The newest instalment of videogame Assassins Creed has been released and it’s called Valhalla. The game tells the story of Eivor, a Viking journeying to create a new life in the British Isles to escape a country plagued by war.
Players can visit different parts of medieval England and one of those places is Lincolnshire. The map is, of course, quite recognisable but so are the place names. The main city is Lincoln, Skegi’s Beard and Spalding Bandit Lair are Anglo Saxon villages waiting to be raided, and players can go on a bear hunt with Grim the Danish fisherman who built Grimsby.
This lends interest to Lincoln’s own Viking history. Mark Gardiner, Professor of medieval history at the University of Lincoln says “Torksey is the most extraordinary site of a Viking winter camp. In the winter of 872-3 the Great Viking Army stayed before dispersing through the rest of Lincolnshire. There’s a real tangible link with the Vikings there.”
Billy Harrison is an axe throwing coach at Axed Lincoln and is a Viking enthusiast, he says “Ever since it was in the rumour mill, we’ve been excited for it. Especially with the quality of the last couple of games. It was like Christmas.”
He continues: “It’s nice to go around in a videogame and think ‘well I’m potentially stood almost in the same place in two universes at the same time’, really. I can imagine people from New York get the same feeling when they play the Spiderman games.”
Assassins Creed Valhalla is out now