EPIC MOVIE CAST LICENSE
In an interview with The Reykjavik Grapevine, Hrafn explains his frustration with how Vikings had been portrayed in film: “If you see older Viking films you notice that they’re more or less like a Wagner opera - people wearing horn helmets with chicken feathers, Valkyries with spears and enormous tits, screaming.” He adds that he “wanted to make a film that would portray Vikings more authentically.” While When the Raven Flies certainly still takes some artistic license with history, combining a story of revenge and a lot of western hallmarks into a pared back, more realistic version of Iceland.
The Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis movie is pretty good for a mid-century historical epic based on the story of Ragnar Lothbrok, but films of its ilk are the exact type that Hrafn sought to refute when he made When the Raven Flies. While there had been a handful of silent films and some smaller movies, the first Viking film with real cultural impact is Richard Fleischer’s aptly named The Vikings in 1958. This depiction of Vikings was solidified further in the classic Bugs Bunny cartoon What's Opera, Doc?, which reimagines much of The Valkyrie as a feud between Bugs and Elmer Fudd. There is a possibility that Vikings did use a horned or winged helmet in some ceremonial contexts, but they definitively did not wear them in battle. This is where the most pervasive and persistent Viking inaccuracy originated - the horned helmet. Much of the current view of Vikings is informed by Richard Wagner and his Ring cycle, specifically The Valkyrie ( Die Walküre). RELATED: 11 Movies Like 'The Northman' to Watch Next For More Dark Revenge Stories This is one of the best things about The Last Kingdom, where the invaders are consistently referred to as Danes, while in the first episode Lord Uhtred ( Matthew Macfadyen) specifically calls out: “They come as Vikings!” The reality is that Viking is not a term for a people or culture, it essentially just means “pirate”. Chief among the misconceptions is that everyone in Scandinavia was a Viking. Vikings occupy an interesting place in Western pop culture, with many depictions either sanitizing the brutality of the culture or portraying Norse society as filled with nothing but warriors and barbarians.
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