Are we for Anime?
There’s a newish anime called Vinland Saga that just appeared on Netflix. It’s about Vikings in Iceland, Denmark, and England. Mostly, it’s about a young Viking named Thorfinn who becomes tragically separated from his family in Iceland and lives and works in a company of Vikings who he hates. Still, in this company he becomes a great warrior through a series of raids on the English countryside.
The show has a lot of names and places, and I wouldn’t be surprised if much of it is historically accurate (I just asked ChatGPT if the show is historically accurate, and it said that some is and some isn’t). The show opens with Leif Erikson telling the story of his visit to “Vinland” to a group of children. Leif Erikson was a real guy, and is considered to be the first person from Europe to set foot in North America. “Vinland” (or “Vineland” or “Winland”) was the Norse word for North America, where they established a settlement in Newfoundland around the year 1000 AD.
The show, at least the first season, isn’t about this. It’s about a series of battles in which Vikings, who are loosely loyal to a Danish king, assault the English countryside as payback for an ambush on one of their own communities. Thorfinn, a young boy when the show starts, sneaks on a ship captained by his father, who is summoned to take part in this battle. But Thorfinn gets captured and is forced to develop his own set of murderous warrior traits. He uses two knives and he can run long distances. He truly hates the guy who’s leading his band, Askeladd, and he keeps challenging him to duels.
Among the other cast of characters there is a short obese king, a giant who can hurl boulders across huge distances, and a guy with big ears called “Ear” who can listen to the ground and tell how far away the enemy troops are. There’s also a really good theme song for the show, if you like emo, at least. If all this sounds good to you and you can get over the fact that all these Vikings are speaking Japanese, I’d say you should give Vinland Saga a try.—Will Powers
