Vinland Saga is one of those rare shows that really scratches all of my particular itches. Being a f
Vinland Saga is one of those rare shows that really scratches all of my particular itches. Being a fan of history (particularly Ancient Mediterranean to late Eastern Roman [Byzantine] periods), I had a bit of a hard time judging this show objectively. A lot of the time I was just excited to see little known historical concepts being brought to life. The author’s (Yukimura) ability to bring those concepts forward was one of the most exciting and heart touching experiences I’ve had with an anime recently.
But this show was more than just historical pomp in the vein of GoT or Vikings. Yukimura demonstrated a masterful understanding of historical concepts and difficult to grasp psychological concepts. Psychological mechanics that have been a part of the human mind since the first writings. The same angels and daemons we wrestle with today are the same that Socrates grappled with over 2000 years ago. As such, the beauty of Vinland is twofold- part psychological and part historical
Vinland is one of the best depictions I’ve ever seen of the psychological process known as individuation. This is the process by which the high conscious assimilates with the base instincts of the unconscious. The goal is to conceptualize the worst of our psyches and fully integrate those part- not pushing them aside, sweeping them under the bed or trying to get rid of them- but fully accepting these rotten and horrible aspects of our mind as a part of the whole. Not defining the whole- but having a vital say in it.
We see this process of individuation via Thorfin. Aspects of his psyche being represented by his two father figures – Thors and Askeladd. These two ideas rage within Thorfin until finally, the base unconscious desires for revenge takes grasp, but the seed of Thors still remain. The rest of the series (post-prologue), while not nearly as exhilarating as the prologue, I find is so much more cathartic. Seeing Thorfin swing wildly between the higher ideas of Thors and the practical instincts of Askeladd, was a wrenching display of true strength. It reminds me of the Greek word Praus- which loosely translates to meek or gentle. But the more accurate translation would be “having strength yet refusing to show it”. In that sense, to be strong is to be gentler and meeker- not weak, but praus.
The second fold to Vinland’s brilliance is the historical reverence the story has, not only to the 11th century aesthetics but to the 11th century mind. In our modernity, it can be somewhat hard for us to relate to the voices of the past. For the past 100 years, we have reached a zenith in the human condition that doesn’t require us to interact with the cruelty of nature. This has made it all too easy for us to look down at those who came before us with a judgement and scorn for not reaching the same moral conclusions that we hold in sacrosanct.
The road we currently walk on was built by the moral progressions of history. Yukimura seems to understand this well- it was a beautiful experience seeing characters struggle over the simple concept of love. Or seeing the amount of nuance and detail he put into Thors’ stance against slavery being contemporaneously singled out as not only bizarre but unwise. This is the hurdle that those who came before us had to leap over.
History is more than just dead men and dates scrawled on a timeline. History is proof of our own making, and to forget that is to show a grave ingratitude for our own inheritance. For the men in history were not just cogs in a machine, but they were people with desires, hopes and most importantly, dreams. Some dared to dream of a land far, far to the west, across the sea. A warm and fertile land, untouched by war or slavery. And even though that perfect dream had to be distorted and disfigured when coming into contact with the realities of a cruel world- that doesn’t change the dreams of those who came before us. And that is an encouraging thought.
“History is the memory of the human race. For an individual to wake up with no memory would be devastating… Although our understanding of the past cannot affect the past, it can affect the future. Where beliefs are not checked against facts, but instead facts must meet the test of … the prevailing vision, we are in the process of sealing ourselves off from the feedback of reality. Heedless of the past, we are flying blind into the future.” -Thomas Sowell 2005
