the film was very loosely based on the swedish novel "the long ships" by frans g. bengtsson (1941–1945), retaining little more than the title (of the english translation) and the moorish settings of orm's first voyage. although the protagonist is named rolfe, the film was released in sweden with the title "röde orm och de långa skeppen" (red orm and the long ships), in a further attempt to exploit the popularity of the novel. it was also intended to capitalise on the success of recent viking and moorish dramas such as "the vikings" (1958) and "el cid" (1961) and was later followed by "alfred the great" (1969).