#97 Mon (9/26/22) - Eaters of the Dead (The 13th Warrior, 1999)

SYNOPSIS A man, having fallen in love with the wrong woman, is sent by the sultan himself on a diplomatic mission to a distant land as an ambassador. Stopping at a Viking village port to restock on supplies, he finds himself unwittingly embroiled in a quest to banish a mysterious threat in a distant Viking land. 

PLOT

A cultured diplomat from Baghdad joins a band of savage warriors in time to meet an even more fearsome enemy in this historical adventure. In 922 A.D., Ibn Fadlan (Antonio Banderas) is a Muslim emissary from Baghdad en route to meet with the King of Saqaliba when he encounters a band of Vikings. While Ibn and his people are intelligent and well-mannered, the Vikings are a rowdy and sometimes unpleasant lot, with an unquenchable appetite for food, alcohol, and women. However, in time he develops an understanding and respect for the Viking warriors and is welcomed into their society by their leader, Buliwyf. However, Ibn must now join them as they return to their homeland once they receive word of an invasion by a huge pack of bloodthirsty invaders who will destroy and eat anything in their path -- including the flesh of the men they have killed.

NOTES/TRIVIA

The historic Ahmed Ibn Fadlan traveled as an emissary to the land of the Volga Bulgars to convert them to Islam. On his way he encountered Turks in Central Asia and Russian and Varangians (Volga Vikings). He returned in 923, and no record after this date refers to him.

"Haltaf the Young" played by Oliver Sveinall is a boy of about 15 who is one of the 12 Viking warriors, but has no spoken lines in the movie and is only seen in a couple of shots when the group first arrives by boat at King Hrothgar's land in Norway. He is not shown in the earlier scene when the Oracle calls out the warriors, and he is not seen or mentioned at any point starting from the first battle with the Wendol in the Great Hall that night. However, when the group arrives to the Great Hall for the first time and are being introduced Buliwyf kneels down in front of King Hrothgar in the foreground with the other 12 warriors (11 Vikings plus Ahmed) behind him including Haltaf who clearly is a boy much shorter than all the men around him. That is the last time he appears on camera and his fate is never discussed.

The source novel, "Eaters of the Dead," has become part of one of the most notorious hoaxes in Librarianship Circles. The Ahmad Tusi Manuscript, which the bibliography says is the novel's source, is completely made up. The name of the translator, Fraus Dolus, is two Latin words meaning both 'hoax' and 'fraud'. Since the novel was published in 1976, the University of Oslo, where this manuscript is supposed to be kept, has sent out letters telling enquirers that they have been the victim of a hoax. 

The idea of 13 warriors is taken from Scandinavian myths regarding the danish king Hrolf Kraki (Pole-Ladder). The legend goes that Hrolf Kraki had an entourage of 12 warriors (like Buliwyf in the film) and in some versions, one of them is Bödvar Bjarki, a hero who shares parallels with the hero Beowulf. Some scholars has suggested that the story of Bödvar Bjarki is simply another version of the story of Beowulf.

From IMDB

Based on Michael Crichton (novel "Eaters of the Dead")

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