There is this review [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4738360/?ref\_=fn\_al\_tt\_1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4738360/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) of the “pappaperm” action movie “Birkebeinere/The Last King” [http://fj.webedia.us/reviews/film-review-last-king](http://fj.webedia.us/reviews/film-review-last-king) which I fear I find faintly puzzling. It seems the reviewer can not in any way get his head around the the idea of medieval Norwegian warriors skiing. (Not really vikings, though, a bit later, but that doesn’t matter here) To him it seem risible, somehow ridiculous.
Now to Norwegians, “viking on skis” seem roughly as incongruous and improbable as “viking sailing ships”, “viking swinging axes” or “vikings quaffing beer” i.e. not at all. How in Helheim else would they get around on land in winter? The Norwegian Skiing Federation’s logo itself show the medieval saga hero Arnljot Gelline (d.1030) carrying two of king Olaf’s men behind him on his skis.
There is a scene in the TV series”Mad Men” when a blizzard blanket New York and a dutiful doctor puts on skis to go on a house call. While watching it I did wonder exactly how different the producers of the series intended that scene, as seen by a US audience, from what would be many Norwegians almost automatic reaction to it, as obvious, slightly beyond obvious.
Obviously Norway and at least large parts of the USA has very different attitudes to and concepts of skiing, but I do wonder what ideas about skiing is it that makes the historically very sound “vikings on skis” risible and not worth taking seriously, for an american critic,- beyond the possibility of him being an idiot., of course. The question then would rather be, just how did he become that kind of idiot about skiing?
https://preview.redd.it/r4h1oq6ndxv81.jpg?width=3949&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ddaf03efd009c3a0152c906782f473a430d5ab53
2 comments
I’m not really sure what your actual question is, but we have found skis that are 1300 years old here in Norway so, yeah, the medieval Scandinavians had skis. https://www.lifeinnorway.net/oldest-ever-set-of-skis-discovered-in-norway/
He gives me the impression that he has grown up and lives somewhere where skis aren’t used, and that he only sees them when it’s on TV during the winter olympics or something, meaning: likely sees it (even if he might know it isn’t) as a semi-modern invention, and as something exclusively used for sport, as opposed to places where they are used (and have a long history with them), that sees them as tools/a method of transportation in snowy areas. Doesn’t mean he is dumb or an idiot, but his bias is getting in the way, or he is simply ignorant about the subject.