The Northman is partially based on the tale of Amleth, which is told in books three and four of Historia Danica, a legendary history of the Danish people written by the scholar Saxo Grammaticus in the early 13th century. Once we skip forward in time, The Northman shifts to two real-life locations: the Land of the Rus - which encompasses modern Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus - and Iceland, which was settled by Vikings in 870. We begin in the fictional kingdom of Hrafnsey, which press notes for the film describe as “located somewhere around the Orkney and Shetland Islands” (i.e., off the northern coast of Scotland). In the year 914, Amleth boards a ship bound for Iceland, then a sparsely populated Viking settlement less than 50 years old.Īll over northern Europe. The Northman opens in 895 before fast-forwarding a couple of decades as our hero, Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård), matures from a frightened boy into a hardened warrior.
