1. Were the Vikings more than just raiders? Series creator Michael Hirst said he wanted to show a more truthful portrayal of the legendary warriors to the general public.
2. Horned helmets? To the bin! Unfortunately, the famous horned helmets are an invention of later generations and pop culture. Real Vikings did not wear such headgear. Historical sources indicate that the first mentions of “horns” appeared in Christian chronicles, which can easily be connected with the “demonic” image of the invaders.
3. Ragnar’s first wife, Lagertha, became known as an incredibly warrior woman who didn’t need a man’s arm to defend herself. As it turns out, the actress was perfectly prepared for the role. Katheryn Winnick had been training in martial arts since she was 7, and five years later she earned her black belt. By the age of 21, she owned three private Taekwondo schools.
4. Whose son is Bjorn? The viewers of the series were undecided on this issue. On the one hand, we would like him to be Ragnar’s son, but doubts arose when the affair between Lagertha and Rollo – Ragnar’s brother – came to light. Michael Hirst himself was asked about this issue many times and we did not hear a clear answer. Clive Standen, who plays Rollo, believes that Bjorn may actually be his son in the series.
5. Did Floki’s name sound strangely familiar to you? Very well! The creators deliberately referred to the name of the god of lies and mischief – Loki. We can see the connection between these characters in one of the scenes, when Floki is placed in a cave as a punishment. Loki was punished in a similar way in Norse myths.
6. Tattoos are a very important element in the series, often depicting scenes known from mythology. Numerous sources confirm that Vikings tattooed their bodies, as did other inhabitants of Europe at the time, including Slavs and Celts.
7. Did Ragnar Lodbrok really exist? The truth of this hero’s life has not been confirmed, and the character itself was based on an Icelandic legend about a great warrior whose story ended in an unfortunately cruel way.
8. This interesting fact is related to the previous one. In the scene of Ragnar’s death, there is a pit and poisonous snakes into which the hero is thrown. As it turns out, the reptiles were not very kind to the actor and bit him several times. Fortunately for Travis Fimmel, they were not poisonous.
9. The Vikings were not only white? This is what one of the historians, Gwyn Jones, reports in his book from 1968. In his text, he admits that indeed they were mostly people with fair skin, but not exclusively.
“The Vikings who lived between Jutland, Lofoten, Song, and Uppsala did not look the same, i.e. they were not 100% pure Nordic race. In Scandinavia at that time there were two types of people. One was tall, white-skinned people with light hair, blue eyes and long faces. The other type was shorter, dark-skinned people with brown or black hair, brown eyes and a wide face,” the historian said.
10. Who is the character played by Marcin Dorociński? In the series “Vikings: Valhalla” the Polish actor plays the role of Yaroslav the Wise, who was born around 980, one of many sons of Vladimir the Great. Yaroslav ruled in Novgorod, which fell to him after the division of provinces, but he had no intention of paying tribute to his father. After his death, a fight broke out, which ended with Yaroslav’s victory.
Jarosław had Scandinavian roots, which he never forgot, and for this reason he often welcomed various outlaws and refugees from, among others, Norway into his court.