Vikings
Vikings is a Canadian network’s historical drama television series developed and scripted by Michael Hirst. It was shot in Ireland and debuted in Canada on March 3, 2013.
On December 30, 2020, the sixth season’s second season was published on Amazon Prime Video in Ireland, ahead of its airing from Jan to March 2021. On February 25, 2022, Vikings: Valhalla, a sequel series, was released on Netflix.
Vikings are based on the sagas of Ragnar Lodbrok, a Viking who is remembered as the scourge of Anglo-Saxon England and West Francia and is one of the most well-known legendary Norse heroes.
Ragnar is portrayed in the show as a farmer who rises to prominence by conquering the kingdom and becomes a Scandinavian king with the help of his family and other warriors. The show follows his sons’ fortunes and exploits in the following seasons.
The epic exploits of some of the most well-known Vikings in history are detailed in Vikings Valhalla, set more than a thousand years ago, in the early 11th century.
Season Three
Steve Wakefield and Keith Thompson created this season. Co-producers were Bill Goddard and Samus McInerney.
Season Four
In April 2015, production for the fourth season began in Ireland, mainly in the Dublin and Wicklow districts. Additional location shooting with Ludwig was done in Canada.
Franzen portrayed Norwegian King Harald Finehair, Ragnar’s possible opponent. Halfdan the Black, Finehair’s brother, was played by Paakkonen. Doan plays Yidu, a Chinese character who plays an integral part in the early half of Season 4.
Season Five
Kieran O’Reilly, an Irish actor, singer, and real-life police investigator, plays “White Hair” in the fifth season. In April 2017, revealed that Danish actor Erik Madsen would join the cast as King Hemmig for the fifth season.
Season Six
Danila Kozlovsky, a Russian actor, joins as Oleg of Novgorod, a 10th-century Varangian. Wardruna and Danheim, two Scandinavian artists with significant Nordic folk influences, provided music to the series.
The Plot
Leif Eriksson, the famed explorer, his fiery and impetuous sister Freydis Eriksdotter, and the ambitious Nordic prince Harald Sigurdsson.
These three Vikings set out on an epic trip that will take them across oceans and through battles as tensions between the Vikings and the English royals reach a violent breaking point and as the Vikings themselves struggle over their conflicting Christian and pagan beliefs.
They strive for survival and fame from Kattegat to England and beyond. The early medieval Scandinavian Norsemen stories served as the series’ inspiration.
It is loosely based on the deeds of the famous Viking chieftain Ragnar Lothbrok and his crew, family, and successors, as recounted in the 13th-century sagas Ragnars saga Lobrókar and Ragnarssona, as well as Saxo Grammaticus’ 12th-century book Gesta Danorum.
Norse legendary sagas were largely fictitious tales based on Norse oral tradition written between 200 and 400 years after the described events.
Historical materials such as the accounts of the Viking invasion on Lindisfarne featured in the second series, and Ahmad ibn Fadlan’s 10th-century tale of the Varangians provide additional inspiration. The series begins with the Lindisfarne attack in 793, marking the Viking Age’s beginning.