In November 2019, a year before the end of Amazon Prime's Vikings, Netflix announced that the story would continue with Vikings: Valhalla. Set in the 11th century, the eight-part series follows the lives of some of the most famous Vikings, including Leif Eriksson, Frydis Eriksdottir, and Harald Sigurdsson.
Fans of the original Vikings series know that creator Michael Hirst blends historical fact and fiction to tell the story of Ragnar Lothbrock and his sons, but has Vikings: Valhalla creator Jeb Stuart done the same? Newsweek spoke to Stuart to find out.
Is Vikings: Valhalla Based on a True Story?
Yes and no. Like Vikings creator Michael Hurst, Vikings: Valhalla creator Jeb Stuart has taken a creative license to the true story of some of the most famous Vikings. Many parts of the series draw inspiration from real people and historical events, but much of the drama is fictionalized for dramatic purposes.
Speaking to Newsweek, Stuart explained how the show plays with a "grey area" of history.
"I've read a lot on Vikings and talked to a lot of people about Vikings. We obviously have great researchers who work with the show. They come up with facts and things like this and we (writers) come up with a story that might be in the gray area of history. Our researchers can come up to us and say 'Wow, you went too far over the lines on that.
"I would say, for the most part, we try to be reliably authentic to the costume, the weapons, the speech, all those kinds of things. We do that but we're taking some license in terms of character, e.g. For, Olaf and Harald. They may not have existed in the same time period, but they are very close (exist) and so we use some aspects of them and they may have shared something of the same period, including Some of the same things that were going on, so I can bring them together like that."
Vikings: Valhalla Cast
Most of the main characters on the show are real, except for Jarl Haakon.
Danish-Swedish singer Caroline Henderson made her first acting role as Haakon, the black-female ruler of Kattegat. Some viewers may think he is based on the real Jarl Haakon, who was the de facto ruler of Norway from about 975 to 995, but Henderson confirmed to Newsweek that this is not the case.
Instead, Vikings: Valhalla creator Jeb Stuart created a powerful, female mentor for Freedis (Frida Gustavson) while Harald and Leif (Sam Corlett) were in London.
Henderson explained: "Hakone is fictional, purely fictional. So it's not like a male character, it's a fictional character, but of course, he's inspired and based on both male and female characters, and I The writers seem to have done a kind of wonderful job putting together something that could have been a historical character.
“She is the ruler of Kattegat and she is also into paganism and she is very obstinate and her beliefs. She reigns from a very difficult time in history because Viking times paganism is going down, Christianity is coming. People on more land want to conquer, so it is a difficult time for her but she is trying to rule with tolerance and openness, which is quite difficult, and historically correct in that sense because she is a very It was a challenging time."
Haakon joins several characters in Vikings: Valhalla who are inspired by real Viking figures.
For example, Leif Eriksson and Frydis Eriksdottir were actually children of the famous Norse explorer, Erik the Red, and Harald Sigurdsson (Leo Sutter) was king of Norway from 1046 to 1066, making unsuccessful claims to the Danish and English thrones.
King Canute "the Great" played by Bradley Fregaard in Vikings: Valhalla was also real, as was Olaf "The Holy" Haraldsson of Johannes Hkur Johansson.
Canute, also known as Kant, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norway from 1028 until his death in 1035. Olaf was the de facto king of Norway from 1015 to 1028.
However, Stuart has taken some creative license because not all real-life figures were alive at the same time, there is no historical record of their meeting and the nature of their relationship (if they did meet) would be impossible.
Vikings: Valhalla Plot
Vikings: Valhalla focuses primarily on the feud between pagan Vikings and Vikings who have converted to Christianity, as well as the overall Viking battle against King Ethelred (Bosco Hogan) of England.
For centuries the Vikings practiced paganism, also known as Old Norse religion. This meant that they believed in various gods and goddesses such as Odin and Thor. However, between the 8th and 12th centuries, the Christianization of Scandinavia began after the Vikings came into contact with the religion, partly as a result of raids into Anglo-Saxon England and throughout Europe.
In conversation with Newsweek, Stuart discussed the importance of paganism and Christianity among the Vikings in the series in the 11th century.
He explained: "It's really based on what was happening in Scandinavia at the turn of the 11th century. Christianity there was a hard pill to swallow and Scandinavia is one of the last parts of Western Europe where Christianity came from." Was.
"A lot of people didn't want to give up on the old gods and change their beliefs. And so it was a very bloody time, it's a Viking show. But anyway, for me, it was fun, because it got me with it." Allowed to play out, this meant that viewers who hadn't seen the original (series) could come across a story that was fresh, and for older audiences, who are accustomed to watching a way too hardcore. Viking world. Now for this the different layers had different colors, compared to the old one.
"The world of the original (series) was a very homogenous group of Vikings and as we move into the 11th century, we now have pagan Vikings and Christian Vikings, and we have all kinds of other forms and characters. So There was a lot for me to get excited about.
"Religion plays a big part in Vikings: Valhalla but in the first season, Erik's daughter, Freedis, is a very staunch pagan Viking. That has been her culture and yet the world she comes across when she travels from Greenland He is a changing world where Viking culture is turning to Christianity and where does one fit in with his beliefs."
At the beginning of Episode 1, Ethelred begins the St. Brides Day Massacre on all Danes living in England in retaliation for rumors of frequent Viking raids and Viking rebellion. At the time of the massacre, Danlaw (a series of Danish laws and customs) was largely in the north of England.
The real King Ethelred launched an attack against the Danes on November 13, 1002, St. Brice's Day.
In 1004, Ethelred justified the massacre in a royal charter in which he explained the need to rebuild St Friedswide Church, now known as the famous Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford.
In his charter, he described the Danes as "sprouting like a rooster among the wheat" and ordered their "most just destruction".
According to the Chronicle of John of Wallingford, written in the 13th century, Swine Forkbeard, Viking and King of Denmark raided England during 1002–1005, 1006–1007 and 1009–1012 to avenge the St. Bryce Day massacre victims. Forkbeard was proclaimed King of England in December 1013.
Vikings: Valhalla Setting
Most of the drama in Vikings: Valhalla takes place in the very real places we recognize today. For example, Scandinavia features prominently, with references to Greenland and Vinland (present-day coastal North America) and even London in Anglo-Saxon England, among other UK locations.
However, the land of Kattegat, where Leif Eriksson and Harald Sigurdsson meet for the first time in the series, Haakon reigns and Freedis is bound, is fictional. Kattegat exists in the real world, but as a maritime region between the Jutlandic Peninsula, the Danish Straits of Denmark and the Baltic Sea, and Vstergötland, Skne, Holland and Böhuslán in Sweden.