The Best Viking Films Ranked!

'Top Medieval Historian Rates Vikings in Movies'

First, Cat reviews Chris Hemsworth's portrayal of Thor and the depiction of Asgard, home of the Norse gods, in the 2011 Marvel movie 'Thor'. She then takes a look at a classic Hollywood film from 1958, 'The Vikings', starring Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis, which recreates the death of the legendary Viking Ragnar Lothbrok.

Next up, it's 'The 13th Warrior' starring Antonio Banderas and Vladimir Kulich, which shows the interaction between the Viking and Islamic worlds, as well as featuring a Viking prayer which closely resembles the one described by the Muslim traveller Ahmad ibn Fadlan. Then she rates a brief scene from the 2009 film 'Valhalla Rising', which recreates a meeting between the Viking One-Eye and North American tribesmen.

The animated movie 'How to Train Your Dragon' is next, which leans into popular tropes about the Viking world - including horned helmets - but does hint at the important societal role played by Viking women. Finally, it's the 2022 Viking blockbuster 'The Northman' starring Alexander Skarsgård. Although the film is rated highly by Cat for its depiction of Vikings ships, she suggests that the portrayals of berserker warriors is more a 21st century Viking fantasy than reality.

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[HistoryHit]

Hope you enjoy the reviews guys! Do you agree with Cat? Are there any portrayals of Vikings in movies we should have included? 🤔

[Rabbithole]

From the Scandinavian Archaeology site: Before the raid near the beginning of the film, we are treated to a scene in which Amleth and his brothers-in-arms dance around a bonfire in wolfskins, howling and snarling, while a shaman clad in a horned headdress and wielding a pair of staves oversees the entire ritual. The horned man appeared briefly in the film’s trailer and became a target for Viking enthusiasts pointing out that “actually, Vikings didn’t wear horned helmets”. And had the raiders actually gone into battle wearing horned helmets, their scorn would more likely have been justified. But not so fast: this particular scene appears to be a replication of the scene depicted on the so-called Torslunda plates from Öland, Sweden, dated to the Vendel Period (c. 550-750 AD). Though no such helmets have ever actually been found, these images are generally regarded as depicting a now-lost Odinic ritual. The Torslunda plates pre-date the Viking Age, but Viking Age finds of pendants closely resembling the horned man suggest that this particular cult was one that may have persisted for many centuries. This is imagined in the film as a pre-battle ritual to drive the ulfheðnar and berserkir—wolf and bear warriors, respectively, devoted to Odin—into their famous frenzied state (berserkrgangr). Research suggests that such warriors were used as “shock troops”, a vanguard thrown at the enemy and followed up by the main body of the force—and this is exactly what the film portrays. The next day, Amleth and his wolfskin-clad comrades initiate the raid, climbing the town palisade, killing the sentries, then throwing open the gates to allow the remaining raiders to come swarming in. The howling and snarling that Amleth and the ulfheðnar persist in throughout the battle are drawn from literary accounts of certain elite warriors, such as King Harald Fairhair’s (d. 932 AD) personal guard, who also, as it happens, were said to dress in the skins of wolves.

This early sequence is a prime example of the lengths to which The Northman goes to incorporate archaeological, literary, and mythological research—longstanding or cutting-edge—into its depiction of the Viking world. It is also a good example of what seems to have been the film’s central philosophy: it is here to make your preconceptions of the Viking world look…well, quaint. And the result is spectacular.

[kevd]

A lot of people miss that the 13th Warrior is a "what if" for the Epic of Beowulf, as in "What if Beowulf had been real, and the details surrounding his life and death were reinterpreted over the years to have more supernatural elements." So it is Beowulf, blended with the real account of Ahmad ibn Fadlan. Among other elements:
The Viking Chieftain is named Buliwyf, an obvious analog to Beowulf
"Grendel" is the barbarian Chieftain or the barbarians collectively, because they are so lethal, mysterious, seemingly inhuman and disappear without a trace.
The "witch" in the Barbarian caves represents Grendel's mother.
The "Dragon" is represented as the column of torches winding down the hillside at dusk.
And of course in the end (spoilers, but do you really need spoilers for a 24 year old film, or a 1000 year old poem?) Buliwyf dies, as he does in the Poem.

It was a troubled production and there are some loose ends in the film that don't make much sense (What happened to Queen Weilew? She's there and then she isn't) but it's a more clever film than a lot of people give it credit. And the chemistry between Antonio Banderas and Dennis Storhøi is fantastic. Fun film.

[PatriotTheTree]

"The 13th Warrior" is one of the most underrated action films of all time. Truly entertaining from beginning to end.

[Kuhmuhnistische_Partei]

Nice reaction! Small thing: The berserker ritual shown in The Northman is based on some Bronze dies (Torslunda plates) form the 6th to 8th century (so probably not really "viking", but a bit earlier) where one guy is indeed depicted with two spears, a sword and horns next to a wolf guy. Some interpretations say that's supposed to be Odin, some say it's meant to be a shaman, we don't really know. Northman decided to depict him as a Shaman at an ulfhednar ritual which is a valid choice, I think.

[jackcassidy]

For the Northman
They didn't just randomly kill those people on the boat, they were locals and they didn't want them to warn the village. For the ritual the man singing was meant to represent Odin, and gifting the warriors with vigor. The village wasn't unprotected at all, there were soldiers throughout the top of the wall and throughout the entire village. Lastly, they did take a boat full of slaves after their raid

[christinec]

The Marvel Thor was silly to include, in these reviews, there are plenty of Viking portrayals better to review for authenticity

[BKPrice]

"Unfortunately, no real evidence of dragons in the Viking world." I would actually call that fortunate.

[thoso]

A museum where I live (Moesgaard Museum, Aarhus Denmark) had an exhibit last year, called 'Rus - Vikings of the East'. An outstanding exhibit, the best I have ever seen at Moesgaard.

[ML-bwyt]

The “horns” the old man is wearing during the ritual is taken from many pagan Anglo-Saxon and Norse figures and pressbleches, it’s actually Odins 2 ravens.

[joealvarez]

What I have found really funny is that The Northman was based off a Medieval Epic and so the film was paced like an epic as well. A lot of people who aren't too familiar with the epic genre find the pacing of the film to be terrible, since they're so used to a more novelistic pacing in a movie. But given what The Northman intends to accomplish, it is paced and filmed so differently than what people are used to.

[CGhee]

I love how she mentions Thor's Flaws. If you look at most ancient gods. They pretty much all had very human flaws built into their character. Whether it be Thor's anger issues or Zeus's inability to be faithful.

[MsShawnPhx]

It would help if she watched the whole movie and not just clips, she mentioned that the prayer they are speaking was in the funeral (which they show earlier in the movie so this scene is shadowing that one). Native Americans in the New Foundland and Greenland areas are well known to wear much more than what they are wearing here. They were mostly wolf skins in the Northmen (Ulfhednar).

[smithryansmith]

Se seemed to have some personal bias against the Northman, saying stuff like "They wouldn't be killing as they'd be taking slaves" As you literally see them killing the warriors and taking the women and children as slaves on the screen while she is speaking.

[matthewzito]

27:19 - They were on a raid in this scene. The idea was to get in, take a town by surprise and get back out before anyone could organize a counterattack. They killed the two locals to prevent them from warning others of their presence in the area.

[BoscoForge]

I like that she not just pointed out the negative parts of these movies, but also the things they did well.

[Rhodophon]

*The 13th Warrior* is one of the best Viking movies ever made and is hugely underrated. It was the first Viking movie I saw that didn't depict the Norse as mindless savages.

[ghouldr]

The Northman is the most historically accurate viking movie ever created (so far). The Director has been very careful to get as much historically accurate things into the movie as possible. I mean, much of the stuff that is happening in the movie can only be found in old texts and poems from that time period, which makes it extra tricky to practice it in a film. Also the Ritual with the Ulfhednar is pretty darn accurate.

[Ozmogul]

One theory I've read about the concept of the "berserk warriors", is that it simply means a warrior who fights in nothing but his "serk", a sort of tunic commonly worn by men. So "bare serk" means going into battle without armor, either because you want to die in battle (preferable to dying from illness or an untreatable wound), or because you'd like to be stealthy.

However, the anglo-saxon chronicles tells of us of King Harold II who in 1066 rode to north to Stamford Bridge, to defend his land from a newly arrived army of Norwegian vikings led by Harald Hardrada. Harold caught the vikings completely by surprise and they fled across a narrow bridge, where a single berserker wielding a dane axe stopped, to hold off the pursuing englishmen. He single-handedly held off the attacking army for more than an hour, slaying upwards of 40 enemies before a cunning foe slipped beneath the bridge and stabbed him from below with a spear. So perhaps there is something more to the myth of the "berserkers" than fighting in your pajamas.

A final comment about the Northman - I actually don't think the warriors are supposed to portray berserkers, but rather Ulfhednar. They are mentioned in several sagas, and are supposedly warriors dedicated to Odin, who cover themselves in wolfskins when entering combat, and become "battle-mad". They seem to be highly valued as allies in battle, but shunned when battle is over, because they're not fit to live among other men.

[georgefreemon]

The ritual scene presented in the Northman is taken directly from the Torslunda plates that not only depicts a man with a horned head piece, commonly acknowledged as Odin but also a berserker shown to be wearing wolf skin, basically showing their inner animal which was typically either a wolf or bear. For a supposed expert, she doesn’t seem know much and falls back on “we don’t really know.”