Vikings Depicted as “Goodies”
Until quite recently, history hasn’t been especially kind to Vikings. Depicted as ruthless barbarians hellbent on nothing more but murderous plunder; mainstream texts, television documentaries, and folklore have long painted the Norse in a rather narrow and inaccurate fashion.
Their exploits as explorers, navigators, traders, and settlers have always been rather breezed over. As has the more nuanced aspects of their religion and culture, which include an appreciation for art, craft, and storytelling.
It’s only in fairly recent years that a combination of more widely accessible historical information and a rising interest in the Viking age throughout pop culture has seen this misplaced image revised.
Still, their reputation as pirates and raiders is well earned. The Vikings plundered England for 70 years before they ever stayed for longer than a few days. So despite how pleasing it is that Ubisoft seems intent on portraying some of the finer aspects of Norse culture, let’s hope they don’t go too far and turn Valhalla into a fairytale.
The early signs aren’t great; the scene we’re shown of a Viking warrior allowing a woman and child to go unharmed during a village raid is far-fetched, to say the least. Even if it does simply serve to tee up the narrative, it’s painfully on the nose for my tastes.
I much preferred the next scene, which highlighted the Viking’s interest in settling on English soil for the purposes of farming. It’s absolutely true that England’s real treasure was its fertile soil and temperate climate, something that Danish and Norwegian Vikings were keen to exploit with their own permanent settlements.
Fingers crossed Ubisoft’s narrative team isn’t going for a black and white representation of Vikings and Saxons, painting one as a “goody” and the other as a “baddie.”
