Vikings – Real Age and Life Partners by HollywoodNuts
Michael Hirst is a Canadian television producer and author of the historical drama series Vikings for the History channel. It was filmed in Ireland and had its Canadian premiere on March 3, 2013. The final episode of the sixth season, which aired on History in Canada from January 1 to March 3, 2021, was posted in its entirety on Amazon Prime Video in Ireland on December 30, 2020, marking the end of the series. On February 25, 2022, Vikings: Valhalla, a follow-up series, made its Netflix debut.
The television series Vikings was influenced by the sagas of Ragnar Lodbrok, a legendary Norse warrior who is best known for being the scourge of Anglo-Saxon England and West Francia. Ragnar is portrayed in the series as a Kattegat farmer who becomes famous for conquering England and, with the help of his family and other warriors, climbs to the position of Scandinavian king. The show follows his sons’ fortunes and exploits in later seasons as they go to England, Scandinavia, Kievan Rus, the Mediterranean, and North America.
The stories of the early medieval Scandinavian Norsemen served as the series’ inspiration. It essentially follows the deeds of the legendary Viking chieftain Ragnar Lothbrok, his crew, family, and successors as described in works such as Saxo Grammaticus’ 12th-century Gesta Danorum as well as the 13th-century sagas Ragnars saga Lobrókar and Ragnarssona áttr. Approximately 200–400 years after the events they describe, the Norse legendary sagas, based on the Norse oral tradition, were written down.
Additional inspiration for the story comes from historical documents from the time period, such as accounts of the Viking raid on Lindisfarne that is depicted in the second episode or Ahmad ibn Fadlan’s description of the Varangians from the 10th century. The Lindisfarne attack in 793, which signaled the start of the Viking Age, marks the beginning of the series.