I’ve just finished S1 of Vikings and I’m here to update you guys on my watch from a historical perspective. I’ve made two previous posts, which you can find in my comment history if interested.

Really not a ton to comment on, as the show’s only covered a couple years in this first season; yet, it’s clear that the writers are combining several events/timelines into a few to give the viewer a fuller view of the Viking Age, which I’m okay with.

In this post, I’m gonna go over what happened in the show and then expand out to the macro historical timeline we’re in.

What Happened In The Show (Episodes 5-9, Finishing Up S1)

Last time I posted, Ragnar was ascending politically due to his success raiding in the west. His rise threatened Earl Haraldson, who attacked Ragnar’s holdfast as a result. Ragnar ends up escaping and, eventually, kills the Earl in a duel and usurps his lands and title.

Ragnar and his clan head to Northumbria again the following spring and tussle with King Aelle’s men. The King offers Ragnar the first of what I assume to be many “danegelds” - bribes to leave. But it’s a fakeout and a battle ensues that the Vikings win. The get their danegeld and head back to Scandinavia.

Later, Ragnar heads to Uppsala and meets the Danish king Horik. He pledges fealty to Horik and agrees to go on an embassy to the neighboring Swedish kingdom of Jarl Borg’s. After some casual human sacrifice, Ragnar and his merry men head to Sweden to parlay with Borg. Ragnar knocks up Borg’s princess daughter, his brother Rollo ostensibly unites with Borg against Ragnar (the peace embassy was a failure), and meanwhile, back in Ragnarland, the plague has broken out and killed many.

What’s Happening In Real History

As I said at the beginning of the post, not a lot of time has passed in the show. So, largely, there’s not a lot to talk about that I haven’t discussed already in my first two posts. From a macro, wide view of history, though, it’s interesting to see how the show is portraying the early Scandinavian political scene - in the days before any major, unified kingdoms really emerged.

What you’re seeing in the show between Ragnar, Horik, and Borg is the gradual unification of larger Scandinavian kingdoms. As these petty kingdoms become larger, they start butting heads with each other. They also (I assume this will be covered extensively in S2) grow large enough to start sending powerful raiding parties (ie invasion forces) to other nations on a regular basis - such as Carolingian Francia.

Speaking of Francia, at this point in the show it’s the largest empire in Europe (along with the Byzantine Romans in Constantinople). But after Charlemagne dies, his realm erupts into a multi-generation civil war between his son Louis the Pious’ sons - Charles the Bald, Louis the German, and Lothair. It’s this political fragmentation - a crack in the armor - that gives the Scandinavians an in, in Francia. I assume we’ll be seeing a rather large raid of France soon, Paris in particular.

Two other things the Vikings get, besides plunder, as they drastically increase their contacts with other societies is Christianity and disease. I’m interested to see the show handle the Scandinavians transitioning from pagan old Norse gods to Christianity. They’ve already begun that process with the introduction of Aethelstan, the priest, into the show. Disease, too, they’ve introduced, as Ragnarland gets hit hard at the end of S1. As Vikings raid and plunder other lands, they invariably bring back plague, which contrary to popular belief, was a massive thing for medieval societies to contend with throughout history, not just during the 1300s bubonic plague years.

Anyway, that’s about all the thoughts I have. Looking forward to the show hitting the peak Viking Era years of the mid 800s-1000s, if it does. The Vikings are a really interesting civilization to learn about. They weren’t just medieval pirates. They were some of humanity’s most accomplished explorers up to that time in human history. They explored and set up colonies from Siberia to Canada.

Fun fact to end on: When the Vikings discovered America around 1000 (almost 500 years before Columbus), they set up a colony which ended up failing in large part because they couldn’t support themselves that far away from Scandinavia, and because they were having run ins with the Inuits. Here’s the fun fact: when the Vikings and Inuits met, those two civilizations completed a 200,000 year quest for humanity to travel around the globe and meet on the other side of it.

Amazing.