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The inspiration for this film came from archaeological, textual, and mytho-folkloric sources. Recent excavations at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland have revealed not only a complete Viking village, but also the remains of food stuffs that could only have been gathered in a warmer climate farther south, in Nova Scotia or northern New England. Therefore the penetration of the Vikings into the woodland areas of the North Atlantic coast has now been confirmed.
The people who lived in those woods and forests a thousand years ago called themselves "Algonquians," which means "People of the Other Shore." It was these original inhabitants whom the Norsemen encountered when they came to settle this land in the late tenth century. Icelandic scribes wrote of these encounters in The Greenlanders Saga and in the Saga of Eric the Red. Now that the archaeological evidence has corroborated the written accounts, the first recorded chapter of the history of our continent can be pushed back five hundred years before Columbus.
According to the sagas, when the Viking first landed, they sent two Celtic slaves out to explore the region, thereby making those people two of the first recorded Europeans to set foot on these shores. That segment of the sagas, as well as other sections dealing with the Norse encounters with Native Americans, have been recreated in this film. The events are told through the eyes of Kilian, the name we have given to one of the Celtic slaves.
As Kilian escapes from the Viking ship he is discovered by Native American traders who travelled in their canoes up and down the coast of Canada and New England. Archaeological evidence rather than written texts corroborates this trading pattern. The ambiance of the native people portrayed in the film-- their villages, vessels, weapons, -- all their material life, was recreated by the art department on the basis of archaeological finds of the period. Native American mythology and folklore served as the inspiration for several scenes. Speakers of indigenous languages of the region (such as Micmac and Passamaqquoddy) helped to fashion the perspective and content of the script. The differences between the viewpoints of the Norsemen and the Native Americans are woven into the dialogue and visual structure of the film, sometimes seriously, sometimes humorously.
From the scripting stage, to the making of the props, costumes, and sets, through the directing work with the actors, those of us who made "Kilian's Chronicle" confronted the challenges of recreating a visual analogue for the ancient texts and archaeological finds. But we also tried to humanize those figures whose presence is only briefly sketched or alluded to in the sources. We imagined a family context, friendships, sexual attraction, hate and love. Inspired by the above documents, and in as authentic an ambiance as possible, we imagined a story personalized through the life of an Irish slave whose journey helps him understand what it really means to be a free man.
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CONTACT: Pamela Berger, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02167
tel: (617) 552-8588 email: Berger@BC.EDU
