What Vikings Actually Gets Right About History

Most of us fairly assume that television shows are not historically accurate. Real life almost never unfolds like a well-crafted TV drama. However, that's not always the case when it comes to the hit series Vikings. We're here to talk about what the show has gotten right.

Ragnar Lothbrok may not have been a real person. It's hard to tell if someone really lived or not when the stories in question took place over 1,000 years ago. What we do know, however, is that Ragnar features in a very real Icelandic saga.

Despite questions about his realness, Ragnar shows up in multiple medieval sources. Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum, published around 1185 AD, confidently states that Ragnar was a ninth-century Danish king who went head-to-head with Charlemagne. This account says that Ragnar was eventually captured by King Aella of Northumbria and thrown into a pit full of venomous snakes. He also pops up in the 12th-century Icelandic works Krákumál and Háttalykill, from the now-Scottish Orkney Islands.

The literary Ragnar wasn't done just yet. In the 13th century, readers paging through the manuscript of the Völsunga saga, an Icelandic epic, would also likely find the Saga of Ragnar Lodbrok. According to the introduction, the closest we can get to a maybe-real person is a Viking leader named Reginheri, who is referenced in a Frankish chronicle. According to contemporary sources, Reginheri sacked Paris in 845 AD. The earliest anyone can connect the names "Ragnar" or "Lothbrok" in any source is much later, in the 11th century.

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Ragnar Lothbrok | 0:00
Lindisfarne Abbey | 1:33
Women in battle | 2:29
Viking Diversity | 3:26
Rollo | 4:31
Viking Halls | 5:20
Viking Makeup | 6:05
Funeral Traditions | 6:53
Sunstones | 7:54
Floki's Iceland | 8:44
Viking Hair | 9:56
Viking Women | 10:58

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