And it may also be worth pointing out here that one of the great works of Old Icelandic literature (essentially Viking in every way, although slightly newer) was the First Grammatical Treatise. No other civilization on earth would have done that, but the norse poeple loved poetry in every way. To read theirworks in english is nice and interesting, but if you ever get ahold of the real thing, in the original language (pronounced old style, modern Icelandic doesnt have quite the same feel or the same flow) the old works are truly amazing works of poetry. I suggest anyone tolook at the works of Egill Skallagrimson, one of the greatest of the great Icelandic Skalds (essentially poets, similar to the medieval bard only better -traveled around, sand and told stories, and actually DID things like raid and fight and such)

?at m?lti m?n m??ir,
at m?r skyldi kaupa
fley ok fagrar ?rar,
fara ? brott me? v?kingum,
standa upp ? stafni,
st?ra d?rum knerri,
halda sv? til hafnar
h?ggva mann ok annan.

Thus spake my mother
That for me should they buy
A barque and beauteous oars
To go forth with vikings.
Stand in the stern,
Steer a dear vessel,
Hold course for a haven,
Hew down many foemen.

or, the myth poems (eddas) great examples of literature

V?lusp?

Hlj??s bi? ek allar
helgar kindir,
meiri ok minni
m?gu Heimdallar;
viltu, at ek, Valf??r!
vel framtelja
forn spj?ll f?ra,
?au er fremst um man.

Ek man j?tna
?r um borna,
?? er for?um
mik f?dda h?f?u;
n?u man ek heima,
n?u ?vi?i,
mj?tvi? m?ran
fyr mold ne?an.

?r var alda
?ar er ?mir byg?i,
vara sandr n? s?r
n? svalar unnir,
j?r? fannsk ?va
n? upphiminn,
gap var ginnunga,
en gras hvergi.

This is the heart and soul of the viking world, poetry and literature. I see in the nords an attempt to get at this, but it seems as if the devs were not in fact scholars of norse culture. They can annoy me at times with their wannabe norse, who come off as protatypical brutes at time (which in reality was not the vikings, well maybe the danes but not the others, they were actually the most advanced civilization as far as literature, scholarship, and literacy of their day, ideed of most of the middle ages! not to mention the greatest sailors in the world at that time [they knew stuff we still havent figured out as far as navigation and such, some evidence even suggests they may have had some sort of compass!])

sorry for my ramble, but I really wish the nord culture was more like the Skaldic world of the vikings, with their great literature and laguage, interesting legal system, unique way of governing themselves, and so on.

This post originally started out as an elaboration on 1999's!

What I was saying back there is that art shouldn't really imitate life. I like the drunken tall-tales of the Aldudaggas. I think it's a genuinely interesting spin on it and stands on its own merits, even if it's more satirical than you might wish. It doesn't imitate the sagas because it's not supposed to do so. I'm not sure if this sort of bibulous vulgarity is stereotypical or not, though. Stereotypical I'd take as the bloodthirsty barbarians in other settings.

Also, I like the startling juxtapositions which tell us they aren't just vikings in a fantasy universe. More wasabi lining the rim of their shields, please.

The norse sagas do have some pretty visceral metaphors, I'll admit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_kennings, in particular. Though I think the fantasy epic is more or less the great descendant of those sorts of stories, which I've never much cared for, personally.