00:00:04
Can you hear the wind, the howl?
00:00:08
It bites the skin of those who dare
00:00:10
traverse the North Sea.
00:00:13
The sounds dissipate as we near the
00:00:16
Northland,
00:00:17
Scandinavia,
00:00:19
comprised of Denmark, Norway, and
00:00:22
Sweden.
00:00:24
[Music]
00:00:26
Here,
00:00:30
[Music]
00:00:34
settlements are established,
00:00:37
farmers grafting to obtain resources,
00:00:40
the blaring of sheep is heard, the
00:00:42
crackling of fires, and the smell of
00:00:44
smoke. However, this peaceful domain is
00:00:48
nearing its limits. Here the climate is
00:00:51
cold and survivability is becoming
00:00:54
increasingly difficult with the growing
00:00:56
population
00:00:57
and a compromise needs to be made.
00:01:18
[Music]
00:01:24
9.
00:01:29
[Music]
00:01:48
Predating the outbreak of conflict, the
00:01:50
people of Scandinavia were hunter
00:01:52
gatherers in search of survival and
00:01:55
raising their families despite the harsh
00:01:58
conditions.
00:02:01
In due time around the late 7th century,
00:02:05
a dire need for food resources would
00:02:07
emerge. Land feuds erupted on the
00:02:10
mainland. Farms would be paged by
00:02:12
neighboring territories, led by a king
00:02:15
deemed as such, not by rural lineage,
00:02:19
but by ownership of farmland.
00:02:22
This self-appointed king would gather
00:02:24
slaves and farm hands, utilizing their
00:02:27
numbers to expand territory and
00:02:29
committing brutal violence with axes and
00:02:31
swords.
00:02:33
The word Viking has two very different
00:02:35
meanings.
00:02:37
in its literal meaning uh viking uh in
00:02:41
old Norse viking or to faring to go on a
00:02:45
Viking expedition is all about raiding
00:02:48
and piracy. So in its original meaning
00:02:52
Viking refers to a raider a pirate. It's
00:02:56
acquired a much wider usage in English
00:02:59
today and it's normally used to describe
00:03:02
the whole of Scandinavian society in the
00:03:06
period from about 750 to 1050 or 1100.
00:03:10
This was a period when Scandinavia was
00:03:13
fragmented. So in the course of that
00:03:16
period period of over 300 years we see
00:03:20
the kingdoms that we know today of
00:03:22
Denmark, Norway and Sweden emerging. But
00:03:27
at the beginning of the Viking age there
00:03:29
are lots of small kingdoms with very
00:03:34
distinct identities. Vikings were not a
00:03:37
race. It really means radaro.
00:03:41
and they had quite a a solid
00:03:44
presence in this area because of Repton.
00:03:47
And here we've got the tributy of the
00:03:49
river dub next door. So there you are
00:03:52
scraping away in your field um as one of
00:03:55
the locals and then you look and see
00:03:57
this prow coming. It's been terrifying.
00:03:59
They can go in quite shallow water, you
00:04:01
know. I understand I understand from
00:04:03
experts that they can sail as in as
00:04:05
little as 18 inches of water. um so they
00:04:09
could glide along and of course they
00:04:11
they came they weren't just people who
00:04:13
killed people and we people in this
00:04:14
country were killing people as well I
00:04:16
mean but that was what I'm not leaping
00:04:17
to the defense of them the brutality of
00:04:19
them could be appalling but then again
00:04:22
so could we um when I say we that's if
00:04:25
you're an Anglo-Saxon you might be an
00:04:28
angle you might be a Norman you might be
00:04:30
a number of other things so brutality is
00:04:32
part of the diet but there were they had
00:04:33
a lot of good things going on as well
00:04:35
the Vikings in terms of exploration and
00:04:38
making things and you know their crafts
00:04:40
and things were very good. Women could
00:04:42
be immensely strong. So they were
00:04:43
definitely in this area. Very often when
00:04:46
these are recorded by outsiders by the
00:04:51
Anglo-Saxons or the Franks or the Irish,
00:04:54
they just describe them as pagans or as
00:04:57
heathens or as foreigners or as Danes.
00:05:00
And they use Danes not just from Denmark
00:05:02
but Dames from Norway and so on. So it's
00:05:05
very difficult to know what particular
00:05:09
group are being described in any of the
00:05:11
written sources.
00:05:15
And so Vikings has become a sort of
00:05:17
catch all for all of these different
00:05:18
peoples together
00:05:21
kept within the borders of their own
00:05:23
country. This raiding was the first
00:05:25
taste of the Viking methods.
00:05:28
Where there is fertile land to grow
00:05:29
food, there is power. All one would need
00:05:33
to do is take it by force.
00:05:41
The Vikings followed many different gods
00:05:43
and we have quite detailed accounts.
00:05:47
Their gods in origin seem to be very
00:05:50
similar to the gods of the Anglo-Saxons.
00:05:53
They go back to a common Germanic route
00:05:56
and there's overlap between the southern
00:05:59
part of the Vikings in Denmark and the
00:06:01
northern part of the Anglo-Saxons before
00:06:03
they came over. So we see the same gods
00:06:06
with slightly different names, Wodin and
00:06:10
Odin. Uh Thun and the Viking Thor are
00:06:14
basically the same. So multiple gods,
00:06:17
but we have in the Scandinavian version
00:06:20
a sort of composite account built up
00:06:23
through many different poems and works
00:06:25
of literature which gives us everything
00:06:27
from the creation of the world uh from
00:06:31
initially a sort of frosty void uh with
00:06:35
nothing in it apart from an enormous
00:06:37
floating cow to the creation of the
00:06:41
earth itself from the body of a giant
00:06:45
ice giant uh who's killed and the uh his
00:06:50
brains are used for the the the clouds,
00:06:52
the skull becomes a sky and so on. And
00:06:55
then we have an account through to the
00:06:57
great battle at the end of time uh with
00:07:00
various adventures of gods and men along
00:07:04
the way. Gods, men, elves, dwarves,
00:07:07
giants uh along the way. So they
00:07:10
believed in a wide variety of different
00:07:13
gods, goddesses and other magical or
00:07:18
divine creatures. And where magic stops
00:07:24
and religion starts is a difficult
00:07:28
question.
00:07:29
There wasn't an organized systematized
00:07:33
religion in the way that we think of
00:07:35
religions today. There would have been
00:07:37
very personal beliefs and there's a
00:07:41
there's a very real question how much
00:07:44
should we think of religion at all in
00:07:47
this period how much do we think of
00:07:49
belief how much do we even think perhaps
00:07:52
of a Viking mind or mindset
00:07:56
do you believe that
00:07:59
one particular god controls the sea or
00:08:02
do you know it as part of your being and
00:08:06
the the way that they perceived the
00:08:08
world around them. The world was full of
00:08:11
unseen things as well as those things
00:08:14
that were seen. And therefore, we've got
00:08:18
beliefs that people can look back to and
00:08:21
interpret in many different ways. And
00:08:25
that different people today will have
00:08:26
very different takes on Viking beliefs.
00:08:30
The Norsemen had whittleled out many
00:08:32
smaller farms within their own
00:08:34
countries. However, it was clear that
00:08:36
some pacts were beginning to form.
00:08:40
Settling their differences, the
00:08:41
plunderers set their sights on the land
00:08:43
beyond the ocean.
00:08:46
Along the shores of the northern inlets,
00:08:48
boats were being built.
00:08:51
The first of what would be a sign of
00:08:53
international power for the Norsemen,
00:08:55
the Viking long ship.
00:09:20
[Music]
00:09:25
Such ingenuity and craftsmanship would
00:09:27
be enough to withstand the elements of
00:09:29
naval travel and the desolation of war.
00:09:34
These magnificent ships were
00:09:36
revolutionary,
00:09:37
specialized for penetration into enemy
00:09:39
territory, narrow enough to even explore
00:09:42
rivers, whilst maintaining a wide yield
00:09:45
of Viking personnel and paged goods.
00:09:49
Unbeknownsted at the time, it would be
00:09:52
the design for a vessel which would
00:09:54
dominate Europe for the next three
00:09:57
centuries.
00:10:00
The year is now 793.
00:10:04
The Vikings have set their sights on one
00:10:05
of their earliest known targets,
00:10:08
Lindisvan, otherwise known as Holy
00:10:10
Island, North Umbrea.
00:10:12
There are two possible candidates for
00:10:15
the the first Viking raid. The first one
00:10:17
that's given a firm date is in 793, and
00:10:22
this is on the island of Lindesvan off
00:10:25
the coast of North Umbrea. Lindesvan was
00:10:27
a monastery and the Vikings attack it.
00:10:31
Um there are descriptions of it in very
00:10:34
colorful terms. There was a comet in the
00:10:38
sky. So it's described as fiery dragons
00:10:42
in the sky. There's famine. There's
00:10:44
slaughter. There's great destruction
00:10:47
visited on on the house of God. It's
00:10:50
clear from some of those early accounts
00:10:53
though that um it was not their first
00:10:57
visit. They knew the island was there.
00:11:00
Uh and one of the explanations for their
00:11:04
terrible behavior towards the church is
00:11:06
that the churchmen had become too
00:11:09
ungodly.
00:11:10
And one of the signs of this um is that
00:11:14
they were copying the hairstyles of the
00:11:17
Vikings. Uh so rather than have a having
00:11:20
proper neat tons as monks, they were
00:11:23
copying Viking hairstyles. Well, it's
00:11:25
very unlikely that the Vikings just
00:11:26
arrive on the beach and the monks think,
00:11:29
"Oh, nice hair. Uh I'll get that
00:11:32
redone." And then the Vikings kill them
00:11:33
and raid them. Uh there's clearly
00:11:36
ongoing behavior. And so it can be seen
00:11:38
and portrayed as God's judgment.
00:11:42
The raid on the Church of St. Cuthbbert
00:11:45
was as brutal as it was successful,
00:11:48
securing itself as one of the most
00:11:50
infamous, bloodiest attacks against a
00:11:53
holy site, one which desecrated the
00:11:56
religion as the Norsemen landed from the
00:11:58
northeast.
00:12:00
The monastery was looted and many of the
00:12:03
monks were either killed or enslaved,
00:12:07
sending a wave of shock to the medieval
00:12:09
Christians.
00:12:13
In a letter addressed to Higgbald, the
00:12:14
bishop of Lindesvan at the time of the
00:12:16
attack, Priest Alquin wrote, "The pagans
00:12:21
have desecrated God's sanctuary, shed
00:12:24
the blood of saints around the altar,
00:12:26
laid waste the house of our hope, and
00:12:29
trampled the bodies of the saints like
00:12:31
dung on the street."
00:12:33
The other very early account which could
00:12:37
be a few years earlier or slightly later
00:12:40
because it's only put in a single rain
00:12:43
somewhere between 789 and 806
00:12:48
is on the south coast um of England off
00:12:52
Dorset. So within the kingdom of the
00:12:54
West Saxons, we're told that three ship
00:12:57
loads of Danes from Hordland, which is
00:13:00
in western Norway, arrived. They were
00:13:03
thought to be traders, and the king's
00:13:06
officer tried to force them to go to an
00:13:08
appropriate place to trade, and they
00:13:10
killed him and his men. So it's nothing
00:13:14
like as dramatic as the attack on
00:13:17
Lindesfan.
00:13:18
It may even simply be a misunderstanding
00:13:21
that these were traders and the king's
00:13:24
official was too forceful in trying to
00:13:27
make them trade in one place rather than
00:13:29
another. And in a period where
00:13:31
everyone's carrying weapons, a
00:13:33
disagreement got out of hand. But both
00:13:36
of those activities are sort of
00:13:39
interplay between raiding and trading
00:13:41
and the deliberate attacking of churches
00:13:45
and monies seem to be features of Viking
00:13:47
raids in the period that follow.
00:13:50
With the damage caused and lives lost,
00:13:53
the presence of the Vikings had spread
00:13:55
like wildfire in Europe. But this was
00:13:58
just the beginning. Over the following
00:14:01
years, Viking raids would increase, and
00:14:05
slowly the coastlines of Britain and
00:14:07
Ireland were being captured by their
00:14:09
barbarian forces.
00:14:13
The objective of these raids was simple.
00:14:16
To plunder portable wealth, taking the
00:14:18
form of gold, silver, and humans taken
00:14:22
into captivity to either be sold as
00:14:24
slaves or to be raped and discarded.
00:14:29
The Vikings continued to attack other
00:14:31
monastic sites and Alquinn continued to
00:14:33
write letters encouraging priests and
00:14:35
monks in Britain not to flee. Though
00:14:38
little could be done in response to the
00:14:40
aggressive nature of these new
00:14:42
attackers.
00:14:44
The idea of the Vikings being
00:14:46
particularly vicious is something that
00:14:49
has come down to us really from
00:14:51
contemporary sources. They get quite a
00:14:55
bad press in some of the contemporary
00:14:58
accounts. This is because of their lack
00:15:00
of respect for Christianity and
00:15:02
Christian sites. Most of our accounts
00:15:04
are written by monks. It was already by
00:15:08
that state considered
00:15:10
inappropriate
00:15:12
for Christians to attack each other and
00:15:15
particularly to attack Christian
00:15:17
churches. Although it did happen. And so
00:15:19
what we tend to get is
00:15:22
a description in quite colorful language
00:15:26
of these early Viking attacks which
00:15:30
probably is exaggerated. It's not that
00:15:32
they're not vicious. It's a period in
00:15:36
which everyone was vicious, but they are
00:15:39
described as such. They were successful
00:15:43
warriors.
00:15:45
They fought with very much the same sort
00:15:48
of weapons and probably very much the
00:15:50
same skills as Anglo-Saxons or Franks or
00:15:54
Slavs or Kelts at that time. And much of
00:15:58
what they did seems quite unpleasant by
00:16:01
modern standards. So uh a lot of their
00:16:05
raiding for example um was involved in
00:16:08
slave taking uh and we have accounts of
00:16:10
them carrying off women and children uh
00:16:14
as slaves. Um this was again not that
00:16:18
unusual at the time but to modern
00:16:23
standards it it is quite unpleasant.
00:16:25
some of the particular
00:16:27
accounts of atrocities uh that we find
00:16:31
in the sagas
00:16:34
may not have been particularly based in
00:16:37
fact. Uh so there's an atrocity known as
00:16:40
the blood eagle which involves ripping
00:16:43
the the chest apart and pulling the
00:16:45
lungs out like wings. This is something
00:16:48
we find in much later accounts is not
00:16:50
described by their enemies who are
00:16:53
looking for negative things to to say
00:16:56
about them. There are a couple of early
00:16:59
references that talk about making uh
00:17:03
making food for the eagles. But
00:17:07
Viking poetry has a lot of reference to
00:17:10
carrying feeding the wolves, feeding the
00:17:12
eagles, feeding the ravens. Um, it's not
00:17:15
clear that that's a reference to the
00:17:17
blood eagle as such. So, they were
00:17:20
violent, they were dangerous, they
00:17:22
didn't respect Christianity.
00:17:25
Were they nevertheless any worse than
00:17:28
anyone else? Probably not.
00:17:34
Tales told of a savage Danish king who
00:17:37
led the earliest raids, one of the most
00:17:39
notorious yet elusive Vikings during the
00:17:42
time. Ragnar Lothrock.
00:17:47
With a fleet of 120 ships, Ragnar's
00:17:51
forces use the same to attack Paris,
00:17:54
desolating the French forces.
00:17:57
Their methods were dirty yet efficient,
00:18:00
simply rushing into a point of interest
00:18:02
and slaughtering all who were in sight
00:18:05
as fast as possible.
00:18:07
[Music]
00:18:11
The king was intimidated by the Vikings
00:18:14
persistence to breach Paris. To the
00:18:16
frustration of Odo, the count of the
00:18:18
city, Charles offered the pillagers a
00:18:20
payment of 700 leave, around 257 kg in
00:18:24
silver, in order for them to leave and
00:18:27
never return to French soil.
00:18:30
Upon hearing the offer, the Vikings were
00:18:33
now very much aware of what royalties
00:18:35
could be taken. And instead of settling
00:18:38
them, the offer inspired them to expand
00:18:41
even further. And so they would remain
00:18:44
in siege for nearly a year, remaining on
00:18:47
the west coast and cutting off trade
00:18:49
routes.
00:18:52
Revenge was desired against King Aer of
00:18:54
North Umbrea, who is said to have
00:18:56
captured and executed Ragnar. allegedly
00:19:00
throwing him into a pit of snakes.
00:19:15
Ragnaros
00:19:17
is
00:19:18
a figure who appears in saga literature.
00:19:22
He may or may not have any historical
00:19:25
foundations.
00:19:26
The Ragnar is not an uncommon Viking
00:19:30
name and there are accounts of Viking
00:19:33
leaders
00:19:35
of that name and it's been suggested
00:19:37
that he he can be linked with some
00:19:39
historical events. Uh he gains his uh
00:19:43
name Loth Brockrock which literally
00:19:45
means hairy breaches or shaggy breaches
00:19:48
um because he was wading through water
00:19:52
and because it was so cold was wearing
00:19:54
furry breaches to keep him warm and
00:19:56
these get frozen and people comment on
00:19:58
that and he then carries the nickname
00:20:00
for the rest of his time. He's allegedly
00:20:03
a descendant of the god Odin, and there
00:20:06
are various humans descended from the
00:20:09
gods within Norse mythology. He
00:20:13
supposedly was a great raider. He's
00:20:15
linked with attacks on Paris. He's
00:20:17
linked with attacks on Northern England.
00:20:21
Eventually, he's captured and put into a
00:20:25
pit and killed by snakes. He is said to
00:20:30
have cried out that when the the little
00:20:34
piglets learned of what had become of
00:20:36
the old boar, they would be squealing
00:20:39
soon enough. And this is a reference to
00:20:41
his many sons. And according to
00:20:45
tradition, this is the reason why the
00:20:47
sons of Ragnar then lead the so-called
00:20:50
great heathen army to England in the
00:20:52
860s and attack North Umbrea where he's
00:20:55
killed in particular.
00:21:00
Three Icelandic sagas tell of an army
00:21:02
that invaded England in 866 led by the
00:21:06
sons of Ragnar and his wife Aslo
00:21:09
Ivar the boneless Bjun Ironside Kitk and
00:21:14
Sigur Snake in the eye all of whom waged
00:21:17
war like their father.
00:21:21
In response to his father's death Eva
00:21:24
led the great heathen army to victory.
00:21:26
He and his brothers invaded the British
00:21:29
Isles, defeating King Aaylor and King
00:21:32
Osbbert.
00:21:34
Landing in East Anglia, the army
00:21:36
traversed the coast and captured the
00:21:38
city of York, marking the beginning of
00:21:40
the Viking occupation in Europe. The
00:21:43
conquest had only just begun.
00:22:04
The 9-ft tall Ivar continued to raid
00:22:08
alongside Olaf the White, the Viking
00:22:10
king of Dublin. The pair plundered and
00:22:13
left a trail of bloodshed in their wake.
00:22:16
The two are often known as berserkers, a
00:22:20
translite state of fury which many
00:22:22
Vikings would adopt.
00:22:24
In old Morse, the name would translate
00:22:27
to bare skin, a member of unruly warrior
00:22:30
gangs that worshiped Odin. It is
00:22:32
hypothesized such warriors would ingest
00:22:35
a hallucinogenic mushroom, Amanita
00:22:37
Muscaria, also known as fly agaric.
00:22:59
One of the most decisive periods in the
00:23:03
development of England came in the
00:23:06
period 865-79.
00:23:09
and a group arrived in England which is
00:23:10
labeled either as the great army or the
00:23:13
great pagan army or heathen army
00:23:17
and it's a it's a larger group of
00:23:20
Vikings than had been typical early
00:23:22
raids were sometimes only a few ships
00:23:26
perhaps 100 200 men at most
00:23:29
now we get a fleet of hundreds of ships
00:23:33
and thousands of men in some cases
00:23:36
bringing women and children uh with them
00:23:39
and campaigning in hostile territory for
00:23:43
years on end. Early raids had been hit
00:23:46
and run in effect. They'd come, they'd
00:23:49
taken, they'd gone. What happens in this
00:23:52
period from 865 onwards is they arrive
00:23:56
they establish camps within one or other
00:23:59
of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and they
00:24:02
gradually moved around taking tribute
00:24:05
and basically making an enforced peace
00:24:09
with the local ruler.
00:24:12
The clever bit was arriving in the
00:24:14
middle of winter. They have their ships
00:24:16
with them and the ships allow them to
00:24:19
penetrate deep in land. They go as far
00:24:22
from the sea as it's possible to get
00:24:24
going up major rivers like the Trent and
00:24:27
the Tempames and the Seven. So they
00:24:30
could turn up pretty much anywhere.
00:24:32
Those ships allowed them to carry large
00:24:34
quantities of supplies uh as well as
00:24:37
loot. They would very quickly gather
00:24:40
horses if they hadn't already got them,
00:24:42
which meant they could have fastm moving
00:24:44
troops over land supported by this
00:24:47
fleet. And arriving on winter, it was
00:24:49
very difficult to muster an army against
00:24:52
them. Particularly if they arrived
00:24:54
quickly and taking people by surprise
00:24:56
and grabbed all the food in the
00:24:58
surrounding area. That meant that any
00:25:00
army coming in to counter them would
00:25:03
have nothing to live off uh if they
00:25:05
arrived. So it was easier to make peace
00:25:08
on the agreement normally that they
00:25:10
would move on to another kingdom the
00:25:11
following year. And so they move around
00:25:14
for a number of years killing the kings
00:25:18
of some of the kingdoms. So they they
00:25:20
killed the king of East Anglia. They
00:25:22
killed two of the kings of North Umbrea.
00:25:26
A king of Mercia was forced into exile
00:25:29
where he died. Another king of Mercia
00:25:31
just disappears from the record. And we
00:25:35
don't know what happened to him, but
00:25:37
suddenly Mercia is being divided up
00:25:39
between the Vikings and Alfred of the
00:25:42
West Saxon. So almost certainly
00:25:45
there's a piece of cord there and they
00:25:47
decide you can have this bit, I'll have
00:25:49
this bit, and we won't attack each
00:25:51
other.
00:25:53
In 865 AD, England was divided into four
00:25:57
kingdoms. The conquest allowed the
00:26:00
Vikings to take North Umbrea before
00:26:02
dominating Mercuria and East Anglia.
00:26:07
The king of East Anglia, Edmund the
00:26:09
Martyr, met a gruesome end.
00:26:13
Uber Ragnaren, the leader of the Danes,
00:26:16
and Eva the boneless dominated the
00:26:18
territory, executing Edmund after his
00:26:21
refusal to renounce Christ.
00:26:24
Alongside the great heathen army was the
00:26:27
great summer army led by the king of
00:26:30
East Anglia Guthram and Berseri a Danish
00:26:33
monarch
00:26:35
forming a pact between the two armies.
00:26:38
Guthram led the expanding heathens to
00:26:40
conquer the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon
00:26:42
England.
00:26:44
Their conquest however fell short as the
00:26:47
Vikings suffered a huge defeat at
00:26:48
Edington Wiltshire in 878.
00:26:52
A bloody battle that lasted for six
00:26:54
days.
00:26:56
Following King Alfred's victory at the
00:26:58
battle, a treaty was signed between
00:27:00
himself and Warlord Guthram, known as
00:27:03
the Treaty of Wedmore.
00:27:06
Guthram's surrender meant the Vikings
00:27:08
would leave the kingdom immediately, and
00:27:10
Guthram, their king, would be sworn into
00:27:13
Christianity and receive baptism at King
00:27:16
Alfred's hand.
00:27:19
A line crossed the kingdom separating
00:27:21
the forces. The Danish Viking territory
00:27:24
would be known as Danlaw.
00:27:27
The beating heart of York and
00:27:29
surrounding settlements of Nottingham,
00:27:31
Lincoln, Derby, Leicester, and Stamford.
00:27:35
Large parts of England, the whole of
00:27:37
what had been the key kingdom of East
00:27:39
Angles, the whole of the kingdom of
00:27:41
North Umbrea, and a large part of the
00:27:44
old kingdom of Mercia ended up in Viking
00:27:47
hands. and they change from this period
00:27:49
of yearon-year campaigning just
00:27:52
permanent settlement and we see that in
00:27:55
the archaeology we see it in the place
00:27:57
names so for example in uh areas like
00:28:01
Yorkshire linkshere east Anglia there's
00:28:05
a lot of places uh with names ending by
00:28:09
so Grimby for example by is a a village
00:28:13
or farm um and typically they're
00:28:16
combined with a personal name. And these
00:28:20
areas are full of Scandinavian place
00:28:22
names, whether it's the village names or
00:28:25
geographical features. Skegness, for
00:28:27
example, means beardshaped headland,
00:28:30
which is a navigational point along the
00:28:33
coast and across the North Sea is quite
00:28:36
important. And if you look at it on a
00:28:38
map, you'll see little stnesses on a a
00:28:40
headland that sticks down like a a
00:28:42
little beard from that part of the the
00:28:44
coast. So there's a lasting legacy of
00:28:49
Scandinavian settlement. We see towns
00:28:52
growing up under the Vikings in those
00:28:54
areas uh which hadn't been there before
00:28:57
or at least hadn't been there before on
00:28:59
a large scale uh like York and
00:29:02
Lincolnford
00:29:03
in uh Norolk.
00:29:06
In later years, once England had become
00:29:08
a single kingdom again, this area is
00:29:12
referred to as the Dne Law because it
00:29:15
had been under Scandinavian rule for so
00:29:18
long. And so Danish is a generic term
00:29:21
for Scandinavians. Danish law was still
00:29:25
followed for a few generations after
00:29:28
England became uh unified in contrast to
00:29:31
the south and the west where English law
00:29:34
had remained in place. So this legacy of
00:29:37
a a concept of the Dane law uh remained
00:29:40
even after unification.
00:29:44
Peace however was not an option.
00:29:48
Northern Scotland would also become the
00:29:50
Vikings domain with the Hedes, Shetlands
00:29:53
and Ornes all falling under Norse
00:29:56
control.
00:29:58
The Vikings began a series of raids in
00:30:01
the Mediterranean.
00:30:03
A few years later, Oleg the Wise led a
00:30:05
force to Constantinople, now known as
00:30:08
Istanbul.
00:30:10
He was well paid to turn and leave. The
00:30:14
intimidation tactics of the invaders
00:30:16
proved to be most effective and near
00:30:19
unbeatable.
00:30:24
[Music]
00:30:26
The Vikings fought with a number of
00:30:28
weapons. Probably the most common is the
00:30:31
spear. The spear is very good because
00:30:32
it's cheap. You only require quite a
00:30:35
small amount of iron for the spear head.
00:30:39
The rest of it was wood, but it gives
00:30:41
you a good long uh reach. And it can
00:30:44
either be used as a thrusting stabbing
00:30:46
weapon or as a throwing weapon.
00:30:52
It's often suggested that they didn't
00:30:54
really use bows and arrows much. The
00:30:57
surviving bows that we have are very
00:31:00
powerful. Um, they're as powerful as
00:31:03
late medieval long bows. They would
00:31:06
certainly have been capable of punching
00:31:07
arrows through the shields that were
00:31:11
used at the time. We do sometimes get
00:31:13
skeletal remains with arrows in. So,
00:31:17
archery was probably much more important
00:31:19
than it's given credit for, but because
00:31:21
it's not as glamorous as the handtohand
00:31:24
fighting that we see in all the films, I
00:31:26
think archery is sometimes neglected.
00:31:30
uh hand-to-h hand weapons. We have the
00:31:32
sword as
00:31:35
the most glamorous weapon and the most
00:31:38
high status weapon. It's expensive just
00:31:40
because of the amount of metal that it
00:31:43
uses and it can then be made even more
00:31:47
impressive with gold or silver on the
00:31:49
hilt fittings. So, it becomes a symbol
00:31:52
of power, a symbol of identity. Swords
00:31:54
are sometimes passed down from uh one uh
00:32:00
family member to another as heirlooms.
00:32:03
There's an account in Arabic sources
00:32:06
supposedly of a Viking father throwing a
00:32:09
sword down in front of an infant child
00:32:13
and saying, "There's your legacy. It's
00:32:16
up to you to make what you will with
00:32:18
that. And if you don't succeed, that's
00:32:21
your problem." Another very common
00:32:23
weapon is the axe. And axe come in
00:32:27
various shapes and sizes. There are
00:32:30
small axes that could be used with one
00:32:32
hand, a shield in the other. Smaller
00:32:34
heads, heavier heads, sometimes hooked
00:32:36
heads which could be used to hook the
00:32:37
shield out of the way and then bash in
00:32:39
with the the axe. We also see the
00:32:41
development in the later Viking age of
00:32:44
big double-handed axes. These don't seem
00:32:48
to actually be there at the beginning,
00:32:50
although you get them in all the films.
00:32:52
Um, but they're a later development,
00:32:54
probably as a reaction to the
00:32:56
introduction of cavalry. And these are
00:32:59
axes that you can use to take a horse's
00:33:01
legs out from under it. Um, they're
00:33:04
quite slow and cumbersome in in hand to
00:33:06
hand combat. Um, but they are very very
00:33:10
effective and you can smash through a
00:33:12
lot uh with one of those, even if it's
00:33:14
blunt.
00:33:58
Most Viking warriors in the early part
00:34:00
of the Viking age at least probably
00:34:02
didn't have much in the way of armor.
00:34:07
We don't have a lot that actually
00:34:10
survives. The one thing that we do have
00:34:12
surviving in large numbers is the metal
00:34:15
boss from the middle of a shield. So the
00:34:19
Viking shield is a large wooden shield
00:34:22
that covers basically the body and in
00:34:24
the middle of that there's a metal boss
00:34:27
that protects the hands. Most of our
00:34:30
knowledge of Viking weapons and armor
00:34:32
comes from graves. So it may just be
00:34:35
that shields were put in graves and more
00:34:38
expensive items like helmets and body
00:34:42
armor weren't put in there so often. So
00:34:44
we have Frankish laws which specifically
00:34:48
say you may not sell weapons and armor
00:34:50
to the Vikings which is pretty clear
00:34:53
indication that it was happening for
00:34:55
those laws to be made.
00:34:57
The helmets that we see in pictures are
00:35:01
straightforward conicle helmets. So
00:35:03
there's a a helmet going up protecting
00:35:06
the top of the head and with a simple
00:35:08
nose guard and these appear on stone
00:35:11
carvings. There are some little figures
00:35:13
uh showing them. We also have a few
00:35:17
examples
00:35:19
from the Viking age just before in
00:35:21
Scandinavia of helmets with protective
00:35:25
pieces around the eyes. The lower face
00:35:28
is left bare uh which is good in terms
00:35:31
of brea breathing but the nose and eyes
00:35:34
are protected by almost a spectacle and
00:35:36
the top of the head. Sometimes there's
00:35:38
male hanging down uh protecting as well.
00:35:43
What none of these helmets have is the
00:35:46
one thing that Vikings are probably best
00:35:48
known for today,
00:35:51
which is horns on their helmets. And we
00:35:53
have no evidence of the Vikings actually
00:35:56
having that. This is something which is
00:35:58
made up in the 19th century when the
00:36:01
Vikings were being reinvented and
00:36:04
popularized and the the notion of the
00:36:07
Viking was taking off and people were
00:36:10
starting to write books about them and
00:36:12
illustrate those books and they
00:36:14
illustrated the Vikings as they thought
00:36:16
they should have been rather than as
00:36:19
they were. And there are other periods
00:36:21
in uh history where horned helmets were
00:36:25
known and the artists were just
00:36:27
borrowing anything that they like the
00:36:29
look of that they saw in museums like
00:36:32
let's give the Vikings those as well. So
00:36:34
we've got bronze age helmets from
00:36:38
Scandinavia that have horns on had
00:36:41
nothing to do with the Vikings but they
00:36:43
look good.
00:36:46
The Vikings continued to wage conflict
00:36:49
against their Anglo-Saxon counterparts.
00:36:52
Many Anglo-Saxon rulers made deals with
00:36:54
the Vikings, offering them Daneel silver
00:36:58
in exchange for the Vikings not invading
00:37:01
their land.
00:37:03
[Music]
00:37:04
Eric Bloodax was in power during Danaw's
00:37:07
end. In 954, he was driven out of North
00:37:11
Umbrea. The Anglo-Saxons regained power
00:37:14
and land. Eric, the king of Norway and
00:37:17
North Umbrea, would be ambushed on the
00:37:19
bleak moors of Stainmore and murdered
00:37:22
alongside five other kings.
00:37:26
After the battles waged throughout the
00:37:28
remaining Viking territory, Eric the Red
00:37:31
would discover Greenland. Expelled from
00:37:34
Norway and later Iceland, Greenland
00:37:36
would act as a place of solace. with
00:37:39
Eric settling, landing 25 ships, people,
00:37:42
and goods.
00:37:44
Within 20 more years, over 3,000 Vikings
00:37:47
were now occupying the new homeland as
00:37:50
farmers.
00:37:58
It was 995 when Olaf Trivan, Norway's
00:38:02
new Viking king, would build the first
00:38:04
Christian church in Norway.
00:38:07
After spending time in the ars of silly,
00:38:09
a sea is said to have foreseen a battle
00:38:12
in which King Olaf would suffer terrible
00:38:14
injuries and convert his faith. Not long
00:38:18
after, the king was indeed attacked, and
00:38:21
he duly converted.
00:38:23
Returning to Norway, he brought with him
00:38:26
a new found faith which would change the
00:38:28
course of the Viking lifestyle.
00:38:32
For those that refused conversion, trade
00:38:34
restrictions would be imposed. The faith
00:38:37
was spreading throughout Iceland and
00:38:38
Greenland with Olaf even converting
00:38:40
chieftains to his new religion.
00:38:43
He would die at sea at the Battle of Spa
00:38:46
in the year 1000. Some say by taking his
00:38:49
own life, jumping into the water in full
00:38:51
armor rather than see his forces
00:38:53
defeated.
00:39:00
The year is now 10:15 and the days of
00:39:03
Viking rule started to wayne.
00:39:06
Finland, the North American settlement,
00:39:08
is abandoned.
00:39:10
Supplies were limited and trade with
00:39:12
Scandinavia was too arduous given the
00:39:14
distance of their local.
00:39:17
King Olaf II, later known as St. Olaf,
00:39:20
was defeated in 1030 during the battle
00:39:22
of Sticklestad.
00:39:24
To honor the saint, churches and shrines
00:39:27
were built in his honor across Europe.
00:39:29
though many speculate that Olaf may have
00:39:33
even been killed by his own people.
00:39:36
In the autumn of 1066,
00:39:41
England was threatened from two
00:39:43
directions. Uh Harold Godwinson, now
00:39:46
established firmly as king, was well
00:39:48
aware that there was likely to be an
00:39:50
invasion from Normandy and had been
00:39:55
watching the South Coast through the
00:39:57
summer. He'd gathered troops along the
00:40:00
south coast. William had been prevented
00:40:02
by bad weather from crossing. And as
00:40:07
they got into September,
00:40:10
uh Harold's troops in the south were
00:40:12
running out of food and money. And it
00:40:16
was felt that it was unlikely now that
00:40:19
William would be able to come as the
00:40:21
autumn storms arrived. So the troops in
00:40:24
the south were disbanded. But while he
00:40:27
was watching the south, there was
00:40:29
another threat from the north. And this
00:40:32
was led by two people. One of these was
00:40:35
Harold Hardrada, Harold Howard Council,
00:40:37
King of Norway. The other was Harold
00:40:40
Godwinson's own brother, Tostig. Tostig
00:40:44
had been Earl of North Umbrea uh under
00:40:48
Edward the Confessor, but he'd been
00:40:50
extremely unpopular in the north of
00:40:52
England and had been kicked out of his
00:40:55
role there. Harold had failed to support
00:40:58
him contrary to his expectations
00:41:02
[Music]
00:41:05
because the earlier
00:41:08
Viking attacks on England had left quite
00:41:11
a strong presence in northern and
00:41:14
eastern England. Harold was hopeful that
00:41:16
he would get support from the sort of
00:41:18
mixed Anglo Scandinavian population and
00:41:22
that he would be able to hold on to the
00:41:24
north even if he couldn't conquer the
00:41:27
the south. But he promised to divide it
00:41:30
with Harold Godwinson's brother Tostig
00:41:33
in any case. While this was going on,
00:41:36
Harold Godwinson was marching north. He
00:41:39
wasn't in time to meet up with Edwin and
00:41:44
Moar at Fulford,
00:41:47
but he was only a few days away. Harold
00:41:50
Hardrada of Norway had moved to the east
00:41:55
of York to a place called Stanford
00:41:57
Bridge where it had been arranged that
00:42:00
the people of York would bring hostages
00:42:03
out to him. and he was encamped on the
00:42:06
side of a river by the bridge. But
00:42:10
rather than the people of York coming
00:42:12
out uh to meet him, it was Harold
00:42:16
Godwinson and the army that he brought
00:42:19
north together with what was left of the
00:42:23
northern army that Harold Hardrada had
00:42:25
already defeated.
00:42:27
But he wasn't expecting battle. He was
00:42:30
taken to some extent by surprise.
00:42:35
King Harold Hadrada, younger
00:42:37
half-brother of Olaf II and widely known
00:42:40
as the last real Viking, took his final
00:42:43
stand against Harold Godwinson at the
00:42:46
Battle of Stamford Bridge.
00:42:48
Harold Godwinson would himself be
00:42:51
defeated just 19 days later by William,
00:42:54
Duke of Normandy, at the Battle of
00:42:56
Hastings.
00:42:59
There's a mixture of traditions about
00:43:01
this and it's described in later Norse
00:43:04
literature. Sorting out the actual fact
00:43:07
from the fiction uh is not entirely
00:43:10
straightforward. Supposedly,
00:43:12
the bridge was defended at Stamford
00:43:15
Bridge by one heroic Viking who fought
00:43:19
off all attackers uh until
00:43:23
uh someone came under the bridge on a
00:43:26
boat and stabbed him through the bridge
00:43:28
itself uh with a spear which was thought
00:43:32
by both sides to be quite unsporting but
00:43:35
uh did at least clear the bridge so
00:43:38
Harold Godson's army could get
00:43:48
It's a hot day according to the sources
00:43:51
and so the Norwegian army had left their
00:43:56
armor off
00:43:59
and although some of them were now
00:44:00
putting it on in the time that was saved
00:44:04
by the the heroic warrior on the bridge,
00:44:08
not all of them had armor to put
00:44:10
There's then a long and hard fought
00:44:11
battle which resulted in Harold of
00:44:15
Norway and Tostig both being uh killed.
00:44:20
Uh one tradition says he's killed with
00:44:23
an arrow. Um but we don't we don't
00:44:26
really know. There've been a negotiation
00:44:29
before the battle with Harold Godwinson
00:44:32
asking what terms the Harold Norway and
00:44:38
Tostic would accept. just to go away.
00:44:40
And he was willing to make some sort of
00:44:42
deal with his brother. But when he was
00:44:45
asked um how much of England would he
00:44:48
give to uh Harold of Norway, he promised
00:44:51
him just 6 ft of English ground. Enough
00:44:55
to bury him in or as she said or as much
00:44:58
more as is needed because he's taller
00:45:00
than most people.
00:45:02
So that's all that Harold of Norway got
00:45:05
in the end. um the fleet um was
00:45:08
dispersed. Although he'd gathered a
00:45:11
large army from Norway and from the
00:45:13
Norse settlements in Scotland, most of
00:45:16
this uh was destroyed and his son was
00:45:19
allowed to take
00:45:21
the rest of it away uh and became known
00:45:25
as Olaf the peaceful uh from the the
00:45:29
peaceful reign that he followed
00:45:30
thereafter.
00:45:36
When one thinks of the Vikings, we
00:45:38
picture their raids, their barbaric
00:45:41
nature, and their traversal of the
00:45:43
oceans.
00:45:44
But they were so much more.
00:45:49
A collective of farm hands, people
00:45:52
fighting for their own survival, people
00:45:54
who had no access to resources the
00:45:57
kingdoms of Europe and the Americas took
00:45:59
for granted. They even lacked military
00:46:01
education.
00:46:06
What came from desperate conditions was
00:46:08
an idea that would shift the tides of
00:46:10
war and their own prosperity.
00:46:14
From famine, an idea rose that would
00:46:16
grant them not only comfort for their
00:46:18
people, but a place in Valhalla
00:46:22
to make a conquest to take and claim
00:46:25
with sheer willpower.
00:46:28
And such strength always remains
00:46:30
embedded in what we know of the Vikings
00:46:34
today.
00:46:41
[Music]
00:46:50
on the Lord. He come
00:46:53
[Music]
