Vikings – Filled with Faith, and Masculinity

Early on when I heard about the show “Vikings” on the History Channel, I was very intrigued.  When I watched the first episode on our Roku, it unfortunately lost me fairly quickly.  My first impressions were that the acting was subpar, and the accents were pretty distracting.  At the prompting of my good friend Jared Zimmerer, I gave it another chance and watched episode two.  Something about it began to reel me in and I have subsequently watched all of the episodes to date.

I’m intrigued by the story for many reasons.  I’ve finally decided to blog about it now especially because of the most recent episode called “Boneless”.  Vikings is the story of Earl Ragnar Lothbrok (a legendary Norse ruler), his conquests, his family, and the general life and happenings of the “Northmen.”  I enjoy watching the fight scenes, which are pretty decent.  I also enjoy the drama between the various leaders, the imagery between good & bad, right & wrong, the marriages and relationships, but there are two very impressive themes that keep me coming back.

The first is how much the show’s writers and the actors have incorporated faith into the show.  The Vikings are referred to as pagans, but that’s not what comes across the screen.  The Vikings come across, to me, as being very faithful.  They are polytheistic, but they are constantly thinking about, speaking about, and invoking their gods.  This is not something often celebrated in our culture.  Faith, especially of warriors, is often seen as unnecessary and as a weakness.  Clearly, these Viking warriors invoke their gods, and find need to be in prayer, sacrifice, and worship of their gods.  It’s hard at times to watch because they believe that their gods call for murderous, ravenous, barbaric behavior, and a crude form of justice, so naturally it doesn’t lineup with Christianity.  One flaw, typical of Hollywood… the element that shows Christians in a horrible light – as weak, superstitious dummies, incapable of personal thought and masculine leadership.  Besides that, though, I’m impressed.

I find it very interesting that faith is found as such an important and normal part of their lives.  That’s what I want to highlight… their faith that is all-encompassing.  They think about their gods constantly.  It is engrained in the show by being engrained into the lives of the characters.  The characters are constantly talking about their gods, and the imagery shows that.

The second point, and maybe even more important, is how pro-life the show is.  It seems a contrast to a barbaric, ravenous people, but in this last episode, the wife of Earl Ragnar gives birth to a child that has a limb that apparently doesn’t function fully.  They don’t really show it exactly, but they refer to him as a ‘runt’.  At one point, Ragnar discusses with his wife about the child never having a full life, and asking the question “what could his life possibly amount to?”  The wife says, “Yes, you are correct, but I love him.”  She gives the child a chance.

There’s a scene where, during the night, Ragnar goes into where the baby is sleeping, and he takes him, walking out near the river.  As a viewer, I was spellbound, questioning what Ragnar was going to do.  He takes out his hatchet, and it looks like he’s going to kill his son, saying “there is no other way.”  The scene cuts away to Ragnar walking away from his son, leaving the viewer wondering.  This is a symbol, to me, of parents who feel like they have no other option when it comes to abortion.  There is seemingly nothing else they can.  It turns out that Ragnar didn’t kill his child, but rather, he chose life!  Even though it was incredibly difficult for him to do, he chose life!

I think it’s interesting, in our culture, that is so pro-death, so ready to discard the humans that appear to be less-than, that this show would embrace faith and would embrace concepts of masculinity (albeit flawed, tremendously), but it embraces life.  The concepts of masculinity are interwoven throughout, especially the topics of being a husband, a father, a friend, a brother, a worker/provider, a warrior, and a follower of God.   I will continue to watch.

Note: There are some potentially scandalous parts of this show, specific to sexuality.  You may choose not to watch because of that.

TrueMan up!