The other element that might seem to be a negative is the almost complete lack of any romantic interest. One of the best elements of The 13th Warrior is the scenery. And I felt like I was watching real Norsemen doing their thing. I read somewhere that the filmmakers have disavowed responsibility for historical accuracy in this case, but I feel like I was taken to another time and place nonetheless. The Norsemen are big and manly here and behave in manly-man ways.
Life is hard and brutal in their world.
And I like this aspect as well, in that that's pretty much the stance of our main character as well. He knows almost nothing about these people that he's suddenly embroiled with, and he initially tries to just stay out of the way. There is an interesting scene in which Ahmed endeavors to learn their language. One drawback that I'll mention is that the story isn't really as big as it wants to be. I don't want to say more about that though.