The term Viking (from Old Norse víkingr) is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.
These Norsemen used their famed longships to travel as far east as Constantinople and the Volga River in Russia, and as far west as Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland, and as far south as Al-Andalus. This period of Viking expansion – known as the Viking Age – forms a major part of the medieval history of Scandinavia, Great Britain, Ireland and the rest of Europe in general.
Popular conceptions of the Vikings often differ from the complex picture that emerges from archaeology and written sources. A romanticised picture of Vikings as Germanic noble savages began to take root in the 18th century, and this developed and became widely propagated during the 19th-century Viking revival. The received views of the Vikings as violent brutes or intrepid adventurers owe much to the modern Viking myth which had taken shape by the early 20th century. Current popular representations are typically highly clichéd, presenting the Vikings as familiar caricatures.
Travis Fimmel (born 15 July 1979) is an Australian actor and former model who is currently based in the United States. He is best known for his high-profile Calvin Klein campaign and for co-starring with Patrick Swayze in TV series The Beast shortly before Swayze's death.
Fimmel was raised as the youngest of three brothers by parents Chris and Jennie on their 5500-acre dairy farm in Lockington near the small country town of Echuca, between Melbourne and Sydney.
He moved to Melbourne in his late teens to play professional AFL Football for the St Kilda Football Club, but a broken leg sidelined him before the season began. He was accepted into Melbourne University to study commercial architecture and engineering but later deferred to travel abroad.
His modelling career first began when he was spotted working out at a gym in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn by the flatmate of Matthew Anderson, a talent scout for the prestigious Chadwick Models agency.
Fimmel headed overseas and was signed on the spot with agency LA Models in 2002 after walking into their office broke and barefoot. He then became the first male in the world to secure a six-figure deal to model exclusively for Calvin Klein for a year. He fronted CK’s Crave men’s fragrance campaign and modelled the brand’s famous underwear. It was reported that one of his London billboards had to be pulled down after complaints from an auto club of traffic congestion and accidents by ‘rubbernecking’ female drivers, but Fimmel insisted the story started with a rumor spread on the internet.
Clive Standen (born 22 July 1981) is an English actor best known for playing Sir Gawain in the Starz (TV network) series Camelot as well as 'Archer', the brother of Robin Hood in the BBC TV series Robin Hood and Private Carl Harris in the British sci-fi show Doctor Who.
Standen's first experience of stunts, horse riding and sword fighting was at age twelve when he got his first job working in a professional stunt team in Nottingham. At the age of fifteen Standen was a member of both the National Youth Theatre and the National Youth Music Theatre performing in productions at many well known venues. Later Standen won a place on the three year acting course at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
In 2004 Standen appeared in Waking the dead, the Second World War documentary drama Ten Days to D-Day, and took the lead role of Major Alan Marshall in the Zero Hour TV dramatisation of the SAS mission, operation Barras, in Sierra Leone. The next year he appeared in three episodes of the British soap Doctors and Tom Brown's Schooldays, the acclaimedITV adaptation of the book by Thomas Hughes. Standen played Private Carl Harris in three episodes of the fourth series of the relaunched British sci-fi show Doctor Who. The following year he played 'Archer', the brother of Robin Hood in the BBC TV series Robin Hood. Standen is currently part of the main cast of the TV series Camelot for Starz (TV network) in which he portrays the famous Arthurian knight Sir Gawain.
Gustaf Caspar Orm Skarsgård (born 12 November 1980 in Stockholm) is a Swedish actor, son of My Skarsgård and Stellan Skarsgård and brother of Eija, Valter, Sam, Bill and Alexander Skarsgård. His godfather is acclaimed Swedish actor Peter Stormare.
My axe blade is splitting a head
I won't stop 'till everyone is dead
My axe blade is splitting a head
Fresh french bread
Drenched in dread
Bong your head (oui papa)
Viking, now the time is ripe for conquest,
Viking, now it's time for you to leave,
Take your Longship way across the water,
Just one more drink before you do.
Viking, now it's time to sail to new lands,
Viking, now it's time to put to sea,
Take your Longship way across the water,
Take your Longship away from me.
Chorus
SHOUT, SHOUT, SHOUT to me, across the snow,
SING, SING, SING to me, all winter long,
Tell me tales of other lands that
I can never know
On your travels Viking, Go.
Viking, you'll be sailing on the Cruel Sea,
Viking, you'll feel lonely and so cold,
Fight with spirit on your quest of plunder,
Bring us back some amulets of gold
Ahead, my axe blade is splitting a head
I won't stop till everyone is dead
My axe blade is splitting a head
Fresh french bread
Drenched in dread
Bang your head, oui papa
Gonna do things my way
Gonna see you tomorrow,
On a German war plane
We gonna bomb you 'til Tuesday
Important vision
Incredible smile
"I and out"
On a Viking warship
We want you on our island,
If we can ever find it
Important wisdom
Unfortunate lie, again
In and out
We're gonna run through the desert
We got big boots to fill
We're gone just to seek cheap thrills
Imported wisdom
Incredible cry