Vikings: Two Journeys
December 15, 2016 5:17 AM - Season 4, Episode 13 - Subscribe
Ragnar and Ivar wash up on the shore of Wessex with only a handful of their crew. Bjorn makes a deal with Rollo for safe passage on the shores of Francia. Lagertha decides it's time to reclaim Kattegat.
Amazing keel hauling scene. I had an 'idea' of what keelhauling was and I got it all wrong; the way they did this made so much more sense from a mechanical level and physical/psychological level.
I had thought that they threw someone out the front of the ship as it was sailing along, and picked them up as they emerged from the backend. Yeah, like I said, pretty stupid idea.
Loved that the women leaders were engaged with each other as much as any of the men warleaders/rulers were, an extension of the shield maiden concept and less so of a glass ceiling but perhaps a steeper and slippery-er hill. Anyone able to comment on historical examples?
Continued great cinematography and choreography and now a look at a different aspect of warfare (which then culminated back into shield wall tactics). Loved the early season well researched shield wall combat, and really appreciated how much that informed modern team sports and how different versions of sportsballs evolved differently and continue to evolve. For example, (American) football is relatively more formalized than rug... {huge ramble initiation terminated on critical fault. continue: [y/N]}
Was kind of confused at RagnarIvar MDKing their fellow shipwrecked; got that they kind of want to go in incognito - I back-supposed that they had planned to jump ship at some point, leaving everyone behind and continued on Ragnar's "Mission." Having some "lost puppy dogs" follow them around would be a real damper, but straight out murdering them is kinda... contra entering the halls of Valhalla?
Valhalla-worthy or not, Rags gonna got to put down Rollo. Or at least that what I think Ragnar wants in exclusion of anything else.
I'm calling "ships in the night" and Ragnar never gets to Bjorn Rollo nor know that Rollo got Bjorned.
I wonder how Ragnar would think about that? I think he'd laugh his ass off and reconcile with Rollo, if only he got to know that Rollo got Bjorned, which I'm guessing ain't gonna.
posted by porpoise at 8:14 PM on December 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
I had thought that they threw someone out the front of the ship as it was sailing along, and picked them up as they emerged from the backend. Yeah, like I said, pretty stupid idea.
Loved that the women leaders were engaged with each other as much as any of the men warleaders/rulers were, an extension of the shield maiden concept and less so of a glass ceiling but perhaps a steeper and slippery-er hill. Anyone able to comment on historical examples?
Continued great cinematography and choreography and now a look at a different aspect of warfare (which then culminated back into shield wall tactics). Loved the early season well researched shield wall combat, and really appreciated how much that informed modern team sports and how different versions of sportsballs evolved differently and continue to evolve. For example, (American) football is relatively more formalized than rug... {huge ramble initiation terminated on critical fault. continue: [y/N]}
Was kind of confused at RagnarIvar MDKing their fellow shipwrecked; got that they kind of want to go in incognito - I back-supposed that they had planned to jump ship at some point, leaving everyone behind and continued on Ragnar's "Mission." Having some "lost puppy dogs" follow them around would be a real damper, but straight out murdering them is kinda... contra entering the halls of Valhalla?
Valhalla-worthy or not, Rags gonna got to put down Rollo. Or at least that what I think Ragnar wants in exclusion of anything else.
I'm calling "ships in the night" and Ragnar never gets to Bjorn Rollo nor know that Rollo got Bjorned.
I wonder how Ragnar would think about that? I think he'd laugh his ass off and reconcile with Rollo, if only he got to know that Rollo got Bjorned, which I'm guessing ain't gonna.
posted by porpoise at 8:14 PM on December 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
I had thought that they threw someone out the front of the ship as it was sailing along, and picked them up as they emerged from the backend. Yeah, like I said, pretty stupid idea.
it's not just a drowning thing iirc, it's also meant to be terribly unpleasant to be dragged against whatever barnacles are on the bottom of the hull. i think it would also be anachronistic to this time but i refuse to get into that wikihole at 130am.
anyway im so excited that my wonderful lovely bride in actual real life lagertha is gonna be queen again
posted by poffin boffin at 10:37 PM on December 17, 2016 [1 favorite]
it's not just a drowning thing iirc, it's also meant to be terribly unpleasant to be dragged against whatever barnacles are on the bottom of the hull. i think it would also be anachronistic to this time but i refuse to get into that wikihole at 130am.
anyway im so excited that my wonderful lovely bride in actual real life lagertha is gonna be queen again
posted by poffin boffin at 10:37 PM on December 17, 2016 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I totally got the barnacles thing, but sawing him around the diameter of the ship makes so much more sense; much better control of conditions.
Yep tots happy that Lagertha is gonna queen again.
posted by porpoise at 7:50 PM on December 18, 2016
Yep tots happy that Lagertha is gonna queen again.
posted by porpoise at 7:50 PM on December 18, 2016
Count me in as another excited to see the keel hauling. I'd read about the process, but I've never seen it really depicted in a visual medium. According to Wikipedia, the punishment has been found in sources going back to the ancient Greeks. Incidentally, I didn't realize it, but the word we use is Dutch in origin.
My only guess for the madness of killing everyone else in the survivors party was to conceal the identity of Ivar. Without them, they will, as Ragnar put it, see him just as a harmless cripple. Even if they saw him as a harmless cripple, but knew he was Ragnar's son, they would probably do terrible things to Ivar as a means to torment his father. Still, it surprised the heck of it me.
The battle for Kattagut was fantastic. The way the sword was handled and given to Aslaug, it made me wonder if she's just going to surrender the city to Lagetha versus fighting her in what would be an awesome duel (best duel of the show?).
Going back to Rollo, I liked how the keel hauling served as a punishment for him, but also, a second baptism back into the world of vikingdom. He's reborn when he's pulled back aboard, nearly dead, and chokes on water, like a baby breathing for the first time. I'm curious to see what happens when/if Rollo returns to Normandy after the trip to the Mediterranean.
posted by Atreides at 8:23 AM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
My only guess for the madness of killing everyone else in the survivors party was to conceal the identity of Ivar. Without them, they will, as Ragnar put it, see him just as a harmless cripple. Even if they saw him as a harmless cripple, but knew he was Ragnar's son, they would probably do terrible things to Ivar as a means to torment his father. Still, it surprised the heck of it me.
The battle for Kattagut was fantastic. The way the sword was handled and given to Aslaug, it made me wonder if she's just going to surrender the city to Lagetha versus fighting her in what would be an awesome duel (best duel of the show?).
Going back to Rollo, I liked how the keel hauling served as a punishment for him, but also, a second baptism back into the world of vikingdom. He's reborn when he's pulled back aboard, nearly dead, and chokes on water, like a baby breathing for the first time. I'm curious to see what happens when/if Rollo returns to Normandy after the trip to the Mediterranean.
posted by Atreides at 8:23 AM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
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I gather that's actual Frankish that Rollo and his court are speaking? That's very cool. Good on the show for not just substituting modern French, or for ignoring the language difference at all.
posted by dnash at 9:02 AM on December 15, 2016 [1 favorite]