I love how people today say "but why would medieval artists lie when painting/describing war" while we have movies like rambo or countless american war films which disregard military gear, protocol and so on just for the cool factor
@@benb9151 yeah, of course. But i've heard people point out how it was the artist's vision and get a "but why would artists lie about how it all looked" in return
@Blast Radius what? I'm saying that even today artists embellish war and soldiers, easily seen in movies and books about war like rambo and so on. Innaccurate uniforms, tactics, weapons and so on. Why would medieval artists then be any different? Learn some reading comprehension
When the universe was created, among it's many rules, one stands: "the rule of cool". If it's cool, reality or accuracy doesn't matter. This message is brought you by the rule-of-coolists
The whole ‘Napoleon is short’ thing was exacerbated by his insitance on all of his personal guards being over 5’10, which means most of the time he was seen he was surrounded by what for the time were really tall men making him look even shorter
I believe Napoleon also had a habit of stocking his personal bodyguard with really tall soldiers, which could sometimes make him look smaller by perspective...
The 'Old Guard' had a few requirements for it's soldiers, one of which was being at least 1,90m tall (At the very least, that is). (So, despite not really being able to call it a 'habit' of Napoleon to select tall men only... It did make him look smaller in perspective.)
Not to mention he did that over 200 years ago. People on average were smaller back then so for them these people of 1.90 were really huge.(just like Napoleon was of average height)
Makes sense, cause from what I can gather, they were said to be grenadiers, and there were height-related specifics for grenadier recruits. Mainly cause of those explosives they throw on the battlefield, and a taller height implies a greater sight range to avoid collateral damage when those explosive devices were thrown.
***** 'What's in your wallet!' is a quote from that commercial with the barbarians and the credit card, lol. good point, the decorations were all about invoking the help of their gods!
Little addition to #5: Horned helmets actually existed, but were propably only used on ritual occasions, not in fight. But then Richard Wagner put them on his Valkyries, and the rest was history...
I believe Wagner originally put the horned helmets on the male choir specifically, everyone else had winged helmets. I kind of wish the wing thing had stuck as the 'viking' thing instead.
+IIGrayfoxII French people were the original stoners. They came upon the number 80 and, after taking a nice long toke, one man came up with the perfect idea for their dankness to be remembered forever. "Dude, we should totally call that FOUR TWENTY" After much chuckling it was set in stone.
+Fidel Squire The word for 70 in french is soixante-dix translated it means 60-10 with soixante being 60 and dix being 10 The word for 80 in french is quatre-vingts translated it means four twenty Thus my comment.
+IIGrayfoxII It is even more ridiculus to use numbers like quatre-vingt-dix-neuf ("4, 20, 10, 9" -> "4 x20 +10 +9" ->99) since in French speaking parts of Switzerland there are words for the numbers 70-99. So they use septante instead of soixante dix :D
+Spikey Husky So 4x20+10+9 Wow, no wonder i found it hard to learn to speak french. Its a language and math lesson at the same time Other languages tend to have their own words for 70, 80 and 90
3:29 For those curious about the map, in order to understand it better: "Cippangu" is Japan, "Cathay" is northern China, "Mangi" is southern China, "Quinsay" is Hangzhou, "Zaiton" is Quanzhou.
Shortness gives an advantage in hide and seek. I was terrible at hide and seek when I was growing up. A terrible, tall child, and I would bang my head on many things my peers could not. Don't decry your differences; embrace the beauty that they are. You have easily activated stealth mode. I can reach things from tall shelves and also have crooked posture from bending down to converse with the small folk.
What if the only reason there aren't horned helmets on Viking battlefields is because the only ones who died there were the ones without horned helmets.
Horned helmets were actually ceremonial and used by warriors who belonged to the bull cult. They were never worn in battle. Still not Vikings though, because the bull cult never existed in Scandinavia and died out long before the Viking era. Try Gauls instead of Vikings.
Theodore Ceylon Viking helmets are often found in graves not on battlefields, because of a thing called spoils of war, the victors would not let good helmets go to waste. Secondly, there were ceremonial helmets with horns in scandinavia but many centuries before the viking era, during the bronze age. And also, horned ceremonial helmets aren't all that unusual. We find them among kelts and on Cyprus etc...
Another reason Napoleon was thought to be short is because his Old Guard had minimum height requirements that were taller than him. (to look more intimidating)
3:19 This is actually a 6th Historical misconception. Columbus didn't think the world was smaller, but he and most cartographers at the time thought Asia was much, much larger.
I can't find a website that saids that I only found that he was looking for a new route to Asia and no reason why he thought that he could make it Wikipedia agreed with cgp
1:57 "And thankfully, the whole world now uses metric" he said after saying Napoleon's height in English inches and not even converting to any normal unit
+Troper Brony There are a lot of photos of her ride. But all turned to be photoshops from later ages. Including the most famous one by some John Collier.
@@iagoofdraiggwyn98 You gotta be careful with them, I remember that time I told one that America is a continent and not a country and he almost had a seizure.
Perfect timing! I was just explaining the other night to my daughter how Columbus was trying to circumnavigate the globe and wondered how he could have made the mistake of thinking it would be faster when the circumference was already well-calculated so long before. This explains my question and I will have to pass it on to her.
One minor note on the Columbus thing. While he does not appear to have been the first European to land on some land associated with the American continent, he WAS the first one to bring that knowledge back to Europe as a whole so that it could be acted upon (often bloodily). While the Norse did land on some portions of America and did bring some vague aspects of that knowledge back to their people, that knowledge never reached the rest of Europe and was eventually largely lost to the Norse themselves.
To be fair, all the arguments against Viking horned helmets can be applied to Japanese samurai armor, and some of that had pretty funky helmet decorations. There's only one slight difference: those actually exist.
When I Google "Japanese samurai armor" I see a bunch of dudes sitting down or armor stands. When I enter "Japanese samurai combat" I see a bunch of dudes wearing either no armor, or armor with no horns. This is in line with what I've heard about Viking horned helmets which is that they were only worn during ceremonies, which I suspect is the same story with horned Japanese armor. It is also important to note that ceremonies are probably the only viking activity that scholars and poets would survive witnessing and therefore is the most likely to be written about.
Oui. But we French are a PAIN if we cannot find bread. Be warned we are REVOLTING if we cannot eat our Brioche with the morning coffee. We do however,prefer to CONSERVE our food. 😫 I never met a pun I didn't like. footnote. one man's meat is another man's poisson. (Don't correct the spelling.Just ask your French tutor to translate,and your Drama teacher to explain the above.)
Surprised it didn't mention anything about the inquisition, such as how it had evidence based trials that considered the defendant innocent until proven guilty, or that it had a lower conviction rate than the secular courts (including lower death penalty rates).
THIS is why the INTERNATIONAL metric system was introduced, to get rid of all those confusing feet and thumbs etc. Well... that is to say..... the dictator Napoleon introduced it... but almost every country in the world uses it now.
Basically every well developed country of people of predominantly European origin that has measured heights of the majority of their population puts the average male height at 5'9" and the average female height at 5'4" give or take half an inch. I find it interesting that the higher numbers for some countries are all self-reported numbers rather than confirmed measurements. People from poorer countries, or people of Asian origin, etc. tend to be substantially shorter.
I think the measurements of Western and Northern European people are on the hole true. They do go to doctors and hospitals, and (mostly for militairy and police jobs I guess) they do measure your length.
I like how you said sort of with Canada and the UK. And in Canada it's true, we measure objects with the metric system and math with the metric system, but weigh and measure ourselves with the imperial system (at least for my family)
The Oseberg tapestry is where a lot of this myth of Viking helmets comes from, so I think it is more accurate to say that it was not worn in battle but was possible as a use in ceremonies.
my grandfather went on a 30-minute lecture about how they used to consider being 'naked' as not wearing and of her jewels so maybe it did happen but she was just not wearing any of her fancy sparklies also in the story, none of the townspeople looked at her out of respect except for a blacksmith or something named tom and that's where the phrase 'peeping tom' came from. if anyone reads this take it with a grain of salt cause he wasn't there and it's just a legend and knowing my luck I'm probably wrong on the internet
1:43 also pretty much anyone who saw napoleon saw him around his guard which was made of the biggest and strongest men so someone who was slightly below average would look alot shorter
Columbus didn’t think the world was smaller than it is (at least not much). He, as everyone else at the time, thought Asia was bigger than it is, as is showcased in the map you showed!!
Yeah... That flat earth part really puts me off when there are a lot of texts found prior to Columbus. I even remember there was text found, written in 11th century (Ifrc) stating that only spherical earth could explain time zones (small ones +-1-2 hours).
It's probably in reference to a man's height. The average height of a person varies from nation to nation. I'm slightly shorter than the average female population in my nation by those standards, but I barely care. x) It's not like tall people have made an effort to achieve their height so it's not really an accomplishment or anything of that sort. xD Just keep being yourself. :) P.S I'm 5'3" too. cx
AS far as the Viking thing goes, got news for you buddy they did wear horned helms just not into battle. It was more a formal head dress worn at Hagarroth(mead hall). And worn only by clan leaders and the Jarl, much like native American, or African chiefs and shaman, to name two. It was a means to know who you were talking to and carry respect accordingly. Some wore horns, some antlers, it all depended.
Historians therefore believe that Viking warriors did not wear horned helmets; whether such helmets were used in Scandinavian culture for other, ritual purposes, however, remains unproven. -English wiki I also read the Swedish wiki entry and they were more unimpressed still, stating that the only horned helms found in Europe predate the viking age and all the depictions, written accounts and archaeological finds from the viking age show them not having horns.
"they did wear horned helms just not into battle." Grey never said they didn't wear them at all. He said, just like you, that they did not wear them in battle. So even if the fact that these "clan leaders and jarl" wore them at normal times is true what Grey said is still right.
The Caribbean IS a part of the Americas. America is two continents. The United States of America is a country in the northern hemisphere of the Americas.
***** And? Let me put it this way: One day I come to your house and kick you out of it. I pay the bills, electricity, water, etc. I build whatever I want in your house, does that makes it my house? No Now lets pretend you come back and I kick you out again Its your house mine now? No Same principle
Horned helmets were found in ceremonies, which are likely to be better-preserved than battle remains. This is probably what 19th century artists picked up upon. Interesting to see how vids like this have been so popular that just 10 years later most of these myths have vanished from the public consciousness.
Hi Grey, I'm watching your videos in a row for a few days. Something about them makes it addictive to me. anyway, thank you for the good videos I have some video requests. Can you please make a video about African countries who are still under the power of European countries and how France and other countries still influence them? Also, can you make a video of the effects of the British and American empire on the Middle-eastern countries (especially Iran)?
One historical misconception that nobody seems to care about is seeing camels in films like The Ten Commandments (1956) set in ancient Egypt, i.e. the Bronze Age (3300 B.C.--1150 B.C.) when camels didn't come to Egypt until after the time of Jesus in the A.D. era. At that time horses were the primary means of conveyance on land, but people think of Egypt and camels together, especially in the 1950s partly because of the tobacco industry with camel cigarettes. Cecil B. DeMille knew that his audience wouldn't accept it if they didn't see camels in the film so as historically authentic as that film was based on their research in the 50s that was one nobody seems to mind.
another great video....proving you dont need alot of words and fancy video to get a whole bunch of info. across...i love that about your videos..you visually rep. what your saying in such an easy to follow way
Columbus actually landed on islands off the mainland of the Americas, although I suppose that could still count. Also, the Romans did force themselves to vomit, even if they didn't use a "vomitorium."
@@lewisoliver8809 btw, it was, "Romans they go the house." my latin teacher would have acted exactly like that. Very strange people. There must be something about them as a species.
We in Ireland should probably be in the 'sort of' category for the metric system as well. We still use a mix of metric and imperial measurements using imperial for somethings like height and weight.
And ignore the fact that Columbus thought he had landed in India and that it was Amerigo Vespucci that figured out that America was a new continent, which is why it's called "America".
"There's no evidence Lady Godive rode naked, so we can assume she never did"? I seem to remember "the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence"
If Lady Godiva had done so, there would probably have been records. Since there were no records, Lady Godiva probably never did do so. Learn the law of the contrapositive.
Actually, absence of evidence IS evidence of absence, since it is by examination of the collected evidence that a decision is to be made, and if no evidence in support of a supposition can be found, then by that lack of evidence, the conclusion must at least temporarily be negative. A more accurate statement would be, absence of PROOF is not PROOF of absence. That is why it is often said that it is impossible to prove a negative (although, again, that is not entirely accurate).
Suiseiseki Desu Unicorns _do_ exist. They're just not a species. And they don't have the power of the dawn in their eyes or grant unholy half-lives to those who imbibe their blood.
The main reason why Napoleon was said to be small was the fact that he grew up in an age and time were people of different classes had wildly different heights. In his time, thanks to better nutrition the average height of a nobleman was 3 inches higher than that of a peasant, which is why he was considered short. The average height for the time takes everyone into account.
In a theater class I took, we toured a theater-in-the-round, which had vomitoriums that the actors used to enter and exit the stage. We were told they got their name because they were where Roman actors would vomit before their performances due to nerves. Either they were joking, or they had it wrong, too.
Here's a good one: "I took an arrow to the knee" has never, ever meant anything to do with marriage in any country that has ever existed. The idea of you being tied down by marriage has been around for centuries, but there has never been a norse slang version of that which revolves around someone getting their knee shot with a large piece of wood and metal. The creators of a certain game have fully acknowledged that they just made it up off the top of their heads to give the guards dialogue, and they were not even making a realistic depiction of norse people anyway, as their world is fictional so they can do what they like. Tumblr is a terrible source for historical facts people. These three points are related.
@@ichijofestival2576 It was from skyrim. I don't play the game but it's in google. I assume that it's a common misconception to people who played the game.
I will thatnk the author personally in the same manner. Her english is worse than useless. And she is the one who offered me her sence of humor. Will beat her up until she is such a google girl as me
To clarify on vomitoria: it is true that they were not places to go to throw up to keep eating, but those places did exist. Well, there probably wasn't a designated place, it probably just went into the toilets or latrina, but people actually did do that at large feasts or parties.
RedRyder 120 It's a creature from minecraft. It does these things: sneak up on you, explode you and your buildings. What it doesn't do: stay away from other creepers right before they explode, or walk off cliffs.
Then of course, there is the possibility that Columbus had heard of the viking discoveries. The church should have had in its archives notes on the Greenlandic settlements, though they had been abandoned in Columbus' time
