The Historical Background of the TV series VIKINGS

by adunoeth

Summary:

Okay, so this was supposed to be a draft only, but apparently I posted it without meaning to and I'm not going to delete it again... which means this is going to be very much a work in progress.

 

This is a compilation of facts about historical events, historical figures, the meaning of names and everthing else I could think of that anchors the TV Show Vikings in reality.

Notes:

So this has probably been done before, but I had an itch. Also, I've never actually watched the show, only read some fanfics. But since this is about the historical background anyway, I figured it would be ok.

Chapter 1: I. Places - 1. Kattegat

There is no town, village or other area of land that I can find that is called Kattegat.

There is, however, a sea are between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea with that name. It is south of the sea area Skagerrak, with Denmark to the west and south and Sweden to the east. It is a quite shallow sea which can be dangerous to navigate due to the many reefs and currents.
The name is actually not as old as the show would make it seem and developed instead during the late Middle Ages. It derives from the Dutch words kat (cat) and gat (hole, gate) and implies that it is a hole so narrow that a cat would have difficulties queezing through. In earlier times Kattegat and Skagerrak were referred to as the Norwegian Sea or Jutland Sea (possibly Jótlandshaf). The Ancient Latin name was Sinus Codanus.

Notes:

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kattegat