''In the Shadow of the Raven'' ( Icelandic: ''Í skugga hrafnsins'' ) is the title of a 1988 film by

Hrafn Gunnlaugsson Hrafn Gunnlaugsson (born 17 June 1948) is an Icelandic film director. He is the brother of mathematician Þorvaldur Gunnlaugsson and the lawyer Snædís Gunnlaugsdóttir and the actress Tinna Gunnlaugsdóttir. He is mostly known for his series o ...

, set in

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

. The film was selected as the Icelandic entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the

61st Academy Awards The 61st Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 1988 and took place on Wednesday, March 29, 1989, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, beginning at 6:00&nbs ...

, but was not accepted as a nominee. ''In the Shadow of the Raven'' is the second film of the ''Raven Trilogy'' (also known as the ''Viking Trilogy'') that consists of three 'Viking' films: * 1) '' When the Raven Flies'' (1984) – (original Icelandic title: Hrafninn flýgur) – usually known as simply ''The Raven or Revenge of the Barbarians''. * 2) ''In The Shadow of the Raven'' (1988) – (original Icelandic title: Í skugga hrafnsins). * 3) ''Embla'' (2007) – (original Icelandic title: Hvíti víkingurinn) – the director's cut of ''

The White Viking ''The White Viking'' (alternative title ''Embla'', , ) is a 1991 film set in Norway and Iceland during the reign of Olaf I of Norway. The film loosely follows actual events. ''Embla'' is the director's cut of ''The White Viking'' and was release ...

''.

Plot

The film is a loose re-telling of the legend of

Tristan and Isolde Tristan and Iseult, also known as Tristan and Isolde and other names, is a medieval chivalric romance told in numerous variations since the 12th century. Of disputed source, usually assumed to be primarily Celtic, the tale is a tragedy about ...

. In the year 1077, Trausti returns to Iceland after having studied theology in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. Meanwhile, Grim, the foreman on Trausti's farm, discovers a stranded whale. However, the retainers of the cruel neighbouring chief Eirikur discovers the whale as well. As Grim brings Trausti's mother Edda, the chief of the area, they discover Eirikur attempting to steal the whale. A fight erupts between the different clans and Edda is killed in the struggle. Grim kills Eirikur in revenge, and a blood-feud between Trausti's clan and Eirikur's clan is imminent.

Cast

* Reine Brynolfsson as Trausti *

Tinna Gunnlaugsdóttir Tinna Gunnlaugsdóttir (born 18 June 1954) is an Icelandic actress. She has appeared in twelve films since 1981. She starred in ''As in Heaven'', which was screened out of competition at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. She is the sister of direc ...

as Isold *

Egill Ólafsson Egill Ólafsson (born 9 February 1953) is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, and actor. He is married to the actress, Tinna Gunnlaugsdóttir. Education Egill Ólafsson studied playing guitar and piano when he was young and was part of a boys' bra ...

as Hjörleifur *

Sune Mangs Bengt Sune Mangs (31 December 1932 – 11 February 1994) was a Swedish actor. He appeared in more than 35 films and television shows between 1953 and 1990. Born in Finland, Mangs' parents divorced in the midst of the Winter War, and eight-year-o ...

ad Bishop Hördur * Kristbjörg Kjeld as Sigrid, The Shrew * Helgi Skúlason as Grim * Klara Íris Vigfúsdóttir as Sol * Helga Bachmann as Edda * Johann Neumann as Leonardo, The Artist * Sveinn M. Eiðsson as Ketill * Flosi Ólafsson as Eirikur * Sigurður Sigurjónsson as Egill

Noomi Rapace Noomi Rapace (; ; born 28 December 1979) is a Swedish actress.Karen Olsson, ''The New York Times Magazine'', 27 May 2012, p. 26. She achieved international fame with her portrayal of Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish film adaptations of the ''Mil ...

made her debut as uncredited extra at the wedding scene.

Critical response

In 1991, the ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' published a positive review of the film, critic

Jeanne Cooper Wilma Jeanne Cooper (October 25, 1928 – May 8, 2013) was an American actress, best known for her role as Katherine Chancellor on the CBS soap opera ''The Young and the Restless'' (1973–2013). At the time of her death, she had played Kather ...

noting ''Hrafn Gunnlaugsson reaches gripping heights''. The reviewer noted that the character of the bishop came off as similar to

Jabba the Hutt Jabba Desilijic Tiure, better known as Jabba the Hutt ( ) is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. Initially performed by Declan Mulholland as a human in the original ''Star Wars'' film, Jabba first appeared properly in the 198 ...

and that Trausti's survival ability came off a

Rasputin Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin ( – ) was a Russian mystic and faith healer. He is best known for having befriended the imperial family of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, through whom he gained considerable influence in the final ye ...

-like, but noted that this did not detract from the film.

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

wrote in their own review the same year that "In the world of Hrafn Gunnlaugsson's medieval adventure film, ''The Shadow of the Raven'', emotions are as jagged and windblown as the spectacular Icelandic coastline where the movie was shot". Critic

Stephen Holden Stephen Holden (born July 18, 1941) is an American writer, poet, and music and film critic. Biography Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963. He worked as a photo editor, staff writer, and eventually be ...

praised the performances of Tinna Gunnlaugsdóttir and Kristbjörg Kjeld, but panned Reine Brynolfsson as unconvincing. Holden described Sune Mang's performance as "glowering exuberance", but was critical to some of dialog delivery of the cast members, calling it "grunting".

Connections to ''The Raven Flies''

Though not a conventional sequel at first sight, the film does feature several nods to the original film. The farm Króss is shot at the very same location as Thord's farm in the original film. When Trausti opens up his father's tomb, it's the very same clifftomb featured in ''The Raven Flies'' and the father's old helmet and cape and idols of

Odin Odin (; from ) is a widely revered god in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. Most surviving information on Odin comes from Norse mythology, but he figures prominently in the recorded history of Northern Europe. This includes the Roman Em ...

and

Thor Thor (from ) is a prominent list of thunder gods, god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred g ...

are the same as in the original film. Also, Gest's throwing knives are also found in the tomb. This heavily suggest that Trausti is the descendant of Thord and Einar.

References

External links