When the Raven Flies (1984) on Netflix
A Viking raid on Ireland leaves a boy orphaned and his sister taken. Spared, he returns twenty years later as Gestur to hunt the raiders who now live in Iceland.
- Netflix2.3/5
- IMDb6.7/102,750 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
As a boy in Ireland, Gestur loses his parents to Viking raiders, who carry off his sister and spare him. The two children were raised Christian by their father. Thord commands the raiders, and Erik is his foster brother. Twenty years later Gestur reaches Iceland, where the two men live in exile from King Harald Hairfair. He keeps his name and his purpose to himself and is known only as Gestur, a stranger among them. Staying out of sight, he sets Thord's household and Erik's followers against each other while he searches for the sister who was taken from him.
Cast
- Júlíus Hjörleifssonas Hjörleifur
- Haukur Harðarsonas Knife-Twin 1
- Hörður Harðarsonas Knife-Twin 2
Show all 20 cast
- Eva Dögg Sigurgeirsdóttiras Gest's sister as a child
- Magnús Geir Kristjánssonas Gest as a child
- Birgir Mikaelssonas Thord's Retainer
- Börkur Arnviðarsonas Merchant
- Gotti Sigurdarsonas (as Gottskálk D. Sigurdarson)
- Anna S. Karlsdóttiras (as Anna Karlsdóttir)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about When the Raven Flies (1984)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Hrafn Gunnlaugsson and Bo Jonsson, who wanted to avoid Hollywood-style vikings, planned to adapt Nobel laureate Halldór Laxness's novel Gerpla. Laxness was willing to sell the film rights but advised against it, believing a film version needed a viking film genre he thought did not exist.
- Dutch comics artist Erik Kriek cited When the Raven Flies as a major inspiration for his Viking Age revenge graphic novel De Balling (2019).
