Michael Hirst Quotes

The Vikings certainly didn't write anything about themselves; it was not a literate, but rather a pagan, culture. So what we get was written later by Christian monks. But there were occasional reportings and recordings of people who had traded usually with the Vikings.

What is interesting to me about Vikings is that they were failed farmers.

There are so many good stories about the Vikings.

I love that Viking era, but also they're a fatalistic people and that dictated their fearlessness in battle and approach to life.

The Vikings themselves are fascinating creatures. They're human beings, of course, but their ethos are so different from ours. The fact that they live as warriors - their willingness to die for the sake of what they believe in - is quite shocking to us, and it's fascinating to see.

If you're in America or Europe, walk for three blocks, and you'll pass about 14 Vikings. Their reach was immense.

Norse mythology is mystifying and fantastic and totally confusing, but you can draw a lot of inspiration from it.

I read a lot of Icelandic sagas when I was young. I've always been interested in the Viking culture.

I think Vikings have always been popular, haven't they? I remember being a kid and being in second grade reading a book about this Viking warrior.

The spread of Viking bling is a good indication of the spread of its culture.

We read Greek and Norse mythology until it came out of our ears. And the Bible.

When I'm writing, what I pretend subconsciously is that we're cavemen, we're sitting around the fire, and I'm telling you stories. If I bore you, you're probably going to pick up a big club and hit me over the head.

RUNE is another one I'm really looking forward to.

One of the great advantages of the study of old Norse or Icelandic literature is the insight given by it into the origin of world-wide superstitions. Norse tradition is transparent as glacier ice, and its origin is as unmistakable.

When you go back and look at the history of anything, it’s always the records of the elite that survive.

Some of the most learned of the people were chosen to make known the lives of those lords in songs.

Because the Vikings never documented anything - they couldn't read or write - the history is always gonna be a little up in the air.

The Vikings were the last people to fight with axes, which must have been horrible.

Modern storytellers are the descendants of an immense and ancient community of holy people, troubadours, bards, griots, cantadoras, cantors, traveling poets, bums, hags, and crazy people.

Vikings were pretty brutal, but also very educated people. They were salesmen, businessmen who started raiding when business wasn't good. That's why they had such great boats.

I've always been interested in the Vikings - that's, like, part of my own history.

You can't cast Hittites as Trojans; I'd love to do it, but sadly, there are none available!

'Valhalla Rising' is a fusion of my upbringing, basically: everything I grew up loving and wanted to make a film of.

I'm like Loki in Nordic mythology: one day I'll be a woman and the next day a snake.

At its root, 'God of War' was always the promise of adventure.