ABSTRACT
This essay examines the history of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song,” as well as the song’s significance to modern medievalisms (the representation of the Middle Ages in popular culture). “Immigrant Song” draws on medievalist tropes that remain underexamined in scholarship on Led Zeppelin—specifically, the Vikings and their literary legacy in both medieval and modern England. Also explored is the afterlife of this song in other media, such as Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s cover of “Immigrant Song,” specially commissioned by director David Fincher for his feature film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011). Additionally, director Taika Waititi used the original version of the song effectively in Thor: Ragnarok (2017). It is argued here that the medievalisms of “Immigrant Song” make it an ideal conduit for studying how ideas about Vikings are communicated in popular culture and can be seen as part of a larger tradition of Viking medievalisms that first gained currency in the nineteenth century and prevalence in the twentieth century. “Immigrant Song” is indicative of the lasting impression that Vikings have made on music and cinema that represent medieval Scandinavia. As a rock song that has become portable to other media, it has effectively bridged the medieval past and modern present.
