MovieChat Forums > The Vikings (1958) Discussion > Can you answer this? (Possible spoliers)

Can you answer this? (Possible spoliers)

posted 21 years ago by Shield-maiden
4 replies | jump to latest

My 10th grade World History teacher showed us a viking film as part of the early Europen part of the class. As this has been several years ago, I cannot remember the title of the film. As a history major myself, I would like to be able to see it again. If you have seen this film, could you please tell me if it is the one where:

~ There is a Viking Feast. A girl is brought in that has commited some sort of crime (or else is being used for sport). They stick her head through a small hole in a wooden wall and pen her hair in three braids around her head. The main character of the movie then saves her by throwing three axes at her hair and "chopping" her loose.

~ The Vikings raid a ship and capture a young woman, her nurse, and take the cargo back to their village.

~ The first character above, the young woman, her nurse, and another character are forced to leave the Viking Settlement. (I believe it is due to an attack but I am not sure.) They are all rowing off together when the girl (who is of high birth) complains that she cannot row because "her dress is too tight" which the main character solves by ripping open the back of the dress.

~ There is a dispute over who should be "king" and they discuss throwing the loser of the battle into a pit of hungry dogs. There is a major fight that takes place on a narrow walkway outside a walled fortress (possibly a castle).

I am sorry there is not much information to go on, but it has been a long time since seeing it. If this does describe this movie, please let me know. If it does not, and you know what movie it does describe, also let me know. Thank you!!

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[–] jmottle-1 21 years ago

The Movie is "The Viking" with Tony Curtis, Kirk Douglas, Janet Leigh and Ernest Borgnine.

[–] Shield-maiden 21 years ago

Thank you very much! I have been wondering about this for quite awhile!

The road leads ever on and on...
Say goodbye! Goodbye!

[–] GEO175 21 years ago

I got a screen cap from "The Vikings" (1958) http://img23.photobucket.com/albums/v68/geo175/The%20Vikings/1a1e9e08.jpg

[–] Laurie-26 20 years ago

Edison Marshall, the author of the book "The Vikings", drew upon both the Saga of Ragnar Lodbrok and the Saga of Ragnar's Sons. He was well acquainted with Viking/Anglo Saxon culture, history and beliefs and this scholarship shows in the book. The book is far richer with detail and characterization than the movie (which only uses the barebones of the novel's storyline). I read the book first before seeing the movie when it first came out. I have found some copies in secondhand stores and stands up quite well as a history novel. As for the movie, still for what it is and the acting....great stuff.

Ragnar, in the Saga, dies bound in slop pool filled with sea crabs and krakens....not starving dogs or wolves. Aella allowed him to have one arm uncovered to use a sword. There is a subsequent lay about Ragnar being welcomed into Valhalla. The book has a Valkyrie hearing the battle and comes down through the broken dome and takes Ragnar up onto her horse.

The Vikings had no such thing as "Odin's Test for unfaithful Wives". This was strictly for the movie. Nor is this in the book. Janet Leigh's charactor would have been thrown over the side by the book's "Morgana"...who was a Celtic Blackhaired, blued eyed beauty. The Welsh princess was not above rowing for her life in "Odin's Toy" (the little boat's name).

The Vikings did not fear "falling over the sea's edge". They had no belief in this and even Edison wrote of their using a "sunstone". But they did not have a magnetic compass.

Kirk Douglas writes of how this movie got made in his autobiography "The Ragpicker's Son". Makes for very interesting reading.