109. All Change

"What kind of fellow is this Jarl Borg?  This is no way to treat guests, whoever they are."

I love the outrage at not being given hospitality right away.  As I've said before, not giving someone the best hospitality was absolutely horrible.  It doesn't matter if your worst enemy shows up on your doorstep, they are to be treated like kings in your household.  Violation of guest rights led to the gods seriously messing up your business.

Seriously... you'd best watch your back, completely unrelated show.

Ragnar and his crew have arrived at the hall of Jarl Borg in Gotaland in order to defend Horik's claim to some lands.  This.. I don't really get.  Jarl Borg says that he wants the lands because of the minerals deep in the earth, but the Vikings weren't mining at this time.  They were getting their iron from deposits in bogs, which is why the metal was rust-resistant, but not as strong as iron from the rest of Europe.  It's entirely possible that Borg meant the bog-iron, but why wouldn't he just fix the historical inaccuracy by saying, "in bogs" rather than "deep in the earth"?

Whatever the reason, he refuses to negotiate for the land and Floki is sent to Horik to relay that information.  The rest of our Vikings (sans Rollo) decide to travel to a large ash tree.  There, Ragnar meets and boinks Aslaug.

And the legends are incredibly close to the show!

The only difference is the beginning.  Aslaug was raised by two terrible, poor people.  They had killed her guardian and stolen her because they had no children of their own.  When she was grown, some of Ragnar's men were journeying nearby and asked her parents if they could stay near the house.

The men saw Aslaug bathing and were suddenly confused.  Her parents were extraordinarily ugly, but she was beautiful.  She was so beautiful that the men were distracted and allowed the bread they were baking to burn.  This is where the legend meets the show.

The men returned to Ragnar and described her incredibly beauty.  He didn't believe that she was so beautiful and didn't want to apologize for his men.  So he asked Aslaug to come to him, neither dressed nor undressed; neither hungry nor full and neither alone nor accompanied.  She arrived to him wearing a fishing net, eating an onion and bringing a dog with her.

Oh man, how did you know I was attracted to smartasses?

 Ragnar was so impressed by her wit that he married her and had a hell of a lot of babies.  Bjorn, in fact, was supposed to her second son (Ragnar's fourth).

Aslaug was the daughter of two great heroes, Brunhilde and Sigurd.  I'll talk more about them next season, but once she was rescued from the ugly couple that had kidnapped her, she revealed that she'd known all along that she was a queen and a volva (seer) and would have sons that would rule the known world.

I really don't like how they treated her character in the show.  I think the actress is fantastic at making her snotty and unlikeable, but considering how important she was in all of Ragnar's sagas (and her own sagas) I really do wish that they'd written her to be nicer.

While Ragnar is getting his rocks off with a princess, Lagertha is back home, dealing with one of the worst things that could happen to a Viking village.  Disease.  Plagues hit settlements hard, being that they were usually small and isolated.  The entire village would either be immune, or susceptible.

Sick people were either killed or isolated so they wouldn't infect the rest of the village.  There's an incident in the Ljosvetningasaga where an ill man is brought to Iceland by boat.  The town refuses to allow him entry because of his illness, and someone else takes him back to the water where he is presumably killed.  It seems harsh to us now, but the death of one sick person would be better than possibly infecting hundreds of people in the same village.

There wasn't much that the Vikings could do to cure diseases, either.  Runes would be carved onto twigs or bones and placed with the sick.  Priests or seers would chant to the gods to pray for health.  The Vikings were already a very clean people, bathing often and keeping themselves well-groomed, so they were at least a step ahead of the rest of Europe as far as hygene is concerned.  But their medical expertise was far more suited for injuries than for disease.

Sorry, kid.  Your immunities just were built to handle any plot advancements.

All we know about possible epidemics in Viking times come from the burial site at Repton.  Archaeologists found an unusually large amount of bodies of young males and females who didn't die of any wounds, so they assume that it had to have been some sort of outbreak.  Still, it's difficult for us to find more information, due to the Viking custom of burning their dead or dumping them in the ocean.

This season ends on a wonderful note.  Horik is starting to dislike Ragnar, Rollo wants to seek his own fame, Lagertha has a reason to leave her husband and Bjorn is taking charge.  Our characters are evolving and indicating that the wonderful things they do in the old sagas might actually happen here on the screen.  I'm excited to see more!

End of Season 1.