With the celebrated ‘El hombre del norte’, the director Robert Eggers It has surely been marked as the most faithful audiovisual work to the Viking reality ever created, without this meaning giving up the myth. It is the last, quite definitive link in a long tradition of adventure, war, epic or historical stories with the Vikings at the center: from a delirious series B by Roger Corman like ‘The Viking Women and the Sea Serpent’ to the comedy from Terry Jones ‘Eric the Viking’, through ‘Alfred the Great’, ‘Beowulf’ or the foray into the fantastic with ‘Outlander’, without forgetting, of course, the mythical animated series ‘Vicky the Viking’ or ‘Vikings’ and his recent ‘spin-off’. We have selected below ten films and series about Vikings from the most varied.
The first great Hollywood film about Viking mythology. Produced by its own leading star, Kirk Douglasand made in a huge Cinemascope by Richard Fleischer, has unforgettable moments such as the movement of the warriors running on top of the oars of the ship or the test of the ax blows and the braids of the long-suffering Viking women. Rivalries in Battle and in Love: King Ragnar’s two sons, Einar and Eric (Douglas and Tony Curtis,) vie for Princess Morgana (Janet Leigh, Curtis’s real wife). Barbarian and violent, although with the logical moderation of the time. Available in Filmin.
‘The Fury of the Vikings’ (1961)
The two protagonists of this characteristic Franco-Italian co-production of the time, played by the American Cameron Mitchell and directed and photographed by mario bava, the Italian horror master of the 1960s (‘The Devil’s Mask’, ‘Terror in Space’). One of the brothers is adopted at a very young age by the queen of Britannia. When two decades later the British coasts are devastated by the Vikings, he faces his brother, leader of the warriors, without knowing who he really is. The fratricidal tragedy has always been quite present in the Viking sagas transferred to the cinema. Available in Filmin.
Not all the films related to the Viking world are atavistic. Sometimes they tend towards the adventure genre as in ‘The Invaders’, a story about a Viking warrior without a beard, long hair and a helmet with horns (Richard Widmark) who is looking for a mythical golden bell next to an Arab monarch whom he brings to life Sidney Poitier. Shot entirely in Yugoslavia, it adapts a Swedish novel and was shot in Technirama –one of those larger-than-life formats that proliferated in those years to compete with television– by Jack Cardiffa true expert: he is the director of photography for ‘The Vikings’. Available on Filmin, Google Play and Apple TV.
‘The Warrior No. 13’ (1999)
Antonio Banderas is an Arab nobleman sent to a far country after falling in love with the wrong woman. What relationship does this character and his situation have with the Viking universe? Ahmed, the exile in question, fights alongside some Vikings faced with a horde even more savage than them. These devour the corpses of their victims. That, ‘Corpse Eaters’, is the title of the novel by Michael Crichton on which the film is based. As Crichton was also a producer and what was filmed by John McTiernan not satisfied, he shot some scenes again. Despite this, the result, adventurous and gore in equal parts, is excellent. Available on Disney+.
If almost all the film production on Vikings is of Anglo-Saxon origin, this epic adventure on ice is of Russian nationality and offers different readings of the classic agenda. The protagonist is a young prince, the son of the ruler of Kievan Rus, the federation of East Slavic tribes from the 9th to the 13th centuries. As the tragic canons dictate, the young Vladimir escapes from his traitorous brother, who has seized power in the Viking zone. Shortly after, he manages to gather an army of Varangians, the name given to the Vikings at the time, ready to recover what is theirs. Available on Prime Video, Movistar Plus+ and Filmin.
Despite having shot the three films in the ‘Pusher’ series, Nicolas Winding Refn he was not yet a well-known director; ‘Drive’ and ‘The neon demon’ would come later. Nor was Mads Mikkelsen as popular, although he had already been the rival of James Bond from ‘Casino Royale’. The combination of both, the actor’s hieratic muscle and the director’s visual vertigo, resulted in this brutal, cruel, ferocious, vandal, ancestral film and all the synonyms that come to mind. Mikkelsen, a one-eyed warrior of enormous strength, kills his master and embarks on a Viking ship to live an adventure with blood and fire. Available on Filmin and Rakuten TV.
‘Vicky the Viking’ (1974-1975)
A most transnational animated series: based on a novel by the Swedish Runer Jonsson, it had Austrian, German and Japanese financing. Here it arrived in 1975, a year after its premiere, and quickly settled in the hearts of kids thanks to its unprejudiced mix of adventure, comedy and history. In Spain, the voice of the emaciated but ingenious Vicky, son of Chief Halvar, was given by Mari Pe Castro, also Willy’s voice actor in ‘Maya the Bee’. As has often been told, Eiichiro Oda created the popular manga ‘One piece’ under the influence of his memories of ‘Vicky the Viking’. Available in ATRESplayer and Filmin.
‘The Last Kingdom’ (2015-2022)
9th century. All the English kingdoms have fallen to the Vikings. Everyone? Do not! An Anglo-Saxon kingdom resists, still and as always, the invader. We are talking about Wessex, a territory ruled since 871 by Alfred the Great (David Dawson), known even as king of the Anglo-Saxons due to the dimension of his military victories and conquests. Based on the saga of novels ‘Saxons, Vikings and Normans’, by Bernard Cornwellthis production for the BBC (later moved to Netflix) nonetheless stars Uhtred the Bold (Alexander Dreymon), who would end up being Earl of Northumbria. There are dozens of battles and all of them of the highest order. Available on Netflix.
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If Eggers’s Viking vision seeks the truthful and the sublime, this Norwegian series (in English) completely distances itself from any seriousness to take parodic advantage of Viking culture. Closer to ‘The office’ and ‘Veep’ than to the carnage of ‘Vikings’, it follows daily life in the town of Norheim, Norway, around the year 790: missions to pillage villages, lethal machinations with mystics, rather spans of progress… All this watered with great absurd humor. Unlike Eggers, his writers incorporate some very modern points of view into this past, to often hilarious effect. Available on Netflix.
‘Vikings: Valhalla’ (2022-)
For some, the original (‘Vikings’, of course) will always be insurmountable, but there are worse ways to prolong a phenomenon than signing the screenwriter of ‘Jungla de cristal’ and ‘El fugitivo’ as creator. Jeb Stuart He does not disappoint and knows how to present an action with a high dramatic charge, in which we care about what happens to the characters. Above all, the explorer Leif Erikson (Sam Corlett) and her sister Freydis Eriksdotter (Frida Gustavson), arriving at the Kattegat Strait not to join the Viking army that must avenge the Saint Bricio’s Day Massacre, but for an even more personal kind of revenge. Available on Netflix.