The notion itself that a high class woman bred to think of vikings as barbarian devil worshiping pagans would willingly seek out being deflowered by one of them is a super stretch, I don't care how rebellious she was feeling.
But I suppose I can momentarily suspend belief for the sake of historical fiction.
Look up on history how much kings and queens and such screwed around, it's more than realistic.
shareI don't have a problem with her screwing around. I'm talking about her willingness to get devirginized by a pagan devil worshiping viking "barbarian" as she would have been bred to believe they are.
shareHence, she probably thought it was a hot idea: forbidden, dirty, yummy fruit. Plus, you know, built like a Viking.
shareYeah I'm sure that's what the show was going for. She was like the rebel teen throwing herself at the viking rockstar, the great Bjorn Ironside.
It's just hard to imagine in 886 CE any high bred English princess, or even any English really, viewing the vikings as anything but scary marauders. Alfred had an exceptionally enlightened worldly view, no doubt influenced by his parents. But Alfred's views were clearly the extreme exception and he hadn't even become familiar with her enough to have his beliefs rub off on her in any way.
But I can accept the lack of realism for the sake of a juicy plot device.
It's interesting too to regard the interaction between the older man in the crowd and the vikings as their first brought into the settlement. He yells "Murderers!" at them. Bjorn scowls and as there are led away at one point Lagertha turns and looks at the man in the crowd with an impassive look on her face and we see the silent "response" of the man in the crowd. I think the meaning there is that Lagertha is not there to fight the English, she bears no ill will towards them and wants to be accepted by them. She is not the violent marauder the English expect and hate. We know Hearmund sees her differently, seeing her as being someone more morally developed than a barbarian, and he is/was a virulent Viking hater.
shareI had to go back to re-watch that opening scene and I admit it's hard for me to see what you saw. I could come to no firm conclusions that the man shouting "murderers" one moment before staring silently the next was in any way reacting to Lagaertha specifically. She certainly hadn't noticed him and wasn't reacting to him in any way.
shareThanks for your input on that. I also re-watched it to try and work out what wasn't making sense if anything and I find I need to reformulate my statement.
I agree that the man shouting "murderers" was addressing them as a group (incidentally, I've discovered that the man shouting this was wearing a red tunic and is a different person to the one we see moments later). I wasn't implying he was seeking out any particular individual but rather indicating how the vikings were responding to the crowd. I think the way the scene is edited we're kind of encouraged to think that the silent staring man is looking at her in particular, particularly as Lagertha actually turns her head around as if she might be looking at him as an individual rather than just surveying the crowd generally.
actually, you are the one that should look up history. they checked.
kings didnt marry non-virgins. nor did any noble. nor, most self-respecting peasants. they were all kind of picky about it.
now, later on in the relationship, that could very well be a different story.
Great point.
And assuming the show stays faithful to history on this, princess Ealhswith will go on to marry Alfred and stay married to him until his death.
Which leaves me wondering how they can possibly reconcile this plot device when Alfred comes to learn of the transgression. Will the show ignore the standard virginity check altogether? Or will Alfred learn of it and marry her anyway out of political considerations?
Or maybe he'll learn of it but won't care that much because the show will reveal he's more interested in men. He seems oddly disinterested in women at this stage of his young life. But that could just be because of limited screen time, he's shown as more preoccupied with serious matters of state, running a kingdom, and maintaining power.
if i had to bet,
"Or maybe he'll learn of it but won't care that much because the show will reveal he's more interested in men. He seems oddly disinterested in women at this stage of his young life."
as you probably know from your own experince, young men don't have to 'work up' to being horny. the utility of having an heir he has no desire to go through the motions producing might be just the thing.
also an additional irony since he is not the grandson of his 'grandfather'. i've forgotten - does he know this about himself?
He would have to, seeing as how his mother lost an ear over it and was only spared because Eckbert decided to grant last second mercy.
But nice catch on the poetic irony. That's good enough reason to believe Hirst is going to go this route.
They checked but the check was often as simple as looking for blood on the bed afterwards, that would be pretty simple for anyone to fool.
sharenot for a princess/queen. they checked for a hymen. you think they were that stupid? on a matter as important as the paternity of the next king?
the check was made well before the wedding night, before the wedding. part of the betrothal.
http://www.historyundressed.com/2015/02/medieval-virginity-testing-and.html
most people don't know or care about this stuff, so they'll probably just treat the king as winking at it all, because he's so modern & gay & progressive in his attitudes - his off-hand request for the bishops to say the mass in english, in the middle ages, for example, was ludicrous :).
Given the amount of incest in royal families the women may have had a better chance of getting knocked up by sleeping around.
shareTrue, but 886 CE was way before the period of rampant royal incest where they'd marry one another in order to keep all the wealth and power concentrated within the family of the ruling dynasty.
share