The Norseman
Directed by	Charles B. Pierce
Written by	Charles B. Pierce
Produced by	Charles B. Pierce
Starring	Lee Majors Cornel Wilde Mel Ferrer Jack Elam
Cinematography	Robert Bethard
Edited by	Robert Bell Stephen Dunn Aladar Klein Shirak Kojayan Sarah Legon
Music by	Jaime Mendoza-Nava
Production companies	Charles B. Pierce Film Productions Fawcett-Majors Productions
Distributed by	American International Pictures
Release date	October 5, 1978
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$3 million[1]
Box office	$1 million[2]

The Norseman is a 1978 American adventure film starring Lee Majors, directed, produced and written by Charles B. Pierce.^[3]

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

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.^[1]

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.^[1] 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."^[4]

The film was shot in Tampa, Florida. Postproduction was done at Pierce's $2 million facility at Shreveport, Louisiana.^[1]

"There is no character to develop here and hardly any dialogue," said Majors, "this is a formula film."^[1]

Reception

The Los Angeles Times called it "tedious business".^[5]