Why The Northman's Story Is So Familiar
Warning: this article contains spoilers forThe Northman.
Robert Eggers' The Northman is a dazzling tale of vengeance and honor, but why does its story seem so familiar? Boasting an all-star cast including Anna Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke, and Nicole Kidman, The Northman chronicles the saga of prince Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård), who wishes to kill his uncle and avenge his father. As with Eggers' previous acclaimed movies, The Witch and The Lighthouse, the world of The Northman is filled with historically accurate eccentricities, from era-specific dialogue to bizarre Viking ball games, which add another layer of immersion to an already enthralling tale.
When writing The Northman's story, Robert Eggers and co-writer Sjón, an Icelandic poet and novelist, took inspiration from Icelandic revenge sagas. One such narrative moment is when Amleth, who is with a band of berserkers, bites out someone's throat in a moment lifted directly from the 1240 AD manuscript Egil's Saga. However, most of The Northman's narrative that focuses on Amleth avenging his father and saving his mother appears generic historical action fare, at least on the surface.
Related: Does The Northman Have An After Credits Scene?
Yet beyond its tertiary action,The Northman's story shares many similarities with Shakespeare's Hamlet, which has been riffed upon numerous times in movies such as The Lion King. Coincidentally, Shakespeare got his inspiration for Hamlet from the Amleth legend, which is a fixture in Scandinavian mythology. Furthermore, Amleth's mother, Queen Gudrún, is reminiscent of Lady Macbeth, and as the film progresses, Queen Gudrún's true intentions are revealed, starkly echoing the myth of Oedipus. The themes of inescapable fate and willful
Read more on screenrant.com
