It isn’t easy being a viking, especially when you’re young and just learning the ways. Erik is one of this new generation: jaded and disillusioned, he’s in line for his clan’s throne but can’t bring himself to participate in his family’s history of pillaging and carnage. There has to be more to life then violence, but what is peace after Ragnarok? The land has been shrouded in overcast and rain for so long that it couldn’t be anything but the Age of Ragnarok: the end of the world – couldn’t it? Erik isn’t sure of anything, other then he has never seen the sun, and the weight of his first kill (a woman he refuses to rape during a raid) weighs heavily on him. This needs to stop: the Gods must be awakened from their slumber to bring back blue skies and the promise of a future of genuine change. A chance encounter with a seer gives him the push he needs: if he could find the Gjallarhorn – or, the Horn Resounding – on the mythical island of Hy-Brasil and blow it, the rainbow road to the Gods’ home of Asgard will open and the sound could end their quietus. Joined by the other able-bodied men of his tribe, Erik sets sail to uncharted territory and his destiny. Days pass. The men are restless for action and begin to doubt the validity of the stories they grew up with, which isn’t helped by a converted Christian priest who joins them and questions the old legends. They enter a fog patch and think they see a light in the sky. Is it the sun? Does it really exist? But it isn’t a sun at all: it’s a bauble hanging from the fearsome Dragon of the North! If this beast exists then surely their expedition cannot be in vain. Can our heroes escape?
Rest In Peace, Terry Jones. The Python boys would describe you in reverence but I remember you most for dressing up as a woman more then your co-stars and dating that twenty-year-old after your divorce. How minds are changed. I love the old Python sketches and when I was part of a tribute stage production I, too, was cast in all of the Terry Jones roles: the waiter in Dirty Fork; Suit #2 in the Architect Sketch… come to think of it, anything that needed nudity. A prude he was not (nor am I, for that matter). From my recollection, Jones never “carried” the group in the same way Graham Chapman or John Cleese did but he always showed up for work. His direction wasn’t so bad either: he’s credited with the live-action bits of the three major Python movies. It’s impossible to be a Python fan and to not have seen Holy Grail; Life of Brain; or The Meaning of Life more then once. But what about the other movies the boys starred in: Time Bandits; Jabberwocky; Yellowbeard; and Erik the Viking? I haven’t seen the others but Roger Ebert’s negative review of Erik made me the most interested, and it is NOT what I was expecting. Instead of a wall-to-wall spoof like Holy Grail (although the plot does follow most of the same beats from that movie: mad, idealistic leader taking his followers to the promised land … come to think of it that’s the same as Life of Brain, too!), Erik is a mostly-factual adventure movie where Jones uses comedy to deconstruct the viking myth. It isn’t wall-to-wall laughs (and your mileage will vary after the first scene, which Ebert exemplified) but as a serious attempt to non-fictionalize Nordic legend with some Python-esque observations – like proper seat arrangements on the langskip or Cleese’s rival warlord getting anxiety while writing death sentences – it was a pleasant surprise. Especially when our heroes encounter the Dragon of the North. No scene better exemplifies Jones’ fun and frugality: no budget, no problem! FOG. ADD MORE FOG.
//jf 2.8.20
theory of a daskeman 