How to Train Your Dragon

After watching the movie How to Train Your Dragon, I compared the animated movies picture of the vikings, to real late 700s Vikings from Scandinavia. How to Train Your Dragon is a movie about a young boy named Hiccup who’s ultimate goal in life is to prove himself to his father by learning the ways of killing dragons. Hiccup lives in the small Hooligan viking village on an island named Berk. The island setting is pretty similar to what actual vikings would have lived in the late 700s to the 11th century, having traits like a cold mountain climate, livestock, and villages.

The village in the movie also had a pretty accurate representation of an actual viking village. The village had wood sculpted buildings, family farms, livestock, town jobs like black smith/metal workers, fishers, and town hall meetings. Next, the vikings in How to Train your Dragon compared to real Scandinvian vikings in the clothes they wore. Both Vikings wore leather armor, fur clothing, belts, and boots. The vikings in the movie also have a similar persona to the Scandinavian vikings with their barbaric actions. Also the vikings in the movie carried battle weapons like swords, battle axes, and a shield which portrayed that of real life vikings. Another major similarity between the two vikings was there ships. The ships were built all relatively the same and operated by a wind sail system. The ships also often had a dragon or serpent heads carved at the front end. Both Vikings used ships as their main form of transportation, and traveled in fleets when headed out to battle.

How to Train your Dragon is intended to be a kids movie so a lot of its historical context is not accurate. To start their is a common misconception that vikings wore these metal helmets with big horns coming out the side, In the movie many of the characters, especially the men wear these helmets. Also, the Vikings main concern in the movie is to fight off and kill large dragons. In reality the main concerns Vikings had was to raid other villages of their treasures, they did not have to worry about fighting off dragons. Also, the Scandinavian vikings were christian and followed the christian ways, in the movie christianity and the vikings isn’t brought up once.

Over all the film How to Train your Dragon is pretty inaccurate when trying to represent the middle ages.The movie really doesn’t have a major historical message besides maybe that we can all live together in peace. Although How to Train your Dragon does a decent job of portraying the Vikings in their clothing and setting, it misses some of the key historical points about the Vikings during the middle ages.

Source:
Cosmos, History and. “Who Were the Vikings? - Full BBC History Documentary.” YouTube, YouTube, 7 Jan. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvJ8CXCRb0E.

“Watch How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World: Prime Video.” Amazon, Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B07NRFSZ7Z/ref=atv_dl_rdr.

2 comments:

Shaundra NashSeptember 15, 2019 1:14 AM
I do have a counterpoint that I want to bring up. You mentioned that the Scandinavian Vikings were Christian, but the Vikings weren't always Christian, it was a conversion that came with time after their extended exposure to and efforts from the Christian kingdoms of Europe.
Marek CloughSeptember 15, 2019 1:58 PM
I myself have never seen this movie even though it seems to be popular among all ages. I like your review because it focused on both the similarities and the differences between the movie Vikings and real Vikings. While not being historically accurate, I feel like you did a good job in recognizing the movie is meant for kids so its historical context is not the most important aspect. Overall, I think you gave a fair and well thought out analysis of the medieval aspects of the movie.