Viking Expert Breaks Down The Northman Weapons
THE NORTHMAN is in theaters now, https://www.focusfeatures.com/the-northman
Released on 05/03/2022
[Narrator] Director, Robert Eggers' latest film,
The Northman is being described
as the most accurate depiction
of Viking culture ever rendered on film.
It's very layered. It's very deep.
Even the things out of focus
in the back of the shot,
they're all things that have been
carefully worked on.
[Narrator] Archeologist Neil Price
was one of three historical advisors on the film.
He specialized in Viking objects,
buildings, and religion.
For a Viking specialist,
it was very special to see this world
that I've been researching for decades
come to life in a form that you can
pick up and hold.
It was absolutely extraordinary.
[Narrator] Let's examine each weapon
in The Northman with the help
of the film's consultant.
One of the key scenes,
a raid on a Slavic village,
a fortified settlement.
[foreign language]
Someone is throwing a spear.
Amleth grabs it in mid-air,
and throws it straight back.
That's actually an episode from
the Icelandic sagas,
this amazing body of medievals literature
written down centuries after the Viking age.
In many ways, throughout the film,
Robert has very carefully drawn
on that deep vein of storytelling
that goes all the way back
to the time of the Vikings.
[battle cries]
The spears are made with very straight shafts,
usually of ash wood.
The spear point is a metal, usually iron,
obviously with a sharp point.
Some of them for throwing, some of them for use
in more close combat.
They're also quite cheap.
This is the basic weapon of the Viking age.
Everybody had a spear.
[arrow thuds]
The bow and arrow is also
a quintessential Viking weapon.
And there are so many different kinds of arrows.
Special ones to a go through armor,
others to cause enormous bloody flesh wounds.
This is really a very important Viking weapon.
Another one of the main Viking weapons
is the axe.
Lots of different kinds.
Short axes for close combat.
You can throw them.
Amleth makes innovative use of them here
using it to climb a wall.
They have wooden shafts,
the axe head itself is made of iron.
Very heavy.
Absolutely devastating in close combat.
The primary defensive weapon is the shield.
They're made of wood, often of lime wood.
Quite thin, but flexible and strong,
with a frame around the outside.
Often covered in leather,
and in the center is this iron boss.
And what that is actually is the handle
on the backside of the shield.
If your shield has been hacked away in combat,
and all you're left with
is that iron boss on your fist,
you can use it to punch people with.
So the shield in some circumstances
is an offensive weapon as well.
Is absolutely crucial to how the Vikings fought.
Apart from the axe,
there are two main kinds of bladed weapons.
There's the classic Viking sword,
either a single- or a double-edged weapon
used for slashing.
But there's also a smaller,
slimmer kind of blade,
which is what you see Amleth using
in the raid on the village.
They're using that as fighting knives
or battle knives.
And these can be used to stab, to slash,
to hack, or to cut.
They're nasty things.
You can see that Amleth has the scabbard
for this sword horizontally at his waist,
and that seems to be how they were worn,
at least to judge from how we find them
in burials.
The swords are made of iron.
Very, very carefully made.
Sometimes with edges of steel,
they can be made with patterns in the blade.
In the film is a special sword,
and it's a sword with a name.
And this idea of a named weapon
is something that we find very often
in the Icelandic sagas.
A really illustrious warrior
would have a sword with a name
and a history.
These are swords that are inherited,
or given as gifts, or taken from fallen enemies.
And everybody knew the story
of these weapons.
What you see here is silver arm rings
with animal heads on the terminals,
and the arm ring is a very common
item of jewelry in the Viking age.
Mainly for men.
It seems to been some kind of symbol of loyalty.
There are images on carved stones
of men waving rings in the air,
and that's perhaps what these ones mean
on Amleth's arms here.
Most of the film is taking place
in the early 10th century,
the 920s, 930s.
The time that we call the Viking age is
from about 750 to around 1050.
At the time of the movie,
the Scandinavians have traveled over
an enormous part of the world.
The early 10th century, when this is going on,
the Scandinavians are really well established
on these rivers connecting
the Baltic and the Black Sea.
All of Scandinavia is essentially
a maritime culture.
There's few places that are
really far from the sea.
It's the rivers that are
kind of watery motorways
that take those ships deep
into the heart of the mainland
to attack towns and villages.
And then to get back up those rivers
out to the open sea
before anyone can stop them.
I will avenge you, Father.
The boats that we see them rowing
is a classic Viking long ship,
rather a small model, actually.
The biggest could hold 120 men.
Their shallow draft, easy to get into the rivers.
So this is the machine
that made the Viking age possible.
A lot of the settlements along the Eastern rivers
were defended in some way,
either with a bank of earth or a palisade,
or wall of some kind.
[Narrator] Director, Robert Eggers
wanted to avoid romanticizing The Northman.
Instead, the film portrays Vikings
warts and all.
[battle cries]
[Neil] Viking raids were very, very violent.
It's important to see what this
kind of raiding really was.
How bad it was.
This kind of scene, the attack on more or less
defenseless settlements,
looking for loot, looking for plunder,
looking for slaves.
This plays out all over Western Europe,
and all over the East.
These Vikings do appalling things,
and they're shown to be appalling.
This is a raid as it really was.
One of the most important things to grasp about
Viking age Scandinavia is that
this is a slave economy.
Enslaved people, human beings, form an absolutely
fundamental foundation to how
Viking age society runs.
It's a nightmare.
Kidnapping people, trafficking them,
taking them back and using them as forced labor,
and worse.
I'm particularly happy that the film
has managed to convey is just
how ubiquitous this was.
The enslaved are present
all the way through this film,
and that's an important thing
to understand about the Vikings.
I think it's been missing
from our picture of them
for far too long.
In some scenes, they they're shackled
with iron chains and links.
These are direct copies of examples
that come from archeological excavations.
[Narrator] The film's attention to detail
carries over into the depiction
of the rich inner and spiritual life of Vikings.
Something that recurs throughout the film
is a special kind of ritual and magic.
Something resembling shamanism, actually.
Fate is set and you cannot escape it.
I'm really happy with
how it's depicted in the film.
This was a central part of the way
in which Viking age people
got in touch with the other world.
And it's also clear that this was an arena,
above all, of women's power.
You shed your last tear drop.
Women were the gatekeepers
of the world of sorcery,
the world of magic.
This is a world that is absolutely teeming
with spiritual life,
a kind of invisible population.
I have the calling to break their minds.
One of the things that in some ways
sets apart the people of the Viking Age
at this time is that unlike most of their neighbors,
they are not Christians.
They are still part of this very deep, ancient set
of beliefs that goes back way earlier than the Vikings.
Something that has really sort of
set the internet alight from the trailer
is the image of a Valkyrie.
The word Valkyrie in old Norse means
'chooser of the slain'.
Their job is to find the best warriors
and to take them into the afterlife,
to serve in Odin and Freya's armies
for the battle at the end of the world,
the Ragnarok.
I think often they tend to now
be rather stereotyped, and especially sexualized.
And it's something that Robert
was very keen to avoid.
And the Valkyries as we see them here
are exactly as they should be.
They are war-like, they're violent,
and they are terrifying.
With the Viking Age, you're going back
a thousand years.
There's a lot we don't know,
so it's not possible for any historical advisor
to give the filmmakers the same level of detail.
Our image of the Viking age is the end result
of hundreds and hundreds of years
of gradual distortion
that started pretty much in the Viking Age itself,
and has continued ever since.
And what I hope is that, at least to some degree,
this movie will kind of peel away
all those centuries of distortion
and show us perhaps a little bit of a glimpse
of what the Viking Age was really like.
How the Disco Clam Uses Light to Fight Super-Strong Predators
Architect Explains How Homes Could be 3D Printed on Mars and Earth
Scientist Explains How Rare Genetics Allow Some to Sleep Only 4 Hours a Night
Scientist Explains Unsinkable Metal That Could Prevent Disasters at Sea
Is Invisibility Possible? An Inventor and a Physicist Explain
Scientist Explains Why Her Lab Taught Rats to Drive Tiny Cars
Mycologist Explains How a Slime Mold Can Solve Mazes
How the Two-Hour Marathon Limit Was Broken
Research Suggests Cats Like Their Owners as Much as Dogs
Researcher Explains Deepfake Videos
Scientist Explains How to Study the Metabolism of Ultra High Flying Geese
Hurricane Hunter Explains How They Track and Predict Hurricanes
Scientist Explains Viral Fish Cannon Video
A Biohacker Explains Why He Turned His Leg Into a Hotspot
Scientist Explains What Water Pooling in Kilauea's Volcanic Crater Means
Bill Nye Explains the bet365体育赛事 Behind Solar Sailing
Vision Scientist Explains Why These Praying Mantises Are Wearing 3D Glasses
Why Some Cities Are Banning Facial Recognition Technology
Scientist's Map Explains Climate Change
Scientist Explains How Moon Mining Would Work
Scientist Explains How She Captured Rare Footage of a Giant Squid
Doctor Explains How Sunscreen Affects Your Body
Stranger Things is Getting a New Mall! But Today Malls Are Dying. What Happened?
The Limits of Human Endurance Might Be Our Guts
Meet the First College Students to Launch a Rocket Into Space
Scientist Explains Why Dogs Can Smell Better Than Robots
A Harvard Professor Explains What the Avengers Can Teach Us About Philosophy
NASA Twin Study: How Space Changes Our Bodies
What the Black Hole Picture Means for Researchers
Scientist Explains How to Levitate Objects With Sound
Why Scientists and Artists Want The Blackest Substances on Earth
Biologist Explains How Drones Catching Whale "Snot" Helps Research
Researcher Explains Why Humans Can't Spot Real-Life Deepfake Masks
Doctor Explains What You Need to Know About The Coronavirus
VFX Artist Breaks Down This Year's Best Visual Effects Nominees
How Doctors on Earth Treated a Blood Clot in Space
Scientist Explains Why Some Cats Eat Human Corpses
Voting Expert Explains How Voting Technology Will Impact the 2020 Election
Doctor Explains What You Need to Know About Pandemics
ER Doctor Explains How They're Handling Covid-19
Why This Taste Map Is Wrong
Q&A: What's Next for the Coronavirus Pandemic?
Why Captive Tigers Can’t Be Reintroduced to the Wild
How Covid-19 Immunity Compares to Other Diseases
5 Mistakes to Avoid as We Try to Stop Covid-19
How This Emergency Ventilator Could Keep Covid-19 Patients Alive
Why NASA Made a Helicopter for Mars
Theoretical Physicist Breaks Down the Marvel Multiverse
Former NASA Astronaut Explains Jeff Bezos's Space Flight
Physics Student Breaks Down Gymnastics Physics
What Do Cities Look Like Under a Microscope?
Inside the Largest Bitcoin Mine in The U.S.
How Caffeine Has Fueled History
How Mushroom Time-Lapses Are Filmed
Why You’ll Fail the Milk Crate Challenge
Why Vegan Cheese Doesn't Melt
How 250 Cameras Filmed Neill Blomkamp's Demonic
How Meme Detectives Stop NFT Fraud
How Disney Designed a Robotic Spider-Man
How Online Conspiracy Groups Compare to Cults
Dune Costume Designers Break Down Dune’s Stillsuits
Korean Phrases You Missed in 'Squid Game'
Why Scientists Are Stress Testing Tardigrades
Every Prototype that Led to a Realistic Prosthetic Arm
Why the Toilet Needs an Upgrade
How Animals Are Evolving Because of Climate Change
How Stop-Motion Movies Are Animated at Aardman
Astronomer Explains How NASA Detects Asteroids
Are We Living In A Simulation?
Inside the Journey of a Shipping Container (And Why the Supply Chain Is So Backed Up)
The bet365体育赛事 of Slow Aging
How Nose Swabs Detect New Covid-19 Strains
Samsung S22 Ultra Explained in 3 Minutes
The bet365体育赛事 Behind Elon Musk’s Neuralink Brain Chip
Every Prototype to Make a Humanoid Robot
Chemist Breaks Down How At-Home Covid Tests Work
A Timeline of Russian Cyberattacks on Ukraine
VFX Artist Breaks Down Oscar-Nominated CGI
Why Smartphones Night Photos Are So Good Now
We Invented the Perfect WIRED Autocomplete Glue
How Everything Everywhere All at Once's Visual Effects Were Made
How Dogs Coevolved with Humans
How an Architect Redesigns NYC Streets
Viking Expert Breaks Down The Northman Weapons
J. Kenji López-Alt Breaks Down the bet365体育赛事 of Stir-Fry
How A.I. Is Changing Hollywood
How Trash Goes From Garbage Cans to Landfills
Veterinarian Explains How to Prevent Pet Separation Anxiety
The bet365体育赛事 Behind Genetically Modified Mosquitoes
How Scientists & Filmmakers Brought Prehistoric Planet's Dinosaurs to Life
All the Ways Google Gets Street View Images
How Public Cameras Recognize and Track You
How the Nuro Robotic Delivery Car Was Built
Biologist Explains the Unexpected Origins of Feathers in Fashion
Surgeons Break Down Separating Conjoined Twins
Former Air Force Pilot Breaks Down UFO Footage
Bug Expert Explains Why Cicadas Are So Loud
The Best of CES 2021
Health Expert Explains What You Need to Know About Quarantines
Scientist Explains How People Might Hibernate Like Bears
Could a Chernobyl Level Nuclear Disaster Happen in the US?
Neuroscientist Explains ASMR's Effects on the Brain & The Body
Why Top Scientists Are Pretending an Asteroid is Headed for Earth
Epidemiologist Answers Common Monkeypox Questions
Bill Nye Breaks Down Webb Telescope Space Images
How This Humanoid Robot Diver Was Designed
Every Trick a Pro GeoGuessr Player Uses to Win
How NASA Biologists Plan to Grow Plants on the Moon
How FIFA Graphics & Gameplay Are Evolving (1993 - 2023)
How a Vet Performs Dangerous Surgeries on Wild Animals
This Heart is Not Human
How Entomologists Use Insects to Solve Crimes
Former NASA Astronaut Breaks Down a Rocket Launch
Chess Pro Explains How to Spot Cheaters
Why Billionaires Are Actually Ruining the Economy
How to Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions for More Than a Week
The Biology Behind The Last of Us
English Teacher Grades Homework By ChatGPT
All the Ways a Cold Plunge Affects the Body
Spy Historian Debunks Chinese Spy Balloon Theories
A.I. Tries 20 Jobs | WIRED
Mathematician Breaks Down the Best Ways to Win the Lottery
Why Music Festivals Sound Better Than Ever
Pro Interpreters vs. AI Challenge: Who Translates Faster and Better?
Why The Average Human Couldn't Drive An F1 Car
Atomic Expert Explains "Oppenheimer" Bomb Scenes
Every 'Useless' Body Part Explained From Head to Toe
How Pilots and Scientists Are Thinking About the Future of Air Travel
How To Max Out At Every Fantasy Football Position (Ft. Matthew Berry)
All The Ways Mt. Everest Can Kill You
How Fat Bears Bulk Up To Hibernate (And Why We Love To See It)
Why Vintage Tech Is So Valuable To Collectors
8 Photos That Tell The History of Humans In Space
How Every Organ in Your Body Ages From Head to Toe
Why AI Chess Bots Are Virtually Unbeatable (ft. GothamChess)
How Mind-Controlled Bionic Arms Fuse To The Body
Historian Breaks Down Napoleon's Battle Tactics