40 Details About 'Vikings' That The History Channel Doesn’t Want Us To Know

Vikings may not have been strictly historically accurate, but it brought a lot of gory fun to the History Channel. Throughout six seasons fans followed the story of Ragnar Lothbrok and his family, although they had to be careful not to get too attached to any character. The show’s all over now, but new secrets and hilarious cast stories keep coming out! So here are 40 of the best of them.

40. All the tattoos are based in historical reality

Designer Tom McInerney is the man responsible for those awesome Viking tattoos adorning the main cast. Rollo actor Clive Standen told the website Buzzfeed in 2015, “He researches the tattoos from original Scandinavian and Norse artifacts, or actual runic scribe… Some of these things are really complicated to piece out, but they come from real designs.” And they look so cool.

39. Everyone gets a copy of their head

Imagine joining a show and knowing your character could end up dead and headless before too long? That was reality for the cast of Vikings. All the major actors needed a fake head one way or another. Designer Tom McInerney joked to the SBS website in 2017, “We sometimes use 3D prints of the actors’ faces, but if I want to punish someone, I’ll make them sit through the whole plaster cast process, which can be pretty claustrophobic.”

38. Travis Fimmel was once a model

Ragnar actor Travis Fimmel once had a job a long way away from the bloody world of Vikings… he was a male model. And a very successful one to boot. Rumor has it that once a billboard of his beautiful face went up in a busy area of London, distracted-driver car accidents in that area immediately increased.

37. Winnick was the only woman on set for a while

Katheryn Winnick’s character Lagertha represented the warrior women of the Viking era. For a while, she was the only woman on set. The actress told the website Collider in 2013, “I was surrounded by 14 Viking men and I remember thinking, ‘Wow, this sounds and feels familiar.’ I grew up in a martial arts gym surrounded by men and boys, and I pretty much call myself a tomboy.”

36. The number nine is important

You may have noticed that the first season of Vikings has nine episodes, rather than a nice round number like ten. Why could that be? Well, nine is a very important numeral when it comes to the mythology of the real Vikings. The number was associated with many of their gods, including Odin and Heimdall.

35. Some of the actors wanted different roles

As is fairly common in television, not every actor got the role they originally auditioned for. Both Clive Standen and Gustaf Skarsgård wanted the role of Ragnar, the main character, but they were cast as Rollo and Floki instead. Ironically Ragnar himself, Travis Fimmel, actually had Floki as his first choice.

34. George Blagden had his audition in an actual old chapel

George Blagden played Athelstan, the young monk. So it was only appropriate he had his audition in a place of religious significance. In 2013 Blagden told the Daily Actor website it was, “in a chapel underneath a very fancy hotel in London in the basement,” which was “very kind of weird and spooky.”

33. The beards are made of animal hair

A bit of disappointing news: not all the beards on Vikings are authentic. They’re made of yak hair! And yes, they got very messy after a while, especially if the actors had to eat. According to designer Tom McInerney, the beard application process evolved over the years to save time and yes, eliminate grossness.

32. Winnick loved not having to wear lip gloss

Katheryn Winnick did have to wear makeup for Vikings, that would be the case on any TV show, but it wasn’t the typical feminine makeup she’d come to expect. She told the website Daily Actor in 2013, “The more dirt on your face the better…And so it was such a treat not necessarily having people coming up, ‘Oh, you need more lip gloss,’ or something like that.”

31. Vikings didn’t really talk like that

Among the difficulties of making a show about Vikings: no-one’s actually 100 percent sure how they talked. And without a time machine, probably nobody ever will be. The creators of the show decided to use various dead languages to represent how they might have spoken, and these were Old Norse, Anglo-Saxon, Old Frankish and Latin.

30. The weapons aren’t real

Luckily no-one had to use real weapons during any of the violent Vikings fight scenes. Everything was made out of bamboo or rubber, stuff that won’t hurt you if you get clonked over the head with it. Thanks to stuntmen and devoted health and safety officers, there was never a major accident on the show.

29. Blagden was pranked a lot by Fimmel

Poor George Blagden bore the brunt of Travis Fimmel’s pranks on set. He just loved to mess with his co-star, as he revealed himself in an interview with Buzzfeed. Oh, and he called him “Georgie” as well. But hey, if you’re doing the odd threesome sex scene together, you’ve got to break the ice somehow.

28. Gustaf Skarsgård comes from a famous acting family

Gustaf Skarsgård, who plays Floki, is one of the world-famous Swedish Skarsgård family. You’ve almost definitely seen his father and brothers in various productions over the years. His dad Stellan Skarsgård was in Chernobyl and Mamma Mia among other things; his brother Alexander was Eric in True Blood, and another brother Bill played Pennywise in killer clown flick It.

27. Fimmel was scared of the fan reaction

Travis Fimmel spoke to the Daily Actor website about Vikings in 2013. When asked, “Are you one of those people that looks on the internet to see what people are saying, or do you avoid it?,” he answered, “No, I’m too scared.” Not very Ragnar! He went on, “You hear it from other people, you know, if they like it or not. Fortunately my friends are brutally honest.”

26. You won’t hear modern instruments on the soundtrack

Einar Selvik, the composer for the show, wanted the music to seem authentic to the real Viking Age. That meant no instruments that hadn’t already been invented by that time, and definitely no electronics. Among the things Selvik actually used were a lyre and a horn created from that of a goat.

25. Two versions have to be made of each costume

The wardrobe department of Vikings had a mammoth job creating outfits for whole armies. Head of costume Susan O’Connor told SBS in 2017, “We make two of everything due to the messy nature of battle scenes – everything gets covered in mud and blood, and is rarely salvageable, but we do have a 24-hour drying room for the battle-weary wardrobe.” Such is Viking life.

24. George Blagden thought he might end up doing the show alone

Blagden was the first actor cast for Vikings, and no-one else joined him for a while. He remembered to Daily Actor in 2013, “They cast everyone else really close to our start date, probably a week or two Travis [Fimmel] and Katheryn [Winnick] were cast before we were supposed to go to [the] island. And I was thinking, ‘Am I… is this a one man television show?’”

23. A real-life Ragnar might not have existed

Ragnar Lothbrok is based on a famous Viking historical figure, Ragnar Lodbrok. But was he actually a living, breathing person? Historians aren’t completely sure. It’s possible he was based on lots of different fearsome Viking kings with some stories exaggerated over time. Either way, he can still be considered a legend.

22. Fimmel found the language difficult

Travis Fimmel found it hard to learn the mishmash of languages he needed for Vikings. He told the Daily Actor website that it took him “a long time” especially with there being an extra vowel in the Norse language. Fimmel concluded that although he pulled it off in the end, he still didn’t think he was very good at it.

21. The set design stuck close to history

Katheryn Winnick said in a 2013 interview with the website Collider, “We tried to make it as authentic as possible, in terms of the set design. They worked with incredible set decorators to try to mirror the Vikings and how they lived. They really lived in one-room houses and had one center fireplace as their only central heating system.” That’s the History channel living up to its name.

20. Gustaf Skarsgård pointed out a big error

One Vikings script involved Ragnar going to Sweden, but Gustaf Skarsgård objected when he read it. Not because of anything the characters did in the storyline, but because “Sweden” as a country didn’t actually exist at the time of the Vikings. So writer Michael Hirst changed it to Götaland, one of the ancient kingdoms that eventually became Sweden.

19. Tattoos had to be applied every day of shooting

Obviously the showrunners couldn’t ask all their actors to cover themselves in permanent Viking tattoos, so all of them were transfers. A special paper was used so actors could just have their tattoos applied and then have them rubbed off at the end of the day. But for characters who were absolutely covered in them, it was harder.

18. Fimmel isn’t much older than his onscreen son

Alexander Ludwig played Bjorn, the oldest son of Ragnar and Lagertha, from season two onwards. But he was actually only 13 years younger than his onscreen father Travis Fimmel! Still, that may have worked out for the best all things considered, because Ludwig and Fimmel became great friends while working together.

17. A new type of fake blood was made for the show

Designer Tom McInerney told SBS in 2017, “We have to make approximately ten 50-litre barrels of blood for every battle scene and the challenge was to make something that doesn’t stain costumes or the actors’ skin. We’ve invented a new type of ‘blood’ made of sugar syrup and food coloring that washes out.” Nice! But he did add, “I’m not sure if I’ve done myself a favor. Making blood is an endless task here.”

16. It rained constantly on location

Travis Fimmel told the Daily Actor website in 2013 that he hated the torrential rain while filming in Ireland. He remembered, “We never had a good day with the weather. We were there for summer. We started in July and the weather was just horrific all the time.” It fit with the tone of the show, though.

15. The jewelry pieces were made by hand

Many of the jewelry pieces seen in Vikings, including Ragnar’s important bracelet, were handmade by a South Carolina company called The Crafty Celt. It all looked fantastic on screen, and you can actually buy some of the characters’ necklaces and bracelets for yourself should you want to imitate your favorite Vikings.

14. Fimmel was bitten by real snakes in his death scene

For his incredibly memorable death scene, Ragnar Lothbrok was hurled into a pit of snakes and bitten to death. Fimmel was used to the slithery creatures himself, having grown up in Australia, but it couldn’t have been comfortable. Not only did the snakes – thankfully non-venomous – crawl all over him and bite him, according to Fimmel they pooped on him too. Yuk!

13. You’ve heard the opening title music before

A haunting song plays over the opening credits of Vikings – this is Fever Ray’s “If I Had A Heart.” It’s a pretty popular creepy tune, so you’ve probably heard it in other television shows too. It’s been featured in Person of Interest, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Breaking Bad among other things.

12. Ivar the Boneless was a real person

Ivar the Boneless was a real man, once upon a time – though no-one’s completely certain yet how he died, or how he came to be nicknamed “the Boneless.” The series portrays Ivar as having a disability, but there’s no concrete evidence to back that up. But we can be pretty sure he was every bit as bad as his Vikings counterpart.

11. Blagden learned he was being killed off while driving a removals van

There’s got to be a better way to find out you’re leaving a TV show. Athelstan actor George Blagden told The Guardian newspaper in 2016, “I was on the A64 north of York, taking some things from my parents’ home back to my place in London. I pulled over and read the email. My girlfriend said, ‘What’s wrong?’ I said, ‘I’m dying.’ It’s like being fired, isn’t it? But in a creative way.”

10. Real locations are greatly preferred to CGI

Computer generated images are great, but real-life places are always better. That means that if the production team can build a whole village for filming in, they will. Head of production design Mark Geraghty told SBS in 2017, “Every time you move with a CGI image, it costs a lot of money. By doing something ‘real’ you don’t limit the directors. They can take different angles and revisit it as many times as they like.”

9. Fimmel once pulled a prank with a rooster

According to Katheryn Winnick, Fimmel pulled pranks on the crew constantly. She told the website Collider in 2013, “There was one time when, all of a sudden, there was screaming. I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ He ended up putting a rooster in this guy’s car, surrounded by hay, and this poor guy had to clean it all up.”

8. Tadhg Murphy really does have one eye

From season one of Vikings Tadhg Murphy plays Arne, a scarred warrior who has the nickname “One-Eye” for obvious reasons. But Murphy really does have only one eye! He lost it in the most Viking way possible – getting a handmade arrow in the face when he was thirteen years old.

7. Some sets and props get recycled

With a big-budget production like Vikings, it helps if some things can be recycled and reused. New sets are made all the time, but the production crew try and make sure timber from older sets is used in the construction. And when not needed, furniture and props go into a warehouse called “Vikia” until they can be used again.

6. Winnick rented a costume for her audition

When she tried out for the role of Lagertha, Katheryn Winnick clearly decided to go big or go home. She told the Daily Actor website in 2013, “I went to the local costume place and I was like, ‘Please make me look like a Viking. How do I look undone?’” She left with an outfit “more fitting of that era” and got the role.

5. The boats were held up with tires

Just because the real Vikings used manpower to shift their boats from place to place, that didn’t mean the crew of the show Vikings had to. After several years of doing just that, they devised a system where the boats were transported with outdoor motors and propped up using rubber tires. A boat on wheels...Who’d have thought it?

4. Fimmel wanted a gruesome death for Jarl Bor

Jarl Bor’s death at the hands of Ragnar was memorable, to put it one way, and that’s entirely down to Travis Fimmel. He suggested the “blood eagle” death that even the show’s bloodthirsty characters were seen to be appalled by. Writer Michael Hirst told Vulture magazine in 2021, “The manner of death was Travis’s idea, not mine,” and it was to be “as violent as possible.”

3. Clive Standen sustained the most injuries

One question you might well have on your mind after binge watching Vikings: which actor got injured the most on set? Apparently that was Clive Standen, who played Rollo. He told the website Buzzfeed in 2015, “I’m always getting stabbed with either other people’s weapons or my own weapon. I’ve been known to smack myself in the face with my own axe.”

2. Katheryn Winnick is a badass in real life

Katheryn Winnick is arguably a real-life version of the character she plays. Just like Lagertha, she’s highly trained in the art of kicking butt. She’s a black belt in karate, having studied it since the age of seven, and once had her own martial arts school. Oh, and she so happens to be an officially licensed bodyguard as well.

1. The cast became good friends

Talking to Collider in 2019, Travis Fimmel mentioned how close the Vikings cast had become on set. He said, “It was a great experience. I really enjoyed it. I loved living in Ireland, and got some really good lifelong friends from it. It was great. I wouldn’t change a thing.” Not very Viking-like, but that’s a good thing!