cjadrien

The show has its merits, but of course it falls short in several respects. The timeline is all out of whack. It jumps around hundreds of years, and cares little for the actual timeline of the Viking Age.

But despite all its shortcomings, I think the real question is, "how accurate does it need to be?" It is, after all, historical fiction, and while we all expect a measure of authenticity in its presentation, the goal is to entertain. In my mind, the show Vikings' greatest merit is that it has cultivated tremendous attention to the actual history of the Vikings, which in turn is giving this field of study a much needed boost.

Well, they didn't have horns, that was an invention of a costume designer at the Berlin opera in the 1880's.

I think the big myth that should be dispelled is that they were not more violent that the other peoples of Europe at the time. In fact, one of the [many] causes of the launch of the Viking Age may have been war atrocities committed by the Carolingians against the Danes' neighbors, the Saxons. So to say that they were terribly violent barbarians is not entirely accurate. They were violent, but so was everyone else.

Well, the thing about the pagan norse is that what we know about their religion is not entirely reliable. Most stories from their mythology were written down centuries after the Christianization of Scandinavia. Therefore, we are left with the basic structure of their mythology, but too many questions to know for sure what it was like. So the show does what it can within this context. If you are interested in the Vikings' religion, I encourage you to start with their mythology. I enjoyed "The Norse Myths" by Kevin Crossley Holland.

The evidence for the early foundations of Russia, and Vikings’ involvement therein, is two-fold.

We have the archeological evidence which points to early Scandinavian colonies east of the Baltic. The first, the Grobin colony in modern day Latvia, demonstrates that Swedes from Gotland migrated there as early as the 7th century. Further north-east there is also the colony of Ladoga, which eventually flourished into a major trading post for goods brought to and from the middle east. Other finds scattered across the region point to extensive trade networks and settlement attempts by Swedish Vikings, known as the Rus.

Then we have the textual evidence. The Russian Primary Chronicle tells of the story of three Rus brothers who were “invited” by the Slavs to become their rulers because the Slavs, according to the text, could not agree amongst each other and so agreed to invite the Rus to make peace. This account is considered to be semi-legendary, meaning it was probably allegory to describe a longer process of raids and conquest by the Rus in the Slavic lands. From there the document goes on to describe the events that led to the foundation of Kiev and Novgorod, which both eventually became part of the Muscovy state, Russia.

Here’s a link to a translation of the Russian Primary Chronicle: http://pages.uoregon.edu/kimball/chronicle.htm#862

How the Rus got their name is somewhat of an enigma. Like the name “Viking” itself, the name Rus has several possible sources. In the Annals of Saint Bertin, and indeed in several other sources, they are referred to as the “Rhos” which has led historians to hypothesize a connection with their tribal home of Roslagen. Others think the name was given to them by the Finns, who today still call the Swedes Ruotsi, a word meaning, “those who row.” Again, there is no certainty as to the true origins of the name, but it is the name they would lend to one of the most powerful nations in modern history, Russia. If the second origin theory of the name Rus is correct—the theory tying it to the Finnish word Ruotsi—the name Russia may actually mean “the land of those who row.”

It is true that women held certain rights their southern neighbors did not. How this played into the fabric of their society is a complex question, and one must be wary not to conflate out of romanticized optimism as I have seen done recently. But, if this is something that interests you, the historian Judith Jesch has done the most extensive work of anyone out there on the subject of women's role in Norse society, drawing from textual and archeological evidence to form her conclusions. I encourage you to look up her books to learn more.