A story about my uncle ending
Like Eggers’s The Witch, The Northman treats the supernatural as an inescapable thread in the fabric of the world. The final scene is as bloody as The Northman, but because the pregnant Olga is able to escape, raise her children, and continue Amleth’s family line, The Northman has a glimmer of hope that Hamlet lacks.
Before he dies, Hamlet manages to kill Claudius. They prepare a poisoned cup in case Hamlet doesn’t die by the sword, but then Gertrude unwittingly drinks from it. You’ll recall that in Hamlet, Hamlet is fatally wounded with a poisoned sword in a duel with Laertes, Ophelia’s brother, after Laertes and Claudius conspire to murder him. Like the original folktale, Hamlet swears revenge on his uncle Claudius after Claudius murders Hamlet’s father. Many of the characters in The Northman have almost direct counterparts to the Shakespeare play: Amleth is Hamlet, Gudrún is Gertrude, and Willem Defoe’s Heimir is Yorick. One of the most famous versions of the story of Amleth is, of course, Shakespeare’s Hamlet. After killing his uncle and retaking the throne, Amleth is usually killed in battle himself. In other versions, he escapes to Britain, where he can safely plan his revenge. In some versions, he feigns a cognitive disability or mental illness in order to make his uncle believe that he’s not a threat. Amleth has to use his cunning to escape his uncle’s wrath. The brother kills the king so that he himself can take the throne, and then goes after the king’s son, Amleth. It starts with a king and his jealous brother. Although the details tend to vary, the core of the story generally remains the same. There are several versions of the story of Amleth-also called Amlod or Amlóði, depending on the source-across Northern Europe. Then he’s carried to the gates of Valhalla by a Valkyrie. As Amleth lies dying, he has a vision of Olga and his future children, one of whom will grow up to be a king and carry on Amleth’s dynasty.
He and Fjölnir then meet in the mouth of a nearby volcano, where they fight and kill each other simultaneously, with Amleth cutting off Fjölnir’s head just as Fjölnir puts his sword through Amleth’s heart. Amleth returns to Fjölnir’s court and kills Gudrún and her child, his half-brother. Amleth realizes that Olga and their children will never be safe as long as Fjölnir lives-since Fjölnir will always seek revenge on Amleth. However, Gudrún tells him that she was part of Fjölnir’s plot all along.Įventually, Amleth and Olga escape and board a boat bound for Orkney, where Amleth has family, but Amleth finds out that Olga is pregnant with twins. Amleth then reveals his identity to his mother, Gudrún, telling her that he’s come to save her. While he waits for the events of the prophecy to come true, he wrecks havoc on Fjölnir’s court, killing Fjölnir’s older son and several nobles. He finds a fabled sword that will allow him to kill Fjölnir and hears a prophecy that he’ll kill his uncle in a lake of fire. Aided by Olga, a fellow slave, Amleth begins to make plans for his revenge. When he finds out that Fjölnir has fled to Iceland after the takeover of his kingdom, he disguises himself as a slave in order to gain access to Fjölnir’s household.
There’s a lot going on in this film, with its cycles of violence and revenge, so let’s break down that jaw-dropping ending! Spoilers ahead! The Major Events of ‘The Northman’Īfter his father, King Aurvandill, is killed by his uncle, Fjölnir, Amleth grows up determined to avenge him. In Robert Eggers’s The Northman, the Viking prince Amleth is driven by three desires: to avenge his father, to rescue his mother, and to kill his uncle, Fjölnir.