After Greek mythology, François Busnel offers a fantastic documentary series on Nordic legends. Les mythes vikingsto be seen this Sunday October 6 at 5:15 p.m. on Arte and available on Arte.TV.
Between the video game Assassin’s Creed Walhalla, Chris Hemsworth as Thor in the cinema, the countless Viking films and series on platforms, ” the renewed interest in their mythology is very strong and has not weakened since 2014 », Underlines Pierre-Brice Stahl, teacher-researcher in history of religions at the Sorbonne. For the author of Gods and characters from Norse mythology (Flammarion) and advisor to François Busnel for this documentary, “ the Great European North fascinates. Even people who are not directly interested in Vikings are confronted with it. Cult works of fantasy, such as Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings, are imbued with it ».
After the success of his series on Greek myths, the former presenter of “La Grande Librairie” became interested in the heroes of Scandinavian mythology. “How can we explain the immense popularity of the Viking gods, when we know almost nothing about them? he asks himself.I wanted to tell their story as the Vikings passed it down orally. I removed the layers of varnish added by ideology by Christians. When their armies defeated the Vikings between the 7th and 12th centuries, they rewrote history. Christian stories present the Vikings and their gods in a binary way. There are good guys and bad guys. However, among the Vikings, morality was absent. They led a harsh life in accordance with nature. To say that Odin resembles Christ and Loki resembles Lucifer is absurd.»
Snow and Ice Fortress
Fascinating, this documentary series is divided into ten 26-minute episodes. Each progresses the story towards the terrible end of the gods. The first episode focuses on Odin, the master of them all. His left eye gouged out, his side pierced, he hangs in the branches of Yggdrasil. This sacred tree, axis of the universe, brings together the nine kingdoms, including Asgard, that of the gods, Alfheim (the elves), Jötunheim (the giants). Odin’s dynasty protects against chaos. But his ravens, which come and go between worlds, have brought him disturbing echoes. His only solution to discover the future is to drink the spring water of the great ash tree after suffering martyrdom. He will not be able to change his destiny, only slow down the deadline. From their fortress of snow and ice, the giants will go into battle; demons, a wolf and a snake will attack. During the daunting final battle, the gods will fall one after the other. It will be Ragnarök, a series of catastrophes that leads to the end of the world.
To keep the viewer in suspense, François Busnel transformed himself into a storyteller. And we let ourselves be carried away. In voice-over, he plays on rhythm, intonations and keeps his audience in suspense. The omnipresent suspense also owes a lot to the co-writing work of Pauline Guéna (In therapy, La Nuit du 12). Family audiences will get a little lost in the many characters, but the important points are regularly reminded. The work of the Oscar B studios, like the views of the kingdom of Asgard, with its flowery meadows crossed by the Northern Lights, is absolutely beautiful. The image mixes animation and iconography drawn from art history.
Power of women
When this saga ends, we remember the importance of ecology (the world only depends on a tree that must be taken care of) and the power of women. “I love the goddess Freya,slips François Busnel.She refuses to marry a god. Goddess of war, she is, after Thor, the most feared of all, because Odin entrusted her with command of the Valkyries. » The final credits roll, and we are seized by a desire: to go near Copenhagen to the longship museum, to that of Mosegard in Jutland, then to Sweden, to Stockholm, to the island of Gotland and to Uppsala .
