Odysseus sails home in a Viking ship.
The vessel in Nolan’s Odyssey is Draken Harald Hårfagre, the largest Viking ship built in modern times. Built in Norway. Named after Harald Fairhair, our first king.
The Odyssey is set around 1200 BC. Ships like this appeared around 800 AD. The Viking Age is closer to us today than to Odysseus.
Homer’s ships were black, low, open galleys, light enough to be dragged onto the beach at night. Not a 35-meter dragon ship built for the North Atlantic.
A sailing reconstruction of a Mycenaean warship already exists: the Argo, 50 oars, built in Volos, Greece. Nolan filmed in Greece. He still picked the Viking ship.
This week Draken sails down the Norwegian coast to the Oslo premiere. She will be the most authentic thing on screen. She is 2,000 years off.
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