'The Northman': Viking revenge

Based on the legend of Prince Amleth's revenge, "The Northman" is considered one of the excellent films about Vikings.

The epic film is set in Northern Europe in the 9th century AD, the main character is Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård) - a Viking prince, the son of King Aurvandill (Ethan Hawke) and Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman). . Returning from a battle, King Aurvandill performed a coming of age ceremony for his son. The next day, the king is ambushed by baseball jersey design a group of traitors - led by his younger brother Fjölnir (Claes Bang) - ambushed. Amleth witnessed his father being murdered, his mother being taken away. He escaped alone, harboring the intention to avenge his father and save his mother.

Amleth was raised

by a group of Vikings and trained to become a berserker (Nordic warrior with a violent fighting style). After a battle with the Slavic people, Amleth met Seeress (witch with the ability to see into the future) and was reminded of what year of revenge. Amleth disguises herself as a slave to return to Iceland to destroy Fjölnir. Along the way, he meets a young Slavic girl - Olga (Anya Taylor-Joy) - and gets her help.

The story of Amleth was inspired by the historical figure of the same name in the Gesta Danorum history of the scholar Saxo Grammaticus. This character was also the inspiration for William Shakespeare to create the image of Hamlet in the famous play of the same name (Shakespeare changed the alphabetical order in "Amleth" to "Hamlet").

The film makes a strong impression

by faithfully recreating the culture and spirit of the Vikings. The process of researching and developing the script is particularly focused by filmmakers. Director Robert Eggers invited a team of professors including archaeologist Neil Price, folklorist Terry Gunnell and Viking historian Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir as mentors. Many scenes are based on historical records or archaeological evidence. Typically, Amleth's coming of age ceremony is set in a restored crypt in Orkney (the archipelago off the north of Scotland). Or the mask of the character Heimir (played by Willem Dafoe) is a copy of an unearthed artifact.

Details about religion - the beliefs of the Vikings - are integrated throughout. In the film, there are two times the character Amleth sees an image of a great tree connecting the bloodlines of his family's generations. In an interview with Slate, director Eggers said that this great tree is a combination of Yggdrasil (the ash tree connecting the nine worlds in Norse mythology) and the image of a person hanging from a tree from the Oseberg carpet (antiquities). Viking period found in Norway).

In The Northman

characters regardless of faction want to die on the battlefield, by faith hockey jersey their souls will be summoned to Valhalla (where Odin gathered his soldiers for the final battle of Ragnarök). The details related to this faith are shown through the image of the Valhalla gate and the character Valkyrie (played by Ineta Sliuzaite). In mythology, the Valkyrie is a female warrior whose task is to select the dead soldiers and bring their souls back to Valhalla. In The Northman, Valkyrie's image is somewhat fierce, different from other popular designs - like the character Valkyrie (played by Tessa Thompson) in the movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.