wired please NEVER stop making these - specifically the ones about medieval civilizations and scientific experts. i'm OBSESSED and have learned so much
Vikings never existed. Norse people would go raiding or their original verb we now call "viking". The movie Northman authorities agree is the only film which correctly gets it right. All of the rest are entertaining fantasies in silly costumes.
@@adamb.8112 Well each Viking Group had its own history. The Vikings of modern day Finland and Eastern Russia don’t have the same history as those in modern day Iceland and North America.
@@SchmorgusWell, he is kinda right because the Vikings defeated the Vikings...😅 The Christians defeated them with the help of other Vikings. That was their biggest flaw, the absence of unity, especially in Norway.
@@KurtFrederiksen brit here; it's not that the citizenship tests are trying to further any sort of narrative. The issue is citizenship tests aren't updated very frequently and sometimes historical information can be slightly outdated (the irony). Viking history isn't a huge topic when concerning all of British history (like the citizenship test attempts to represent). Alfred the great is one of the most accomplished rulers in what is now called the UK and defeating the vikings was considered to be his greatest feat as king, it's not deeper than that. Hopefully when the test is updated it incorporates what we now know about Cnvt and the period in general.
@@MrCameroncee The citizenship tests aren't THAT old. Canute (as it was then) has been on school history curriculums and history books aimed at kids since at least the 70s and probably to the dawn of post-war secondary schooling. Citizenship tests in the UK were a recent invention and what went on them ABSOLUTELY was a huge pile of "patriotic" political grandstanding, as was everything about their introduction.
@@Ylyrra relatively speaking they are not up to date. I appreciate there may be some crossover with history, school texts books and these tests but that doesn't mean that the people involved in the formation of the questions were/ are experts in the fields they choose to formulate questions for. I suppose you can make the argument that some effort may have gone into 'rewriting history' to make England/ Britain look better, I just personally don't attribute to malice what can be attributed to ignorance. Unless I saw evidence for it, I'd be open to changing my mind.
@@MrCameroncee Scandinavian here. Ofcourse history has been rewritten to make England look better (with malicious intent)! The truth is, we were alot more mercifull and honourable than english, but english historian wrote history like we was savages
@@shanubag6785 he could take a shower, but nope, he decided to write comments about it instead! Gotta respect the dedication to the lifestyle at least.
I do wonder if this is the kind of source Monty Python looked at and decided the dark and middle ages of England involved everyone rolling around in mud and whatever else was left in it.
This woman is remarkable! I would absolutely have no problem applying the word "expert" to her. Far too many people think they are experts who simply and clearly are not. Kudos to her!
But why does your opinion matter at all, regarding her being an expert? She has the necessary academic training. Why does it require a random youtube commenter without any discernible qualification to validate her?
I do love how in the show Vikings Uppsala is on a mountain next to a Norwegian fjord when it's actually inland in eastern Sweden on pretty flat ground, not a single mountain or fjord to be found. That's basically the level of "realism" they went for.
I live near Gamla Uppsala where this took place in the series. I laughed at where they placed the temple 😆 Sure there's a slight hill there but not near anything like the mountain shown in the show.
@@legitbeans9078 look up Jackson Crawford he’s a former professor (Colorado Boulder, UCLA, UC Berkeley) of Old Norse language and culture and posts videos for free on TH-cam and they are amazing
People often talk about the Vikings' use of violence, but few talk about the fact that they had laws, rules and a legal system that regulated their domestic society.
As a Sami, the way the Sami people were depicted in Vikings was horrific. For some reason, they spoke of a "Sami king" which never existed, the leader of each individual Sami group was the shaman. They couldn't even make that simple change.
I’ve been learning about the Sami recently and it seems they are treated very similarly to how European colonists and later American settlers treated the Native Americans
@@johnevergreen8019yeah cause that used to be the norm, conquer or be conquered. U can read up on african or asian history before europeans took over and see the same things too.
@nenasiek No it was quite different. Same with the native Americans. Yes they got conquered like countless others. But never before was an entire continent wide racial genocide ever attempted.
@@paintedhorse6880there is plenty of evidence of whole tribes of people being killed of or enslaved in history including in North America before European settlers made it there so it has been tried before Genghis khan for exemple killed off like 1/3 of the Eurasian population, the sad part for native Americans was that modern firearms was a thing so it became easier to kill alot of animals and people in a short time frame, but Im willing to bet had modern firearms existed 1000 years ago alot more genocides would have happend.
I'm Danish and we are indeed proud of our heritage :) As mentioned the pride is based more on the accompishments of the explorers, traders and craftsmen than the violence. Though it would be dishonest to not mention the battle/raiding tactics of the vikings as well as the known places where bands of vikings were hired in as mercenaries. My favourite viking tidbit is the "Halfdan was here" inscription in the Hagia Sophia in modern day Istanbul, Turkey.
LOL at the section about bathing. Even in the time of the Vikings, men were flabbergasted that women preferred men who took the time to be clean and presentable.
@@Ennugianah I don’t think they would skip it, if there are questions asked in good faith and not by angry nationalists. Having said that, I also see that this series focuses more on old things when it comes to history, and Japan being Japan, I imagine many people will ask about samurai, ninjas, geishas and warlords.
@@asapthiccdadyletsgetit935 also Japanese history is so vast that it should probably be a more focused episode like Medieval Japan, or the Japan of the Shoguns etc.
I live in a viking village in Sweden, so if anyone wants to build on virgin ground they have to check so there isnt finds in the ground, we also have a church with rune markings and viking burial mounds.
What, you mean that the scots didn't wear kilts 300 years earlier than they should, or wore blue facepaint like the picts during roman age? Next you'll probably tell me the princess Isabelle of France wasn't an adult, but a ten year old girl!
@@33d672 you're not a viking, a viking was a way of life that is extinct now, your ancestors may have been but most were, vikings were wayfarers which meant they travelled about, ironically enough if you're native Scandinavian now your ancestors probably weren't because they stayed put
@@Pepespizzeria1 When I Said ”us” I meant Scandinavians not Vikings, as vikings simply was a verb, to go raiding, like a ’job’. Most brits/americans fail to recognize this, as only maybe 1% went viking. Most were farmers.
The pregnancy question baffles me because, you could say the same thing about other cultures as well during the time period? Vikings are not exactly unique in that sense. People back then typically had a lot of kids, and STD's were common as well, but you can say that for anyone, not just Vikings.
@@janemary8339 It's still the same in many parts of the world, and even in western cultures, it was still that way at the time of my grandparents' time
Some countries got lucky with a herb or figured out a mixture (slight poison) that worked as a abortifacient. Italy had a plant but they cultivated it into extinction. Supposedly the common heart shape is based on it.
No one talks about Viking raids in Finland.... You know, the small pach of land between Sweden and russia, inhabited by a bunch of weirdos. Even Vikings didn't want to deal with Finns, they just passed by straigh to russia
Some of this started to sound familiar and then I realized I read her book! I highly recommend “River Kings” to anyone interested in the archaeology of the period and some of the key historical points. Read on the beach this summer and found it easy enough to parse.
the reason why you find more skeletons in Norway that show signs of violence probably has something to do with the fact that there were fewer resources and much less arable land in Norway compared to Denmark, which inevitably will lead to more internecine fighting
These lack of resources is half the reason Vikings went on raids in the first place and no one is just going to hand over their resources without a fight. It always amazes me how surprised people are with how violent humans can be. We have always been a violent species and we still are, we just delude ourselves into thinking otherwise.
@@Supadrumma441 how do you know it's half the reason? when the vikings left on journeys it was about much more than just looting and killing you know. yes, all societies were violent. but people have a tendency to be kind to their own because they depend on each other and those skeletons is most likely norwegians killing other norwegians but if resources are small that is when they start fighting among themselves.
Yea, Björn did not die like in the netflix show, Björn founded the first royal line in Sweden, Munsöätten/House of Munsö and Harald "Finehair" Halfdansson did not die in a battle, he died of old age of 80!!!! EIGHTY !!! at that time??? He was ancient and he also had 20 children, potentially more which he did not know of, but he did not die in a battle without an offspring like in the netflix show lol
As for what the Vikings called themselves, I have no idea about the Norwegians and the Swedes, but the Danelaw was called just that by the 11th century, so I can only assume we Danes called ourselves Danes at that point, at least if we were dealing with non-Danes. As for wether or not Vikings called themselves Vikings, well, in Old Norse the word "víkingr" refers to a person, the word "víking" is an activity as mentioned, but in any case, there's a chambered cairn on Orkney, where many people have come by over the centuries, several have left their messages on the walls, one of these messages reads "A Viking wrote this" above the door, written in futhark runes. There's a documentary about it somewhere around here, but I can't remember the title. And as a Dane, I'm not proud of all the destruction and pain we caused, to be totally honest we must've been a bunch of real assholes if our victims are to be trusted, but I am quite proud of our technological advances, at that time nobody built ships like we did, and despite the fact we used the narrower ones to make hit and runs on unsupecting villages and towns far inland, the technology that enabled us to do just that, aswell as sail all the way to what is modern day Canada and the US, is astonishing, they _really_ knew what they were doing. Oh, and Viking artwork is _awesome._
I agree. Harald Bluetooth wrote Denmark and Danes on the Jellinge runestones in 960 and foreign litterature also mentioned Danes. So the identity seems obvious in that matter :)
The Vikings were no more violent than any other civilization that had the means to conquer. Conquest was the way of the world. Feeling guilt about it is ridiculous.
hey, at least you didn’t kill each other quite as much as the Norwegians did. I wonder if that’s anything to do with how Norway came to be ruled by Denmark? Maybe Danish rule brought some welcome stability, and law and order?
Danish here. Not much new info to me other than I must admit that the Norwegians were probably more hardcore than the rest of us. And now look at them... Jokes aside, this is a very good breakdown. Jarman clearly knows her stuff.
A nation´s general character can change completely. We Czechs were an expanding nation in the Middle Ages, now it´s unthinkable to us. Also recommend Ian Hislop´s documentary on the British "stiff upper lip". Turns out the Brits actually used to be a very emotional nation! That would explain the crazy history of Henry VIII and his court life. They became more reserved as a reaction to the French Revolution.
They were absolutely the most warlike. But we Danes were, overall, more successful. There's a reason why the viking ruled part of England was called the "Danelaw" after all. It PROBABLY has to do with the Norwegians spending a significant amount of time and effort fighting each other, while we had a more centralised government, and consequently, we focused our violence outwards primarily. Moreover, Denmark was more fertile than most of Norway, so it is likely we had a larger population than they did.
Patronymics are only used in Iceland and are optional in the Faroe Islands. Denmark has reintroduced optional patronymics in 2006 but they are hardly ever used.
There's a lot of misunderstandings regarding the difference between "patronymics" and "patronymic surnames" in this comment thread. Iceland uses patronymics, which is not the same as a patronymic surname. It's not the same as our understanding of surnames, but rather a title/description. Your name was "x", and you were son/daughter of y. Only the x part would be your name, the rest was just a description. Think of it the same way "King Charles III" has two descriptions, he's the third king with the name "Charles". But his name isn't "King" or "III", that's just to identify him. In a similar fashion, a patronymic wasn't your name, but an identifying mark. You were "Name", son/daughter of "Other name"; "Name Othernameson/dottir". This system is still in use in Iceland, in which the son of Jakob will be called Name Jakobson, but not Jakob's son's son. He will have a different patronym. Notice how patronyms are not hereditary? For example, "Stefan Jakobsson" might have a son and daughter, Robert and Julia. They won't be called Robert Jakobsson and Julia Jakobsson, but Robert Stefanson and Julia Stefansdottir, because they are "Robert, son of Stefan" and "Julia, daughter of Stefan", respectively. Patronymic surnames however, are hereditary. If you're a swede named Julia Jakobsson, it's likely your father or mother was also a Jakobsson. And Julia is neither a son nor is her father necessarily named Jakob. Somewhere down the line *someone* was Jakob's son, and thus had the patronym Jakobson, but eventually they started using their patronym as their surname and thus passing it hereditarely. Therefore their patronymic turned into a surname; which we call a patronymic surname.
@@KayJay01 You're the only one who's confused here. And you're wrong about 'patronymic surnames' too - they aren't inherently hereditary, they can also be strictly patronymic.
At 16:25 when she mentioned Ibn Fadlan, I had to roll it back to hear it again. I watched "The 13th Warrior" years ago but that name stuck with me. Ibn Fadlan was banished by a king in what's now Iraq. He encountered the Rus in his travels. If you like warrior movies, viking movies, and ancient battles, you will like it. IT IS NOT a documentary or fully accurate historical account but it's a good movie with good acting.
@@alexanderkowal5710 Sure, twitter (or X). But the way questions are asked (like ending with wtf or lol) suggests more asking someone then searching in say google.
@@alexanderkowal5710 Yes I know it says Twitter (or X?). But the questions or often ending in wtf or lol, suggesting it's not a search like in google but more a personal question.
I am Swedish by blood and was always amused by so many Swedes in Minnesota in accordance with the joke : the Swedes had to look long and hard for a place where the weather was as shifty as in Sweded😂
Im an amateur historian, but to my sense norsemen tv wasnt so far off. People have always been people and humor, awkwardness and duality of humans were just as prevelant and it is today. And people were aware of it
Although the Norseman was a comedy series, in some ways it was more accurate than many other shows. Norseman incorporated the fact that slavery was a core component of Norse life at the time. Slaves were a vitally important part of the economy, and taking slaves was a major reason for raiding.
Fascinating insight into my own family's history, at some point a Norse viking decided he liked Northern England and settled there, then a few centuries later I came along. I wonder what his hopes and dreams were.
Nice that you think about it this way. I´m a product of Turkish raids in Central Europe. Zero weddings or settlements here. "The Turkish war" carried about the same meaning as "the plague". Definitely no hopes or dreams in that part of my ancestry. (This is also the reason for the massive islamophobia in Central Europe btw. Not that I´m defending it, I´m actually interested in Turkish and Touareg culture. But for centuries and centuries, the only adequate reaction to "muslims approaching" needed to be "close the gates and hide the women and hope a couple of us survive to tell the tale". The church in my town is specifically built to double as a fortress against Turks. And unlike with Vikings, this lasted until a couple centuries ago, so the collective memory is still there.)
I wanted Bjorn's explorations of the Med to continue & see how that changes the Vikings. We kinda got it in Valhalla. The Last Kingdom is also a great show. The Grimfrost is a great Bespoke brand & community celebrating Viking-inspired products.
Are we proud of the raids? No but the Viking age and the people who lived in it did so much more than just that. All cultures have violent ugly parts that their modern day people aren't proud of. It's not our fault that media much like many old sources would much rather focus on the fighting than the trading, the discoveries, the womens rights, or just the culture in general.
Actually, not all countries. Like Switzerland. Also, Finland, Slovakia and Slovenia. But this might have been simply because they didn´t have their own countries for most of history, so we don´t know what they would have done, had they had the opportunity to decide independently. Completely agree on the rest. I read "The Red Orm" and it was so much more than fighting. Travelling to Constaninople, the trade, the family, the diplomacy.
brother, we aint talking ancient. we are talking early medieval sort of things. A large parts of Europe were christian at that point and large parts of middleast \ Africa were muslim. FYI neither christians nor muslims practiced human sacrifices.
@@evg3nius 1. There is no evidence of human sacrifice in viking culture. The mentioned incident in the video could have been a massacre just as much as it could have been a sacrifice. 2. By the very definition of a religious sacrifice, i.e the murder of other people to please the Gods, wouldn't any massacre of heretics or non-believers count if it was "the will of God"? And thus, I'd argue Christianity and Islam are actually the top two religions in terms of humans killed to please their deity. Just because the ritual is foreign to you, that doesn't make it worse or less moral. Christianity and Islam are just as morally bankrupt as Norse Paganism when it comes to the sanctity of preserving life.
Thorkell the tall (Þorkell inn hávi) was indeed a jomsviking. There is a runestone called Orkestastenen which tells of him. Now, there is nothing there about uppercutting horses like the Thorkell we know and love, but lets say that he did for the sake of everyone's happiness.
Regarding the "pride in our heritage"-question it's my experience as a Dane that most Danes see our heritage as a sort of fun and cool fact about our genetics, but it's very extremely rare that you'd see someone base their entire identity or noticiable chunks of their identity around it, like you'd see people with various ethnicities in the US do it
I am periodically checking volunteer accs for Ukraine there, tho basically everything moved to Telegram, OSINT (other use of Twitter) is impossible to follow now since there's rate limits and you can't view chronologically without logging in. So good luck checking on Oryx, I use our own sources like Deep State and both sides hardware losses calculating TG channel. STILL would be nice to read analysis on raw data. Like correctly deducted russia running out of (enough) APCs in warehouses leading them to use golf cards and bikes.
As a Faroese person, I'm disappointed by most videos talking about this sort of stuff. This video mentions vikings crossing the atlantic and also mentions Icelantic as the language closest to olde norse. No mention of the closeness of Faroese to olde norse, neither any mention of vikings landing on the Faroe Islands. I think it's misleading and naive. Both Icelantic and Faroese are similarly close to old norse, yet different languages, with different alphabets. The Faroese Løgting, formed by vikings, is perhaps even older than the Althing in Iceland. Just doing my Faroese duty here.
As a Swede, I feel you-we, and Danes, often get overshadowed by Norwegians in media just because they have more of the stereotypical "Viking" scenery, with the mountains and fjords. In Sweden we have mountains and fjords but nothing to the scale of them in Norway.
On the question of human sacrifice could be added that at least one swedish king was supposedly sacrificed to the gods: The luck of the king is the luck of the land,[2] and Domalde's rule was marked by bad crops and starvation. The first autumn, the Swedes sacrificed oxen at the temple at Uppsala, but the next harvest was not better. The second autumn, they sacrificed men, but the following crops were even worse. The third year many Swedes arrived at Gamla Uppsala at the Thing of all Swedes and the chiefs decided they had to sacrifice the king. They sprinkled the statues of the gods with his blood (see Blót) and the good harvests returned.
RE: Viking navigation. Jarman leaves out an important discovery, the Uunartoq Disc, an artifact found at a Norse site in Greenland in 1948. The Uunartoq Disc is an example of a sun compass. Using such a device, skilled Viking navigators could hold a course on a desired latitude. This is how they reached and settled Iceland, Greenland, and North America -- voyages that took their ships far out of sight of land for many days.
Thank you, Cat - really fascinating. Several years ago I made a highly enjoyable visit to Norway, and discovered how many modern English words have Norse roots. I met many people who looked very like the stereotypical Viking, but they were all very mild-mannered - some even introspective - and most were interested in psychology; none behaved in any aggressive manner at all! So, what happened to the Viking spirit? Re the compass issue, I can imagine how they managed without one. Even getting to North America the open-sea journeys would be a series of 'hops' (Norway > Shetland > Faroes > Iceland > Greenland > Baffin Is. > Labrador) none more than a day's travel (Google suggests 19km/hr for average speed of a long-ship). And they probobly travelled mainly in the summer, so it would have been daylight all the way - a definite advantage for people who lived near the polar circle.
It’s annoying that The Faroe Islands🇫🇴 are almost always overloooked. Föroyar was settled long before Iceland. It was a Faroese viking, Naddoddur, who was the first norseman to Iceland.
the reason they are overlooked it they didn't really seem to do much after settling in Faroe Islands or there isn't much writings about them, what I mean is Iceland is mentioned because Erik the red settled there and later traveled to North America Greenland and Canada , and due to Icelandic Sagas , that said I would certainly like to know more about Vikings in Faroe Islands , I don't even know what the dna is , Iceland is a mix of Norwegians and Scots
@@yoyobase4638 “oh shut it”… Why? What exactly is your problem with my comment? It provides additional information about viking history. You clicked a ‘viking history’ related video. And you decide to post “oh shut it”. Are you just bored so you post a completely pointless comment?
16:00 This question is actually fascinating. It clearly shows that, while all human societies have been concerned about keeping themselves clean and taking care of themselves, ideas around what cleanliness is have always been varied and have changed and continue to change over the years. Reminds me of this recent online discourse over cleanliness and the so called "cleanliness olympics" and how people see others who have different cleanliness standards and views as lesser than or even outright morally and ethically worse than.
Yes, Muslims specifically consider namaz to be standarts of being clean, and anyone who doesn't follow it is not doing enough. For modern Americans, showering every day is considered the norm, even though it damages the hair and makes you more dirty daily since body adapts to the constant damage by releasing more oils. But then during hot summers we had in Odesa, showering ONCE per day would sometimes make you literally drip sweat around you, so it's all relative.
Interesting. So we don't know enough about the Vikings to say that they were as violent as was thought, but they also might be a lot more violent than we ever thought!
Hilarious that the Sagas are "historical fiction" because they were written hundreds of years after the Vikings were around, yet The Bible is taken literally despite it being compiled hundreds or thousands of years after the supposed events and has been heavily edited and changed by various Kings in Europe.
Oh I think you need to read some bible history, and I don't mean the book but research around the bible. The bible is made of 2 parts, the old and the new. The old was compiled around 500 BC and some texts added later. The new is different. First texts appeared just a few decades after death of Jesus and the canon was completed in 3 century. No kings have altered the texts, but with reformation did they go back to the old Hebrew and Greek texts, and translated the Bible. Of course will every translation be some sort of alternation of the original text. The problem with the Sagas is that they are written much later, often by order of the Norwegian kings. So they depict what the kings wanted. Also was many written by people with a christian mindset. So yes, you can't trust them. If you also look at the Sagas will you see that they have resemblance to other old European stories. You will for example find parts that resemble Homer
The Arabia travelers on Rus' vikings were Ibn Fadlan and Ibn Rustah, they kind of were biased as showing every non-Muslim as "dirty" because of not doing the namaz, but still complimented them on hair and beard care, so extremely well-kempt hairstyles and facial hair with braids etc. IS historically accurate.
most inportant thing that people tend to misunderstand is that vikings are not aethnicity or a nationality or a culture but almost more of a job seafairing traders some of which would occasionally pillage and plunder and some other of which went on legitimate conquests
The craftsmanship of Viking sailing vessels is impressive. Ocean going longships that are adept at navigating rivers due to their shoal draught. Good way to get around.
Not really. Their peers used body paint, a group of maybe vikings ('Rus'in the account of Ahmad ibn-Fadlan) had body markings, but we have not found anything indicating the Norse themselves had tattoos.
I think a lot of cultures had some names based off of their professions. Smith, Baker, Miller, Butler, Mason, Fowler etc.and then the other ones were based off of their family names like Erickson, Nielsen, Johansson, Anderson, Larsen would be equal to Thompson or Johnson for anglos
wired please NEVER stop making these - specifically the ones about medieval civilizations and scientific experts. i'm OBSESSED and have learned so much
+ They are so NEAT
also please expand it to more than western Europe civilisations coz the world is HUGE
Even though their 'historians' are complete frauds😂
@@MsCarottyYeah talk about the mud huts in Africa much more fascinating than the industrial revolution
Vikings never existed. Norse people would go raiding or their original verb we now call "viking". The movie Northman authorities agree is the only film which correctly gets it right. All of the rest are entertaining fantasies in silly costumes.
I’d love to see an expert about Native American history on this series!
Oldamerican would be super cool aswell
Yes please!
That seems more complicated because each tribe has its own history.
@@adamb.8112 Well each Viking Group had its own history. The Vikings of modern day Finland and Eastern Russia don’t have the same history as those in modern day Iceland and North America.
@@JustGoRacing That’s a good point. I guess it just depends on how much they want to summarize in the length of videos they post.
"How violent were the vikings"
"Yes"
"According to their enemies."
@@ZT1ST"And their descendants"
"who defeated the vikings"
"no"
@@_TheDudeAbides_ Well... 1066.
@@SchmorgusWell, he is kinda right because the Vikings defeated the Vikings...😅
The Christians defeated them with the help of other Vikings.
That was their biggest flaw, the absence of unity, especially in Norway.
I love how she was asked a Viking question on her UK citizenship test. Probably knowing infinitely more than the person evaluating it.
@@KurtFrederiksen brit here; it's not that the citizenship tests are trying to further any sort of narrative. The issue is citizenship tests aren't updated very frequently and sometimes historical information can be slightly outdated (the irony). Viking history isn't a huge topic when concerning all of British history (like the citizenship test attempts to represent). Alfred the great is one of the most accomplished rulers in what is now called the UK and defeating the vikings was considered to be his greatest feat as king, it's not deeper than that. Hopefully when the test is updated it incorporates what we now know about Cnvt and the period in general.
@@MrCameroncee The citizenship tests aren't THAT old. Canute (as it was then) has been on school history curriculums and history books aimed at kids since at least the 70s and probably to the dawn of post-war secondary schooling. Citizenship tests in the UK were a recent invention and what went on them ABSOLUTELY was a huge pile of "patriotic" political grandstanding, as was everything about their introduction.
@@Ylyrra relatively speaking they are not up to date. I appreciate there may be some crossover with history, school texts books and these tests but that doesn't mean that the people involved in the formation of the questions were/ are experts in the fields they choose to formulate questions for.
I suppose you can make the argument that some effort may have gone into 'rewriting history' to make England/ Britain look better, I just personally don't attribute to malice what can be attributed to ignorance. Unless I saw evidence for it, I'd be open to changing my mind.
@@MrCameroncee Scandinavian here. Ofcourse history has been rewritten to make England look better (with malicious intent)!
The truth is, we were alot more mercifull and honourable than english, but english historian wrote history like we was savages
@@33d672 do you have any evidence for this?
Shout out to the guy who complained the Vikings were bathing and changing their underwear too often 😂
The first incel? 😂
He was pissed bcoz the Vikings were getting more chicks than they could 😂
@@KayJay01 might just be lol
@@shanubag6785 he could take a shower, but nope, he decided to write comments about it instead! Gotta respect the dedication to the lifestyle at least.
I do wonder if this is the kind of source Monty Python looked at and decided the dark and middle ages of England involved everyone rolling around in mud and whatever else was left in it.
The swedish word for saturday is _lördag_ , which basically means "the day you wash", or "washingday".
I can confirm that. In Danish its "Lørdag", and I indeed shower every Lørdag
@@Gerdienator This is why us Sweds are viewed as the best scandis lol jk
Similar in Icelandic! Laugardagur means "pool(or body of water) day"
@@Gerdienator same in norwegian
Same in icelandic "laugardagur"
There are some Viking runes carved in stone in the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul, basicly saying: ''Halvdan was here.''
There is also l'anse aux Meadow in Canada where there are ruins
yes but i gues those where guards with to muche boredom the varingian guard was pretty much completly norse
@@bobmalibaliyahmarley1551 Soo, is it fair to assume thar Halvdan was an ancestor to Killroy?
"This has been viking support" sounds like an old phone support line
"Viking support. If youve been raided press 1"
😂😂
for bath-related complains press 2
i am born in denmark, and they showed denmark in the vikings show. that was the first time i saw a mountain in denmark.
You should visit Himmelbjerget, it's enormous!!
I love this comment, it def deserves more visibility. The simplest yet funniest way to describe the TV Show’s accuracy😂😂😂❤
This woman is remarkable! I would absolutely have no problem applying the word "expert" to her. Far too many people think they are experts who simply and clearly are not. Kudos to her!
I recommend her books - The River Kings & The Bone Chests
Thank you, I will look into them!
I agree, totally impressed with her knowledge and way of handling questions to the point and accurately. 10/10
But why does your opinion matter at all, regarding her being an expert? She has the necessary academic training. Why does it require a random youtube commenter without any discernible qualification to validate her?
I do love how in the show Vikings Uppsala is on a mountain next to a Norwegian fjord when it's actually inland in eastern Sweden on pretty flat ground, not a single mountain or fjord to be found. That's basically the level of "realism" they went for.
Can confirm
I'd assumed they were in Sweden any time they were in Uppsala lol
Stuff like this ruins the show for me. Being a Swed I notice these things too easily.
I live near Gamla Uppsala where this took place in the series. I laughed at where they placed the temple 😆 Sure there's a slight hill there but not near anything like the mountain shown in the show.
Right next to? I assumed they had traveled for a couple of weeks to get there.
Why are these only 20 mins long. Make them an hour and we will watch them all
Complain to Wired Magazine. I wish they were longer too.
Or even just multiple videos.
Agreed!
@@legitbeans9078 look up Jackson Crawford he’s a former professor (Colorado Boulder, UCLA, UC Berkeley) of Old Norse language and culture and posts videos for free on TH-cam and they are amazing
Forever.
People often talk about the Vikings' use of violence, but few talk about the fact that they had laws, rules and a legal system that regulated their domestic society.
that depends who you're talking to. I think most educated people know that modern western legal systems are based on danelaw
And most was farmers
In the Icelandic Sagas the only people who were "vikings" were those who raided so the vast majority of the population weren't "vikings".
and most people didnt plunder cities but traded because that was easier
Still more civilized than the average american
As a Sami, the way the Sami people were depicted in Vikings was horrific. For some reason, they spoke of a "Sami king" which never existed, the leader of each individual Sami group was the shaman. They couldn't even make that simple change.
I’ve been learning about the Sami recently and it seems they are treated very similarly to how European colonists and later American settlers treated the Native Americans
@@johnevergreen8019 More or less, yes
@@johnevergreen8019yeah cause that used to be the norm, conquer or be conquered. U can read up on african or asian history before europeans took over and see the same things too.
@nenasiek No it was quite different. Same with the native Americans. Yes they got conquered like countless others. But never before was an entire continent wide racial genocide ever attempted.
@@paintedhorse6880there is plenty of evidence of whole tribes of people being killed of or enslaved in history including in North America before European settlers made it there so it has been tried before Genghis khan for exemple killed off like 1/3 of the Eurasian population, the sad part for native Americans was that modern firearms was a thing so it became easier to kill alot of animals and people in a short time frame, but Im willing to bet had modern firearms existed 1000 years ago alot more genocides would have happend.
I'm Danish and we are indeed proud of our heritage :)
As mentioned the pride is based more on the accompishments of the explorers, traders and craftsmen than the violence. Though it would be dishonest to not mention the battle/raiding tactics of the vikings as well as the known places where bands of vikings were hired in as mercenaries.
My favourite viking tidbit is the "Halfdan was here" inscription in the Hagia Sophia in modern day Istanbul, Turkey.
The Swedish Vikings went to the middle east, not the danes or norwegians
You proud because your ancestors were patriarchal misogynistic rapists?😂
@@studentstudent5044 not entirely correct. norwegians did travel to what is now Turkiye and served as the varangian guard (i know i misspelled it)
@@studentstudent5044 It wasn't that basic. Loads of Danes and Norwegians also went east, same as loads Swedes also went west.
@@leenpels7646 he's obviously heard some uneducated swedish friend of his make the statement or something
LOL at the section about bathing. Even in the time of the Vikings, men were flabbergasted that women preferred men who took the time to be clean and presentable.
Vikings bathed just once a week and still got the ladies. I shower twice a day and can't get a girl to just look at me😂
@@abstract5249 but do you wash your hands after visiting the toilet? 😏
Medieval Christian belief "arghhhhh bathing gets you disease! Bathe once a year!"...
@@abstract5249you need wealth, or battle prowess...
@@abstract5249 once a week was the norm around the world back then
I love the more historical tech support episodes....Any chance of a Japanese historian episode???
But maybe skipping that one awkward chapter.
@@Ennugianah I don’t think they would skip it, if there are questions asked in good faith and not by angry nationalists. Having said that, I also see that this series focuses more on old things when it comes to history, and Japan being Japan, I imagine many people will ask about samurai, ninjas, geishas and warlords.
@@asapthiccdadyletsgetit935 also Japanese history is so vast that it should probably be a more focused episode like Medieval Japan, or the Japan of the Shoguns etc.
No, go away, weeb.
Metatron would be a good place (channel) to start.
I live in a viking village in Sweden, so if anyone wants to build on virgin ground they have to check so there isnt finds in the ground, we also have a church with rune markings and viking burial mounds.
Don't forget about the graffiti in the Hagia Sofia "Halfdan was here."
Yeah. The Vikings tv shows are as historically accurate as braveheart.
What, you mean that the scots didn't wear kilts 300 years earlier than they should, or wore blue facepaint like the picts during roman age? Next you'll probably tell me the princess Isabelle of France wasn't an adult, but a ten year old girl!
You can always tell when a new video on braveheart comes out everyone becomes a Scottish historian 😂
@@Pepespizzeria1 The same with any video on vikings, suddenly every brit and american on earth is an expert about us
@@33d672 you're not a viking, a viking was a way of life that is extinct now, your ancestors may have been but most were, vikings were wayfarers which meant they travelled about, ironically enough if you're native Scandinavian now your ancestors probably weren't because they stayed put
@@Pepespizzeria1 When I Said ”us” I meant Scandinavians not Vikings, as vikings simply was a verb, to go raiding, like a ’job’. Most brits/americans fail to recognize this, as only maybe 1% went viking. Most were farmers.
The pregnancy question baffles me because, you could say the same thing about other cultures as well during the time period? Vikings are not exactly unique in that sense. People back then typically had a lot of kids, and STD's were common as well, but you can say that for anyone, not just Vikings.
Indeed pregnancy was seen as a natural phenomenon, part of life sort of thing. (including STDs probably). The reaction would have been "that's life."
@@janemary8339 It's still the same in many parts of the world, and even in western cultures, it was still that way at the time of my grandparents' time
Some countries got lucky with a herb or figured out a mixture (slight poison) that worked as a abortifacient. Italy had a plant but they cultivated it into extinction. Supposedly the common heart shape is based on it.
No one ever talks about the Viking landing near Weymouth that predates Lindesfarne by a few years. As it wasn't typically a raid, it gets forgotten :(
Lindisfarne was a big one, Vikings had been raiding the UK for years prior, the people who know what they're talking about don't forget
The very bestest viking landing of all time though, that was at Chryse Planitia.
Lindisfarne had a better press coverage
No one talks about Viking raids in Finland.... You know, the small pach of land between Sweden and russia, inhabited by a bunch of weirdos.
Even Vikings didn't want to deal with Finns, they just passed by straigh to russia
@@stellapolaris5372 Back when Russia was much better... since there were barely any Russians in it.
Some of this started to sound familiar and then I realized I read her book! I highly recommend “River Kings” to anyone interested in the archaeology of the period and some of the key historical points. Read on the beach this summer and found it easy enough to parse.
the reason why you find more skeletons in Norway that show signs of violence probably has something to do with the fact that there were fewer resources and much less arable land in Norway compared to Denmark, which inevitably will lead to more internecine fighting
These lack of resources is half the reason Vikings went on raids in the first place and no one is just going to hand over their resources without a fight. It always amazes me how surprised people are with how violent humans can be. We have always been a violent species and we still are, we just delude ourselves into thinking otherwise.
@@Supadrumma441 how do you know it's half the reason? when the vikings left on journeys it was about much more than just looting and killing you know. yes, all societies were violent. but people have a tendency to be kind to their own because they depend on each other and those skeletons is most likely norwegians killing other norwegians but if resources are small that is when they start fighting among themselves.
@@ValentinKnudsen Because I read. You should try it.
@@Supadrumma441 haha right:)
Less resources? Norway has oil! What´s better than that?
This is fascinating. Cat Jarman , thank you. I’ve learnt something new today 👋
This was excellent, thanks Wired and Cat Jarman.
Yea, Björn did not die like in the netflix show, Björn founded the first royal line in Sweden, Munsöätten/House of Munsö and Harald "Finehair" Halfdansson did not die in a battle, he died of old age of 80!!!! EIGHTY !!! at that time??? He was ancient and he also had 20 children, potentially more which he did not know of, but he did not die in a battle without an offspring like in the netflix show lol
Her podcast, The Rabbit Hole Detectives, is a joy. Informative, and so funny. Wonderful chemistry with Charles Spencer and Richard Coles.
As for what the Vikings called themselves, I have no idea about the Norwegians and the Swedes, but the Danelaw was called just that by the 11th century, so I can only assume we Danes called ourselves Danes at that point, at least if we were dealing with non-Danes. As for wether or not Vikings called themselves Vikings, well, in Old Norse the word "víkingr" refers to a person, the word "víking" is an activity as mentioned, but in any case, there's a chambered cairn on Orkney, where many people have come by over the centuries, several have left their messages on the walls, one of these messages reads "A Viking wrote this" above the door, written in futhark runes. There's a documentary about it somewhere around here, but I can't remember the title.
And as a Dane, I'm not proud of all the destruction and pain we caused, to be totally honest we must've been a bunch of real assholes if our victims are to be trusted, but I am quite proud of our technological advances, at that time nobody built ships like we did, and despite the fact we used the narrower ones to make hit and runs on unsupecting villages and towns far inland, the technology that enabled us to do just that, aswell as sail all the way to what is modern day Canada and the US, is astonishing, they _really_ knew what they were doing. Oh, and Viking artwork is _awesome._
I agree. Harald Bluetooth wrote Denmark and Danes on the Jellinge runestones in 960 and foreign litterature also mentioned Danes. So the identity seems obvious in that matter :)
swedes were named (suiones) by tacitus in 98 AD, so yeah
The Vikings were no more violent than any other civilization that had the means to conquer. Conquest was the way of the world. Feeling guilt about it is ridiculous.
Interesting, Germans say Wikinger
hey, at least you didn’t kill each other quite as much as the Norwegians did. I wonder if that’s anything to do with how Norway came to be ruled by Denmark? Maybe Danish rule brought some welcome stability, and law and order?
Born in Norway, moved to England. She is literally the perfect Viking researcher
Danish here. Not much new info to me other than I must admit that the Norwegians were probably more hardcore than the rest of us. And now look at them...
Jokes aside, this is a very good breakdown. Jarman clearly knows her stuff.
A nation´s general character can change completely. We Czechs were an expanding nation in the Middle Ages, now it´s unthinkable to us. Also recommend Ian Hislop´s documentary on the British "stiff upper lip". Turns out the Brits actually used to be a very emotional nation! That would explain the crazy history of Henry VIII and his court life. They became more reserved as a reaction to the French Revolution.
They were absolutely the most warlike. But we Danes were, overall, more successful. There's a reason why the viking ruled part of England was called the "Danelaw" after all. It PROBABLY has to do with the Norwegians spending a significant amount of time and effort fighting each other, while we had a more centralised government, and consequently, we focused our violence outwards primarily. Moreover, Denmark was more fertile than most of Norway, so it is likely we had a larger population than they did.
Best and most accurate viking show is called hem till midgård.
😂😂😂
Balders balle!
Lıll snorre
Monty Pythons Eric the Red.
Thanks, I'll look it up.
I think I'm gonna need a deep dive into these nicknames.
Haha in school when I was bullied apparently they were just giving me Viking names 😂
I want to know the story behind Colbine Butterpenis
@@teamLewis44 Yes, except back then you would be forever known as Eric Pisspants if you messed up even once lmao
Just to clarify, all scandinavian countries kept the "son of" and iceland even kept the "daughter of" as surname to this day.
No, only Iceland uses patronymic surnames. Common surnames ending with -son/sen etc. sound patronymic but are not - and they exist everywhere.
Patronymics are only used in Iceland and are optional in the Faroe Islands. Denmark has reintroduced optional patronymics in 2006 but they are hardly ever used.
There's a lot of misunderstandings regarding the difference between "patronymics" and "patronymic surnames" in this comment thread.
Iceland uses patronymics, which is not the same as a patronymic surname. It's not the same as our understanding of surnames, but rather a title/description. Your name was "x", and you were son/daughter of y. Only the x part would be your name, the rest was just a description. Think of it the same way "King Charles III" has two descriptions, he's the third king with the name "Charles". But his name isn't "King" or "III", that's just to identify him. In a similar fashion, a patronymic wasn't your name, but an identifying mark. You were "Name", son/daughter of "Other name"; "Name Othernameson/dottir".
This system is still in use in Iceland, in which the son of Jakob will be called Name Jakobson, but not Jakob's son's son. He will have a different patronym. Notice how patronyms are not hereditary? For example, "Stefan Jakobsson" might have a son and daughter, Robert and Julia. They won't be called Robert Jakobsson and Julia Jakobsson, but Robert Stefanson and Julia Stefansdottir, because they are "Robert, son of Stefan" and "Julia, daughter of Stefan", respectively.
Patronymic surnames however, are hereditary. If you're a swede named Julia Jakobsson, it's likely your father or mother was also a Jakobsson. And Julia is neither a son nor is her father necessarily named Jakob. Somewhere down the line *someone* was Jakob's son, and thus had the patronym Jakobson, but eventually they started using their patronym as their surname and thus passing it hereditarely. Therefore their patronymic turned into a surname; which we call a patronymic surname.
@@KayJay01 You're the only one who's confused here. And you're wrong about 'patronymic surnames' too - they aren't inherently hereditary, they can also be strictly patronymic.
@@KurtFrederiksen … that’s literally what I said.
Dr Cat Jarman is brilliant, and History Hit is poorer without her.
“The great world tree, Yggdrasil, trembles to its roots, the sons of Muspel gird the field…”
🤘
The “Tree of Life” is one of those concepts like The Flood that seems to be in every culture around the world, even those that had no known contact.
@@robpolaris7272 🇺🇸 🇬🇧 🇨🇦 🇦🇺 🇳🇿 🫡
Yggdrasil is never mentioned as a tree of life in primary sources.
Hearing this live is quite the experience
Stellar timing. I was just reading about Vikings yesterday & have been wanting to learn more 😊 Thank you wired!
Besides being happy with your answers, it made me very happy to hear you say Knud and Canut
I discovered and fell in love with the sagas as an undergraduate many decades ago…still love them.
At 16:25 when she mentioned Ibn Fadlan, I had to roll it back to hear it again. I watched "The 13th Warrior" years ago but that name stuck with me. Ibn Fadlan was banished by a king in what's now Iraq. He encountered the Rus in his travels. If you like warrior movies, viking movies, and ancient battles, you will like it. IT IS NOT a documentary or fully accurate historical account but it's a good movie with good acting.
I always wonder how they collect these questions. Is there a survey you can take or something?
Twitter?
@@alexanderkowal5710 Sure, twitter (or X). But the way questions are asked (like ending with wtf or lol) suggests more asking someone then searching in
say google.
The WIRED staff searches Twitter
@@alexanderkowal5710 Yes, Twitter (or X?). But the questions are not like in say google, I mean they are often ending in wtf or lol.
@@alexanderkowal5710 Yes I know it says Twitter (or X?). But the questions or often ending in wtf or lol, suggesting it's not a search
like in google but more a personal question.
TH-cam needs more excellent content like this.
I like that for some other experts they prepared props on the table but here there's only a skull replica
Love these videos.
Where can I find out what the next videos will be about and ask questions?
The evidence of Vikings traveling through the Great Lakes and living in Minnesota blows my mind and it’s so exciting!
I am Swedish by blood and was always amused by so many Swedes in Minnesota in accordance with the joke : the Swedes had to look long and hard for a place where the weather was as shifty as in Sweded😂
A very good watch! Full of facts and without a ”modern” take of history. Well done!
Literally love this series
So vikings were more like the Norseman TV series !
I love that series!
Im an amateur historian, but to my sense norsemen tv wasnt so far off. People have always been people and humor, awkwardness and duality of humans were just as prevelant and it is today. And people were aware of it
Although the Norseman was a comedy series, in some ways it was more accurate than many other shows.
Norseman incorporated the fact that slavery was a core component of Norse life at the time. Slaves were a vitally important part of the economy, and taking slaves was a major reason for raiding.
Bath every Saturday = LÖRdag. -- moon day, Tiw's day, Wodins day, Thors day Freyas day Friday, then bath day and sun day
How come all the viking nicknames sound just like reddit usernames?
Bcoz reddit copy viking nicknames.
i guess humans really are the same regardless of what time we live in
Always the best topics and interesting presenters - THANK YOU!
Fascinating insight into my own family's history, at some point a Norse viking decided he liked Northern England and settled there, then a few centuries later I came along. I wonder what his hopes and dreams were.
For you and your family to one day live and thrive where he settled his family, one would hope. 🙂
@@slowpacegames2452 That's the hope of everyone I think.
Nordic*
Norse is a langauge. (As she explained in the video)
Nice that you think about it this way. I´m a product of Turkish raids in Central Europe. Zero weddings or settlements here. "The Turkish war" carried about the same meaning as "the plague". Definitely no hopes or dreams in that part of my ancestry.
(This is also the reason for the massive islamophobia in Central Europe btw. Not that I´m defending it, I´m actually interested in Turkish and Touareg culture. But for centuries and centuries, the only adequate reaction to "muslims approaching" needed to be "close the gates and hide the women and hope a couple of us survive to tell the tale". The church in my town is specifically built to double as a fortress against Turks. And unlike with Vikings, this lasted until a couple centuries ago, so the collective memory is still there.)
I wanted Bjorn's explorations of the Med to continue & see how that changes the Vikings.
We kinda got it in Valhalla. The Last Kingdom is also a great show.
The Grimfrost is a great Bespoke brand & community celebrating Viking-inspired products.
Are we proud of the raids? No but the Viking age and the people who lived in it did so much more than just that. All cultures have violent ugly parts that their modern day people aren't proud of. It's not our fault that media much like many old sources would much rather focus on the fighting than the trading, the discoveries, the womens rights, or just the culture in general.
Actually, not all countries. Like Switzerland. Also, Finland, Slovakia and Slovenia. But this might have been simply because they didn´t have their own countries for most of history, so we don´t know what they would have done, had they had the opportunity to decide independently. Completely agree on the rest. I read "The Red Orm" and it was so much more than fighting. Travelling to Constaninople, the trade, the family, the diplomacy.
Name me one ancient culture that didn't resort to human sacrifices to appease their gods.
Vikings aren't Ancient
brother, we aint talking ancient. we are talking early medieval sort of things. A large parts of Europe were christian at that point and large parts of middleast \ Africa were muslim. FYI neither christians nor muslims practiced human sacrifices.
@@evg3niusNo, they just established secular reasons people should kill each other /s
@@evg3nius The church murdered 40-60 thousand people during the witch trials. Seems pretty similar to me.
@@evg3nius 1. There is no evidence of human sacrifice in viking culture. The mentioned incident in the video could have been a massacre just as much as it could have been a sacrifice.
2. By the very definition of a religious sacrifice, i.e the murder of other people to please the Gods, wouldn't any massacre of heretics or non-believers count if it was "the will of God"? And thus, I'd argue Christianity and Islam are actually the top two religions in terms of humans killed to please their deity.
Just because the ritual is foreign to you, that doesn't make it worse or less moral. Christianity and Islam are just as morally bankrupt as Norse Paganism when it comes to the sanctity of preserving life.
The Viking River Cruise ads I'm getting are a nice touch ;)
Was there ever a man named Thorkell that went around uppercutting horses?
Thorkell the tall (Þorkell inn hávi) was indeed a jomsviking. There is a runestone called Orkestastenen which tells of him. Now, there is nothing there about uppercutting horses like the Thorkell we know and love, but lets say that he did for the sake of everyone's happiness.
Hi Cat! Miss you on Gone Medieval (but love Eleanor of course!), so it's nice to see/hear you again
Her podcast The Rabbit Hole Detectives is a joy! Listen if you can
Perfect. Just in time for the Elbaf Arc. 🏴☠️👒🌞
Regarding the "pride in our heritage"-question it's my experience as a Dane that most Danes see our heritage as a sort of fun and cool fact about our genetics, but it's very extremely rare that you'd see someone base their entire identity or noticiable chunks of their identity around it, like you'd see people with various ethnicities in the US do it
These videos are the only good use of Twitter these days. Also, love that we're still calling it Twitter
I am periodically checking volunteer accs for Ukraine there, tho basically everything moved to Telegram, OSINT (other use of Twitter) is impossible to follow now since there's rate limits and you can't view chronologically without logging in. So good luck checking on Oryx, I use our own sources like Deep State and both sides hardware losses calculating TG channel. STILL would be nice to read analysis on raw data. Like correctly deducted russia running out of (enough) APCs in warehouses leading them to use golf cards and bikes.
So excited for this one!!!! I've been waiting so long for it.
As a Faroese person, I'm disappointed by most videos talking about this sort of stuff.
This video mentions vikings crossing the atlantic and also mentions Icelantic as the language closest to olde norse.
No mention of the closeness of Faroese to olde norse, neither any mention of vikings landing on the Faroe Islands.
I think it's misleading and naive. Both Icelantic and Faroese are similarly close to old norse, yet different languages, with different alphabets.
The Faroese Løgting, formed by vikings, is perhaps even older than the Althing in Iceland.
Just doing my Faroese duty here.
As a Swede, I feel you-we, and Danes, often get overshadowed by Norwegians in media just because they have more of the stereotypical "Viking" scenery, with the mountains and fjords. In Sweden we have mountains and fjords but nothing to the scale of them in Norway.
On the question of human sacrifice could be added that at least one swedish king was supposedly sacrificed to the gods:
The luck of the king is the luck of the land,[2] and Domalde's rule was marked by bad crops and starvation. The first autumn, the Swedes sacrificed oxen at the temple at Uppsala, but the next harvest was not better. The second autumn, they sacrificed men, but the following crops were even worse.
The third year many Swedes arrived at Gamla Uppsala at the Thing of all Swedes and the chiefs decided they had to sacrifice the king. They sprinkled the statues of the gods with his blood (see Blót) and the good harvests returned.
These ancient skeletons got brighter teeth than me while still in ground.
No sugar
or coffee
Or tobacco
They were like 25 years old
@@michael3088 RIP now we know why they dead.
RE: Viking navigation. Jarman leaves out an important discovery, the Uunartoq Disc, an artifact found at a Norse site in Greenland in 1948. The Uunartoq Disc is an example of a sun compass. Using such a device, skilled Viking navigators could hold a course on a desired latitude. This is how they reached and settled Iceland, Greenland, and North America -- voyages that took their ships far out of sight of land for many days.
Legends say there was some guy named Thorfinn that had no enemies.
He traveled all around the world and everywhere he went, people raised their glass and said "Aayy! Thorfinn!"
Thank you, Cat - really fascinating. Several years ago I made a highly enjoyable visit to Norway, and discovered how many modern English words have Norse roots. I met many people who looked very like the stereotypical Viking, but they were all very mild-mannered - some even introspective - and most were interested in psychology; none behaved in any aggressive manner at all! So, what happened to the Viking spirit?
Re the compass issue, I can imagine how they managed without one. Even getting to North America the open-sea journeys would be a series of 'hops' (Norway > Shetland > Faroes > Iceland > Greenland > Baffin Is. > Labrador) none more than a day's travel (Google suggests 19km/hr for average speed of a long-ship). And they probobly travelled mainly in the summer, so it would have been daylight all the way - a definite advantage for people who lived near the polar circle.
I had to go to transcript as I thought at 1:03 you said 'Thorbjorg sh!t breath'!
Learning they made it to Baghdad is definitely going to be a rabbit hole, thanks for that lol
It’s annoying that The Faroe Islands🇫🇴 are almost always overloooked. Föroyar was settled long before Iceland. It was a Faroese viking, Naddoddur, who was the first norseman to Iceland.
the reason they are overlooked it they didn't really seem to do much after settling in Faroe Islands or there isn't much writings about them, what I mean is Iceland is mentioned because Erik the red settled there and later traveled to North America Greenland and Canada , and due to Icelandic Sagas , that said I would certainly like to know more about Vikings in Faroe Islands , I don't even know what the dna is , Iceland is a mix of Norwegians and Scots
@@veronicajensen7690
Didn’t do much?
You haven’t read Færeyinga Saga, have you?
Oh shut it
@@yoyobase4638
“oh shut it”… Why? What exactly is your problem with my comment? It provides additional information about viking history. You clicked a ‘viking history’ related video. And you decide to post “oh shut it”. Are you just bored so you post a completely pointless comment?
Two great points: 3:29 and 19:16
Too bad YT censors free speech so I can't explain them. Basically, they're about genetics vs identity
16:00 This question is actually fascinating. It clearly shows that, while all human societies have been concerned about keeping themselves clean and taking care of themselves, ideas around what cleanliness is have always been varied and have changed and continue to change over the years. Reminds me of this recent online discourse over cleanliness and the so called "cleanliness olympics" and how people see others who have different cleanliness standards and views as lesser than or even outright morally and ethically worse than.
Yes, Muslims specifically consider namaz to be standarts of being clean, and anyone who doesn't follow it is not doing enough. For modern Americans, showering every day is considered the norm, even though it damages the hair and makes you more dirty daily since body adapts to the constant damage by releasing more oils. But then during hot summers we had in Odesa, showering ONCE per day would sometimes make you literally drip sweat around you, so it's all relative.
More of these please 🙏
Interesting. So we don't know enough about the Vikings to say that they were as violent as was thought, but they also might be a lot more violent than we ever thought!
Hilarious that the Sagas are "historical fiction" because they were written hundreds of years after the Vikings were around, yet The Bible is taken literally despite it being compiled hundreds or thousands of years after the supposed events and has been heavily edited and changed by various Kings in Europe.
Some people realise the Bible is pure fantasy.
Oh I think you need to read some bible history, and I don't mean the book but research around the bible.
The bible is made of 2 parts, the old and the new. The old was compiled around 500 BC and some texts added later. The new is different. First texts appeared just a few decades after death of Jesus and the canon was completed in 3 century. No kings have altered the texts, but with reformation did they go back to the old Hebrew and Greek texts, and translated the Bible. Of course will every translation be some sort of alternation of the original text.
The problem with the Sagas is that they are written much later, often by order of the Norwegian kings. So they depict what the kings wanted. Also was many written by people with a christian mindset. So yes, you can't trust them. If you also look at the Sagas will you see that they have resemblance to other old European stories. You will for example find parts that resemble Homer
You call that a syphilitic skull?
Hold my beer...
What's more exciting than the actual history is the way researchers gather pieces of evidence and analyse them to figure out a possible history
This was really interesting. Please have Cat come back.
The Arabia travelers on Rus' vikings were Ibn Fadlan and Ibn Rustah, they kind of were biased as showing every non-Muslim as "dirty" because of not doing the namaz, but still complimented them on hair and beard care, so extremely well-kempt hairstyles and facial hair with braids etc. IS historically accurate.
Man this is amazing content, love the Viking information!!
In our defense, we didn't have TV's back then.
I am a Viking with the Baum Clan. Love your channel.
most inportant thing that people tend to misunderstand is that vikings are not aethnicity or a nationality or a culture but almost more of a job
seafairing traders some of which would occasionally pillage and plunder and some other of which went on legitimate conquests
The craftsmanship of Viking sailing vessels is impressive. Ocean going longships that are adept at navigating rivers due to their shoal draught. Good way to get around.
In Ireland the second most common surname is Doyle. It is linked to the Vikings and “dark foreigner or dark and tall”
This was so fascinating. Thank you!
Blackredguard jump scare
No talk of the Varangian Guard? They are my faves.
OLAF THE WITCHBREAKER goes hard!
17:26 for the Black Red Guard question
Is there any indication that the Vikings were tattooed as they’re portrayed in the tv shows and movies.
Not really.
Their peers used body paint, a group of maybe vikings ('Rus'in the account of Ahmad ibn-Fadlan) had body markings, but we have not found anything indicating the Norse themselves had tattoos.
@@thomaswillard6267 thank you, I thought I read that there was no hard evidence showing that did not tattoo themselves.
@@thomaswillard6267 nah. the translation says paintings. not tattoos likely just paint of warpaint
It’s always possible that some may have had tattoos but we can never know unless their body turned up in a bog etc like Ötzi.
@@Wut3225 oetzi has tattoos
Great video. Totaly enjoyed.
Gotta love TH-cam's autogenerated translations, for example: patronymic = "Patron nimic", Eirik = "IC", "Breman" = Bremen...
How come you used them if you listened to her aswell? Can't get much clearer than her.
My favorite fact about the Vikings are their graffiti like the " was here" on Hagia Sophia
BRG SPOTTED?!?!?
I think a lot of cultures had some names based off of their professions. Smith, Baker, Miller, Butler, Mason, Fowler etc.and then the other ones were based off of their family names like Erickson, Nielsen, Johansson, Anderson, Larsen would be equal to Thompson or Johnson for anglos
Mine is a Viking. Name and did my DNA and am 14 percent Viking !
@@gayeinggs5179 Viking is not an ethnicity. Not all scandinavians were viking....
Life goal: to be invited to one of these Interviews
On what subject are you an expert?
Then you have to be an expert at something.
@@zyxw2000 Not one yet but I wanna become one, maybe something with cultures or languages
@@Steven-tl8fs yeah that's what I mean with life goal
@@kimfrankenwewe That's great, to be ambitious . I hope to see you on Wired some day. :-)
Cat! Love it! Big fan of yours, love that you have made it on here 😍
4:38 is just plain wrong, Adam of Bremen never visited Uppsala nor did he ever claim to have done so.