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The Vikings (film)
Encyclopedia
The Vikings is an adventure film directed by Richard Fleischer
in 1958
Technicolor
, produced by and starring Kirk Douglas
, and based on the novel The Viking by Edison Marshall
, based in its turn on legendary material from the sagas
of Ragnar Lodbrok
and his sons
. Other actors included Tony Curtis
, Janet Leigh
, Ernest Borgnine
and Frank Thring
. The film made notable use of natural locations in Norway
. It was mostly filmed in Maurangerfjorden
and Bondhus, captured on film by cinematographer Jack Cardiff
although Aella's castle was the real Fort de la Latte
in north-east Brittany.
Despite being derisively called a "Norse Opera" by New York Times critic Bosley Crowther
, the film proved a major box office success and spawned the television series Tales of the Vikings, directed by the film's editor, Elmo Williams
, which included none of the original cast or characters.
The Vikings was the second and, as it turned out, last collaboration between Fleischer and Douglas (the first was 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
). According to the All-Movie Guide, the director and star disagreed on the approach to the material and "for years thereafter would hold each other responsible for the film's falling short of its potential."
is killed during a Viking raid led by the fearsome Ragnar
(Ernest Borgnine
). Because the king had died childless, his cousin Aella (Frank Thring
) takes the throne. The king's widow, however, is pregnant with what she knows is Ragnar's child, and to protect the infant from her cousin-in-law's ambitions, she sends him off to Italy
. By a twist of fate, the ship is intercepted by the Vikings, who are unaware of the child's kinship, and enslave
him. The boy grows into a young man named Erik
(Tony Curtis
).
His parentage is finally discovered by Lord Egbert (James Donald
), a Northumbrian nobleman opposed to Aella. When Aella accuses him of treason, Egbert finds sanctuary with Ragnar in Norway. Egbert recognizes the Northumbrian royal sword's pommel
stone on an amulet around Erik's neck, placed there by Erik's mother when he was a child, but tells no one.
Erik incurs the wrath of his half-brother Einar (Kirk Douglas), Ragnar's legitimate son and heir, after the former orders his falcon
to attack Einar, taking out one of his eyes. Erik is saved from immediate execution when the tribal shaman Kitala (who loves Erik as a son) says that Odin
will curse whoever kills him. He is left in a tidal pool to drown with the rising tide by Ragnar's decree to avoid the curse, but after Erik calls out to Odin, the wind shifts and forces the water away, saving him. Egbert then claims him as his slave. Egbert hopes to find an opportunity to take advantage of Erik's unknown claim to the Northumbrian kingdom.
The enmity between Erik and Einar is exacerbated when they both fall in love with Princess Morgana (Janet Leigh), who was to marry King Aella but is captured in a raid suggested by Egbert. During a drunken fest in the "great hall", complete with giant mead caldrons and an axe-throwing competition, Einar confesses his feelings to Ragnar, who tells Einar he can have Morgana. Einar throws the guards off the ship Morgana is being held on, and begins to ravish her — defying his expectations of resistance, she submits to him, her emotions towards Einar clearly divided between attraction and revulsion. But before things can go any further, Erik grabs Einar from behind and knocks him out, then takes Morgana away on a small ship he had constructed for Egbert.
Erik and Morgana flee to England, along with Sandpiper, Kitala, and Morgana's maid Bridget (Dandy Nichols
). Einar regains consciousness and gives the alarm, and several pursuing longships quickly gain on the fugitives. In thick fog, Ragnar's longboat
hits a rock and sinks, while Erik's boat is guided safely by a primitive compass, a piece of magnetite
in the shape of a fish that Sandpiper obtained in a distant land. Einar, in another longboat, believes Ragnar to be dead and grudgingly abandons the chase. Ragnar, however, is rescued by Erik and taken prisoner to Aella. Erik and Morgana become lovers during the trip, and she agrees to seek release from her pledge to marry Aella.
Aella orders the Viking leader bound and thrown into a pit filled with starved wolves. To give Ragnar a Viking's death (so that he can enter Valhalla
), Erik, who is granted the honor of forcing him into the pit, cuts the prisoner's bonds and gives him his sword. Laughing, Ragnar jumps to his death. In response to Erik's "treason", Aella cuts off his left hand, puts him back on his ship and casts him adrift.
Erik returns to Einar's settlement, and tells his half-brother how his father died, and what had been Aella's reward for allowing Ragnar to die a Viking's death. With this revelation, and the promise that Erik will guide their ships through the fog (thus making a surprise attack possible), Einar is finally able to persuade the other Vikings to mount an invasion of Northumbria. Putting their mutual hatred aside for the moment, Einar and Erik sail for England.
The long dragon ships land and the Vikings begin to move inland in force. The alarm is sounded and the terrified peasants abandon their fields and flocks and flee to the safety of the castle. Soon the Vikings are arrayed in front of the fortress in full battle armor.
Shouting the name of Odin
, the Vikings storm Aella's castle. In a bold move, Einar has several Vikings throw axes at the closed gate that bars entrance to the castle. Several of the axe-throwers are killed, but enough survive to throw their axes that a "ladder" is created for Einar to climb after he leaps across the moat to the gate. He gains entry to the castle and lowers the drawbridge so that the other Vikings can overwhelm the outnumbered English. Erik and Einar both set off in search of Morgana. Erik encounters Aella instead and shoves him into the pit of wolves.
Einar finds Morgana in the highest tower of the castle, and again begins to make love to her, telling her she will be his queen. In spite of her still obvious attraction to him, Morgana tells Einar she hates him, and loves Erik. Enraged, Einar drags her outside and calls Erik to their long-delayed battle. The two bitter rivals engage in a swordfight on top of the tower. Erik is defeated, his sword broken, but Einar hesitates to kill him since he has learned from Morgana that Erik is his half-brother. The hesitation gives Erik, who does not yet know they share the same father, the opportunity to stab Einar with his sword's broken blade. Echoing the scene with Ragnar, Erik gives Einar a sword, so that he too can enter Valhalla. In the final scene, Einar is given a Viking funeral
: his body is placed on a longboat, which is set on fire by flaming arrows.
for his own Viking epic, Erik the Conqueror.
The Vikings is an adventure film directed by Richard Fleischer
in 1958
Technicolor
, produced by and starring Kirk Douglas
, and based on the novel The Viking by Edison Marshall
, based in its turn on legendary material from the sagas
of Ragnar Lodbrok
and his sons
. Other actors included Tony Curtis
, Janet Leigh
, Ernest Borgnine
and Frank Thring
. The film made notable use of natural locations in Norway
. It was mostly filmed in Maurangerfjorden
and Bondhus, captured on film by cinematographer Jack Cardiff
although Aella's castle was the real Fort de la Latte
in north-east Brittany.
Despite being derisively called a "Norse Opera" by New York Times critic Bosley Crowther
, the film proved a major box office success and spawned the television series Tales of the Vikings, directed by the film's editor, Elmo Williams
, which included none of the original cast or characters.
The Vikings was the second and, as it turned out, last collaboration between Fleischer and Douglas (the first was 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
). According to the All-Movie Guide, the director and star disagreed on the approach to the material and "for years thereafter would hold each other responsible for the film's falling short of its potential."
is killed during a Viking raid led by the fearsome Ragnar
(Ernest Borgnine
). Because the king had died childless, his cousin Aella (Frank Thring
) takes the throne. The king's widow, however, is pregnant with what she knows is Ragnar's child, and to protect the infant from her cousin-in-law's ambitions, she sends him off to Italy
. By a twist of fate, the ship is intercepted by the Vikings, who are unaware of the child's kinship, and enslave
him. The boy grows into a young man named Erik
(Tony Curtis
).
His parentage is finally discovered by Lord Egbert (James Donald
), a Northumbrian nobleman opposed to Aella. When Aella accuses him of treason, Egbert finds sanctuary with Ragnar in Norway. Egbert recognizes the Northumbrian royal sword's pommel
stone on an amulet around Erik's neck, placed there by Erik's mother when he was a child, but tells no one.
Erik incurs the wrath of his half-brother Einar (Kirk Douglas), Ragnar's legitimate son and heir, after the former orders his falcon
to attack Einar, taking out one of his eyes. Erik is saved from immediate execution when the tribal shaman Kitala (who loves Erik as a son) says that Odin
will curse whoever kills him. He is left in a tidal pool to drown with the rising tide by Ragnar's decree to avoid the curse, but after Erik calls out to Odin, the wind shifts and forces the water away, saving him. Egbert then claims him as his slave. Egbert hopes to find an opportunity to take advantage of Erik's unknown claim to the Northumbrian kingdom.
The enmity between Erik and Einar is exacerbated when they both fall in love with Princess Morgana (Janet Leigh), who was to marry King Aella but is captured in a raid suggested by Egbert. During a drunken fest in the "great hall", complete with giant mead caldrons and an axe-throwing competition, Einar confesses his feelings to Ragnar, who tells Einar he can have Morgana. Einar throws the guards off the ship Morgana is being held on, and begins to ravish her — defying his expectations of resistance, she submits to him, her emotions towards Einar clearly divided between attraction and revulsion. But before things can go any further, Erik grabs Einar from behind and knocks him out, then takes Morgana away on a small ship he had constructed for Egbert.
Erik and Morgana flee to England, along with Sandpiper, Kitala, and Morgana's maid Bridget (Dandy Nichols
). Einar regains consciousness and gives the alarm, and several pursuing longships quickly gain on the fugitives. In thick fog, Ragnar's longboat
hits a rock and sinks, while Erik's boat is guided safely by a primitive compass, a piece of magnetite
in the shape of a fish that Sandpiper obtained in a distant land. Einar, in another longboat, believes Ragnar to be dead and grudgingly abandons the chase. Ragnar, however, is rescued by Erik and taken prisoner to Aella. Erik and Morgana become lovers during the trip, and she agrees to seek release from her pledge to marry Aella.
Aella orders the Viking leader bound and thrown into a pit filled with starved wolves. To give Ragnar a Viking's death (so that he can enter Valhalla
), Erik, who is granted the honor of forcing him into the pit, cuts the prisoner's bonds and gives him his sword. Laughing, Ragnar jumps to his death. In response to Erik's "treason", Aella cuts off his left hand, puts him back on his ship and casts him adrift.
Erik returns to Einar's settlement, and tells his half-brother how his father died, and what had been Aella's reward for allowing Ragnar to die a Viking's death. With this revelation, and the promise that Erik will guide their ships through the fog (thus making a surprise attack possible), Einar is finally able to persuade the other Vikings to mount an invasion of Northumbria. Putting their mutual hatred aside for the moment, Einar and Erik sail for England.
The long dragon ships land and the Vikings begin to move inland in force. The alarm is sounded and the terrified peasants abandon their fields and flocks and flee to the safety of the castle. Soon the Vikings are arrayed in front of the fortress in full battle armor.
Shouting the name of Odin
, the Vikings storm Aella's castle. In a bold move, Einar has several Vikings throw axes at the closed gate that bars entrance to the castle. Several of the axe-throwers are killed, but enough survive to throw their axes that a "ladder" is created for Einar to climb after he leaps across the moat to the gate. He gains entry to the castle and lowers the drawbridge so that the other Vikings can overwhelm the outnumbered English. Erik and Einar both set off in search of Morgana. Erik encounters Aella instead and shoves him into the pit of wolves.
Einar finds Morgana in the highest tower of the castle, and again begins to make love to her, telling her she will be his queen. In spite of her still obvious attraction to him, Morgana tells Einar she hates him, and loves Erik. Enraged, Einar drags her outside and calls Erik to their long-delayed battle. The two bitter rivals engage in a swordfight on top of the tower. Erik is defeated, his sword broken, but Einar hesitates to kill him since he has learned from Morgana that Erik is his half-brother. The hesitation gives Erik, who does not yet know they share the same father, the opportunity to stab Einar with his sword's broken blade. Echoing the scene with Ragnar, Erik gives Einar a sword, so that he too can enter Valhalla. In the final scene, Einar is given a Viking funeral
: his body is placed on a longboat, which is set on fire by flaming arrows.
for his own Viking epic, Erik the Conqueror.
The Vikings is an adventure film directed by Richard Fleischer
in 1958
Technicolor
, produced by and starring Kirk Douglas
, and based on the novel The Viking by Edison Marshall
, based in its turn on legendary material from the sagas
of Ragnar Lodbrok
and his sons
. Other actors included Tony Curtis
, Janet Leigh
, Ernest Borgnine
and Frank Thring
. The film made notable use of natural locations in Norway
. It was mostly filmed in Maurangerfjorden
and Bondhus, captured on film by cinematographer Jack Cardiff
although Aella's castle was the real Fort de la Latte
in north-east Brittany.
Despite being derisively called a "Norse Opera" by New York Times critic Bosley Crowther
, the film proved a major box office success and spawned the television series Tales of the Vikings, directed by the film's editor, Elmo Williams
, which included none of the original cast or characters.
The Vikings was the second and, as it turned out, last collaboration between Fleischer and Douglas (the first was 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
). According to the All-Movie Guide, the director and star disagreed on the approach to the material and "for years thereafter would hold each other responsible for the film's falling short of its potential."
is killed during a Viking raid led by the fearsome Ragnar
(Ernest Borgnine
). Because the king had died childless, his cousin Aella (Frank Thring
) takes the throne. The king's widow, however, is pregnant with what she knows is Ragnar's child, and to protect the infant from her cousin-in-law's ambitions, she sends him off to Italy
. By a twist of fate, the ship is intercepted by the Vikings, who are unaware of the child's kinship, and enslave
him. The boy grows into a young man named Erik
(Tony Curtis
).
His parentage is finally discovered by Lord Egbert (James Donald
), a Northumbrian nobleman opposed to Aella. When Aella accuses him of treason, Egbert finds sanctuary with Ragnar in Norway. Egbert recognizes the Northumbrian royal sword's pommel
stone on an amulet around Erik's neck, placed there by Erik's mother when he was a child, but tells no one.
Erik incurs the wrath of his half-brother Einar (Kirk Douglas), Ragnar's legitimate son and heir, after the former orders his falcon
to attack Einar, taking out one of his eyes. Erik is saved from immediate execution when the tribal shaman Kitala (who loves Erik as a son) says that Odin
will curse whoever kills him. He is left in a tidal pool to drown with the rising tide by Ragnar's decree to avoid the curse, but after Erik calls out to Odin, the wind shifts and forces the water away, saving him. Egbert then claims him as his slave. Egbert hopes to find an opportunity to take advantage of Erik's unknown claim to the Northumbrian kingdom.
The enmity between Erik and Einar is exacerbated when they both fall in love with Princess Morgana (Janet Leigh), who was to marry King Aella but is captured in a raid suggested by Egbert. During a drunken fest in the "great hall", complete with giant mead caldrons and an axe-throwing competition, Einar confesses his feelings to Ragnar, who tells Einar he can have Morgana. Einar throws the guards off the ship Morgana is being held on, and begins to ravish her — defying his expectations of resistance, she submits to him, her emotions towards Einar clearly divided between attraction and revulsion. But before things can go any further, Erik grabs Einar from behind and knocks him out, then takes Morgana away on a small ship he had constructed for Egbert.
Erik and Morgana flee to England, along with Sandpiper, Kitala, and Morgana's maid Bridget (Dandy Nichols
). Einar regains consciousness and gives the alarm, and several pursuing longships quickly gain on the fugitives. In thick fog, Ragnar's longboat
hits a rock and sinks, while Erik's boat is guided safely by a primitive compass, a piece of magnetite
in the shape of a fish that Sandpiper obtained in a distant land. Einar, in another longboat, believes Ragnar to be dead and grudgingly abandons the chase. Ragnar, however, is rescued by Erik and taken prisoner to Aella. Erik and Morgana become lovers during the trip, and she agrees to seek release from her pledge to marry Aella.
Aella orders the Viking leader bound and thrown into a pit filled with starved wolves. To give Ragnar a Viking's death (so that he can enter Valhalla
), Erik, who is granted the honor of forcing him into the pit, cuts the prisoner's bonds and gives him his sword. Laughing, Ragnar jumps to his death. In response to Erik's "treason", Aella cuts off his left hand, puts him back on his ship and casts him adrift.
Erik returns to Einar's settlement, and tells his half-brother how his father died, and what had been Aella's reward for allowing Ragnar to die a Viking's death. With this revelation, and the promise that Erik will guide their ships through the fog (thus making a surprise attack possible), Einar is finally able to persuade the other Vikings to mount an invasion of Northumbria. Putting their mutual hatred aside for the moment, Einar and Erik sail for England.
The long dragon ships land and the Vikings begin to move inland in force. The alarm is sounded and the terrified peasants abandon their fields and flocks and flee to the safety of the castle. Soon the Vikings are arrayed in front of the fortress in full battle armor.
Shouting the name of Odin
, the Vikings storm Aella's castle. In a bold move, Einar has several Vikings throw axes at the closed gate that bars entrance to the castle. Several of the axe-throwers are killed, but enough survive to throw their axes that a "ladder" is created for Einar to climb after he leaps across the moat to the gate. He gains entry to the castle and lowers the drawbridge so that the other Vikings can overwhelm the outnumbered English. Erik and Einar both set off in search of Morgana. Erik encounters Aella instead and shoves him into the pit of wolves.
Einar finds Morgana in the highest tower of the castle, and again begins to make love to her, telling her she will be his queen. In spite of her still obvious attraction to him, Morgana tells Einar she hates him, and loves Erik. Enraged, Einar drags her outside and calls Erik to their long-delayed battle. The two bitter rivals engage in a swordfight on top of the tower. Erik is defeated, his sword broken, but Einar hesitates to kill him since he has learned from Morgana that Erik is his half-brother. The hesitation gives Erik, who does not yet know they share the same father, the opportunity to stab Einar with his sword's broken blade. Echoing the scene with Ragnar, Erik gives Einar a sword, so that he too can enter Valhalla. In the final scene, Einar is given a Viking funeral
: his body is placed on a longboat, which is set on fire by flaming arrows.
for his own Viking epic, Erik the Conqueror.
Richard Fleischer
-Early life:Fleischer was born in Brooklyn, the son of Essie and animator/producer Max Fleischer. He started in motion pictures as director of animated shorts produced by his father including entries in the Betty Boop, Popeye and Superman series.His live-action film career began in 1942 at the RKO...
in 1958
1958 in film
The year 1958 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 16- "In the Money" by William Beaudine is released on this date. It would be the last installment of The Bowery Boys series which began back in 1946....
Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
, produced by and starring Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...
, and based on the novel The Viking by Edison Marshall
Edison Marshall
Edison Tesla Marshall was an American short story writer and novelist.-Life:...
, based in its turn on legendary material from the sagas
Legendary saga
A Legendary saga or Fornaldarsaga is a Norse saga that, unlike the Icelanders' sagas, takes place before the colonization of Iceland. There are some exceptions, such as Yngvars saga víðförla, which takes place in the 11th century...
of Ragnar Lodbrok
Krákumál
Krákumál or the Lay of Kraka is a skaldic poem, consisting of a monologue in which Ragnar Lodbrok is dying in Ælla's snake pit and looks back at a life full of heroic deeds. It was composed in the 12th century, "almost certainly" in the Scottish islands...
and his sons
Ragnarssona þáttr
Ragnarssona þáttr, Þáttr af Ragnars sonum or the Tale of Ragnar's sons is a short story on Ragnar Lodbrok and his sons.-Ragnar Lodbrok:When Sigurd Ring dies, Ragnar succeeds him as the king of Sweden and Denmark...
. Other actors included Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in over 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama...
, Janet Leigh
Janet Leigh
Janet Leigh , born Jeanette Helen Morrison, was an American actress. She was the wife of actor Tony Curtis from June 1951 to September 1962 and the mother of Kelly Curtis and Jamie Lee Curtis....
, Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...
and Frank Thring
Frank Thring
Frank William Thring was an Australian character actor.-Early life:Thring was born in Melbourne and educated at the Melbourne Grammar School. His father, Frank W. Thring, was the head of Efftee Studios, in Melbourne, in the 1920s, and is said to be the inventor of the clapperboard...
. The film made notable use of natural locations in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. It was mostly filmed in Maurangerfjorden
Kvinnherad
Kvinnherad is a municipality in the county of Hordaland, Norway. The parish of Kvindherred was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 . Fjelberg, most of Varaldsøy and parts of Skånevik merged with Kvinnherad on 1 January 1965.The municipality is the 5th in size in Hordaland...
and Bondhus, captured on film by cinematographer Jack Cardiff
Jack Cardiff
Jack Cardiff, OBE, BSC was a British cinematographer, director and photographer.His career spanned the development of cinema, from silent film, through early experiments in Technicolor to filmmaking in the 21st century...
although Aella's castle was the real Fort de la Latte
Fort-la-Latte
Fort-la-Latte or Castle of La Latte is a castle located about 4 km southeast of Cap Fréhel and about 35 km west of Saint-Malo, in the commune of Fréhel, Côtes-d'Armor, Brittany, France....
in north-east Brittany.
Despite being derisively called a "Norse Opera" by New York Times critic Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
, the film proved a major box office success and spawned the television series Tales of the Vikings, directed by the film's editor, Elmo Williams
Elmo Williams
Elmo Williams is an American film and television editor, director, producer, and executive. His work on the film High Noon received the Academy Award for Film Editing...
, which included none of the original cast or characters.
The Vikings was the second and, as it turned out, last collaboration between Fleischer and Douglas (the first was 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954 film)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a 1954 adventure film starring Kirk Douglas as Ned Land, James Mason as Captain Nemo, Paul Lukas as Professor Pierre Aronnax, and Peter Lorre as Conseil. It was the first science fiction film produced by Walt Disney Productions, as well as the only science-fiction...
). According to the All-Movie Guide, the director and star disagreed on the approach to the material and "for years thereafter would hold each other responsible for the film's falling short of its potential."
Plot
The King of NorthumbriaNorthumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
is killed during a Viking raid led by the fearsome Ragnar
Ragnar Lodbrok
Ragnar Lodbrok was a Norse legendary hero from the Viking Age who was thoroughly reshaped in Old Norse poetry and legendary sagas.-Life as recorded in the sagas:...
(Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...
). Because the king had died childless, his cousin Aella (Frank Thring
Frank Thring
Frank William Thring was an Australian character actor.-Early life:Thring was born in Melbourne and educated at the Melbourne Grammar School. His father, Frank W. Thring, was the head of Efftee Studios, in Melbourne, in the 1920s, and is said to be the inventor of the clapperboard...
) takes the throne. The king's widow, however, is pregnant with what she knows is Ragnar's child, and to protect the infant from her cousin-in-law's ambitions, she sends him off to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. By a twist of fate, the ship is intercepted by the Vikings, who are unaware of the child's kinship, and enslave
Thrall
Thrall was the term for a serf or unfree servant in Scandinavian culture during the Viking Age.Thralls were the lowest in the social order and usually provided unskilled labor during the Viking era.-Etymology:...
him. The boy grows into a young man named Erik
Ecgberht I of Northumbria
Ecgberht was king of Northumbria in the middle of the 9th century. This period of Northumbrian history is poorly recorded, and very little is known of Ecgberht....
(Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in over 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama...
).
His parentage is finally discovered by Lord Egbert (James Donald
James Donald
James Donald was a Scottish actor. Tall and thin, he usually specialised in playing authority figures.Donald was born in Aberdeen, and made his first professional stage appearance sometime in the late-1930s, having been educated at Rossall School on Lancashire's Fylde coast...
), a Northumbrian nobleman opposed to Aella. When Aella accuses him of treason, Egbert finds sanctuary with Ragnar in Norway. Egbert recognizes the Northumbrian royal sword's pommel
Pommel
Pommel may refer to:* pommel, the raised area at the front of an equestrian saddle.* Pommel, the counterweight at the end of the hilt of a European sword* Pommel horse, an artistic gymnastics apparatus...
stone on an amulet around Erik's neck, placed there by Erik's mother when he was a child, but tells no one.
Erik incurs the wrath of his half-brother Einar (Kirk Douglas), Ragnar's legitimate son and heir, after the former orders his falcon
Falcon
A falcon is any species of raptor in the genus Falco. The genus contains 37 species, widely distributed throughout Europe, Asia, and North America....
to attack Einar, taking out one of his eyes. Erik is saved from immediate execution when the tribal shaman Kitala (who loves Erik as a son) says that Odin
Odin
Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....
will curse whoever kills him. He is left in a tidal pool to drown with the rising tide by Ragnar's decree to avoid the curse, but after Erik calls out to Odin, the wind shifts and forces the water away, saving him. Egbert then claims him as his slave. Egbert hopes to find an opportunity to take advantage of Erik's unknown claim to the Northumbrian kingdom.
Erik and Morgana flee to England, along with Sandpiper, Kitala, and Morgana's maid Bridget (Dandy Nichols
Dandy Nichols
-References:* Dandy Nichols at screenonline.* Dandy Nichols at The Museum of Broadcast Communications.-External links:...
). Einar regains consciousness and gives the alarm, and several pursuing longships quickly gain on the fugitives. In thick fog, Ragnar's longboat
Longship
Longships were sea vessels made and used by the Vikings from the Nordic countries for trade, commerce, exploration, and warfare during the Viking Age. The longship’s design evolved over many years, beginning in the Stone Age with the invention of the umiak and continuing up to the 9th century with...
hits a rock and sinks, while Erik's boat is guided safely by a primitive compass, a piece of magnetite
Magnetite
Magnetite is a ferrimagnetic mineral with chemical formula Fe3O4, one of several iron oxides and a member of the spinel group. The chemical IUPAC name is iron oxide and the common chemical name is ferrous-ferric oxide. The formula for magnetite may also be written as FeO·Fe2O3, which is one part...
in the shape of a fish that Sandpiper obtained in a distant land. Einar, in another longboat, believes Ragnar to be dead and grudgingly abandons the chase. Ragnar, however, is rescued by Erik and taken prisoner to Aella. Erik and Morgana become lovers during the trip, and she agrees to seek release from her pledge to marry Aella.
Aella orders the Viking leader bound and thrown into a pit filled with starved wolves. To give Ragnar a Viking's death (so that he can enter Valhalla
Valhalla
In Norse mythology, Valhalla is a majestic, enormous hall located in Asgard, ruled over by the god Odin. Chosen by Odin, half of those that die in combat travel to Valhalla upon death, led by valkyries, while the other half go to the goddess Freyja's field Fólkvangr...
), Erik, who is granted the honor of forcing him into the pit, cuts the prisoner's bonds and gives him his sword. Laughing, Ragnar jumps to his death. In response to Erik's "treason", Aella cuts off his left hand, puts him back on his ship and casts him adrift.
Erik returns to Einar's settlement, and tells his half-brother how his father died, and what had been Aella's reward for allowing Ragnar to die a Viking's death. With this revelation, and the promise that Erik will guide their ships through the fog (thus making a surprise attack possible), Einar is finally able to persuade the other Vikings to mount an invasion of Northumbria. Putting their mutual hatred aside for the moment, Einar and Erik sail for England.
The long dragon ships land and the Vikings begin to move inland in force. The alarm is sounded and the terrified peasants abandon their fields and flocks and flee to the safety of the castle. Soon the Vikings are arrayed in front of the fortress in full battle armor.
Shouting the name of Odin
Odin
Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....
, the Vikings storm Aella's castle. In a bold move, Einar has several Vikings throw axes at the closed gate that bars entrance to the castle. Several of the axe-throwers are killed, but enough survive to throw their axes that a "ladder" is created for Einar to climb after he leaps across the moat to the gate. He gains entry to the castle and lowers the drawbridge so that the other Vikings can overwhelm the outnumbered English. Erik and Einar both set off in search of Morgana. Erik encounters Aella instead and shoves him into the pit of wolves.
Einar finds Morgana in the highest tower of the castle, and again begins to make love to her, telling her she will be his queen. In spite of her still obvious attraction to him, Morgana tells Einar she hates him, and loves Erik. Enraged, Einar drags her outside and calls Erik to their long-delayed battle. The two bitter rivals engage in a swordfight on top of the tower. Erik is defeated, his sword broken, but Einar hesitates to kill him since he has learned from Morgana that Erik is his half-brother. The hesitation gives Erik, who does not yet know they share the same father, the opportunity to stab Einar with his sword's broken blade. Echoing the scene with Ragnar, Erik gives Einar a sword, so that he too can enter Valhalla. In the final scene, Einar is given a Viking funeral
Viking funeral
Burial customs of Viking Age Norsemen are known both from archaeology and from historical accounts such as the Icelandic sagas, Old Norse poetry, and notably from the account of Ahmad ibn Fadlan....
: his body is placed on a longboat, which is set on fire by flaming arrows.
Cast
- Kirk DouglasKirk DouglasKirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...
as Einar - Tony CurtisTony CurtisTony Curtis was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in over 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama...
as Erik - Ernest BorgnineErnest BorgnineErnest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...
as Ragnar - Janet LeighJanet LeighJanet Leigh , born Jeanette Helen Morrison, was an American actress. She was the wife of actor Tony Curtis from June 1951 to September 1962 and the mother of Kelly Curtis and Jamie Lee Curtis....
as Morgana - James DonaldJames DonaldJames Donald was a Scottish actor. Tall and thin, he usually specialised in playing authority figures.Donald was born in Aberdeen, and made his first professional stage appearance sometime in the late-1930s, having been educated at Rossall School on Lancashire's Fylde coast...
as Egbert - Alexander KnoxAlexander KnoxAlexander Knox was a Canadian actor and author of adventure novels set in the Great Lakes area during the 19th century.-Biography:...
as Father Godwin - Maxine AudleyMaxine AudleyMaxine Audley was an English theatre and film actress. She made her professional stage debut in July 1940 at the Open Air Theatre. Throughout her career, Audley performed with both the Old Vic company and the Royal Shakespeare Company multiple times...
as Enid - Frank ThringFrank ThringFrank William Thring was an Australian character actor.-Early life:Thring was born in Melbourne and educated at the Melbourne Grammar School. His father, Frank W. Thring, was the head of Efftee Studios, in Melbourne, in the 1920s, and is said to be the inventor of the clapperboard...
as Aella - Eileen WayEileen WayEileen Way was an English actress who appeared in many film and television roles in a career dating back to the 1930s....
as Kitala - Edric ConnorEdric ConnorEdric Connor was a pioneering calypso singer, folklorist and actor who was born in Mayaro, Trinidad in 1913...
as Sandpiper - Dandy NicholsDandy Nichols-References:* Dandy Nichols at screenonline.* Dandy Nichols at The Museum of Broadcast Communications.-External links:...
as Bridget - Per BuckhøjPer BuckhøjPer Buckhøj was a Danish film actor. He appeared in 36 films between 1942 and 1958.-Filmography:* The Vikings * Stof til eftertanke * Ellehammer-filmen * Gengæld...
as Bjorn
Casting
Ernest Borgnine plays Ragnar the father of Einar, played by Kirk Douglas. Borgnine was born almost two months after Douglas.Legacy
Much of the plot was later appropriated by Mario BavaMario Bava
Mario Bava was an Italian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer remembered as one of the greatest names from the "golden age" of Italian horror films.-Biography:Mario Bava was born in San Remo, Liguria, Italy...
for his own Viking epic, Erik the Conqueror.
See also
- List of historical drama films
The Vikings is an adventure film directed by Richard Fleischer
Richard Fleischer
-Early life:Fleischer was born in Brooklyn, the son of Essie and animator/producer Max Fleischer. He started in motion pictures as director of animated shorts produced by his father including entries in the Betty Boop, Popeye and Superman series.His live-action film career began in 1942 at the RKO...
in 1958
1958 in film
The year 1958 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 16- "In the Money" by William Beaudine is released on this date. It would be the last installment of The Bowery Boys series which began back in 1946....
Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
, produced by and starring Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...
, and based on the novel The Viking by Edison Marshall
Edison Marshall
Edison Tesla Marshall was an American short story writer and novelist.-Life:...
, based in its turn on legendary material from the sagas
Legendary saga
A Legendary saga or Fornaldarsaga is a Norse saga that, unlike the Icelanders' sagas, takes place before the colonization of Iceland. There are some exceptions, such as Yngvars saga víðförla, which takes place in the 11th century...
of Ragnar Lodbrok
Krákumál
Krákumál or the Lay of Kraka is a skaldic poem, consisting of a monologue in which Ragnar Lodbrok is dying in Ælla's snake pit and looks back at a life full of heroic deeds. It was composed in the 12th century, "almost certainly" in the Scottish islands...
and his sons
Ragnarssona þáttr
Ragnarssona þáttr, Þáttr af Ragnars sonum or the Tale of Ragnar's sons is a short story on Ragnar Lodbrok and his sons.-Ragnar Lodbrok:When Sigurd Ring dies, Ragnar succeeds him as the king of Sweden and Denmark...
. Other actors included Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in over 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama...
, Janet Leigh
Janet Leigh
Janet Leigh , born Jeanette Helen Morrison, was an American actress. She was the wife of actor Tony Curtis from June 1951 to September 1962 and the mother of Kelly Curtis and Jamie Lee Curtis....
, Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...
and Frank Thring
Frank Thring
Frank William Thring was an Australian character actor.-Early life:Thring was born in Melbourne and educated at the Melbourne Grammar School. His father, Frank W. Thring, was the head of Efftee Studios, in Melbourne, in the 1920s, and is said to be the inventor of the clapperboard...
. The film made notable use of natural locations in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. It was mostly filmed in Maurangerfjorden
Kvinnherad
Kvinnherad is a municipality in the county of Hordaland, Norway. The parish of Kvindherred was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 . Fjelberg, most of Varaldsøy and parts of Skånevik merged with Kvinnherad on 1 January 1965.The municipality is the 5th in size in Hordaland...
and Bondhus, captured on film by cinematographer Jack Cardiff
Jack Cardiff
Jack Cardiff, OBE, BSC was a British cinematographer, director and photographer.His career spanned the development of cinema, from silent film, through early experiments in Technicolor to filmmaking in the 21st century...
although Aella's castle was the real Fort de la Latte
Fort-la-Latte
Fort-la-Latte or Castle of La Latte is a castle located about 4 km southeast of Cap Fréhel and about 35 km west of Saint-Malo, in the commune of Fréhel, Côtes-d'Armor, Brittany, France....
in north-east Brittany.
Despite being derisively called a "Norse Opera" by New York Times critic Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
, the film proved a major box office success and spawned the television series Tales of the Vikings, directed by the film's editor, Elmo Williams
Elmo Williams
Elmo Williams is an American film and television editor, director, producer, and executive. His work on the film High Noon received the Academy Award for Film Editing...
, which included none of the original cast or characters.
The Vikings was the second and, as it turned out, last collaboration between Fleischer and Douglas (the first was 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954 film)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a 1954 adventure film starring Kirk Douglas as Ned Land, James Mason as Captain Nemo, Paul Lukas as Professor Pierre Aronnax, and Peter Lorre as Conseil. It was the first science fiction film produced by Walt Disney Productions, as well as the only science-fiction...
). According to the All-Movie Guide, the director and star disagreed on the approach to the material and "for years thereafter would hold each other responsible for the film's falling short of its potential."
Plot
The King of NorthumbriaNorthumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
is killed during a Viking raid led by the fearsome Ragnar
Ragnar Lodbrok
Ragnar Lodbrok was a Norse legendary hero from the Viking Age who was thoroughly reshaped in Old Norse poetry and legendary sagas.-Life as recorded in the sagas:...
(Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...
). Because the king had died childless, his cousin Aella (Frank Thring
Frank Thring
Frank William Thring was an Australian character actor.-Early life:Thring was born in Melbourne and educated at the Melbourne Grammar School. His father, Frank W. Thring, was the head of Efftee Studios, in Melbourne, in the 1920s, and is said to be the inventor of the clapperboard...
) takes the throne. The king's widow, however, is pregnant with what she knows is Ragnar's child, and to protect the infant from her cousin-in-law's ambitions, she sends him off to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. By a twist of fate, the ship is intercepted by the Vikings, who are unaware of the child's kinship, and enslave
Thrall
Thrall was the term for a serf or unfree servant in Scandinavian culture during the Viking Age.Thralls were the lowest in the social order and usually provided unskilled labor during the Viking era.-Etymology:...
him. The boy grows into a young man named Erik
Ecgberht I of Northumbria
Ecgberht was king of Northumbria in the middle of the 9th century. This period of Northumbrian history is poorly recorded, and very little is known of Ecgberht....
(Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in over 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama...
).
His parentage is finally discovered by Lord Egbert (James Donald
James Donald
James Donald was a Scottish actor. Tall and thin, he usually specialised in playing authority figures.Donald was born in Aberdeen, and made his first professional stage appearance sometime in the late-1930s, having been educated at Rossall School on Lancashire's Fylde coast...
), a Northumbrian nobleman opposed to Aella. When Aella accuses him of treason, Egbert finds sanctuary with Ragnar in Norway. Egbert recognizes the Northumbrian royal sword's pommel
Pommel
Pommel may refer to:* pommel, the raised area at the front of an equestrian saddle.* Pommel, the counterweight at the end of the hilt of a European sword* Pommel horse, an artistic gymnastics apparatus...
stone on an amulet around Erik's neck, placed there by Erik's mother when he was a child, but tells no one.
Erik incurs the wrath of his half-brother Einar (Kirk Douglas), Ragnar's legitimate son and heir, after the former orders his falcon
Falcon
A falcon is any species of raptor in the genus Falco. The genus contains 37 species, widely distributed throughout Europe, Asia, and North America....
to attack Einar, taking out one of his eyes. Erik is saved from immediate execution when the tribal shaman Kitala (who loves Erik as a son) says that Odin
Odin
Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....
will curse whoever kills him. He is left in a tidal pool to drown with the rising tide by Ragnar's decree to avoid the curse, but after Erik calls out to Odin, the wind shifts and forces the water away, saving him. Egbert then claims him as his slave. Egbert hopes to find an opportunity to take advantage of Erik's unknown claim to the Northumbrian kingdom.
Erik and Morgana flee to England, along with Sandpiper, Kitala, and Morgana's maid Bridget (Dandy Nichols
Dandy Nichols
-References:* Dandy Nichols at screenonline.* Dandy Nichols at The Museum of Broadcast Communications.-External links:...
). Einar regains consciousness and gives the alarm, and several pursuing longships quickly gain on the fugitives. In thick fog, Ragnar's longboat
Longship
Longships were sea vessels made and used by the Vikings from the Nordic countries for trade, commerce, exploration, and warfare during the Viking Age. The longship’s design evolved over many years, beginning in the Stone Age with the invention of the umiak and continuing up to the 9th century with...
hits a rock and sinks, while Erik's boat is guided safely by a primitive compass, a piece of magnetite
Magnetite
Magnetite is a ferrimagnetic mineral with chemical formula Fe3O4, one of several iron oxides and a member of the spinel group. The chemical IUPAC name is iron oxide and the common chemical name is ferrous-ferric oxide. The formula for magnetite may also be written as FeO·Fe2O3, which is one part...
in the shape of a fish that Sandpiper obtained in a distant land. Einar, in another longboat, believes Ragnar to be dead and grudgingly abandons the chase. Ragnar, however, is rescued by Erik and taken prisoner to Aella. Erik and Morgana become lovers during the trip, and she agrees to seek release from her pledge to marry Aella.
Aella orders the Viking leader bound and thrown into a pit filled with starved wolves. To give Ragnar a Viking's death (so that he can enter Valhalla
Valhalla
In Norse mythology, Valhalla is a majestic, enormous hall located in Asgard, ruled over by the god Odin. Chosen by Odin, half of those that die in combat travel to Valhalla upon death, led by valkyries, while the other half go to the goddess Freyja's field Fólkvangr...
), Erik, who is granted the honor of forcing him into the pit, cuts the prisoner's bonds and gives him his sword. Laughing, Ragnar jumps to his death. In response to Erik's "treason", Aella cuts off his left hand, puts him back on his ship and casts him adrift.
Erik returns to Einar's settlement, and tells his half-brother how his father died, and what had been Aella's reward for allowing Ragnar to die a Viking's death. With this revelation, and the promise that Erik will guide their ships through the fog (thus making a surprise attack possible), Einar is finally able to persuade the other Vikings to mount an invasion of Northumbria. Putting their mutual hatred aside for the moment, Einar and Erik sail for England.
The long dragon ships land and the Vikings begin to move inland in force. The alarm is sounded and the terrified peasants abandon their fields and flocks and flee to the safety of the castle. Soon the Vikings are arrayed in front of the fortress in full battle armor.
Shouting the name of Odin
Odin
Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....
, the Vikings storm Aella's castle. In a bold move, Einar has several Vikings throw axes at the closed gate that bars entrance to the castle. Several of the axe-throwers are killed, but enough survive to throw their axes that a "ladder" is created for Einar to climb after he leaps across the moat to the gate. He gains entry to the castle and lowers the drawbridge so that the other Vikings can overwhelm the outnumbered English. Erik and Einar both set off in search of Morgana. Erik encounters Aella instead and shoves him into the pit of wolves.
Einar finds Morgana in the highest tower of the castle, and again begins to make love to her, telling her she will be his queen. In spite of her still obvious attraction to him, Morgana tells Einar she hates him, and loves Erik. Enraged, Einar drags her outside and calls Erik to their long-delayed battle. The two bitter rivals engage in a swordfight on top of the tower. Erik is defeated, his sword broken, but Einar hesitates to kill him since he has learned from Morgana that Erik is his half-brother. The hesitation gives Erik, who does not yet know they share the same father, the opportunity to stab Einar with his sword's broken blade. Echoing the scene with Ragnar, Erik gives Einar a sword, so that he too can enter Valhalla. In the final scene, Einar is given a Viking funeral
Viking funeral
Burial customs of Viking Age Norsemen are known both from archaeology and from historical accounts such as the Icelandic sagas, Old Norse poetry, and notably from the account of Ahmad ibn Fadlan....
: his body is placed on a longboat, which is set on fire by flaming arrows.
Cast
- Kirk DouglasKirk DouglasKirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...
as Einar - Tony CurtisTony CurtisTony Curtis was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in over 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama...
as Erik - Ernest BorgnineErnest BorgnineErnest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...
as Ragnar - Janet LeighJanet LeighJanet Leigh , born Jeanette Helen Morrison, was an American actress. She was the wife of actor Tony Curtis from June 1951 to September 1962 and the mother of Kelly Curtis and Jamie Lee Curtis....
as Morgana - James DonaldJames DonaldJames Donald was a Scottish actor. Tall and thin, he usually specialised in playing authority figures.Donald was born in Aberdeen, and made his first professional stage appearance sometime in the late-1930s, having been educated at Rossall School on Lancashire's Fylde coast...
as Egbert - Alexander KnoxAlexander KnoxAlexander Knox was a Canadian actor and author of adventure novels set in the Great Lakes area during the 19th century.-Biography:...
as Father Godwin - Maxine AudleyMaxine AudleyMaxine Audley was an English theatre and film actress. She made her professional stage debut in July 1940 at the Open Air Theatre. Throughout her career, Audley performed with both the Old Vic company and the Royal Shakespeare Company multiple times...
as Enid - Frank ThringFrank ThringFrank William Thring was an Australian character actor.-Early life:Thring was born in Melbourne and educated at the Melbourne Grammar School. His father, Frank W. Thring, was the head of Efftee Studios, in Melbourne, in the 1920s, and is said to be the inventor of the clapperboard...
as Aella - Eileen WayEileen WayEileen Way was an English actress who appeared in many film and television roles in a career dating back to the 1930s....
as Kitala - Edric ConnorEdric ConnorEdric Connor was a pioneering calypso singer, folklorist and actor who was born in Mayaro, Trinidad in 1913...
as Sandpiper - Dandy NicholsDandy Nichols-References:* Dandy Nichols at screenonline.* Dandy Nichols at The Museum of Broadcast Communications.-External links:...
as Bridget - Per BuckhøjPer BuckhøjPer Buckhøj was a Danish film actor. He appeared in 36 films between 1942 and 1958.-Filmography:* The Vikings * Stof til eftertanke * Ellehammer-filmen * Gengæld...
as Bjorn
Casting
Ernest Borgnine plays Ragnar the father of Einar, played by Kirk Douglas. Borgnine was born almost two months after Douglas.Legacy
Much of the plot was later appropriated by Mario BavaMario Bava
Mario Bava was an Italian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer remembered as one of the greatest names from the "golden age" of Italian horror films.-Biography:Mario Bava was born in San Remo, Liguria, Italy...
for his own Viking epic, Erik the Conqueror.
See also
- List of historical drama films
The Vikings is an adventure film directed by Richard Fleischer
Richard Fleischer
-Early life:Fleischer was born in Brooklyn, the son of Essie and animator/producer Max Fleischer. He started in motion pictures as director of animated shorts produced by his father including entries in the Betty Boop, Popeye and Superman series.His live-action film career began in 1942 at the RKO...
in 1958
1958 in film
The year 1958 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 16- "In the Money" by William Beaudine is released on this date. It would be the last installment of The Bowery Boys series which began back in 1946....
Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
, produced by and starring Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...
, and based on the novel The Viking by Edison Marshall
Edison Marshall
Edison Tesla Marshall was an American short story writer and novelist.-Life:...
, based in its turn on legendary material from the sagas
Legendary saga
A Legendary saga or Fornaldarsaga is a Norse saga that, unlike the Icelanders' sagas, takes place before the colonization of Iceland. There are some exceptions, such as Yngvars saga víðförla, which takes place in the 11th century...
of Ragnar Lodbrok
Krákumál
Krákumál or the Lay of Kraka is a skaldic poem, consisting of a monologue in which Ragnar Lodbrok is dying in Ælla's snake pit and looks back at a life full of heroic deeds. It was composed in the 12th century, "almost certainly" in the Scottish islands...
and his sons
Ragnarssona þáttr
Ragnarssona þáttr, Þáttr af Ragnars sonum or the Tale of Ragnar's sons is a short story on Ragnar Lodbrok and his sons.-Ragnar Lodbrok:When Sigurd Ring dies, Ragnar succeeds him as the king of Sweden and Denmark...
. Other actors included Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in over 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama...
, Janet Leigh
Janet Leigh
Janet Leigh , born Jeanette Helen Morrison, was an American actress. She was the wife of actor Tony Curtis from June 1951 to September 1962 and the mother of Kelly Curtis and Jamie Lee Curtis....
, Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...
and Frank Thring
Frank Thring
Frank William Thring was an Australian character actor.-Early life:Thring was born in Melbourne and educated at the Melbourne Grammar School. His father, Frank W. Thring, was the head of Efftee Studios, in Melbourne, in the 1920s, and is said to be the inventor of the clapperboard...
. The film made notable use of natural locations in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. It was mostly filmed in Maurangerfjorden
Kvinnherad
Kvinnherad is a municipality in the county of Hordaland, Norway. The parish of Kvindherred was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 . Fjelberg, most of Varaldsøy and parts of Skånevik merged with Kvinnherad on 1 January 1965.The municipality is the 5th in size in Hordaland...
and Bondhus, captured on film by cinematographer Jack Cardiff
Jack Cardiff
Jack Cardiff, OBE, BSC was a British cinematographer, director and photographer.His career spanned the development of cinema, from silent film, through early experiments in Technicolor to filmmaking in the 21st century...
although Aella's castle was the real Fort de la Latte
Fort-la-Latte
Fort-la-Latte or Castle of La Latte is a castle located about 4 km southeast of Cap Fréhel and about 35 km west of Saint-Malo, in the commune of Fréhel, Côtes-d'Armor, Brittany, France....
in north-east Brittany.
Despite being derisively called a "Norse Opera" by New York Times critic Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
, the film proved a major box office success and spawned the television series Tales of the Vikings, directed by the film's editor, Elmo Williams
Elmo Williams
Elmo Williams is an American film and television editor, director, producer, and executive. His work on the film High Noon received the Academy Award for Film Editing...
, which included none of the original cast or characters.
The Vikings was the second and, as it turned out, last collaboration between Fleischer and Douglas (the first was 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954 film)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a 1954 adventure film starring Kirk Douglas as Ned Land, James Mason as Captain Nemo, Paul Lukas as Professor Pierre Aronnax, and Peter Lorre as Conseil. It was the first science fiction film produced by Walt Disney Productions, as well as the only science-fiction...
). According to the All-Movie Guide, the director and star disagreed on the approach to the material and "for years thereafter would hold each other responsible for the film's falling short of its potential."
Plot
The King of NorthumbriaNorthumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
is killed during a Viking raid led by the fearsome Ragnar
Ragnar Lodbrok
Ragnar Lodbrok was a Norse legendary hero from the Viking Age who was thoroughly reshaped in Old Norse poetry and legendary sagas.-Life as recorded in the sagas:...
(Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...
). Because the king had died childless, his cousin Aella (Frank Thring
Frank Thring
Frank William Thring was an Australian character actor.-Early life:Thring was born in Melbourne and educated at the Melbourne Grammar School. His father, Frank W. Thring, was the head of Efftee Studios, in Melbourne, in the 1920s, and is said to be the inventor of the clapperboard...
) takes the throne. The king's widow, however, is pregnant with what she knows is Ragnar's child, and to protect the infant from her cousin-in-law's ambitions, she sends him off to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. By a twist of fate, the ship is intercepted by the Vikings, who are unaware of the child's kinship, and enslave
Thrall
Thrall was the term for a serf or unfree servant in Scandinavian culture during the Viking Age.Thralls were the lowest in the social order and usually provided unskilled labor during the Viking era.-Etymology:...
him. The boy grows into a young man named Erik
Ecgberht I of Northumbria
Ecgberht was king of Northumbria in the middle of the 9th century. This period of Northumbrian history is poorly recorded, and very little is known of Ecgberht....
(Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in over 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama...
).
His parentage is finally discovered by Lord Egbert (James Donald
James Donald
James Donald was a Scottish actor. Tall and thin, he usually specialised in playing authority figures.Donald was born in Aberdeen, and made his first professional stage appearance sometime in the late-1930s, having been educated at Rossall School on Lancashire's Fylde coast...
), a Northumbrian nobleman opposed to Aella. When Aella accuses him of treason, Egbert finds sanctuary with Ragnar in Norway. Egbert recognizes the Northumbrian royal sword's pommel
Pommel
Pommel may refer to:* pommel, the raised area at the front of an equestrian saddle.* Pommel, the counterweight at the end of the hilt of a European sword* Pommel horse, an artistic gymnastics apparatus...
stone on an amulet around Erik's neck, placed there by Erik's mother when he was a child, but tells no one.
Erik incurs the wrath of his half-brother Einar (Kirk Douglas), Ragnar's legitimate son and heir, after the former orders his falcon
Falcon
A falcon is any species of raptor in the genus Falco. The genus contains 37 species, widely distributed throughout Europe, Asia, and North America....
to attack Einar, taking out one of his eyes. Erik is saved from immediate execution when the tribal shaman Kitala (who loves Erik as a son) says that Odin
Odin
Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....
will curse whoever kills him. He is left in a tidal pool to drown with the rising tide by Ragnar's decree to avoid the curse, but after Erik calls out to Odin, the wind shifts and forces the water away, saving him. Egbert then claims him as his slave. Egbert hopes to find an opportunity to take advantage of Erik's unknown claim to the Northumbrian kingdom.
Erik and Morgana flee to England, along with Sandpiper, Kitala, and Morgana's maid Bridget (Dandy Nichols
Dandy Nichols
-References:* Dandy Nichols at screenonline.* Dandy Nichols at The Museum of Broadcast Communications.-External links:...
). Einar regains consciousness and gives the alarm, and several pursuing longships quickly gain on the fugitives. In thick fog, Ragnar's longboat
Longship
Longships were sea vessels made and used by the Vikings from the Nordic countries for trade, commerce, exploration, and warfare during the Viking Age. The longship’s design evolved over many years, beginning in the Stone Age with the invention of the umiak and continuing up to the 9th century with...
hits a rock and sinks, while Erik's boat is guided safely by a primitive compass, a piece of magnetite
Magnetite
Magnetite is a ferrimagnetic mineral with chemical formula Fe3O4, one of several iron oxides and a member of the spinel group. The chemical IUPAC name is iron oxide and the common chemical name is ferrous-ferric oxide. The formula for magnetite may also be written as FeO·Fe2O3, which is one part...
in the shape of a fish that Sandpiper obtained in a distant land. Einar, in another longboat, believes Ragnar to be dead and grudgingly abandons the chase. Ragnar, however, is rescued by Erik and taken prisoner to Aella. Erik and Morgana become lovers during the trip, and she agrees to seek release from her pledge to marry Aella.
Aella orders the Viking leader bound and thrown into a pit filled with starved wolves. To give Ragnar a Viking's death (so that he can enter Valhalla
Valhalla
In Norse mythology, Valhalla is a majestic, enormous hall located in Asgard, ruled over by the god Odin. Chosen by Odin, half of those that die in combat travel to Valhalla upon death, led by valkyries, while the other half go to the goddess Freyja's field Fólkvangr...
), Erik, who is granted the honor of forcing him into the pit, cuts the prisoner's bonds and gives him his sword. Laughing, Ragnar jumps to his death. In response to Erik's "treason", Aella cuts off his left hand, puts him back on his ship and casts him adrift.
Erik returns to Einar's settlement, and tells his half-brother how his father died, and what had been Aella's reward for allowing Ragnar to die a Viking's death. With this revelation, and the promise that Erik will guide their ships through the fog (thus making a surprise attack possible), Einar is finally able to persuade the other Vikings to mount an invasion of Northumbria. Putting their mutual hatred aside for the moment, Einar and Erik sail for England.
The long dragon ships land and the Vikings begin to move inland in force. The alarm is sounded and the terrified peasants abandon their fields and flocks and flee to the safety of the castle. Soon the Vikings are arrayed in front of the fortress in full battle armor.
Shouting the name of Odin
Odin
Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....
, the Vikings storm Aella's castle. In a bold move, Einar has several Vikings throw axes at the closed gate that bars entrance to the castle. Several of the axe-throwers are killed, but enough survive to throw their axes that a "ladder" is created for Einar to climb after he leaps across the moat to the gate. He gains entry to the castle and lowers the drawbridge so that the other Vikings can overwhelm the outnumbered English. Erik and Einar both set off in search of Morgana. Erik encounters Aella instead and shoves him into the pit of wolves.
Einar finds Morgana in the highest tower of the castle, and again begins to make love to her, telling her she will be his queen. In spite of her still obvious attraction to him, Morgana tells Einar she hates him, and loves Erik. Enraged, Einar drags her outside and calls Erik to their long-delayed battle. The two bitter rivals engage in a swordfight on top of the tower. Erik is defeated, his sword broken, but Einar hesitates to kill him since he has learned from Morgana that Erik is his half-brother. The hesitation gives Erik, who does not yet know they share the same father, the opportunity to stab Einar with his sword's broken blade. Echoing the scene with Ragnar, Erik gives Einar a sword, so that he too can enter Valhalla. In the final scene, Einar is given a Viking funeral
Viking funeral
Burial customs of Viking Age Norsemen are known both from archaeology and from historical accounts such as the Icelandic sagas, Old Norse poetry, and notably from the account of Ahmad ibn Fadlan....
: his body is placed on a longboat, which is set on fire by flaming arrows.
Cast
- Kirk DouglasKirk DouglasKirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...
as Einar - Tony CurtisTony CurtisTony Curtis was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in over 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama...
as Erik - Ernest BorgnineErnest BorgnineErnest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...
as Ragnar - Janet LeighJanet LeighJanet Leigh , born Jeanette Helen Morrison, was an American actress. She was the wife of actor Tony Curtis from June 1951 to September 1962 and the mother of Kelly Curtis and Jamie Lee Curtis....
as Morgana - James DonaldJames DonaldJames Donald was a Scottish actor. Tall and thin, he usually specialised in playing authority figures.Donald was born in Aberdeen, and made his first professional stage appearance sometime in the late-1930s, having been educated at Rossall School on Lancashire's Fylde coast...
as Egbert - Alexander KnoxAlexander KnoxAlexander Knox was a Canadian actor and author of adventure novels set in the Great Lakes area during the 19th century.-Biography:...
as Father Godwin - Maxine AudleyMaxine AudleyMaxine Audley was an English theatre and film actress. She made her professional stage debut in July 1940 at the Open Air Theatre. Throughout her career, Audley performed with both the Old Vic company and the Royal Shakespeare Company multiple times...
as Enid - Frank ThringFrank ThringFrank William Thring was an Australian character actor.-Early life:Thring was born in Melbourne and educated at the Melbourne Grammar School. His father, Frank W. Thring, was the head of Efftee Studios, in Melbourne, in the 1920s, and is said to be the inventor of the clapperboard...
as Aella - Eileen WayEileen WayEileen Way was an English actress who appeared in many film and television roles in a career dating back to the 1930s....
as Kitala - Edric ConnorEdric ConnorEdric Connor was a pioneering calypso singer, folklorist and actor who was born in Mayaro, Trinidad in 1913...
as Sandpiper - Dandy NicholsDandy Nichols-References:* Dandy Nichols at screenonline.* Dandy Nichols at The Museum of Broadcast Communications.-External links:...
as Bridget - Per BuckhøjPer BuckhøjPer Buckhøj was a Danish film actor. He appeared in 36 films between 1942 and 1958.-Filmography:* The Vikings * Stof til eftertanke * Ellehammer-filmen * Gengæld...
as Bjorn
Casting
Ernest Borgnine plays Ragnar the father of Einar, played by Kirk Douglas. Borgnine was born almost two months after Douglas.Legacy
Much of the plot was later appropriated by Mario BavaMario Bava
Mario Bava was an Italian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer remembered as one of the greatest names from the "golden age" of Italian horror films.-Biography:Mario Bava was born in San Remo, Liguria, Italy...
for his own Viking epic, Erik the Conqueror.