a punishment for pagans (or people who had fallen away from the faith). Because that would be a demotion or mockery of the death of Jesus Christ matched. And Vikings could not possibly have intended such an ironic parallelism at the expense of the Christian religious model.

Vikings have always liked to play with religion

The fact that the well largest Vikings death scene Jesus took as a model. And even the cruel “blood eagle” comes across as a Scandinavian variant of the crucifixion.

Furthermore, religion has always had an important role in Vikings when it came to pitting the Christian English against the “pagan” Vikings – and vice versa. If both beliefs entered into dialogue with each otheras with Ragnar and Athelstan’s friendship to challenge each other’s mores and rituals, the series was particularly strong.

Also the spin-off series Vikings: Valhalla made the religious conflict one, now even within the ranks of the Norse men and women themselves central theme, which is set to be boosted in Season 2 on Netflix. Only there will certainly be no more crucifixions there.

Podcast: How good is Vikings Valhalla on Netflix?

Vikings: Valhalla continues the legacy of the hit historical series Vikings on Netflix. Many fan reactions are extremely negative.

In the podcast we introduce you to the series and discuss its strengths and weaknesses. Above all, we ask ourselves how the reactions of many fans can be explained. Is Vikings: Valhalla worse or just different than the original?

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Does it bother you when your favorite shows take historical liberties like Vikings?