Vikings was a massive TV hit as a historical series that popularized the Norse men and women with a wide audience. But strictly speaking, Michael Hirst’s popular story about Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel) is already in Title a gross mistake. Because today’s concept of the Viking did not even exist at the time the series was being acted on.
Series error: The Vikings role models did not call themselves Vikings
The Vikings audience has long known that the series has taken some historical liberties. While some Vikings bugs are downright absurd, others were built specifically for the Ragnar Star. But the biggest Vikings mistake is hidden in plain sight: the title of the series is wrong. the The term “Viking” came much later on.
© History Channel
Vikings: Vikings or Norsemen?
As The Conversation explains, it wasn’t until the 19th century that the word “Viking” really entered ordinary usage in English. It derives from Old Norse víkingr starting from what neutral one described a person who went on a journey – mostly by going to sea. Whether said man also plundered is not specified, although many today inaccurately translate the word Viking as “pirate” or “plunderer”. As a derogatory term, the term was first used in the medieval Iceland Sagas in the 14th and 15th centuries, which later influenced our current designation.
Historian Alex Woolf further states that the term Vikings/Vikings is also misleading because it actually a profession and not an ethnic group describes. At that time, the hordes invading from Scandinavia were simply referred to in the rest of Europe as “pagans” or “Norsemen” (“Norse”/”Norsemen”) titled. The fact that The Northman director criticized Vikings as inauthentic is reflected in the choice of title for the series.
“We are Vikings” – Vikings even mouths the wrong title
If the term Vikings never came up in the series itself, we could easily let Vikings get away with its title: After all, the TV show looks back on that time as a modern concoction of our time. But in the series, the Scandinavians even put the title in their own mouths. “We are Vikings” For example, Ubbe (Jordan Patrick Smith) proclaims in a speech in episode 3 of season 6:
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Of course, this blunder doesn’t change anything about the entertainment value of the Vikings series. We can shrug it off as creative freedom. After all, Ragnar and company weren’t the first and won’t be the last either modern language in a historical series accommodate. Nevertheless, it is funny to imagine that the men and women of the 9th and 10th centuries, confronted with today’s use of the term Vikings, would only have scratched their heads at a loss.
The best streaming films of 2022 on Netflix, Disney+ and Co.
In the latest edition of our podcast Streamgegefuehl we take a look back at the streaming films of the year so far. Netflix, Disney+ and Co. have outbid each other with elaborate productions. But which of the films are really successful? In the podcast we talk about our top 10 best streaming movies of 2022.
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The streaming year was very varied in the film sector. A red panda has thrown Toronto into chaos while a princess struggled from the top floor of a tower to the ground floor. We were also able to experience the first moon landing through children’s eyes and received an amusing Jackass encore.
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As Vikings fans, did you know that the term Vikings came up much later?