{ "id": "ep14m3hv6t", "slug": "the-vikings", "title": "The Vikings", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical", 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"excerpt": "The Vikings (1958) is a Richard Fleischer adventure film produced by and starring Kirk Douglas, with Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, and Ernest Borgnine, adapted from Edison Marshall's novel The Viking, shot in Norway and Brittany, and ranked by Variety as 1958's fifth top-grossing film.", "snippet": "The Vikings (1958) is a Richard Fleischer adventure film produced by and starring Kirk Douglas, with Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, and Ernest Borgnine, adapted from Edison Marshall's novel The Viking, shot in Norway and Brittany, and ranked by Variety as 1958's fifth top-grossing film.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.historical-dramas-and-epics.alpha-m-to-z.alpha-sc-to-z", "markdown": "# The Vikings\n\n**The Vikings** is a 1958 American adventure film directed by [Richard Fleischer](https://www.edgepedia.org/richard-fleischer), produced by and starring [Kirk Douglas](https://www.edgepedia.org/kirk-douglas), and set in ninth-century England and [Scandinavia](https://www.edgepedia.org/scandinavia), in which a Viking prince and an enslaved man, unknowingly half brothers, feud over a captive English princess. It stars Kirk Douglas as Einar, Tony Curtis as Eric, Ernest Borgnine as Ragnar, Janet Leigh as Morgana, and Frank Thring as King Aella, with James Donald and Alexander Knox in supporting roles.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52789-THE-VIKINGS) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/202834/the-vikings)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Source | Adapted from Edison Marshall's 1951 novel *The Viking*; the film used the plural title[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52789-THE-VIKINGS) |\n| Production | Kirk Douglas's Bryna Productions; distributed by United Artists; producer Jerry Bresler[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52789-THE-VIKINGS) |\n| Format | Technicolor in the Technirama widescreen process; 114 or 116 minutes; cinematography by Jack Cardiff[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52789-THE-VIKINGS) |\n| Locations | Bergen, Norway; Brittany, France; and Geiselgasteig Studios outside Munich, West Germany[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52789-THE-VIKINGS) |\n| Budget | Projected at $2.5 million and roughly doubled by fjord leasing, a full-scale Viking village, and a fleet of longships[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/202834/the-vikings) |\n| Box office | *Variety* ranked it the fifth top-grossing film of 1958, with domestic rentals of $7 million[3](https://shura.shu.ac.uk/26662/3/Fenwick_LookMaCorporation%28AM%29.pdf) |\n| Scores | 78% Tomatometer (23 reviews) and 72% Popcornmeter on Rotten Tomatoes; 7.0 on IMDb and TMDb[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/vikings) • [5](https://cinegraph.org/movies/the-vikings-1958) |\n| Legacy | Inspired the television series *Tales of the Vikings* (1959–60) and opened ABC's Sunday Night Movie series in 1964[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/202834/the-vikings) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot and historical basis\n\nThe story begins when the Norse chieftain Ragnar invades the English kingdom of [Northumbria](https://www.edgepedia.org/northumbria), kills its king, Edwin, and rapes Queen Enid, who secretly bears Ragnar's child. The boy, Eric, grows up as a slave among the Vikings, unaware of his parentage, while Ragnar's legitimate son Einar becomes heir to his father's throne. Their rivalry turns violent when Eric's falcon gouges out one of Einar's eyes, and it deepens when Einar kidnaps Princess Morgana, the intended bride of the brutal King Aella, only to find that Morgana loves Eric.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52789-THE-VIKINGS) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/202834/the-vikings) • [4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/vikings)\n\nThe characters and plot are extensively fictionalized, though they draw on a Norse saga concerning the possibly real eighth- or ninth-century Viking lord [Ragnar Lodbrok](https://www.edgepedia.org/ragnar-lodbrok) and the probably real Northumbrian king Aella, who died in 867.[6](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/may/21/the-vikings-reel-history) The film's opening and closing credits were modeled on the [Bayeux Tapestry](https://www.edgepedia.org/bayeux-tapestry), with images adapted from the embroidery preparing the audience for the story of Viking ships attacking England.[7](https://www.medievalists.net/2009/05/THE-BAYEUX-TAPESTRY-AND-THE-VIKINGS/)\n\n## Production\n\nThe rights to Edison Marshall's novel were originally purchased in 1954 by Milo Frank, a CBS talent executive, who planned to film it in Scandinavia through Distributors Corporation of America; Frank and DCA president Fred Schwartz sold the property to [United Artists](https://www.edgepedia.org/united-artists) in 1955, after which Kirk Douglas's Bryna Productions bought it.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52789-THE-VIKINGS)\n\n**An expensive shoot.** The projected $2.5 million budget roughly doubled. The production leased an entire Norwegian fjord, built a full-scale Viking village in the middle of it, and constructed a fleet of longships whose designs were based on ship displays in the Oslo Ship museum; three ships were built for the production. A fleet of 17 PT boats shuttled cast and crew to and from the remote set.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/202834/the-vikings) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52789-THE-VIKINGS)\n\nThe weather was a persistent problem: of 60 shooting days in Norway, 49 were rainy and dark. The larger blow came when the entire Norwegian crew of oarsmen, who powered the longships, went on strike for more pay. Rather than give in, Douglas moved the production to Geiselgasteig Studios outside Munich, having decided he had obtained sufficient Norwegian footage.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/202834/the-vikings) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52789-THE-VIKINGS)\n\nThe film opens with a title card and an offscreen prologue spoken by [Orson Welles](https://www.edgepedia.org/orson-welles), uncredited, over an animated sequence by UPA Pictures summarizing the history of the Vikings; the full credits appear only at the end.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52789-THE-VIKINGS) A Writers Guild arbitration awarded Calder Willingham joint screen credit with Dale Wasserman, whose original script Willingham had adapted with Noel Langley at Douglas's behest; Langley was denied screen credit. The script changes included building up the role of Einar, which was less significant in Marshall's novel.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52789-THE-VIKINGS)\n\n**Stunts and violence.** Second-unit director Elmo Williams, an Oscar-winning editor for *High Noon* (1952), staged the fight sequences. The climactic duel between Douglas and Curtis was filmed at Fort La Latte, a medieval castle with a moat, drawbridge, and ramparts, where both leads, keen athletes, performed much of their own stunt work. Douglas insisted on performing the \"Running the Oars\" sequence himself, running across the locked oars of a ship. Curtis, ironically, nearly lost an eye in real life when a stray arrow struck him during filming and required hospitalization.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/202834/the-vikings)\n\n## Reception and box office\n\nThe film proved a hit for Douglas and United Artists. *Variety* ranked it the fifth top-grossing film of 1958 with domestic rentals of $7 million, behind titles including *The Bridge on the River Kwai* and *Peyton Place*.[3](https://shura.shu.ac.uk/26662/3/Fenwick_LookMaCorporation%28AM%29.pdf) Release dates differ across sources: [Turner Classic Movies](https://www.edgepedia.org/turner-classic-movies) records an opening on May 9, 1958, the AFI Catalog gives a New York opening of June 11, 1958, and Rotten Tomatoes lists a theatrical release date of June 28, 1958.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/202834/the-vikings) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52789-THE-VIKINGS) • [4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/vikings)\n\nCritics praised its visual energy. The *New York Times* wrote that \"You haven't seen such general hell-raising on the screen since Cecil B. DeMille,\" and several reviews registered shock at the film's violence, including Ragnar hurling himself into a pit of wolves and the loss of Einar's eye to the falcon.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/202834/the-vikings) On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 78% Tomatometer from 23 reviews and a 72% Popcornmeter audience score from more than 5,000 ratings; its critics consensus says that despite moments of excess, the film has enough balance in its larger-than-life action sequences and characters to entertain.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/vikings) The publicity campaign was elaborate: Viking dagger letter openers were sent to reviewers, seven [Norwegians](https://www.edgepedia.org/norwegians) sailed a longship from Oslo to New York, another longship was lifted onto the debuting theater's marquee, and Douglas was hoisted in a boatswain's chair to the top of a ten-story Broadway billboard to christen a ship model with champagne.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/202834/the-vikings)\n\n## Historical accuracy\n\nThe film avoids two of the most persistent Viking clichés: no horned helmets and no drinking from skulls appear, and the Guardian's retrospective review judged the production design and longships to look quite authentic, with a convincing ship funeral.[6](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/may/21/the-vikings-reel-history) Other details are less defensible. The film's compass, a shark-shaped device on a string, is anachronistic, since the existence of compasses in Europe is not recorded until 1190 and in the [Arab world](https://www.edgepedia.org/arab-world) until the 13th century. The saga of Ragnar says he was thrown into a pit of vipers, not the wolves shown on screen, and the film misses the saga's reported death of Aella by the \"blood eagle,\" a practice whose existence revisionist historians dispute.[6](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/may/21/the-vikings-reel-history) A scholarly assessment notes that the film emphasizes the Vikings' vicious qualities while remaining largely free of value judgments, portraying many of the Saxons as unfavorably as their Viking enemies.[8](https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/13992/1/245899.pdf)\n\n## Legacy\n\nThe film's success fed directly into Douglas's career as a producer: Bryna took out a one-page advertisement in the January 1959 issue of *Variety* reading \"1958. The Vikings\" at the top, \"1959. Spartacus\" at the bottom, and Douglas's signature across the center, building toward his next production.[3](https://shura.shu.ac.uk/26662/3/Fenwick_LookMaCorporation%28AM%29.pdf) The film inspired the television series *Tales of the Vikings* (1959–60), which reused its props, costumes, and scale-model ships, and in 1964 it served as the inaugural presentation of ABC's Sunday Night Movie series.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/202834/the-vikings) Scholars of Viking imagery in popular culture treat it as a key milestone: one study of American popular culture argues it was among the most impactful representations of the Vikings in twentieth-century America, with many Americans coming to associate Douglas's eye-patched face with the image of the Viking.[9](https://opinvisindi.is/bitstream/handle/20.500.11815/3682/Zachary%20Jordan%20Melton-An%20Excuse%20for%20Violence%20PhD.pdf?sequence=1) A 2016 restoration was released on home video by Kino Lorber.[10](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Vikings-The)\n\n## References\n\n1. [The Vikings (1958), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52789-THE-VIKINGS)\n2. [The Vikings, Turner Classic Movies article by Scott McGee (2008)](https://www.tcm.com/articles/202834/the-vikings)\n3. [Look Ma, A Corporation: Bryna Productions and United Artists, Sheffield Hallam University](https://shura.shu.ac.uk/26662/3/Fenwick_LookMaCorporation%28AM%29.pdf)\n4. [The Vikings, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/vikings)\n5. [The Vikings, Cinegraph](https://cinegraph.org/movies/the-vikings-1958)\n6. [The Vikings: not for revisionist historians, The Guardian (Alex von Tunzelmann, 2009)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/may/21/the-vikings-reel-history)\n7. [The Bayeux Tapestry and the Vikings, Medievalists.net (2009)](https://www.medievalists.net/2009/05/THE-BAYEUX-TAPESTRY-AND-THE-VIKINGS/)\n8. [Doctoral thesis on Vikings in Old Norse literature and film, White Rose eTheses](https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/13992/1/245899.pdf)\n9. [The Vikings in Mid-Century Pulp Fiction, University of Iceland thesis](https://opinvisindi.is/bitstream/handle/20.500.11815/3682/Zachary%20Jordan%20Melton-An%20Excuse%20for%20Violence%20PhD.pdf?sequence=1)\n10. [The Vikings (1958) box office and financial information, The Numbers](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Vikings-The)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › War and historical films (individual works) › Historical dramas and epics › Titles M to Z › Titles Sc to Z*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-vikings", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-vikings.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"The Vikings\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-vikings. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Vikings](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-vikings)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-vikings](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-vikings). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Vikings\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-vikings. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Vikings is a Richard Fleischer adventure film produced by and starring Kirk Douglas, with Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, and Ernest Borgnine, adapted from Edison Marshall's novel The Viking, shot in Norway and Brittany, and ranked by Variety as 1958's fifth top-grossing film." }