10 BIGGEST Historical Inaccuracies in Vikings

WatchMojo

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.

Transcript

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!

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