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[Music]
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foreign
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the sun rises Over the Sea Straits that
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gave Norway its name
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this narrow passage was the Cradle of
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the Vikings masters of the Sea and the
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wind the last barbarians
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today modern archeology and science shed
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new light on where they came from and
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how they succeeded in dominating the
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Seas and waterways of Europe
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thank you
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from the ice fields of the North to the
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Russian step these fearsome Scandinavian
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Warriors sailed the globe for three
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centuries spreading their net of trade
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and pillage
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they built kingdoms and Empires but
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their Origins still puzzle
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archaeologists and historians the world
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over
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the Vikings were great explorers and
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sailors they exceeded all others in that
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area
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I and many people along with me
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understand the concept of Viking as
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activity as a characteristic it is
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something that you do you are out of
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Viking today the Viking Legend attracts
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men and women from all over the world
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who reenact their epic voyages and
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battles
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but many sources tell us that Vikings
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were feared as ruthless Pirates
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Gunnar Anderson is an archaeologist and
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curator of the Stockholm National
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Historical Museum's Viking exhibit
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there are actually some on the
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runestones as well there is also
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confirmation on a few runestones that
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Vikings were not only feared outside of
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Scandinavia on the continent but there
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are occasional runestones that tell
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stories about him or her being a guard
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against Vikings here in Scandinavia as
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well
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how do you Scandinavian today modern
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science and stunning new discoveries
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reveal who these Scandinavian
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adventurers really were
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the swedes Norwegians and Danes spoke
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the same language and worshiped the same
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pagan gods
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but we shall see that it was their life
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and death relationship with the sea that
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defined Viking culture
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for centuries before the Viking era the
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Scandinavian populations buried their
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dead in ship-shaped stone Graves called
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ship settings such as these two on the
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Windswept island of Erland that stands
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side by side with men here's as
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entrances to the world of the Dead
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so it is a motif a ship Motif that
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recurs above ground and it is supposed
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to be visible in that way
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then the burials in the big ones are in
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most cases only common cremations so to
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speak The Cremation layer as it is
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called but then we have first and
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foremost from the middle of the Viking
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era and in the late Viking era great
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quantities of ship burials where they
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actually burned the boats
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far across the Baltic Sea on the island
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of sarima in Estonia no less than 40
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Viking warriors were excavated in 2011.
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they were buried in two boat Graves when
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the carbon dating results came back
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director of the history faculty at
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Thailand University yearly Pates was
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shocked to find out that the ship dated
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back to 650 A.D these were pre-viking
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age Vikings
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that makes them pre-vikings of the
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pre-viking age according to the Estonian
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calendar
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the Vandal age according to Swedish
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chronology
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age according to the European chronology
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[Music]
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this is
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the bodies found in the sarima ships had
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been hacked to death battle they died in
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must have been major if 40 men were
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killed and enough survivors were left to
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bury them
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we can say for sure that it was a battle
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burial ceremony
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but there was a serious battle with more
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than 40 victims in two ships I mean says
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it all the battle had to be hard we can
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see vicious wounds on the skeletons for
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example hacked hands and broken heads so
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it was hard and they had to bury those
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victims fast
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the men who died on sarima island were
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buried with full military honors
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is an anthropologist and was amazed at
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the care with which they were laid to
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rest
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um I think that this burial was done
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with great respect
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because we can see separated body parts
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heads hands or legs but they were buried
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in an anatomically correct order
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I think that this is a very important
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sign that they were buried with high
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respect
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the strontium isotope readings from the
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enamel of the teeth of the sarima
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Warriors suggest they originated from
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Sweden around Lake malarin north of lake
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malarin lies valsierde the heart of a
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thriving pre-viking age Scandinavian
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Community where noble men and women were
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buried with Rich grave goods for
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centuries before the first recorded
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Viking raid as we shall see the massive
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Lake malarin was the gateway to the
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Baltic for communities like these here
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ingma Janssen found the best preserved
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pre-viking age burial site in this part
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of Scandinavia the first grave of this
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kind dates from about 600 thus the
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beginning of what we call the vendel era
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but anyway it's just one man that's laid
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out like that intact all the other
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families they lie in simple Graves you
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don't see them over there in a pile
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cremated these vendel era boat Graves
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were rich in artifacts buried with the
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dead objects they believed would serve
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in the afterlife including magnificent
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helmets they give us an insight into the
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lives of these pre-viking adventurers
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and the mind lies in the middle of the
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boat surrounded by his weapons the
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vendel era was a prosperous period so
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they would bury three Shields and they
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would be other things too such as
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drinking vessels horns and glass from
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France and so on okay
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shows how cremation and boat burial went
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together in the pre-viking era
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Noble women were buried with their
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typical oval brooches
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there was a woman buried over there in a
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two meter High Mound she was buried with
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glass pearls and bronze jewelry and so
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on but the one thing that was so special
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was a little dragon head that must have
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been made out of some kind of ivory
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a woman was the owner of the finest ship
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grave ever found
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it was uncovered in a burial mound at
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ozberg South of Oslo and dates to the
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earliest part of the Viking age
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the ship now stands in the Oslo Viking
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ship Museum directed by Yan bill
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[Music]
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during the excavation it became clear
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that even though there weren't two
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complete skeletons in the grave it did
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contain the remains of two distinct
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individuals it was also evident that
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they were probably female this was
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confirmed by the osteological
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examinations and they also confirmed
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that the remains were from an older and
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a younger woman
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archeology confirms how ships were
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Central to Scandinavian society and how
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rich men and women would literally take
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them to the Grave
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the powerful lady who owned the ship was
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in her 80s and was buried with a cart a
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sledge and a slave woman aged about 50
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whose DNA can be traced to populations
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living around the Caspian Sea the
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furthest East the Vikings ever went
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dendrochronology or study of tree rings
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revealed the ship's place of origin
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it was only later when other
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dendrochronological examinations of two
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ship findings from karma in West Norway
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were carried out that it was suddenly
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possible to find an exact match with the
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tree ring characteristics from the
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ozberg ship
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when it was possible to demonstrate that
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the tree ring pattern seen in the wood
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from the ozberg ship was the same that
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was seen in the ships and the grave on
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Karma then it was possible to state that
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the ozberg ship must have been built in
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that same area of West Norway
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the ship sailed for decades in the early
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9th century before it was buried with
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the old lady of ozberg
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it was built here on karmaya island
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Western Norway
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maritvia leads the excavations at
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avalsness the seat of the First Kings of
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the northmen
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Norway is named after a sea Lane and
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this Northway started here
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when people in the olden days came
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sailing past the open Yaya Coast just
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when they turn north kamzund outside
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here is like a road of water
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so this is where the Northway started
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00:10:58
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this is where the story of the first
00:11:28
Viking Raiders of the West started the
00:11:31
homeland of the terrifying predators of
00:11:33
the sea
00:11:35
[Music]
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the story of the Vikings starts many
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centuries before the first recorded
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attack
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the sea was the lifeblood that the
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Nordic communities that lived along
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these rocky shores of carmoya Island in
00:11:51
Modern Day Norway the Vikings here lived
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and died by their ships
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zone is a manifestation
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way it's almost like a theatrical play
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where you are connecting with the Gods
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and it wasn't like they made these
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graves in a couple of days there were a
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lot of rituals and they stood open
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several months we can see that on the
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logs that we found in the graves
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the sagas written in Iceland two
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centuries after the end of the Viking
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ERA record stories passed on orally by
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Norse poets from one generation to the
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next
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and they tell of the First Kings of
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orthodsness
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ancestry was the king at avilness Gua he
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traveled all the way to Siberia which
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the Norse people called biameland there
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he met a Mongolian princess of Siberian
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ancestry and to ensure the whale hunt
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trade he married her and brought her
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back to avaldness
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and so there was a dark-skinned Queen
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here on arveldness
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although for hundreds of kilometers
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northwards Norwegian geography offers
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nothing but mountains and deep fjords
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perfect for Sheltering ships from the
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Atlantic Gales but hopeless for farming
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Here Local Chieftains found a profitable
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way of exploiting the rocky coastline
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by extorting a Tong from Rich Merchants
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passing through
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they sent their ships out to control the
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sea traffic
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and it is this channel outside
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arvoldness that created avaldness and
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turned avardness into a center of power
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for three thousand years
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one has to be clear about the fact that
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Voyage is down to the continent from
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Sweden and Scandinavia were something
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that had been going on many years before
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the period that we call the Viking era
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in that way the Vikings only followed an
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already well-worn path
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we know that the contacts between the
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continent and Sweden and Scandinavia
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were comprehensive and extensive already
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during the early Iron Age
00:14:29
evidence of ancient trade links with the
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East along Russia's Rivers were found
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here on the shores of lake malarin in
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Sweden where archaeologists found this
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bronze Buddha dating back to 750 A.D
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foreign
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[Music]
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yes the Little Buddha statue was found
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in the 1950s in a settlement on an
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island outside of Stockholm named Helio
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it was found in a house there we know
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that it was made in today's Pakistan in
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the SWAT Valley and that it dates to
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about 400 years after Christ
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Stone
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Oaks around the toilet
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haleo and birka were trading Emporia on
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lake malarin near Stockholm here on
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aldol saw Island on the other side of
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the lake from birka the local Chiefs
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taxed and extorted protection money from
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Traders and industrialists creating
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easily disposable wealth that they could
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spread among their followers there was a
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long house a port and reception halls as
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the seat of political power it was built
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at a healthy distance from the
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industrial town where Traders and
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Craftsmen labored in grimy and filthy
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conditions
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the layers of waste are so thick and
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there is so much garbage that lies
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inside these places you must also
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remember that many of these places first
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and foremost birka had no natural
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surrounding areas out on the farms They
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removed the waste they used as a manure
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for the fields and things like that but
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in these places that space was missing
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other trading towns grew and Faded Away
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in Norway all that is left of cowpang on
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the shore of Oslo Fjord are a few Mounds
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dating back to the earliest years of the
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Viking age
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as at birka here a powerful military
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Elite taxed trade in exchange for
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protection what we can see in the whole
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of Europe is that when these early
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cities rise they have connections to
00:16:45
Kings and the powerful the connection
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can be indirect cities need protection
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they need military protection because
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trade is not a barbaric thing it's a
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peaceful thing and Tradesmen are mostly
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engaged in other things than War they
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want protection kalpang on the edge of
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Norway's Oslo Fjord actually revealed
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surprising cultural influences from the
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south and the first self-proclaimed king
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of Denmark
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and in kalpang we look South because if
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we look at the Scandinavian jewelry in
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the graves in kalpan culturally it's a
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connection to the South and what was
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there of powerful kings in the south of
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Scandinavia around the 800s King
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gottfred
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King gottfred was little more than a
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warlord based in Northern Denmark
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competing with others to control
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farmland and trade he founded the
00:17:45
trading towns of hidden
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on the very edges of the lands he
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controlled taxing all those who traded
00:17:53
in his realm it was a violent way of
00:17:56
life where workers toiled in miserable
00:17:58
conditions and Traders risked their
00:18:01
lives on the high seas
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suffering attacks but also pillaging
00:18:06
themselves where they could armed to the
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teeth and ready for anything
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[Music]
00:18:14
so we don't have clear traces of plunder
00:18:17
there but at the same time they did plan
00:18:20
the other places that's obvious and we
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have some indirect traces we've got
00:18:25
pieces of ecclesiastic inventory from
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the British Isles where they had been
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broken off and robbed and made into the
00:18:32
jury that we found lying in the graves
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the most ancient power center Found in
00:18:41
Denmark was a Chieftains camp at Lyra
00:18:44
close to the modern city of roskilde on
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the island of Zealand
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the ancient burial grounds and the Royal
00:18:52
Halls here date back to the late Iron
00:18:55
Age and Viking age
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[Music]
00:19:00
scholars believe this is the place that
00:19:03
inspired the old English epic poem about
00:19:06
Beowulf
00:19:07
proving an ancient tie between the two
00:19:10
lands
00:19:11
Tom Christensen has excavated here for
00:19:14
decades and explains the ancient ties
00:19:17
with England
00:19:21
as it does what happens in England is
00:19:23
that the Romans leave the island and
00:19:26
then the German immigration begins
00:19:28
together with Danish tribes we know that
00:19:31
people from Jutland settled in Kent for
00:19:33
example so there must have been cultural
00:19:36
and perhaps also personal contact
00:19:38
between the head of Clans between
00:19:40
Denmark and England
00:19:46
the legendary era Kings here in Denmark
00:19:49
were known as the school Deans
00:19:52
descendants of Odin The ancestral pagan
00:19:55
gods legitimized the rule of the Kings
00:19:58
here committing them to defending the
00:20:00
old religion as long as they could
00:20:11
was the son of Odin so he was the son of
00:20:15
God it was quite common that the royal
00:20:17
families created connections to the gods
00:20:20
as a baby schooled was sent on a ship to
00:20:23
the country of the Danes so a ship
00:20:25
arrived from nowhere with this baby on
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board
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relations with the gods were necessary
00:20:35
to be able to call yourself King
00:20:37
you had to have a Godly descendant
00:20:41
and afterwards we have got these stories
00:20:44
the purana sagas about the genealogy of
00:20:48
the kings that were here
00:20:50
[Music]
00:20:52
if the origins of Viking culture have
00:20:55
been lost in The Mists of time today
00:20:58
archaeologists and Scholars are shedding
00:21:01
new light on the Dark Ages in
00:21:03
Scandinavia today we know very little
00:21:05
about early Scandinavian culture but the
00:21:09
extraordinary Viking sagas written down
00:21:12
200 years after the end of the Viking
00:21:14
age did record the legendary Feats of
00:21:17
Vikings as repeated in poems handed down
00:21:21
orally generation after Generation by
00:21:24
Court poets
00:21:26
the old North the
00:21:29
Old Norse sagas the ancient Nordic
00:21:32
sources are from a later date they are
00:21:34
written down several years after the
00:21:36
Viking era and they are also written
00:21:38
down by Chronicles in Scandinavia who
00:21:41
were Christians and who lived in a
00:21:42
Christian context and who wrote from
00:21:44
their own Christian conception of the
00:21:46
world so to speak differently
00:21:55
runic inscriptions show a Common
00:21:58
Language between the inhabitants of
00:22:00
Norway Sweden and Denmark this
00:22:03
non-standardized 16-letter runor
00:22:06
alphabet used sound values inscribed on
00:22:10
Stone or wood by Scandinavians
00:22:13
then there are the runic inscriptions
00:22:16
first and foremost in this part of
00:22:18
Scandinavia and they are contemporary
00:22:20
but they have their own special problems
00:22:22
because the messages are often very
00:22:24
short and concise really they tell us
00:22:27
nothing about Society at that time
00:22:30
the runestones used a standard layout of
00:22:33
Scandinavian iconography mainly to
00:22:36
commemorate the dead and sometimes for
00:22:39
magic Carl Dahlberg is a modern day
00:22:42
runestone Carver who lives on adilsor
00:22:45
island this ornament shows a flying
00:22:48
dragon and is maybe the most beautiful
00:22:50
I've seen on a runestone unfortunately
00:22:53
the stone once fell so half the dragon's
00:22:57
nose has broken
00:22:58
but we see the eye and the neck goes
00:23:02
down here and a beautiful Wing here
00:23:06
then the poor is here with two claws
00:23:10
and the tail goes down in a circle here
00:23:14
and another Circle here
00:23:17
with some artistic license the tail is
00:23:20
turned into a foot with two Claws and a
00:23:25
small thumb the runestones were usually
00:23:27
red starting with the head of the Dragon
00:23:30
but this one was different
00:23:34
and here he writes your girl and fast
00:23:41
gear
00:23:42
and Eric
00:23:45
had this Stone painted after their
00:23:47
father vorge
00:23:50
then there is an addition
00:23:53
f r e h n
00:23:58
their father something very special
00:24:04
even after the Vikings had become
00:24:07
Christians the dragon remained a key
00:24:10
feature of their culture and figured on
00:24:12
runestones for centuries the dragon
00:24:15
painted on these runestones is generally
00:24:18
tied in some way either there is a leash
00:24:21
between the neck and the tail that binds
00:24:24
the two together or the leash is
00:24:26
interwoven here it is interwoven and
00:24:29
therefore it is a sort of rule that if
00:24:32
you follow this tale for example it goes
00:24:36
over next time under the leash over
00:24:39
under over under over under and it has
00:24:45
to be like that all the way so if the
00:24:48
dragon tries to flee it just gets
00:24:50
Tangled Up
00:24:53
unlike parchment or paper carving a rune
00:24:57
Stone left no margin for error
00:25:00
then he cuts the runic inscription that
00:25:03
is ordered he cuts runes after runes and
00:25:07
at the end he writes his father he
00:25:10
forgot the r he must of course have an R
00:25:14
so the solution is that either he must
00:25:16
cut an ah here below or he must place it
00:25:20
inside the sentence he then chooses to
00:25:23
place it inside and I know being a rune
00:25:26
Carver myself that when he discovered
00:25:29
that he forgot the r then he got so
00:25:32
angry it really bugs him he pulled his
00:25:36
hair how could I do that and the whole
00:25:39
day is ruined
00:25:43
outside the Scandinavian World churchmen
00:25:46
wrote about the Pagan Vikings as a
00:25:48
scourge of God threatening centuries of
00:25:51
work building new Christian kingdoms to
00:25:54
protect and propagate the faith
00:25:57
the pan Scandinavian culture that was so
00:26:00
threatening to the Christian world was
00:26:02
cruel but effective
00:26:04
only Warriors who died in battle made it
00:26:07
to the mythical Paradise of Valhalla to
00:26:10
fight during the day and feast by night
00:26:13
here the one-eyed god Odin ruled this
00:26:17
Warrior Paradise with the aid of a raven
00:26:19
and the valkyria's dead Vikings played
00:26:24
board games that simulated battle the
00:26:27
fine game pieces found in the sarima
00:26:29
ships were carved with dragons
00:26:33
there were about 325 gaming pieces some
00:26:37
were fragmented but still it's a huge
00:26:40
number and there were a few dice made
00:26:42
from Tusk and in general there are two
00:26:45
types of gaming pieces the game was
00:26:48
called nephotaffel and was very popular
00:26:50
in pre-viking and Viking times so this
00:26:53
is a Swedish King who is the main
00:26:55
character
00:26:56
nefertafel means the king's table so it
00:26:59
is the king who is being attacked by the
00:27:02
muscovids the enemies
00:27:04
the gods were not necessarily good
00:27:07
the Viking Chief buried on sarima island
00:27:10
possessed a luxurious jewel encrusted
00:27:13
sword
00:27:14
the representation of the canine God
00:27:17
fendrir tells us a lot about the early
00:27:20
Viking beliefs
00:27:21
the dog's father Loki was a famous
00:27:24
trickster revered by Pirates
00:27:29
now here we have a very nice sword
00:27:32
handle detail and it's a bit different
00:27:34
from the others we can see a very nice
00:27:36
symbol in the form of a two-faced animal
00:27:40
it is possible that it was a mythical
00:27:42
Hunter the son of Loki called fendrir
00:27:45
with a human face and animal hands
00:27:48
foreign
00:27:58
Odin and his brother Thor whose Hammer
00:28:02
amulets are present in every Viking
00:28:04
excavation had killed the previous God
00:28:07
Emir and made the world out of his body
00:28:11
Odin's family was vast and if Loki was
00:28:15
destined to betray his brothers cousin
00:28:17
freyja had quite a different role
00:28:28
who was both the goddess of war and of
00:28:30
love and when there had been a battle
00:28:32
freyr was the first to come to the
00:28:35
battlefield with her wagon drawn by big
00:28:37
cats and it was Freya Who first got to
00:28:40
pick out her half of the men who had
00:28:42
fallen those that she didn't want went
00:28:45
to Odin in Valhalla
00:28:48
there's a prayer is
00:28:53
women played a vital role in religion
00:29:02
here at the lighter land of Legends
00:29:05
experimental Center in Denmark a
00:29:08
priestess shows how the gods and Spirits
00:29:11
would be summoned
00:29:20
there were volvas for example volvas
00:29:24
that could see the future and the past
00:29:26
and it is said in the voluspa Saga that
00:29:30
Odin himself goes to a Volva and asks
00:29:33
her to tell him about the past and the
00:29:35
future
00:29:46
most of pre-christian Viking religious
00:29:49
worship took place Outdoors
00:29:52
in open spaces and sacred Groves
00:29:56
no temples remain
00:29:58
though the German cleric Adam of Bremen
00:30:01
described one at Old uppsala in
00:30:04
modern-day Sweden as a large feasting
00:30:07
Hall Ahmad Al fatlan was a 10th Century
00:30:11
Arab traveler along the vanga river in
00:30:14
modern-day Russia Al fatlan tells us the
00:30:17
Russian Vikings worshiped in open places
00:30:20
often in Woodland or by Springs he
00:30:24
describes an elaborate Viking funeral
00:30:26
right with the sacrifice of a slave girl
00:30:29
and a ship burning
00:30:35
there were two forms of sacrifice known
00:30:38
as blot
00:30:40
one in which animals objects and at
00:30:43
times humans were sacrificed to a God
00:30:46
and the remains would be thrown into
00:30:48
peat bogs or Springs
00:30:50
such as this one recreated here at the
00:30:53
experimental settlement at Lyra in
00:30:55
Denmark
00:30:57
in another form of sacrifice the
00:31:00
participants ate the meat of the
00:31:02
sacrificed animal in company in a common
00:31:05
building add some Edith all you see here
00:31:09
is based on archaeological findings for
00:31:12
example the horses have been recreated
00:31:14
after we found a horse skull the Hooves
00:31:17
and the bones of the lower leg in a
00:31:19
Danish bog the rest was not found so
00:31:21
this is our interpretation what may have
00:31:24
happened is a feast to the gods where
00:31:26
the horse meat was eaten and then they
00:31:29
hung up the skin on a support with the
00:31:30
hoofs dangling at some point the horse
00:31:33
Pelt and the support decomposed and the
00:31:36
remains fell down into the bog
00:31:40
the idea that a man or woman might be
00:31:43
sacrificed to the gods to propitiate
00:31:46
some divine intervention went back to
00:31:48
the earliest times of Scandinavian
00:31:50
history
00:31:53
we have the talent man
00:31:55
his neck and a belt around his waist the
00:31:58
herd removes a woman with all her
00:32:00
clothes and equipment like Combs that
00:32:02
have been carefully laid down in the Bog
00:32:05
the Tolland man was hanged to death in
00:32:08
sacrifice and found in the Pete bog of
00:32:11
suckerberg in southern Denmark The
00:32:13
Remains date back to the 4th Century BC
00:32:16
Vikings 2 through valuable objects and
00:32:19
the bodies of sacrificial victims into
00:32:22
bogs and springs like these two
00:32:24
four-year-old boys found in a well at
00:32:27
trelleborg it was an ancient Pagan
00:32:30
tradition three Christian clerics
00:32:32
described human sacrifices among them
00:32:35
tietmar of meyersburg wrote that every
00:32:38
nine years humans and animals were
00:32:41
sacrificed by the Dozen at Lyra
00:32:47
describes the terrible and cruel things
00:32:50
taking place in laare blood sacrifices
00:32:53
and the like then you have to remember
00:32:55
that this is a Christian's point of view
00:32:57
of pagan traditions besides this titmal
00:33:01
was of noble family and some of his
00:33:03
relatives have been taken hostage by the
00:33:05
Danish King so he was personally
00:33:07
involved and may not have been
00:33:09
completely neutral in his presentation
00:33:17
Adam from Bremen relates what the Danish
00:33:20
Kings Sven estradson has told him and
00:33:23
here we are already in about the year
00:33:25
one thousand
00:33:26
so there is a big difference in time
00:33:28
here
00:33:29
but there is also the fact that we know
00:33:31
that different parts of Scandinavia
00:33:32
perform different ceremonies first and
00:33:35
foremost regarding funerals and events
00:33:37
like that how extensive human sacrifice
00:33:40
was is incredibly difficult to say
00:33:42
because then we must be able to Define
00:33:44
how these people came to lie in the
00:33:46
grave so to speak
00:33:56
the Norseman spread westwards to the
00:34:00
British Isles and Iceland taking with
00:34:02
them their ancient Pagan culture which
00:34:05
clashed with the Christian Empire's
00:34:07
power and religion went hand in hand in
00:34:10
the merciless struggle that lasted 300
00:34:13
years
00:34:14
in Europe the Pagan Viking culture
00:34:17
clashed violently with the expanding
00:34:20
Christian world but in Iceland the
00:34:23
settlers kept their traditions for
00:34:25
centuries to come sacrifices were held
00:34:28
in a room at the end of the larger long
00:34:30
houses that served as a shrine and the
00:34:33
banqueting hall was the place where the
00:34:35
members of the community came to eat the
00:34:37
Flesh of the sacrificed animal the
00:34:40
Icelandic law books tell us that the
00:34:42
richest farmer the most powerful man in
00:34:45
any one area would also be the priest
00:34:48
the priests were also the speakers at
00:34:51
the Assembly of all three men here at
00:34:54
the thing dealer where icelanders
00:34:56
exercised their right to debate public
00:34:58
issues making Iceland the earliest
00:35:01
modern democracy in the world
00:35:07
the typical Scandinavian home was called
00:35:10
a longhouse the northernmost of the
00:35:12
Shetland Isles
00:35:13
Ernst has the highest concentration of
00:35:16
long houses in all of Britain and was a
00:35:19
hub of Scandinavian expansion into the
00:35:22
Atlantic Shetland and honest in
00:35:24
particular is right in the middle of the
00:35:26
Viking seaways so it's the obvious place
00:35:29
if you're going from Norway across to
00:35:32
Pharaoh Iceland Greenland or even
00:35:35
America or even up and around going sort
00:35:38
of North about and then down to Ireland
00:35:40
and man and that direction shetland's
00:35:43
right in the middle here at yalzhof in
00:35:46
the Shetland Isles there is evidence
00:35:48
that the early Scandinavian settlers
00:35:51
reused the houses built by the original
00:35:53
pictish people who inhabited the islands
00:35:56
before they arrived
00:35:58
initially people came here trading and
00:36:01
that would have been the first Contact
00:36:02
and the first Contact would certainly
00:36:04
have have been on that level and they
00:36:06
would have been finding out what it was
00:36:08
like in Shetland as a result of of that
00:36:10
we do know that in the end the pictures
00:36:14
people
00:36:16
um kind of completely their their way of
00:36:18
life was subsumed completely by the
00:36:20
Vikings Viking Society was based on
00:36:23
family allegiances and laws there was a
00:36:26
three-tier class system split into a
00:36:28
small ruling Elite or yards
00:36:32
free Farmers known as Bondi and slaves
00:36:36
as Prosperity increased the Scandinavian
00:36:39
birth rate grew and family leaders had
00:36:42
to find more land and ever greater
00:36:45
opportunities for their offspring
00:36:46
Independence while the rise of the
00:36:49
Warlords left little space for the more
00:36:52
independent-minded Petty Chieftains it
00:36:55
seems that Prosperity rather than
00:36:57
starvation drove the first raids ships
00:37:01
were expensive to build and required
00:37:04
social cohesion
00:37:06
armor and weapons too took organization
00:37:10
and taking men away from farming during
00:37:12
the summer months meant that someone
00:37:14
else was looking after the crops the
00:37:17
role of women therefore was key to
00:37:20
keeping the community functioning
00:37:24
it was the women who ruled the farm and
00:37:27
as a symbol of that they had keys
00:37:30
and they kept those keys with the rest
00:37:32
of their valuables
00:37:34
and since the men traveled out a lot
00:37:36
they were counting on the women to keep
00:37:38
order back home
00:37:43
[Music]
00:37:45
women enjoyed greater political and
00:37:48
economic rights than in the Christian
00:37:50
world too as the lady of ozaberg
00:37:53
demonstrates with her rich funeral goods
00:37:55
and fine trading ship
00:37:59
when they held a meeting the pool went
00:38:02
to those
00:38:03
when they gathered in the small villages
00:38:05
the women also had the right to join
00:38:08
that means they had the right to vote
00:38:13
in 793 Calamity struck the English
00:38:16
Kingdom of northumbria Raiders of
00:38:18
Unknown Origin attacked the undefended
00:38:21
monastery of lindisfan and took away
00:38:24
everything of value these men would soon
00:38:27
be known as the Vikings considered by
00:38:30
Christians to be a scourge of God
00:38:33
but the Vikings had been raiding and
00:38:36
dominating key points on trade routes as
00:38:38
far away as Russia long before they
00:38:41
officially entered the history books
00:38:44
[Music]
00:38:48
some messages
00:38:51
we found seven male skeletons in the
00:38:54
first ship in Salome and they were not
00:38:57
buried systematically they were located
00:38:59
in different places and in the second
00:39:03
ship we found 33 or 34 human skeletons
00:39:07
and fragments
00:39:09
and now we know that 10 of these have
00:39:12
blade wounds and six have multiple
00:39:15
injuries
00:39:22
the ship Graves puzzled the
00:39:24
archaeologists
00:39:26
the battle wounds of the 40 men buried
00:39:29
here show that the relationship with the
00:39:31
local inhabitants was probably violent
00:39:34
yet the rich grave Goods show that there
00:39:36
was a lot more to this Expedition than
00:39:39
pure pillage
00:39:45
these people were killed in battle
00:39:47
because we have evidence of that on
00:39:49
their remains especially on hands and
00:39:52
legs for example we have an upper arm
00:39:56
that was hacked in four different places
00:39:59
also we have injuries from swords on
00:40:02
other arms like someone was defending
00:40:05
himself with the upper arm also we have
00:40:08
skulls with obvious injuries
00:40:15
I don't know what those people were
00:40:17
doing there they might even have been a
00:40:20
wedding delegation peaceful visitors but
00:40:22
we really don't know for sure what was
00:40:24
the main reason for their being here and
00:40:26
it is very strange that there are so
00:40:28
many luxury items swords gaming pieces
00:40:31
dogs birds and so on not typical battle
00:40:35
ammunition
00:40:38
liquid
00:40:46
is
00:40:49
the Vikings penetrated the Baltic
00:40:52
Coastline and traded and raided deep
00:40:55
into the East European Plain
00:40:58
The Roots passed through starya ladoga
00:41:01
North Russia where fines of Scandinavian
00:41:04
amulets and runic inscriptions on wood
00:41:07
show that the Vikings were trading with
00:41:10
if not ruling this strategic place on
00:41:13
the volkerth river by the mid 8th
00:41:15
century
00:41:16
the Finns Slavs and eventually the
00:41:20
militarily dominant Scandinavians traded
00:41:23
here for centuries before the Vikings
00:41:25
are mentioned in written Chronicles they
00:41:28
founded the trading town of novgurat
00:41:30
just as on the other side of Europe
00:41:33
other Vikings were plundering Paris
00:41:39
the question is why does it escalate why
00:41:43
this Sudden Rush the factors that have
00:41:46
contributed to it first and foremost are
00:41:48
the fact that people then as well as now
00:41:50
are opportunistic in the sense that some
00:41:53
areas where the situation was unstable
00:41:55
we must remember that for example the
00:41:58
Frankish Empire was in dissolution and
00:42:00
not to mention the British Isles there
00:42:02
were lots of conflicts in that area as
00:42:04
well
00:42:10
the great Frankish Empire to the South
00:42:13
was ruled by Charlemagne who
00:42:15
aggressively expanded his realm in the
00:42:18
late 8th Century he began a 30-year
00:42:21
campaign to forcibly convert the Saxons
00:42:24
the southern neighbors of the Danes to
00:42:26
Christianity pressing North toward the
00:42:29
fiercely Pagan Scandinavian world
00:42:34
Charlemagne spilled just as much blood
00:42:37
as the Vikings
00:42:38
so maybe the Viking raid started out as
00:42:41
a military operation but after a while
00:42:43
people discovered that there is money to
00:42:46
be earned here
00:42:47
and then it developed into ordinary
00:42:50
plunder
00:42:54
edness
00:42:55
[Music]
00:42:56
gathered around him a military force
00:42:59
that was able to hold together most of
00:43:01
Norway
00:43:02
a great battle at hayat's Fjord brought
00:43:06
him final victory over the petty Kings
00:43:08
and Pirates of Westfall and caused an
00:43:11
exodus to Iceland indeed it was during
00:43:15
the upheavals of the war to unify Norway
00:43:17
under Harold that we see the greatest
00:43:20
Viking emigration
00:43:23
between 846 and 865 the Vikings attacked
00:43:27
both England and France often taking
00:43:30
advantage of the chaos that Afflicted
00:43:32
the great Empire of Charlemagne uh
00:43:37
Norwegian Vikings went the furthest of
00:43:40
all people in their time
00:43:42
and they went as explorers not as
00:43:44
Bandits to Rob but as explorers and
00:43:47
Tradesmen all of that comes down to the
00:43:51
ship technology they developed
00:43:53
it was a case of life or death
00:44:01
the Baltic and North Seas facilitated
00:44:05
the sense of pan-scandinavian community
00:44:09
ships traveled swiftly along the coast
00:44:11
or across the sea while land travel was
00:44:14
slow and dangerous
00:44:17
it is no surprise therefore that
00:44:19
expansion into the rich Plains of Russia
00:44:21
or raiding up the rivers of prosperous
00:44:24
England and France was an easier option
00:44:27
than cutting the forests and farming the
00:44:30
land of Inland Sweden and Norway
00:44:34
while early Scandinavian Society became
00:44:37
more organized and benefited from trade
00:44:40
between the far north and the far south
00:44:42
its appetite for wealth earned or stolen
00:44:46
grew
00:44:47
its ability to organize a predatory
00:44:50
economy grew with it
00:44:53
although they instilled Terror in their
00:44:55
victims the Vikings were just the more
00:44:58
aggressive face of a fast evolving
00:45:00
Scandinavian Society whose influence
00:45:03
spread from Modern Day Canada to the
00:45:06
Caspian Sea
00:45:08
The Secret of their success lay in their
00:45:11
nautical technology and unique social
00:45:13
cohesion
00:45:15
together we're a formidable weapon for
00:45:17
these Empire builders
