I wrote a column about the Vikings, using Arthur Herman’s marvelous book as a resource, pegged to the release of the new movie, The Northman. I wrote the column without seeing the movie, and it turns out I’m glad that I did. Having now watched it, I’ll be very happy never to hear about another Viking for a very long time. It is disgustingly brutal (it’s not enough to kill lots of people, apparently, they must be killed in the mud), overly long, reminiscent of the M. Night Shyamalan movie The Village at times (which, to be clear, is not a good thing), and too preposterous to justify its dreary pretentiousness. It might be worse than The Power of Dog.