Twilight of the Vikings: Probing Warriors, Fighting Shieldmaidens and Noir Gloom

Abstract

The Vikings have returned along with their gods to the forefront of popular culture in recent years—more powerful, widespread and varied than ever before. This chapter focusses on a couple of case studies, Michael Hirst’s television series Vikings and Brian Wood’s graphic novel Northlanders, to account for the specificity of the new twenty-first-century Viking. The author argues that both works evidence a shift from mythology and legend to realism and historical authenticity. However, they also both grant exceptions in adapting the Norse heritage to contemporary norms when it comes to the representation of race and especially gender. The result is a fascinating mixture of the medieval world and that of today.