Warning: this article contains spoilers for The Northman.
Robert Eggers' The Northman is a dazzling tale of vengeance and honor, but why does its story seem so familiar? Boasting an all-star cast including Anna Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke, and Nicole Kidman, The Northman chronicles the saga of prince Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård), who wishes to kill his uncle and avenge his father. As with Eggers' previous acclaimed movies, The Witch and The Lighthouse, the world of The Northman is filled with historically accurate eccentricities, from era-specific dialogue to bizarre Viking ball games, which add another layer of immersion to an already enthralling tale.
When writing The Northman's story, Robert Eggers and co-writer Sjón, an Icelandic poet and novelist, took inspiration from Icelandic revenge sagas. One such narrative moment is when Amleth, who is with a band of berserkers, bites out someone's throat in a moment lifted directly from the 1240 AD manuscript Egil's Saga. However, most of The Northman's narrative that focuses on Amleth avenging his father and saving his mother appears generic historical action fare, at least on the surface.
Yet beyond its tertiary action, The Northman's story shares many similarities with Shakespeare's Hamlet, which has been riffed upon numerous times in movies such as The Lion King. Coincidentally, Shakespeare got his inspiration for Hamlet from the Amleth legend, which is a fixture in Scandinavian mythology. Furthermore, Amleth's mother, Queen Gudrún, is reminiscent of Lady Macbeth, and as the film progresses, Queen Gudrún's true intentions are revealed, starkly echoing the myth of Oedipus. The themes of inescapable fate and willful ignorance that emerge towards the end of The Northman are also shared by Oedipus - conspiring to make The Northman feel incredibly familiar.
The fact that Amleth and Hamlet are anagrams of one another indicates the clear overlap between the two stories. Like The Northman, Hamlet is also the story of a man who wishes to murder his uncle, although, in Hamlet, the titular character is instructed by his father's ghost, whereas, in The Northman, the character Amleth sees his father's death. Yet, although The Northman's plot shares similarities with Shakespeare's play, Robert Eggers also uses Hamlet as a springboard to delve into Viking lore. Rather than using the father's spectral figure verbatim, The Northman's Amleth is instead reminded of his destiny to enact revenge when ravens appear and assist him, as his father Aurvandil was also known as The Raven King. These Norse beliefs in spirit animals and fate take center stage to imbue The Northman with historically accurate Viking culture, making Eggers' film feel both realistic and familiar.
In addition, Amleth's mother, Queen Gudrún, closely resembles Hamlet's mother, Gertrude, who marries her husband's killer with little regret. Due to the similarities between the plots of The Northman and Hamlet, the revelation of Queen Gudrún's loyalties conjures a sense of creeping dread and inevitability in The Northman. Nonetheless, when Gudrún encourages Amleth to continue the cycle of violence and marry her, it is reminiscent of another Shakespeare tragedy character: Lady Macbeth. Although Gudrún does not encourage large-scale regicide like Lady Macbeth, her whispering influence ensures her own position is no less sinister and self-involved. Furthermore, whilst the deaths of Lady Macbeth and Gudrún differ, they are both a direct consequence of their scheming.
Where The Northman deviates from Shakespeare is in how Gudrún tries to seduce Amleth. Yet while this moves away from Shakespeare's Macbeth, Gudrún's attempted seduction instead parallels the myth of Oedipus, who was fated to kill his father and marry his mother. After a moment of intimacy, Amleth, like Oedipus, has a revelation about his mother, and, in this way, Oedipus' unwillingness to see the truth before his eyes mirrors the events depicted in The Northman. As a result, while the familiarity of The Northman's story may initially make the movie appear somewhat shallow, it ultimately conspires to add layers of detail to Eggers' movie that establishes rich lore and an immersive world amidst the savage landscape of 895 AD.