Movie Review: Killian’s Chronicle (1994)

A quiet movie from the mind of Pamela Berger (1940-2024), author of The Goddess Obscured: Transformation of the Grain Protectress from Goddess to Saint (1985), this film loosely inspired by The Vinland Sagas features a historical fictional account of the meeting of Irish and Norse with Wampanoag and Haudenosaunee. While the film suffers somewhat from myth-making about pre-Columbian cultures that was at its height at this time (agricultural settlements definitely demonstrate a clear conception of land ownership), the movie for the most part avoids clichés, and even has the viewer hoping the titular ex-monk will exert a little more ownership over his paternity—even if he also happens to be finding his way back to a worldview inspired by the legendary queens of Old Ireland. The movie is very well-researched, and had us wondering not only about viking sunstones and weathervanes, but about the actual use of an iron chain to bind a thrall, which at that time would have required the aid of a blacksmith to employ. Neither romanticizing thralldom, nor demonizing heathens, Killian’s Chronicle: The Magic Stone even takes a moment to have a heathen Thorsman point out the hypocrisy inherent in the sacrifice myth of the (only nominally by this point) Christian character. Unfortunately, the filmmaker chose the most odious of the heathen characters to express what otherwise may have come across as a rather poignant observation. More also could have been done with the Freydis-inspired character who was surprisingly underutilized by a filmmaker best known among Wiccans for having written a whole book on Goddess iconography in medieval Europe. All in all, a slow-moving, but decent educational film that provides a counterpoint perspective for children being raised by Wiccan parents, and one particularly appropriate for American Thanksgiving. Bonus family movie night points for what basically amounted to a “don’t do ‘shrooms kids” public service announcement to start the story off.