 Stuntmen had practiced for weeks for the oar walking scenes.  Kirk Douglas (I) (qv) told director Richard Fleischer (qv) that  he could do it and did several times. At one point when he did fall  in the icy water he calmly swam over to the camera boat and asked if  they had gotten good shots. He then swam back to the Viking  longboat. Fleischer noted they were watching and filming an activity  that had not been done in a thousand years.