S06.E01: New Beginnings / S06.E02: The Prophet

[nodorothyparker]

Airdate 2019.12.04

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Bjorn struggles with the responsibilities of kingship as Lagertha has other plans to lead a quiet life. Ivar falls into the hands of the Kievan Rus and Prince Oleg.

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Messengers arrive in Kattegat with news that presents Bjorn with a dilemma.  Ivar is shocked by Prince Oleg of Kiev's character. Lagertha settles into her new peaceful life, but danger lurks nearby.

 

[Ohwell]

Can't wait!

[LittleIggy]

That Prince Oleg is one crazy MF! He and Ivar belong together. The actor is hot, BTW. 😏 I like Ivar being nice to Prince Igor. Poor little kid.

Lagertha has finally been aged some but she is still gorgeous. I knew Bjorn should have executed those guys, but we know Lagertha can take care of them. I teared up when they had the flashback to the old days at the farm. 
So glad the show is back!

[magdalene]

I could barely stand Ivar and his sadism and now I will have to put up with Oleg, another disgusting and sadistic brute for the rest of the series.  Oh, hell no!  And Oleg is a preening narcissist on top of his sadism. Call me odd but I don't find a man who has a man torn apart alive for amusement in the least attractive - no matter how good-looking the actor supposedly is.

I am sure Lagertha's "retirement" is going to be very short lived. 

I am sad that Alfred, a lone voice of reason is no longer on the show.

[thuganomics85]

Vikings has finally returned, and everyone is where I figured they would be.  Bjorn is learning that being the king isn't all that is cracked up to be, Lagertha just wants to retire to a nice cottage out in the wilderness, Hvitserk has become a pitiful drunk, Ubbe and Torvi continue to be the sane ones here, and Ivar is.... doing magic tricks for the kid that he and his new BFF have basically made their prisoner?  Okay, I wasn't expected that part!

Speaking of Ivar, the cockroach continues to squirm by, and he's now aligned himself with Olag a.k.a. "The Prophet" a Rus Viking, apparently.  Who has such a violent streak that freaking Ivar "Anyone Who Doesn't Worship Me As A God Will Be Burned Alive" The Boneless is freaked out by him at times.  Of course, that doesn't stop them from bonding over things like how they both killed their own respected wives, naturally.  Not familiar with the actor playing Olag, but he seems charismatic enough in the role.

To the surprise of probably no one, Bjorn is already making eyes at another woman, because apparently even freaking Gunnhild the Badass can't satisfy him.  He really does take after his dad on that front, huh?  That, and freaking people about by invading their personal space, of course!  I'm glad he is going to help Harald at least, because despite the complicated history between... well, everyone, Harald did come through for him big time.

Lagertha really does deserve to have a peaceful life now, but that obviously will not happen: likely thanks to the guys Bjorn branded and tossed out on their asses.  I hope she gets some form of happiness before she reaches Valhalla.  Enjoyed seeing the flashbacks to season one and the simpler times.  That and reminding me how great the casting was of Jordan Patrick Smith as Ubbe, because he really does look like how Ragnar/Travis Fimmel looked back then.

Viking Edge (yeah, yeah, I know his name is Flatnose, but he'll always be Viking Edge to me!) is back from the island and being cagey about Floki's fate.  In his defense, I'd understand not wanting anyone else to know what went down on Floki's Party Island of Betrayal, Misery, and Blood-letting!

Curious to see how this all gets wrapped up!  Granted, even though this is the final season, there is apparently going to be twenty episodes, so this will probably won't actually wrap up until late 2020.  Not to mention the apparent spin-offs that are suppose to happen, which might be interesting (although, sadly, I'm guessing one of them on be The Adventures of Ivar the Boneless Magician!)

[Ohwell]

I'm so glad this show is back!  So much to process.

I liked Bjorn pondering how he should be king.  I think he realized that he shouldn't have let that last dude go and I hope he had someone tracking him since the dude is tracking Lagertha. 

I like the Rus Viking story, although Ivar has met his match with batshit crazy Prince Oleg.  When the Prince was talking about the woman he loved and why he killed her, and how he'd never trust another woman, I couldn't help thinking, "Ivar, watch your cornhole."  Ivar looked like he was thinking that, too.  

[nodorothyparker]

Pretty solid opener.  You know you're in for a ride (Literally! With a proto hot air balloon even.) when Ivar makes a new friend who makes him and his brother issues look almost reasonable by comparison.  It was a hoot at times watching him watching new Prince Nutjob, continually trying to gauge whether this was a bigger cup of crazy than he wanted to take on.

I found myself in these episodes really enjoying Ivar again for the first time in awhile.  Alex Hogh is a strong young actor with real presence but the back half of last season that gave him little to do but lean hard into the megalomaniacal with a few notable exceptions quickly grew tiresome and felt very one note.  Toned down enough where you can see some of Ragnar's head for strategy and trickster qualities in him and he's a far more interesting character.  I loved the Silk Road tapestry that opened the story, even if I found myself idly wondering how he was managing to keep a mercenary band willing to cart his ass across half the known world when one of the first things he admits to Prince Crazy is that yeah, sure, he's Ivar the Boneless, rumored god, but he currently has nothing of any value to anyone.

But seriously, guys.  There's a whole big world out there, with lots and lots of cities with riches to plunder.  Kiev looks far richer and more interesting.  Can we pretty please, just this once, pick any other place to go but to fight over Kattegat again?

Speaking of Kattegat, Bjorn clearly means well and wants to be a good king but is already showing many of the hallmarks of being the same kind of ruler Ragnar was, in that he seems far more interested in doing anything but that.  I suppose that makes sense as Bjorn has always embodied Ragnar's curiosity and wanderlust more than any of his brothers.  This woman I was so desperate to have?  Well yeah, but the serving girl is making eyes at me.  Not my fault.  I'm supposed to stay here and actually rule since Kattegat seems to get a new ruler about every fourth day and is just coming out from under the shadow of Ivar's oppressive death cult rule?  But but but I need to go mount a rescue mission for the runty king who was willing to fight me on the eve of battle and has double crossed every single one of us at one time or the other.  Gotta go.  I'm sure my one drunken brother can handle things just fine unless my other continually underappreciated workhorse brother is willing to step up and manage things since he's already raising my kids for me.

John Kavanagh must be pleased that he now gets to play the Seer as an apparently disembodied spirit instead of having to don the gnarly Seer makeup for each outing.  I FFed through so much of the story of Floki's island of whiny misfit Vikings last season that maybe I missed something but didn't the winner of Vikings: Survivor who showed up looking for new recruits (wiki tells me his name is Kjetill) kill pretty much everybody there?  So what was the plan there if anybody beside Ubbe was foolish enough to get on the boat and head back to Iceland with him?  Whoops, I guess everybody died while I was out? 

[benteen]

I've only watched the first episode so I commented on that.  Really liked the premiere.  Prince Oleg looks like a good new addition and I greatly enjoyed the flying scene with Ivar.  One of the great strengths of this show is the sense of wonder they evoke when they go to a new land.  It's exciting and almost feels like you are seeing these places for the first time along with the characters.  

Ah, Bjorn, yes, let's keep Ivar's dogs alive so that they can be killed freely outside the walls...AND can kill freely themselves!  Yeah, that won't come back to bite him in the ass...

I laughed as Bjorn saying he wanted to be the "best version of himself."  The best version of himself includes being a terrible husband and an absentee father.  Although I liked the character, I forgot whom Bjorn was with because he's gone through so many women.

[iMonrey]

So much of this show has revolved around Ivar since the death of Ragnar, and that's been a real problem. Ivar has never been much more than a two-dimensional cartoon villain. Yes, the actor who plays him is compelling and eminently watchable, but there's no way to empathize with a character who is just pure evil and/or pure crazy.

I get the feeling the show is now trying to "soften" Ivar and "redeem" him by a.) pairing him with someone far worse,  b.) showing Ivar being all cutesy with a little boy. 

This show does this weird thing when it snows. The snow seems to be falling upward. As someone who has lived with snow all my life I can assure you, snow does not fall upward. Maybe if it's real windy the snow is blowing every which way, but no breeze is visible in these snow scenes. They look like they were shot through a CGI snow globe someone just shook.

When Floki left Kattegat with his followers, Lagertha made it clear that if they left they could never come back. They reiterated that when they were in Iceland last year. Yet here is Flatnose, returning to Kattegat and being welcomed with open arms by Lagertha's son. Even Lagertha made no mention of it when Bjorn told her.

Is that a new tattoo on Ubbe's face, or did he have that last season?

[LittleIggy]

I don’t recall Ubbe having that Vertical facial tat before.

I’m glad Harald is still alive. I haven’t always liked the character, but I like the actor.

[LilWharveyGal]

Did Brother #2 remind anyone else of Roger Federer?  The resemblance was distracting to me.

[Ohwell]

2 hours ago, LilWharveyGal said:

Did Brother #2 remind anyone else of Roger Federer?  The resemblance was distracting to me.

Yeah, that nose and mouth.

[nodorothyparker]

I was so distracted by each of the three brothers speaking with a different accent that I'll be honest that the second and third brothers didn't register much with me beyond dark hair dark eyes.  It's weird the things your mind fixates on.

[sagittarius sue]

10 minutes ago, nodorothyparker said:

I was so distracted by each of the three brothers speaking with a different accent

I was surprised with Prince Oleg speaking with an American accent, and then discovering that the actor, Danila Kozlovsky, is Russian and has acted in both Russian and English-speaking roles.

[wlk68]

It really is remarkable how much Jordan Patrick Smith looks like a young Travis Fimmel. 

It was fun to watch Ivar being the one who had to tiptoe around the crazy despot so he didn't get executed. The shoe was definitely on the other foot.

I also loved the new long hair and beard on Ivar. Very hot. Too bad he reverted back. 

[iMonrey]

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I also loved the new long hair and beard on Ivar. 

The passage of time on this show is weird. Ivar had at least a year's growth at the beginning of this episode, so had Bjorn been King that long? Torvi's kids are Bjorn's, aren't they? They don't look like they've aged a day in the last 2 seasons. 

[Ohwell]

That batshit crazy wild dance that Prince Oleg did was enthralling, yet terrifying, to watch.

[Steph J]

23 hours ago, magdalene said:

I am sad that Alfred, a lone voice of reason is no longer on the show.

Have to admit, I'm a little annoyed that after spending 4 seasons being asked to care about the court intrigues in England, that part of the story is just done.

[Captanne]

There have been seasons of this show that have fallen flat for me -- yet, I have kept the faith and watched from the beginning to now.  I loved the two opening episodes (2 better than 1) and was especially gratified to experience Lagertha's memory lane stroll as we watched her young self just starting out in flashbacks.  Nice.  That brought this audience member into the ensemble and I appreciate it.  

I agree with the "I'm tired of Ivar, I never liked him anyway, and the show dwells too much on him" (see the comment I made at the outset of this post -- just about the entirety of last season falls into the "flat" category for me).  The Silk Road tangent is fascinating and very well done (see the "2 better than 1" comment) -- but the first observation still holds true.  That is the only and single qualifier I have for an otherwise glowing opinion of this season's opening salvo.

[nodorothyparker]

23 hours ago, benteen said:

Prince Oleg looks like a good new addition and I greatly enjoyed the flying scene with Ivar.  One of the great strengths of this show is the sense of wonder they evoke when they go to a new land.  It's exciting and almost feels like you are seeing these places for the first time along with the characters.  

I loved this too.  The show hasn't managed that sense of wonder in awhile and this was a really nice return to it.  As exhilarating as the flying scenes were, I also liked that Oleg immediately pegged what it would mean in that time and place to someone like Ivar who can only creep along the ground under his own power without assistance while Ivar was clearly having a moment of seeing the downside of his claims to godhood, which I've always thought he desperately wanted to believe in far more than he actually did as a way of setting himself apart.   I'm not familiar with the actor playing Oleg but he was more than holding his own in all those scenes matching Ivar intensity for intensity and giving him a glimpse of what it's like to have to deal with that kind of insanity on the regular.

[wlk68]

14 hours ago, iMonrey said:

The passage of time on this show is weird. Ivar had at least a year's growth at the beginning of this episode, so had Bjorn been King that long? Torvi's kids are Bjorn's, aren't they? They don't look like they've aged a day in the last 2 seasons. 

Yes. Torvi was originally with Bjorn before his dick got distracted by ... I can't even remember. Astrid? 

I love Torvi with Ubbe.    

[benteen]

Finished the second episode and it was great, even better than the first which I very much enjoyed.

Oleg and the Kiev storyline has been a great addition to the show so far and has helped the Ivar character, who I was completely sick of last season.  I knew his brother was dead but I didn't expect the poison bit.  I liked the guy playing his other brother too, thought the actor did a good job.

Even the Iceland storyline seems interesting again, with Edge returning and Bjorn being able to sniff out his shit.  Edge should have just said Floki is dead but that probably would have been sniffed out too.

It's interesting how close Lagertha and Ubbe are...I briefly forgot that they weren't mother and son.  I did like that despite their disappointment, Ubbe and Torvi agreed to look over Kattegat in Bjorn's place.

I'm glad that Bjorn is going to help Harald.  It's the right decision but probably the wrong one for his people.

Good lord, Bjorn is a gigantic whore.  Someone mentioned he's just like Ragnar is that regard.  Ragnar did leave Lagertha for Aslaug but that was motivated a great deal by wanting more children.  The producers originally wanted Ragnar to take Yidu as a lover but Fimmel convinced them that Ragnar at that age was only looking for companionship and not love.  Anyway, Ragnar was never as bad as Bjorn.

So the Alfred storyline is over?

Great start to Season 6.  Last year the show started to falter but finished strong with the last three episodes.  It's great to see that continuing.

[iMonrey]

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I am sad that Alfred, a lone voice of reason is no longer on the show.

I wasn't aware they weren't going to include Alfred this season. Nothing in Wessex, or in all of England? That seems like an odd pivot for the final season considering how much time they invested in that area. 

I wonder if it's because we're getting to a point where Vikings is going to cross paths with The Last Kingdom's timeline.

[nodorothyparker]

We honestly have no idea whether we'll be seeing Wessex again.  Alfred isn't in the preseason trailers but that doesn't always mean very much as most of the footage used in them is generally culled from the first couple of episodes.  Every recognizable character in the cast there except for Alfred is dead, right?  But they did go off and leave a fairly large settlement there, so it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect them to go back and check on it at some point.  That's how Ragnar and company got dragged into the Mercia civil war. 

[foxfreakinmulder]

I did not recognize Ivar in the beginning with the long hair and beard.

I loved the expression on Ivar's face when his friend was killed in the forest. It was, WTF this guy is even more cray, cray than I am. Priceless!

As posted above, casting did an excellent job casting the actor that plays Ubbe he looks so much like a young Ragnar (I miss him so much) but I don't care for the new tattoo on his face. 

So it looks like there will be another big battle for Kattegat.

Don't really care about Harald but I guess he'll come in handy during the next battle for Kattegat.

I really like Bjorn's wife.

I would like to see England again but it won't be the same without Alfred.

I hope Lagertha takes care of those men watching her.

I don't want to go back to Iceland.

So happy Vikings is back! I was able to watch the first 2 episodes on the History channel without a tv service login but too damn many commercials, I think I'll wait until this season hits HULU to binge watch the rest. Until then, I'll just read about the episodes here :-)

[sagittarius sue]

14 hours ago, benteen said:

Ragnar did leave Lagertha for Aslaug

Ragnar didn't leave Lagertha because he wanted both women in his life.  Lagertha justifiably didn't want to be a sister wife so she left, and Bjorn chose to go with her right when she was leaving.

Unlike Bjorn who is hot and cold with his various lovers, I think Ragnar always loved Lagertha while he didn't seem to care much for Aslaug after he had his additional sons..

[LennieBriscoe]

On 12/5/2019 at 12:48 AM, magdalene said:

I could barely stand Ivar and his sadism and now I will have to put up with Oleg, another disgusting and sadistic brute for the rest of the series.  Oh, hell no!  And Oleg is a preening narcissist on top of his sadism. Call me odd but I don't find a man who has a man torn apart alive for amusement in the least attractive - no matter how good-looking the actor supposedly is.

I am sure Lagertha's "retirement" is going to be very short lived. 

I am sad that Alfred, a lone voice of reason is no longer on the show.

Maybe someone will come up with a new series called "Anglo-Saxons"!

[WatchrTina]

On 12/5/2019 at 8:40 AM, nodorothyparker said:

I found myself idly wondering how he was managing to keep a mercenary band willing to cart his ass across half the known world when one of the first things he admits to Prince Crazy is that yeah, sure, he's Ivar the Boneless, rumored god, but he currently has nothing of any value to anyone.

This!  A thousand times this!  I could not find the willful suspension of disbelief necessary to accept the notion that the last remaining remnants of Team Ivar are still carting his boneless ass all over Europe with no particular aim in mind.  I just looked at a map and Kattegat (which we think was on the west coast of Denmark, near the southern tip of Sweden) is a hell of a long way (especially overland in a wheeled cart) from the modern location of Kiev (Kyiv) in Ukraine. And Ivar admits he HAS no plan.  They just kept rolling west.  I guess they stopped occasionally and his men hunted and gathered and that's how they lived since there are no supply wagons and there isn't much room in that cart or their saddle bags for either supplies or valuable items to trade. But still, why?  I guess those guys who are still with Ivar are religious fanatics who, having decided that Ivar is a god, now think themselves on a holy mission that will get them into Valhalla.  You have to die in combat (or at least be killed by an enemy) to get in, right?  So I guess the one that got torn apart while praising Ivar got his ticket punched.  Damn.  This show has always had a dark underbelly and we've already seen numerous scenes of man's inhumanity to man (people burned alive, that horrible "blood eagle" punishment, Ragnar's death) but at least those moments were portrayed as horrible and rare.  These new "Rus" Vikings seemed to just get off the torture -- as if the machine they built for tearing a man's arms off is as entertaining a spectacle as the machine they built to fly Oleg and Ivar over the city.

I want to love this season.  I want to be glad i's back.  But so far, it's a struggle.

And so help me, if those branded outcasts hurt ma girl Lagertha . . . 

[iMonrey]

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 I guess those guys who are still with Ivar are religious fanatics who, having decided that Ivar is a god, now think themselves on a holy mission that will get them into Valhalla. 

Yeah, you gotta figure if Floki got enough people to follow him into the unknown because he claimed to have found the land of the Gods, then Ivar would be just as likely to have some really faithful followers himself. There's a well known belief that Ragnar and his sons are directly descended from Odin - even Oleg knew of this. Not much of a stretch that some people really did believe Ivar was a God.

I could barely watch that arm-ripping scene. Had to look away.

[sagittarius sue]

6 hours ago, LennieBriscoe said:

Maybe someone will come up with a new series called "Anglo-Saxons"!

Wouldn't that be great!  It would also be great if they used information from recent archaeological digs.  PBS had a fantastic Secrets of the Dead  episode last March called "King Arthur's Lost Kingdom."   Actually there is no archaeological evidence of King Arthur, but there is for a prosperous trading center at Tintagel with artifacts from France, Spain, and even Turkey.  Also there is no archaeological evidence of violent battles when the Anglo-Saxons came over.  It is surmised that they peacefully assimilated into farming communities in the eastern and central portions of Britain while western sections such as Cornwall, Wales and a large portion of Scotland remained separate.

It would also be interesting to cover the re-conversion to Christianity that occurred around 100 years before King Eckbert's reign.

[Lady Iris]

I rather quite enjoyed the recap and two eps. Bless my dvr for catching it because I didn't even know it was coming back on. Glad to see Ivar's been toned down a bit. He was way too over the top last year.

Those bad dudes better not get the best of Lagertha.

Are we supposed to assume Floki is dead? He did suffer a cave in, he could be dead but not I'm not sure.

[Haleth]

On 12/7/2019 at 7:15 AM, LennieBriscoe said:

Maybe someone will come up with a new series called "Anglo-Saxons"!

They did.  The Last Kingdom, as iMonrey mentioned above.  It's based on the Bernard Cornwell books.

Speaking of books, the writers of Vikings apparently read Peter Frankopan's The Silk Road between seasons.  There is a whole chapter on the Rus Vikings and how plundering Silk Road villages and travelers was much more lucrative than plundering a comparatively poor Britain.  I'm not sure if the real Ivar ever got there though.  I love that the show is again broadening the Viking world to include new territory, keeping the show fresh.

Does it snow that much in Kiev?

I've only watched the first hour so far and am enjoying the Rus storyline more than Kattegat (which is getting kind of stale with its revolving rulers).  I do not look forward to more of the tedious Iceland storyline.  I thought all those people were mostly dead?

[MaggieG]

I was completely checked out of the Iceland storyline last year so I have completely forgotten about Floki. I assume if he never got out of that cave, he's probably dead. Is Gustav Skarsgard officially off the show?

I'm over Bjorn and his wandering dick.

Ubbe and Torvi are currently my favorites. Not really caring too much about Hvitserk.

Ivar managed to find someone more batshit crazy than himself. I had to laugh at Iva's face when Oleg said "oh yeah, that's my other brother."

[Evagirl]

Is Floki finally dead?  I hope so.  His story after Ragnar's death was just a waste of time for me.  It did nothing to move the  story forward.  The only thing that did move forward was my DVR's FF whenever he was on!  Just go away Floki please!!!  And take Lagather with you.  They kept these two characters on way too long after Ragnar's death.  It was his connection to them that even gave them any interest (IMO).  Yeah, I'll admit, even after all this time, I still miss Ragnar (but not the crazy drugged out Ragnar)!

[tennisgurl]

On 12/6/2019 at 10:22 AM, wlk68 said:

I love Torvi with Ubbe.    

Really, Torvi lucked out. I love Bjorn, but he really inherited a lot of his dads less awesome traits, like his wandering eye and restless spirit. Ubbe has a lot of Ragnar in him too, but not so much the chasing tail stuff, is a pretty caring husband and person in general, and is generally the resident sanest person in most any room. Of course, they both got Ragnars love of quirky gesturing and facial movements and getting up in peoples grill, so maybe thats Torvis type?

Interesting start to the season, I am glad to see this show back again, dismemberments and all! Looks we our next culture we get to explore are the Rus, and honestly I dont even care about them trying to steal Kattegat (yeah, get in line guys) I just want to see them hang around Kiev more, that sounds WAY more interesting! Or exploring the Silk Road, anything but yet another band of guys with beards banging on the doors of Kattegat. Plus, I know this show has long since left historical accuracy behind, but the Rus of this time period probably wouldn't be trying to attack the Norse, the two cultures actually got along pretty well (as they said here, they used to all be more or less Norse) and problems didnt start for awhile, unless we are just skipping a few hundred years. Also, Prince Oleg was a real guy, and while its often hard to tell what is actual history and what is myth (much like the Eddas this show is based on) that was passed on later, especially when it came to Olegs prophesies, I dont think he was ever talked about as being a sadistic crazy eyed wackjob like this. He was mostly famous for seeing the future, and for getting his people a bunch of sweet trade deals! 

Sorry, I just never get to use my Kievian Rus knowledge in everyday life, so I am pretty excited. I do always love when we get to see a new people and culture, its always so exciting, and the show does always have fun exploring all of these different cultures and places and how all of these people interacted with each other. 

You can just imagine all of the regular Rus people in the town looking up at Ivar and Oleg on their flying sleigh ride and being like "Oh Christ, looks like the Prince is flapping around in the air again with some new rando he picked up off the side of the Silk Road *grumbling* Our tax dollars at work...*" 

[LennieBriscoe]

On 12/11/2019 at 7:16 AM, Haleth said:

They did.  The Last Kingdom, as iMonrey mentioned above.  It's based on the Bernard Cornwell books.

Speaking of books, the writers of Vikings apparently read Peter Frankopan's The Silk Road between seasons.  There is a whole chapter on the Rus Vikings and how plundering Silk Road villages and travelers was much more lucrative than plundering a comparatively poor Britain.  I'm not sure if the real Ivar ever got there though.  I love that the show is again broadening the Viking world to include new territory, keeping the show fresh.

Does it snow that much in Kiev?

I've only watched the first hour so far and am enjoying the Rus storyline more than Kattegat (which is getting kind of stale with its revolving rulers).  I do not look forward to more of the tedious Iceland storyline.  I thought all those people were mostly dead?

Not having heard of the show,  I didn't get the reference to "The Last Kingdom." In any case,  my suggestion of "Anglo-Saxons" was to continue the manner of title specifically naming the main cultural group depicted: "Vikings," "Anglo-Saxons," "Normans," etc.  

Edited December 13, 2019 by LennieBriscoe

[ahpny]

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Sorry, I just never get to use my Kievian Rus knowledge in everyday life, so I am pretty excited. I do always love when we get to see a new people and culture, its always so exciting, and the show does always have fun exploring all of these different cultures and places and how all of these people interacted with each other. 

Yes, but they're off by the Christianization of Kievan Rus by nearly 200 years. I know this isn't a documentary, that they screw with the time line, and conflate various characters (such as Rollo), but this was a more fundamental detour away from history. Though there are various sources chronicling attempts to Christianize the Rus from 867 onward, the more or less accepted date for when Kievan Rus became Christian is 987, with the baptism of Vladimir.  Maybe it was a throwaway line by King Oleg that they'd "just become Christian," but that irked because Kievan Rus was not generally Christian then, and wouldn't be for some time.

I presume this episode (and season?) take place somewhere around 800 - 825 given that the raid on Lindisfarne was in 793 and we seem to be a couple of decades out from that.

I would suspect the balloon flying scene was wholly fictitious too, but it was cool to watch, so all is forgiven. 

[benteen]

On 12/11/2019 at 11:29 AM, MaggieG said:

I'm over Bjorn and his wandering dick.

That is a great term to associate with Bjorn.

[Haleth]

21 hours ago, ahpny said:

I presume this episode (and season?) take place somewhere around 800 - 825 given that the raid on Lindisfarne was in 793 and we seem to be a couple of decades out from that.

For what it's worth, Alfred ruled during the last couple decades of the 9th c.