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Originally Posted by YB2009
Interesting to know it has some basis in fact, be it accurate or not,
The depictions of social practices and technology seem fairly accurate. The weapons and armour are a lot more accurate than in many depictions, as long as you aren't looking for subtle difference between eighth, ninth and tenth century technology. The depictions of who is acting, and when, are less accurate.
Ragnar Lothbrok is the name of a traditional Norse storytale character that may be an amalgam based partly on several real people. The show's producers have adopted the name for a character they use as a vehicle to portray some of the development of Viking history by involving him in even more events than the traditional Norse stories do. For instance, the show has Ragnar leading the first Viking raid on England at the Monastery of Linisfarne, and then shortly thereafter becoming involved with King Ælla of Northumbria. In fact, the raid on Lindisfarne took place about 70 years before Ælla's reign. King Ælla of Northumbria was an historic figure reigning briefly in the 860's. The Sagas place Lothbrok in the ninth century and do involve him with Ælla.
The show also suggests that raiding England (and later France) was a new departure from the long-time practice of raiding eastward. In fact the raid on Lindisfarne is the first recorded Viking raid anywhere. Vikings in different regions of Scandinavia tended to trade with, raid and/or conquer different target areas. Norwegian Vikings tended to go to northern Great Britain and Ireland and the various islands north and west of Scotland. Danes tended to raid central and eastern Great Britain (and, with less success, south and western Britain) and northern France. Swedes went mainly into Russia, advancing up (and then down) rivers through the Ukraine as far as the mid-east. (There is a theory that later advances in Viking swordmaking, which surpassed what was generally available in Europe, were made possible by trading for high quality steel ingots produced in Syria.)