Eaters of the Dead presents itself as the translation of the entirely factual journey of Ibn Fadlan, a 10th century Muslim traveler. Up until the “A Factual Note” that concludes the work, the reader is left unaware that the book is fiction. Michael Crichton’s entire goal when writing the work is to convince the reader of the truth of his work. Every detail is included for the sole purpose of persuading the reader to throw off their better judgement and believe his tale, which is why Crichton often takes artistic license and introduces anachronisms to his work. Crichton intends to use the reader’s knowledge, or lack thereof, of the Middle Ages, Vikings, and Islam, to make the tale believable.
A topic that was discussed at length during class was the treatment of women in the tale. Many called it “appalling” and in this, I agree. However, we must view this in context and from the perspective of a 10th century Muslim traveler, as Crichton intends. Hailing from a more sexually “modest” region, Fadlan views the Vikings sexual openness to be disgusting. The constant mentions of this aren’t meant to arouse the reader as in modern works, but to use the reader’s stereotypes against them. Crichton hopes to reign in our disbelief of parts of the work, through Fadlan’s observations of the Viking’s sexual promiscuity. After battles that may stretch our suspension of disbelief, more base observations that play off of modern reader’s stereotypes of Muslim and Viking society bring the reader’s attention back to the supposed truthfulness of the tale.
Further, once a reader familiar with the tale of Beowulf identifies Eaters of the Dead as a similar story, major changes to the plot would destroy that suspension of disbelief. Strong female characters that enrich works of fiction by not senselessly dehumanizing half of mankind are a relatively modern concept. Such an egregious anachronism would be so completely out of place in a tale from the 10th century that it would move the story from believable to unbelievable. Crichton again plays on modern stereotypes of Muslims- a reader might also view Muslims as sexist due to modern media, and extrapolate that stereotype a millennium back, thus viewing Fadlan’s general exclusion of females as a result of his own sexism, rather than the reader themself.
In actuality, Viking women had greater rights than in most other societies at the time, but Crichton disregards facts. He yet again uses stereotypes to portray the Vikings as more barbaric than they were, making the reader not doubt the also untruthful plot. In conclusion, the outrage over the lack of female characters is misplaced. The misrepresentation of Vikings and Crichton’s use of modern reader’s stereotypes towards Muslims are where the blame should lie instead.
Getting Medieval 