Top Medieval Historian Rates Viking Scenes in Movies 

The Outlander movie, Pathfinder and 1066 all have depictions of Vikings

The Northman is the closest you are going to get to an authentic Viking film

You can never get it 100% right.

Um, The Last Kingdom maybe? WTF???

No LAST KINGDOM killed me.

Ty so much for this information I'm absolutely obsessed with this movie and time period ❤️

They went to such incredible effort on the material culture, language, and rituals. But so why do the fights look like complete hollywood crap? There are people they could have talked to...

i think the oseberg tapestry has a procession of people following a horned helmeted figure as well.

@@sleep-of-ages Also, why is everryone closed in shit-coloured rags? The norse were VAIN AS VAIN CAN GET.

Thanks so much for this!! I've been saying this and keep getting shut down by people who think it's not true. Do you know any good books that go into this?

I forgot how they worked it in there for the novel, but the Grendel people were supposed to be a last group of neanderthal in Europe. It goes along with "The Arab's" indecision on whether his opponent was or was not a man.

@@neanderthor66 I seem to recall that as well. They kind of imply the same in the 2005 Beowulf & Grendel. The animated Beowulf, amazingly, subtly posits that Grendel's mother is an alien, and bore a son (Grendel) with King Hrothgar. And later, she bears a son with Beowulf, who grows up to be the dragon. By pure coincidence I worked on that film and while it's never explicitly stated in the movie, it was in the notes given to us from Zemeckis's people.

I never caught the alien part. I thought the animated one went with the "Descendant of Cain" like the traditional story.

@@neanderthor66 It wasn't very well thought out, but there are a couple of hints: Grendel's mother in her natural form which is a sort of gold reptile, and in her cave where all her accumulated treasure is kept, there are these peculiar columns which are not cave-like at all. They are supposed to be the wrecked remains of her spacecraft's interior. Interesting idea but it didn't really come together in my opinion.

@@kev3d Interesting! I have to watch it again.

Well, depends on who you're rooting for

Dunno, ancient man took out mammoths.

There is no civilization that would not be improved by Toothless.

​@tell-me-a-story- aww we need toothless today ❤

Let's go little brother!!!! There's more! Agreed, that movie is so underrated. That shield duel is one of my favorite scenes of all time.

I very much agree. Banderas has a knack for such movies....yesterday I saw 'Automata'......go watch it, also very underrated, though very interesting.

@@PainInTheS I haven't seen that. I'll check it out.

Yeah, if you wipe out everything you know and go watch it

I feel like the 13th warrior was inspired by the seven samurai.

They very well might have randomly killed the locals. Thinking they wouldn't is bringing 21st century morality and for that matter sense of mortality to a 9th century world

It is a shame, they clearly did not inform her that it is the story of the legend of Amleth (who then inspired Hamlet) as she would have been instantly much more familiar with it as a viking age historian

@@bl5365 shame you didn't make it to the end of this video!

@@bl5365she talks about it at the end of the video

Regarding the horned man, both possibilities are valid. Norse shamans in a ritual like this one would assume Odin's role and form in a sense, bringing his magics down to Earth through them.

I know I was like wtf, expert in her dreams

​@@tyv5887To be fair, she is specialized in Viking Age and the depictions aren't viking age. She probably knows about the depictions when she sees it but didn't had it in her mind at that moment.

They also aren't berzerkers those are ulfhednar.

@@lI_Demonata_Il We don't actually know if those two concepts were different ones for everyone. Doesn't really matter.

which says a lot since its one of the best archeological museums around

Absolutely! I think the idea of gods being perfect and flawless is more of a Christian thing (and other Abrahamitic religions). Virtually all the pantheons I know of have gods that quarrel and make mistakes and do stupid stuff. The Norse, the Romans, the Greeks, and I'm not an expert but I believe the Hindu gods as well. It's kind of a modern thing to equate "god" to "flawless/perfect", they used to be just superhuman beings with superhuman powers who were superior to humans, but not in any way perfect. They were far closer to how humans behave, just everything in excess and with more power.

​@@MerelvandenHurk that is because mythologies were less about worship and idolization and more about giving ethical and reasonable advice and wisedom through story telling. You're completely right that christianity has shaped the idea of gods as perfect angel like beings.

​@@gustaf3811 not really. When you think about it, stories of jesus are all also meant to be like a guide, that whole "what would jesus do" mentality. Norse myths also have that, people took the mythology to the heart to understand what would be right or wrong, as in "what would Thor/Odin/Freyja do", if you will. Christianity didn't shape religious practices any more than any belief already practiced, just another religion that went by and took over

​@@gustaf3811 Not just Christanity, but Abrahamic religions in general.

I think you don't understand that those 'flaws' to contemporary peoples' of these religions were irrelevant and not frowned upon most of the time.

Would he have worn a helmet like that in battle though,or something lighter and more streamlined?

@@pheart2381 most scholars think that they did not fight with it and it was only used in rituals

​@@pheart2381no not in battle, as far as we have found. But yes in rituals, which were heavily inclusive of magic mushrooms of different kinds this one exactly >> 🍄, called amanita muscaria, which is very different to the normal magic mushrooms taken which contained psilocybin, the psychoactive chemical in amanitas is very different and more stimulating also. However they used psilocybin mushrooms in shamanic and 'dream' state rituals which was mixed with plant like ergot and hemlock, as well as other 'toxic' plants like belladonna which were later used in absinthe and other medicines. Ergot was synthesised to create LSD in the 50s I believe... and also the amanita muscaria were used to induce the rage of the gods before war, especially by the Berserkers who have been told to have been completely entranced and unstoppable and also told to have worn bear skin into battle before everyone else as seen in the northman, unlike the rest of the force who come in armour and after the Berserkers have terrified and mauled the front line. The alcohol of this time was also said to have contained many more botanical medicines and psychoactive plants that were mentioned above, including fermented magic mushrooms. It wasn't necessarily anything like the alcohol we think of today, instead it would have been way more euphoric and drug like, probably hallucinogenic. Like the blue lily wine of the ancient Egyptians and their Yopo seeds containing DMT. Sorry started writing and couldn't stop. I love this history shit haha.

​@@pheart2381 it's not a helmet. You can't see it properly because of the lighting in that scene, but it's actually a crown or tiara with the two ravens fixed to the front. It's a purely ritualistic headpiece used to invoke Odin.

​@@Mek_Alenes The norse people had ritualistic horned masks and headwear since the bronze age really so yeah it's not creative freedom as the "expert" says. Also they were never called them frost giants, just Jøtuns/Jøtnar.

I've watched The Northman at least 5 times now and never had an issue with the pacing.

i loved the pacing of the northman. i thought it was so incredibly tense all the time. like, the pressure just kept building and building throughout the entire movie. loved it! :D

I don't have an issue with it's pacing but it was very small scale for what I expected. Not a bad film, but should've been bigger than it was.

It's a love note to Conan the Barbarian also.

@@Dravianpn02 in what ways, specifically?

Yeah. She says "We don't know what they would have worn." But... maybe SHE doesn't know what they would have worn. One thing Euro-centric researchers never seem to consider is asking the people who live there now what they think their ancestors wore.

​@Sleep of Ages "what they think their ancestors wore" that isn't really clear cut proof/evidence but alrighty

I was thinking exactly the same about the funeral scene. I guess they picked up this scene instead, cause it's way more epic.

if it was the first people the Vikings meet in Greenland called the Thule people, (Vikings called them Skrælings) then we don't know what they were wearing as they don't exist anymore they were nomadic and lived on and off in Greenland but never returned after the Inuits migrated from Canada 7-800 years ago, around 250-300 years after the Vikings settled in Greenland according to Inuit folklore the Thule people were afraid of them, we don't know if they killed them or they just kept away , we do know what the Inuits was wearing @@sleep-of-ages

The viking era archaeologist couldn't even tell the difference between bear and wolf skins. Obviously they were ulfhednar. Those fierce warriors were connected to werewolf lore as well. I don't understand why she didn't get it.

Not true though? They set up in and around the city and we see more armoured people on horseback enter, and they seemed to be the boss of the Ulfhednar/Berserkers since they complain about the people they captured. They even do the trading of slaves inside of it with them discussing where to send the slaves and which ones to brand. Seemed more like a take over to me. Likely a local Norse/Rus ruler taking over Slavic land since they speak English (also I couldn't tell if they were male or female based on voice).

@@magniwalterbutnotwaltermag1479 I understand that the Berserkers were part of a larger force, but that doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't a raid. And even if they were intending to hold the town long-term, they definitely wouldn't want anyone warning the residents before their arrival. If the town had expected an attack, I think they would have put up more of a fight, instead of just posting a few sentries on the wall.

@@matthewzito6130 It wouldn't be a raid it would be a storming(or a fast siege) and it likely actually is! In the sagas at least one time there was a mention of somebody using an axe to climb up a wall during a siege, just like Amleth the Ulfhednar does in this movie. The guards also had what appeared to be scale/lamellar armour on their chests which would be expensive even if they were cheaper than chain, meaning these guys were probably decent fighters until they met the Ulfhednar. Also I never contested aa to why they killed the first two fishermen, that was just logical and I never fought that point.

That’s bullshit

The Marvel Vikings are actually more like aliens from Uranus. They live underground there. NASA has documented that there are Vikings in Uranus....

Tbh I suppose a lot of youngsters/people who don't know any better have that as their main exposure to Norse...Ness.

Disagree. It's valuable to learn about the mythology Vikings believed in, Marvel is just another creative depiction but does provide some background re: the Norse gods et al. It's a 30 minute long video, it would be silly NOT include an extremely popular movie franchise. It's not about authenticity, it's about having a basis of knowledge of the culture. Also how is it sillier than including How to Train Your Dragon where the vikings have Scottish and Canadian accents?

Everything in Marvel’s Thor (and most Marvel to be honest) just looks so plastic.

@@cleverusername9369 I agree How to Train your Dragon was also an awful choice. There are so many examples that would be better. As far as Norse mythology goes there are better films/tv shows to use.

He should have been speaking Icelandic...it's closer to Norse.

And their “Greek” is Latin 😎

They're speaking both danish, swedish and norwegian. Hilsen en dansk broder. :)

@@flannery29 And since we all know Rudbeckius proved in the 15th century that Swedish is the original language spoken by mankind, it is all just dialects of Swedish. ;)

@@b.benjamineriksson6030 That does sound like something a swede would say. :D

True, but pretty gross personal hygiene habits. Which, apparently, was detailed in the real Ahmad ibn Fadlan account.

Pity about the shitty armour though.

@@kev3d Although Ahmad Ibn Fadlan of course came from Bagdhad and wrote for the fine society there, so he had a bit of interest depicting the people he met as scary and savage people, so they would all react with a "Wooow, I can't imagine interacting with such people!"

The scene in which Ahmad Ibn Fadlan states that he learned Norse by listening is absolutely absurd.

@@Rabbithole8 well i learned English by playing video games.

Truly an isolated case of accuracy with respect to the mythology. Marvel studio's treatment of the subject material is not even at the level of a good fan fiction.

​@@upcycle.outdoorsman9629 Are you so sure? The "source material" to which you refer was written by whom?

@@mbryson2899 The Poetic Edda in the Codex Regius. 13th century collection of minstrel poems which is about as good as can be found as a primary source for Norse mythology. Marvel studios made up their own 'comic book' lore, so it is accurate to that.

@@upcycle.outdoorsman9629 Exactly my point. Poems written hundreds of years after the fact is hardly a reliable source. Imagine how a selection of current U.S. films would be interpreted in 300 years; would they reflect our current culture and beliefs?

@@mbryson2899 I bet you loved the Amazon treatment of Tolkien lore.

A real scientist never affirms anything. Even you, with your advanced googling skills, cannot affirm with 100% certainty that what you described there is a general representation of what all vikings believed. She is using hedging because when we're dealing with scientific fields in the humanities we are very rarely certain of anything. But sure thing bud, keep on condescending on a person that spent 7 to 8 years of their life specializing in something. This puts your typing skills to use, I guess.

@@AlesAmazigh Considering plates on helmets depicting the same scene have been found all over like the on the Sutton hoo helmet, I do have a general representation 😇

The Northman was set after the colonization of Iceland. That is a few centuries after the period of the Torslunda plates. Indeed, the viking age is over a century after the period those plates are from. The Northman is about as historically accurate as Braveheart.

@@MikeM-go7hp You know nothing of history with that last statement

@@georgefreemon2935 So you really think that vikings raided villages in their underpants? Fortified villages at that? You really think that they let slaves compete in sports while karls and jarls watched? You really think that Icelandic thralls weighed over 80 kilos and had a build that requires 5 high-calorie meals a day and a personal trainer? You really think that the culture that gave us Hávamál is so grim, joyless and willing to murder children? Have you ever actually read Hávamál, or Egill's Saga, or something that isn't a pop culture derivative? The Old Norse were not exceptional warriors. In that regard they were no better or worse than most of the other cultures, and Jomsvikings aside they were actually worse in combat than well drilled militia (such as the ones defending the village in the movie), which is why 400 men held off thousands of vikings during the second seige of Paris. They were exceptional poets, storytellers, and seafarers. None of that was featured in this pop-culture fantasy movie for boys who think they can be vikings.

The film makes that scene much more comfortable than the mass rape and murder of a slave into a voluntary act.

That was a prayer, as I understand, from slave girls after being gang raped. -the welsh Viking ref

It was a joke with the Author Michael Crichton (yes same guy who wrote Jurassic Park) and a friend on whether they could make Beowulf interesting.

Indeed. Thanks for pointing it out.

Yeah, literally insane she isn't drooling over Northman. I watched it 4k on a 75" screen and you can literally see the HAND WOVEN and sewn tunics. The brooches and helms are all based off of historical finds. They even show multiple different style viking swords found all over Europe. The Berserker part was literally the only thing "fantasy" because it is something we know the least about. Regardless, this movie is the single best portrayal of vikings in history thus far.

Indeed!

Michael Crichton based it on Islamic travellers' observations and Beuwulf. The prayer is actually accurate, so I'm told.

Also in the book, he can speak Greek, which one of the Vikings can and that's how they learn the language

@Robin Green If they were Varangian, they would have a working knowledge of Greek.

@@uncleshagnasty I don't think it's specifically mentioned in the book where they are supposed to be from, it's a long time ago I read it. I believe they are mentioned as Rus, but other than that. My memory fades with my old age.

Perfect response XD

Someone just picked what they thought was cool from a props store, disregarding historical accuracy. But then it is a fantasy film.

I think it might be just you. She is a world renowned expert in Viking archaeology. She, just like all academics I've ever had the pleasure to meet, rarely express surity unless they are abolsutely sure

@@kitchensinkmuses4947except for the part which depicts the ulfhednar ritual, she repeatedly calls them berserkers, and claims that horned helmets were never used, when there is literally a depiction on the Torslunda Plates of 2 figures, one wearing the wolf skin and the other in a horned helmet wielding 2 spears and a sword, during these rituals it has been documented that the Vikings used psychedelic mushrooms to prepare them for battle in these rituals and the historian blatantly glosses over them, she also says that the killing of the townspeople in the boat is unnecessary, when it has the clear tactical advantage of eliminating a potential source of the warriors presence being alerted to the rest of the town

@@Montaguish I’m referring to the Torslunda plates found in Sweden from the vendel period.

@@Montaguish yes you are correct. Neat to see how the continental germanic culture spread across much of Europe and how depictions and cultures from earlier periods carried on. If you look up the Gutenstein sword you’ll find a Alemanni sword sheath depicting a warrior dressed in a wolf skin similar to the berserker on some of these other plates found further north.

@@Montaguish bet that looks badass. I was actually thinking of doing the same thing. And lol I thought so as well, seems the norm unfortunately.

That is a very good point. And I don't think they had independently moving chassis back then (Idk what it's called) to help them around corners either. I think that thing would pretty much only be going straight unless you have a really long, subtle corner.

You're right, it's so hard to find any depiction that isn't either completely romanticizing them or playing off of the savage trope. I guess that's our flaw here in the west, or perhaps of any civilization, to be unable to see other civilizations as civilizations in their own right and needing to make them "different" not just in the way they look but in the way they function. Like, they can't just function like any other society, they need to be either far superior or far inferior and that's just a shame. So much can be learned when we just see them as people instead of romanticized figures or savages.

Idk what personal bias has to do with anything, but it's a short scene she saw with most ppl just running.

They should have showed her the scene where they were all vomiting from the drugs/alcohol they used to prepare for battle.

If I remember correctly they burned the children alive. Pretty evil If you ask me.

​@@MichaelAMangoneI've said it before, I'll say it again, berserkers. didn't. Use. Alcohol/Drugs. BEFORE! EVERY!!! BATTLE!!!!!!!

You mean the White Liberal Female academic seems to have a bias against her own history/culture. Absolutely SHOCKING I tell you 🤣

I would describe The Northman much like The Witch as period accurate not historically accurate. I view The Northman as tacking place in the mind of a 10th century Scandinavian hearing the Saga of Amleth.

@@killgoretrout9000 Amleth is not a very accurate name for a 10th centry Scandinavian either. I am saying though that it is one of the films that are most accurate, history based. I mean, the Vikings series screwed up big time. Is the Vikings Series or the Northman most hisorically accurate for example. I would say the Northman is most accurate both for the history and the time period than Vikings was

@@ghouldr1964 Amleth is a play off of Hamlet which is essentially what this story is. It's not a history because it's something more like the saga of Beowulf rather than the telling of an actual historical event, the story does contain a magic sword and shows a very thin and easily crossed line between the natural and supernatural. That's why I describe it as accurate for the time period but not a history.

@@killgoretrout9000 Whith "historically accurate" I mean how the world is built up for that time period in history, nothing to do with the story. I'm talking about the rituals, the clothes, the buildings etc

@@ghouldr1964 Hence why I said period accurate. Like I said I view the story as taking place in the mind of a 10th century Scandinavian hearing the Saga of Amleth.

She ain’t…her expertise lies in the centuries after this

she literally knows nothing about viking times. she didnt even know that horn helmet is a ceremonial REAL thing. she also thinks howling after being high in ritual is a "Fantasy". when its mentioned in edda. ofc she is taken seriously bcuz christians wiped almost every existing pagan chronics and evidences. only few villages remained in scandinavia, poland and far in iceland

I LOVE Northman, but I did not like the "Berserk raid" scene. Though great film, the scene gives the wrong look of what Norman pirates (Vikings) were. They didn't just run into walls in broad daylight and scale them with picks. Note that moats or ditches were dug at the foot of a wall, making it much too hard to scale. "Berserkers" were champions, the exception, not the norm of the Norse warrior. If one wants to think of what a Norse taking of either a town (berg, burg, borough, burh, ville, village) was like; they best look at the Bayeaux Tapestry. You will see ladders to scale walls and torches to set alight the palisade.

"grey in its morality" I'm glad you said that. I hate applying too much "presentism" into judging movies that depict a culture pretty far removed from us today. That said, the "goodguy" in the movie kills his mother (who was no peach) his half brother (who was more or less innocent), and while he didn't directly burn children alive, he was part of the raiding party that did. I enjoyed the film quite a lot, but they ain't heroes. Though it was pretty satisfying when Amleth kills that guy without a nose who had tried to kill him as a child.

Me too. The 13th warrior is under my top ten, maybe even top 5. What are the other movies?

@@hugovonpayns9291 id agree with the top 5 statement. Let’s see, some of my others…The Patriot, Dances with Wolves, LotR: Return of the King, and Gladiator round out my top 5. Django Unchained, American Sniper, Saving Private Ryan, A Knights Tale and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (cause I’m a prequels baby) round out my top ten!

@@zachbrantley3114 Sounds like a great list mate. For me its surprisingly similar. Gladiator, a knights tale, Postman, Omoide no Mānī, Stardust, LotR the fellowship, Mr Nobody (my alltime #1), The 13th warrior as well as Dawn of the dead and Highlander

@@hugovonpayns9291 I love it, that’s great taste!

@@zachbrantley3114 can I ask you where you from and how old you are? I

Calling them frost giants is a marvel thing. It is true that jötunn is often translated into giants jn english but it isn't super accurate as many of the were regular human sizes.. some very beautiful others monsterous. The closest we get to actual frøet gjants would probably be the residents of Niflheim but don't think I've heard any stories involving them

​@@MaMastoast No they were all larger than humans but not by much. Also the norse had ritualistic horned masks and headwear since the bronze age really so yeah it's not creative freedom as the "expert" says. Also they were never called them frost giants, just Jøtuns/Jøtnar.

@@gustaf3811 Bronze age norse people are not the same as vikings, there are 2000 years in between, there are no archaeological evidence that viking people used horned masks or helmets in the viking age , the association was made in the 1800s by germans.

Viking was filled near my home town, fort lalatte in Brittany

Was thinking the same. Cringe.

To be fair she's an expert on the Viking age and both of those are outside of that specific purview. I agree with you that they're relevant information, but I don't think it's a huge knock against her necessarily.

im sure shes very excited for the live action how to train your dragon....

Yeah it's like they saw those few depictions of helmets with horns and were so desperate to make Vikings look "other" (or just too excited) that they either assumed or consciously chose to believe that all helmets had horns, instead of actually looking at the context and actual prevalence.

There is also a belief that the horns were added by European historians of the time, to signify them as pagans, and thus of the devil. Simply early medieval propaganda.

well it is proven that horns were used in rituals... she was just trying to be smarter than she is. but it happens when youre from a country that wiped CELTS and any mentions of vikings in enland when denmark conquered entire england

Given Robert Eggers sensibilities I have to agree. Looking at the actual fantastical and mythical aspects of his film they feel incredibly grounded. The Valkyrie is depicted in exactly the way I think the Vikings would have believed them to be. Meanwhile the historical accuracy of the sets and costumes is touted, and backed up by experts, as the best of any Viking media ever filmed. Her notes about the fact berserkers are depicted in the popular but not directly substantiated aesthetic is fair. It is somewhat of a modern fantasy, but more on just an interpretation and speculation, fantasy is still the wrong word.

Britain (but not Ireland) has only one venomous species of snake, the common European viper. A single bite would be very unlikely to kill a healthy adult person. Multiple bites from multiple snakes could cause death after perhaps 24-48 hours though.

@@vojtechhoracek7704 Yikes 24-48 hours sounds like an excruciatingly boring way to go but then Britain isn't exactly blessed with an abundance of dangerous wildlife so I guess they didn't have much alternative. Perhaps a pit of angry badgers?

@@StuSaville For the historical period, Eurasian (grey) wolves would've been a reasonably plausible option, they were quite abundant in the British Isles and were often trapped rather than hunted. Then again, I've a feeling that throwing the guy in a pit full of hungry pigs would've been just as gruesome and probably easier to arrange.

Best comment thread on the video 🫡

Anime is a disgrace

I think that too. in 29:39 You can see the cavalry man who holds the spear with dragon head on it. I remember that after the show I checked it and it was real, at that time cavalry would use this symbol. This is the most accurate Viking film I've ever seen. Film is very raw, story is simple, no goods fighting.

yes and no. I think it's better described as period accurate the movie does have a magic sword and a generally thin separation between the natural and supernatural worlds. I view the film as taking place inside the mind of a 10th century Scandinavian hearing the Saga of Amleth. So much like Eggers' first film "The Witch" period accurate but not telling an historically true story.

@@killgoretrout9000 - That's fair, but I also think kind of the whole idea. It's not meant to be reality, obviously, because it depicts things that are obviously supernatural fantasy (like the latter parts of The Witch) but as far as I know it pretty accurately depicts beliefs of the time. A modern audience knows that an undead swordsman is not a real thing, but I think this character in this time period would believe that he might actually have to fight a zombie soldier to get a magic sword... Maybe we are just saying the same thing, but what I mean is I don't think that precludes it from being 'accurate.'

@@masterofallgoons I'm playing a bit of a semantics' game using the term period accurate rather than historically accurate, since I read a lot of history and historical biographies I tend to be kind of fussy when it comes the terms history and historical.

Njal's Saga is an early Icelandic Saga which would be roughly analogous to the time of The North man. It is so similar, that I feel like the makers must hVe read it. The mix of trippy dream sequences,agic weapons, etc. Extremely similar. Northman was well done.

Vikings had the shield-maidens, and it's an animation with friggin' dragons flying in it so why not represent that viking freewomen had rights over their own lives that most girls in other societies hadn't. If she wants to be a shield-maiden in a fiction that has flying dragons, why not? And there are some historical accounts of viking female warriors actually fighting and dying through attacks, for example in byzantine sources like John Skylitzes.

thats still up for debate so you know

That's a good point, but if I remember correctly there was quite some international commerce so they might've been imported. And since snakes are coldblooded, they're very easy to transport (provided you stay away from their teeth ofc) because they don't need to eat often, don't need a large enclosure, and don't need to be kept warm like a mammal would. And a single clutch can contain many eggs, if you handrear those (since in the wild animals usually have multiple young because most of them don't survive) you've got a lot more snakes. Most snakes are sexually mature after 2-3 years, but many snakes appear to be capable of parthenogenesis (which is asexual reproduction, so the female just uses her own genome for the eggs instead of needing to mate with a male). As for the cold, if the snakes are inside the building, even though it can get pretty cold there, there's a chance they'll survive. Since they're coldblooded, their body temperature just moves along with the environment, and they can tolerate temperatures down to below freezing. But if it's really cold, that also means that they're barely moving (and the barely need to eat). So if Ragnar was thrown in there in winter, the snakes probably wouldn't have bothered him unless he hurt any of them and they bit him in response. And even then, venomous (not poisonous, btw) snakes prefer to "dry bite", meaning they don't inject venom when just biting to defend themselves. Venom is an incredibly costly resource for them that takes some time and energy to make, so you don't want to waste it on animals that aren't your prey. However, that is no guarantee that they'll always dry bite, otherwise there wouldn't be a need for antivenom centers across the country ;) So... it's... feasible, I guess? It's at least not impossible, but one has to wonder why they'd go through all that trouble. Maybe precisely because snakes are very low-maintenance, while most other animals you could put into a pit to kill prisoners in would require more space, more feeding, more heat etc. I have a corn snake myself, and I got him precisely because I was looking for a low-maintenance pet because I was still a student and didn't feel comfortable asking my neighbors to take care of my pets while I was on vacation and trusting them with my key. He currently eats once every 2-3 weeks, but they can survive for months without food if need be. Waiting that long obviously won't be healthy, but you can easily go on vacation for 2-4 weeks without problems. When I just got him he was so stressed from the move that he refused to eat for almost half a year. He didn't move much during that time - contrary to warmblooded animals, since they don't need to keep their temperature up all day they have the ability to just slow everything down and adapt their energy expenditure to the availability of food - and he got a little underweight but otherwise he was fine. I kept offering him new food every 1-2 weeks or so but he just kept refusing, but thankfully after a while he finally ate. And he's been fine ever since. :)

I imagine adder venom was probably more lethal when they didn't have easy access to antivenom or modern medicine to treat its symptoms.

I wonder where she stands politically. Im sorry, but i tend to be sceptical towards these so called intellectuals, and their agendas.

@@la8pv737 what is the political agendas thats simply pointing out that Berserkers arent very based in reality lol

@@la8pv737 please explain ur point friend, I dont know what you are arguing about. Im not a historian, the idea of a berserker didnt come from nothing, its obviously based on something, so yes a little then.

Agrees and the sound system in the theater made it soooo much cooler

To rate them…she would have had to see them in full. The clips alone don’t lend themselves to any rating, as some of her mentioned are either explained or even fully shown in those movies

@@SuperVistaprint she is rating scenes, as stated in the title of the video though. Scenes can certainly be compartmentalized into clips. And anyways, this format didn't prevent them from giving ratings in any of the other "Historian rates movie scenes" videos the channel has put out.

@@powerfrenzy maybe they learned from the critic they have gotten over their non standardized rating. What would it help anyone is she gave it a 7/10 or a 2/10? When 1. it’s not her field of expertise 2. she is not familiar with the source material 3. there is no standard

@@SuperVistaprint Well, chiefly, these videos are all in fun. Previous videos have given very high ratings just based on how entertaining a scene is (A Knights Tale, Monty Python/ etc.) The ratings are not scientific, nor are they meant to help anyone decide or study anything. Secondly, Vikings ARE her area of expertise, apparently... that's why she was invited to participate. So from that she'll have a better-than-most foundation for assessing how likely/accurate a movie scene is or is not. She does not need to know a whole movie by heart to critique a scene based on her historical expertise.

@@powerfrenzy she is a medieval expert, a top medieval expert at that…they didn’t say she was a dark age, migration age or simpler viking age expert, because she is not. Her expertise lies in the time after the Vikings. If the ratings serve no purpose, why include a rating? Just in your own words you basically named them pointless. And I just took 5 minutes times go roughly skim the comments and another 15 to look up some of those, very shallow. The comments explained the scenes better and some even with sources, what was depicted and why. And when you say „she doesn’t need to know the entire movie“ again….In the 13th clip she explains the poem where it comes from, the incident that was observed and how that is what they referenced in the movie….BUT THAT burial is IN the movie….just 60 minutes earlier…

Thank you...for a "historian and archaeologist specialising in the Viking Age" her views are very, erm, let's say focused on what she's personally seen

No recognition of nude berserkers, either

Yes it was brilliant, they used a castle on the north west coast of France. Came across it by chance, photos inside of the filming etc