Has anybody seen the first two episodes of The Vikings on the History channel? When I saw the trailers a month or so ago I thought it would be pretty accurate as the shields, armor and weapons were excellent reproductions of 9th or 10th century Norsemen.
The first episode raised my eyebrows. The heroic farmer (who has a Dragon Ship built for him to sail West) is called Ragnar. RAGNAR? That was the name Ernest Borginine used in Kirk Douglas' movie "The Vikings". Then the boat builder is named Floki? There was a real Viking named Floki of the Ravens who discovered Iceland by releasing Ravens once a day to see if they would head for land or come back to the ship.
Also the episode skipped through the building of the ship so fast it gave you the impression Floki built it all by himself.
Then when they launched the ship, they "lowered the sail" from the yard arm. It was NOT done that way. To maintain a low center of gravity the yardarm WITH its sail was stowed just off centerline of the ship between the rums. For you non-Norsemen, a rum is an oarsman's seat.
In the second episode I went absolutely ballistic. They are heading west to "Unknown and mythical lands" according to the dialogue. Yet Ragnar says they are going to find England.
England has been known to exist by the Scandinavians for hundreds of years. Maybe a thousand or so.
But what got me to screaming was the camera shot pointing aft to the stiiern -- er --- stern of the ship with the helmsmen holding the handle of the stjiernbjordi. IT WAS ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE SHIP.
Stjiernbjiordi translates into Steering Board. Norse Cargo ships (Knorrs) and warships (Dragon ships) did not use a centerline rudder. They used a Steering Board mounted on the Steering Board side of the ship -- or if you prefer the corrupted interpretation -- the STARBOARD side of the ship. The other side was the PORT side because when they would come into a port and up to a pier or dock, they brought the left (or port) side up to the dock in case any undercurrent would swing the Stjiern (Steering end) around and damage the Steering Board.
It's a good action show but they really have screwed up some very important details.
All the continuity director had to do was find an old Aurora model of a Viking ship and it explains the whole thing to him. I used to have one where I hand painted every shield. Then somebody dropped a book on it. May the evil god of Loki (Pagan equivilant of Satan) deliver his wrath on the producers and have Valkaries (Pagan equivilant of Angels) do lap or pole dancing in front of them but not allowed to touch because if the do Thor (the god of thunder) would smash their genitalia with his hammer.
The first episode raised my eyebrows. The heroic farmer (who has a Dragon Ship built for him to sail West) is called Ragnar. RAGNAR? That was the name Ernest Borginine used in Kirk Douglas' movie "The Vikings". Then the boat builder is named Floki? There was a real Viking named Floki of the Ravens who discovered Iceland by releasing Ravens once a day to see if they would head for land or come back to the ship.
Also the episode skipped through the building of the ship so fast it gave you the impression Floki built it all by himself.
Then when they launched the ship, they "lowered the sail" from the yard arm. It was NOT done that way. To maintain a low center of gravity the yardarm WITH its sail was stowed just off centerline of the ship between the rums. For you non-Norsemen, a rum is an oarsman's seat.
In the second episode I went absolutely ballistic. They are heading west to "Unknown and mythical lands" according to the dialogue. Yet Ragnar says they are going to find England.
England has been known to exist by the Scandinavians for hundreds of years. Maybe a thousand or so.
But what got me to screaming was the camera shot pointing aft to the stiiern -- er --- stern of the ship with the helmsmen holding the handle of the stjiernbjordi. IT WAS ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE SHIP.
Stjiernbjiordi translates into Steering Board. Norse Cargo ships (Knorrs) and warships (Dragon ships) did not use a centerline rudder. They used a Steering Board mounted on the Steering Board side of the ship -- or if you prefer the corrupted interpretation -- the STARBOARD side of the ship. The other side was the PORT side because when they would come into a port and up to a pier or dock, they brought the left (or port) side up to the dock in case any undercurrent would swing the Stjiern (Steering end) around and damage the Steering Board.
It's a good action show but they really have screwed up some very important details.
All the continuity director had to do was find an old Aurora model of a Viking ship and it explains the whole thing to him. I used to have one where I hand painted every shield. Then somebody dropped a book on it. May the evil god of Loki (Pagan equivilant of Satan) deliver his wrath on the producers and have Valkaries (Pagan equivilant of Angels) do lap or pole dancing in front of them but not allowed to touch because if the do Thor (the god of thunder) would smash their genitalia with his hammer.
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