In the last chapter of The Last Kingdom, the last of the great Viking sagas, the characters are stranded on a barren island.
As they’re forced to make do with the limited food, clothing and shelter they’ve been given, they find themselves unable to do anything for themselves.
They also have to contend with the Viking gods, who have made it impossible for them to worship them.
But this isn’t just any old Viking island.
It’s a place called Gjørn, a massive island that has the same name as the Norse god of wind, Thor.
This is the epic tale of how the Vikings, who left their homeland for what they thought was the land of the gods, made it on to Gjörn and became the dominant culture of Europe.
And the story, directed by British writer-director Martin Freeman, was a major influence on the creation of The Hobbit film series, and the first of its kind in a modern western film.
“The Last Kingdoms’ mythology and the way it relates to other Norse cultures is just extraordinary,” says actor Sam Heeghan, who plays the title role of King Tommen.
“It’s the closest thing to an ancient Norse myth that we have to a western fantasy,” he adds.
While the film has its own unique and distinct mythology, the main characters of the saga are almost entirely drawn from the mythology of the ancient Norse world. “
It’s been fantastic to be involved in a movie that was made in such a way, and it was such a joy to see what this really means to the people involved, to watch this be brought to life.”
While the film has its own unique and distinct mythology, the main characters of the saga are almost entirely drawn from the mythology of the ancient Norse world.
They all have some connection to Norse culture at some point in their lives.
And while many of them are familiar with the sagas themselves, they’re not all familiar with it.
So what does the film tell us about the world’s oldest people?
It tells us that the people who live on Gjorg are the first people to have been recorded, with a complete list of their names and place of birth dating back to at least the 10th century.
This means the story of the people of Gjörn and the other islands of Scandinavia has its roots in a different time and place.
“There’s no other country in the world that can match the longevity of this population,” says Dr Daniel O’Brien, a research scientist from the University of Liverpool.
“In the last decade, we’ve seen the arrival of a population of the kind of longevity that you’d expect in the history of human populations, which we now know is a pretty special kind of genetic mutation.”
If you look at all the populations that are currently known to be in existence, they all have one or more of the variants that are found in the Scandinavian population.
“And while the people on GJorg are not the oldest people on Earth, they do have a remarkable history.
So in terms of the Viking culture, it’s a fantastic place to start from,” says Heugan. “
The Last Kings” follows the story in the Viking sagamore and takes us back to the time when this ancient society lived on Gjoorn.
“So in terms of the Viking culture, it’s a fantastic place to start from,” says Heugan.
“We all know how this place has been around for a long time, so we know what the culture was, but how we got here and how we’re going to stay there, and how the other peoples of Gjoor are going to adapt to that culture, is something we all have to start to understand.”
You know, we all know the myths about the gods of Gjon are very important to us.
They’re really important to our mythology, so it’s really nice to have that back again.
“They’re the ones that can tell us all about the past, and what happened in the past.”
The Last King is available on DVD and Blu-ray, and will be released on February 12.
