El mundo de Vikings

by Justin Pollard

LA GUÍA DE RODAJE ILUSTRADA DE LA SERIE DE TELEVISIÓN DEL HISTORY CHANNEL

Todos los personajes, lugares y referencias históricas se recogen en este hermoso volumen lleno de fotografías inéditas del rodaje, así como comentarios de los actores y el equipo de producción que ha hecho posible revivir la época en que los vikingos aterrorizaron buena parte de Europa.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medieval, Research, Historical

160 pages, Hardcover

Published November 1, 2018

About the author

Justin Pollard was born in Hertfordshire and educated at St. Albans School and Downing College, Cambridge where he was president of the Poohsticks Society.

Since then he has written nine books, a few articles for magazines like History Today, BBC History Magazine and the Idler and he is currently one of the writers of the BBC panel show QI.

He is one of the founders of Unbound - http://www.unbound.co.uk - a new crowd-funding site putting authors directly in touch with their readers.

He also runs a company called Visual Artefact which provides scripting and historical advice for feature films. His credits include Shekhar Kapur’s ‘Elizabeth’, Joe Wright’s ‘Atonement’, Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and Pirates of the Caribbean 4.

In television drama he is the historical consultant for the BBC TV/Showtime series ‘The Tudors’ - which gets him into a lot of trouble with other historians.

He is also the co-founder of crowd-funding book website www.unbound.co.uk.

He lives in Dorset where he grows vegetables and wonders where all the sheep have gone.

Reviews

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having enjoyed watching the first three series of the TV drama Vikings I thought this companion book would be worth reading. It is full of interesting facts about the history of the Vikings, as well as numerous interviews with the cast & crew on how the series is made. There are also some excellent photographs from the show to acompany the text. You cannot fail to enjoy a book where a member of the cast tells the story of how, as the actors went into battle dressed in full Viking costume, an extra began singing the theme from the comedy show Cheers (Where Everybody Knows Your Name) & everyone joined in!

[Matěj · Rating 4 out of 5]

As if a behind the scenes doc came in book form (did they once upon a time?). Good read if you like the show.

[Kyle Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this guilty pleasure read accidentally at the library within a week of finishing season 3 of the History Channel's show "Vikings". The book provides the historical backdrop for those very 3 seasons of the show, so I had to go for it. It was like watching a History Channel documentary about the vikings (not really what the actual show is like, which is more of a drama), but in book form. Moral of the story: public libraries are an essential element of the common good

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

‚The World of Vikings‘ von Justin Pollard umfasst 160 Seiten voller spannender Hintergrundinformationen zur Erfolgsserie ‚Vikings‘. Das Buch fühlt sich sehr wertig an, die Aufmachung lehnt sich an ein altes, holzgebundenes Buch an.

Das Buch gliedert sich grob in drei Teile: Skandinavien, England und Frankreich. In diesen Teilen werden alle wichtigen historischen Hintergründe in verschiedenen Kapiteln erläutert und mit viel Bildmaterial aus der Serie untermalt. Schön fand ich, dass die wichtigsten Seriencharaktere mit ihrer tatsächlich überlieferten Geschichte vorgestellt werden und auch der Cast dazu interviewt wurde.

Die einzelnen Kapitel sind sehr informativ gestaltet und umfassen viele Details der Serie und deren Anlehnung an die tatsächliche nordische Mythologie. Auch die Überlegungen zum Set waren super spannend zu lesen.

Alles in Allem kann ich ‚The World of Vikings‘ jeden Serienfan, der sich für die Hintergründe der Serie interessiert, wärmstens empfehlen. Als ich dieses Buch gelesen habe, war ich am Anfang der dritten Serienstaffel und wurde bei einigen Dingen gespoilert. Wer die Serie schaut und zusätzliche Informationen durch dieses Buch haben möchte OHNE gespoilert zu werden, sollte die ersten drei Staffeln bereits komplett gesehen haben.

[Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book for the fans of the show. There's a lot of information and nice photographs/stills from the show. Plenty of background and historical information as well. I do admit I skimmed the last few pages since I had lost the interest in the show in the later seasons (let's be honest, they kind of ruined it) and never finished the book. I just wanted to get it off my reading shelf but I didn't want that to affect my rating for the book itself which I had gotten back when I was crazy about the show.

If you're still a fan, get it. If you know a fan and want a good gift for them, get it.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un gran libro para los fans de la serie, con contextos históricos y diciéndonos cómo llegaron a crear ese mundo. Los actores más importantes (en personaje) nos narran como han llevado a cabo todas esas escenas y la vestuarista, director, director de efectos visuales... Nos dicen todo el esfuerzo que han puesto para llegar a tan maravilloso resultado.

[Justin Neville · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having just finished watching all six seasons of 'Vikings' for the first time and being generally bowled over at how good it was, I thought I'd read this companion book covering the first three (short) seasons. And it's definitely made me want to watch all over again.
I could have done with a bit on some aspects and characters, but overall it's very interesting for fans of the show.

[Jessie · Rating 5 out of 5]

During quarantine, I binge watched Vikings on Amazon Prime and then I still wanted more of this world and found this excellent book. It was a GREAT job of covering Seasons 1-3. My only regret is that there isn't a book to cover Season 4-6.

[Ad Astra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it. A fantastic exploration of real life events that inspired the Vikings show and the cast and production team's inner thoughts on bringing this to life. Very dense but beautiful book. One hundred percent worth reading even if you are just a casual lover of the show and a bit curious. I can't imagine how much this tickled fans that went hard.

[Ian Lloyd-williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

a brilliant insight into the world of Ragnar the history myth legend and enhanced by beautiful photography from the series and interviews with the stars.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intesting

[Connie B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful volume with photos and background from this interesting historial/docu drama.

[Susan Dorne · Rating 4 out of 5]

great insight for fans of the TV show.

[Chrissy Rongnion · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s a book about the making of the best show on television - of course I treasure it.

[reveurdart · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Vikings have always been the “other.” They have always—from the eighth century to our own—personified the threat of arbitrary and excessive violence. Appearing out of the blue, in their sleek ships with dragon heads, they fell upon poor Christian communities with brutal savagery, motivated only by greed and lust. So, anyway, the first witnesses to these events put them on record. But these scribes were Christian monks, who had every reason to spread fear about such wanton, ruthless, immoral, Iron Age pagans. What they didn’t mention, because they didn’t know, was that Viking society was far more open and democratic than their own. And that the Vikings had a deeper respect for women, who could own property, divorce their husbands, fight beside their brothers and sons in the shield wall, and even rule." ― Michael Hirst

Vikings is one of my favourite tv-series and I have watched it since the first season aired (2013), but I still didn't expect this book to be as great as it is. So very glad I finally read it. The book even comes with a selection of primary sources that influenced the show.

"Ragnar is a man on the very edge of myth, part historical character, part saga hero." ― Justin Pollard

"I believe that people who accomplish great things have a great passion and drive in them, something they’ve had since they were born. They are not taught, but they learn. They figure things out and always think for themselves rather than follow others like sheep." ― Travis Fimmel

"The Anglo-Saxons were a very literate people with a great love of word play, poetry, and, above all, riddles. Riddles provided evening entertainment and were apparently often very bawdy. Many riddles were gathered together in what is today known as the Exeter Book, a tenth-century codex containing secular and religious poems and other writings, along with ninety-four riddles. The book was donated to the library of Exeter Cathedral by Leofric, the first bishop of Exeter, in 1072.

The riddles range from poetic to comical to obscene. Meant to be performed rather than merely read to oneself, they give us a glimpse into the life and culture of the era."

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great companion to the TV show. Any History buff will love the source material and bibliography they detail at the very beginning. I also like how they use the characters to explain certain elements. The descriptions of building the sets was awesome. I also liked how they were upfront about changing things from the Historical record for continuity reasons.

[Oel · Rating 5 out of 5]

My best read so far!

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book,great pics from the show

[Julie Brock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked it up because I thought it was about Vikings - the people, the culture. Turns out it is about Vikings - the television series. Still, beautiful photography. Never watched the show.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just what I wanted from a book about the TV show Vikings! I wanted to know what was historically accurate, and what not. A good mix of pictures and information.

[Jim Collett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides a great deal of behind-the-scenes information on the series Vikings, as well as providing some good information on the legends and history which under gird the series.

[Jutta]

all the pretty pictures....
and lots of great information.
all the prety pictures....

[Lesley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good mix of history and t.v. show.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Subject matter and info gets 5 stars. Book organization and inadvertant repetition gets 2 stars.

[Angela]

Great book with interesting facts about real Viking s and the show Vikings

People who watch the show would find this book interesting. I liked reading how the sets were made, especially the one for Paris.