That's what this film is all about. Christianization is on its way and the nordic religion is in peril. It needs to be revived : One-eye's mission.
It is hard to understand the movie without some knowledge of nordic religion. Nobody quite gets it, the professional critics seem to be lost.
Some clues :
One-Eye is Odin, or his human avatar. Odin had one eye. He was, among other virtues from his curriculum, the god of slaves and gladiators (slaves, usually). One-eye is a slave, kept as a gladiator. He's been there for years, waiting, observing. He is Odin in disguise, guarantor of nordic traditions. The cunning warrior who always wins, using any situation to his advantage (here, using the rope tied to his neck).
He chooses to free himself after hearing two chiefs talking about the christians and their one god, while negotiating his sale : his owner at first hesitates "we need him", then agrees to sell One-eye for money that will help him deal with the christians. Obviously a big no-no for Odin : the many gods must prevail. Time for action ! Once free, One-eye ties an enemy against a rock and eviscerates him alive : a sacrifice straight from the cult of Odin.
One-eye has a bloody vision of a trip on a boat, then finds christians who just finished slaughtering some pagans and are planning to go to Jerusalem. He embarks on their boat and leads them to hell instead. The mist they encounter at sea is the mist separating the land of humans - the Midgardr - from the Niflheimer - the world of obscurity - were Odin sent Hel, the godess in charge of, you guessed it, Hell.
The vision of a red sea represents the blood of Ymir, whom Odin and his brothers killed to create earth from his body parts - and the oceans from his blood.
One of the christians wants to kill the kid (not One Eye, important detail) fearing he is the one sending them to hell. He is instantly killed by One-eye. Indeed, the kid has become One-eye's messenger, his messiah - he who hears and spreads the words of the deity. Choosen by Odin, in other words.
On what they believe to be unknown land, the christians loose their minds, those who reject their faith are swiftly killed by One-eye : they have earned their passage to Valhalla. The dead christians will instead remain in Niflheimer. One-eye's answer to one of the survivors is clear : they will die.
The indians are indeed a reference to the discovery of North America by the Norsemen. Here, however, they represent the dead warriors from Valhalla, the einherjar. One-eye has accomplished his mission, he drops his weapons and walks towards the indians - no need for a fight, as the einerjar are in essence already dead. His death is shown as a ritual, a sacrifice : violent death is needed to reach Valhalla - his return ticket, sort of.
There are actually two rituals during the sacrifice scene : we simultaneously see One-eye immersing himself in water, Odin's quintessential element : the water of knowledge (for which he gave one of his eyes).
The kid is spared for a good reason, he now has a mission to accomplish : to cross the ocean again and revive the nordic religion in the land of humans. At the end One-eye's face appears in the mist : Odin is watching.
As a matter of fact the movie was entirely shot in Scotland, where the Gaels-Galls tribes, descending from the Norsemen, perpetuated the cult of Odin and did not convert to christianism until the 13th century (all of Scandinavia had already been converted at the end of the 10th century).
We can assume the story of this movie is dated around the end of the 12th century, in Scotland. when nordic traditions in those tribes were starting to falter. A tartan is seen on the kid's shoulders, there were no tartans in Scandinavia (but they did provide the Scotts with the word kilt, which means wrap). The movie is actually very accurate as far as details are concerned.
One-eye/Odin's mission ultimately failed. Although one of his sons, Thor, is making a killing at the box office this very century :-)
Great movie
It is hard to understand the movie without some knowledge of nordic religion. Nobody quite gets it, the professional critics seem to be lost.
Some clues :
One-Eye is Odin, or his human avatar. Odin had one eye. He was, among other virtues from his curriculum, the god of slaves and gladiators (slaves, usually). One-eye is a slave, kept as a gladiator. He's been there for years, waiting, observing. He is Odin in disguise, guarantor of nordic traditions. The cunning warrior who always wins, using any situation to his advantage (here, using the rope tied to his neck).
He chooses to free himself after hearing two chiefs talking about the christians and their one god, while negotiating his sale : his owner at first hesitates "we need him", then agrees to sell One-eye for money that will help him deal with the christians. Obviously a big no-no for Odin : the many gods must prevail. Time for action ! Once free, One-eye ties an enemy against a rock and eviscerates him alive : a sacrifice straight from the cult of Odin.
One-eye has a bloody vision of a trip on a boat, then finds christians who just finished slaughtering some pagans and are planning to go to Jerusalem. He embarks on their boat and leads them to hell instead. The mist they encounter at sea is the mist separating the land of humans - the Midgardr - from the Niflheimer - the world of obscurity - were Odin sent Hel, the godess in charge of, you guessed it, Hell.
The vision of a red sea represents the blood of Ymir, whom Odin and his brothers killed to create earth from his body parts - and the oceans from his blood.
One of the christians wants to kill the kid (not One Eye, important detail) fearing he is the one sending them to hell. He is instantly killed by One-eye. Indeed, the kid has become One-eye's messenger, his messiah - he who hears and spreads the words of the deity. Choosen by Odin, in other words.
On what they believe to be unknown land, the christians loose their minds, those who reject their faith are swiftly killed by One-eye : they have earned their passage to Valhalla. The dead christians will instead remain in Niflheimer. One-eye's answer to one of the survivors is clear : they will die.
The indians are indeed a reference to the discovery of North America by the Norsemen. Here, however, they represent the dead warriors from Valhalla, the einherjar. One-eye has accomplished his mission, he drops his weapons and walks towards the indians - no need for a fight, as the einerjar are in essence already dead. His death is shown as a ritual, a sacrifice : violent death is needed to reach Valhalla - his return ticket, sort of.
There are actually two rituals during the sacrifice scene : we simultaneously see One-eye immersing himself in water, Odin's quintessential element : the water of knowledge (for which he gave one of his eyes).
The kid is spared for a good reason, he now has a mission to accomplish : to cross the ocean again and revive the nordic religion in the land of humans. At the end One-eye's face appears in the mist : Odin is watching.
As a matter of fact the movie was entirely shot in Scotland, where the Gaels-Galls tribes, descending from the Norsemen, perpetuated the cult of Odin and did not convert to christianism until the 13th century (all of Scandinavia had already been converted at the end of the 10th century).
We can assume the story of this movie is dated around the end of the 12th century, in Scotland. when nordic traditions in those tribes were starting to falter. A tartan is seen on the kid's shoulders, there were no tartans in Scandinavia (but they did provide the Scotts with the word kilt, which means wrap). The movie is actually very accurate as far as details are concerned.
One-eye/Odin's mission ultimately failed. Although one of his sons, Thor, is making a killing at the box office this very century :-)
Great movie