The only thing I enjoyed about the movie was the pathetic attempt of speaking Old Norwegian/Old Norse. "Auga fyrir auga"(Eye for an eye). Did not know the vikings read the bible that much.

My forefathers were nothing but merchants and farmers, the viking myth have no relevance to reality. Maybe we robbed and killed a bit, but everyone in the world did that at that time.

Skyrim is just taking the pop-cultural stuff about "vikings" and mixing it with the TES-lore. And I like that, because it's just a game, not a documentary.

Their looks, their weaponry, their architecture, the fact that they're great seafarers and traders, their thoughts on afterlife and their warrior culture pretty much makes them into classic vikings.

This is probably my main problem with tes lore, it draws so heavily from roman, scandinavian, japanese and other cultures sometimes that I get kinda turned off.

Strange, that's what got me hooked in the first place.

Using pathfinder as a source for information about vikings, is like using a Tom & Jerry magazine as source on american history.
Its one of the worst movies ive ever seen. Complete garbage and a insult to our Scandinavian history and culture.
Anyone even mentioning it in debate about vikings deseves to get slapped with a frozen fish.

I'm not saying they aren't based on viking culture, I'm just saying that there are a few key differences that separate them from actual vikings. There were Nortmanni (not sure if I'm using the right word) before the whole viking boom. If anything, I think that the Reavers on Solstheim were more vikingish than your average Nord.

Vikings didn't always slaughter entire villages...that's only seen on history channel to spice things up. If you fought back you'd be killed, but raids were usually to get rich and get out quick. Alfred the great slowly stopped viking raids by building strong fortifications that vikings generally didn't want to waste time trying to raid. They liked unprotected small settlements close to coastal line. They wanted to avoid battle, not potentially die doing a dangerous raid

Those looked more like Chaos warriors!
[img]http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1184568_99120201008_ChaosWarriorsMain_445x319.jpg[/img]

The vikings didn't keep records about their own history. The invaded british monks wrote the historic accounts afaik. Of course they portrayed the vikings as horrible barbarians, because they didn't like them a whole lot, did they? In reality, I doubt that getting raided by vikings were much worse than being raided by any other fighting force at the time. They all had swords, and they all took the victims belongings and [censored] their women.

As for the topic...

Since this is a game with a lot of fighting, I do think that any viking references would mostly be about their reputation as fighters and raiders yes. I doubt they would be interested in exploring their trading or seatravelling history. But I don't think they will include alternative punishments like duels to the death etc.

A funny fact is that people on great britain(especially bands in Ireland), plundered their own monestarys and churchs more then the vikings actually did.
The main reason why the monks wrote so harsh about the vikings was because the viking raiders were not christian, and they were good at what they did, simple as that.

the war sled scene is embarrasing when the main character rides he's shield like a toboggan down the snow slopes, hunted by vikings using pimped kicksleds.


When will they ever make a good viking movie?

"This is probably my main problem with tes lore, it draws so heavily from roman, scandinavian, japanese and other cultures sometimes that I get kinda turned off."


I'm the opposite. That's what I love about tes. When I first played morrowind I expected imperials to be based off typical medieval british culture like most western rpgs, but it was refreshing to see inspiration from imperial rome instead. Besides, I don't think they borrowed heavily, just seems inspired not 'ripping off'

That was just way too fantastical to even be good. Yeah, that movie svcked. I don't think they could have done a worse job at depicting vikings, or even native Americans for that matter.

Remember seeing something on the History Chanel about the Blood Eagle, one of the most disturbing forms of execution.
On topic, as many have pointed out Vikings were not all about raiding, in some ways they were more civilized than the Anglos that they raided. The whole savage barbarian was more of an image, both that the Vikings wanted to display and that the English would describe them as.

as a culture northmen were incredibly advanced from the 7th centry-ish onwards.. which is why nords might be a good match.. but theres no doubt that vikings were notorious raiders and I hope they allow gamers to murder innocents for their treasure, I dont see why your guy has to be all holy and not able to make a reputation..

The blood eagle is only mentioned in like one Icelandic saga, and it seems it weren't exactly common practice. But holmg?ng, HELL YEAH! The Wild West has started to gain more popularity with RDR, so dueling would be appropriate.

About violence and all that, yes, it was manly to prove your worthiness and gain riches in the south, but they were not primitive. Tey were farmers and they didn't have large cities made of stone (mostly because nobody could rule them and collect taxes without riots), but they DID have the most agile and fastest ships ever seen by then. Also, the Icelanders (maybe also us Scandinavians) had laws and all that, it was an eye for an eye (or gold) like anywhere else, but they were more liberate towards women, and they even had the right to separate if their husband had been cheating or if he'd een gone for a certain period of time.

Yeah well, I'm no fan of the medieval british culture in fantasy either. in my opinion when creating a world it is important to create from scratch, if I want a civilization I'd start with writing key questions.
For example: how does their infrastructure look, why does it look like this and so on? I try to come up with something that feels good and is believeable, that I think is cool and then I just go from question to question,
I look at how the different answers work with eachother and how this system would work with that religion and so on, I'm inevitably drawing inspiration from real world stuff but I can make the reader feel like it's completely unique(if i'm good). Sometimes it just feels that bethesda adds already existing finnished templates, put them together and make their own story based upon them. And I'm personally not a fan of that.

Then again it's probably better for the mainstream audience as it is easier to relate, and I do like a lot of the lore, especially the dunmer lore. But yeah... I probably made little sense.

When will they ever make a good viking game?
Hell, the only good one I know of is Rune...

All I have to say is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApxnAr6pRt0

Video is blocked in my country.
What is it?

im sure theres more depth to nords than shallow nordic looks...especially with all the dragons and mythology, and dynamics with the rest of tamriel

Oh man, that svcks!

It's Led Zeppelin's 'Immigrant Song' starring Viking kittens. Furry awesomeness!

Blocked in UK too. Robert Plant must be short of cash.

Todd Howard explicitly stated that he wanted to make each race unique...to do this culturally, making the Nords much more like their Scandanavian counterparts is inevitable.

For those interested in vikings, I would suggest that they NOT play Viking: Battle for Asgard, a terrible action game that completely flattens viking culture.

Instead, watch Valhalla Rising. And the Thirteenth Warrior. And King Arthur.

And, in the future: Mel Gibson's viking epic, Game of Thrones

How about reading a book on the subject instead? Or is that a terribly outdated media?

im in the middle of reading the king alfred series by bernard cornwell, historical fiction but gives you a taste of danes in britan

"Yeah well, I'm no fan of the medieval british culture in fantasy either. in my opinion when creating a world it is important to create from scratch, if I want a civilization I'd start with writing key questions."


The problem is that its too hard to start from scratch when adding humans to a medieval/classical era style rpg. Empires would pretty much function same way...ruling over certain provinces, etc, along with the issues that go along with controlling other nations. As far as I'm concerned the only things tes borrows from ancient rome is some of the armor and weapons and the style of latin names. They created their own gods, own unique characters, and unique cities/towns. Let's face it, elves and orcs aren't exactly original either...its the slight cultural differences and lore that does set them apart from other games