Spoiler Warning: The Northman (2022)
The Northman is the newest film from auteur director Robert Eggers, who, for the first time, dives into the mainstream with a Viking revenge-thriller. The film stars Alexander Skarsgård as Amleth, a boy prince whose father, King Aurvandill (Ethan Hawke), is murdered by his bastard brother, Fjölnir (Claes Bang). After King Aurvandill is slain, Amleth flees on a boat, swearing to take revenge on Fjölnir to avenge his father. Amleth’s mother, Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman), becomes the bride of Fjölnir, and Amleth swears that in addition to killing Fjölnir, he’ll save his mother from a seemingly forced courtship. Amleth goes on to be raised by a group of Vikings as a berserker, tearing Slavic-Christian villages to the ground in the most brutal fashions.
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Consumed by his newfound animalistic nature, Amleth strays from his fate until he meets a Seeress (Björk), who sets him back on the path to assume his destiny, telling him that his fate is intertwined with a Maiden-King, who will continue his journey after he returns to the ashes. Amleth discovers that Fjölnir is held up in Iceland after Harald of Norway seized his kingdom. Hiding amongst a shipment of enslaved people from a village the berzerkers ransacked, Amleth secures passage to Fjölnir’s camp. As Amleth makes his journey, he could never know the heartbreak he would come to know upon learning a gut-wrenching truth.
While Skarsgård’s Amleth is the film’s protagonist, it is Nicole Kidman’s Queen Gudrún who steals the show, delivering a profound twist that sends a shock wave through the audience, changing the course of Amleth’s mission.
Who is Queen Gudrún?
Universal Pictures
Queen Gudrún is introduced as the wife to King Aurvandill and the mother to the Kingdom of Hrafnsey’s heir, Prince Amleth. After King Aurvandill and Fjölnir return from their conquests, Queen Gudrún talks with King Aurvandill after he sustained a brutal injury in battle. She implores the King to come back to their bed, but he refuses and says after he defeats his wound, he’ll return to battle.
That very night, the King takes part in a Norse ritual with Amleth and his jester, Heimir (Willem Dafoe). The following morning Fjölnir ambushes King Aurvandill and Amleth, beheading the former and sending Finnr (Eldar Skar) to bring him the head of Amleth. Amleth cuts off Finnr’s nose, and as a result, Finnr reports to Fjölnir that Amleth is dead to hide his failure. Before Amleth flees Hrafnsey on a boat, he sees Fjölnir carrying his screaming mother away, taking King Aurvandill’s Queen as his own.
Upon arriving in Iceland, Amleth meets Olga (Anya Taylor-Joy), who claims she can take control of the psychs of their captors while Amleth takes them on with force. Olga’s escape and Amleth’s revenge become one and the same as they team up to aid one another on Fjölnir’s farm. Once at the farm, Amleth discovers that Queen Gudrún has born a son named Gunnar (Elliott Rose) and that Thorir (Gustav Lindh), Fjölnir’s son before he wed Queen Gudrún, is now a fully grown and pompous heir with an inflated ego that compensates for his immaturity and lack of fighting ability. Amleth tells Olga that he’ll rescue his mother, and if he has to, he’ll take his half-brother with them as well.
Amleth goes on to retrieve the sword he’ll use to slay Fjölnir, known as Draugr. After retrieving the sword, Amleth plays the game of knattleikr against a rival farm, saving Gunnar from being crushed after he inadvertently jumps into the game. Amleth secures a reward from Thorir in the form of more authority and the choosing of a woman for the night. Olga and Amleth make love, and Amleth begins the war against Fjölnir with Olga securing psychedelic mushrooms. Amleth kills several of Fjölnir’s people in a ritualistic fashion, using the magic mushrooms to create chaos, under cover of which, Amleth meets with his mother.
Queen Gudrún Reunites with her Son, Amleth
Universal Pictures
Amleth confronts Queen Gudrún in her chambers while Fjölnir is away dealing with the magic mushroom mayhem. He tells his mother that he’s come to avenge King Aurvandill, kill Fjölnir, and free her. Queen Gudrún tells Amleth that he inherited his father’s simple-mindedness and never mourned him because she was once King Aurvandill’s slave until he assaulted her, leading to the conception of Amleth. Seemingly out of honor and to secure his heir, King Aurvandill married Gudrún, with their shared child being the only thing the two had in common, as King Aurvandill preferred war, prostitutes, and the pursuit of silver over her. Fjölnir had loved Queen Gudrún and didn’t care that she had been enslaved. The two had a greater connection than she ever had with King Aurvandill.
Twisting the knife further into Amleth’s heart, Queen Gudrún tells him that he was forced upon her, whereas Gunnar was “received freely with love.” Queen Gudrún was the mastermind behind the plot to kill King Aurvandill, begging Fjölnir to kill him and giving him her blessing to kill Amleth, so he would never seek revenge. When Amleth saw Gudrún being carried away by Fjölnir, she was actually laughing with joy. Queen Gudrún goes as far as to seduce Amleth, kissing him and stating she’d be his Queen if he killed the entire family, but as he pulls away, she attempts to steal his sword and tells him she’ll be his death. In anger, Amleth kills Thorir and absconds with his heart.
The hint of incest and a shocking revelation that Queen Gudrún ordered Amleth and King Aurvandill’s death turns Gudrún from a damsel in distress into a multi-dimensional antagonist who rivals Fjölnir. In one scene, Nicole Kidman takes Queen Gudrún on an emotional ride, pretending to care for her son, raging at him, trying to seduce him, and then hysterically laughing at him as he flees. Queen Gudrún becomes a terrifying and unpredictable character in a matter of minutes with the help of an all-star performance. This revelation is not as shocking upon a second viewing because it’s hinted at early in the film.
The first thing Queen Gudrún asks King Aurvandill about when he returns is where his brother, Fjölnir is. After Fjölnir arrives and the family goes to have a toast, Heimir, the jester, emerges and jests that the Queen’s wine cup grows wet for more men than her king. Fjölnir lashes out at Heimer and gives him a piercing look, suggesting that Heimer may know about Queen Gudrún’s affair with Fjölnir. Later on, when King Aurvandill suggests to Queen Gudrún that he may die in battle and Amleth will have to inherit the throne, she seems concerned and states that he shouldn’t have to go into power at a young age like Aurvandill’s father, who had to kill his own uncle to become King. Gudrún was fearful the King may die in a way she couldn’t control, forcing her and Fjölnir to act the following day. Additionally, this foreshadows how Amleth will get his kingdom back by killing his Uncle Fjölnir.
A Violent End for Queen Gudrún
After killing Thorir, Amleth retreats to the mountains to avoid capture after revealing his presence to Queen Gudrún. Amleth leaves Olga behind to avoid her being connected to their schemes, but Fjölnir discovers her involvement anyway. As Fjölnir goes to cut Olga’s throat, Amleth reveals himself, getting captured so Olga can escape. Fjölnir tortures Amleth, but before killing him, ravens cut him lose, alluding to the spirit of his father, the war-raven. Olga rescues Amleth, and the two decide to flee Iceland together. Before leaving, Amleth touches Olga’s throat wound and sees the tree of kings, which shows she’ll give birth to twins, one of whom is the Maiden-King that was prophesied.
Amleth leaves Olga behind to fulfill his destiny and kill Fjölnir, who would certainly try to kill his heirs if he was left alive. Upon reaching the farm, Amleth goes into Fjölnir’s chambers, where he is attacked by Queen Gudrún. Amleth stabs her in the heart and kills her. In anger, Gunnar jumps out from behind Amleth and starts stabbing him, but Amleth kills him with the strike of his sword. Fjölnir arrives and takes the bodies of the two, telling Amleth that they’ll meet at the top of the Hekla volcano to duel. Fjölnir and Amleth duel atop the roaring volcano, killing each other simultaneously, with Fjölnir being stabbed in the heart and Amleth being decapitated. Amleth got his revenge, saving his new family’s kingdom and getting to ride to Valhalla with a Valkyrie.
While Queen Gudrún and Fjölnir are the film’s antagonists, their motivations are not entirely evil. Amleth was blind to his father’s lust, greed, and violent nature, so of course, he was a hero in his eyes. To Queen Gudrún, King Aurvandill was as much a captor to her as Fjölnir was to Olga and Amleth. Fjölnir attempted to rape Olga as well. If he had succeeded, and she had a child, then Olga would have become the second coming of Queen Gudrún, praying for her king to die.
Queen Gudrún becomes unsympathetic in how she blames Amleth for his father’s deeds, the child isn’t responsible for the sins of the father, but Queen Gudrún sees them as one and the same, leading her to try and kill Amleth before he could become his own person. Queen Gudrún is an intriguing villain, made all the more noteworthy because of Nicole Kidman’s stellar performance. Her actions against King Aurvandill were justified, but her greatest mistake was believing Amleth would be no different. By abandoning her son, he became the brute she was always worried he’d become with the berserkers. If she had picked her love for her son over Fjölnir, then King Aurvandill could have been murdered without Amleth knowing, and Amleth would have been King with Queen Gudrún becoming the Queen mother.
On the one hand, The Northman is a revenge story, but on the other, it’s a tale of doomed lovers with Queen Gudrún and Fjölnir, who take violent and drastic actions that eventually result in their own ruin.
