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Thanks to the kindness of strangers, I have gotten my greedy little hands on a copy of the tiny Vikings comic book that Michael Hirst wrote (and it is tiny - 11 pages and A6 (I think)) - you know, the one they handed out at Comic Con and which might or might not be included in the Blu-ray.
Scandinavia 787 C.E. Earl Haraldson's lands have been invaded by an enemy, Earl Guthrun, and Ragnar and Rollo are fighting alongside their father Lothbrok in the defense. Their father dies - with his dying breath, he admonishes his sons to be good to each other and gives Rollo his armring. Ragnar then sees Odin choosing his father to accompany him to Valhalla - all Rollo sees are carrion eaters gathering and he is convinced their father was not so chosen. After the battle, Rollo wanders off and by a lake he sees some women - including one we know very well. Change of scene and Lagertha is introducing herself to the brothers and warns Rollo not to follow her home. Rollo proceeds to have a restless night, because he's clearly head over heels, should he follow her anyway? Change of scene and we see Ragnar fighting a bear in front of a house - he kills the bear and walks to the house, where Lagertha is waiting, apparently expecting him.
Let's get one thing clear - I don't like this comic. It's not the art - which admittedly is the usual tie-in-to-tv-show-comic tries-so-hard-to-look-like-the-actors-it-just-ends-up-not-attractive art, but hey, what can you do? It's not that. It's just - this comic feels like so incredibly sloppy writing.
Two major complaints:
First, we are once again treated to a showing of how Michael Hirst apparently can't be bothered to do any research into Old Norse naming conventions. I mean, the show already has Haraldson the nameless earl - now we add Earl Guthrun, and I got a few pages to think "Cool, a woman Earl" and then we got a line referring to the Earl as him and I just. It's sloppy. Two seconds on Google could have told Mr. Hirst that that's usually a woman's name. Guthrum seems to be a male name, but Guthrun? There's so many Norse names to choose from - why pick this one?
Also, Mr. Hirst really doesn't seem to get patronymics. So, apparently, Lothbrok is Ragnar's and Rollo's father - cool. Except - shouldn't Ragnar call himself Ragnar Lothbroksson, if that was the case? And shouldn't Rollo do so as well (although for him not doing so I can at least build an argument that goes something along the lines that Rollo thinks his father was refused by the gods and him consequently not wanting to advertise the association).
Anyway, that's just the names. We already knew that Michael Hirst is funny about names. (Rollo getting baptized Rolf, anyone?)
My second major complaint involves the brothers meeting Lagertha for the first time.
First of all: this cannot be canon. This does not fit with what we've seen on the show. Why? Well, this comic is set in 787 - six years before 793, the first year of the show, the year of the raid on Lindisfarne. So far, so good, right?
Except in the first episode, we learn that Bjorn is 12 years old. In 793. Which means that his parents must have met no later than sometime in 780. So, either this comic cannot be canon (and I don't think it is) or Bjorn is not Ragnar's son. But in the show there is not the slightest hint that Bjorn is not supposed to be Ragnar's son - Ragnar introduces him as his son, Floki comments on the resemblance and judging by the casting choices for season 2, I really, really don't think he's not supposed to be Ragnar's biological son. Admittedly, him not being Ragnar's real son would make Ragnar's obsession with getting sons in the last episodes make sense, but I cannot see a single bit of the show that even remotely hints that he isn't (unless this is that hint and all will be revealed in season 2 - I don't want that (apart from anything else, planting clues that important in tie-in materials is frankly irritating and no fair to people not getting the tie-in materials - extra depth to the story is one thing, but this...)).
And we're back at sloppy, because frankly - this bit? All it would have taken to fix it was for Michael Hirst to have written 780 instead of 787 C.E. There doesn't seem to be any reason for this to have to be set in 787. Would it really have been so hard to check the chronology? Is Mr. Hirst truly that lazy?
Oh, and speaking of lazy - Dear Mr. Hirst, is there some reason why the only way you can imagine Ragnar meeting women involves other men spying on them by bodies of water? At least Lagertha wasn't naked, but dammit - there's just been a major battle and we know that Haraldson's forces were joined by people from somewhere else and there's Lagertha, and I'd say it's pretty clearly implied that she was in the battle - would it truly have been so hard to have the brothers seeing her for the first time in all her shieldmaiden glory? For crying out loud, if this comic was all you had to go on, you wouldn't even know she was a kick-ass warrior in her own right!
Okay, what did I like? Well, Rollo's nightly tossing and turning after meeting Lagertha is oddly adorable. "What should I do? I can't stop thinking about her? Should I follow her after all? What if she's already married? What if she only sleeps with women? But then, if I don't follow her, I may regret it all my life." And then he doesn't follow her - Ragnar does. And wins the maiden fair. No wonder Rollo's grumpy...
So, anyway, at the end of the day - I think I'll just categorize this as not canon. Nope. Not buying a word of it.
Scandinavia 787 C.E. Earl Haraldson's lands have been invaded by an enemy, Earl Guthrun, and Ragnar and Rollo are fighting alongside their father Lothbrok in the defense. Their father dies - with his dying breath, he admonishes his sons to be good to each other and gives Rollo his armring. Ragnar then sees Odin choosing his father to accompany him to Valhalla - all Rollo sees are carrion eaters gathering and he is convinced their father was not so chosen. After the battle, Rollo wanders off and by a lake he sees some women - including one we know very well. Change of scene and Lagertha is introducing herself to the brothers and warns Rollo not to follow her home. Rollo proceeds to have a restless night, because he's clearly head over heels, should he follow her anyway? Change of scene and we see Ragnar fighting a bear in front of a house - he kills the bear and walks to the house, where Lagertha is waiting, apparently expecting him.
Let's get one thing clear - I don't like this comic. It's not the art - which admittedly is the usual tie-in-to-tv-show-comic tries-so-hard-to-look-like-the-actors-it-just-ends-up-not-attractive art, but hey, what can you do? It's not that. It's just - this comic feels like so incredibly sloppy writing.
Two major complaints:
First, we are once again treated to a showing of how Michael Hirst apparently can't be bothered to do any research into Old Norse naming conventions. I mean, the show already has Haraldson the nameless earl - now we add Earl Guthrun, and I got a few pages to think "Cool, a woman Earl" and then we got a line referring to the Earl as him and I just. It's sloppy. Two seconds on Google could have told Mr. Hirst that that's usually a woman's name. Guthrum seems to be a male name, but Guthrun? There's so many Norse names to choose from - why pick this one?
Also, Mr. Hirst really doesn't seem to get patronymics. So, apparently, Lothbrok is Ragnar's and Rollo's father - cool. Except - shouldn't Ragnar call himself Ragnar Lothbroksson, if that was the case? And shouldn't Rollo do so as well (although for him not doing so I can at least build an argument that goes something along the lines that Rollo thinks his father was refused by the gods and him consequently not wanting to advertise the association).
Anyway, that's just the names. We already knew that Michael Hirst is funny about names. (Rollo getting baptized Rolf, anyone?)
My second major complaint involves the brothers meeting Lagertha for the first time.
First of all: this cannot be canon. This does not fit with what we've seen on the show. Why? Well, this comic is set in 787 - six years before 793, the first year of the show, the year of the raid on Lindisfarne. So far, so good, right?
Except in the first episode, we learn that Bjorn is 12 years old. In 793. Which means that his parents must have met no later than sometime in 780. So, either this comic cannot be canon (and I don't think it is) or Bjorn is not Ragnar's son. But in the show there is not the slightest hint that Bjorn is not supposed to be Ragnar's son - Ragnar introduces him as his son, Floki comments on the resemblance and judging by the casting choices for season 2, I really, really don't think he's not supposed to be Ragnar's biological son. Admittedly, him not being Ragnar's real son would make Ragnar's obsession with getting sons in the last episodes make sense, but I cannot see a single bit of the show that even remotely hints that he isn't (unless this is that hint and all will be revealed in season 2 - I don't want that (apart from anything else, planting clues that important in tie-in materials is frankly irritating and no fair to people not getting the tie-in materials - extra depth to the story is one thing, but this...)).
And we're back at sloppy, because frankly - this bit? All it would have taken to fix it was for Michael Hirst to have written 780 instead of 787 C.E. There doesn't seem to be any reason for this to have to be set in 787. Would it really have been so hard to check the chronology? Is Mr. Hirst truly that lazy?
Oh, and speaking of lazy - Dear Mr. Hirst, is there some reason why the only way you can imagine Ragnar meeting women involves other men spying on them by bodies of water? At least Lagertha wasn't naked, but dammit - there's just been a major battle and we know that Haraldson's forces were joined by people from somewhere else and there's Lagertha, and I'd say it's pretty clearly implied that she was in the battle - would it truly have been so hard to have the brothers seeing her for the first time in all her shieldmaiden glory? For crying out loud, if this comic was all you had to go on, you wouldn't even know she was a kick-ass warrior in her own right!
Okay, what did I like? Well, Rollo's nightly tossing and turning after meeting Lagertha is oddly adorable. "What should I do? I can't stop thinking about her? Should I follow her after all? What if she's already married? What if she only sleeps with women? But then, if I don't follow her, I may regret it all my life." And then he doesn't follow her - Ragnar does. And wins the maiden fair. No wonder Rollo's grumpy...
So, anyway, at the end of the day - I think I'll just categorize this as not canon. Nope. Not buying a word of it.