The episode won an Emmy Award Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Supporting Role.
The poem read on the beach before the battle begins is stanza 23 of Krákumál. As translated in English by Thomas Percy it goes: Young men should march up to the conflict of arms: man should meet man and never give way. In this hath always consisted the nobility of the warrior. He, who aspires to the love of his mistress, ought to be dauntless in the clash of arms.