Hello friends, how are you? My name is Arith Härger
and today I'm going to share with you my thoughts about the 5th season of the TV series Vikings
Only now have I started to watch the show and -
on the previous video I've already shared with you my thoughts about it,
and comparing the fictional characters with historical people,
the historical events, the cultural mistakes,
but also the good aspects on the portrayal of medieval Scandinavia that the producers were careful enough to include
all in all I had a very positive idea about the show
but this was before I started watching the 5th season which completely changed my opinion about the show
So before we start, this video will contain spoilers, obviously,
so if you don't want me to ruin the show for you, come back later
You have been warned, so let's get started
Alright, so before I start criticizing, I just want to tell that-
even though there are clear mistakes on the clothing, weaponry, historical events and such,
I think it's a good show because it makes people want to know more about the Vikings and research about it,
but at the same time in some aspects we are still being fed with the typical wrong portrayal of the Vikings
which isn't good
Reinforcing the 19th century romanticized portrayal of the Vikings,
is just continuing to give life to the wrong ideas we have about Medieval Scandinavia
and we can't seem to get away from it
In the 4th season Ragnar Lodbrok died,
and now it seems the producers of the show are running out of material
so they are picking up the same theatrical inventions of Hollywood
and what seemed to be a show that was finally helping to spread a more accurate portrayal of the Vikings,
it's now completely running away from it and going back to the same rubbish
Let's start with Ivar the Boneless
The 5th season begins with Ragnar's sons invading England
Ivar the Boneless, was in fact one of the main commanders of the Viking invasion in England
Until moving to Ireland and completely disappearing from the historical documentation
Puff! He's gone!
and this kind of gap in history gives the producers of the series freedom to explore the characters
Ivar is in a sort of "crusade" against Christians,
he is portrayed as a religious fanatic,
and he as his own agenda, a personal delight in killing Christians and torturing them
This doesn't make much sense especially during the Viking Age
Vikings didn't want to spread their religion
and they had nothing against other people's religions
In fact, they welcomed new religions in their culture
I have said this before, there were as many Christian Vikings as there were pagans [Vikings]
There was a huge amount of Viking Age Scandinavians who were both at once
adding yet another god into their pantheon was just beneficial
The religious conflicts in Viking Age Scandinavia existed but they weren't about religion, they were about politics
The Vikings were not like Christians and Muslims, wanting to spread the religion and making their holy war
Obviously, there was a great amount of politics involved to increase power,
but for both Christians and Muslims religion was the main tool to gather followers and armies,
it was the main initiative for people to join the cause and go fight against heathens and infidels
The Vikings did no use religion to motivate their warriors to go on raiding
What motivated Vikings was the loot, pillaging, adventure, trading, lands to farm, increasing property,
everything was highly political, not religious
So the portrayal of Ivar being a religious fanatical on a "crusade" against Christians is just silly
but mind that I'm talking about raiding, not wat
war was another matter
when scandinavians fought each other and against others,
religion was most certainly used,
especially when scandinavian peoples absorbed religious traditions from central European Germanic cultures
in the series you can see Ivar motivating his warriors by shouting VALHALLA!
Valhalla was a later concept in the history of Scandinavia
and highly developed during the Viking Age to motivate warriors into suicidal advances towards their enemies
not fearing death because . . .
WooooW Valhalla!
One of the main events of the fifth season is the colonization of Iceland, orchestrated by Floki
The producers made a mess on this
They have created a very wrong religious fiction out of an historical event that had nothing to do with religion
Floki reaches Iceland, he has visions, he hallucinates and he believes that he is in the land of the gods
Nothing wrong with that,
I'm sure the first settlers felt that Iceland was a real magical place because the landscape is indeed out of the ordinary
But Floki wants to share the place with those who believe in the true gods
On this point, to the Vikings, there were no true gods, there were just gods
They were aware of the Christian god, the god of Islam, they were aware of Judaism, Hinduism, even Buddhism,
they were very much aware of the Celtic gods,
because most of Scandinavian slaves were Celts and a lot of the Celtic culture was absorbed by Scandinavians
so, there wasn't this idea of the Norse gods being the true gods because the Norse adopted everybody else's gods
Floki wants to create a new community,
a place for true believers, a working colony of believers in the true faith
and he is a sort of Holy man, a messiah, taking the chosen ones to the promise land
This sounds a lot like a biblical story
The first Icelanders were Norwegian exiles
Nobility escaping the new political and religious power of Norway,
going to Iceland with their slaves so they could be free from political and religious persecution
But maybe, the show is giving us this very religious portrayal because-
indeed it's from Icelanders that we got the majority of the knowledge about Norse witchcraft and sorcery and mythology
Iceland really was the stage of so much sorcer
People sending and receiving curses, battles against sorcerers and black magicians - a bloody mess
There was even one part of Iceland which was notoriously known to be the birth place of most sorcerers of black magic-
the Northwest part of Iceland
So maybe that's why the producers wanted to give this religious component to the colonization of Iceland
But one thing they got right,
Floki's Icelandic community starts to lose control,
the people are unsatisfied, riots occur, they start killing each other and burning and destroying the community
Yeah, this aspect they got right
The history of Iceland was written with blood, so to speak
Just read the Icelandic sagas
Everyone as some grudge on a neighbour, blood feuds, lots of curses and sorcery involved,
people killing their neighbour's cattle, and killing each other
A lot of violence is involved in the history of Iceland
And speaking of Iceland, we see Floki's community building a temple to Thor, with rituals involved etc.
and throughout the 5th season we see other ceremonies and rituals
well . . .
The ritualistic and religious scenes are somewhat theatrical and forced
They portray the priests as grotesque figures, with weird cloths, faces painted,
but we have no information about this aspect
Honestly, it's just silly
going back to the same romanticized ideas of the 19th century,
portraying the Norse as barbaric strange creatures, blood sucking mindless freaks
Speaking of religion, in the previous seasons we had the monk Aethelstan
and now on the 5th season we have the Bishop Heahmund
both symbolize the introduction of the Christian faith in Medieval Scandinavia
But the conversion process of the Norse was not as catastrophic and drastic as many think
on the contrary, it was rather slow and tolerant
Bishop Headmund is a complete Christian fanatic,
his goal is to kill all heathens, rid the world of pagans,
a blood thirsty catholic with the same quest as Ivar the boneless, but wanting to wipe out all pagans
This aspect of Christianity and paganism is very complicated to talk about
because it isn't that simple,
it's not about hatred and imposing religions, making wars and spreading religious ideas
At this historical time of the series, the contact the Norse had with Christians was still rare and sporadic,
often made by Vikings who travelled to the European continent
We have to understand that religion was never spread by war itself
People went to war and in that chaotic madness they didn't stop to ask
"Excuse me sir, have you ever heard of our lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? No?!"
"Than DIE!"
No... Religion was spread in trading
Traders and merchants were the ones to spread religious ideas
During this time the Vikings did make trading but mostly it was among other Scandinavians, and occasionally with the other Europeans
and they came in contact with Christianity like that at first
and as I've said, there were as many Viking Christians as there were pagans and both at once
So before Christianity was forced, there were already a lot of Christians in Scandinavia
and the series portray Bishop Headmund almost as a member of the inquisition
For instance, in Sweden during the 15th and 16th centuries, there were inquisitorial proceedings against Odin's cults
but as you can see, the Viking Age had been long gone
Sweden was already entering the Modern Period of history
And with Iceland it's the same story,
pagans and Christians coexisted in a relative peace
but both religious ideas gave birth to a very unique type of witchcraft
a mixture between the Christian and the pagan
until of course Protestantism was introduced in Iceland during the 16th century
and then it was a bloody mess
and a great persecution on pagans, witch trials, and such
The first to be converted were the Danes
which then made a lot of political pressure to the Swedish and Norwegian kingdoms to do the same
But Catholicism was something for kings and nobles and great urban centres
In the interior and further north, especially in rural areas, it took many centuries before Christianity took root
In the previous seasons I was glad to see, for instance, the foundation of the Duchy of Normandy, by the character Rollo
This was turning away from the general idea people have of the Vikings as being the blood thirsty brutes only interested in war
They were much more concerned with farming, having lands to farm, property, trading, and other activities
But here we go again to the same violence
Don't get me wrong, violence as always been part of history and the human condition,
but this portrayal is wrong
This is a very serious wrong idea
Because it's also reflected on religion
People have this wrong idea that war, violence, killing, was an integral part of the Norse religion
Dying in battle, going to Valhalla
That's a wrong idea
Violence was not an important part in old Scandinavian religion
The concept of Valhalla came much later, War gods, came much later
In Scandinavia before and even during the first centuries of the Viking Age,
fertility deities were much more important
Human sacrifices existed of course, but they were not that common as we may think
There were followers of Odin, there were cults of Odin
as a god of war and battle frenzy
but first adopted only by Kings and nobles and in great urban centres
The majority of people worshipped fertility deities
sky deities, forest gods, gods of the sea and mountains, of the hunt, etc.
But now, on this 5th season, we are going back to the same thing
Again the same idea that the Nordic peoples were brutes who only knew how to make war
The series continue to go after barbarism
and it tries to feed us with the 19th century romantic visions of the Vikings as wild warriors,
the devils outside the Christian world
Finally, we have the representation of other cultures in the 5th season
Bjorn goes south into the Mediterranean
The Mediterranean wasn't something new to Nordic peoples, it was well known actually,
but I'm not going to delve much on that aspect
But it's just a pity the 5th season only shows a few minutes of the Mediterranean
and mostly is actually spent on Northern Africa, in the desert
If the producers are "running out of material",
this would be a great opportunity to make fantastical adventures in the Mediterranean and they didn't even had to be fictional
But I would like to speak about that on another video someday
about the Vikings in Portugal and Spain for instance,
it's just crazy and filled with adventures and battles and even Folklore concerning beautiful princesses
Still, the series have also introduced the Saami, finally!
Because the Saami were very much important in the religious structure of Scandinavia
Scandinavian spirituality has a lot of influences from the Saami, from shamanic practises
The god Thor for instance, is a very Saami deity
But I was a bit sad to see that the Saami played a very insipid role in the 5th season
They show up as allies fighting alongside Lagertha and Bjorn against Ivar
Although, in the field of battle they are portrayed in a way that . . .
it made me judge the knowledge I have about the Saami
They looked like southern hemisphere jungle tribes of hunters
spiting darts and only fighting in the forest, hiding
Lagertha even says that her entire army must fight near a forest, because that's where the Saami are most useful,
that's their thing
fighting in the forest, hiding in bushes
I was honestly confused
The Saami are people of the mountains and the tundra, they are Reindeer herders
and they live in the open, rarely in the forest at all
They hunt in the open, they fish in the frozen seas, they have a very artic-type of life combined with pastoralism
If they wanted to put warriors that fight in the forest, maybe they should have chosen Finns
those were natural forest dwellers, and swamps and lakes, very used to hunt with bow and arrow in the forest
I don't know, at this point I was just confused
Alright, after criticizing the 5th season of the Tv Series - Vikings
I absolutely recommend you . . .
to watch it! anyway...
because it's cool,
and it's always fun to watch people being brutally murdered and hacking each other to pieces
while you are wrapped in a blanket with your loved one
quite romantic
so...
thank you so much for watching
well, see you on the next video, and as always...
tack för idag! (Thank you for today!)
For more infomation >> Imperia Online - Duration: 2:15. 
For more infomation >> Supa Strikas [YTP PL] - Duration: 3:36. 
For more infomation >> 10 MANERAS INCREIBLES DE LLEVAR UN PAÑUELO, BUFANDA o BANDANA | Doralys Britto - Duration: 10:19. 
For more infomation >> The 81 Year Old Body Builder: Ernestine Shepherd - Duration: 2:50. 
For more infomation >> Was firing of Andrew McCabe strictly political? - Duration: 4:59. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét