Top 250 Tv Shows Like The Duel
Vengeance cannot be denied.
A list of the best tv shows similar to The Duel. If you liked The Duel then you may also like: Vikings, Band of Brothers, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, The Adventures of Robin Hood and many more great tv shows featured on this list.
A Texas Ranger investigates a series of unexplained deaths in a town called Helena.
The Duel
Band of Brothers
Drawn from interviews with survivors of Easy Company, as well as their journals and letters, Band of Brothers chronicles the experiences of these men from paratrooper training in Georgia through the end of the war. As an elite rifle company parachuting into Normandy early on D-Day morning, participants in the Battle of the Bulge, and witness to the horrors of war, the men of Easy knew extraordinary bravery and extraordinary fear - and became the stuff of legend. Based on Stephen E. Ambrose's acclaimed book of the same name.
Breaking Bad
Walter White, a New Mexico chemistry teacher, is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given a prognosis of only two years left to live. He becomes filled with a sense of fearlessness and an unrelenting desire to secure his family's financial future at any cost as he enters the dangerous world of drugs and crime.
The Walking Dead
Sheriff's deputy Rick Grimes awakens from a coma to find a post-apocalyptic world dominated by flesh-eating zombies. He sets out to find his family and encounters many other survivors along the way.
The Adventures of Robin Hood
The legendary character Robin Hood and his band of merry men in Sherwood Forest and the surrounding vicinity. While some episodes dramatised the traditional Robin Hood tales, most episodes were original dramas created by the show's writers and producers.
Afro Samurai
In a futuristic Japan where conflicts are settled by the sword, Afro Samurai must avenge his father's murder by challenging a powerful warrior.
Bat Masterson
Bat Masterson is an American Western television series which showed a fictionalized account of the life of real-life marshal/gambler/dandy Bat Masterson. The title character was played by Gene Barry and the half-hour black-and-white shows ran on NBC from 1958 to 1961. The series was produced by Ziv Television Productions, the company responsible for such hit series as Sea Hunt and Highway Patrol.
Big Little Lies
The tale of three mothers of first graders whose apparently perfect lives unravel to the point of murder.
The Big Valley
The Big Valley is an American western television series which ran on ABC from September 15, 1965, to May 19, 1969. The show stars Barbara Stanwyck, as the widow of a wealthy nineteenth century California rancher. It was created by A.I. Bezzerides and Louis F. Edelman, and produced by Levy-Gardner-Laven for Four Star Television.
Blood & Oil
Billy and Cody LeFever dream of a new life and move to "The Bakken" in North Dakota, booming after the biggest oil discovery in American history. They’re soon pitted against a ruthless tycoon who forces them to put everything on the line, including their marriage.
Branded
Branded is an American Western series which aired on NBC from 1965 through 1966, sponsored by Procter & Gamble in its Sunday night 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time period, and starred Chuck Connors as Jason McCord, a United States Army Cavalry captain who had been drummed out of the service following an unjust accusation of cowardice.
Brimstone
Brimstone is a short-lived Fox television series, featuring a dead police detective whose mission is to return to Hell 113 spirits who have escaped to Earth. The series ran for only one partial season. Since cancellation, Brimstone reruns have aired on Syfy in the United States from the summer of 1999 onward. The reruns have no set schedule, but are usually aired in marathons during the channel's seasonal events like "Creatureland", "Inhumanland" and "the 31 Days of Halloween". Chiller also began airing reruns, on July 28, 2007. It currently airs in sporadic weekday marathons, like Syfy, and has no set airing schedule.
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command is an American animated science fiction/adventure/comedy series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. The series originally aired on UPN and ABC from October 2000 to January 2001 as part of Disney's One Saturday Morning programming block. It follows the adventures of space ranger Buzz Lightyear, who first appeared in the film Toy Story as an action figure and one of the film's protagonists.
Deadwood
The story of the early days of Deadwood, South Dakota; woven around actual historic events with most of the main characters based on real people. Deadwood starts as a gold mining camp and gradually turns from a lawless wild-west community into an organized wild-west civilized town. The story focuses on the real-life characters Seth Bullock and Al Swearengen.
Detentionaire
No student likes having to spend time in detention so you can only imagine how Lee Ping feels. The freshman at A Nigma High has been sentenced to a year in detention after being accused of pulling off the biggest prank in high-school history. The problem is that Lee is innocent. Now, in order to clear his name, Lee must escape from the highly fortified detention room every day, infiltrate a new social clique, and unravel another piece of the gigantic prank puzzle to try to figure out who actually pulled off the epic stunt.
Drunk History
Historical reenactments from A-list talent as told by inebriated storytellers. A unique take on the familiar and less familiar people and events from America’s great past as great moments in history are retold with unforgettable results.
The Equalizer
Robert McCall is a former agent of a secret government agency who is now running his own private crime fighting operation where he fashions himself as "The Equalizer." It is a service for victims of the system who have exhausted all possible means of seeking justice and have nowhere to go. McCall promises to even out the odds for them.
Father Murphy
A good-hearted frontiersman poses as a priest to start an orphanage for a group of kids whose homes have been destroyed by an evil mining manager.
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West. The central character is lawman Marshal Matt Dillon, played by William Conrad on radio and James Arness on television.
Hell on Wheels
The epic story of post-Civil War America, focusing on Cullen Bohannon, a Confederate soldier who sets out to exact revenge on the Union soldiers who killed his wife. His journey takes him west to Hell on Wheels, a dangerous, raucous, lawless melting pot of a town that travels with and services the construction of the first transcontinental railroad, an engineering feat unprecedented for its time.
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
The legendary son of Zeus journeys across the earth fighting monsters and helping people.
Killer Women
Of all the notorious lawmen that ever patrolled the violent frontier, none are more storied than ballsy and badass Molly Parker, one of the first women to join the Texas Rangers.
Kingpin
Kingpin is an American crime drama television series which debuted on the NBC network in the U.S. and CTV in Canada on February 2, 2003 and lasted 6 episodes. NBC's answer to The Sopranos and also influenced by The Godfather, Macbeth and Traffik, the story was about a Mexican drug trafficker named Miguel Cadena and his family life. It was to be followed by a television series, but low ratings canceled those plans. Commercials for the mini-series on NBC featured the song "Más" by the Mexican band Kinky.
North and South
The story of the enduring friendship between Orry Main of South Carolina (Patrick Swayze) and George Hazard of Pennsylvania (James Read), who become best friends while attending the United States Military Academy at West Point but later find themselves and their families on opposite sides of the American Civil War.
The Rifleman
The Rifleman is an American Western television program starring Chuck Connors as rancher Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son, Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show was filmed in black-and-white, half-hour episodes. "The Rifleman" aired on ABC from September 30, 1958 to April 8, 1963 as a production of Four Star Television. It was one of the first prime time series to have a widowed parent raise a child.
Scream: The TV Series
What starts as a YouTube video going viral, soon leads to problems for the teenagers of Lakewood and serves as the catalyst for a murder that opens up a window to the town's troubled past. Everyone has secrets. Everyone tells lies. Everyone is fair game.
S.W.A.T.
S.W.A.T. is an American action/crime drama series about the adventures of a Special Weapons And Tactics team operating in an unidentified California city. A spin-off of The Rookies, the series aired on ABC from February 1975 to April 1976. Like The Rookies, S.W.A.T. was produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg.
Twin Peaks
The body of Laura Palmer is washed up on a beach near the small Washington state town of Twin Peaks. FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper is called in to investigate her strange demise only to uncover a web of mystery that ultimately leads him deep into the heart of the surrounding woodland and his very own soul.
Walker, Texas Ranger
Modern-day Texas Ranger, Cordell Walker's independent crime-solving methods have their roots in the rugged traditions of the Old West. Walker's closest friend is former Ranger, C.D. Parker, who retired after a knee injury, and now owns "C.D.'s," a Country/Western saloon/restaurant. Rookie Ranger, James "Jimmy" Trivette is an ex-football player who bases his crime-solving methods on reason and uses computers and cellular phones. Alex Cahill is the Assistant DA who shares a mutual attraction with Walker, but often disagrees with his unorthodox approach to law enforcement.
The Young Riders
The Young Riders was an American Western television series created by Ed Spielman that presents a fictionalized account of a group of young Pony Express riders based at the Sweetwater Station in the Nebraska Territory during the years leading up to the American Civil War. The series premiered on ABC on September 20, 1989 and ran for three seasons until the final episode aired on July 23, 1992.
Bordertown
Bordertown is a television western-drama series that aired from 1989 to 1991. It depicts the town formerly known as Pemmican that was later renamed Bordertown when the western border between the United States and Canada was surveyed in 1880, dividing the town.
The Streets of San Francisco
Two police officers, the older Lt. Stone and the young upstart Inspector Keller, investigate murders and other serious crimes in San Francisco. Stone would become a second father to Keller as he learned the rigors and procedures of detective work.
The Untouchables
Special Agent Eliot Ness and his elite team of incorruptible agents battle organized crime in 1930s Chicago.
Sons of Thunder
Sons of Thunder is a television show that ran from March to April 1999 on CBS. It was a spin-off of Walker, Texas Ranger.
The Mists of Avalon
The Mists of Avalon is a 2001 miniseries based on the novel of the same name by Marion Zimmer Bradley. It was produced by American cable channel TNT and directed by Uli Edel.
Return to Lonesome Dove
After returning the body of Gus McCrae to Lonesome Dove, Woodrow Call takes on the challenge of driving a herd of wild mustangs 2500 miles north to the Hat Creek Ranch in Montana. But tragedy, triumph, despair and deceit will greet him before he ever gets there.
The Tall Man
The Tall Man is a half-hour American western television series about Sheriff Pat Garrett and the gunfighter Billy the Kid that aired seventy-five episodes on NBC from 1960 to 1962, filmed by Revue Productions.
The Wild Wild West
The Wild Wild West is an American television series Developed at a time when the television western was losing ground to the spy genre, this show was conceived by its creator, Michael Garrison, as "James Bond on horseback." Set during the administration of President Ulysses Grant, the series followed Secret Service agents James West and Artemus Gordon as they solved crimes, protected the President, and foiled the plans of megalomaniacal villains to take over all or part of the United States. The show also featured a number of fantasy elements, such as the technologically advanced devices used by the agents and their adversaries. The combination of the Victorian era time-frame and the use of Verne-esque style technology have inspired some to give the show credit for the origins of the steam punk subculture.
Have Gun, Will Travel
Have Gun – Will Travel is an American Western television series that aired on CBS from 1957 through 1963. It was rated number three or number four in the Nielsen ratings every year of its first four seasons. It was one of the few television shows to spawn a successful radio version. The radio series debuted November 23, 1958. The television show is presently shown on the Encore-Western channel. Have Gun – Will Travel was created by Sam Rolfe and Herb Meadow and produced by Frank Pierson, Don Ingalls, Robert Sparks, and Julian Claman. There were 225 episodes of the TV series, 24 written by Gene Roddenberry. Other contributors included Bruce Geller, Harry Julian Fink, Don Brinkley and Irving Wallace. Andrew McLaglen directed 101 episodes and 19 were directed by series star Richard Boone.
Acorralada
Acorralada is an American telenovela produced by Venevisión. Univision aired Acorralada from January 2007 to October 2007 on weekday afternoons at 2 pm central. It was rebroadcast in late 2011 through April 2012 on Univision's sister network, Telefutura. It was filmed in Miami, Florida, and lasted about 187 episodes. It is the second long-running telenovela that Venevisión Productions has produced without its former co-producer Fonovideo.
The Adventures of Jim Bowie
The Adventures of Jim Bowie is an American Western television series that aired on ABC from 1956 to 1958. Its setting was the 1830s-era Louisiana Territory. The series was an adaptation of the book Tempered Blade, by Monte Barrett. The series stars Scott Forbes as the real-life adventurer Jim Bowie. The series initially portrayed Jim Bowie as something of an outdoors-man, riding his horse through the wilderness near his home in Opelousas, where he would stumble across someone needing his assistance. He was aided by the Bowie Knife, his ever-present weapon. He designed it in the first episode, The Birth of the Blade.
The Restless Gun
The Restless Gun is an American western television series that appeared on NBC between 1957 and 1959, with John Payne in the role of Vint Bonner, a wandering cowboy in the era after the American Civil War. A skilled gunfighter, Bonner is an idealistic person who prefers peaceful resolutions of conflict wherever possible. He is gregarious, intelligent, and public-spirited. The half-hour black-and-white program aired seventy-eight episodes. Jeanne Bates appeared in varying roles with Payne in five episodes of The Restless Gun. The Restless Gun theme song begins: "I ride with the wind, my eyes on the sun, and my hand on my restless gun..." The song composer is probably Paul Dunlap, credited as the primary series composer, but could have been contributed to by either of the two other series composers, Dave Kahn and Stanley Wilson, also. Two versions are currently posted on YouTube, but neither posting lists any composer or performance credits.
Steven Seagal: Lawman
Steven Seagal: Lawman is an American reality television series on the A&E Network which stars actor and martial artist Steven Seagal performing his duties as a reserve deputy sheriff in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. It premiered on December 2, 2009. "I've been working as an officer in Jefferson Parish for two decades under most people's radar", said Seagal in the premiere episode, "The Way of the Gun". "I've decided to work with A&E on this series now, because I believe it's important to show the nation all the positive work being accomplished here in Louisiana—to see the passion and commitment that comes from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office in this post-Katrina environment." Seagal's current rank of Reserve Deputy Chief is largely ceremonial.
Urban Gothic
Urban Gothic was a horror based series of short stories shown on Channel 5 running for two series between May 2000 and December 2001. Filmed on a low budget and broadcast in a later time-slot, it nonetheless acquired a following. It has also since been repeated on the Horror Channel. Set around London there is an underlying story thread that only becomes clear in the last episodes of each series. Each episode was different in style from the others, running the gamut of documentary-style independent film to spoof, to slick dramas similar in style to The Outer Limits or The Twilight Zone.
Top Shot
Top Shot is an American reality television show that debuted on the History Channel on June 6, 2010. The show features 16 contestants, split into two teams of eight, competing in various types of shooting challenges. One by one, the contestants are eliminated until only one remains. That contestant receives a $100,000 grand prize and the title of "Top Shot." Survivor contestant Colby Donaldson is the host.
Lonesome Dove
A pair of longtime friends and former Texas Rangers crave one last adventure before hanging-up their spurs. After stealing over a thousand head of cattle from rustlers south of the border, they recruit an unlikely crew of hands to drive the herd 3,000 miles north to the grasslands of Montana.
Triggers: Weapons That Changed the World
Triggers: Weapons That Changed the World is an American television series that premiered on November 30, 2011 on the Military Channel. The program features former United States Army Ranger, United States Air Force Pararescueman and star of Military's hit series Special Ops Mission Wil Willis. In each episode, Willis tests a series of iconic firearms, from muskets and pistols to assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, and examines their historical significance. The premiere episode looks at the evolution of the handgun, going back to its earliest days on 16th century battlefields. Mike Tristano provided most of the weapons featured on the show. He is a fully licensed Master Armorer with over 25 years of experience and more than 400 film and television credits. The series was broadcast weekly in the UK on the Freeview channel Quest starting on Thursday 17 May 2012. The initial word of the title was dropped, giving the shorter form Weapons that Changed the World.
Hatfields & McCoys
It’s the true American story of a legendary family feud—one that spanned decades and nearly launched a war between Kentucky and West Virginia. The Hatfield-McCoy saga begins with Devil Anse Hatfield and Randall McCoy.. Close friends and comrades until near the end of the Civil War, they return to their neighboring homes—Hatfield in West Virginia, McCoy just across the Tug River border in Kentucky—to increasing tensions, misunderstandings and resentments that soon explode into all-out warfare between their families. As hostilities grow, friends, neighbors and outside forces join the fight, bringing the two states to the brink of another civil war.
Streets of Laredo
Captain Woodrow Call, now retired from the Rangers, is a bounty hunter. He is hired by an eastern rail baron to track down Joey Garza, a new kind of killer, only a boy, who kills from a distance with a rifle.
From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
The horror and crime thriller genres collide in this new original series from Robert Rodriguez, based on his cult grindhouse classic about bank-robbing brothers on the run, a lawman bent on bringing them to justice, the devout family caught in the cross-fire, and an ancient evil eager to feast on them all.
Jamaica Inn
Set in 1820 against the forbidding backdrop of windswept Cornish moors, the story follows the journey of young and spirited Mary who is forced to live with her Aunt Patience after the death of her mother. Mary arrives at the isolated Jamaica Inn to discover her Aunt is a shell of the carefree woman she remembers from her childhood, and instead finds a drudge who is firmly under the spell of her domineering husband Joss. The Inn has no guests - the rooms are locked and kept for storage - but it soon becomes clear that it’s a cover, as Joss is the leader of a smuggling ring, and Jamaica Inn the hub of his ‘free’ trade.
Lightfields
The story follows three families that each lived in Lightfields farmhouse at different time periods (1944, 1975 and 2012) but who are linked by a spine-chilling presence: the ghost of a teenage girl who died in mysterious and tragic circumstances.
Rough Riders
Rough Riders is a 1997 television miniseries directed and co-written by John Milius about future President Theodore Roosevelt and the regiment. The series prominently shows the bravery of the volunteers at the Battle of San Juan Hill, part of the Spanish–American War of 1898. It was released on DVD in 2006. The series originally aired on TNT with a four-hour running time, including commercials.
Texas Rising
A chronicle of the Texas Revolution, the uprising against the tyranny of Mexican dictator Santa Anna, from the battle of the Alamo to the battle of San Jacinto, and the rise of the Texas Rangers.
Son of the Morning Star
The story of George Custer, Crazy Horse and the events prior to the battle of the Little Bighorn, told from the different perspectives of two women.
Stan Against Evil
An aging police sheriff who has recently lost his position due to an angry outburst begrudgingly joins an alliance with new sheriff, Evie Barret to battle angry demons haunting their small New Hampshire town.
The Handmaid's Tale
Set in a dystopian future, a woman is forced to live as a concubine under a fundamentalist theocratic dictatorship. A TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood's novel.
King Solomon's Mines
Renowned safari hunter Allan Quatermain is lured back into the unknown recesses of the African jungles to find a man who disappeared while searching for the fabled King Solomon's Mines--a destination of legendary riches from which no soul has ever returned alive.
Prime Suspect 1973
Prime Suspect 1973 tells the story of 22-year-old Jane Tennison's first days in the police force, in which she endured flagrant sexism before being thrown in at the deep end with a murder enquiry.
In the Dark
DI Helen Weeks grapples with pregnancy as she undertakes a very personal abduction case.
The Hunt for the Zodiac Killer
A look at the hunt for California's Zodiac Killer, who murdered at least five people in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960s and early '70s.
Dietland
Plum Kettle, ghost-writer for the editor of one of New York’s hottest fashion magazines, struggles with self-image and sets out on a wildly complicated road to self-acceptance. At the same time, everyone is buzzing over news reports about men, accused of sexual abuse and assault, who are disappearing and meeting untimely, violent deaths.
Firestarter: Rekindled
A young woman who has the ability to start fires with her mind, must now face the trauma of her childhood by battling with a group of very talented children and their cruel leader, John Rainbird. Firestarter: Rekindled is a 2002 television miniseries and the sequel to the film adaptation of the Stephen King novel Firestarter. It stars Marguerite Moreau as now-grownup Charlie McGee, Danny Nucci, Dennis Hopper, and Malcolm McDowell as Charlie's old nemesis from the original story, John Rainbird. It debuted as a Sci Fi Pictures two-night miniseries on the Sci Fi Channel.
The Luminaries
The 19th-century tale of love, murder and revenge as men and women travel across the world to make their fortunes on the wild West Coast of New Zealand's South Island.
The Mandalorian
After the fall of the Galactic Empire, lawlessness has spread throughout the galaxy. A lone gunfighter makes his way through the outer reaches, earning his keep as a bounty hunter.
Children of the Dust
Gypsy Smith, is a gunfighter and a bounty hunter. When he leads the US army into a Cheyenne camp to capture a suspected Indian renegade, a long train of events begins that finally lead to that 'good day to die'. White Wolf, only a child, is one of the few survivors of the massacre of his tribe that day, and Gypsy brings him to live with the Maxwell family, where he grows up not fully Indian and not really white but a bit too close to Rachel, the Maxwell daughter. Gypsy now reappears, leading a group of Black settlers from the post-Civil War South to start a new life in a town of their own - Freedom in the Oklahoma Territory, its first black settlement. White Wolf (or Corby as a 'white' name') is now with his people, but all of these parts come back together in conflict, violence, loss, and Pyrric triumph.
Briarpatch
Dogged investigator Allegra Dill returns to her border-town Texas home after her sister is murdered. What begins as a search for a killer turns into an all-consuming fight to bring her corrupt hometown to its knees.
Defending Jacob
A family's lives are irreparably disrupted when the 14-year-old son is accused of murdering a fellow classmate.
The Legend of Vox Machina
They're rowdy, they're ragtag, they're misfits turned mercenaries for hire. Vox Machina is more interested in easy money and cheap ale than actually protecting the realm. But when the kingdom is threatened by evil, this boisterous crew realizes that they are the only ones capable of restoring justice.
The Confession Killer
Henry Lee Lucas rose to infamy when he confessed to hundreds of unsolved murders. This docuseries examines the truth -- and horrifying consequences.
The Stranger
A web of secrets sends family man Adam Price on a desperate quest to uncover the truth about the people closest to him.
The Witcher: Blood Origin
More than a thousand years before the world of The Witcher, seven outcasts in the elven world unite in a blood quest against an unstoppable power.
Resident Evil
Nearly three decades after the discovery of the T-virus, an outbreak reveals the Umbrella Corporation's dark secrets. Based on the horror franchise.
Wild West Chronicles
Once a feared lawman, the legendary Bat Masterson trades his sheriff's badge for a pen and becomes a newspaper reporter. He now travels the frontier to chronicle the amazing true stories of the Wild West and bring them to life once more.
Gold Rush: Winter's Fortune
The Gold Rush miners make big moves in the brutal winter months: hunting for gold, battling for the best spots, and supersizing their operations.
Love & Death
Candy and Pat Montgomery and Betty and Allan Gore — two churchgoing couples — enjoy their small town Texas life… until an extramarital affair leads somebody to pick up an axe.
Lawmen: Bass Reeves
The story of Bass Reeves, the legendary lawman of the wild West, is brought to life. Reeves worked in the post-Reconstruction era as a federal peace officer in the Indian Territory, capturing over 3,000 of the most dangerous criminals without ever being wounded—and is believed to be the inspiration for The Lone Ranger.
Mad About You
A revival of the 1990s sitcom centering on the trials and tribulations of a married couple living in New York.
Waco: American Apocalypse
This docuseries includes never-before-seen material from the infamous 51-day standoff between federal agents and a heavily armed religious group in 1993.
A Man in Full
Facing relentless foes and sudden bankruptcy, an Atlanta real estate tycoon must claw his way back to the top when his empire begins to crumble.
The Long Shadow
Dramatizing one of the most infamously notorious and shocking serial killer cases in the world, the hunt for Peter Sutcliffe, commonly dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper, between October 1975 and January 1981, South Yorkshire police undertook the biggest manhunt in British criminal history. The search for Sutcliffe lasted five years, involved over a thousand officers and changed the way the British police worked forever.
Category 7: The End of the World
It's tornadoes, hurricanes, electrical storms, and mass destruction as the effects of global warming brew into a super storm that threatens to rend the earth with an unprecedented power. Beautiful scientist Faith Clavell, storm chaser Tommy Tornado, and Judith Carr, the head of FEMA, can stop the inevitable from happening-if they have the courage to venture into the roiling blackness of the storm itself.
Miners' Strike 1984: The Battle for Britain
Forty years after, through the eyes of those directly involved, this powerful series explores the bitterly divisive strike that wounded the soul of the nation
Vikings
The adventures of Ragnar Lothbrok, the greatest hero of his age. The series tells the sagas of Ragnar's band of Viking brothers and his family, as he rises to become King of the Viking tribes. As well as being a fearless warrior, Ragnar embodies the Norse traditions of devotion to the gods. Legend has it that he was a direct descendant of Odin, the god of war and warriors.