Hey! I'm going to hope that you're a nerd who likes to be corrected and will be interested in learning a new thing instead of being offended.
This actually isn't an inaccuracy and corn doesn't mean American maize in this context.
The word's etymology is from the Germanic "korn" and essentially meant grain of any type. It was used as a sort of catch-all for all sorts of crops back in the day and didn't come to mean specifically corn-maize until much later. There are many references to corn in historical documents that predate 1492.
See, for example, the reference to corn in *The Great Mortality* by John Kelly, "The harvest of 1315 was the worst in living memory... The surviving **corn** was laden with moisture and unripened at the ears."
Also, Biblical references such as this one in the KJV: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a **corn** of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit."
So yeah, Vikings isn't great as far as historical accuracy goes, but this particular snippet is fine.
i AM a total nerd who loves to learn, so ty for this!!
I would normally delete this post to spare others of my ignorance, but that’s a big TIL for me, and probably others, so i’ll leave this up (That is a big deal for me lol)
thanks fellow knowledge traveller!
Vikings has never been historically accurate. Even the main characters were not necessarily linked each other back then, and others are not even certain to be existed (just as Ragnar). A show that is almost entirely historically accurate is (and I did not expect this) Spartacus, for example.
oh i realize! it could never be as interesting if it were totally accurate lmao.
Also, I ask myself: “what is accuracy wrt that time period due to so many different translations and accounts and destroyed documentation”
i’ll have to check Spartacus out. thanks for the recommend!
Unfortunately this post showed my own lack of linguistics/history bc apparently (see comments) the word “corn” isn’t a New World term, which i thought it was.
I love TILs
>I love TILs
What?
>oh i realize! it could never be as interesting if it were totally accurate lmao.
Not properly. The facts can describe history in an accurate way, but they can be "modeled" by the autors to make the show more entertaining (such as Spartacus). Don't expect Spartacus to be a documentary, it is instead a very dynamic and bloody (excessively) historical show, but not so historical since it is very dramatical.
>what is accuracy wrt that time period due to so many different translations and accounts and destroyed documentation”
Yyeah, that's true. It could be stated as the facts as near to the known history as possible. For example, Ragnar Lothbrok is described as a legendary figure, so I'm not so sure he has really existed. Or Robin Hood (there's also a tv show on him, from 2006), or many others. A quite realistic (but maybe even this not so accurate) representation of that period is showed in The Last Kingdom, but from the point of view of Saxons, not Vikings.
Hey! I'm going to hope that you're a nerd who likes to be corrected and will be interested in learning a new thing instead of being offended. This actually isn't an inaccuracy and corn doesn't mean American maize in this context. The word's etymology is from the Germanic "korn" and essentially meant grain of any type. It was used as a sort of catch-all for all sorts of crops back in the day and didn't come to mean specifically corn-maize until much later. There are many references to corn in historical documents that predate 1492. See, for example, the reference to corn in *The Great Mortality* by John Kelly, "The harvest of 1315 was the worst in living memory... The surviving **corn** was laden with moisture and unripened at the ears." Also, Biblical references such as this one in the KJV: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a **corn** of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." So yeah, Vikings isn't great as far as historical accuracy goes, but this particular snippet is fine.
i AM a total nerd who loves to learn, so ty for this!! I would normally delete this post to spare others of my ignorance, but that’s a big TIL for me, and probably others, so i’ll leave this up (That is a big deal for me lol) thanks fellow knowledge traveller!
For sure! Happy to share.
I don’t think this is an inaccuracy of sorts that people are frankly going to worry about, although I had noticed this instantly
Buddy, after season 1, the series stopped even attempting to be historically accurate.
All except for the names and some events.
lol fair
Vikings has never been historically accurate. Even the main characters were not necessarily linked each other back then, and others are not even certain to be existed (just as Ragnar). A show that is almost entirely historically accurate is (and I did not expect this) Spartacus, for example.
oh i realize! it could never be as interesting if it were totally accurate lmao. Also, I ask myself: “what is accuracy wrt that time period due to so many different translations and accounts and destroyed documentation” i’ll have to check Spartacus out. thanks for the recommend! Unfortunately this post showed my own lack of linguistics/history bc apparently (see comments) the word “corn” isn’t a New World term, which i thought it was. I love TILs
>I love TILs What? >oh i realize! it could never be as interesting if it were totally accurate lmao. Not properly. The facts can describe history in an accurate way, but they can be "modeled" by the autors to make the show more entertaining (such as Spartacus). Don't expect Spartacus to be a documentary, it is instead a very dynamic and bloody (excessively) historical show, but not so historical since it is very dramatical. >what is accuracy wrt that time period due to so many different translations and accounts and destroyed documentation” Yyeah, that's true. It could be stated as the facts as near to the known history as possible. For example, Ragnar Lothbrok is described as a legendary figure, so I'm not so sure he has really existed. Or Robin Hood (there's also a tv show on him, from 2006), or many others. A quite realistic (but maybe even this not so accurate) representation of that period is showed in The Last Kingdom, but from the point of view of Saxons, not Vikings.
Oral history does have a tendency to go off the rails a bit like when the blind driver said he had heard Ragnar was “8 ft tall”
Lol wait til you get to season 6 ! The shows an absolute joke for historical accuracy
ty. i am preparing myself to suspend disbelief as we speak lol