The Norseman

The Norseman is a 1978 American adventure film starring Lee Majors, directed, produced and written by Charles B. Pierce.

Plot
An 11th-century Viking prince sails to North America to find his father, who on a previous voyage had been captured by Native Americans.

Cast

 * Lee Majors - Thorvald
 * Cornel Wilde - Ragnar
 * Mel Ferrer - King Eurich
 * Jack Elam - Death Dreamer
 * Susie Coelho - Winetta
 * Christopher Connelly - Rolf
 * Jimmy Clem - Olif
 * Deacon Jones - Thrall
 * Denny Miller - Rauric
 * Kathleen Freeman - Old Indian Woman
 * Jesse Pearson - Narrator (voice)

Production
The film was a co production between Charles Pierce and Lee Majors with AIP doing the distribution. It was Pierce's first film with a major Hollywood studio.

Majors said it "took a lot of guts" to play a Viking but was persuaded by a fee of $500,000 and 10% of the profits. He later said, "I had a little time off, and they said, "It shoots in Florida, on the coast there, out of Tampa," and they had a bunch of Tampa Bay Buccaneers that were gonna play Vikings, so ... I don't know, I thought it'd be fun, so I did it."

The film was shot in Tampa, Florida. Postproduction was done at Pierce's $2 million facility at Shreveport, Louisiana.

"There is no character to develop here and hardly any dialogue," said Majors, "this is a formula film."

Reception
The Los Angeles Times called it "tedious business".