The Netflix show "The Last Kingdom" tells the story of King Alfred of Wessex fighting the Vikings in the late 9th century. The show is based on the historical fiction book series "The Saxon Stories" by Bernard Cornwell. The main title theme features a female soloist singing a sort of mono-syllabic chant accompanied by various vocal sound effects and drums.
It seems like this "female chanting" theme trend loaded with melismas have become popular since themes like "Now We Are Free" from "Gladiator" and the movie "300". I love the music, I just don't know if there's any historical precedence for it.
Is "The Last Kingdom" theme representative of music for Anglo-Saxon or Viking cultures of the late 9th century?
What are some historically accurate representations of Anglo-Saxon or Viking music?
It's worth noting that the 'Vikings' were not just one homogenous group of people but rather various groups of travelling merchants and warriors from all across Scandinavia- so their sounds and dialects would have varied from group to group which suggests that there is not definitive 'Viking' sound. A Scandinavian sound with some local influences perhaps.
Outside of the sagas and chronicles, the Vikings never left us a written record of everyday life. Their tradition was in Oral histories and storytelling (which is how the sagas and chronicles came to be written years afterwards).
As such, we have no definitive musical record of the norsemen other than what they passed on to their kin.
We do know that indigenous instruments to Scandinavia include the dulcimer and fiddle- with a bit of forensics we are able to deduce that some traditional songs and music are indigenous to certain areas. For example- the Icelanders are the only people to use parallel fifths (a throwback to the middle ages which continues in their schools today) in their contemporary music- giving their nation a definitive sound.
I've given the theme a listen, the singer is Faroese which doesn't give me confidence that there's correct Scandi phrasing.
Here's some traditional style contemporary Scandinavian folk music... you can hear that your theme has picked up on some tonal trends and flourishes but I don't think it's massively representative. It's a bit like what Braveheart did for Celtic music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU11dn0eznQ
(There's a lot of parallels between Scandinavian folk music and Celtic music (perhaps no surprise given the prevalence of Norsemen in Scotland and Ireland/Dalriada).)
Anglo Saxon is not my forte, hopefully somebody else can advise on that front.
(Edited for grammar)