Two Modern Sagas to hit British TV

The Guardian comments on the burgeoning fascination with Norse culture in British popular media and two new television series to watch for:

More than 50 years after actors Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis donned their woollen tunics for Hollywood blockbuster The Vikings, a television series of the same name and a TV version of British writer Neil Gaiman’s Nordic gods-inspired bestseller, American Gods, are both in development. The Vikings, which picks up on interest aroused by Kenneth Branagh’s recent action film Thor, is being produced and written by the team behind BBC2 series The Tudors, and will tell the story of Ragnar, the great Viking leader and his two wives and four sons, who travelled to Ireland, England and France. The semi-mythological figures of Ragnar and his sons were also at the centre of the Curtis and Douglas epic, but this 10-part drama will chart their conquests while aiming to correct misconceptions about Viking society.

American Gods, Gaiman’s mystical cult saga, tells the story of Shadow and his dealings with a modern-day incarnation of the Norse god Odin, or Woden.

– “It’s a new Viking invasion of Britain – but this time it’s cultural” (10/22/11)

I wonder if either will be on BBC America or if I’ll have to wait for them to be picked up on Netflix. Boo.