So long as they don't go overboard: "yeah, there's nothing to suggest that people dove from the top of 50 metre buildings into a cart full of hay without taking any physical damage".
@@Sevren_ For example: the Orlog dice game was invented purely for Assassin's Creed Valhalla and never really existed. But to be fair to the developers it felt like a game that could've existed in the middle ages. Another example was when the devs ironically got something right by accident: not only is Ravensthorpe a real place but it's also located in roughly the same part of the Midlands as it is in the game.
It would actually be very interesting! You would get a view of the norse culture, like stricked genderroles, religious rites and their relationship with the local Jarl. You could start the game by chosing male or female, and have two totally different game experiences! Choosing male: Working in the feilds, go hunting, going to 'the Thing' and have political discussions, or even go on small local raids, being a random soldier in an army. Even challenge a rival to a holmgang, or even just go trading with strangers from other lands Choosing female: Being the leader and main control of the farm, ordering Thralls and workers around, managing enough food for the winter, and being picky in who you want to get married off to. Even have a scenario where your husband dies and you have to take over his Chores. Or being the religious leader (Vulva) and do magic by connecting with the gods. I could imagine using the Kingdom Come deliverance engine, and simply expanding it to add the sea and farming elements
heh, i would kill to see a classical philologist reacting to people speaking modern greek in 5th cent. BC in odyssey and modern icelandic in 9. cent AD in valhalla
@@moty6369 I think he meant that essentially none of the features that you could think of as defining an Assassin's Creed game (the ability to assassinate people, for instance) exist in Odyssey. It's not a bad action-RPG game, but it's not an Assassin's Creed game despite the fact that it says Assassin's Creed in the title.
@@SRosenberg203 you can assassinate in the game and there's even two different ways you can do it. the only difference is there is hidden blade which is switched for the spear . So yea i think it's an assassins creed game. Just difference time period.
Did they just said they hadn't seen vikings wield Bow and arrows?, When bows and arrows are the second most widely used weapons next to spears. War bows have been found buried with vikings in many places, like in Hedeby for example.
Ummm dude re learn, a viking can not make it to valhalla without dieing a honorable death. There's no honor killing from a distance sad to see such ignorance
@@robinraphael care to share the source of this information ? because this is the first time i have heared from it also wich specific part of norse religion are you refering to because each tribe had their own believe system and their own morals and codes , there was not one viking religion it was all diffrent
@@shaunsmale9160 yeah but it has been atested in some sags's i believe Njál's saga mentions bow. And Einar Eindridesson Thambarskelfir from Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla was a very proficient norse bowman
@@everopeneye3290 they would also be implying that they never came across and used the bows that they found on raids. Englishmen are famous for their longbows and guess where the Vikings landed lol
@@IBBMS if they think that the Scandinavians got their bows from the English then their knowledge on the Vikings is severely limited. There’s evidence of bows in Scandinavia prior to the Viking age and there’s excessive mention of them in the sagas
The idea that they “conquered but didn’t stick around” is pure bollocks. They conquered Northern France, a large portion of the British isles and settled huge swathes of Eastern Europe. Half of the stuff these two talk about sounds like it comes from films they have watched and games they have played. I’m sure they are knowledgable in their chosen field but that field clearly isn’t pre-Christian Scandinavia or the vikings. Why wouldn’t you try to get experts that actually know about the thing you are asking them to review.
They should’ve used somebody with extensive knowledge on Nordic and Scandinavian cultures instead of just general historians, “the rainbow bridge is influenced by marvel”, no they have it backwards, marvel Thor is influenced by Norse mythology and culture
no shit idiot. they were referring to how cinematic they made it seem. They were spot on the entire video and much isnt really known about the Vikings compared to other things in history.
@@sk33t_38 "spot on" and you know this how? with your wikipedia knowledge? and history lessons from general historians that only briefly touches subjects? they literally mention how they know nothing and base their "knowledge " on fucking movies.
If I recall from my Anthro class, the original concept of Valhalla was basically just a big mead hall, not some tall majestic castle. Basically just a big longhouse with lots of dead people drinking, and then they went outside to fight and die, and got back inside the mead hall to drink again.
Did a BA in History at Utrecht University. If I learned anything, I learned that history is so vast that one needs to be specialised to say something about anything. "Am a historian" doesn't mean they know anything about Norse history.
These are historians? They don't seem like they know what they're saying. Drinking from horns - "OH, that looks legit. At least from what I've seen in the movies." Mfers don't don't even know if they did this outside of movies, yet they're giving "historical" insight on the vikings. What the actual fuck.
Well, they're clearly way outside their own wheelhouses. Tattoos for example - the slim evidence proponents usually put forth as the main source is the account of Ibn Fadlan, but even that is suspect. The language he uses indicates "painted" skin, which was just as likely to have been temporary to coincide with the ritual burial he also witnessed. More damningly, there is NO WORD for tattoo in either Old Norse or Old High German. There is also no mention of tattooing in the sagas. No tools for tattooing have been found. Many detailed descriptions come down to us, including the composition and color of clothing, what jewelry and weapons they had, how they wore their hair, etc., but nothing about tattoos. If tattoos had been an important part of Norse culture, they certainly would have commented on particularly distinguishing or impressive tattoos. But because the "Vikings" tv show had tattoos, and modern folks perceive them as very tribal, some people think it's a fact.
@@Terror_Rick I mean, she is a historian after all, so even if it's misleading, it's not wrong. I think they don't just have every type of historian, so they try to make do with what they have.
This channel often has misleading titles, and also shady ''experts''. These experts often are actually knowledgeble, but in fields only somewhat related to the topic at hand and the producers probably just said : ''Close enough.'' Like a boxer/martial artist reacting to swordfights, or war journalists reacting to first person shooters. And the level of preparation is often ABYSMAL. I think if the scholars had a day or two of time to do some research on the game, the level of commentary would be MUCH better. And let's not forget the power of crappy editing...
@@Luzitanium i mean I agree with you that they don't know what they are talking about, but its cause they are from the wrong fields, thats all. Like, the younger woman clearly knows her shit about anthropology, that just barely applies to knowing any specifics at all about 800s English society. Its not because she's a feminist. Like seriously, the whole "feminizm is soo crimge!!!!" Thing is so 2015.
@@Zonedoutallthetime I mean like yeah kinda... most historians have specialist subjects, it would be just impractical to have someone who vaguely covers all areas of history aside from like in schools. Go to any museum with an actual history department and you'll see that they've all got an area of expertise.
Correct why do they just not ask the countrys historians Us is like hit and miss so much is inacurate and false visited smithsonian exibit they clerly dont know anything about Us Nords but i can say this much we and a couple from Spain laugh alot becose it become like a joke a teenager could have done better my advise to those intrested visit Denmark and Norway .they have exellent museums My self come from Sweden
I'm a bit disappointed by how generalised these historians reactions are, either they needed to prepare better material or specific specialists in a field such as medieval studies should have been consulted
Well to be fair one is an Assistant professor with probably more knowledge with Europe Medieval history and the other is Archeology proffesor, so hey if Gamology will have to get an special Historian specialize for one specific time period for each game they will have to get many different Historians and that could be a pain
I mean the video they were watching didn't really show much so they could talk about something specifically... They didn't even show Aelfred which I was hoping for..
@@doyouevenpraise189 yeah but by the time you're at any form of a professorship you've probably already dug out a niche in your studies. I would suspect that the two we saw here do have a focused area of study it just may not be this era (I know the anthropologist mentioned holding a norse axehead in Sweden but for argument's sake that could have potentially happened on holiday) Outside of their area of study I wouldn't expect historians to have much more knowledge than a college educated history buff and I don't expect that gameology would have made that distinction, leading to some fairly watery historical analysis.
@@OGx1411 Agreed, definately missed out on talking about the contextual goings on of the Dane law in a political and military manner, although if we're going off of what they saw there's some pretty huge anachronisms they could've highlighted which I feel were left out or glossed over
Yeah honestly they don’t seem like they know too much about vikings specifically. Most historians I know know a ton about their niche but little about other areas of history.
Perhaps they also understand its a game. A lot of "Experts react" videos have the experts literally not taking into account that some stuff needs to be translated differently depending on the media or for storytelling purposes. I mean you main character needs to visually tell something.
A lot of Norse used throwing spears, only those of high status generally used a sword and they definitely did have bows as there are finds of it(Yew bow in Hedeby & Arrowheads), many were hunters.
@@thebk247 Not really, European armies had a lot more diversity than you’d think for the time. The Frankish military was different than the Byzantines for example. However local petty kingdoms of the same culture fought very similar. Like the Anglo Saxons.
@@houseofaction as far as I know, the Germanic tribes of the 5th century did field javelins. The practice *may* have carried on by some Vikings. I know that the Anglo Saxons and Welsh has javelins so maybe the professional forces and levies of a actual Norse army, not Viking raiders, would have used javelins
@@yyg4632 this has been heavily dramatized, people 1500 years ago were not much different then modern humans, most people act has if the average European men in 7th-10th century were 5 feet tall but actually the average height for a European man in that time period was only about 3 inches shorter then they are today which would be 5'6/5'7 for back then and 5'8/5'9 today, so it's very much possible for 6 foot or taller Vikings to have existed, we've even discovered bones of some being around 7 feet, although that is incredibly rare even by today's standards
Sorry guys, but these "experts" may be historians and professors but their knowledge in vikings ways of living aren't that great. Just look at the churches that were burnt down in Norway in the 1990's. That's architecture for ya'll.
@@kanglongshankz3313 there has been churches in Sweden, Denmark and Norway since 900s and there's been worshipping buildings since the 700s.I wrote "churches" to make it easier for the readers. The Norsemens skills in architecture are widely known in Scandinavian countries..
Its the "dark ages", after all. That term isnt used all that much these days, but it is correct in the sense that we are "in the dark" about these times and dont really know all that much about them. "Vikings" are just an extremely frustrating area of research. Almost no useful primary sources combined with the absurdly biased approach of the NS and soviet archeologists who discovered and disturbed most of the archaeological record sadly results in most historians not even bothering with this stuff.
@@thehighwayman8776 Not true, we have LOADS of Archeological finds from the Viking age in Scandianvia. Its true there is as litte as no writings, but People literally live on top of hundreds of Viking farms that hasent been dug up yet due legal and financial reasons. I live in Rogaland in Norway, and work at the local museum. we have daily discussions of feilds that we know have findings we are not allowed to dig up. The problem is that there a some things we find a lot of/all the time, while others are really rare and hard
I was weirded out by how they brought up Finland as reference for viking buildings. Finland was a part of Sweden, which is a descendant of viking culture, but Finland was never viking itself. That main building is called a longhouse and you can check out a legit reconstruction of one in Lofoten islands, Norway for reference.
About the "Throwing axes" there are axes to wield and others you can throw... Throw an axes that has the right balance it's not that hard, it's way easier than throwing a knife (and a skilled warrior as a viking could definitely throw an axe without problems)
Like they said a throwing axe was plausible to use as a effective weapon during a raid but you had to be really skilled at it in order to use it to it's max potential.
@@jgun4125 I'm a martial artist and i have done both, throwing knifes and axes (I'm not saying I'm good at it, but i have done it) it's not that hard, definitely a warrior with practice can use it as a tool in battle
"we haven't seen them wielding projectile weapons" there are tonnes of evidence that bows were used for hunting and warfare by the vikings. Who found these "historians" ?
lmao get your comprehension and ego in check. you dont know more than historians just because you spend hours imagining youre a viking. and they said they havent seen those weapons in the game yet.
@@-_pi_- yes, precisely. The Frankish empire (germanic not exactly Norse) had an entire class of soldier equipped with throwing Axes inspired by Roman war dart troops. I’m sure that if France did the Vikings MUST have. And swords were a very expensive weapon that only the best of the best of the Norse warriors were equipped with.
Shield Maidens are NOT a confirmed fact. It’s actually a hotly debated topic among historians of the Viking period. Yes there were some women who were buried with weapons, but that doesn’t mean they were warriors, it just means that’s what someone put in the graves. If someone was buried with a clay pot that doesn’t mean they were a potter.
It's not even a debate. It's a wishful assertion from pseudo historians - funnily no one from Scandinavia as far as I'm aware - but from radical feminist revisionists.
@Fishy Vagina yeah, because it IS fantasy, they literally tell you to make your own viking saga... they need to change the name tbh just calling Valhalla coming or something
@@niclasjohansson5992 well actually the franks had throwing axes called the Francisca wish was in some cases better than javelins, because they bounced around and caused havoc during battle, and could be injure someone at any angle. They were also thrown in volleys or at random during battle, and it was scary. Imagine seeing a hail of axes crashing down and bouncing around randomly until they hit something. It’s dope
@@canislunaticus getting norse "experts" is the exact reason this game portrays the natives of england as villains in their own land and Portrays a bunch of Dane rapists as the heroes.
that's called intellectual honesty. If you cannot make a claim with significant evidence and sound reasoning, the correct and honest answer is 'I don't know', 'I think X based on Y' etc. You'll see 'expert' physicists like Lawrence Krause do this frequently when engaged in areas on the fringes of our collective, demonstrable knowledge despite being absolutely stellar in his field.
@Abigale They're historians, the title of the video is historians react. What on earth did you expect? One is an archaeologist and anthropologist. Anthropology includes Vikings in its scope, especially from a historical context.
Well how historians are. We base our knowledge on ancient artifacts, art , etc. it is the only knowledge we have. We don’t have the complex technology to exact facts back in the back. If we had the technology like the ones in the assassins creed series then history would be more accurate.
@@diananguyen4849 Still these women had no idea what they were talking about, maybe they are historians of different time periods because they didnt know a lot about the norse culture at all
@@haalandfilms1695 the thing is not many people do they don’t have written records like the Romans or Greeks pretty much everything we know is about them is from other people so I don’t blame them
They were fine. Not at all uppity or into cramming a social agenda down our throats. Basic game play walkthrough with some entry level historical details. Like someone below stated, they probably specialize in other areas or times. Video was less than I’d hoped it would be but Not at all hard to watch. They are friendly, competent commentators, and what they didn’t know, those of us that do can fill in ourselves.
@@jackj9816 We don't know a lot about the daily lives or their cultural ideas about the world, However we do have A LOT of Archeological evidence of their daily rutines, Almost every single farm in my county (Rogaland, in Norway) is built up on an old Iron age or Viking age settlement. We find a lot of settlement grounds, a lot of daily artifcats from pottery, farm tools, we have found like 5000 swords, we know what food they ate, what resrouces they had avilable, we find artifacts with symbols etc etc we have a good estimation of locations of hundreds of graves that hasnt been opened yet due to leagal reasons. (Most farmers dont want people to digg up their farmland for archeology) So the idea that we have almost no info about the Vikings simply due to lack of written sources is mainly false. Its true there is a very small source of written material, however we have a very large amout of archeological findings that tell us a lot about the norse people. Somehow people abroad dont realize this. I assume people dont get that info unless they are actually working with the material themselves.
To be fair. When you study a large/ diverse timeline you tend to specialize more in certain eras plus she said we dont know as much about this era . watch the cod ww2 episode girl knows her stuff in that one.every small little detail.
Also, one even said that Vikings wouldn't throw their weapons. In another video, it was a Norwegian martial artist (Viking fighting style) even said that Youngs boys would throw their weapons when they just stood around. And the axe/bearded axe was a viking favorite due to versatility
I’d love to see them react to the earlier Assassin’s Creed game’s, especially the first 2. Those games prided themselves on being historically accurate, whilst being able to tell a loose fictional story.
“At least what I’ve seen in the movies” great historian there. Did either of them specialise in Viking history, by any chance? Ask a specialist question but don’t have a specialist answering? You wouldn’t have someone from the Renaissance department answering questions on the Cold War...🙄🙄
@@mikekrebs5598 considering you’re the only person to EVER comment on my apparent lack of sarcasm detection I think we’ll go with you have a strange concept of it. That’s on you…
@@andrewedwards2339 FFS, she's a Professor of History, a discipline that revolves around the careful treatment of sources. Nobody is going to make it that far in the discipline and still think movies are somehow a reliable source, when a historian makes a comment like this it is safe to assume from context that they are joking.
@@mikekrebs5598 funnily enough my partner is a historian, made it far in the discipline and understands the importance of a reliable source which is why having seemingly non-specialists here is such an eye roll 🙄 seems like you focused on the first part of my comment and “didn’t pick up” on the rest of my point and that’s on you.
I've not seen that longhouse in person, but based on the pictures I have seen... it doesn't seem very tall or as big in comparison to the longhouses seen in AC Valhalla. The length is there though, obviously.
Your mom jokes still relevant 10,000 years later, didnt really learn a lot. Need to prepare more material rather than oh this could kinda be real we dont know.
That's kind of the unfortunate circumstance of Viking history though. So much of what we know about them isn't from Viking sources, and what we can learn through archaeology is limited because they used a lot of easily degraded materials so it can be very hard to get a clear picture of them from what's lasted till now. I think they did the best they could with what is collectively known.
I have a feeling like there was some inaccuracies in what they were saying because they wern't really thinking about that fact of "most things about vikings weren't know." Honestly it felt very american in it's outlook it would have been nice to have Norwegian/nordic Historians, people who really know there stuff, they also were going of basic information, instead of the details that were left behind, (the marvel reference, wound me up a lot.) I think the issue with a lot of historians that don't have the right background in Viking and European history, can get it so wrong or just guess about stuff like they did in the majority in this video. I know that the team who worked on this actually worked with actual historians all the way down to the music, the game really does try to ground itself in reality as much as possible of course there will be game elements, but again you should expect that.
I live in Bristol but I grew up in York. When my housemate started playing AC:V he’d always call me in to see if I recognised spots in the city. I was forever telling him “dude it’s 2021, that building is probably a Starbucks now, leave me alone”
In the Bible they were fermenting alcohol period all the way back in Genesis so don't take these ladies that seriously they don't really know a lot of what they're talking about
Jokes aside, AC Valhalla is a brilliant game, I'm already 40 hours in and having a blast. Also, unlike Odyssey, this actually feels like an Assassin's Creed game.
@@sondersonics7534 at least this game ties into the Assassins/Hidden Ones vs Templars/Ancients conflict. Odyssey had a couple First Civ artifacts and that was it
Unlike odyssey it also shits all over the history and culture and displays the multiple natives as Villains in their own home and the Disgusting vikings as the good guys.
Next time try one of the Discovery Tour modes from AC Origins or Odyssey, be an interesting change of pace to see the more "proper" history sides of these games
Imagine being Ivarr the Boneless. Other historical figures get Alexander the Great, Ivan the Terrible, even Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye, you get "Boneless." Still getting a better deal than Æthelred the Unready I suppose.
There were theories behind why he was called "Boneless." Theories ranging from his body movements when fighting were very swift and quick, giving the illusion that he had no bones. The most popular theory was that he had brittle bone disease. It's crazy that a possible cripple is still portrayed as a bloodthirsty warrior and one of the most feared Vikings of all time.
@@SmokeyGames420 i like how the series Vikings portrayed him as a great war tactician, however crippled. Making him a ruthless and feared "warrior" in that sense.
Hey, I can use my imagination to guess what things might've been like in the viking days based on movies and TV shows I've watched too. I must be an expert historian without even knowing it.
Yea these “experts” don’t seem to really know what they are talking about. Very embarrassing when someone mentions “seeing something in a movie” and using that to make an educated declaration.
Uff, yes, someone who actually knows what they're talking about and not just guessing based on finds or possible finds from graves from whole other countries.
@@kchosen4629 I think gnep was implying that they get historians specializing in Scandinavia, not exactly that they are of those nationalities, at least that’s how I read it.
I like that you're not too sure of yourselves. A lot of experts are like "I went to school for 4 yrs and spent 200k so you can't tell me anything about this subject that spans 10,000yrs because I know all there is to know"
They didn't really explain in specifics for example,please when the historian on the left turn to the other and says "what do you think of this makeup?" She responds "you can mix animal fat with charcoal" that would have been a great opportunity to explain to us what they did with their makeup/how they wore it but we didn't get any, then showing the decor they don't explain how they decorated or what the decorations were possibly for or meant instead they talk about their own homes, at right at the beginning with the drinking out of the horns the one historian says "its right from what I've seen in movies" well shouldn't your historical knowledge not come from movies? Im also convinced the one on the left isn't that much of a historian she's always asking the other one what she thinks and doesn't state a fact herself (so far) incase the other one turns and says "actually no thzts not true" since the other historian is actually declaring some facts, but for future reference if your going to have historians review a viking game and its accuracy then they should talk about the viking are and culture instead of keeping referring to the middle east/ China/ the prehistoric. Thats all
@@unc54 Not exactly. The lore became stronger in AC Valhalla. The long game of the Juno (from AC 3) and then that of Alethia (from AC Odyssey) and Loki became clearer. Existentialism, Free Will, Responsibility and Fanatism are core philosophical aspects of the series and they have never been more apparent than now.
@@debayandas1128 I'm not talking about lore. I'm talking general history. The AC RPGs sometimes don't retain a feeling of historical believability, especially with the oversized enemy archetypes and some of the weapons looking straight out of Dark Souls.
I think Valhalla took a step back in terms of the importance of history in the AC games. It's a very heavily jumbled timeline that just sort of mixed together a bunch of stuff from a 100 year span into six years. In the first scene, I was trying to figure out why there's a giant Lutheran church in Norway in 872 CE. Or why are the Celts Druids in 878 when they were entirely converted to Christianity by the 6th century? I guess after such a brilliant recreation of Classical Greece in Odyssey, I expected a little more from Valhalla. Yes, I know it's historical science-fiction with a long backstory that pertains to an alien master race, and the incorporation of mythology. But still, they've always emphasized the importance of being true to history beyond the sci-fi elements until now.
@@DC-if7jx it is:"the rainbow bridge connects asgard with the Bifröst" Marvel just tooked the whole Norse culture and made a fucking hollywood shit around it...
Man, I would love to have these experts on this channel reacting to movies, anime, and other stuff. I know there are other channels that do this but I love these experts. Especially Gemma, Noah, Sarah, and Rachel.
Hey Finnish dude here with actual recorded Viking bloodline! I've been fascinated on Nordic mythologies since I was a kid and been practically raised with the tales from history and mythologies which has led me to study the Viking eras fairly extensively. I can answer for some off those questions or interests that they didn't knew or were unsure: Ivar the Boneless's name meaning has few speculations, but none of them has confirmed the hypothesis yet: He either was some sort of Disabled man, were it a paralysis or bone deformity, or huge man who used an unusually huge bow or that the name was just a humorously given, since vikings did that a lot founding it funny, so by saying "Boneless" means he was impotent. Either way it is, it's confirmed that he lived unlike Ragnar Lodbrok who is still a bit hazy by documentations from that time period to have been as epic as he is portrayed Valhalla: Most of how Valhalla is described at those times, they spoke of the never ending feast the most when entering; How Gods will welcome them with a smile and honor their deeds during the time in Midgård. Depending on era and who spoke of the Valhalla. spoke it pretty much as they imagined it looking like. Since most knowledge was kept oral the iterations of Valhalla's outlook differed but it always was very much a Nordic climate and there has been described golden towers as well as statues, which is kinda ironic as they seen as a barbarians. You had to die in a battle or childbirth, also self sacrifice as being burned alive in a Viking kings funeral boat granted an entrance to Valhalla. So when men grew old and knew that they didn't have many years left, it was normal from them to go to speak with their Jarl and beg from him access to the next raid because he haven't died in a battle yet but always survived. Jarls gave their promises most often for 2 reasons; They deeply respected the man's will and commitment towards the right belief and secondly for example during the raids in France, they dominated and basic combat order started with sending the old men to Valhalla and they went in, usually killing at least one defender side soldier before dying without any fear. Once they all had died, rest of the forces celebrated their death by screaming in unison the god's name that their raid was towards for. So they as a warrior culture, they weaponized their beliefs and used it as a psychological warfare. There has been found beard for hair even in mens graves, leaving the scholars believing that they used beard decorations. Braiding in those time is 100% confirmed. People have been dumping murder victims to Nordic mossy swamps forever and they preserve super well, so there has been straight up braided hair samples from women and men. That Monastery thing puzzled me because yes, they raided Monasteries often, but the reason was simple: There were only monks, easy kill & grab situation and no geared fighting force like in the game. Yeah, the conversions were political most often but usually it was political exclusively. They might have forced to not belief in the Nordic gods, but they still did. Their attendance to christian situations like in church was always first bit hard but they learned fast and just acted their way extremely well while still believing in Odin and boys. Great example for this is Rollo, whom after his conversion was given area nowadays known as Normandia, thanks to him. He was given it because the throne of Paris was at that time defending all the time from other power hungry lesser kings and/or Jarls whatever there were. Rollo made Normandia like Norway was and trained his military like Vikings fought. If you were christian, you can still die a martyr in his eyes and he waited and grew his armies and kingdom next 20 years while Paris was pummeled all the time by every direction, making every opposition weaker. Then Rollo rolled out and Paris surrendered immediately when they saw his army and the King abdicated for Rollo. Pretty cool fact: His blood runs even nowadays in United Kingdoms Royal family, Elizabeth is straight bloodline from Rollo. So basically Queen Elizabeth is an immortal Viking Queen 😂 Corrections: They didn't escape famine per say; They seeked better farming land for conveniences sake. I grew in a farm and Finnish agriculture is handled super efficiently due to the short summer and poor seasons are rare with wheat, if is then you grew something else like potatoes and other vegetables + hunted much more, so in poor seasons raids were usually pulled back from leaving to other place. Denmark, Norway, Sweden and even Finland. Even though it has been debated for ages, Finns actually were eventually Vikings and we ruled the coast to the Russia with Estonia like bros we are together and that's the reason why Vikings were introduced to Rus-people (Russians) and found their trade routes to Constantinople. That was possible only after Finns were acclimated to Viking lifestyle too, but we had our own gods which we honored the same way as Norwegians. When they praised Odin, we Finns praised Ukko. (Also fun fact! First missionary who came to Finland went to convert the household of "Lalli", a Finnish dude who didn't really like anyone who disrespected him in any way. well when the missionary stopped at their place, only Lalli's wife was present and that missionary came to prech to her and demanded drink and food. Lalli's wife gave it while she was oissed about it and after that the missionary blessed the house as a gift but didn't even ask permission to it. When Lalli came home his wife told him about this missionary fella and Lalli took his axe and skis and went after him. He found his horse sledge going over a frozen lake and catched it killing the driver and missionary there and then. That missionary is now Saint, but I can't remember straight up what the heck his name was 🤔)
They also had their cities. There were several Viking kings who ruled different parts and waged war against each other before uniting under one King and even then as King has Jarls, Jarls become ambitious and depending on ruler and his might, they mutinied and tried to took over, plotted with other Jarls or if the other Jarl were loyal he might have informed the King about the plots whom would invite the hostile Jarl to negotiations without him knowing he's going to do more than feast. Usually they got into understanding while drunk. Those cities were the capitals of those kings and people inside the kings rule was filled with farms which were under kings protection and responsibility of their well-being like if a nomad attacked to the farm killing wife of a peasant, if he came and asked the king for justice kings responsibility was to be in the peasants side or people got angry and killed him. Same with raids, you had to be loyal to your people or they wouldn't go to raid with you. It's hard and cruel journey and everyone must work together as unit. "Surely they had swords" Yes, they did, but the catch here is that only those who had either took one from the enemy after killing him or could afford to buy one. Since most of the metal work was made for farming, weapons costed more as a special order of sorts. They used what they got. Some just took their wood cutting axe and knife for raid and came back with full combat gear and brand new sword. Also, they used axes because it was almost daily tool and if need be, they could throw their axe with great accuracy. Even when I grew as a kid, I had to go in dark in a middle of the winter to chop wood for fire if I was chilly and ready chopped logs were at the end. More you know how to use your weapon, the better you are, so unless you were rich and had time to train with a sword, Viking used axe with wood and leather shield. The structure that was show was a bit too big, but not overly so. Great hall was the place where Viking King met his subjects, held town meetings and feasts. Also political visit took place in the great hall, so more impressive it was, the more powerful the King looked. That meant that the structures had to be big and decorated very well with carvings, elegantly made throne furs on walls etc etc.
This is not a correction, but I want to add that prisoners of war were used as slaves and if they acclimated into the Viking society he had better and better changes to be a free man and eventually swear his loyalty to Jarl and/or King. If they had done something bad towards them, same as a criminals, they could be tortured to death or killed ceremoniously. Great example when both of those are combined is a "blood eagle". This is usually reserved either to grimmest of ciminals or high valued POW's like Jarls that attacked King. Usually King worked as the executioner himself. *WARNING: VIOLENT STUFF FOR NEXT PARAGRAPH* In Blood eagle -ceremony the subject was tied from his wrists and was situated on his knees. Then the skin was slit open from shoulder to shoulder, along the spine and lower back. The skin was tied to the poles next to the criminal and then every rib was broken just next to the spine carefully with axe and ripped open. After that was done, the criminals lungs were taken from the backside and lifted over his shoulders so, that the resulting sight looked like eagle with spread wings. *IF* the executed one was able to not scream during the ceremony, he was rewarded with the access to Valhalla. Many Jarls got there, such was the faith to the Gods in Nordic countries before Christianity came to the picture. Just as a reading recommendation if the subject interests, there's a great book from tenth century written by Snorra Sturlason, an Icelandic Historian named "Heimskringla" and "Prose Edda" which delves pretty deep into those times since he where alive when Vikings took over Iceland and into Scandinavian beliefs and mythologies. (Fun fact, when he visited Norway second time, he messed up seemingly un-intentionally some politics between the Norwegian king Håkon Håkonsson (He ruled Norway when it was it's largest) decided to put Sturlason and one of his Jarls, whom decided to mutiny and started a war against the King and Sturlason got executed.) Anyways, this became pretty long text, so if you read this completely, leave a like so I know haha 😂 Anyways, thanks!
@@davidparkes7741 that’s a good and well debated topic! There has been female graves like with high ranking men in their collective societies. I’m personally 100% sure that women back then were extremely capable on defending their land and fight against marauders and other outcasts of the societies and men when they weren’t raiding taught women to protect their lands. Historically the oldest son was the ”head of the family” when men set their sails, but women kept the farms running, especially if the eldest child was not in the fighter age. What it comes to warfare though, I can’t say anything for sure. Sagas speaks about shieldmaidens but they speak about valkyries as well. 800-1100 AD weren’t too well documented and historians arounds the world wrote about Vikings very artistically and used metaphors like how these northern women could go toe to toe against some warriors but that can be credited for the resiliency North requires. I want to believe that some women went on and held that belief as truth, but as I said, it’s practically impossible to comfirm 🤔
There’s literally a Viking settlement consisting of I believe like less than 10 buildings could be wrong though in Canada suggesting they stayed in Canada for a time whether long or short idk but I know that settlement DOES exist
I feel like these historians should be given more background of the game like the time setting, info about the character and their intentions and have them try to see if that is historically accurate instead of showing them a game which they’ve never looked into and let them figure out what’s going on
some info for them (incase they see this): pretty sure the Marvel asgard is based off of actual norse asgard. and the "Gods" are apart of the ingames ancient civilization known as "ISU" Spoiler: most of the main characters are reincarnated gods ex: Eivor = Odin/Havi Sigurd = Tyr Basim = Loki
The only thing that actually bothers me about Valhalla is how they all hold the horns when they drink. You have to drink them with the pointed end curving down, otherwise the air inside gets trapped and causes the liquid inside to splash you in the face. Firsthand experience here
Hey I think gamology should get actual smart and people who actually study this era of time because they got the last game they reviewed wrong like completely, location, time of when it took place and so one even though it tells you were it took place, and when it took place.
A side note on the Monastery thing. Austerity in monks may or may not have existed at some point, but due to second sons getting pawned off to monasteries so frequently those places eventually became more like frat houses than houses of worship. Tasting History has a pretty good overview about this, and I believe he cites his sources in the description box. But basically two things: The Monks deserved to get raided and they’d have a LOT of calorie rich food on hand.
4:47 whilst true - their very own sagas also depicted themselves in the same light. I think it’s realistic to assume due to Scandinavia’s size that it’s peoples varied in their ethical (or lack there of) view toward others. It’s not so black and white.
I love how they aren't sure if the axe is accurate and is a "Hollywood" version, then proceeds to say they had swords. Swords were expensive and we're often only owned by men of wealth. Axes were cheaper easier to use and had use in labor. It's like they don't know anything about Scandinavian culture or history
I don’t know why people are so surprised to have a female protagonist, it’s fairly common and technically this game as either a female or male protagonist. Some of the best game ever made have female protagonist
As a historian I suggest English cities in AC Valhalla are poorly laid out by ubisoft because during the time of Viking expansion cities in England were pretty well urbanized. Let's take Winchester capital of Wessex and largest city in England at that time old Anglo Saxon texts clearly state that it has the most beautiful palace in England at that time (which is replaced by ruined looking wintan hall in AC Valhalla),most beautiful minster in England at that time (which is replaced by creepy looking chapel in AC Valhalla),and the most solid and developed streets in England (which are seen much narrower and mud covered). I know that were the dark ages but basic architectural techniques were flourishing in western Europe.
It’s useless to bring historians unfamiliar with “viking”... 800s European history. “Viking peasants”.... ? It’s like saying pirate peasants. Traded with Persia? Persia was not a state. Part of the Islamic empires from 600 up to 900 when it became dominated by Turkich nomads. Vikings escaping famine? The location was not pondered, or the period. Throughout 300 years Scandinavian incursions into western Europe changed in nature. The great Heathan army invasion in the 800s was an actual army, which aimed, and succeeded in part, at conquering England. Edit (as I continue the video): Vikings was not a population but a “job”. Vikings = Pirates, more or less (sometimes resembled more privateers). There existed various Scandinavian kingdoms. Some in Scandinavia, some outside of it. Actual Vikings did Farley little fighting. However when they did get into fights (and they usually lost them) they did so using spears and shield formation (typical of any era of European history). When Scandinavian armies fought, they often mastered serious professional armies, with seasoned soldiers. Some of the most powerful armies on earth. Varengian guards defended the Eastern Roman emperors for example. “Geneva convention only happened after ww2”.... First Geneva convention was in 1864. Establishing the idea of war crimes. Scandinavian soldiers were in fact afraid to die. If they did however, they believed it was better to do so in battle. Which boosted morale. However armies still deserted.
@@Himmyjewett These aren't "most people". These two are supposed to be experts on the subject and one should be able to expect a little more nuance than one finds in conversation with "most people".
"Experts" BTW "They're mostly wielding them with their hands, Which I think that makes more sense sort of throwing axes. Am I right about that?" Of course they wouldn't throw away their damn weapons. "The axes they're using is a Hollywood version of what vikings were using, I'm not really sure whether that's accurate" Of course they didn't use a decimeter thick axes, do you understand how heavy that would be? You need weapons like axes and swords to be light and agile. Not to mention that the most common weapon was the spear and not axes and swords. Since the axe was a very useful everyday tool and not mainly a weapon and swords were very expensive and almost always exclusively used by nobles or very high-ranking people in society Why would you not get experts on the Viking period when making a video about Vikings?
Shouldn't you get people who specialises in the era and region to have a legit assesment of the history? Their reaction to the drinking game is that humans have made alcohol since 9th millennia BC.
Probably couldn't find any women who specialized on the topic and if they did the historian would point out how women didn't look or act like the girl in the game. Women's bodies weren't different from today and they weren't taking testosterone/steroids then. Viking women took care of the children and home, stayed home until marriage etc. Better for them to grab two random "historians" and brush over stuff so not to hurt the image they want to make.
I like that better. The vikings series explanation that he was entirely disable is just dumb. I can't believe that a wheelchair guy is also a dark age warlord, especially since it has been a normal historical practice to expose deformed babies to the elements
@@niclasjohansson5992 "leg" and "bone" in Old Norse are very similar and there are many theories about him either having no legs, brittle bone disease or quite literally just couldn't get an erection. I don't know which one has ever been proven over the other, but if it's brittle bone disease, it's one of the earliest known cases of the disease.
@@Shultzy90 there must also be recognised that the details about him might be made up upon hearing his name. boneless might be just a ln everyday joke about him losing stuff ordinarily made of bone (obviously nothing that could be proven). Point being that he was a historical person but we have only heard of a mix between the historical and the later mythical ivar
Ahhh, living in an era where Skyrim more accurately portrays Scandinavian day to day life than a series formed from the ground up to contextualize actual history... Not gonna lie, I'm a Norse Pagan myself, I've watched Vikings and played For Honor, and those things are great mind you, but I'm kinda over the "fake Viking" phase at this point. Sure I could go for a fight, I have a drinking horn, I certainly love the stylish portrayal of fake Vikings, but while the trailer hyped me up a little, I just can't bring myself to feel all that interested in AC Valhalla, despite the fact I had been wishing for a Viking AC game since I converted to Norse Paganism. I'm at the point where I'd much rather an accurate portrayal, with gambisons and spears and such, complete with high, naked, shield biting berserkirs over this frilly namby pamby spiked armor and weapons that would sooner shatter under stress than actually land a kill. There is plenty of cool shit without having to make it all up.
9:24 It is said that he suffered from Osteogenesis imperfecta or brittle bone disease, also in the Vikings serie it is depicted that way, it is a theory
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 82 วันนี้!! คู่เอก | ยอดไอคิว vs อับดัลลาห์](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hSsyTl_9bqs/mqdefault.jpg)
It seems now they need to react to every single Assassin's Creed now. Which I wouldn't mind one bit.
They got some things wrong tho
So long as they don't go overboard: "yeah, there's nothing to suggest that people dove from the top of 50 metre buildings into a cart full of hay without taking any physical damage".
@@Sevren_ For example: the Orlog dice game was invented purely for Assassin's Creed Valhalla and never really existed. But to be fair to the developers it felt like a game that could've existed in the middle ages.
Another example was when the devs ironically got something right by accident: not only is Ravensthorpe a real place but it's also located in roughly the same part of the Midlands as it is in the game.
I concur with this comment
@@MythicSuns I mean that creative Liberty isn't really an inaccuracy it's more of just there to show what they would have done
When you learn responding: "your mom" has been a thing for thousands of years
That's not surprising. Our culture is based in inheritance and that automatically results in questioning legitimacy and fidelity...
@@edi9892 yo mama is based in inheritance
King Xerxes: Spartans. Surrender your weapons.
King Leonidas: your mom gay
@@thousand_cuts nah he’d say “thou’s mother has intimate relations with other women”🤣🤣
@@3risssss thou’s mother thy gay
"People wouldnt be interested playing a nord farmer tending its fields"
Me: *laughs nervously in 250 hours of stardew valley*
Lol, I had said "wow she dosnt know about all the people that play farm simulator." Out load when I passed that part.
It would actually be very interesting!
You would get a view of the norse culture, like stricked genderroles, religious rites and their relationship with the local Jarl.
You could start the game by chosing male or female, and have two totally different game experiences!
Choosing male: Working in the feilds, go hunting, going to 'the Thing' and have political discussions, or even go on small local raids, being a random soldier in an army. Even challenge a rival to a holmgang, or even just go trading with strangers from other lands
Choosing female: Being the leader and main control of the farm, ordering Thralls and workers around, managing enough food for the winter, and being picky in who you want to get married off to. Even have a scenario where your husband dies and you have to take over his Chores. Or being the religious leader (Vulva) and do magic by connecting with the gods.
I could imagine using the Kingdom Come deliverance engine, and simply expanding it to add the sea and farming elements
@@haalandfilms1695 you have my money
You gave me a hard laugh
Skyrim belong to the nords
So basically one thing that history has thought us is that humans are really good at getting drunk
And make "your mom" jokes.
And talking shit
Getting drunk is the only thing I'm good at
Your godamn right.
Ancient Egyptian builders who built the pyramids were payed in beer. I learnt this from Assassin's Creed: Origins Discover Mode.
Historians reacting to the other assassins creed games would be great
heh, i would kill to see a classical philologist reacting to people speaking modern greek in 5th cent. BC in odyssey and modern icelandic in 9. cent AD in valhalla
@@moty6369 Wait, Odyssey is an Assassins Creed game?
@@callumkellly sure, the previous one. set in ancient greece during peloponesian wars
@@moty6369 I think he meant that essentially none of the features that you could think of as defining an Assassin's Creed game (the ability to assassinate people, for instance) exist in Odyssey. It's not a bad action-RPG game, but it's not an Assassin's Creed game despite the fact that it says Assassin's Creed in the title.
@@SRosenberg203 you can assassinate in the game and there's even two different ways you can do it. the only difference is there is hidden blade which is switched for the spear . So yea i think it's an assassins creed game. Just difference time period.
Historians react to: Red Dead Redemption 2
thats a fantastic idea, love to see it.
I think they did a cowboys react.
@@mannholloway no, thats on another channel
Yes
Funniest shit is the fire arrows in RDR2 are historically far better and accurate than 99% medieval games
When people from 1000 years ago have better bars than you
Jake Paul*
1,200 years ago
I got bars you go to mars
@@ericanustad5897 why go to Mars when you can reach for the stars
Just drink southern comfort it will do the same
Did they just said they hadn't seen vikings wield Bow and arrows?, When bows and arrows are the second most widely used weapons next to spears. War bows have been found buried with vikings in many places, like in Hedeby for example.
the hedeby bow was the only one i believe and there was a horse bow to but that one probably belonged to a magyar spokes person in birka
Ummm dude re learn, a viking can not make it to valhalla without dieing a honorable death. There's no honor killing from a distance sad to see such ignorance
@@robinraphael care to share the source of this information ? because this is the first time i have heared from it also wich specific part of norse religion are you refering to because each tribe had their own believe system and their own morals and codes , there was not one viking religion it was all diffrent
@@robinraphael also then explain to me why they have found a warbow in hedeby
@@shaunsmale9160 yeah but it has been atested in some sags's i believe Njál's saga mentions bow. And Einar Eindridesson Thambarskelfir from Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla was a very proficient norse bowman
Historians react to Valiant Hearts: The Great War
Oh this would be great
sad.
That would be interesting. Maybe 2 historians and two soldiers, to keep things fresh
Bruh
nice comment gavino Manuel
Saying Viking didn’t have bows you’d be implying that they didn’t hunt big game, only fished, which is inaccurate.
Yeh I was thinking that, like they definitely had bows. Even if it was just for hunting
@@everopeneye3290 they would also be implying that they never came across and used the bows that they found on raids. Englishmen are famous for their longbows and guess where the Vikings landed lol
@@swissrich8795 No because they literally said "probably picked one up during a raid" listen next time.
@@IBBMS if they think that the Scandinavians got their bows from the English then their knowledge on the Vikings is severely limited. There’s evidence of bows in Scandinavia prior to the Viking age and there’s excessive mention of them in the sagas
@@everopeneye3290 I think bows were pretty standard across cultures all over the world.
The idea that they “conquered but didn’t stick around” is pure bollocks. They conquered Northern France, a large portion of the British isles and settled huge swathes of Eastern Europe. Half of the stuff these two talk about sounds like it comes from films they have watched and games they have played.
I’m sure they are knowledgable in their chosen field but that field clearly isn’t pre-Christian Scandinavia or the vikings. Why wouldn’t you try to get experts that actually know about the thing you are asking them to review.
They should've gotten historians that know what they're talking about, perhaps a Northman or a Dane
In matter of fact, places like Danelaw and Northern France still have Scandinavian DNA, that's how much the Vikings stuck around.
They conquered the whole of England too from William the Conqueror and Knut the Great. They also founded Russia
Yeah, right, but don't criticise too much otherwise you might offend them, or get accused of "mansplaining".
@@nickbanks5415 William the Conquerer was Norman, not Viking.
They should’ve used somebody with extensive knowledge on Nordic and Scandinavian cultures instead of just general historians, “the rainbow bridge is influenced by marvel”, no they have it backwards, marvel Thor is influenced by Norse mythology and culture
True
no shit idiot. they were referring to how cinematic they made it seem. They were spot on the entire video and much isnt really known about the Vikings compared to other things in history.
@@sk33t_38 "spot on" and you know this how? with your wikipedia knowledge? and history lessons from general historians that only briefly touches subjects?
they literally mention how they know nothing and base their "knowledge " on fucking movies.
If I recall from my Anthro class, the original concept of Valhalla was basically just a big mead hall, not some tall majestic castle. Basically just a big longhouse with lots of dead people drinking, and then they went outside to fight and die, and got back inside the mead hall to drink again.
@@Softpaw1996 its because vikings are a difficult one to research, there is not much source to study on them. thats why they were referring to movies.
They should totally to Kingdom Come: Deliverance 😁
and the other AC games.
Yes.
Ye
@First name Middle names Last name huh?
Yes please
maybe have historians that actually specializes in the viking period? not general history
Did a BA in History at Utrecht University. If I learned anything, I learned that history is so vast that one needs to be specialised to say something about anything. "Am a historian" doesn't mean they know anything about Norse history.
Agreed. They're doing their best, but it's painfully obvious that these are not experts in viking studies.
I think she mentioned in the Far Cry Primal vid that she's specialized in the renaissance era
@Fishy Vagina AC 2 and its dlc.
they gave alot of relevant information. whats the problem?
@@aw04tn58 lemme guess, you know more than them? loll
These are historians? They don't seem like they know what they're saying. Drinking from horns - "OH, that looks legit. At least from what I've seen in the movies." Mfers don't don't even know if they did this outside of movies, yet they're giving "historical" insight on the vikings. What the actual fuck.
Well, they're clearly way outside their own wheelhouses. Tattoos for example - the slim evidence proponents usually put forth as the main source is the account of Ibn Fadlan, but even that is suspect. The language he uses indicates "painted" skin, which was just as likely to have been temporary to coincide with the ritual burial he also witnessed.
More damningly, there is NO WORD for tattoo in either Old Norse or Old High German. There is also no mention of tattooing in the sagas. No tools for tattooing have been found. Many detailed descriptions come down to us, including the composition and color of clothing, what jewelry and weapons they had, how they wore their hair, etc., but nothing about tattoos. If tattoos had been an important part of Norse culture, they certainly would have commented on particularly distinguishing or impressive tattoos.
But because the "Vikings" tv show had tattoos, and modern folks perceive them as very tribal, some people think it's a fact.
I think the historian said in the Far Cry Primal Video, that she specialized in renaissance era history
@@omegacxv8344 Just begs the question as to why they're being called "historians" for history outside of their scope? Very misleading video and title.
@@Terror_Rick I mean, she is a historian after all, so even if it's misleading, it's not wrong. I think they don't just have every type of historian, so they try to make do with what they have.
Why did they use a historian who clearly doesn't actually know anything about the vikings or their religion
I know right
This channel often has misleading titles, and also shady ''experts''. These experts often are actually knowledgeble, but in fields only somewhat related to the topic at hand and the producers probably just said : ''Close enough.'' Like a boxer/martial artist reacting to swordfights, or war journalists reacting to first person shooters. And the level of preparation is often ABYSMAL. I think if the scholars had a day or two of time to do some research on the game, the level of commentary would be MUCH better.
And let's not forget the power of crappy editing...
@@Luzitanium lol okay bro
@@demilembias2527 thank you for being with me ma'am
@@Luzitanium i mean I agree with you that they don't know what they are talking about, but its cause they are from the wrong fields, thats all. Like, the younger woman clearly knows her shit about anthropology, that just barely applies to knowing any specifics at all about 800s English society. Its not because she's a feminist. Like seriously, the whole "feminizm is soo crimge!!!!" Thing is so 2015.
Maybe have historians, that know about the viking era in scandinavia, react to this game?!
yeah because historians with specialized studies just grow on fucking trees
lmao
@@Zonedoutallthetime I mean like yeah kinda... most historians have specialist subjects, it would be just impractical to have someone who vaguely covers all areas of history aside from like in schools. Go to any museum with an actual history department and you'll see that they've all got an area of expertise.
Thank you for this! There are plenty of historians here that specialize in the viking era.
Correct why do they just not ask the countrys historians Us is like hit and miss so much is inacurate and false visited smithsonian exibit they clerly dont know anything about Us Nords but i can say this much we and a couple from Spain laugh alot becose it become like a joke a teenager could have done better my advise to those intrested visit Denmark and Norway .they have exellent museums My self come from Sweden
@@tony18662 yeah because you can just use the Viking Historian Hotline to hit up a Expert out of nowhere...smh
I'm a bit disappointed by how generalised these historians reactions are, either they needed to prepare better material or specific specialists in a field such as medieval studies should have been consulted
Well to be fair one is an Assistant professor with probably more knowledge with Europe Medieval history and the other is Archeology proffesor, so hey if Gamology
will have to get an special Historian specialize for one specific time period for each game they will have to get many different Historians and that could be a pain
I mean the video they were watching didn't really show much so they could talk about something specifically... They didn't even show Aelfred which I was hoping for..
@@doyouevenpraise189 yeah but by the time you're at any form of a professorship you've probably already dug out a niche in your studies. I would suspect that the two we saw here do have a focused area of study it just may not be this era (I know the anthropologist mentioned holding a norse axehead in Sweden but for argument's sake that could have potentially happened on holiday) Outside of their area of study I wouldn't expect historians to have much more knowledge than a college educated history buff and I don't expect that gameology would have made that distinction, leading to some fairly watery historical analysis.
@@OGx1411 Agreed, definately missed out on talking about the contextual goings on of the Dane law in a political and military manner, although if we're going off of what they saw there's some pretty huge anachronisms they could've highlighted which I feel were left out or glossed over
@@thepumking365 True not to mention that Medieval History is one of the more complex time periods in history
“At least based on what I’ve seen in movies”
Very historian lol
Yeah, maybe
Vikings that gets more of a pass cause we don’t really know
Yeah honestly they don’t seem like they know too much about vikings specifically. Most historians I know know a ton about their niche but little about other areas of history.
Perhaps they also understand its a game. A lot of "Experts react" videos have the experts literally not taking into account that some stuff needs to be translated differently depending on the media or for storytelling purposes. I mean you main character needs to visually tell something.
@@norwegiannightmare8843 Vikings are a hard one sense they did not leave much records most of what we know is from the people that hated them
this people should react to ancestor, that would be great
I was just about to type that
Real early hominids react...
monke reacts to ancestors
@@Gaming_Legend2 thats more interesting than i though
@@vg4931 Were you though? Were you
A lot of Norse used throwing spears, only those of high status generally used a sword and they definitely did have bows as there are finds of it(Yew bow in Hedeby & Arrowheads), many were hunters.
Vikings literally used identical armor and weaponry as the rest of Europe.
false. they did a lot of up close and personal fighting. its not wise to throw a spear when your going to do a raid
@@thebk247 Not really, European armies had a lot more diversity than you’d think for the time. The Frankish military was different than the Byzantines for example. However local petty kingdoms of the same culture fought very similar. Like the Anglo Saxons.
@@houseofaction as far as I know, the Germanic tribes of the 5th century did field javelins. The practice *may* have carried on by some Vikings. I know that the Anglo Saxons and Welsh has javelins so maybe the professional forces and levies of a actual Norse army, not Viking raiders, would have used javelins
are you the sort that believe samurai were the only ones who could carry swords?
When a ‘historian’ says at least from what I’ve seen in movies
*man getting brutally tortured*
Some historian hundreds of years later: “nice pecs!”
Did she lie though?
they lost me at short hungry men from Norway which we know from their skeletons they were generally bigger than the average anglo saxon
Yeah but in comparison too the modern times they are short. You can't really deny that media has inflated what a Viking looks like.
its a well known fact that people in the past were short compared to modern times. youre easily lost.
@@yyg4632 this has been heavily dramatized, people 1500 years ago were not much different then modern humans, most people act has if the average European men in 7th-10th century were 5 feet tall but actually the average height for a European man in that time period was only about 3 inches shorter then they are today which would be 5'6/5'7 for back then and 5'8/5'9 today, so it's very much possible for 6 foot or taller Vikings to have existed, we've even discovered bones of some being around 7 feet, although that is incredibly rare even by today's standards
@@yyg4632 by 4 inches at the most lol we've found 7 foot viking skeletons. Obviously that's not to say they were all 7 ft but they weren't 5'3 lol
Sorry guys, but these "experts" may be historians and professors but their knowledge in vikings ways of living aren't that great. Just look at the churches that were burnt down in Norway in the 1990's. That's architecture for ya'll.
They are Christian churches, not Viking churches.
@@kanglongshankz3313 there has been churches in Sweden, Denmark and Norway since 900s and there's been worshipping buildings since the 700s.I wrote "churches" to make it easier for the readers. The Norsemens skills in architecture are widely known in Scandinavian countries..
@@justacasual7927 Shut up
@@justacasual7927 I'm sorry, but after reading his second response to you I gotta say, he convinced me, you know nothing on the subject. /s
@@talizorahnarrayya5916 Way more than you. I'm even from Sweden.
It didn't really seem like this was their area of expertise there was a few ''I guess'' parts
Historians are profesional guessers tho
Its the "dark ages", after all. That term isnt used all that much these days, but it is correct in the sense that we are "in the dark" about these times and dont really know all that much about them.
"Vikings" are just an extremely frustrating area of research. Almost no useful primary sources combined with the absurdly biased approach of the NS and soviet archeologists who discovered and disturbed most of the archaeological record sadly results in most historians not even bothering with this stuff.
A few? They either guessed, didn't know or spread false information.
Not much history about Vikings
@@thehighwayman8776 Not true, we have LOADS of Archeological finds from the Viking age in Scandianvia.
Its true there is as litte as no writings, but People literally live on top of hundreds of Viking farms that hasent been dug up yet due legal and financial reasons.
I live in Rogaland in Norway, and work at the local museum. we have daily discussions of feilds that we know have findings we are not allowed to dig up.
The problem is that there a some things we find a lot of/all the time, while others are really rare and hard
I was weirded out by how they brought up Finland as reference for viking buildings. Finland was a part of Sweden, which is a descendant of viking culture, but Finland was never viking itself. That main building is called a longhouse and you can check out a legit reconstruction of one in Lofoten islands, Norway for reference.
Yeah, Eivor herself sais multiple times in the game that she's from Norway. 😅
These "historians" seems to be experts in some other fields than viking history.
About the "Throwing axes" there are axes to wield and others you can throw... Throw an axes that has the right balance it's not that hard, it's way easier than throwing a knife (and a skilled warrior as a viking could definitely throw an axe without problems)
Like they said a throwing axe was plausible to use as a effective weapon during a raid but you had to be really skilled at it in order to use it to it's max potential.
And you know this how?
@@jgun4125 I'm a martial artist and i have done both, throwing knifes and axes (I'm not saying I'm good at it, but i have done it) it's not that hard, definitely a warrior with practice can use it as a tool in battle
The Sagas mention a guy throwing axes
@@stc3145 yeah but we don't even know if what is said in the sagas is true, hell it could all be fantasy
"we haven't seen them wielding projectile weapons" there are tonnes of evidence that bows were used for hunting and warfare by the vikings. Who found these "historians" ?
Buzzfeed Historians
@@Ash_Hudson imagine not understanding that they where saying "We haven't seen them wielding any projectile weapons in the game"
lmao get your comprehension and ego in check. you dont know more than historians just because you spend hours imagining youre a viking. and they said they havent seen those weapons in the game yet.
I am pretty sure she meant she had not seen bows in the gameplay footage they had been shown, not that the norse did not use them.
Maybe add some historians who actually know something about this period of time
Exactly, they didn’t seem to know too much about the Norse.
@@-_pi_- yes, precisely. The Frankish empire (germanic not exactly Norse) had an entire class of soldier equipped with throwing Axes inspired by Roman war dart troops. I’m sure that if France did the Vikings MUST have. And swords were a very expensive weapon that only the best of the best of the Norse warriors were equipped with.
@@-_pi_- yes of course, they wouldn’t have thrown a Dane Axe 🤣 (I’m sure it was done a few times in desperation but you get my point)
@@-_pi_- very true 😂
@@-_pi_- Fr lmao
Next : *Historian Reacts to Red Dead Redemption 2*
Shield Maidens are NOT a confirmed fact. It’s actually a hotly debated topic among historians of the Viking period. Yes there were some women who were buried with weapons, but that doesn’t mean they were warriors, it just means that’s what someone put in the graves. If someone was buried with a clay pot that doesn’t mean they were a potter.
It's not even a debate. It's a wishful assertion from pseudo historians - funnily no one from Scandinavia as far as I'm aware - but from radical feminist revisionists.
this video had more recorded real life footage than videogame footage.
The game doesn't have enough interesting things in it tbh. It's assassins creed.
@@iHaveTheDocuments it has dudes making out. How about that? Would love to hear da wamenz talk about the authenticity of dudes making out.
@@iHaveTheDocuments shows how far you are in the game 👀
@@CuriousDumbAzz never played it. Never will.
@Fishy Vagina yeah, because it IS fantasy, they literally tell you to make your own viking saga... they need to change the name tbh just calling Valhalla coming or something
The Vikings and other peoples of the day had both hand axes and throwing axes, such as the Francisca throwing axe, as well as bows.
Throwing axes seems like a dumb idea. You'd need more material and effort to make an axe head than a javelin and they're not as aerodynamic
@@niclasjohansson5992 well actually the franks had throwing axes called the Francisca wish was in some cases better than javelins, because they bounced around and caused havoc during battle, and could be injure someone at any angle. They were also thrown in volleys or at random during battle, and it was scary. Imagine seeing a hail of axes crashing down and bouncing around randomly until they hit something. It’s dope
Never before have I heard so called experts say the term "I don't know" so much about general topics covering their field of expertise
They ain't Scholagladitoria that's for sure.
Should've gotten scandinavian experts, maybe a Northman or a Dane
@@canislunaticus that's Skallagrim for ya
@@canislunaticus getting norse "experts" is the exact reason this game portrays the natives of england as villains in their own land and Portrays a bunch of Dane rapists as the heroes.
There is a lot of “I think” and “ I don’t know” going on for “experts’...
@Abigale to be honest, it seems like most of the stuff they know sound like stuff anybody could know if they got bored and researched Vikings a bit
that's called intellectual honesty. If you cannot make a claim with significant evidence and sound reasoning, the correct and honest answer is 'I don't know', 'I think X based on Y' etc.
You'll see 'expert' physicists like Lawrence Krause do this frequently when engaged in areas on the fringes of our collective, demonstrable knowledge despite being absolutely stellar in his field.
@Luke Strauss that’s simply not true lol we know a lot about Vikings idk what you’re talking about??
@Abigale They're historians, the title of the video is historians react. What on earth did you expect?
One is an archaeologist and anthropologist. Anthropology includes Vikings in its scope, especially from a historical context.
Those two don’t seem to be that sure of them selfs
Well how historians are. We base our knowledge on ancient artifacts, art , etc. it is the only knowledge we have. We don’t have the complex technology to exact facts back in the back. If we had the technology like the ones in the assassins creed series then history would be more accurate.
@@diananguyen4849 Still these women had no idea what they were talking about, maybe they are historians of different time periods because they didnt know a lot about the norse culture at all
@@haalandfilms1695 the thing is not many people do they don’t have written records like the Romans or Greeks pretty much everything we know is about them is from other people so I don’t blame them
They were fine. Not at all uppity or into cramming a social agenda down our throats. Basic game play walkthrough with some entry level historical details. Like someone below stated, they probably specialize in other areas or times. Video was less than I’d hoped it would be but Not at all hard to watch. They are friendly, competent commentators, and what they didn’t know, those of us that do can fill in ourselves.
@@jackj9816 We don't know a lot about the daily lives or their cultural ideas about the world,
However we do have A LOT of Archeological evidence of their daily rutines, Almost every single farm in my county (Rogaland, in Norway) is built up on an old Iron age or Viking age settlement.
We find a lot of settlement grounds, a lot of daily artifcats from pottery, farm tools, we have found like 5000 swords, we know what food they ate, what resrouces they had avilable, we find artifacts with symbols etc etc
we have a good estimation of locations of hundreds of graves that hasnt been opened yet due to leagal reasons. (Most farmers dont want people to digg up their farmland for archeology)
So the idea that we have almost no info about the Vikings simply due to lack of written sources is mainly false.
Its true there is a very small source of written material, however we have a very large amout of archeological findings that tell us a lot about the norse people.
Somehow people abroad dont realize this. I assume people dont get that info unless they are actually working with the material themselves.
“Experts” react they aren’t experts in either Norse history, or culture
One of. Said looks right seen it in movies
To be fair. When you study a large/ diverse timeline you tend to specialize more in certain eras plus she said we dont know as much about this era . watch the cod ww2 episode girl knows her stuff in that one.every small little detail.
Are you?
@@adoyle4389 he never claimed to be....
Also, one even said that Vikings wouldn't throw their weapons. In another video, it was a Norwegian martial artist (Viking fighting style) even said that Youngs boys would throw their weapons when they just stood around. And the axe/bearded axe was a viking favorite due to versatility
I’d love to see them react to the earlier Assassin’s Creed game’s, especially the first 2. Those games prided themselves on being historically accurate, whilst being able to tell a loose fictional story.
“At least what I’ve seen in the movies” great historian there. Did either of them specialise in Viking history, by any chance? Ask a specialist question but don’t have a specialist answering? You wouldn’t have someone from the Renaissance department answering questions on the Cold War...🙄🙄
If you didn't pick up the sarcasm in her comment about movies that's on you.
@@mikekrebs5598 considering you’re the only person to EVER comment on my apparent lack of sarcasm detection I think we’ll go with you have a strange concept of it. That’s on you…
@@andrewedwards2339 FFS, she's a Professor of History, a discipline that revolves around the careful treatment of sources. Nobody is going to make it that far in the discipline and still think movies are somehow a reliable source, when a historian makes a comment like this it is safe to assume from context that they are joking.
@@mikekrebs5598 funnily enough my partner is a historian, made it far in the discipline and understands the importance of a reliable source which is why having seemingly non-specialists here is such an eye roll 🙄 seems like you focused on the first part of my comment and “didn’t pick up” on the rest of my point and that’s on you.
There's only one viking borg that big in Norway. Up here in Lofoten. So they did have big structures like that:) inhabited by a big jarl
Lofoten is beautiful
I've not seen that longhouse in person, but based on the pictures I have seen... it doesn't seem very tall or as big in comparison to the longhouses seen in AC Valhalla. The length is there though, obviously.
Accurate...”At least from what I’ve seen in movies.” 😐
We don’t know much about the bikings
@@buffypuffy59 🚲 ings?
@@kirin7932 yes, I don’t know what kind of sus activities those bikers are commuting.
@@kirin7932 these damn Bikings have been biking all over my lawn. Raiding my grass and crops. But they do have some very nice bicycles
10:08 if only she knew.... if you know you know...
That lady just randomly mentioned Finland. As a Finn, I have mixed feelings regarding this.
Your mom jokes still relevant 10,000 years later, didnt really learn a lot. Need to prepare more material rather than oh this could kinda be real we dont know.
@Yassine Moustaoui the oldest recorded one
@Yassine Moustaoui it would be funny if the cavemans actually did your mom jokes because It would be unexpected
@@quartermaster2809 "grug mam gay HNUNG"
That's kind of the unfortunate circumstance of Viking history though. So much of what we know about them isn't from Viking sources, and what we can learn through archaeology is limited because they used a lot of easily degraded materials so it can be very hard to get a clear picture of them from what's lasted till now. I think they did the best they could with what is collectively known.
They did say more though what did you want to know about?
No mention of the historically inaccurate Armor?
@Fishy Vagina Its a game you expert. Show me a game that is to the bone real.
@Fishy Vagina that buggy piece of garbage? You are kidding right?
@@kirky1853 😂😂
@@kirky1853 Did you ever even play it?
@@moojon8970 i did and was disappointed by every second
I have a feeling like there was some inaccuracies in what they were saying because they wern't really thinking about that fact of "most things about vikings weren't know." Honestly it felt very american in it's outlook it would have been nice to have Norwegian/nordic Historians, people who really know there stuff, they also were going of basic information, instead of the details that were left behind, (the marvel reference, wound me up a lot.) I think the issue with a lot of historians that don't have the right background in Viking and European history, can get it so wrong or just guess about stuff like they did in the majority in this video. I know that the team who worked on this actually worked with actual historians all the way down to the music, the game really does try to ground itself in reality as much as possible of course there will be game elements, but again you should expect that.
I live in Bristol but I grew up in York. When my housemate started playing AC:V he’d always call me in to see if I recognised spots in the city. I was forever telling him “dude it’s 2021, that building is probably a Starbucks now, leave me alone”
In the Bible they were fermenting alcohol period all the way back in Genesis so don't take these ladies that seriously they don't really know a lot of what they're talking about
Jokes aside, AC Valhalla is a brilliant game, I'm already 40 hours in and having a blast.
Also, unlike Odyssey, this actually feels like an Assassin's Creed game.
What are you smoking? Valhalla doesn’t feel like an assassin game at all nor a viking game. It’s so repetitive and boring it’s unbelievable
@@sondersonics7534 at least this game ties into the Assassins/Hidden Ones vs Templars/Ancients conflict. Odyssey had a couple First Civ artifacts and that was it
Unlike odyssey it also shits all over the history and culture and displays the multiple natives as Villains in their own home and the Disgusting vikings as the good guys.
Historians React to gow 2018 or the trilogy, that would be great. Sorry my bad, better mythologist
Gow is fantasy and is based on mythology not history
What the hell are they suppose to react about Gears of War?
@@lordzorddan8971 I suppose by GOW he meant God of War
@@piyushanand376 no way, really?
@@lordzorddan8971 YEET
Next time try one of the Discovery Tour modes from AC Origins or Odyssey, be an interesting change of pace to see the more "proper" history sides of these games
Those discovery tours are pretty good aren’t they though. I thoroughly enjoyed the one for this game (even got some pretty sweet in-game rewards)
Imagine being Ivarr the Boneless. Other historical figures get Alexander the Great, Ivan the Terrible, even Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye, you get "Boneless." Still getting a better deal than Æthelred the Unready I suppose.
There were theories behind why he was called "Boneless." Theories ranging from his body movements when fighting were very swift and quick, giving the illusion that he had no bones. The most popular theory was that he had brittle bone disease. It's crazy that a possible cripple is still portrayed as a bloodthirsty warrior and one of the most feared Vikings of all time.
@@SmokeyGames420 He could've also had trouble "getting up" that's another theory
@@HeadHunter697 It would make sense since he didn't have any children.
The great boneless chicken wing
@@SmokeyGames420 i like how the series Vikings portrayed him as a great war tactician, however crippled. Making him a ruthless and feared "warrior" in that sense.
Hey, I can use my imagination to guess what things might've been like in the viking days based on movies and TV shows I've watched too. I must be an expert historian without even knowing it.
Yea these “experts” don’t seem to really know what they are talking about. Very embarrassing when someone mentions “seeing something in a movie” and using that to make an educated declaration.
They're Americans, maybe next get some "SCANDINAVIAN" historians.
Also maybe experts on Vikings and not people who don’t specialize in this period.....
Uff, yes, someone who actually knows what they're talking about and not just guessing based on finds or possible finds from graves from whole other countries.
@@kchosen4629 I think gnep was implying that they get historians specializing in Scandinavia, not exactly that they are of those nationalities, at least that’s how I read it.
@@kchosen4629 Vikings were seafaring Norse people from southern Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway and Denmark)
@@canislunaticus Vikings went to other countries
When the Woman on the right Said "it does look like it was inspired by Marvel" I Got pissed like bruh.
That's actually quite on point since the Game looks closer to what u see in Thor Ragnarok.
The Edda describes Valhalla way more tame than what you see in this game. They're right about it.
Nice. Hey, maybe historians should react to every assassins creed game; especially Unity
a french canadian historian contributed to the historical aspects of the game (Dr Laurent Turcot from UQTR)
Maybe try harder to find "historians" that actually specialize in the material.
Yeah this is embarassing
I like that you're not too sure of yourselves.
A lot of experts are like "I went to school for 4 yrs and spent 200k so you can't tell me anything about this subject that spans 10,000yrs because I know all there is to know"
“I don’t know if that’s accurate” says a historian.
They didn't really explain in specifics for example,please when the historian on the left turn to the other and says "what do you think of this makeup?" She responds "you can mix animal fat with charcoal" that would have been a great opportunity to explain to us what they did with their makeup/how they wore it but we didn't get any, then showing the decor they don't explain how they decorated or what the decorations were possibly for or meant instead they talk about their own homes, at right at the beginning with the drinking out of the horns the one historian says "its right from what I've seen in movies" well shouldn't your historical knowledge not come from movies? Im also convinced the one on the left isn't that much of a historian she's always asking the other one what she thinks and doesn't state a fact herself (so far) incase the other one turns and says "actually no thzts not true" since the other historian is actually declaring some facts, but for future reference if your going to have historians review a viking game and its accuracy then they should talk about the viking are and culture instead of keeping referring to the middle east/ China/ the prehistoric. Thats all
Now, we need them to react to assassin's creed I or II. So that we can know how drastically the accuracy declined
There's actually not that much proof that historical accuracy actually declined in AC
Assassin's Creed was never historically accurate. What was lost was the historical believability.
@@unc54 Not exactly.
The lore became stronger in AC Valhalla.
The long game of the Juno (from AC 3) and then that of Alethia (from AC Odyssey) and Loki became clearer.
Existentialism, Free Will, Responsibility and Fanatism are core philosophical aspects of the series and they have never been more apparent than now.
@@debayandas1128 I'm not talking about lore. I'm talking general history. The AC RPGs sometimes don't retain a feeling of historical believability, especially with the oversized enemy archetypes and some of the weapons looking straight out of Dark Souls.
Maybe they should be reacting to Marvel movies instead, because they clearly don't know shit all about history.
I think Valhalla took a step back in terms of the importance of history in the AC games. It's a very heavily jumbled timeline that just sort of mixed together a bunch of stuff from a 100 year span into six years. In the first scene, I was trying to figure out why there's a giant Lutheran church in Norway in 872 CE. Or why are the Celts Druids in 878 when they were entirely converted to Christianity by the 6th century? I guess after such a brilliant recreation of Classical Greece in Odyssey, I expected a little more from Valhalla. Yes, I know it's historical science-fiction with a long backstory that pertains to an alien master race, and the incorporation of mythology. But still, they've always emphasized the importance of being true to history beyond the sci-fi elements until now.
I’d say it’s more of a fantasy-ish historical fiction than a science fiction
"the rainbow bridge inspired by MARVEL" bruh for real?
Yeah like that's even mentioned in the edda I'm sure
Asatru here. Kind of is, it's supposed to be a literal bridge made of rainbows. And Asgard is supposed to be a simple village with a longhouse
@@KCStyleZ001 but several long houses right? With each God having a hall
@@DC-if7jx it is:"the rainbow bridge connects asgard with the Bifröst" Marvel just tooked the whole Norse culture and made a fucking hollywood shit around it...
@@DC-if7jx Correct.
For some reason this is my favorite assassins creed
Man, I would love to have these experts on this channel reacting to movies, anime, and other stuff. I know there are other channels that do this but I love these experts. Especially Gemma, Noah, Sarah, and Rachel.
Historians react to Ghost of tsushima
I just suggested that.
Turns out Jin Sakai is more of a Sengoku Jidai samurai than a Kamakura Jidai samurai, due to the weapons and armor he uses.
It mildly stressed me out to see the historians talk about the vikings raiding the monasteries for gold instead of silver
Vikings traded in weight so I don't think they gave a shit about which metal they plundered
@@angrybanana5476 yeah but around this time gold was really really rare they usually looked for silver
Hey Finnish dude here with actual recorded Viking bloodline!
I've been fascinated on Nordic mythologies since I was a kid and been practically raised with the tales from history and mythologies which has led me to study the Viking eras fairly extensively.
I can answer for some off those questions or interests that they didn't knew or were unsure:
Ivar the Boneless's name meaning has few speculations, but none of them has confirmed the hypothesis yet: He either was some sort of Disabled man, were it a paralysis or bone deformity, or huge man who used an unusually huge bow or that the name was just a humorously given, since vikings did that a lot founding it funny, so by saying "Boneless" means he was impotent. Either way it is, it's confirmed that he lived unlike Ragnar Lodbrok who is still a bit hazy by documentations from that time period to have been as epic as he is portrayed
Valhalla: Most of how Valhalla is described at those times, they spoke of the never ending feast the most when entering; How Gods will welcome them with a smile and honor their deeds during the time in Midgård. Depending on era and who spoke of the Valhalla. spoke it pretty much as they imagined it looking like. Since most knowledge was kept oral the iterations of Valhalla's outlook differed but it always was very much a Nordic climate and there has been described golden towers as well as statues, which is kinda ironic as they seen as a barbarians.
You had to die in a battle or childbirth, also self sacrifice as being burned alive in a Viking kings funeral boat granted an entrance to Valhalla. So when men grew old and knew that they didn't have many years left, it was normal from them to go to speak with their Jarl and beg from him access to the next raid because he haven't died in a battle yet but always survived. Jarls gave their promises most often for 2 reasons; They deeply respected the man's will and commitment towards the right belief and secondly for example during the raids in France, they dominated and basic combat order started with sending the old men to Valhalla and they went in, usually killing at least one defender side soldier before dying without any fear. Once they all had died, rest of the forces celebrated their death by screaming in unison the god's name that their raid was towards for. So they as a warrior culture, they weaponized their beliefs and used it as a psychological warfare.
There has been found beard for hair even in mens graves, leaving the scholars believing that they used beard decorations. Braiding in those time is 100% confirmed. People have been dumping murder victims to Nordic mossy swamps forever and they preserve super well, so there has been straight up braided hair samples from women and men.
That Monastery thing puzzled me because yes, they raided Monasteries often, but the reason was simple: There were only monks, easy kill & grab situation and no geared fighting force like in the game.
Yeah, the conversions were political most often but usually it was political exclusively. They might have forced to not belief in the Nordic gods, but they still did. Their attendance to christian situations like in church was always first bit hard but they learned fast and just acted their way extremely well while still believing in Odin and boys.
Great example for this is Rollo, whom after his conversion was given area nowadays known as Normandia, thanks to him. He was given it because the throne of Paris was at that time defending all the time from other power hungry lesser kings and/or Jarls whatever there were. Rollo made Normandia like Norway was and trained his military like Vikings fought. If you were christian, you can still die a martyr in his eyes and he waited and grew his armies and kingdom next 20 years while Paris was pummeled all the time by every direction, making every opposition weaker. Then Rollo rolled out and Paris surrendered immediately when they saw his army and the King abdicated for Rollo.
Pretty cool fact: His blood runs even nowadays in United Kingdoms Royal family, Elizabeth is straight bloodline from Rollo. So basically Queen Elizabeth is an immortal Viking Queen 😂
Corrections: They didn't escape famine per say; They seeked better farming land for conveniences sake. I grew in a farm and Finnish agriculture is handled super efficiently due to the short summer and poor seasons are rare with wheat, if is then you grew something else like potatoes and other vegetables + hunted much more, so in poor seasons raids were usually pulled back from leaving to other place. Denmark, Norway, Sweden and even Finland.
Even though it has been debated for ages, Finns actually were eventually Vikings and we ruled the coast to the Russia with Estonia like bros we are together and that's the reason why Vikings were introduced to Rus-people (Russians) and found their trade routes to Constantinople. That was possible only after Finns were acclimated to Viking lifestyle too, but we had our own gods which we honored the same way as Norwegians. When they praised Odin, we Finns praised Ukko.
(Also fun fact! First missionary who came to Finland went to convert the household of "Lalli", a Finnish dude who didn't really like anyone who disrespected him in any way. well when the missionary stopped at their place, only Lalli's wife was present and that missionary came to prech to her and demanded drink and food. Lalli's wife gave it while she was oissed about it and after that the missionary blessed the house as a gift but didn't even ask permission to it. When Lalli came home his wife told him about this missionary fella and Lalli took his axe and skis and went after him. He found his horse sledge going over a frozen lake and catched it killing the driver and missionary there and then. That missionary is now Saint, but I can't remember straight up what the heck his name was 🤔)
They also had their cities. There were several Viking kings who ruled different parts and waged war against each other before uniting under one King and even then as King has Jarls, Jarls become ambitious and depending on ruler and his might, they mutinied and tried to took over, plotted with other Jarls or if the other Jarl were loyal he might have informed the King about the plots whom would invite the hostile Jarl to negotiations without him knowing he's going to do more than feast. Usually they got into understanding while drunk.
Those cities were the capitals of those kings and people inside the kings rule was filled with farms which were under kings protection and responsibility of their well-being like if a nomad attacked to the farm killing wife of a peasant, if he came and asked the king for justice kings responsibility was to be in the peasants side or people got angry and killed him. Same with raids, you had to be loyal to your people or they wouldn't go to raid with you. It's hard and cruel journey and everyone must work together as unit.
"Surely they had swords" Yes, they did, but the catch here is that only those who had either took one from the enemy after killing him or could afford to buy one. Since most of the metal work was made for farming, weapons costed more as a special order of sorts. They used what they got. Some just took their wood cutting axe and knife for raid and came back with full combat gear and brand new sword. Also, they used axes because it was almost daily tool and if need be, they could throw their axe with great accuracy. Even when I grew as a kid, I had to go in dark in a middle of the winter to chop wood for fire if I was chilly and ready chopped logs were at the end. More you know how to use your weapon, the better you are, so unless you were rich and had time to train with a sword, Viking used axe with wood and leather shield.
The structure that was show was a bit too big, but not overly so. Great hall was the place where Viking King met his subjects, held town meetings and feasts. Also political visit took place in the great hall, so more impressive it was, the more powerful the King looked. That meant that the structures had to be big and decorated very well with carvings, elegantly made throne furs on walls etc etc.
This is not a correction, but I want to add that prisoners of war were used as slaves and if they acclimated into the Viking society he had better and better changes to be a free man and eventually swear his loyalty to Jarl and/or King. If they had done something bad towards them, same as a criminals, they could be tortured to death or killed ceremoniously. Great example when both of those are combined is a "blood eagle". This is usually reserved either to grimmest of ciminals or high valued POW's like Jarls that attacked King. Usually King worked as the executioner himself.
*WARNING: VIOLENT STUFF FOR NEXT PARAGRAPH* In Blood eagle -ceremony the subject was tied from his wrists and was situated on his knees. Then the skin was slit open from shoulder to shoulder, along the spine and lower back. The skin was tied to the poles next to the criminal and then every rib was broken just next to the spine carefully with axe and ripped open. After that was done, the criminals lungs were taken from the backside and lifted over his shoulders so, that the resulting sight looked like eagle with spread wings. *IF* the executed one was able to not scream during the ceremony, he was rewarded with the access to Valhalla. Many Jarls got there, such was the faith to the Gods in Nordic countries before Christianity came to the picture.
Just as a reading recommendation if the subject interests, there's a great book from tenth century written by Snorra Sturlason, an Icelandic Historian named "Heimskringla" and "Prose Edda" which delves pretty deep into those times since he where alive when Vikings took over Iceland and into Scandinavian beliefs and mythologies.
(Fun fact, when he visited Norway second time, he messed up seemingly un-intentionally some politics between the Norwegian king Håkon Håkonsson (He ruled Norway when it was it's largest) decided to put Sturlason and one of his Jarls, whom decided to mutiny and started a war against the King and Sturlason got executed.)
Anyways, this became pretty long text, so if you read this completely, leave a like so I know haha 😂 Anyways, thanks!
Thoughts on if women were warriors just as much as the men?
@@davidparkes7741 that’s a good and well debated topic! There has been female graves like with high ranking men in their collective societies. I’m personally 100% sure that women back then were extremely capable on defending their land and fight against marauders and other outcasts of the societies and men when they weren’t raiding taught women to protect their lands. Historically the oldest son was the ”head of the family” when men set their sails, but women kept the farms running, especially if the eldest child was not in the fighter age.
What it comes to warfare though, I can’t say anything for sure. Sagas speaks about shieldmaidens but they speak about valkyries as well. 800-1100 AD weren’t too well documented and historians arounds the world wrote about Vikings very artistically and used metaphors like how these northern women could go toe to toe against some warriors but that can be credited for the resiliency North requires.
I want to believe that some women went on and held that belief as truth, but as I said, it’s practically impossible to comfirm 🤔
Yeah, you know a historian and archeologist are legit when they say,
"Well that's what I've seen in movies." about what they got their degrees on.
There’s literally a Viking settlement consisting of I believe like less than 10 buildings could be wrong though in Canada suggesting they stayed in Canada for a time whether long or short idk but I know that settlement DOES exist
I feel like these historians should be given more background of the game like the time setting, info about the character and their intentions and have them try to see if that is historically accurate instead of showing them a game which they’ve never looked into and let them figure out what’s going on
some info for them (incase they see this): pretty sure the Marvel asgard is based off of actual norse asgard. and the "Gods" are apart of the ingames ancient civilization known as "ISU"
Spoiler:
most of the main characters are reincarnated gods
ex: Eivor = Odin/Havi
Sigurd = Tyr
Basim = Loki
It is noticeable that since they reacted to the Asgard stage they no longer knew what was happening
The only thing that actually bothers me about Valhalla is how they all hold the horns when they drink. You have to drink them with the pointed end curving down, otherwise the air inside gets trapped and causes the liquid inside to splash you in the face. Firsthand experience here
Hey I think gamology should get actual smart and people who actually study this era of time because they got the last game they reviewed wrong like completely, location, time of when it took place and so one even though it tells you were it took place, and when it took place.
Which video was this? I think they took it down, I saw where one was
I remember them being pretty bad in the Far Cry Primal video
A side note on the Monastery thing. Austerity in monks may or may not have existed at some point, but due to second sons getting pawned off to monasteries so frequently those places eventually became more like frat houses than houses of worship.
Tasting History has a pretty good overview about this, and I believe he cites his sources in the description box.
But basically two things: The Monks deserved to get raided and they’d have a LOT of calorie rich food on hand.
Sorry but they are not experts they missed so much Inaccuracies
4:47 whilst true - their very own sagas also depicted themselves in the same light.
I think it’s realistic to assume due to Scandinavia’s size that it’s peoples varied in their ethical (or lack there of) view toward others. It’s not so black and white.
What are they talking about? None of the clothing, or weapons in this game are historically accurate.
I love how they aren't sure if the axe is accurate and is a "Hollywood" version, then proceeds to say they had swords. Swords were expensive and we're often only owned by men of wealth. Axes were cheaper easier to use and had use in labor. It's like they don't know anything about Scandinavian culture or history
I don’t know why people are so surprised to have a female protagonist, it’s fairly common and technically this game as either a female or male protagonist. Some of the best game ever made have female protagonist
Aloy crew, represent!
As a historian I suggest English cities in AC Valhalla are poorly laid out by ubisoft because during the time of Viking expansion cities in England were pretty well urbanized. Let's take Winchester capital of Wessex and largest city in England at that time old Anglo Saxon texts clearly state that it has the most beautiful palace in England at that time (which is replaced by ruined looking wintan hall in AC Valhalla),most beautiful minster in England at that time (which is replaced by creepy looking chapel in AC Valhalla),and the most solid and developed streets in England (which are seen much narrower and mud covered). I know that were the dark ages but basic architectural techniques were flourishing in western Europe.
“Historians react” might be my favorite version of this 👍🏽
The white cliffs of Dover was amazing to see in game
It’s useless to bring historians unfamiliar with “viking”... 800s European history.
“Viking peasants”.... ? It’s like saying pirate peasants.
Traded with Persia? Persia was not a state. Part of the Islamic empires from 600 up to 900 when it became dominated by Turkich nomads.
Vikings escaping famine? The location was not pondered, or the period. Throughout 300 years Scandinavian incursions into western Europe changed in nature.
The great Heathan army invasion in the 800s was an actual army, which aimed, and succeeded in part, at conquering England.
Edit (as I continue the video):
Vikings was not a population but a “job”. Vikings = Pirates, more or less (sometimes resembled more privateers).
There existed various Scandinavian kingdoms. Some in Scandinavia, some outside of it.
Actual Vikings did Farley little fighting. However when they did get into fights (and they usually lost them) they did so using spears and shield formation (typical of any era of European history).
When Scandinavian armies fought, they often mastered serious professional armies, with seasoned soldiers. Some of the most powerful armies on earth.
Varengian guards defended the Eastern Roman emperors for example.
“Geneva convention only happened after ww2”.... First Geneva convention was in 1864. Establishing the idea of war crimes.
Scandinavian soldiers were in fact afraid to die. If they did however, they believed it was better to do so in battle. Which boosted morale. However armies still deserted.
You do realize saying Viking is associated with the Scandinavian people right that's why most people say Viking
@@Himmyjewett These aren't "most people". These two are supposed to be experts on the subject and one should be able to expect a little more nuance than one finds in conversation with "most people".
Did u just say a warrior tribe like the norsemen did "little" fighting?😂
You guys are getting close to 1 million subscribers!!!! Good luck!
I never really like history, but this video is actually fun to watch
"Experts" BTW
"They're mostly wielding them with their hands, Which I think that makes more sense sort of throwing axes. Am I right about that?"
Of course they wouldn't throw away their damn weapons.
"The axes they're using is a Hollywood version of what vikings were using, I'm not really sure whether that's accurate"
Of course they didn't use a decimeter thick axes, do you understand how heavy that would be? You need weapons like axes and swords to be light and agile. Not to mention that the most common weapon was the spear and not axes and swords. Since the axe was a very useful everyday tool and not mainly a weapon and swords were very expensive and almost always exclusively used by nobles or very high-ranking people in society
Why would you not get experts on the Viking period when making a video about Vikings?
"I think it's pretty historically accurate"
"If not, it's fun to watch"
So, which is it? xD
Eivor is basically Odin reincarnated and in the mythic world Asgard he was Odin himself
These two aren't specialists in Nordic culture so this is a flavor fail
The fact that Skrillex and Ivar the boneless have the same hair style is actually cool 😎 👌
Shouldn't you get people who specialises in the era and region to have a legit assesment of the history? Their reaction to the drinking game is that humans have made alcohol since 9th millennia BC.
Lmao this threw me off immediately too. Completely irrelevant observation.
Probably couldn't find any women who specialized on the topic and if they did the historian would point out how women didn't look or act like the girl in the game. Women's bodies weren't different from today and they weren't taking testosterone/steroids then. Viking women took care of the children and home, stayed home until marriage etc. Better for them to grab two random "historians" and brush over stuff so not to hurt the image they want to make.
My favorite theory of Ivarr The Boneless is that he was nicknamed "boneless" because he couldn't get it up.
I like that better. The vikings series explanation that he was entirely disable is just dumb. I can't believe that a wheelchair guy is also a dark age warlord, especially since it has been a normal historical practice to expose deformed babies to the elements
@@niclasjohansson5992 "leg" and "bone" in Old Norse are very similar and there are many theories about him either having no legs, brittle bone disease or quite literally just couldn't get an erection. I don't know which one has ever been proven over the other, but if it's brittle bone disease, it's one of the earliest known cases of the disease.
@@Shultzy90 there must also be recognised that the details about him might be made up upon hearing his name. boneless might be just a ln everyday joke about him losing stuff ordinarily made of bone (obviously nothing that could be proven).
Point being that he was a historical person but we have only heard of a mix between the historical and the later mythical ivar
Ahhh, living in an era where Skyrim more accurately portrays Scandinavian day to day life than a series formed from the ground up to contextualize actual history... Not gonna lie, I'm a Norse Pagan myself, I've watched Vikings and played For Honor, and those things are great mind you, but I'm kinda over the "fake Viking" phase at this point. Sure I could go for a fight, I have a drinking horn, I certainly love the stylish portrayal of fake Vikings, but while the trailer hyped me up a little, I just can't bring myself to feel all that interested in AC Valhalla, despite the fact I had been wishing for a Viking AC game since I converted to Norse Paganism. I'm at the point where I'd much rather an accurate portrayal, with gambisons and spears and such, complete with high, naked, shield biting berserkirs over this frilly namby pamby spiked armor and weapons that would sooner shatter under stress than actually land a kill. There is plenty of cool shit without having to make it all up.
9:24 It is said that he suffered from Osteogenesis imperfecta or brittle bone disease, also in the Vikings serie it is depicted that way, it is a theory
@Fishy Vaginaof course it is a TV series duh!