How real is VINLAND SAGA.?

Jun 14, 2022 7:14 PM

Offline

Dec 2020

406

Sandro8604 said:
This was the first actual anime I saw, apart from kid's stuff like dragon ball, pokemon, doraemon etc., which got me invested into anime. That was near the beginning of lockdown on a random boring day scrolling through Prime Video. What a ride it has been!!
When I first saw this, I thought this was a fictional story just loosely based on Viking history & culture. Heck I didn't even know the term Viking before watching this. :)
In my country, India, our history books doesn't have any mention of vikings, let alone their culture & legacy. So I guess that does make sense.
Recently from a magazine I got to know that Canute was a real person and he really was the king of England. He's also known as Cnut the great. I double checked and turned out it was really the character from vinland saga. :))
So how real the rest characters are,? Did a moster like Torkell really exist? It's hard to believe!!

It would be best to google it, but considering the names and how surreal parts of the anime felt I would not doubt the names being taken from actual vikings

Being human is making mistakes.

Jun 14, 2022 7:33 PM

#3

Crazeey

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Sep 2021

37

The names and some characteristics of the some characters are actually taken up from the viking history... like Canute, Thorkell, etc.

but their interaction in the story was mostly fictional I guess.... though the way they pillaged accross the world is a fact.

Jun 14, 2022 7:38 PM

#4

SawsyMikey

Offline

Nov 2021

302

Sandro8604 said:
This was the first actual anime I saw, apart from kid's stuff like dragon ball, pokemon, doraemon etc., which got me invested into anime. That was near the beginning of lockdown on a random boring day scrolling through Prime Video. What a ride it has been!!
When I first saw this, I thought this was a fictional story just loosely based on Viking history & culture. Heck I didn't even know the term Viking before watching this. :)
In my country, India, our history books doesn't have any mention of vikings, let alone their culture & legacy. So I guess that does make sense.
Recently from a magazine I got to know that Canute was a real person and he really was the king of England. He's also known as Cnut the great. I double checked and turned out it was really the character from vinland saga. :))
So how real the rest characters are,? Did a moster like Torkell really exist? It's hard to believe!!

For the most part it is somewhat accurate like thorfinn, canut and thorkell were actual people but thorfinns dad wasn't. I can't remember about askeladd tho. But other than that this is based on a true story and is somewhat accurate

SawsyMikeyJun 14, 2022 7:42 PM

Jun 14, 2022 7:40 PM

#5

LuckyBastrd

Offline

May 2021

60

My understanding, which I can't guarantee is correct, is that it is surprisingly historically accurate.

Many of the characters (Thorfinn, Thorkell, Askeladd, Leif, Canute) are based on actual people. The invasion of England, as well as many of the battles refer to real events. Due to lack of information from that time, there is a lot of guesswork on the author's part when dealing with character's motivations or other personality aspects.

Jun 14, 2022 7:47 PM

#6

Goodbye2021

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Mar 2022

51

LuckyBastrd said:
My understanding, which I can't guarantee is correct, is that it is surprisingly historically accurate.

Many of the characters (Thorfinn, Thorkell, Askeladd, Leif, Canute) are based on actual people. The invasion of England, as well as many of the battles refer to real events. Due to lack of information from that time, there is a lot of guesswork on the author's part when dealing with character's motivations or other personality aspects.

Askeladd is based on a folk tale and the only character who was similar in real life was thorkell.

Jun 14, 2022 7:48 PM

#7

INSANELYWP

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Jun 2021

1292

pretty sure that most if not every character in the story is based on a real person. the politics are also historically accurate. however the characters interactions are created for the plot of the story

Jun 14, 2022 8:23 PM

#8

V1P3R0P

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Mar 2021

3153

Sandro8604 said:
This was the first actual anime I saw, apart from kid's stuff like dragon ball, pokemon, doraemon etc., which got me invested into anime. That was near the beginning of lockdown on a random boring day scrolling through Prime Video. What a ride it has been!!
When I first saw this, I thought this was a fictional story just loosely based on Viking history & culture. Heck I didn't even know the term Viking before watching this. :)
In my country, India, our history books doesn't have any mention of vikings, let alone their culture & legacy. So I guess that does make sense.
Recently from a magazine I got to know that Canute was a real person and he really was the king of England. He's also known as Cnut the great. I double checked and turned out it was really the character from vinland saga. :))
So how real the rest characters are,? Did a moster like Torkell really exist? It's hard to believe!!

Keep in mind, that this is not just an anime, but actually a biopic about Thorfinn and his adventures.

Most of the character abilities and personalities were exaggerated for dramatization. But all the characters appearing in this series are more or less people who actually existed in the past.

Not only Canute, but Even Thorfiinn Karlsefni, Leif Eriksen, Thorkell the tall are real characters.

Jun 14, 2022 8:32 PM

#9

iLuvCoffee

Offline

Mar 2021

209

Sandro8604 said:
This was the first actual anime I saw, apart from kid's stuff like dragon ball, pokemon, doraemon etc., which got me invested into anime. That was near the beginning of lockdown on a random boring day scrolling through Prime Video. What a ride it has been!!
When I first saw this, I thought this was a fictional story just loosely based on Viking history & culture. Heck I didn't even know the term Viking before watching this. :)
In my country, India, our history books doesn't have any mention of vikings, let alone their culture & legacy. So I guess that does make sense.
Recently from a magazine I got to know that Canute was a real person and he really was the king of England. He's also known as Cnut the great. I double checked and turned out it was really the character from vinland saga. :))
So how real the rest characters are,? Did a moster like Torkell really exist? It's hard to believe!!

I'm honestly quite glad this was one of your first animes ever, an absolute great start for the seinen demographic.

For the correlations between Vinland Saga and real life, well, it's mostly "based" on the Sagas of Vinland (I added a wiki link if you're curious about knowing more about it- https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinland_sagas). Thorfinn Karlsefni was indeed a real character and Canute was too yeah. Thorkell was also an actual living monster as well, so far as to go by Thorkell The Tall haha.
But characters like Askeladd for example, don't have much context in historical records to be sure if a character like him really existed.

I'd think Yukimura and just like many other mangakas of historical events (honorable mentions, I had to do it, Yasuhisa Hara author of Kingdom and Takehiko Inoue of Vagabond) would generally take liberty at deciding, altering and portraying a certain character's personality, etc. So although the name Askeladd is very similar to Askeladden (and probably is depicted from that original name) they're both completely different characters (based on the little texts they have), hence making Askeladd and several other characters fictional.

Eitherway to end things off I'd leave some similar TV show recommendations here since judging from your tone, you very much loved the series so far- The Last Kingdom; Vikings; and Northlanders (western comic).

Jun 14, 2022 9:10 PM

#10

slimysteak

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Jul 2021

72

The character names are the main thing taken from history, but thorfinn himself is loosely based on a real person

Jun 14, 2022 9:11 PM

#11

slimysteak

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Jul 2021

72

anthermi said:
The character names are the main thing taken from history, but thorfinn himself is loosely based on a real person

Also, the battles, conflicts, and locations of course

Jun 14, 2022 9:14 PM

#12

Jerm0811

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Apr 2020

9

Seaweed7 said:

LuckyBastrd said:
My understanding, which I can't guarantee is correct, is that it is surprisingly historically accurate.

Many of the characters (Thorfinn, Thorkell, Askeladd, Leif, Canute) are based on actual people. The invasion of England, as well as many of the battles refer to real events. Due to lack of information from that time, there is a lot of guesswork on the author's part when dealing with character's motivations or other personality aspects.

Askeladd is based on a folk tale and the only character who was similar in real life was thorkell.

Thorfinn is actually very similar to his real life counterpart, Thorfinn Karlsefni, but only if you’ve read the manga. I actually wrote a whole research paper on the real life Thorfinn and what he is famous for.

Jun 14, 2022 9:32 PM

#13

Goodbye2021

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Mar 2022

51

Jerm0811 said:

Seaweed7 said:

Askeladd is based on a folk tale and the only character who was similar in real life was thorkell.

Thorfinn is actually very similar to his real life counterpart, Thorfinn Karlsefni, but only if you’ve read the manga. I actually wrote a whole research paper on the real life Thorfinn and what he is famous for.

Umm I read the manga and irl thorfinn was not a viking but his journey to vinland with his wife was real Do you think vinland saga will have a happy or sad ending as irl it kinda was sad.

Goodbye2021Jun 14, 2022 9:35 PM

Jun 14, 2022 9:53 PM

#14

Beef_file

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Feb 2022

117

Askeladd was based on a folk tale character if I remember correctly. He wasn't real

Jun 14, 2022 11:30 PM

#15

weeblet7890x

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Apr 2021

174

Most of it is fiction, except the fact that Thorfinn was an Icelandic explorer is the truest one.

Jun 14, 2022 11:36 PM

#16

kushakashi

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Nov 2019

817

the whole thing is loosely based on real history.
what i mean is that the basics like names and locations are real but obviously, the intractions are tampered with to make them more interesting

Jun 15, 2022 1:24 AM

#17

XafcioPafcio

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Mar 2021

4

Leif Erikson is definitely a real character, and he was actually the one who discovered Vinland like he claims in the show.

Jun 15, 2022 1:29 AM

#18

mahedcit

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Sep 2021

21

Sandro8604 said:
This was the first actual anime I saw, apart from kid's stuff like dragon ball, pokemon, doraemon etc., which got me invested into anime. That was near the beginning of lockdown on a random boring day scrolling through Prime Video. What a ride it has been!!
When I first saw this, I thought this was a fictional story just loosely based on Viking history & culture. Heck I didn't even know the term Viking before watching this. :)
In my country, India, our history books doesn't have any mention of vikings, let alone their culture & legacy. So I guess that does make sense.
Recently from a magazine I got to know that Canute was a real person and he really was the king of England. He's also known as Cnut the great. I double checked and turned out it was really the character from vinland saga. :))
So how real the rest characters are,? Did a moster like Torkell really exist? It's hard to believe!!

who cares whether or not it is taken from a real story bruh. I enjoyed watching this masterpiece and don' really give a shit about other things.

https://myanimelist.net/animelist/mahedcit&sclick=1

Jun 15, 2022 1:32 AM

#19

DioBrando_69420

Offline

Jul 2020

350

some of canute's achievements in the manga happened in real life too but not everything is historically accurate in the manga and thorfinn is actually a real dude named thorfinn karsefni and he leads a expedition to Vinland so yeah it's really loosely based on history

Jun 15, 2022 2:30 AM

#20

FreshSalmon827

Offline

May 2020

950

Sandro8604 said:
This was the first actual anime I saw, apart from kid's stuff like dragon ball, pokemon, doraemon etc., which got me invested into anime. That was near the beginning of lockdown on a random boring day scrolling through Prime Video. What a ride it has been!!
When I first saw this, I thought this was a fictional story just loosely based on Viking history & culture. Heck I didn't even know the term Viking before watching this. :)
In my country, India, our history books doesn't have any mention of vikings, let alone their culture & legacy. So I guess that does make sense.
Recently from a magazine I got to know that Canute was a real person and he really was the king of England. He's also known as Cnut the great. I double checked and turned out it was really the character from vinland saga. :))
So how real the rest characters are,? Did a moster like Torkell really exist? It's hard to believe!!

The names and characters and rough events did take place and the world they are in is accurately portrayed. However all the interactions and conversations are fictional since this took place over a thousand years there isn’t really anyway to know exact conversations.

I don’t think Cnut the Great was the same personality wise but he was a devout Christian and intelligent and successful king who united a lot of the people and built a vast empire.

He was also partially raised by Thorkell the Tall who was a real Viking, although I’m sure he’s exaggerated, but he was a tall and great warrior.

Thorfinn Karlsefni did also exist and was the first person to attempt a permanent settlement in Vinland and followed Lief Eriksons route. He wasn’t successful and returned to Greenland. A character called Gudrid that will be introduced right at the end of season 2 was, at least in history, his wife so I’ll be interested to see how that plays out in Yukimuras story

Leif Erikson is probably the most famous Viking in the show besides Cnut as he was a great explorer and discovered Vinland first. His father Erik the Red was the person who discovered Greenland.

The general setting and the way all the Vikings interact and what they do is fairly accurate as well, to the best of my knowledge. This was about the time when all the Vikings converted to Christianity. Mostly because of Cnut and his grandfather Harold Bluetooth and it would be just before the Danish/Viking empire grew quite large after conquering what we now call England. Although that didn’t last that long.

Jun 15, 2022 2:44 AM

#21

Lightsrevenge

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Nov 2020

1053

Sandro8604 said:
This was the first actual anime I saw, apart from kid's stuff like dragon ball, pokemon, doraemon etc., which got me invested into anime. That was near the beginning of lockdown on a random boring day scrolling through Prime Video. What a ride it has been!!
When I first saw this, I thought this was a fictional story just loosely based on Viking history & culture. Heck I didn't even know the term Viking before watching this. :)
In my country, India, our history books doesn't have any mention of vikings, let alone their culture & legacy. So I guess that does make sense.
Recently from a magazine I got to know that Canute was a real person and he really was the king of England. He's also known as Cnut the great. I double checked and turned out it was really the character from vinland saga. :))
So how real the rest characters are,? Did a moster like Torkell really exist? It's hard to believe!!

It’s funny growing up I remember only a little bit about what we learned about the Vikings in school. Leif Ericson was definitely the first name I recognized in the story as being an explorer who discovered the New world lol.

Jun 15, 2022 4:35 AM

#22

removed-user

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Jul 2018

562339

The St Brice's Day Massacre and the subsequent invasion of England by Sweyn Forkbeard were both very much real. However, some key events in the anime/manga are completely made up, such as Sweyn's murder by Askeladd (although Sweyn did die shortly after achieving victory there is no evidence of it being anything other than natural causes). It's a good example of a historical anime which puts a great deal of effort into getting both the period and the historical background right, while at the same time telling its own story.

Jun 15, 2022 5:34 AM

#23

RioFS

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May 2021

59872

Yeah, I really wish there was more about Vikings in Indian history textbooks. Then again, there's only so much they can add in the syllabus, mostly pertaining to Indian history which I can understand why.

As for your question, its mostly taken from Viking history and stories back in the day.

Jun 15, 2022 10:43 AM

#24

Jerm0811

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Apr 2020

9

Seaweed7 said:

Jerm0811 said:

Thorfinn is actually very similar to his real life counterpart, Thorfinn Karlsefni, but only if you’ve read the manga. I actually wrote a whole research paper on the real life Thorfinn and what he is famous for.

Umm I read the manga and irl thorfinn was not a viking but his journey to vinland with his wife was real Do you think vinland saga will have a happy or sad ending as irl it kinda was sad.

IRL Thorfinn was from Iceland, meaning he was a Viking as Iceland at the time (10th C. AD) was populated by Vikings. He’s know for being one of the first Europeans to interact with Native Americans. I wouldn’t necessarily say that it ended bad irl, as Thorfinn did try to get along with them, but unfortunately communication and translation issues were too prevalent. I think that the manga will deviate from this and actually allow Thorfinn to have a permanent residence and live alongside the Native people, but only after some large conflict between the peoples.

Btw, I am not caught up on the manga, I have not read the last few chapters, so there may be details I am missing.

Jun 15, 2022 10:52 AM

#25

deg

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Jan 2009

103071

its taken from actual Viking History but like any history or story there are some exaggerations or myths like the super human strength of Thorkell

Jun 15, 2022 3:42 PM

#26

DoomSB

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May 2021

172

Everyone in the story is based off of real people. The writing itself is entirely fictional, but it’s tied to real events. All that war stuff really happened. I’m not actually sure if Askeladd was a real guy or not, but his character is tied to the Arthurian legend.

Mar 26, 2023 1:40 PM

#27

KitsuFrost

Offline

Aug 2020

8679

Very real. Cutting through 4 men like paper with an axe thrown through meters away is lifelike. Anime can't get more realistic than this.

» Is this completion when talking about anime? AjuroDono - Feb 15	22	by Red_Diacez »» Feb 18, 3:05 AM
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How real is VINLAND SAGA.?

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