So, what about those horned helmets? Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the events, details, and facts that the pseudo-historical series “Vikings” gets incorrect.
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the events, details, and
00:09facts that the pseudo-historical series Vikings got incorrect.
00:17Number 10.
00:18Calling it England
00:19A major plot point of Vikings involves the Norse people raiding and invading the lands
00:24currently known as England.
00:25However, there's a big problem.
00:27The characters actually refer to the land as England.
00:33The kingdoms that existed during the 8th and 9th centuries, when the show primarily takes
00:37place, did not unite into the Kingdom of England until the 10th century.
00:40While it's possible that the term may have been in use, since it's derived from the
00:46term Angleland after the Angleys, from whom some of the inhabitants were descended, we
00:50have no historical confirmation of it.
00:55We get that it's a convenience for modern audiences, but the show is still inconsistent
00:59since they use older terms for other countries, like Francia for France.
01:07Number 9.
01:09Discovery of North America
01:10Vikings takes plenty of liberties with Norse explorations, and while the way the show misattributes
01:15the discovery of Greenland to Uba, perhaps more egregious is the way the discovery of
01:19North America is handled.
01:20Uba is shown sailing and landing in what is likely modern-day Canada.
01:24He and his crew even discover they've been beaten there by Floki, the famed boat builder.
01:34According to what we know of history, though, Leif Erikson was the first European to set
01:38foot in North America.
01:39Still, given that Leif is a character in Vikings Valhalla, who knows how the franchise will
01:43end up depicting that event.
01:49Number 8.
01:50Christian Crucifixion
01:52In season 2, Athelstan, the Christian monk friend of Ragnar, is captured when on a raid
01:56with the Vikings in Wessex.
02:05The villagers recognize him as a former Christian and sentence him to be crucified as an apostate.
02:10However, given that their savior was crucified himself, early Christians were very much against
02:15the practice of crucifixion.
02:21The first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine the Great, outlawed the practice in the Roman
02:25Empire, and it's likely that taboo would have spread throughout Europe's Christian
02:29communities.
02:30While it's technically possible for a group of Christians to crucify someone, it does
02:33seem rather unlikely since, historically, it's been far more common for non-Christians
02:37to do it.
02:42Number 7.
02:43Oleg's Invasion
02:44Oleg is the prince of the Kievan Rus', a state whose inhabitants have some Norse ancestry,
02:50whom Ivar befriends.
02:52In the show, Oleg and Ivar devise a plan to attack Ivar's brothers in Norway with a
02:56massive Rus' army.
03:04They are ultimately repelled though.
03:06Still, while such a massive undertaking seems like it would be somewhere in the history
03:09books, it isn't.
03:11Oleg does invade a powerful state much closer to Kiev, Constantinople.
03:15Oleg even mentions this attack several times during the show, so it did happen within the
03:19series.
03:26However, it's still odd that the show devised a fake invasion for a ruler when his real
03:35attack was much closer to home.
03:40Number 6.
03:41Viking Battle Styles
03:43In Vikings, the eponymous warriors are often seen in huge pitched battles, shield against
03:48shield, or even huge fields of combatants fighting smaller individual battles.
03:59Except this just wasn't how Vikings did things.
04:02Quick violent raids were kind of their whole deal, hit and run tactics were highly effective
04:06for them historically, though we get that it doesn't always make for great television.
04:17The show does keep a few things authentic, with several raiding scenes and by illustrating
04:21Vikings' willingness to attack Christian holy sites, but the whole shield wall thing
04:25is probably a myth, according to many scholars.
04:34Number 5.
04:35Shield Maidens Were Rare
04:36A major appeal of Vikings over other medieval set series is that many of the female characters
04:41participate in the action alongside the men.
04:51Norse women who participated in battles were known as shield maidens, however, despite
04:55how common they are on Vikings, shield maidens were not that frequent historically.
04:59Although some accounts suggest communities of shield maidens, as is depicted in the show,
05:03it's difficult to corroborate their existence archaeologically.
05:14While some Norse women were buried with weapons, whether they used them is harder to determine,
05:18the consensus academically seems to be that female Vikings were the exception, rather
05:23than showing up in nearly every battle, as shown in the series.
05:34Number 4.
05:35The Timeline
05:36While many of the events in Vikings did happen in history or in legends, the timeline of
05:39events is often compressed or moved around for the sake of the story.
05:43For instance, in the show, there are two sieges of Paris, which are set roughly a few years
05:47apart from each other, however, historically, these events were much further apart and happened
05:52decades after the time period of the show.
06:01Other events are out of order or happened to someone else or in another place.
06:05Showrunner Michael Hurst did a lot of condensing to tell the story of the Viking Age with relatively
06:09few people, making it much more manageable.
06:16Number 3.
06:17Characters' Fates
06:18To be fair, the show does get some of its characters' destinies correct.
06:22Ragnar famously dies in a pit of serpents.
06:29Rolo was a ruler in Francia, but later seasons play faster and looser with how characters
06:34die.
06:35Although some characters' cause of death is unrecorded in history, such as Aethelwulf's,
06:39hence the random bee sting, others have theirs completely changed.
06:44Historical, Bjorn founded a line of Swedish kings, Ivar ruled a kingdom in Ireland, Olaf
06:50was a saint, and died in battle, not by getting burned alive.
06:54We could go on.
06:55Bottom line, Vikings changed characters' endings to suit its narrative, rather than
06:58adhering strictly to history or legends.
07:05Number 2.
07:06Ragnar and Rolo Weren't Brothers
07:08A major feature of the first part of Vikings is the relationship between Ragnar and Rolo.
07:17The brothers have a contentious rivalry that explodes several times throughout the series,
07:21with Rolo betraying Ragnar several times.
07:23The final time occurs when he joins Francia in exchange for a wife, power, and the chance
07:29to escape his brother's shadow.
07:30It's a great story, but it's entirely an invention of the show.
07:39Rolo was not only not Ragnar's brother, he also wasn't even born during the time
07:44period the show is set.
07:45But there's another big obstacle to the two being brothers, as you'll see in the
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08:11Number 1.
08:12Ragnar Might Not Have Been Real
08:14Despite Vikings featuring many historical events and figures, its lead character for
08:18much of the series might not have existed.
08:26Ragnar Lothbrok is most often regarded by scholars as being mythical or only semi-historical.
08:31Although his sons are confirmed to be historical figures, his own exploits are cast in some
08:35doubt.
08:36Some of his deeds were potentially done by other people, a tradition the show continues
08:39in a way, such as Ragnar faking his death to infiltrate Paris, which the historical
08:44Bjorn did to get into an Italian city.
08:55In some ways, Ragnar Lothbrok is the Viking equivalent of King Arthur, someone who may
08:59have existed, but we can't definitively prove did.
09:02Either way, his deeds in the show are figuratively, and potentially literally, legendary.
09:12Is there something wrong with Vikings that we got wrong ourselves or that we forgot?
09:15Speak up in the comments!