Vikings
Season #1 Episode #1- TV-MA
- Year:
- 2013
- 44 min
- 6,344 Views
THE VIKINGS. EPISODE 1: RITES OF PASSAGE
TEASER:
A young Viking, RAGNAR LOTHBROK is engaged in a fight to the
death with two LATVIAN WARRIORS, distinguishable by their
eastern-looking clothing. Ragnar has been fighting a long
time. His torso is smeared with blood, like his sword, and
the bodies of the dead lie scattered around.
The Latvians are bigger and heavier but we quickly appreciate
Ragnar’s weapon skills and speed of thought, blocking the
blows of the axes with sword and shield and weaving out of
range. We also see that one of the Latvian’s is already badly
wounded, with blood streaming from a wound in his head.
Ragnar concentrates on him for a moment, thrusting, turning
him, twisting away so the warrior wastes his diminishing
energy slicing thin air with his axe and bellowing angrily.
Finally he stumbles and Ragnar drives his sword into his
chest.
But at the same moment the second Latvian attacks from
behind, swinging down his axe for a mighty blow. Ragnar
pivots round, his shield taking the full force of the blow,
leaving the axe-head embedded in the wood.
Aghast, unable to free his weapon, the Latvian abandons it
and starts to run. Very calmly, Ragnar pulls a spear out of
the body of one of the dead and hurls it after the running
man. Speared clean through the back the warrior falls.
Ragnar, suddenly as weary as death, trudges a few yards up
the slope and surveys the rest of the battle field. In the
gathering gloom an eery silence has fallen. Scores of bodies,
hacked, mutilated and speared lie on the ground. And
everywhere flocks of crows and ravens flutter down and feast
upon the corpses. And there is not one living human thing
moving over that field of death - except a solitary figure. A
TALL MAN with a long cloak and a wide-brimmed hat, holding a
spear, he moves slowly between the bodies of the Viking dead,
seeming to note and inspect each one. He is a spectral
figure, strange, disturbing, powerful, with ravens sometimes
perching upon his shoulders...and Ragnar watches him like one
transfigured, like one who has come face to face with his
god.
The tall man pauses by one of the Viking dead and points him
out with his spear. At that moment the air around appears to
shimmer and two or three almost transluscent, almost naked
YOUNG FEMALE VALKYRIES appear and gather the slain warrior
into their arms. In great brightness the young women lift
into the liquid air...and vanish.
Ragnar watches this miracle in silent awe, then looks over
again at the tall man. For a brief moment the tall man lifts
his head, revealing his face beneath the wide-brimmed hat.
The face is indescribable - except for its single eye, which
stares back at Ragnar with a pitiless and terrible intensity.
And then he is gone, as if he had never been, leaving Ragnar
to survey the darkening, mysterious scene.
END OF TEASER:
These words appear on the screen:
NORWAY, LATE 8TH CENTURY.
The wooden and turf house is dark and almost window-less, the
rooms lit by tallow candles. From outside comes the dull
rumble of summer thunder.
Somewhere in the darkness a WOMAN is breathing heavily and
groaning. We hear the sound of other WOMEN’S VOICES, low and
sibilant, almost chanting.
A YOUNG MAN - RAGNAR - fretful and anxious, crosses the place
where the colored war shields are fixed to the wall like
eyes, and looks into the chamber where his wife, LAGERTHA,
the shield-maiden lies upon their bed giving birth,
surrounded by three or four OLDER WOMEN, one of them ancient.
ANCIENT WOMAN:
What do you want?
RAGNAR:
Isn’t it here yet?
The ancient woman doesn’t bother to respond, spits on the
floor and places her hands again on Lagertha’s swollen
stomach and resumes her low, strange chant.
One of the other MID-WIVES speaks more kindly.
MID-WIFE
Not yet, Ragnar. Go away and do
something useful.
Outside the storm breaks, the thunder louder and rain hissing
on the ground.
RAGNAR moves away, into another chamber, and crouches down
beside a small wooden statue set in a niche beside the fire,
very crudely carved from a piece of wood: a statue of a nude
female figure,wearing just a necklace, with large breasts.
2.
Ragnar picks it up.
RAGNAR:
Freya, make everything go well
today. Make sure Lagertha lives,
and is delivered of a healthy
child.
A beat. The thunder cracks again. Then Ragnar shrugs and puts
the figure down.
RAGNAR (CONT’D)
I know you can’t really change
anything.
ANCIENT WOMAN V.O.
It’s time.
Ragnar hurries back through.
His wife’s legs are spread wide open and something is
emerging between them: a head, with a halo of bright hair.
The ancient woman continues her sing-song chant and the
younger women help with the birth, one of them holding the
baby’s head as the rest of its body slithers out in an abrupt
rush of blood and afterbirth...and Ragnar gasps at the wonder
of it. Stares at the bloody bundle even as they cut the chord
and begin to wash it.
RAGNAR:
What is it?
LAGERTHA:
(with a laugh)
It’s a boy.
RAGNAR:
How do you know?
LAGERTHA:
What are you talking about? Didn’t
I promise you a son?
Ragnar looks at the ancient woman.
RAGNAR:
Is it a boy?
ANCIENT WOMAN:
Look for yourself, Ragnar Lothbrok.
Ragnar looks. Satisfies himself.
3.
LAGERTHA:
Give him here. I have enough milk
for a herd of boys.
The baby is lifted to her breast, where it suckles.
EXT. VIKING SETTLEMENT - DAY
Ragnar emerges from his house carrying the baby, wrapped in a
blanket. The storm has passed. The wood and turf building is
one of several in the small hamlet perched on the edge of a
deep fjord. It’s a vision of stillness and utter
tranquillity. The thickly wooded slopes of the fyord drop
down sheer to the water, and above them the bare rocks are
still capped with snow. The whole landscape has a strange,
magical luminosity - a heightened, almost unnatural beauty.
Ragnar takes his son to the water’s edge and holds him out in
his arms, like an offering.
RAGNAR:
Look Odin. Look, I have a son.
Thank you, lord. Thank you for my
son.
We move in CLOSE on the baby’s face - then the camera tilts
up towards the sky.
And suddenly the sky begins to darken...
EXT. THE HEAVENS
Darkness - and out of the darkness a noise like no other, of
horns and hooves and the shrill cry of birds and the roaring
of men and women. And over the dark fields, fringed with
fire, high in the darkling sky flies a tumultuous host:
thousands of Viking warriors and Valkyries packed together
and riding plunging horses, armed with spears and swords, and
half-naked shield-maidens with bows and shields, sweeping
across the heavens in a wild hunt amidst thick flocks of
wheeling ravens.
And in the midst of this vast ghostly army the huge figure of
Odin, the god of dead warriors, lord of Valhalla, riding his
eight-legged horse Sleipnir, carrying his spear, two ravens
perched on his shoulders, his cloak streaming out behind him,
his single-eye surveying this great, ecstatic, thundering
host of the risen dead.
4.
INT. HOUSE - NIGHT
Winter. The embers of the fire still glow in the centre of
the floor. We are close again on the baby’s face...as he
sleeps in the crook of Ragnar’s arm.
Ragnar is awake, staring up into the darkness and the play of
shadows across the rafters, a look of profound awe upon his
face.
EXT. HOUSE - DAY
Now everything is in the fierce grip of the deepest winter.
Icy winds blast across the fjord, heaping the water into
wild, foaming waves, and the mountains above are thick with
snow. Even at mid-day the sky is almost dark, like a
perpetual twilight.
But through this dark desolation a solitary FIGURE can be
seen, a black smudge against the snow, wrapped in furs
against the icy winds, struggling towards the hamlet.
INT. HOUSE - DAY
Lagertha plays with her two CHILDREN. Her son BJORN is about
ten and daughter GYDA about eight years old.
Ragnar appears, gestures to her.
RAGNAR:
Come.
Ragnar leads Lagertha into the main room.
RAGNAR (CONT’D)
Here is the man I told you of,
Lagertha.
He indicates the figure standing beside the fire: a tall MAN
of uncertain age, his craggy face heavily lined, his hair and
beard both long and matted, as if his journey has been long
and arduous.
LAGERTHA:
Welcome, stranger, to our house.
The strange man bows a little. Lagertha pours a drink of
sweet, strong mead and hands it to him. The stranger empties
the cup.
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"Vikings" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 Nov. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/vikings_30>.
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