History and 'Vikings' — spoilers through Season 4

[Acsenray]

I just finished watching Season 4 of History Channel’s “Vikings.” Quite an interesting series, and one that I think has almost completely erased the stereotypical image of the Viking as the first thing that comes to my mind.

But I’m still interested in how closely the series adheres to historicity.

I am under the impression that there is still a little doubt regarding the tattoos. On the show, many of the characters have face and head tattoos. Indeed, many of them shave their heads almost completely. Is there reason to believe they did this?

This post goes through a lot of the timeline issues that illustrates how the show compresses time considerably—probably most prominently by making Ragnar and Rollo brothers, when (if Ragnar was an actual person) they would have been separated by a century or more in time — http://apt46.net/2015/06/30/how-history-channels-vikings-compares-to-reality/

That post concludes:

So in that case, Lindisfarne has been pushed forward in time almost 40 years; Egbert and Æthelwulf about 10 years; Ælla and Ragnar are about where they should be; Horik has been pulled back 10 years, and Rollo and Odo about 40; Gisela, almost 70.

Other questions that I’m interested in information on—

— There are several “kings” in the show. Before, I had the impression that Vikings had earls or jarls, but I didn’t know about kings. Was there a concept of kingship in old Norse society that would have lined up with what was going on in England and France? Did they actually use an equivalent of the word “king” like “konge” or “koneng”?

— The village of “Kattegat” where Ragnar and the other main characters are from seems to be fictional, right? The only Kattegat I know of is the body of water that separates Denmark and Sweden. Is there a real Norwegian location that would match what we know about Kattegat in the show? Where was the legendary Ragnar Lodbrok supposed to be from?

— The Anglo-Saxons led by Ælle and Ecgberht seem to be very Romanized. But wasn’t it just a short time prior in history when the Anglo-Saxons were raiders bent on destroying Romano-British society? Did they really adopt the British culture so quickly by the time of the Viking raids?

— Is there any actual reason to believe that Alfred the Great’s biological father was really Ecgberht?

— Queen Kwenthrith of Mercia seems to be pretty much a made-up character. But her son Magnus seems to be important to the future of the show. Is there any historical counterpart of this Magnus? And, for an in-show issue, when Ragnar told Magnus that he had never had sex with Kwenthrith, was he telling the truth? Is there still a chance that Magnus is Ragnar’s son?

More questions to follow, perhaps.

[Acsenray]

Oh, and another big impression — Aslaug was frightening when she smiled! Just a death’s head/Batman’s Joker type grimace. Anyone else get that feeling?

I wonder about the prevalence of deathly violence within Viking groups. I know that war was ruthless, but was murder and death within the group really taken so casually?

[magnusblitz]

In general, the show is all over the place with its history - as you mentioned, several of the real-life equivalents of the show characters were separated by decades or even centuries in reality. It’s the equivalent of a show where President Washington and General Grant lead the Americans against Hitler and the Nazis in WW2.

Also keep in mind that we don’t even know a lot about the characters’ real-life equivalents. Ragnar himself is of dubious veracity, and is thought be (at best) a combination of real-life persons and myth. His sons are generally accepted to be real figures, but even then, we don’t know basic stuff like what Ivar’s “Boneless” moniker signifies - was he a cripple? flexible? Some sort of bone disease? So while they might get a lot of the general strokes correct in the setting, don’t take any of the details for anything beyond myth or art.

One big ‘mistake’ exists right from the start… the series makes it look like the Lindisfarne raid in 793 was the first time the Vikings discovered Britain. In reality, they would’ve known about Britain and Ireland for decades at least.

— The village of “Kattegat” where Ragnar and the other main characters are from seems to be fictional, right? The only Kattegat I know of is the body of water that separates Denmark and Sweden. Is there a real Norwegian location that would match what we know about Kattegat in the show? Where was the legendary Ragnar Lodbrok supposed to be from?

The village is made up, and the show seems to be purposely vague as to where it is (most of the discussions I’ve seen end with “well it’s somewhere in Norway or Denmark depending on what episode you’re using.”

Is there any actual reason to believe that Alfred the Great’s biological father was really Ecgberht?

The real King Ecgberht died in 839 and Alfred the Great was born in 849, so, no.

Queen Kwenthrith of Mercia seems to be pretty much a made-up character. But her son Magnus seems to be important to the future of the show. Is there any historical counterpart of this Magnus? And, for an in-show issue, when Ragnar told Magnus that he had never had sex with Kwenthrith, was he telling the truth? Is there still a chance that Magnus is Ragnar’s son?

No idea. He might well just be a made-up character, but I’ve seen some people wondered if they might try to stretch him into Magnus the Good or Magnus Barefoot.

[bluezooky]

Alfred was fathered in earlier seasons of the series by Athelstan however, I’m still baffled that the king would encourage the future queen to commit adultery with some random priest.

[naita]

@Acsenray

— There are several “kings” in the show. Before, I had the impression that Vikings had earls or jarls, but I didn’t know about kings. Was there a concept of kingship in old Norse society that would have lined up with what was going on in England and France? Did they actually use an equivalent of the word “king” like “konge” or “koneng”?

Kings (konungr) wastly outnumbered jarls as sovereigns of pre-unification entities. Wikipedia:Petty_kingdoms_of_Norway

I am under the impression that there is still a little doubt regarding the tattoos. On the show, many of the characters have face and head tattoos. Indeed, many of them shave their heads almost completely. Is there reason to believe they did this?

There are mummified bronze age corpses showing tattoos and the vikings interacted with people who are known to have used tattoos, but there’s no solid evidence either way for Viking skin decoration and you’d think if they were covered in face tattoos there’d be some historical mentions of this.

The sources that mention or show hair styles show or tell of various forms of grooming, with a shaved head not being one of them.