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The Northman

Vikings and vengeance
by
ABR Arts 26 April 2022

The Northman

Vikings and vengeance
by
ABR Arts 26 April 2022
Alexander Skarsgård stars as Amleth in <em>The Northman</em> (photo credit: Aidan Monaghan / © 2022 Focus Features, LLC)
Alexander Skarsgård stars as Amleth in The Northman (photo credit: Aidan Monaghan / © 2022 Focus Features, LLC)

If you were to pluck a tenth-century Norse Viking from their firelit longhouse and drop them into the twenty-first century so that they could create a film accurate about their life and culture, you would probably end up with something not far off from Robert Eggers’ The Northman, and not just because of the film’s graphic violence, fanatical religious ceremonies, and historically faithful aesthetics. The Northman also successfully depicts the way in which Northerners may well have perceived and spiritually understood the world around them.