{"id":33710,"date":"2013-05-03T07:00:03","date_gmt":"2013-05-03T13:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/?p=33710"},"modified":"2013-05-02T22:39:55","modified_gmt":"2013-05-03T04:39:55","slug":"vikings-are-people-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/05\/vikings-are-people-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Vikings Are People Too"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

On March 3, History Channel premiered its much-discussed miniseries The Bible<\/em><\/a>, which proved to be thoroughly popular both on its original airdates<\/a> and now on DVD<\/a>.\u00a0 But what intrigued me more was the show that followed The Bible<\/em>\u2019s premiere, History Channel\u2019s first original fictional series, Vikings<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 The series ended its inaugural season this Sunday but will return for a second season sometime in 2014<\/a>.\u00a0 The brainchild of former Tudors<\/em> scribe Michael Hirst, Vikings<\/em> follows the exploits of the semi-mythical Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel) as he battles his local earl (Gabriel Byrne) for permission to use new sailing advances in a journey west to the English region of Northumbria, where superior plunder awaits.\u00a0 In the course of the season, he encounters various localized warrior clans, roughly consistent with the demographic breakdown of ninth-century Europe following the dissolution of the Roman Empire proper into smaller comitatus<\/em> groups, of whom the Vikings are one representative.<\/p>\n

Of course, the popular conception of Vikings is that they were savages, animalistic if not downright evil.\u00a0 From the start, Hirst<\/a>\u2014who wrote every episode\u2014wanted to portray the Vikings in a way that was not entirely so disparaging:<\/p>\n

The people who wrote about the Vikings were mostly Christian monks, after Scandinavia was Christianized, so they got a bad reputation upfront. So to deal with them\u2014to write something from a Viking point of view\u2014it would have been considered almost impossible to make them sympathetic in any way. They went around, they smashed churches, they killed monks. . . \u00a0There was a big aspect of this [era] that was a fight between the pagan gods and the Christian God, and that\u2019s a very important aspect of the story. With Vikings<\/em>, I had the task of making these people interesting, and to a point, sympathetic.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The interplay between the polytheistic paganism of the Vikings and the Christianity that has taken hold in some of the western regions represents one of the major themes of the series.\u00a0 Consistent with his more favorable interpretation of Viking culture, Hirst weaves tales of Norse gods vividly into the fabric of his narrative.\u00a0 Characters pray to or invoke various deities, and Ragnar believes himself a descendent of Odin, a god who seems to manifest himself to Ragnar at certain points.\u00a0 Hirst, insisting his show is not a fantasy, has defended these apparent heathen theophanies:<\/p>\n

Their gods permeated their world, and were alive in nature\u2014very different from a Christian idea. \u00a0I wanted to show that. \u00a0The danger was that people would then think I was doing a fantasy, or that Vikings <\/em>has elements of fantasy. \u00a0But if I was writing a drama about Christ, and I showed the risen Christ, would that be considered fantasy? \u00a0No, because people would say that\u2019s what Christians believe. \u00a0That\u2019s \u201creal\u201d to Christians. \u00a0When Ragnar thinks he sees these things on the battlefield, it\u2019s not magic; it\u2019s his reality. \u00a0I think there\u2019s enough room to maneuver, to say, \u201cHe may not have seen them.\u201d \u00a0He\u2019s exhausted. \u00a0He\u2019s been fighting for hours. But it\u2019s what Vikings expected <\/em>to see on the battlefield. \u00a0That\u2019s how Odin was always represented to them. \u00a0It\u2019s not a fantasy. \u00a0It\u2019s real.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the world of Vikings<\/em>, Norse religion has very real implications for how its practitioners live.\u00a0 As Hirst observes, they see gods as profoundly immanent in the world around them and consequently interpret events accordingly.\u00a0 In \u201cKing\u2019s Ransom,\u201d Ragnar\u2019s wife Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick), acting as a judge, exonerates a woman of infidelity on the grounds that the houseguest with whom she slept was a god in disguise; in the finale, \u201cAll Change,\u201d the inhabitants of Gotaland believe that a massive old tree may be the fabled world-tree Yggdrasil.\u00a0 Moreover, as fatalists who believe that everything\u2014even the gods\u2019 lives\u2014is fixed and predetermined, the Vikings become almost preternaturally fierce warriors: since their lives and deaths are entirely outside their control, safety is an illusion and any danger may be hazarded on the battlefield.<\/p>\n

They are thus contrasted with the Christian land of Northumbria, the first western realm Ragnar and his men encounter in their newer ship.\u00a0 Vikings<\/em> emphasizes the fear of the Northumbrians in the face of such mysterious and uncouth raiders.\u00a0 Their soldiers are uneasy even in the first meeting in \u201cDispossessed,\u201d an awkward encounter that quickly degenerates into a massacre.\u00a0 A Northumbrian commander later confesses his fear of the Vikings to his king Aelle (Ivan Kaye), who responds by having him killed.\u00a0 But fear extends to Aelle\u2019s own household\u2014his wife freely confesses her apprehension about the interlopers, and their young son is so terrified he cannot face them.\u00a0 This demeanor could not contrast more with Ragnar\u2019s shieldmaiden wife Lagertha or his no-nonsense son Bjorn (Nathan O\u2019Toole).\u00a0 Ironically, the Northumbrian fear is portrayed as deriving from their civilized Christianity.\u00a0 They pray before all activities, leaving them vulnerable to the Vikings, who are men of action.\u00a0 Because they lack the Norse fatalism, implicitly seeing life as valuable and invested with freedom, they are less inclined to risk their lives\u2014a quality which has the paradoxical result of often costing them victories.<\/p>\n

Of course, the Christianity represented by most of the Northumbrians is not \u201cpure.\u201d\u00a0 It is\u2014at least in some cases\u2014a syncretistic overlaying of Christian symbols over some worldview dynamics that are not entirely dissimilar from those of the surrounding tribes.\u00a0 Thus, liturgical rites become more talismanic than devotional.\u00a0 Thus, to ensure a fair bargain with the Vikings, King Aelle insists one of their number be baptized as a Christian as a pledge of their good faith, a ritual Ragnar\u2019s treacherous brother Rollo (Clive Standen) half-jokingly agrees to.\u00a0 Aelle himself later reneges on his pledge, only to swear vengeance upon Ragnar when his plan backfires\u2014invoking Jesus and Mary in his violent vow.<\/p>\n

Yet Hirst is not entirely critical of Christianity, nor do the Vikings always merit his approbation.\u00a0 For if the Vikings can be boisterous, devout, and courageous, they are nonetheless scheming and bloodthirsty as well.\u00a0 They have an oral body of laws that sets them above some of their neighbors, yet those laws subject to the caprices of the earls charged with applying them.\u00a0 Arbitrary acts of revenge, torture, and rape all figure prominently.\u00a0 And even our heroes are often the aggressors in the battles with the surrounding peoples.<\/p>\n

No sequence better illustrates that contrast between Christian civilization and Viking savagery than the climax of the second episode, \u201cWrath of the Northmen.\u201d\u00a0 Here, Ragnar and a small band loyal to him make their first unofficial foray to England, encountering the coastal monastery of Lindisfarne.\u00a0 Unfamiliar with Christian monasticism, the Vikings are baffled by the unfortified and seemingly purposeless community.\u00a0 They indiscriminately slaughter the horrified monks, keeping only a few as slaves.\u00a0 One such slave is Athelstan (George Blagden).\u00a0 Found hiding with an illuminated copy of John\u2019s Gospel, Athelstan is spared by Ragnar because he can speak multiple languages.\u00a0 In this heavily layered scene, other Vikings mock the Christian God because he is dead and disgraced.\u00a0 They cannot comprehend why Athelstan, of all his possessions, would try to protect a book.\u00a0 \u201cWithout God\u2019s word there is only darkness,\u201d he tells them, while light shines into the monastery through cross-shaped windows.<\/p>\n

A complex figure, Athelstan can be heroic at times, risking his life to save his captor, Ragnar, and the household of which he becomes a part.\u00a0 Yet, alone of his faith among pagans, his companions dead, he is hardly immune from doubt.\u00a0 Indeed, in the penultimate episode, \u201cSacrifice,\u201d Athelstan willingly renounces his faith three times to a pagan priest.\u00a0 The Viking seer, however, insists that he has not renounced Jesus Christ in his heart.\u00a0 The oracle\u2019s understanding of his faith, ironically, saves Athelstan\u2019s life\u2014had he been a \u201cpure\u201d pagan, he would have been one of their human sacrifices.\u00a0 His current religious status remains indeterminate, though the threefold renunciation is suggestive of Peter\u2019s denial of Christ, possibly foreshadowing a future (Christian) redemption.\u00a0 Alluding to season two, Hirst has said<\/a> that Athelstan\u2019s \u201cfaith continues to be a big issue. \u00a0He perhaps even tries to believe in the pagan gods, but of course, he\u2019s not sacrificed because he\u2019s still a Christian. \u00a0These issues will continue. \u00a0They are real issues for him. \u00a0They lead him into some pretty dark and dangerous places in the second season.\u201d<\/p>\n

I have never liked the inherent historical condescension of the term \u201cDark Ages.\u201d\u00a0 Nonetheless, it is beyond doubt that ninth century Europe was filled with \u201cdark and dangerous places.\u201d\u00a0 In this context, Christianity was looked on as one religion among many.\u00a0 To those seeking a deity or deities to swear fealty to, the Norse gods represented one option, while Jesus Christ represented another.\u00a0 The two could even be mixed for a time, especially in an age of warrior clans and mass conversions.\u00a0 Yet Christianity, somewhat like we know it now, was also a part of that world.\u00a0 Michael Hirst does not appear to have any particular favorable predisposition toward the Christian faith, but in dramatizing the religious tensions of the early medieval period, Vikings<\/em> can give viewers a window into a pluralistic past, one that might help us as we seek to confront an increasingly pluralistic future.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On March 3, History Channel premiered its much-discussed miniseries The Bible, which proved to be thoroughly popular both on its original airdates and now on DVD.\u00a0 But what intrigued me more was the show that followed The Bible\u2019s premiere, History Channel\u2019s first original fictional series, Vikings.\u00a0 The series ended its inaugural season this Sunday but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1344,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1484,19],"tags":[1509],"class_list":["post-33710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asides","category-ofthemoment","category-television","tag-of-the-moment"],"yoast_head":"\nVikings Are People Too<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On March 3, History Channel premiered its much-discussed miniseries The Bible, which proved to be thoroughly popular both on its original 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