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.

108. Sacrifice

The sacrifice is of this nature: of every living thing that is male, they offer nine heads with the blood of which it is customary to placate gods of this sort.  The bodies they hang in the sacred grove that adjoins the temple. Mow this grove is so sacred in the eyes of the heathen that each and every tree in it is believed divine because of the death or putrefaction of the victims. Even dogs and horses hang there with men.--Adam of Bremen, History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen

This episode deals with a very bloody part of Viking history and culture.  The sacrifices at Uppsala ad other sacred sites are some of the most interesting bits of accounts because of how absolutely horrified Christian travellers were to see them.  

Adam of Bremen was a historian who chronicled the deed of the clergy and pagans living in northern Europe and Scandinavia.  He travelled with different missionaries, lived in the court of Sweyn Estridson (a Danish king) and eventually was in charge of all the missions in Scandinavia.  He wrote a book called the Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum (which is a mouthful that basically means 'stuff that bishops did in Hamburg') which chronicled his experiences.  It includes a wonderful account of the mass-sacrifices in Uppsala.

The sacrificed bodies they hung in the great tree, which Adam describes as "a very large tree with wide-spreading branches, always green winter and summer.  What kind it is, nobody knows." He also says that the pagans would throw a live man into a deep spring.  If he doesn't resurface, their wishes will be granted.

Look, Timmy's bubbles stopped!  Now everyone wish for a pizza party.

Oh, and an interesting note... Adam's book is the first mention of North America (Vinland in that time) in European literature.

But, of course, it wasn't the only account of sacrifice at Uppsala.  Our old pal, Snorri, wrote about it in his Saga of St. Olaf, found in the Heimskringla.  He writes: 

In Svithjod it was the old custom, as long as heathenism prevailed, that the chief sacrifice took place in Goe month at Upsala. Then sacrifice was offered for peace, and victory to the king; and thither came people from all parts of Svithjod. All the Things of the Swedes, also, were held there, and markets, and meetings for buying, which continued for a week: and after Christianity was introduced into Svithjod, the Things and fairs were held there as before. After Christianity had taken root in Svithjod, and the kings would no longer dwell in Upsala, the market-time was moved to Candlemas, and it has since continued so, and it lasts only three days.

Uppsala was also not the only place to sacrifice someone.  There was a temple in the Danish city of Lejre, where Thietmar of Merseberg visited in the early 11th century.  The city was supposed to be grand and beautiful, and generations of kings dwelt there.  It's said that Ragnar's sons lived there for a time as well.  Heck, they've dug up a bunch of feasting halls decorated with an insane amount of gold, and modern scholars think that Lejre is the location of Heorot--the mead-hall that Beowulf saves from the monster, Grendel.

So, it's a pretty important place to early Scandinavia.

Thietmar visits and writes about the sacrifices, where "...every ninth year, in the month of January, somewhat later than our Christian Yuletide, they assemble together and sacrifice to their gods 99 men and as many horses, dogs, and cocks or hawks, believing that these will be of service to them in the realm of the dead and atone for their misdeeds."

Why nine?  Why 99?  What's the significance of that number?

Well, this all emulates the nine days that Odin spent on the tree of life.  He sacrificed himself to himself on Yggdrasill after cutting his stomach with a spear to let his blood flow out.  When he did this, he was able to learn the runes and then teach them to the other gods, who in turn taught them to men.  The original story itself isn't so exciting, but I really like how Neil Gaiman tells it in his book American Gods.  In this book, one of the characters tries to go through Wednesday's sacrifice and it details the experience pretty fantastically, while managing to follow pretty closely what the sagas say.

Actually... if you're interested in any sort of mythology at all you should just read American Gods.  Mostly because it rocks.

Also, let me make a quick note on something about Uppsala that is 100% inaccurate.  Here is a picture of the temple in the show.  

Oooh, imposing!  With the dark mountains, the waterfall, the possible fjord nearby... yes, I can see exactly why the Vikings would think a place like this was holy.  Walking through the dark, thick forest, feeling like you could touch the clouds...

Oh.  Erm. Or not.  Turns out real-life Uppsala is pretty flat, and just a nicely central location.  Of course there's that magical, always-green tree to mark it as a special spot, but the show certainly took some liberties with geography there.

This is also the episode where we are introduced to King Horik.  Horik is indeed based off of a real man, who lived about the time Ragnar Lothbrok.  Their stories intertwined for a short time and I *really really* want to say how, but the way the show is going, I know they're going to be doing some of the actions so I feel like I shouldn't spoil it.

UGH.

Anyways, Horik was the king of Denmark from 827 to 854.  He was a pagan who focused on attacking churches and missionaries in order to stop conversion and proselytizing.  One of his last attacks in Europe was against the St. Mary's Cathedral in 845 (the same year Ragnar sieged Paris).  He burned the wooden church to the ground and destroyed most of the surrounding town.

I can say that in real life, Horik did NOT like or approve of Ragnar in the least.  Really hated him, because he wanted to be the only king or ruler of Denmark.  Kings back then didn't work like they did later.  Rather than being king simply because of blood, you were more like a super-powerful Jarl who needed supporters and the allegiance of other Jarls.  If someone else took your supporters away, it was easy for the title of King to be transferred, or for there to be a war.  This war never happened, but some other stuff did that I'm sure I'll talk about in a later season.

And, lastly, I'm going to mention Huldra, because I'm fairly sure Aethelstan nearly met one.  Remember the scene where he's high and wandering around the big orgy?  Of course you do.  Who lightly forgets an orgy?  Well, as he's wandering, he puts a hand out on a woman's back.  Her back slowly morphs into the bark of a tree.

"Baby, you need to moisturize."

This reminds me of one of the nature-spirits that the Vikings believed in, called the Huldra.  There were many different kinds, but they all basically wanted to seduce men so they could find a way to kill them.  The Huldra kind of sucked.  They appeared to be stunningly beautiful women, who were naked with long hair.  But their secret was their back.  It would either be hollow and filled with rotted flesh, or it would be made of bark.

This was really more of a northern Sweden thing, though.  Most other parts of Scandinavia thought the Huldra's secret was her tail.

In any case, if you discovered her nasty-ass back, she would fly into a rage and kill you.  There were ways that you could tell her about it, if you were extremely polite.  And the Huldra who didn't have the weird back were usually much nicer to people, sometimes even marrying normal folk.  But your best bet, as when dealing with any emotionally unstable woman, was to politely ignore the flaws and back away slowly with a smile.

Until next time, when we discuss Aslaug and how a Viking settlement would do to stave off disease.

107. A King's Ransom

Once walked, 'tis said, the green ways along
mighty and ancient, a god most glorious;
strong and vigorous, striding, Rig.
---- Rígsþula, translated by D.L. Ashliman

Lagertha is presiding over the Thing, as the wife of a Jarl or King would do when the husband is away.  She deals with an interesting domestic situation.  A husband and wife invited a traveller named Rig into their house.  He slept there for three days and left, never to be seen again.  Unfortunately for the wife, he left her with child and now with an angry husband.

I'm not even going to get into the logical argument of, "Dude, if you're not okay with your lady banging some traveller, why didn't you stop them when they were doing it in bed right next to you?"

Though, to be fair, it's not easy to turn this down...

But logic wouldn't let me go into the story of the god Heimdall.

Heimdall disguised himself as an ordinary traveller named Rig and went to a poor house owned by Ai and his wife, Edda.  They invited him in, as was custom in Norse culture, and gave him food and a place to sleep in their bed.  He stayed with the man and woman for three nights, lying with them and getting freaky.  Nine months later, Edda gave birth to an ugly baby boy, who they named Thrall.  However ugly he was, he was very strong and worked hard.  Proving that looks aren't everything, Thrall met a girl who was as ugly as he was named Thir.  They had nineteen children who were as swarthy as they were, and from this family came the race of Thralls.

Not finished with this whole repopulating the earth bag, Rig travelled to another farm where Afi and his wife Amma lived.  It was an ordinary home, cozy and well-loved.  Amma wove cloth and Afi carved wood.  They offered the god food and a place to sleep, and "thus he tarried three nights together."  Tarry on with your bad self, man.

Nine months after Rig had left, Amma gave birth to a strong baby boy, who they named Karl, or Churl (depending on your source).  He grew up to be a skilled worker and a handsome enough man.  His parents found a wife for him: Snor, the daughter of a freeman.  They had 22 children and from this family came the race of freemen.

Rig travelled again and found a great hall with intricately patterned doors.  He knocked and was greeted by Fathir and his wife, Mothir.  They invited him in and Fathir went back to his work of sharpening arrows and stringing a bow.  Mothir had no tasks, simply sat with them and looked beautiful.  They fed him and invited him to stay in their bed for.... you know what, you're noticing a pattern, aren't you?

Anyways, Rig left and Mothir had a baby who was handsome with fair hair, but a grim look in his eyes.  They named him Jarl and he was strong, smart, brave and skilled in the art of war.

And this is how the three different castes (or races or types or groups or whatever) of people were created, in Norse mythology.  We all share a common ancestor, Heimdall, but we're from very different cultures and were born to do very different things.  This also explains why the Vikings were very accommodating to guests.  Remember back in the first episode when those two dudes showed up in Lagertha's house?  She said she would feed them or give them a place to stay, but no more.

Refusing someone hospitality was one of the shittier things you could do in this culture.  Right up there with abusing your guest rights  So many stories in Norse mythology describe the gods disguising themselves as poor travellers and asking for shelter, punishing those who refuse and rewarding those who are kind enough to let them in.  For all Lagertha knew, these two men were Odin and Thor in disguise.  Of course, as soon as they declared darker intentions, she knew it was perfectly fine to kick their ass.

So she solves the problem that the couple have with grace and ease.  There's no blame on the wife for what happened and the child will (in theory) grow up not knowing that his parentage is in question.  And we get to talk about more lore, yay!

Meanwhile, Ragnar and his men set up a camp in Northumbria.  The brother of the king sets up a camp not too far away and they prepare for battle.

Unfortunately, I can't say much about the historical accuracy of Ragnar's camp.  What they've got is a pretty simple set-up that they likely put together in a day.  Anything the Vikings made like this would be long lost by now.

I CAN, however, tell you about  a Viking Ring Fortress.  Currently, we only know of six that were used during the Viking Age, and they were all dated to the late 10th century.  Basically, these were circular camps surrounded by timber that would be buried in the ground.  There would be four exits and sometimes ditches and moats would be dug around the outside for added defense.  Certainly something that takes a little more time than our Vikings had.

The Trelleborg fortress in Denmark

It's hard to see in the small picture, but inside that ring would be enough room for 16 barracks buildings.  They were meant to be lived in for a while, more than just a temporary hold-out.

I do so love how after the Vikings kick some English butt at night, they are amazed at how good the weapons are.  Another little throwaway line that alludes to some real history without adding a bunch of exposition.

Now.  I love the 'Secret of the Viking Sword' PBS special as much as the next gal... but those swords would have been so unbelievably rare.  Ordinary Scandinavian steel sucked.  A lot.  They certainly did their job, and when it was Northman fighting Northman, they were as strong as they needed to be.  But nothing beats great, southern weaponry.  And the Vikings LOVED steel from the Rhineland.  In fact, they were getting so much Frankish weaponry that King Charles the Bald gave the Edict of Pistres in 864, which had a few important rules:

• All towns on a great river must build a fortified bridge across the river so invaders couldn't sail a boat into the center of town
• Trading weapons or horses with Northmen was prohibited on penalty of death
• All men who had or could afford a horse must serve as cavalry in Charles' army

And then some other stuff that he did to piss off his enemies, like regulating money and attempting to stop minor lords from building their own fortifications.  Of course, this didn't really work as the Viking Age extended well past this Edict, but it was the first national attempt to stop the big, scary northmen.

These bridges may have stopped Viking attacks for a few years, but they sure didn't stop Rollo from sacking Paris in 885.  Rollo, the man who eventually settled down in Normandy to rule as a Christian.  In this episode, we see his baptism, but in real life it happened in 912--long after he'd been settled in Europe.

Now... this is handled in a way that really bothers me.  Firstly, Rollo's birth name was Hrolfr, and Rollo was the Christian name that he took after baptism.  I don't quite understand why the History Channel had to switch the two.  I mean... I guess Rollo is a cooler name than Ralph, but I with other names like Lagertha, Gyda, Siggy, Floki... I'm fairly certain that nobody would have been turned off by a Hrolfr thrown in there.

Your nation's capital?  I'M GONNA WRECK IT

Another thing that's pretty strange... Floki is angry with Rollo for turning his back on the gods.  But that's not really how Vikings saw the gods.  Christianization of Scandinavia went fairly smoothly (until you got the more bloodthirsty converters on the thrones) because they were pretty tolerant of their Christian neighbors.  All they asked was that you sent something to the sacrifices in Uppsala once every nine years (which I'll discuss next post) and didn't try to convert people who weren't having it.  Rollo being Christian shouldn't have bothered anyone else, and there are people who say that some of the Christian kings and warriors still earned their place in Valhalla, such as Eric Bloodaxe.

If a man with that name doesn't look like this, there is no justice in the world.

Next episode is going to be chock full of dead people, so yay?  Only two more until this season is caught up!

106. Burial of the Dead

Finally, the moment we've all been waiting for!  This is the episode with the duel between Ragnar and Jarl Haraldson, with the implication that whoever wins will be the new Jarl.  Still not entirely historically accurate... but until restrictions were placed on duels (holmgang) it was possible for the winner to ask for absolutely anything the loser had.  So.. I guess if he demands all his lands and wealth and I guess if everyone leasing that land agrees and I guess if killing the Law Speaker suddenly leaves the rules open to a bit of interpretation... it could happen.  But in any case, this isn't how a Holmgang is supposed to work.

Holmgang is a Norse word for 'Island Walk'.  So called because duels would either take place on small islands, or the fighters would put down a large hide that was staked in the corners.  Leaving the hide would be thought of as cowardice and automatically losing.

To start, the challenger would give a formal challenge, usually in front of people.  Floki provides the challenge in the show, as Ragnar is unable.  If Ragnar and Floki appeared but the Jarl did not, then any insults Ragnar attacked the Jarl with would be immediately thought of as true and the Jarl would be the loser of the battle.  Sometimes he would even lose legal status as a citizen, or some rights.  If Ragnar failed to show, the Jarl would say three times that he was honourless (Niðingr) and make a mark on the ground.  Ragnar would be declared the loser and he would lose respect and legal rights.

It could be worse.  According to Gisla saga, if someone didn't appear, the opponent would carve a runestone with images of the no-show being sodomized.  It would commemorate the shame that they brought upon themselves for being cowardly.

Skeggi had come to the isle and staked out the lists for Bard, and laid down the law of the combat, and after all saw neither him nor any one to fight on the isle in his stead. There was a man named Fox, who was Skeggi's Smith; and Skeggi bade Fox to carve likenesses of Gisli and Bard: "And see," he said, "that one stands just behind the back of the other, and this laughingstock shall stand for aye to put them to shame."

Luckily for the show, both combatants appeared and were ready to kick some major Viking ass.  The Law Speaker recites the rules for this combat--which is true.  While the rules we have recorded in sagas are very different from the ones in the show, it was possible for them to be altered a bit as long as the Law Speaker and both fighters okayed it.

In real life, they would stand on this hide.  Each man would be given three shields.  Then, they would take turns hitting each other.  The first man to get blood on the hide loses!

Hold still!  This next one's only going to suck a lot.

Wait, what?

Yeah.  Duels weren't this action-packed fight to the death like the History Channel wants you to think.  The challenged man would be allowed to strike first, then the challenger, then the challenged again and so on and so forth.  Rather dull, but at least it was fair.  Ducking, dodging, moving out of the way or running were absolutely not allowed and thought of as cowardly.  After your three shields broke, you were expected to parry the blows away with your sword.  The Kormakksaga describes such a battle.

So the hide was taken and spread under their feet. Thorgils held his brother's shield, and Thord Arndisarson that of Bersi. Bersi struck the first blow, and cleft Cormac's shield; Cormac struck at Bersi to the like peril. Each of them cut up and spoilt three shields of the other's. Then it was Cormac's turn. He struck at Bersi, who parried with Whitting. Skofnung cut the point off Whitting in front of the ridge. The sword-point flew upon Cormac's hand, and he was wounded in the thumb. The joint was cleft, and blood dropped upon the hide. Thereupon folk went between them and stayed the fight.

Then said Cormac, "This is a mean victory that Bersi has gained; it is only from my bad luck; and yet we must part." 

He flung down his sword, and it met Bersi's target. A shard was broken out of Skofnung, and fire flew out of Thorveig's gift.Bersi asked the money for release, Cormac said it would be paid; and so they parted.

Booooooriiiiiiing.  Right?  One of those situations where I can completely understand why the History Channel decided to ignore real history.  Of course, it would be nice if the Law Speaker said something like, "Ordinarily the Jarl will have the first blow, then Ragnar, and they will fight in turns.  But due to the nature of the complaint, both parties have agreed to fight more traditionally."  .

"Law Speaker!!! He's cheeeeeaaating!"

Also, along with all the death that goes on here, I was a little sad to see the terrible Swede guy get killed.  Part of me thought that Thyri might go on to be Queen Thyra, sister of Aethelstan (lolwut?) and mother of Harald Bluetooth.  Looks like it might not be meant to be.  :(

Ragnar is now the Jarl of Kattegat and there's a funeral to plan.  A BADASS FUNERAL OF BADASSERY.  The show has it pretty right, according to the few sagas and one good, historical account we have of a ship cremation.

In the Ynglingsaga, Odin decrees all men should be burned with their possessions.

 Odin established the same law in his land that had been in force in Asaland. Thus he established by law that all dead men should be burned, and their belongings laid with them upon the pile, and the ashes be cast into the sea or buried in the earth. Thus, said he, every one will come to Valhalla with the riches he had with him upon the pile; and he would also enjoy whatever he himself had buried in the earth.

Then in Ahmed ibn Fadlan's Risala, which he wrote while spending time with the Rus Vikings, we have a beautiful account of a real ship burning.

§ 87. I heard that at the deaths of their chief personages they did many things, of which the least was cremation, and I was interested to learn more. At last I was told of the death of one of their outstanding men. They placed him in a grave and put a roof over it for ten days, while they cut and sewed garments for him.If the deceased is a poor man they make a little boat, which they lay him in and burn. If he is rich, they collect his goods and divide them into three parts, one for his family, another to pay for his clothing, and a third for making intoxicating drink, which they drink until the day when his female slave will kill herself and be burned with her master. They stupify themselves by drinking this beer night and day; sometimes one of them dies cup in hand.§ 88. When the man of whom I have spoken died, his girl slaves were asked, "Who will die with him?" One answered, "I." She was then put in the care of two young women, who watched over her and accompanied her everywhere, to the point that they occasionally washed her feet with their own hands. Garments were being made for the deceased and all else was being readied of which he had need. Meanwhile the slave drinks every day and sings, giving herself over to pleasure.

Aethelstan is brought to the tent where the slave girl is prepared, and watches as she goes to have sex with his men so that they might give messages or support to their dead friend.  All accurate.  ibn Fadlan seems to focus more on the role of the slave girl in the funeral, though I think that might have been because the treatment of slave women in regards to sex really horrified him.

Trust me, dude. As a slave in Viking society, this is not the worst way you could go.

The slave would then be lifted over a door frame where she would describe what she saw in the world of the dead.

"Behold, I see my father and mother."

"I see all my dead relatives, seated."

"I see my master in Valhalla, where it is beautiful and green.  He has men and servants with him.  He beckons me, take me to him!"

At that, she would be killed and placed in the boat next to her master and all of his possessions.  A family member would bring the torch to set the boat aflame (nice one, Ragnar, pissing Siggy off by refusing it to her) and the ship would be pushed out to sea.  I... I would like to quote another passage from ibn Fadlan.

91. Then the closest relative of the dead man, after they had placed the girl whom they have killed beside her master, came, took a piece of wood which he lighted at a fire, and walked backwards with the back of his head toward the boat and his face turned toward the people, with one hand holding the kindled stick and the other covering his anus, being completely naked, for the purpose of setting fire to the wood that had been made ready beneath the ship. 

Oh, and by the way?  Viking funerals are illegal in most parts of the world.  Except Minnesota*.

*As long as your body is pre-cremated and you've got permission to be on the lake.

Next we get to move to my favourite part of Viking culture.  More lore, yaaay!

Have I mentioned Valhalla yet?  I should talk about Valhalla.

An old man approached Ragnar once he's Jarl and says that all of his friends have died in battle.  He's the only one left and he's terrified he'll die an old man's death and never reach Valhalla.  But what in the world is Valhalla?

When someone dies, there are two places they could go.  The first is Helheim, which is ruled over by Hel.  She is the daughter of Loki with a very... interesting affliction.  Half of her is on of the most beautiful women you've seen.  Flowing hair, pale skin, bright eye.  The other half is mottled and black, flesh hanging from the bone and skin as cold as ice.  Sometimes she's half and half, like some sort of sexy Two-Face.  Other times, she's described as sexy on top, but corpse-y on bottom.  I lovingly refer to that version as a trap.

The land she rules over is cold, and none of the dead can remember their lives.  And... that's about it.  No torture, no pain, you can't even remember how you died and you're mostly mindless, so you don't remember to be sad about it.  It's kinda boring, but it doesn't suck as much as the Christian Hell, which takes it's name and concept from the Norse.  If you died as an evil man, there are beings that could torment you.. but the real punishment is being unable to sit in the halls of the gods or Valhalla.

Valhalla is where the heroes go after they've died in battle.  Valkyrie choose which of the battle-slain are cool enough to come party with them, which we saw this happen in the beginning of the first episode (also I think the lady in the water during the theme might be a Valkyrie as well?)  They were servants of Odin and bodyguards who would decide the outcomes of battles.

Um.  Sure.

Many of the Valkyrie had their own stories and sagas.  Some say that Lagertha was a Valkyrie.  Later, when we meet Aslaug, we find out that her mother was the most famous one, Brunhilde.  Her story went on to inspire the Ring Cycle opera, which in turn went to inspire Lord of the Rings (and most sword-and-sorcery fantasy).  Have you ever heard the phrase, "It ain't over until the fat lady sings"?  Brunhilde is the fat lady.

To be fair, I'm intimidated.

The chosen men are brought to the hall of Valhalla.  The Kevin Crossley-Holland translation of the Poetic Edda describes it thus:

Valhalla stands near by, vast and gold-bright.  Odin presides there, and day by day he chooses slain men to join him.  Every morning they arm themselves and fight in the great courtyard and kill one another; every evening they rise again, ride back to the hall, and feast.  That hall is easily recognized: its roof is made of shields and its rafters are spears.  Breast-plates litter the benches.  A wolf lurks at the western door, and an eagle hovers over it.  Andhrimnir the cook, smutty with soot, boils the boar Sarhrimnir's flesh in a great blackened cauldron.  That is the finest of all food, though few men get to taste it.  The War Father feeds his wolves, Freki and Geri, with hunks of meat; but wine alone is always enough for Odin's own needs...

Behind Valgrind are the sacred inner doors; and although the gate is age-old, few know how to bolt it.  Valhalla itself has five hundred and forty doors, and when the time comes to fight against Fenrir, eight hundred warriors will march out of each door, shoulder to shoulder. 

 These men, known as einherjar train every day in order to be strong enough to defend the gods during Ragnarok.  Which Aethelstan inquires about, in one of those moments where he wants to display how much tact he has.

Last post, I told you how the world was created.  Now I'm going to tell you how it will be destroyed.  (Really, the show got it right.  It's just more fun to pepper in other details around their base.)

First there will be three years of terrible winters.  They will be full of war and hopelessness, and there will be no summer between them.  This is called the Fimbulvetr.  Winds will come from all directions.  Families will fight, mothers will lie with sons, fathers will slay sons, brothers will bed with sisters.

Basically, it'll snow in Kentucky.

The wolf Skoll will swallow the sun and his brother, Hati, will mangle the moon.  The wolf Fenrir, evil son of Loki, will break free of his unbreakable bindings and run free.  Three roosters will crow, waking the Gods, the einherjar and the dead in Hel.

Jorgunmandr, the Midgard Serpent, will leave the sea, causing the ocean to pummel the shore with waves.  He will spit poison across the land, staining all the earth and the sky.  The ship Naglfar will bring giants to fight the gods.  The ship is created from the nails of dead men, and that's why the dead must be well-groomed and their nails trimmed before being laid to rest.

Loki will also break free of his bonds and sail to the fighting grounds, bringing all the dead from Hel with him.  The rainbow bridge will crack and break as fire giants from Muspell march across it.

  Go ahead and break it.  You'd be doing me a favour.

Heimdall will blow the horn Gjall, which will be heard in all nine worlds.  Earthquakes will rock all nine worlds as Odin leads the Aesir and the einherjar out the doors and into battle.  This is the part where everybody dies.

Loki and Heimdall will kill one another in battle, as will Thor and Jorgunmandr.  Frey will be slain by the giant Surt because he gave his good sword to his servant.  Tyr will be eaten by the hound Garm.  Fenrir will open his jaws wide and swallow Odin, killing him.  Odin's son, Vidar, will grab Fenrir's jaws and tear them apart to avenge his father.  I'm going to quote the Poetic Edda again because the translation is less poetic and more succinct.  Comedically so.

Then Surt will fling fire in every direction.  Asgard and Midgard and Jotunheim and Niflheim will become furnaces - places of raging flame, swirling smoke, ashes, only ashes.  The nine worlds will burn and the gods will die.  The Einherjar will die, men and women and children in Midgard will die, elves and dwarfs will die, giants will die, monsters and creatures of the underworld will die, birds and animals will die.  The sun will be dark and there will be no stars in the sky.  The earth will sink into the sea.

Then the world is supposed to come back to life, but honestly, I don't trust this part.  It basically goes on to describe how the world turns into earth with a very Christian-like heaven and Hell.  Adam and Eve (or Lif and Lifthrasir) come from a tree and repopulate the earth on their own while the gods retire to their now golden halls in the sky, waiting to judge men on good deeds.  Here is where I run into my least favourite problem ever.... many Viking legends were written by Christians who wanted to put in their two cents in order to make the sagas less Pagan.  There are some places where it's easy to pick apart something that probably wasn't a Viking belief, but not all of them are this obvious.  So, like with all things, what you read here and elsewhere should always be taken with a grain of salt.  The Vikings themselves never wrote down their history, instead devoting their lives to memorizing the sagas.  A few things do get lost in translation.

Alright.  Last time I said I'd talk about King Aella, and I will, but not much.  Only because he's very heavily tied into the show and I don't want to mention some of his deeds and end up spoiling something that might happen in a later season.

He was the king of Northumbria in the 9th century, as well as being the main villain in the Saga of Ragnar's Sons.    Unfortunately, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells a different story of how he met his end.

A.D. 867. This year the army went from the East-Angles over themouth of the Humber to the Northumbrians, as far as York. Andthere was much dissension in that nation among themselves; theyhad deposed their king Osbert, and had admitted Aella, who had nonatural claim. Late in the year, however, they returned to theirallegiance, and they were now fighting against the common enemy;having collected a vast force, with which they fought the army atYork; and breaking open the town, some of them entered in. Thenwas there an immense slaughter of the Northumbrians, some withinand some without; and both the kings were slain on the spot.

Boring!  The vikings needed a bad guy, and so does The History Channel.  The Ragnarsaga talks about how Ragnar became bored with ruling and wanted to raid England again.  So he got his ships together and started attacking.

Then Ragnar held course in his ships to England, as he had planned.  He received a bitter wind, so that he broke both his merchant-vessels against England, but all his troops came to land and they kept their clothes and weapons.  And there, whenever he came to farms and towns and castles, he conquered them.  And there was a king called Ella, who then ruled England.  He had heard reports when Ragnar had left his own land.  Ella had sent forth men, so that he might know as soon as Ragnar came to land.  Then these men journeyed to meet with King Ella, and told him war-tidings.  Then he had a summons sent throughout all his land and commanded every man come to him who could wield a shield and ride a horse and who dared to fight.  He gathered so many together there that it was a wondrous thing.

And, honestly?  That's about all I can say before I get into spoilers.  So I leave you until next time.  Don't be afraid to comment!

105. Raid

Man, that Jarl Haraldson really doesn't like Ragnar.  He's so absolutely convinced that Ragnar will kill him for his throne that he sends his soldiers to slaughter an entire village, as well as all their livestock.

Pictured: not overkill in the least

Side note, I would watch the hell out of a DVD special that showed the poor bastard soldier whose job it was to catch and kill the chickens.

Ragnar hears the screams and abandons his hunt to come and kick some MAJOR ass.  One of my favourite details in this fight is how his leg is wounded and he actually stays wounded for the rest of the fight, limping and favouring the other side.  Not many action movies/shows remember that getting hurt.. uh... hurts.

The other detail I love is how he throws the axe right into some guy's face.  Mostly because a friend of mine grumbled about how BS and unrealistic it was.

To which I say, nay nay!

The Vikings were renowned for their axe-throwing skills.  According to Professor Kenneth W. Harl's lecture 'The Vikings' (which is fantastic and I would recommend to ANYONE out there with interest in this subject), these guys could throw an axe up to 40 feet.  With accuracy.  Life is just unfair for anyone Vikings don't like, isn't it?

But is it truly accurate for Haraldson to be worried about Ragnar usurping his title?  Eh.. not really.  To be a Jarl, one needed to be wealthy and influential.  Sure, Ragnar is becoming more and more well-liked while Haraldson loses supporters.  But people still aren't going to be able to buy boats from Ragnar.  He doesn't have enough land to lease to farmers who will pay him taxes.  And even if all the gold from raiding made our protagonist richer, you would need the thumbs-up of the king or other Jarls.  They don't mess around with the whole pseudo-caste system and two successful raids west wouldn't be enough to raise Ragnar's status to Jarl while the old one is still powerful and kicking around.  Viking culture is pretty rule-heavy, it's not some sort of survival-of-the-fittest, Necromonger-esque tribe.

"You keep what you kill. After the proper rituals have been performed, laws have been observed

 and permission is granted from both higher-ups and the citizens who could vote you in or out."

BUT... (and this is a pretty big 'but'.  The kind Sir Mix-A-Lot would wax poetic about.) ... not all towns were run the same way.  It is perfectly possible that Kattegat does things differently and succession is decided by power.  It's highly unlikely... but since we don't have many sources on mid-level administration in the 8th century, it would be disingenuous to rule anything out.

Honestly, if all this were taking place, the smart thing to do would be for Jarl Haraldson to sort of adopt Ragnar into his family.  Announce that he would take over on the event of the Jarl's death.  Maybe promise his daughter, Thyri, to Ragnar, Rollo or Bjorn.  (And not a half-assed bribe/promise like in the episode before)  That way he would have Ragnar's supporters, and not worry about getting knifed in the back.  Killing kin, even adopted kin, was the biggest no-no you could do.

But then again, if he acted from a place of logic and sanity, he wouldn't be our Jarl, would he?

In any case, Ragnar is terribly injured in the battle and needs to be brought to Floki's house.  Floki immediately calls for ash bark, garlic and sage, and gets to work on fixing his friend.

Oooh... sorry, that's wrong.  Floki might know what to do, but healing was pretty solidly a woman's job at this time.  It wasn't until the Church took everything over and got rid of all the fun jobs for chicks that medicine became a male-dominated practice.  Women would use herbs, runes and prayers to heal the sick and injured.  There's also evidence that they would set bones and cauterize wounds, as Lagertha so wonderfully does.

Why the herbs?  This is the best.  They make the patient eat a bunch of smelly herbs and wait a short bit.  Then the healer gets their nose right up in the wound's business and sniffs around.  If she could smell the herbs, it meant something vital was punctured and different steps would have to be taken to heal.

Yeah, I hear ya, that's just nasty.

There's a pretty famous account of this happening in the Flateyjarbók, which is a beautifully long manuscript from Iceland.  I have to thank the Viking Answer Lady here... I found a copy of it and had spent about an hour painstakingly translating it... only to see that she had already translated and sourced the exact passage I needed.

Thormod was a warrior who was injured with an arrow in battle.  The arrow pierced near to his heart, so the healer woman prepared a concoction of herbs for him to eat.  Thormod refused and gave her a ring before demanding her tongs so he could pull the arrow out himself.  He did so and saw that the arrow was hooked and had brought out fatty tissue.  He said, "The king has fed us well; I am fat, even at the heart-roots."  Then he died because it turns out, pulling out a piece of your heart isn't very good for you.

Now we get to talk more about viking lore!  Yay, lore!

Aethelstan, ever curious, asks the others how the world was created.  Helga tells the old story of Ymir the giant, whose body fashioned Midgard.  But it leaves out all the best parts!!

Once upon a time, there were two worlds--Muspell and Niflheim.  Muspell was always boiling hot with flames dancing across the ground.  Niflheim was always freezing cold with a bunch of rivers.  In the middle was Ginnungagap, which was juuuust right.  It was here that Ymir was born.  He was a frost giant and evil.  Along with him came the cow, Audumla, who licked ice from Muspell to live while Ymir drank her milk.  From the sweat in Ymir's armpit came a man and a woman.  One of his legs also fathered a son on the other leg.  I'm not even going to try to work that one out.

While licking Muspell ice, Audumla created another man, Buri.  Buri fathered Bor, who married a frost giant and had three sons: Odin, Vili and Ve.

"Hold up, dad.  That makes you half what, now?"

Side note, can we never ever talk about how much slash fiction I had to wade through to get that picture.  *shudder*

So back on track, Bor's kids decided that Ymir was a pretty terrible guy and killed him.  Probably because he kept spawning more frost giants, but I speculate it was partially due to the leg-sex thing.  Unfortunately, now they had a lot of dead giant on their hands and not a lot of living space to deal with it.

But the Norse gods didn't get where they were by not building stuff out of the corpses of their enemies.

They made the ground from Ymir's flesh and the mountains from his unbroken bones.  The broken bones (as well as his teeth and jaws) became boulders.  They circled this world with a sea made from his blood, using some to make lakes as well.  Ymir's skull was so large that it could cover this whole world with the light coming through the cracks as the stars.  Finally, they took embers from Muspell and threw them into the sky as the sun and the moon.

I was going to post an appropriate picture here, but I think I just spoiled part of Attack on Titan for myself.  Also, there's more slash erotica to be had.  IS NO TOPIC SAFE, INTERNET?  So I'll leave this episode at that and go get some eyebleach.

Join me next time as I discuss Ship Burials, more Viking Lore and our new villain, King Aella!

104. Trial

Once more in England, the Vikings lie in wait, ready to attack a new village.  "Let's attack straightaway."  Rollo urges.

"No."  Ragnar stares off and says, to the complete mystification of the entire crew, "We attack tomorrow."

Growing up in a fairly Christian world, it makes complete sense to us, the audience, that the vikings would wait until the village was in church.  "Ragnar's so smart for knowing these things!  Why doesn't the rest of the crew just listen to him, gosh!"  But it would have been absolutely insane in their time to wait.  What if they were found?  The crew was in perfect condition and ready to fight now, what possible purpose would they have to wait?  The concept of setting aside an entire day for their gods was as alien to them as their confusion is to us.

But history tells us that it's a worthwhile tactic.  In the spring of 845, Ragnar Lothbrok sailed up the Seine river and sacked Paris with 120 ships.  He arrived in the city on Easter Sunday.  Not only was the army frightened and unprepared (for reasons I'll get to later), but the treasures of the church would have been on full display.  In desperation, King Charles gave Ragnar 7000 pounds of silver to leave the church unmolested and go away.

"Do you have a moment to discuss the word of Thor?"

It worked, and it set a precedent for paying the invaders off.  The whole concept was called Danegeld and there was a nice little throwaway nod towards it in the third episode when one of the Reve's soldiers says "Give them money to make them go away."

I wonder how Aethelstan would feel if he knew his lessons were serving Ragnar in this fashion!

My favourite part of this episode is how badass Lagertha gets to be.  She's a famous character on her own, described in the Gesta Danorum as the wife of one of King Siward's kinsmen.  When the king and his followers were murdered, all of their wives were gathered up and thrown into a brothel.  Lagertha was among them.  Ragnar set them free and led an army against the murderer, as Siward was his grandfather and he was the rightful heir to the throne.  Later, during the battle, he spied a maiden with long hair fighting among them and kicking some serious ass.

Among them was Ladgerda, a skilled amazon, who, though a maiden, had the courage of a man, and fought in front among the bravest with her hair loose over her shoulders. All-marvelled at her matchless deeds, for her locks flying down her back betrayed that she was a woman.

Check out that dead guy getting an upskirt...

Of course, if we're judging gender by gorgeously flowing locks, I've got some bad news for Rollo and Erik in the show...

Shield maidens and female warriors have a rich history with the Vikings... but unfortunately they haven't received much credit until recently.  Whenever a warrior was found in a grave with a sword, archaeologists would immediately assume that it was a male, without doing any analysis.  If it was found with a brooch, it was labelled female and if it was found with both, well, scientists assumed that a woman must have given the warrior some jewelry as a token of affection.

Bah!  Says I.  Female warriors were extensively documented in both lore and history.  Leif Erickson's sister, Freydis, travelled to Vinland with her brothers (as chronicled in The Saga of Erik the Red).  There, they were attacked by the native people and had to make a hasty retreat to the boat.  Angered that the men were running, Freydis decided to completely disregard the fact that she was enormously pregnant and:

...came out and saw how they were retreating. She called out, “Why run you away from such worthless creatures, stout men that ye are, when, as seems to me likely, you might slaughter them like so many cattle? Let me but have a weapon, I think I could fight better than any of you.” They gave no heed to what she said. Freydis endeavoured to accompany them, still she soon lagged behind, because she was not well; she went after them into the wood, and the Skrœlingar directed their pursuit after her. She came upon a dead man; Thorbrand, Snorri's son, with a flat stone fixed in his head; his sword lay beside him, so she took it up and prepared to defend herself therewith.[30] Then came the Skrœlingar upon her.

She removed her shirt and started smacking the sword against her breasts, screaming and fighting the natives until they ran from her in fear.  The other Vikings were able to escape safely and eventually made it home.

She also murdered a bunch of men and women in cold blood, but let's skip over that, shall we?

That doesn't mention Saxo's accounts of women in battle, the mentions of shieldmaidens and valkyrie in countless sagas, the Battle of Bravala where 300 women--some famous--accompanied the men into battle, Skylitze's account of the barbarian battle against the Romans where,

When the Romans were robbing the corpses of the barbarians of their spoils, they found women lying among the fallen, equipped like men; women who had fought against the Romans with the men.

Now that we have a better understanding of archaeology and anthropology, many scientists are conceding that we might have assumed too much with our earlier finds.  Women were treated with absolute respect in this culture, and hey, if you have someone here who's pretty good at swinging a sword, who cares if they've got a differently shaped crotch.  You're a warrior society, who has time to be picky?  Not only that, but even if the women were all left at home, there's no way they wouldn't know how to fight.  The only thing Vikings loved more than raiding foreigners was raiding other Vikings.

Marianne Moen put it beautifully in her thesis, The Gendered Landscape.

“To assume that Viking men were ranked above women is to impose modern values on the past, which would be misleading,”

NOW, I'm not saying that the Viking culture was this beautiful, egalitarian paradise where men and women held hands and praised each other's qualities all the live-long day.  Women were mostly domestic.  They held the keys to the home, but they were better weavers, caretakers and housekeepers.  More women were praised for their ability to craft than their sword-swinging skills.

However, women were praised.  Women raised their own runestones, built their own bridges, ruled their own lands and could divorce their husbands at any time--and even get their dowry back.  They couldn't attend the thing without a male escort, but they could attend and they were treated with the utmost respect.  The bodies found with the Oseberg ship burial were women of high status.  And, most exciting, the burial mounds at Repton and Heath Wood have been re-analyzed and found to contain an even ratio of men to women.  Pretty awesome stuff!

The problem with a lot of research is that many accounts of Vikings were written by Christians who put their own cultural ideals on what they wrote.  Then the resurgence of interest in Viking culture happened during the Victorian Era--which isn't known for how kindly it treated the ladies.  Reading a book from the 1970's is vastly different from when we started to re-analyze these burials in the past twenty years and it makes for some pretty confusing research, I'll be honest.  But I'm hoping that this research will continue and in the next few decades we'll have a clearer picture of the role of women!

Tell my loved ones... that patriarchy can suck it!

I always thought it was a little funny that the women were referred to as Shieldmaidens, though, when everyone was required to have a shield.  Even the poorest man would have an axe and a shield, and would be allowed to carry them wherever he went.  Men would be expected to not only know how to kill an enemy, but how to take part in the shield wall.

Now, there are several ways you can break up a shield wall.  Jabbing a spear into gaps is very effective, even if it leaves the attacker open to be speared.  Shooting arrows into the gaps, although arrows aren't very precise.  You could form your own shield wall to push and shove the other army until you've gained enough ground to have an advantage.  The famous shield wall at the Battle of Hastings lasted for seven hours, though it was used by the English against the Normans and, unfortunately, the Normans lost.

A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry showing the shield wall

It was such an effective tactic that it didn't fall out of favour until people started using two-handed weapons like a pike or a two-handed axe.  So effective, in fact, that it's still used in skirmishes today.

Anything I missed?  Questions? Comments?  Snarky remarks?  Leave them below, I'd love to get some feedback!

103. Dispossessed

When talking about the raid on Lindisfarne yesterday, I forgot to include one of my favourite pictures!  There was a commemorative stone raised at the monastery to remember those who died.  The name of the stone is "The Day of Judgment" and on one side it shows the cross with devout followers praying and enjoying heaven.  The other side shows the demons of hell coming for those who failed judgment.

Do those demons look like a bit familiar?

Anyways, we start this episode on the ship as our heroes (erm... or at least protagonists) sail home.  They've taken several monks as slaves to sell in the markets of Kattegat.  But as a hilariously naive question on The Viking Answer Lady put it... "Is it true that the Vikings had slaves?  I can't imagine that such a heroic people would practice such a demeaning custom!"

Because rape, pillage, burning and sacrificing enemies is heroic, but HOW could they make some of those captives WORK?  Ohhh the demeaningness!

Anyways, yes, they had slaves.  Not many, and it was unlikely that a family as humble as Ragnar's would have a slave (of course, his circumstances in the show allow for it) but there was a very strong religious reason to think that slaves were okay.

Scandinavians basically believed that there were three different kinds of people.  Thralls, Yeomen and Jarls.  I'll get into why there are three different kinds in a different episode when they directly mention the creation myth, but they believed that someone who was a thrall was born to be subjugated and put into slavery.  Even if you were later freed, you would be loosely owned by your master for three generations more.  Later in the series Aethelstan asks Ragnar if he is still his slave and Ragnar says, "Does it matter?"  Well, in Viking culture, no.  Aethelstan could be a freed man who bought back his freedom and did the necessary rituals to gain full citizen rights... but he would be tied to Ragnar's family until his grandchild kicks it.

Anyone love Bjorn asking Aethelstan what was up with his hair?  Part of me wanted to say, "Dude, you have the literal exact opposite of a mullet, what give you the right to judge?"  But being that Bjorn's locks are pretty historically accurate, snarky remarks probably wouldn't fly.

The name of the monk's weird haircut is a tonsure, if anyone cares to know.  In medieval times, it was a mark of being part of the clergy, in imitation of the Apostle James.  Furthermore, if you let your tonsure grow out, it was seen as the same as turning your back on your post, and you would get one warning.  If you didn't re-shave your head within a month after the warning, you were officially banned from the clergy.

Makes a little more sense why Aethelstan was so desperate to shave his head again.

OMG, I don't care if Jesus told you too, you don't shave dry!!!

Next in the show, we see the insidious Jarl Haraldson forcing a kid to dig for him.  He explains to the child that anything a man has hoarded up will be afforded to him in the next life.  This is true... or as true as religion can be.  In the Heimskringla, which was written by my bro Snorri Sturluson, Odin decrees that everyone must be burned with their possessions, and the ashes either scattered at sea or buried.  When they reach Valhalla, they will have use of anything that was buried under the ground or burned with them.

Although I'm fairly certain Odin wouldn't be okay with the Jarl creating a haugbui.  This is a type of draugr (undead) that would be tied to the place it was buried.  It would attack people who strayed too close to the burial mound, and if you were killed by it, you would turn into one as well.

No, not that kind of.... actually... I'll allow it.

Draugr are also described as men who were so attached to their treasure horde that they would rest uneasily once dead, unable to leave it alone long enough to make the journey to the land of the dead.  If I didn't know better, I would say that the Jarl is going to turn this into Ye Olde Walking Dead once he kicks it.

Finally, the Vikings make it back to Northumbria.  This scene is one of my favourites.  I LOVE the use of different languages, the tension between the groups, the way they portray the distrust between groups and the fact that it really happened.

Wait, what?

Yes!  This actually happened in the year 787.  Before the vikings raided Lindisfarne, they raided the Bay of Portland.

They say the spoils of PBR and fixies were great

No, not that Portland.  It's the bay near Dorset in southern England.  The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes it thus:

And in his days came first three ships of the Northmen from the land of robbers  the reve then rode thereto, and would drive them tot he kind's town; for he knew not what they were; and there was he slain.  These were the first ships of the Danish men that sought the land of the English nation.

So the chronicle actually describes how the Reve (sheriff) went to greet the Vikings, likely as traders.  What was said is mostly unknown, but I wouldn't be surprised if it went down much like it did on the show.  It wasn't Ragnar and it wasn't the second raid... but once again the History Channel has managed to add in their own flair to events while maintaining the important themes and events.  Yay!

Stay tuned for next time when I discuss shieldmaidens, capital punishment and how to properly work a shield wall!