I’ve seen this issue rear it’s ugly, braided head again with the release of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. As I’m sure you can tell from the title this game focuses on the Vikings, as set in the action/stealth fantasy world Ubisoft has created. However, this game, and many other pieces of Viking media all share a similar issue. Their Vikings are more often than not inaccurate in dozens of ways. Examples of this can be found in movies, tv, games, propaganda, art, and even things like opera. Vikings seem to have a dual existence, first as an actual historical group and second as a pop culture figure. My question is why is this? How did depictions of Vikings stray so far from what is real?