(15): TV-show review: Vikings; Masculinism And Feminism From The Lens of Hero Romanticism.

Genre: Historical drama. Action-adventure.
Year of release: 2013.
Author: MA Iliasu.
Coauthor: Abdulrahman Baba-Ahmed. 

Ragnar Lothbrok was an audacious farmer who was consumed by the depth of his curiosity. Fated to do great things, Ragnar Lothbrok's audacity clouded the fate of his brother Rollo, and naturally took control of his heathen crew. Bound to intimidate any power in his environment, Ragnar fulfilled an inevitable fallout with his ruler, Earl Harroldson, after coming back from raiding an Anglo-Saxon Island under the care of Christian monastery across the sea. Gaining from the spoils of the raid a Christian priest by the name Athelstan, who'll later serve as the navigator of Ragnar's curiosity. Upright like an amateur nipple, Ragnar clipped Earl Harroldson in a single combat to took over Kattegat and moved in to the great Hall with his wife Lagertha and son Bjorn. Fuelling a more equipped quest towards physically visualizing his curiosity. Normally, when a man sees a tree, he sees a producer of fruits. But when Floki sees it, all he sees was boats sailing upon the sea. And it was such abnormal eye that made the idiotic-heathen a skillful boat builder. Being so dear to Ragnar, Floki built enough boats to sail back to England, alongside another Scandinavian pagan lord called King Horik. Leaving behind a victim of political conspiracy, an Earl called Jarl Borg who was so blonde and hairy he could be mistaken for the waste of palm oil. On the journey to whose earldom, Aslaug, a finely-lineaged woman met Ragnar and they had sex. The target of the raid to England was a kingdom called Northumbria, ruled by a chubby-looking Saxon and beautiful-accented English king named Aelle. The raid was bloody, forcing Aelle to seek for truce. And the story of Ragnar's success in Northumbria travelled all over England to a kingdom called Wessex. The king of which was a wise politician named Ecbert. And upon studying Ragnar's style, he planned how he'll deal with him when he sail ashore to coasts. 

Ragnar sailed home with big spoils. And days later Aslaug sailed ashore at the harbor of Kattegat with an infant pregnancy. A fact that broke Lagertha's heart and pissed her off to a divorce. She took with her Bjorn, leaving Ragnar with his new wife Aslaug - who'll later birth him four sons - and Athelstan, the Christian priest Ragnar gained from the raid of monastery.

Scandinavia was a big geography, rich with mountains and seas. With many kingdoms and earldoms, ranging from Denmark to Norway. Ruled by kings and Earls. None more famous than Ragnar Lothbrok because of his rare valour and achievements. Discovering new lands through the raid was the quickest route to the books of history. And in epic heathen style, romantic heroism (read: Jenni Calder's Heroes) was the means of making a living. And with due consideration to the series, an account of a plot so vast, and of a cut-throat drama so filled with characters and events such as this cannot escape omission, bias nor the desire for vindication. So, in order to be as fair, analogical and impartial as possible, I have tried to see their actions through the lens of an authentic account of Greek or Shakespearean tragedy in which characters, neither good nor bad, are overtaken by the unintended consequences of their conception of what they ought to do. What Jenni Calder compiled to write the Heroes. 

For simplicity, Vikings can be narrowed down to the Heathen and Saxon lands. One sort under the command of Ragnar and the other under Ecbert. Both carrying the profile of romantic heroes, with regard for faith only where faith is due, united in their common belief of the ends justifying the means, and their behaviors pattern serving as the roadmap towards understanding their respective societies.

Ragnar and his heathen folk weren't so clean and polite, more submissive to their belief and hunger for extraordinary heroism. Their king, is what Calder called Gothic hero; a hero of immense energy, some evil, a man of action and passion, free as long as he had the power to preserve his freedom, who seemed to bear little relation to the social or intellectual atmosphere of the times. Theoretically a villain, but the inheritor of Milton's Satan in that very often both his power and his rationale are attractive, and persuasive. The Gothic hero is generally lustful, ambitious, violent, sometimes also sadistic, bestial and nihilistic. He is a doer, and that's what's important. He explores and enacts human potential, even if it is a potential for evil. If he wants, he acts. If he feels, he acts. Lust, hatred, greed, ambition are all translated with speed and immediacy into action. 

Ragnar Lothbrok was like a 19th century man of ambition. And 20th century man of action. The conquest of Frankia, the deadliest raid in the series was evident of Ragnar's pettiness, yet his never give up urge towards achieving the goal in sight. His comeback from losing position by posing as a dead can be matched only by Sergio Roberto's last minute winner in Paris. And such was manifesting upon all the Heathen folk. For instance, Rollo was only fulfilling his Gothic nature when he accepted the offer of the Franks. As was Horik when he attempted a coup, and Jarl Borg when he took Kattegat before Ragnar took it back. Lagertha too and her earldom, which claimed two husbands of her and an in-law, her murder of Aslaug to take Kattegat creating a bad blood with the sons of Ragnar. Athelstan was nothing like that, and that's why he disappeared quicker than the stink of shady fart. 

While Ecbert, a manipulative politician, born diplomat, so wise and sharp like a groom on his first night was a clean, more wise and polite version of Ragnar. Lustful and ambitious. Determined to achieve his goals. Ecbert and his Saxon folks aren't so crude and aggressive as to be called Gothic, yet so efficient in his usage of power and freedom as to openly bed his daughter in-law with impunity. Ecbert was as heathen and Satan in mind as Ragnar was Gothic in his usage of physique. And such was the cold behaviour his neighbor Aelle was lacking, and the cutting edge Kwentrith of Mercia was so slow to discover. Making both so inferior to Ecbert thanks to their pattent of behavior. 

The end of Athelstan's affair with Judith, Alfred, was so adored by Ecbert because he understood the need of Saxon society in it's inherent demand for a philosopher-king like himself, even ahead of a warrior-king like his son Aethelwulf and his offspring Aethelred. How did he predicted a philosopher in Alfred is by his priesthood lineage to Athelstan and his adoration by Judith whom he stressed that she get educated for a time like the period after his death. He knew the future of England does not lie with the king who knew how to wield a sword, and certainly must've predicted the disaster of Aethelwulf's days.

The same applies to Ragnar when he tipped Ivar the boneless to took over his fame. Because he knew the heathens would need a narcissist, self-fulfilling madness-exuding inspirational speaker who'll serve as a typical imaginary and escapist Hero. The future of the Norsemen didn't lie with a curious explorer like Bjorn Ironside due to the possible rise of neighboring Scandinavian earldoms who'll take pleasure in conquering Kattegat in his absence. Neither did it lie with Ubbe who was so in love with the idea of farming. Nor Hvitserk who was indifferent when it comes to which God to serve. It was boneless who ticked the box of leading the pagans despite been a cripple. And so he did by claiming he was a god. The heathens needed just that level of madness to stay assembled. The sons of Ragnar all picked up one quality from their accomplished father; Bjorn took exploration and curiosity - from Franki to Andalus, Sicily and Mediterranean down to the Sahara in Africa, Ubbe took farming and exercising of Christianity, Hvitserk indifference and confusion in belief, while the nihilism and narcissism went to Ivar. And they used it so well he would be so proud in Valhalla. 

Both the heathens and the Saxon folks did what was compatible to their way of life. And though their actions are explained within the mythological prisms of Shakespearean dramas and tales ancient Greek. Their inaction are better explained by deducing from the reality of their respective societies. And the most interesting of all is the role of women. Vikings elucidate the role of women in both the Heathen and saxon societies. And that provokes an observation from a sociocultural and pop culture analyst, Abdulrahman Baba-Ahmed:

“If there is anything more remarkable about Heathen folks in Vikings than their valour and military agility, it is their liberation of women. They operated a society where a woman can be anything she aspires to be. The words of women counted equal to the words of men in the great Hall and when the people are losing faith in their King, the Queen speaks and they listen. Hell, women are so empowered that a slave girl in instances more than once slept her way into power without as much as a chide from the people of her nobility. Like the Dothrakis of the Great Grass Sea, the Vikings see power in strength and will to pursue one's desires and dreams.

The dexterity and valour of the shield maidens in the field of battle is stuff for poetic ingenuity. In what culminated as the peak of women power, Lagertha did not ascend to Valhalla without carving the status of goddess in the heart of the finest shield Maiden the whole of Norway has ever seen through my eyes: Gunnhild.

Women understood the game of thrones arguably more than the men of Vikings as it could be seen in how fluidly they maneuver around the hurdles of power and make decisions without fear or cowardice. In an interesting turn of events, the manner in which Gunnhild chose Bjorn over Finehair not because of the former's claim to fame as the son of Ragnar but as an answer to the whispers in her heart is an evident and resounding lesson in power play. And when push came to shove as the only means to withstand the Turkish invasion, unity was maintained without as much Ado.

That is not the end of the women power in the show. Another pointer is the courage with which Gunnhild proposed the idea of polygamy to Bjorn because she understood yet again the importance of being in control. She chose to be with him by her own will and now that a third party is threatening to encroach her power sphere, she stepped up to present an idea that worked to suit the lust of her husband while at the same time maintaining her status as an independently strong women that will not be cowed nor submit to her emotional whims and destroy a man on whose back she plans to ride to the Apex of her desires.

There is obviously a lot to be said about the women of the show and I can't simply hide my admiration of how they run things especially in the perfect example of Judith which you judiciously x-rayed to my applause. Did I mention how Rollo got to be the Prince of Paris? A woman. If Vikings is a song then it will be a song of Women and Slaves.”

This take about the role of women in Heathen society can't be more cogent. The freedom was unreal, amidst what's of them that's rejected in cruelty and lack of cleansing. And it breeds similar observation regarding the same role  in their Saxon society counterpart. 

The role of women in England was nothing short of underwhelming. Women listen with immense surprise when they hear about the shield maidens, and watch in awe when they see them. It's a dream for them. Art, poetry, science and other hearts of education, politics, sociology, management and the rest of other obligatory knowledge required to thrive, and not so much as a role to showcase valour on the battlefield, was all the Saxon women wanted. Sadly the orthodoxy believed otherwise. And the effort towards breaking such orthodoxy requires deadly a radicalism before it comes to fruition. One that created the monster in Judith, daughter of Aelle and wife Aethelwulf. 

The character of Judith is the one I took personal interest in. The transmogrification of her character presents an interesting dimension towards analysing the psyche of a woman that was earlier trapped by the shackles of medieval Anglo-Saxon orthodoxy; a wife to a warrior in whom she took little interest, an infatuated housewife who fancies another man, a dishonored daughter-in-law who finally understood the fluid of reality as to break the status quo. That was intriguing. The psyche underwent a phase similar to the one American men went through during the campaign of Vietnam War - they knew and enjoyed freedom and supremacy, until the annihilation in Vietnam triggered the question that if truly this is freedom and supremacy, as civilised and free men, do we want anything to do with it? Fuelling the structural perceptions of patriarchy to change; from aggressive and toxic, to soft and nurturing of feminine traits in man. Judith looked at her environment using similar prism. She must've asked herself, if this is what it means to be women, weak, dishonored and limited, in this hell of a society, do I want anything to do with it? Surely that inflated the transformation of her psyche from an innocent daughter of Aelle, to a former mistress of Ecbert who broker power in Wessex. She broke the barrier both in behavior and action. A little Gothic in her exercise of freedom, intellectual in her understanding of behavior pattern and romantic in her execution of thoughts. Just like Ecbert. And the other women from Heathen beings. Her attitude towards betrayal was the pragmatic prophesy Berlin (Watch: Money Heist) unveiled, that betrayal is an inherent aspect of love, which doesn't depend on how deep you love someone, but on the extent of the dilemma you're presented with. 

Such impacted England in what they need of human resources and efficiency. Their activities were limited on men alone. While the heathens enjoyed a fully employed society with every aspect functioning with equal strength. No wonder when the heathens invaded, the arc bishop asked God to help, and Aelle openly protested with the blasphemous saying that “he don't think he can”. Well, it's not a blasphemy, it was an allegorical consequences being showed to any society that cripple itself by limiting the role of women. 

Vikings was all about curiosity; it's depth, impact and how it can shape the worldview. Curiosity about conquest, existence of God, women, knowledge and power. It fulfills in it's delivery of Pagans and Saxons, yet flawed in it's overstretching of the role of Floki, who later got betrayed by his curiosity in pagan Gods. Still, it was perfect in it's rendition and delivery of karmic justice, which Floki was subject to, after a murder of the Christian, Athelstan, in coldblood.

In the end, the conspiracy of Bjorn being possibly an offspring of Rollo, Magnus of Ragnar, Alfred of Athelstan, the bastards of Ivar and Harrold Finehair, the dwarf in the other side of Scandinavia, just confessed the trying hard of Vikings plot towards becoming just another song of dwarves, cripples, bastards and broken things. Sadly the monopoly of that was given to another series far more superior and charming. Still, it earned a solid 7.5/10 rating.

MA Iliasu writes from Kano and can be reached on twitter through his handle: @MA_Iliasu

Abdurrahman Baba-Ahmed writes from Kaduna and can be reached on twitter through his handle @Abdulrah_maan