I liked this review, but I have one big quibble: Chopping up Olga's motivation to "child rearing" is really disingenuous. Her motivation throughout the film is primarily vengeance against her enslavers. Over the course of the story she and Amleth fall in love, and by the end her character values escaping with their lives over simple vengeance, but that's a totally reasonable change of heart. Yes its revealed by the end that she's pregnant, but that hardly changes her valuing her own life and Amleth's over killing Fjolnir. If anything her being pregnant ends up affecting Amleth more than her since its what makes him decide to fulfil his oath of vengeance, since he expects Fjolnir to come after his children.

"You have two wolves inside you, both of them howl and wear leather speedos" is a hilarious and spot-on sentence. I don't think I'm going to see this, but this video is an excellent summary of both why I might want to and why I actually don't. :-)

My understanding (from a Robert Eggars interview) is that he really wanted some of the warriors to be entirely naked but had to settle for the "speedos"...

“inside you there are two wolves; they both howl and wear leather speedos” made me actually laugh out loud in the airport!

In fairness, there is some historical evidence for leather helmets, though not by Vikings. In the right context, they are fine. Admittedly, that context is "the character is flying a biplane in the early 20th Century", but still...

I did also really appreciate that while yes, Amleth has personal stakes in taking vengeance, it was emphasised that he is first and foremost bound by moral duty to slay his father's killers. And that is why he has to kill all of them, even his little brother, because otherwise the blood feud might get visited on his unborn children. It really goes out of its way to convey that part of the sagas. I thought that was neat.

One of my *favorite* visual details was that the male priest wearing the oval brooches usually only seen on women's clothing. I felt like it was a great visual callback to the almost throw away line about not seeking to know women's magic, yet here's a man who did so and is wearing brooches traditionally worn by women. I thought it was such a clever way to visually tell the story if you know what to look for!

Let’s be honest with ourselves, ANY skaarsgard brother in a leather speedo makes for a decent movie. There are many many forms of human beauty, masculine/feminine and lots of nifty mixtures of both and damn it if one of my favorite ones is a skarsgaard brother in a leather Speedo.

One little detail in the movie that could have been done better, as pointed out by Dr. Jackson Crawford is the runic inscription on the magic sword in the mound. The runes on the sword say 'Draugr' but they say it in Elder Futhark runes, which were no longer in use by the early 10th century. The barrow-dweller was probably buried there a couple hundred years before the movie takes place, so in Elder Futhark times, but the language would also have been different. Instead, you would expect the inscription to read 'Draugaz', which was the word in Proto Norse back when the Elder Futhark was used.

The scene with the blacksmiths shop was awesome, literally was mesmerized by the amount of tools he had.

I think the Valkyrie outfit was deliberately more over the top as a way of depicting how otherworldly she is.

I will add from an ecological perspective I do have to nitpick Iceland a bit, as during that time, it was a lot more covered in forest. I understand why they may have not known that, or chose to ignore that detail, but it would have been nice, even as a small background thing, to see the deforestation of Iceland occurring, as that was one of the primary industries going on in the region, timber harvesting.

I think a lot of love for this movie about the As-Accurate-As-Big-Budget-Movies-Allow depictions of the Old Norse culture and costuming should be attributed to Dr. Johanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir, as she was a main consultant to the film. From her interview with Dr. Jackson Crawford, it seems like she really pushed for as much authenticity as she could.

The film is more accurate than most portrayals in Hollywood but despite that its not 100%. Its based on legends and has lots of creative freedoms taken. Doesn't make it a bad film. Just means its a film and more like grim Viking fantasy vs say a documentary on the history of Norse cultures

What I really liked was how people talked and how their mindset was presented. I'm not a historian, but it feels very authentic to me and really emphasizes the difference to modern people. I am really fed up with historical or fantasy shows where simple farmer boys have conversations like they had a modern secular high-school education. In the Northman, the mysticism was really the foundation of how they understood and conceptualize the world. Remote farmers/slaves were shown as simple people. It's so refreshing.

It's so satisfaying for me that finally we got a movie that represents "well" the norse culture. Of course that's still a movie thus It won't be fair for us to don't expect odd things within It. But I think Is a step forward.

The comparison between Skarsgaard and Bjornsson’s physical appearance is especially good because they actually fight each other in the Northman. Bjornsson is the huge guy dominating the game they are playing in Iceland

Me and my girlfriend saw the movie yesterday. As you said, the material culture (clothes, weapons, props) were excellent, loved that! A small detail I also loved was in the very beginning when King Ethan Hawke arrives and the people hail him, you hear someone say "Ringgiver!" That was a really nice detail! And when I saw the Draugr's ringpommeled sword and boar helmet, I squee:d in nerdjoy :-) (loving the similar scene in Conan the Barbarian, this was really really nice!) My main quip was with the valkyrie. Yes, I understand kind of what they wanted to do, with an over the top dream:ish sequence, but her attire just felt like anachronistic Wagner opera to me. For my girlfriend, biologists as she is, she noted that they changed the horses, sometimes they were proper islandic horses but at other times they were not. So she could tell when they were filming on Iceland and when they were shooting elsewhere, pretending to be at Iceland. Also, when cutting the head of a horse, they cut way too low, too close to the chest. They would more likely cut higher up, closer to the head (where the neck is thinner and has less meat and muscle to cut through). See, noticing things like that is why we are together :-)

17:40 there's quite a few mentions in Irish sources calling Scandinavians savages/barbarians/vandals etc. But I never got the impression that Scandinavians in this time period regarded themselves as more civilised than anyone else, particularly not the Rus who were probably quite sophisticated. That part of the movie really annoyed me.

this almost feels like when marvel fans react to easter eggs in the movies. i like the idea of adding tiny historical details to make easter eggs for history buffs

I loved how they handled hallucination mushrooms in this movie. Instead of making berserker use it to make them stronger, they used it as a poison to basicly make all the warriors in the village useless.

I had a good chuckle watching Nicole Kidman have literally no idea what to do with the tablet weaving she was sat in front of, and also that she didn’t seem to have anything to use as the weft which would definitely make working on that hard to do….I’m sure she had an amusing actor moment realizing she didn’t know what to do but had to look like she did and also say her lines.

I'm so happy that Eggers did Norse culture justice. I haven't seen the film yet myself so I don't have any specific comments yet but I'm super excited to sit down and watch it. I have always stood by the idea that having a naked person run at you with reckless abandon is more terrifying than a clothed/armored person. The naked person clearly has no regard for their life. They are next level unhinged. They will bite off your arms and legs. They are a wolf in a leather speedo.

I watched this in the theater with a couple SCA people, we went in garb and had a grand old time! I really felt like I was watching a medieval ballad or something

Incredible review :) love to see someone get as excited as I do about the textiles! My nit pick though, and apologies if it’s been said already (Tiny detail!): When we see the tablet weaving occurring she turns the tablets without passing the weft through the shed, there doesn’t actually appear to be a shuttle or a weft thread so she’s essentially just twisting cards aimlessly 😅

You know what's sad, Jimmy? We might not get another film like this, in which the director attempts to bring accuracies to a nordic themed movie.

Re. the leather speedos: in an interview Eggers said he wanted them to be naked, but was somehow prohibited by regulation. (Which surprises me, because I thought nudity was allowed in R rated movies. The Northman as it is could be PG-13 as far as I can tell.) But it was a censorship compromise. I agree that Amleth scaling the wall, and then floating down the other side on wires, was not realistic. You're saying Ibn Fadlan's observations about the Rus do not reflect on vikings? My biggest complaint about the film is the crudely computer-animated fox. I wouldn't cut out half the violence, since violence is a big part of the sagas, and embedded in the definition of "viking"--Norse pirate.

The costuming was absolutely stunning, but historic accuracy be darned. Alexander Skarsgård in leather briefs was definitely the best bit of consuming in The Northman.

A well treated breakdown of the film, thankyou. It's awful being either an expert or keen hobbyist when watching a film which 'covers' your subject, it makes it extremely difficult to get caught up in the story for the garing errors, for me it's people playing musical instruments. I take solace in the fact that most really don't know, care or even seeing it if it is pointed out. Like deployed 👍

I loved the historically accurate costumes and buildings. I liked the fact that they depicted the religion and culture in a somewhat accurate way. But there were scenes I just could not watch. I was squirming in my seat so much. The draugr scene was my favorite, though, and I’m really glad they had him defeat it in the proper way according to legend.

"Nobody in this film is likable" Amleth and Olga are.

"Inside you are two wolves, they both howl and wear leather speedoes." Perfect. Perfect. A round of applause for you, good sir! I choose to believe the berserkers thought they were legitimate shapeshifters and their Wolf Armour was supposed to be a lycanthropic form. And I'm sure we agree that wearing armour and assaulting a position is absolutely knackering, even in LH/Reenactment and LRP.

I squealed when you mentioned the tablet weaving - I've developed a slight obsession with it this year hah. I feel it's so unknown to a lot of people and it's just so incredible!

I just feel like it slightly detracts from all the effort they supposedly put into having, as Eggar put it himself, the most historically accurate movie to date (a low bar) by having absolutely shredded men with bodies mostly only achievable by 21st century workout and diet routines that require complete dedication and entire teams of dieticians, personal trainers etc. The purpose of these physiques are explicitly to look good and are unachievable to most people nowadays given we don't have teams of Hollywood chefs and nutritionists and trainers nor are we being paid to basically work out and look amazing. I'm not diminishing the absolute effort and work that would go into achieving those physiques, but at the end of the day, it is work for actors. It is what they are paid for and it is what they do well, I don't believe however the Norse would be as inclined nor as able to get as ripped as Skarsgard is in the film. 99% of men don't look like that, nor do they have the facilities at hand to look like that. Also, seemed pretty impressive that 99% of the time these unarmored half naked vikings manage to dodge and are practically impervious to spears, arrows, and melee weapons yet they cut through the armoured individuals like butter. Seems about right. Edit: I understand that there are historical depictions of men with physiques akin to that of Skarsgard in the film, mostly in the form of Classical Roman and Hellenic sculpture, however I feel these same body types would not be prevalent amongst the Norse, who did not have the same gym culture that the Greeks and Romans did (I cannot speak for the Norse specifically as I am primarily a classicist, but we do know that the Greeks and Romans stood out in their dedication to achieving impressive physiques for aesthetic purposes, particularly in the higher classes to emphasise both their masculinity and their high status of actually being able to go to the gym). The Romans and Greeks were essentially the gym bros of the ancient world. I am not saying that Amleth should look unfit, but I feel like it would have been nice had they taken a similar approach to say Robert Pattinson's Batman, where he explicitly stated "I think if you're working out all the time, you're part of the problem... you set a precedent. No one was doing this in the '70s. Even James Dean - he wasn't exactly ripped." Pattinson didn't look shredded in Batman, but he still looked great and it made sense for the character. You can still have a beautiful body and physique without a BMI under 10 or an insane muscle mass, I just think it would be nice if cinema didn't continue to propagate highly unrealistic body standards. Of course Amleth needs to look fit, but in my own opinion it would be nice if they displayed positive depictions of more realistic body types that are still clearly strong and fit, but look less like they've been dehydrating for 3 days to have the skin really cling to the muscle (an actual Hollywood practice for shirtless scenes). Also, as highlighted by Jimmy, they lived in a cold climate; they drank beer and ate carbs. Even if they did far more physical labour than the modern man, diet is still a major (if not the primary) contributor to one's physique. I feel like Skarsgard would have looked just as good with his physique more akin to this imgur.com/m6xfiqI , which still makes him look imposing and fit whilst appearing slightly more realistic. But also, it is a film, and a good one at that in my opinion, and yes to complain about something as specific as this really goes to show how good the film is. I find this to be an issue that pervades most cinema, not just 'The Northman', but it just seemed particularly evident in this film given the emphasis on historical accuracy and context. All that being said, I am only human, and I too do enjoy seeing a shirtless Skarsgard as much as the next human.

I love how excited you are about the attention to detail. The bit that excited me the most was seeing colourful clothes and clean people in a medieval film for once. I really enjoyed the berserker raid, just cause it was a really engaging action sequence, same with the final action fight in the volcano, very Revenge of The Sith😂. I really enjoyed the story and characters, acting was really good, just an all around excellent film. Robert Eggers has once again knocked it out of the park.

I'm a gay man and I have to say that leather speedos arem't a deal breaker for me. I'm glad that the film was trying to be accurate and your excitement for the details was palpable and infectious to a degree. Thanks for the video and pointing out these things for someone who really had no idea. Slán.

Happy belated birthday :) I'm not really a fan of excessive amounts of blood and gore on screen (or irl for that matter...), so I probably won't see the movie, but thank you for screen shots and references. (I was forever scarred watching the opening scene of Luc Bessons Joan of Arc in 1999. It's probably quite accurate and horrific in terms of how the vikings behaved on raids, but a little too much realism for my 19 year old heart to endure)

IMO, the best part is where he kills the Draugr. According to the saga, there is only one ways to finally kill a draugr. And he did it!

"the chaffing...THE CHAFFING" I love your commentary because you strive for fairness, including saying, "we don't know, so this thing that looks off-the-wall, could certainly be what happened, because we just don't know what they did, only know what material goods have survived the centuries" (paraphrasing, obvs)

24:46 The shirt he is wearing around his waist like a skirt, is the same shirt he is wearing in his adult introduction scene where he is rowing the ship. If you look at the shirt in that scene aswell as the scene just before he spots the raven and cuts his hair, his shirt has metal thingies (idk the name) which has similar functionality to buttons. So he can open his shirt like if it was a modern dress shirt.

I've seen The Witch, and I haven't seen this movie, but from your description I'm not sure I like how Eggers writes women. I think it's difficult for men in particular to write women historically, without either turning them into a plot device for the man (eg. Braveheart), toughened up for a modern audience as their only character trait (eg. Keira Knightly in King Arthur), or villainized (The Witch). It probably doesn't help that there isn't as much surviving evidence of women's lives and their personalities from history. The pitfall of the thousands of years of patriarchy. Still... That being said, I'm really excited to hear and see costuming departments in movies upping their authenticity game. I truly believe it's because of people like you, who knows your shit, constantly calling them out on it. I hope it's a trend that continues!

The fact that the valkyrie's teeth wear actually filed, was really impressive. Sure it wasn't ever mention that the filings were dyed, but I think they did that because it looks better on film. Now that I really do appreciate. So many things in the movie just amazed me visually.

Something I really enjoyed were the callbacks to Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks with the sword having very strict conditions to being drawn, and the prophesized draug barrow. It's a really underappreciated saga in my opinion, and i'm glad someone with some filmmaking power read it (even if it was just the Hervararkviða). Too bad there was a migration-era barrow in... iceland (as cool as it wouldve been to see Hamlet fight some very pissed of Irish Papar).

Bärsückkäre warriors - forgotten heroic trope :D "And so did Olof, his head sucked by two bears, smite and lay waste to and fro most mightily upon and besides the enemy for reasons not quite apparent." - Boing Edda, Barsukkirmal 3

I feel like I need to watch this like all Eggers' movies: At home where I can pause CONSTANTLY to screech over details. Also I'm both flabbergasted and delighted that he's really making his oeuvre in meticulously propertied and wardrobed historical stories with bananas fantasy elements that ALMOST (but don't) throw the first bit out the window. Actually interested in watching this now (and think warmly on elderly weavers in Poland).

I finally had gotten to see the Northmen yesterday. Have been experiencing high heat where I am am needing a break for a bit. Loved this movie, my love for Vikings and all things related (have even lived in Iceland for 2 years 😁) I had found myself fascinated seeing the materials and the stitching and watching Ms Kidman tablet weaving, I was floored. I am actually excited to see this one again, to see even more on the background and such. Thank you as always Jimmy for another amazing take on this movie.

Now all I need is highly coloured picture book of all the accurate/believable stills from the film. Many thanks Jimmy, Happy birthday and I politely anticipate the promised pants.

Honestly, one of my favourite parts was where they directly quote a line from The Havamal, not just for fluff or fan service, but in relation to the overarching plot. Like, it would have been so easy to turn into mystic mumbo-jumbo guff, but they actually linked it in with the thematic elements. That being said... why the hell are they using those kind of frame drums? That's something modern pagans have appropriated from the Sami and Native American/First Nations cultures. Like, it's not like we don't have physical evidence of the drums that existed at the time. Why, Robert?

I would looove one of these kinds of videos for The Green Knight (I really liked its adaptation from the original poem, like the symbolic emphasis on the colonization of Scotland) and while I'm CERTAINLY not an expert I really enjoyed the costumes in that film! These kinds of critique/review videos aren't usually my jam but I genuinely enjoy hearing what you have to say and hearing your opinion. Thank you for making great videos! I always learn something! (Sidenote: feels weird that there are two Robert Eggers movies where Willem Dafoe has to act like a dog. What does it all mean...)

I like your theory the vegvisir was Eggers trolling us. I loved the little Arabic coin Amleth wore. It was a nice detail and a great way to mark the character.

Thank you for starting off and ending with props. Love your videos. Its nice to see you give praise to the lots of hardwork that went into making this film :)

I loved the movie and was very much looking forward to learn more about the details from you. Thank you for being thorough as always! This was great.

"Oh for fu-" what an entry! Brilliant! Your excitement & passion really feeds mine! I can't wait to see this movie! Thank you so much for brightening my day with your posts! I genuinely get all *happy dance*, when I see you've posted! Much love & respect from Arizona! History nerds unite! 🖤🌻🌻🖤

Do we need to find you a key to their props store? ;-)

Aside from everything you mentioned in the video, i discovered a major plot hole in the movie itself. The limitations around the sword Amleth uses to kill Fjolnir states that it can only be unsheathed when the sun has gone down/it's dark. However, based on how green it is in the movie, the entire revenge part is supposed to take place in Iceland.... During summer.....

It's so funny that one mention about berserkers not wearing armor turned into what it is today. It's like fan fiction. One time some character from the original work mentions some minor detail and fic writers will absolutely turn it into that character's whole personality and make allusions to that detail so often you'll roll your eyes each time you see it.

I did like the film although I thought that it would touch me a bit more. But we loved the coherence of the story. I thought too: "wow, the vikings had a lot of time to go in a fitness studio". A sailor, worker in hard labor etc. never looks like those berserkers from that movie... However unfortunately the film was not successfull from a commercial point of view and therefore I suppose that there will not come more authentic viking adventures...

I liked that the characters did not act like 21st-American suburbanites doing cosplay. Slavery is there, our hero does not oppose it (or the inevitable rapes) in an attempt to become more relatable. When offered the chance to not die at the mountain, and live as Mr. Anya Taylor-Joy, our hero choses to die at the mountain. So many modern depictions of the Norse turn them into super-Progressive diversity-loving feminists, and they weren't. They weren't even less evilly sexist than the Catholics, they were just differently evilly sexist. I hated the color-grading. You can't even make out what's on the King's flag, which defeats the purpose of a flag.

Brilliant video... and the post credit sting has me giggling like a loon 😂 Thanks Jimmy!!

My personal theory is that the wolf armour is them shapeshifting into wolves and having magic protection as such, but over time the recipe and rites got lost and that's why people don't do it anymore.

spoilers! i was so hoping you would mention the last scene with olga and her giant babies where it looked like her tortoise brooches were halfway down her chest? that's haunted me since i saw the film. i really did enjoy it though, i got far too excited when i saw gudrún tablet weaving (albiet somehow without any weft thread)

You have made me want to go to a movie for the first time in years. I really need to upgrade my kit. Happy belated birthday 🎂

I was feeling really frustrated and tired and agitated with the world and some specific people but this video was like a hug for my soul. Thank you❤ now I might even be able to go to sleep in a bit. Also, a late but very happy birthday to you!!🥳

So this is where today's likes come from :D Thank you so much for mentioning me ! You are a true reenactment influencer :D I love your work too :) ~love, Hrafna

Charging into battle holding the sword backwards with no shield is the only part I felt took me out of the immersion. Loved the film, it was awesome!

I thought it played out well as a Saga. It was a "Fairy Tale". And yes, one of the first things I did was remark on the hand sewn seams of the dresses and tunics.

I've been binge watching your vids. Your enthusiasm and joy in this one is lovely to see.😁😁 Diolch.

so, what I'm hearing is that as someone who mostly got introduced into the Viking-world through the Sagathing podcast, I will probably be a lot less bothered by this movie than I expected when I heard 'viking movie' 😅 Probably won't see it anytime soon though. My tolerance for viewing violence has plummeted since having kids. Happy birthday, and good luck with the move

Oh, Happy Birthday Mate! I hope your move is going well.

Wait, so in regard to the lament, everybody is quoting a movie that nobody remembers? I‘d never thought the 13th warrior had any impact whatsoever as it seems to be largely forgotten. Dreary, grim tale set in a dreary, grim world with dreary, grim weather is a thing that just simply works, I guess, as a short cut to set the mood. If the same tale is set in a light-filled, colorful surrounding, the difference between set and story might feel more like a comment on the story (showing moral decline or shallowness etc) than a setting to enhance it. So, turning the argument around, are there any none-grim stories set in the time that would benefit from all the lovely colors? Anyway, „make it 45 minutes longer and cut out half the gore“ has to be my new favorite movie review. =)

Thank you Jimmy! Happy Birthday! Looking forward to checking this one out.

Ah, I've been holding out on watching this film until a friend has time for it, and I'm rather delighted to learn I have something to look forward to! I am a BIG FAN of media that takes care and consideration with... any part of what it's creating, so learning that they did their research and really tried to put their hats in it, despite the tropey stuff, is always great news. Thank you for the fun video, and happy belated birthday!

As someone who is an artist and crafter focusing on nålbinding I think it's amazing that they had Runa D Fjellstad to make socks. She's amazing and worth all the credit.

Something I find a little odd to think about is the way that we're talking about these individual scraps of clothing with the same reverence the people of this time talked about mythical named swords. These little bits of jewelry and clothing were likely fairly important to the people who wore them, practically and sentimentally, but now they're significant enough that we get excited just to see a recreation of them onscreen, and pronounce the names we've given them with capital letters (the Oseberg Tablet Weave!) There's always the possibility that we're like someone in a thousand years finding a "Kiss The Chef" apron in a bog somewhere, perfectly preserved, and thinking it's a ritual object

happy belated birthday. thank you for another wonderfully informative and devilishly funny video :)

Can you please tell me the gauge of steel of your helmet in the background and where you got it from. Also, do you have any videos on the steele gauge thickness of actual viking age helmet finds? Thank a bunch.

Thank you so much for the extraordinary work you do!

I was so excited for this movie while simultaneously holding no expectations for it. I loved seeing it with friends so we could laugh at one well set-up fart joke and I could ramble about tortoise brooches and the Norn's drop spindle spinning. Would I ever watch it again? Probably not. It had lots of things I personally disliked, and a lot of bloated scenes of Amleth skulking thru the night with gamer neck, so there's very little for me to go back for. But I'll always be happy that the clothing was orgasmically correct.

I love your content man. Your video about the costuming in the trailer was captivating, and I could not be less interested in costuming, haha.

I love this review! I'm super excited to check out this movie now, especially since you said "tablet weaving" about ten times in 28 minutes. :D

I'm really looking forward to seeing this, hopefully one day we'll get Hrolf Kraki's Saga done with just as much attention to detail. Who doesn't want to see a massive bear wrecking house after all hahaha.

The best thing about this film is…we got a Jimmy video out of it. 😜 Also, Happy Birthday, mate.

I haven't watched the movie and I am not planning to, but I am happy to see Jimmy happy and that at the very least a thorough research was done (and experts advice was listened to). The budget obviously helped, but we know that sometimes big money does not necessarily mean good costumes... And Happy belated birthday!!!

Could someone please tell me if some of the lines spoken at the end of the video were in Welsh/another non-English language? If so, could someone also please tell me what they translate to in English?

I really liked the horses in this movie! I always pay attention to this. Robust, fluffy coldbloods (or mixes) and not warmbloods for the majority. Also the use of Icelandic horses in Iceland! Also Hafthor Björnson was a nice touch to the Iceland part

I'm going to steal the line. Inside you, you have two wolves. They both howl and wear leather speedos. so, the end of the video. Happy Birthday. And I keep the watching of movies with sweaty muscular men wearing leather speedos for private.

"inside you there are two wolves, they both howl and wear leather speedos" brilliant, jimmy

Really enjoyed the video ^^ Somewhat unrelated question: where did you get your rings?

Hopefully this will be the precursor to more historically accurate clothing weapons Armor jewellery architecture and other nuanced things in TV and films set in this time period even if it's fantasy they could still dress them in accurate atire.

also had a bit of a laugh at Nicole kidman tablet weaving without a wave thread in that one scene bless them but they tried though. Well done on interrupting her with dialogue to avoid showing her lack of skill too

You're really creating wonderful videos. This was just superb. Thank you!

I've just reached the "meat" portion of your "critique burger" (loving that, by the way), but you've made me genuinely curious about this film so I think I may just take myself to the cinema tonight and see it before I finish the video!

To me it felt like listening to a sagea. In the Volsung saga, Sigurd meets Odin, and fights the dragon, Fafnir. He tests the reforged sword Garm, by splitting an anvil with it down to the base. And that is presented as fact in the sagas. In that way, the fantasy elements in The Northman work just as well as if you were watching a saga.

so glad someone else hates those stupid blue filters that make colours wrong. I don't need a blue filter to feel the gravity of things. (also the filter gives me a headache)

Love your reviews (and everything else you are filming). I have to watch everything twice because my english is so poor 😬 But that‘s okay, cause I‘m enjoying it 😂 keep on you‘re great work! 👍

Pedantic detail critique: The landscape of Iceland at that time would have been forest and farmland. Love this review! Thanks for pointing out all the precise, material details and the highlighting the tropes and departures from the source material.

I was tickled by the fact the the old due acting as a volva was in drag - inaccurate, yes, but still a nod to the sensibilities of the time. Possibly suggestive of channeling Oðinn? In any event, I had fun watching the film, and will enjoy watching it again to immerse myself in the details. :)

I haven't seen it yet (I really don't want to sit in the theater at this point, just plain not ready for that,) a friend of mine who is very into Norse recreation saw it and loved it, so I'm glad you found a lot to like in the movie. It does sound amazing as far as the artifacts and plotting goes. Regarding the note about Seithr, as I recall in Lokasenna Loki accuses Odin of disguising himself as a woman to learn it, so yeah, that goes way back, at least legendarily.

Hey! Thanks for a great video, I enjoyed it so much! Especially the "it's probably only here to piss off pedantic people"! Well, I'm here and I'm pissed about it^^ Just like the "tablet weaving" without weft. Brilliant. I thoroughly enjoyed being annoyed by such small details. One thing I did like for authenticity though was actually the splint armour on the draugr? It looks exactly like the armour found in Valsgärde 8 (Sweden, so sure, might not be relevant, but if the Torslunda plaques are, then so should Valsgärde be?) which is also found together with a ring sword and a helmet of similar type. (If someone googles this, please ignore the interpretations where the splints are set up as a weird torso thing. That's an old interpretation and it's much more likely leg and arm armour. Just like in the movie!) And geeking out further, Valsgärde 8 is also a boat burial! :D This was probably my favourite scene. Again, great video, I love your humour and high quality content^^

I would just like to say, bearing in mind that I talk to the KZfaq vids as I watch them, that the number of times I say a word or phrase and a second later you say the same thing… is astounding. Are we twins, The Welsh Viking, separated at birth and raised in different countries? Lol 😂 Joking aside, we do seem to be on a similar wavelength! Awesome video as always!