Norse Sagas Quotes

I went to Iceland in 1861 and went over nearly every bit of the ground made famous by the adventures of Grettir.

Generally speaking, I don't think people know a great deal about the Viking culture, apart from the label that is usually attached to them, either pillagers or deviants who came and brought back loot to Norway. It was an incredibly sophisticated, complex and layered culture. They had their own laws, many of which protected women.

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

I'm very proud of 'Valhalla Rising.'

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

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

For us Icelanders, the Sagas are like the Bible, only much better.

So much Western storytelling comes from Scandinavia. I've read that in the past, storytellers would travel to Iceland and exchange stories. It's kind of the birthplace of great storytelling.

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

'Vikings' has been so many different challenges, and some of that is, at times, you have to be big and imposing and violent and vicious, and then you have be pulled back and withdrawn and just more layers and more time to portray those layers, too.

While there are few records of Viking women participating in battle, they certainly held positions of high status in society as human sorceresses known as 'volvas.'

I've always been fascinated by the Norsemen, their lives, history and cosmology. The more we study them the more interesting they become... breaking their own stereotypes. We usually think of them as barbarians, but there were aspects to their society that shows a tremendous level of civilization, sophistication and social advance.

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.

One of the things that I wanted to do post-'Haven' is go after some shows I was a fan of already, and 'Vikings' was on the list.

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.

There are so many good stories about the Vikings.

With 'Vikings,' I had the task of making these people interesting and, to a point, sympathetic.

When you're a Viking, you never know when you're going to get the axe.

His spear, to equal which the tallest pine Hewn on Norwegian hills to be the mast Of some great ammiral were but a wand, He walk'd with to support uneasy steps Over the burning marle.