Editors note: Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series debuts and celebrates the scripts of films that will be factors in this year’s movie awards race.
Robert Eggers has previously said that he never wanted to make a Viking movie. It wasn’t until he traveled to Iceland in 2015 that he began to see the beautiful landscapes and do research into Viking lore. Luckily for him, Alexander Skarsgård was itching to be involved in such a movie, and the two decided to collaborate. With the help of Icelandic author and poet Sjón, Eggers crafted The Northman, a historically accurate tale of honor, revenge and extreme violence that hit theaters in April.
The Northman follows Amleth (Skarsgård), a Viking prince who watches the brutal murder of his father King Aurvandil War-Raven (Ethan Hawke) and the kidnapping of his mother Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman), both at the hands of his uncle Fjölnir (Claes Bang). Two decades later, he returns under the guise of a slave and seeks to avenge his father’s death, save his mother and murder his treacherous uncle. His quest is aided by Olga of the Birch Forest (Anya Taylor-Joy), an enslaved Slavic woman who claims to be a sorceress. The Focus Features film also includes cameos from Willem Dafoe and Björk.
Eggers used the film as a re-imagining of Icelandic sagas and Viking legends, like the Scandinavian legend of Amleth. The tale features a young prince seeking revenge on his uncle for murdering his father and stealing his mother, which served as the basis for Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Click below to read the script, co-written by Sjón and Eggers.
