This was a pleasant surprise. I only read it because I had the chance to score a lovely hundred year old first edition of the first English translations of these plays and I had vaguely heard that Ibsen was important. But these are actually great reading. Historical dramas about Vikings and medieval Norse guys. The Pretenders is mostly just a pretty sound historical drama but the act three climax is magnificent. Vikings is great all the way through. Like it says in the title, you get vikings, and the play is just a non-stop parade of them Owning each other. It's really fascinating for the way it presents a *lethally* toxic masculinity, raises conventional modern sensibilities as an alternative, and then undermines them as valid in favor of this weird (Kierkegaard-influenced?) idea of anti-altruistic individual fulfillment that seems to harmonize okay with Viking ethics despite those having been very clearly and straightforwardly presented as completely batshit and wrong? Also the character of Hiordis is exactly the kind of female character certain people love to see. ( )