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@Derreck Jones Mostly from the Eddas; for instance this from Hávamál: "Cattle die and kinsmen die, thyself too soon must die, but one thing never, I ween, will die; fair fame of one who has earned". Here is as song about death where some parts are from Hávamál, and the text I just wrote, are said in the very end (chose language for translation) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YWE9LDIuA0M.html
@Derreck Jones We come from the land of the ice and snow from the midnight sun where the hot springs flow the hammer of the Gods we'll fight our way to new lands to fight the horde and sing and cry Valhalla, I am coming! on we sweep with threshing ore our only goal will be the western shore We come from the land of the ice and snow from the midnight sun where the hot springs flow how soft your fields so green can whisper tales of gore of how we calmed the tides of war we are your overlords so now you'd better stop and rebuild all your ruins for peace and trust can win the day despite of all your losing
There is a story about a Viking who during the night stole from a farmer, he got away with it and nobody would have known it was him... so he returned killed the farmer and proclaimed what he had done and who he was... because no true Viking was a simple thief... and by killing the farmer atleast he had made a name for himself. Vikings and norse culture was and to an extend still is about honesty and your name...
Just a piece of advice. If you are talking about a place, country, town, or river, you should have those labeled and clearly visible on the map you are showing. Otherwise I have no context to the towns you are talking about. When you are talking about the towns that were invaded or the route they took you just have a generic map with completely unrelated towns on it and nothing else labeled. So I have no idea about anything thats going on. And early in the video you repeatedly mention Christian nations to the north but for the life of me I swear they aren't labeled. So any mention of them loses any relevance to me. Its very frustrating.
Björns barrow is just a 40 minute drive from Stockholm center. If you do make the trip, make sure to take the ferry to Adelsö and Hofgården and see the mounds there and see the runestone of King Håkon the red and have pic nic at what remains of the foundations of the palace of Alsnö hus where Swedens first "constitution" was written in 1280. If you like you can also take another ferry to Björkö where the viking city of Birka was located. If you do want to visit the barrow of Björn Ironside you will need a guide thought, it is hard to find and it is not a typical tourist location.
@@_Thoughtful_Aquarius_ The church of Munsö that is located where the highway turns towards the ferry of Adelsö also has a compartment where the arms of a man that made his fortune in the great northern war are on display. Boots, sword, armor etcetera. The church and the nearby farm/manor also have legends attached to it. Also, some scholars speculate that Håkon the Red is the same king as "Blot-Sven", the last heathen king of Sweden that was murdered in 1080.
I could only imagine what it would be like to be among their ranks. They went to Alexandria Egypt FFS .. what an adventure that would have been, seeing things and people so alien to them must have been mesmerizing!
@@claudeyaz The whole concept of writing is somewhat an abstract idea where as speech is absolute you need to communicate with other people so you learn language. The legacy is carried on by speech in the form of stories and saga's the thought of not being around to tell of your or a friends deeds never entered their mind until many many years later so nothing was written down............ sad
To be a bit more precise, it's the same word. Some Brits tend to forget English is a Germanic language like German, Dutch, French, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian,.... we also belong to the same tribe and we all came out of Africa. Nice stuff, I hope there is more to come.
In the Irish/Gealic language today, a "black man" is "fear gorm" which actual means blue man in a direct translation to English. This must trace its origins to this viking era. Very good production.
@pokezee king-wolf You sounds like the most thin skinned snowflake ever lmao. unsecure much?? Have you ever heard of a white guy being offended by being called caucasian and oyibo, no not me either. Instead of bitching and crying like a little girl why don't accept terms black and negroes, be proud of your colour and race.
pokezee king-wolf it is interesting how terms change , my parents are most least racist people I know they’re in their 80s and when I was young they would say negro when referring to black folks, if someone said the N word they would frown and say that is wrong you should never called them that . In some circles now even the Term “ black “ is considered racist . And African is the term considered not racist , until the French football term won and people said Africa won the World Cup ? And that was considered racism. Even though Trevor Noah was the black guy pushing that wheelbarrow? Respect is a good thing for sure . What is the answer
Judging from the maps, the common belief that most people of the era never travelled more than a couple miles from their homes didn't apply to raiders.
@@davidsmith1371 erm how about the standing stone in Cork Ireland dedicated to Olan the Egyptian written in the ancient language Ogham. Or the millennia old perfectly preserved body of a man who had north African tree sap in his hair. Or the fact that Irish people in general gave North Iberian genetic markers.
Im swedish and in medieval time it was rumored that Björn Järnsida (ironside) landed in munsö and died there. Today in Munsö there is a broken runestone near a massive chieftain grave there which means they burned A LOT for whoever was buried there someone had been a succesful viking and buried in a boat most likely. Also in nearby area there are places from medieval time named "järnsida" and we dont know why it was- maybe as a sign of proud or places his ancestors owned back i nthe day- so it adds up. Also, Berno who raided Italy means = bear in latin and Björn = bear in Swedish.
My mother told me Someday I would buy Galley with good oars Sail to distant shores Stand up high in the prow Noble barque I steer Steady course for the haven Hew many foe-men, hew many foe-men
@@HistoryTime Just found your videos. My blood is rich with the history you're telling and growing up in a deep Norwegian town of stoughton Wisconsin, it was no surprise of me to fall in love with the history channels dramatized stories. Most of the real truths that slipped through the show I've known about, but alas, it is definitely fantastic to catch back up on my roots. And I thank you for giving my ancestors justice through lost history. I will be looking forward to a video on Ivar, you have my sub ~Skal~
Justice? By describing them as the barbarous sowers of chaos and discord that they were? Not something I'd be proud of but to each their own I guess. I don't take any pride in knowing that some of my ancestors were sociopaths and genocidal monsters that killed the elderly and raped children just to steal shiny pieces of metal and other material items. It is the global shame of humanity that with these large brains we couldn't find a more efficient means of survival and thriving than literally feeding off of one another. The only good I can take away from this reality is the fact that modern Norwegians are some of the more peaceful people on the planet...now much of that apparent peacefulness is certainly due to the leveraging of the riches plundered millenia ago to put their peoples in good stead relative to the rest of the world (have food go missing and watch any human settlement descent into "the walking dead") but it still remains they are some of the more progressive and humanist nations on the planet right now and that means there is some reason for hope that the rest of us will catch up.
@@MrSmokinDragon Oh White people can't have a civilization without being called Nazis gotcha but Blacks Jews and other races can have their populations completely untouched
@James Neidermeyer WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND. IT'S CALLED KARMA. THE GREAT VIKING HISTORY = BRUTALITY, SLAUGHTER, THEFT, ENSLAVEMENT AND THE ABDUCTION AND ABUSE OF WOMEN. IS THAT A HISTORY TO BE PROUD OF ?
The Vikings??? First time I see this... I knew that the only ones who fought against the Muslims and Jews were the Germanies (THE VISIGOTHTS)... BUT NOT THE VIKINGS....
Superb this - I first read about this in a book my grandmother had called "Vikings" by Magnus Magnusson which was based on BBC series he did in the 70's (I believe). I remember being fascinated that a Viking got to Spain, sacked a town called Luna thinking it was Rome and took some Africans back to Ireland or Denmark. This really fills in the gaps! And as I live near Seville and have worked in Gibraltar it was amusing for two reasons. Firstly its an understatement to say the current is strong in the straits - I have seen a lot of many thousand ton tankers/container ships being forced/pushed to the side and struggle against its diesel / steam turbine's wishes - so what it would do to little 100 ft boats being rowed by tired raiders would be ridiculous (its also why so little underwater archaeology is done there as a local diver told me often they can't go out due to current and there is virtually no visibility due to the current stirring up the sediment). Secondly the Guadalquivir bends in places dramatically and the land around is very flat - so the perfect place for a river Greek fire / horse army ambush - those Moors were no fools.......
The "moors" in Sevilla were visigoths that just changed religion to avoid taxes. The vikings were surprised to see many ""muslims"" fighting against them and that looked like them: blond blue eyed. I have read it in the Spanish chronicles of the time.
@@jaimedegonzaga9722 I can certainly accept that. The difficult question is by changing religion - had they become Moors? It was my understanding "Moors" just meant Muslim to Europeans at the time, just like "Saracen" etc. Later on it changed to refer to Muslims from North Africa, often of Berber descent. The issue is if we don't use that do what do we use to what is a "Moor" - DNA, cultural norms or language ? It is a total minefield to answer.
@@Boric78 Yes, we call "moros" to any muslim, no matter where he is from, even Saudi Arabia. Even in Filipinas they call "moros" to the 5% muslims they have there. And most "muslims" in central and south west Spain were natives that changed religion and names to avoid paying taxes and maintain their old privileges (ex-visigothic aristocracy). In Zaragoza for example, the Casio family, that ruled the city since visigothic times, became muslims and changed their names as "Banu-Qasi". "Muslms" from Caceres, Badajoz, Toledo, Sevilla were in fact natives that just converted to islam for the same reason (islam was just created and nobody knew what we now know) and were very hostile to the real muslims of Cordoba and Granada. And in the half north of Spain (despite the maps painting most of the half north as "muslim") there was never a muslim city, establishment or anything else. It just shows the raids to the north and when they conquered a castle or a capital city, the influence area of the castle is painted as "muslim" despite the fact that most people in the influence area were natives and never saw a moor in their life.
@@Boric78 I forgot your precisse question. Yes, those natives converted to islam (for avoiding taxes, etc) were still named "moors" BUT the Christians in the North knew that these "moors" were natives and they were also hostile to the ethnic moors of Cordoba and Granada, so they were "special" moors. In fact, when the King of Leon went down to Toledo or Badajoz, the "muslims" opened the gated ot the cities to wellcome them and did not fight. And those "muslims" changed again back to christians. But, namely, they were called "muslims". They should pay some kind of loyalty to Cordoba, but just to not be attacked. But, reality is that they were as natives as the christians.
Most people do not know that the ONLY KINGDOM the Vikings did NOT attack (at least not regularly.. initially there were a few raids) was Byzantine "East Roman" Greeks. They tried a couple raids but were mostly unsuccessful. The Vikings decided it was more beneficial to fight for the Byzantines and formed and alliance with them. They actually fought for and defended Constantinople for hundreds of years ! They were known as the Varangian Guard...they are never talked about in Modern History (at least in the US).
They attacked Constantinople and raided within the roman empire (its the roman empire, not byzantine - they never called themselves the byzantine empire).
@@dannyjohnson236 Yes the Vikings tried a couple times to raid but realized quickly they could not defeat the Byzantines (East Romans /Greeks ) with the ease they had overcome the Slavs, Saxons, and Anglos. They decided early on "If you cannot beat them ..join them". The Vikings formed an alliance with Constantinople that lasted for hundreds of years all the way up to the Christianization of Russia which became the Contiuation of Byzantium and the 3rd Rome.
@@c.k.2405 There would be raids on the late roman provinces throughout the era from Norse raiders, they would also have fought on both sides as mercenaries in many of the conflicts of the late roman empire. Like in the wars against the Bulgars
Large emigration of Berbers??... well they were just 5% of the population (200 000 in all, for a total population of 5 million at the time. The visigoths also made 5% of the population accounting for 250 000 people in all but I dont see you mentioning "Large emigration" from german people in the video). Definitely hardly a cultural or etnic shift in the penninsula. The change arrive when they became the elites and converted the native population under their win to Islam. The reconquista is actually a fight between Iberian muslims and iberian christians rather than Iberians trying to push out arabs and berbers out.
This period of history is my favorite of all. I am writing a book/ D&D campaign setting and it revolves a lot around exploring the world and watching kingdoms and dynasty’s be born. “It is important to reflect upon human history to reach true creative potential.” Author Unknown.
The Viking defeat in AL Andalus was close to a manslaughter, and made sure that vikings would never have an ambition to raid or to invade. even thought the vikings managed to reach main cities like Sevilla, the out come was catastrophic for them when Abd AL Rahman ll , casualties were by the thousands and ships destroyed were over 30 not only that the Vikings were unaware that Andalusians were masters of the sea themselves and have their own navy they chased the vikings those events happened in 844 and the astonishing thing is that it was well documented since al Andalus the peak of culture and innovation during that period of time. A lot writers accounted those events in their books
Brilliant, thorough, nuanced, and thoughtfully interpretive of the meaning of primary sources. You continue to live up to your growing reputation as the best History channel on YT.
@@HistoryTime No need to thank me, just calling it like I see it. I would love to see more direct importation of content from VotP, though I understand that might be off-putting to the more casual viewer. Keep up the great work!
Although he forgot or didnt care to mention that Björn Järnsida's/Bjorn Ironside's burial mound is in Sweden..he mentioned all The rumours but "forgot" to mention The FACT that he was buried in modern day Sweden..
See this is the good thing about RU-vid! Great documentaries, real educational stuff! “It is great to sail with power but it’s better to sail with great knowledge” Ragnar
Blamen... Are you sure these aren't Spanish Picts? I have to ask if it could make sense in the context of the original source, which I will never read myself.
Why is it that Björn Järnsida often is said to be danish? His Father Ragnar was born in Svealand and was son of the Svea-king Sigurd Hring. Björn and his brothers might have been chieftains and warlords based out of modern Denmark and Norway but surely his bloodline is from Svealand.
Is the music starting at 1:04 from the game called Sunless Sea? I swear to god it is! (been binge listening to your videos for the past 5 hours while translating and heard the same tune over and over) .. Anyway your content is amazing and very relaxing - the narration is amazing ... your voice is soothing and the variety of well picked tunes help make the atmosphere very realistic. I felt as if I were inside the actual situations you were describing. I rarely comment on youtube videos, but your amazing content left me no choice! Well done friend, you are doing an astonishing job, keep it up!
The governor of Iraq, Alhajaj, he who ordered these islamic military expansion to the east and west, , with his death, everything was stopped.... forever..
??? for ever ??? Muslims continued to slaughter miscredents in Constantinople till 1453, then in Spain till 1499,.... in 1668 they tried to conquer Vienna, the habsnurgic capital of the Empire... now they are infiltrating every single country in in the world. Aiaiai !!!!!!!!
I like how you actually take the time to talk about Vikings. Like don't get me wrong, I love the show Vikings but they pretty much messed up alot on the show, like lagertha, she was never killed, she actually disappeared in the vikings era, she was never killed and I mean NEVER killed. Bjorn Ironside is the king of Sweden but the show states that he never was. My friend, you should become an Vikings director and remake the whole Vikings series because you actually take your time to talk the history of Vikings.
It's not meant to be 100% historically accurate. Half of the recorded history is myth anyway. We don't actually know if Bjorn is dead yet in the show either, as he "died" it what seemed to be a vision shared with Ivar.
Show me actual historic evidence... I'll wait.. lol There is none is the point. Historians and academics alike still argue over whether Bjorn and Ragnar were even real people or a compilation of multiple leaders stories turned to one. For a culture of people so dead set on glory and fame they did a bad job of recording their history. We have very little supported evidence of everything that went on during that time. To flat out claim Lagartha was NEVER killed is just plain false nobody can prove otherwise and you can't prove your own claim. The sagas are hundreds of years older than the stories they are written about. Not to mention the show flat out states that it is a dramatization. It uses historical characters but to tell a historical story. Kattegat for example was not a real place. It was a passage way for traders not a town or city. Nobody by the name of Loki discovered Iceland. There isn't even any backed evidence that Ivar was a cripple. It's a dramatization that's all. Take from it what you will.. entertainment was the goal.
Whoo! Nearly 43 minute video thank you for this! Don’t know if you have these available in podcast format but that would be cool and a good revenue stream for you.
We only know about the Vikings because people lived in the places they raided and conquered. The Umayid Dynasty virtually ethnically cleansed the locals in the Iberian peninsula.
All you need to know about the Vikings in Spain is that, The Viking got Spanked in Spain. They stumbled upon a fight that had been going on for a long long time. The End!
@@robertsettle2590 The vikings were pushed out because they were Raiders, but they encountered the people of Northern Spain who are a mix of surviving Celt and Visigoth tribes; Who stood their ground and protected the northern provinces such as Basque, Asturia, Galicia from the invasion of the jews and arabs. even though they were converted to christians, many still practiced their pagan traditions. The Visigoths migrated from Scandinavian Sweden , Gotland; so its not surprising that those norse mythology/ gods to include the practices of the western Germanic people that intergrated with them still embodies the regions culture today. Also DNA studies have shown that the people of northern Spain are the closest relatives to the Irish. My whole family is from Galicia Spain. Even though were not as pale as the Irish who also mixed with the Scots, most of the women in my family are blond with blue eyes and all the men are light skin with green, blue or hazel eyes. Also I tested my DNA to trace my family history and my results came back 39% western European, 36 Irish, 21 Scandinavian and 4% italian. They have never traveled back to the scandinavian nations, so keeping a small community in the north were we kept to ourselves is my only explanation for this. The celtic nation has also recognized northern Spain as part of the Celtic nation. If you ever traveled to northern Spain you would feel at home if your from a Celtic nation, as much of their food and culture is similar; Nothing is perfect however as the Celtic language was lost due to being under Spains rule, but Galicia and the other provinces have their own dialect.
@@victortorres9168 My family is from Asturias and Galicia. I have Scandinavian ancestry according to several dna sites. I score from 6-10% Danish and from the Orkney Islands.
@@robertburnett5561 considering soldiers now have top tier training and equipment, raiding nowadays is just taking from kids essentially. no honor in it.
Wake up ... run down to the local grocery store.... then the hardware store.... then buy some arms.... then down to the local boat dealer and buy a.....😳
So let me get this right, 2/3 of their fleet, heavy laden, went down in the straits of Gibraltar, Have they been found? Or are the currents too fierce there?
I believe the currents are too fierce and it stirs up the sediment so even if divers can get down they can’t see anything. This is entirely based on another comment I just read under this video.
Björn was Swedish, King of Svitjod, buried in Svitjod. Ragnar Lodbrok was Swedish, his father Sigurd Ring was King of Sweden who later became king of Denmark too. Even the Danish Saxo Grammaticus puts Sigurd Ring as a decsendant of the Ynglinga royal blood line.. There is more runestones in Sweden mentioning raids to England then in Norway and Denmark combined. Same with runestones mentioning greece and constantinople. Yet some how all vikings was Danes😂
Maybe because the entire southern part from Sweden was considered Danish in the medieval period? One of the great heathen army leaders was Ubba, but Born in Frisia. Frisia in that time stretched from Belgium coast up to Modern time Denmark. It does not mean he was born in the province of Friesland in the Netherlands.
manuel josephus petrus Boot The England runestones is concentrated around Mälaren in what in that time was called Svitjod, the area that was ruled first by Sigurd Ring and Later Björn Ironside. The Scanians in Southern Sweden allied with the Danes, that got nothing to do with Svitjod.
manuel josephus petrus Boot the area of modern Sweden was inhabited by 3 main tribes. Svear, Geats and Scanians (Danes) when i talk about Swedish runestones, im talking about runestones in svealand and götaland.
First thing there was hardly anything called Sweden by then, since most chronicles are written by anglo-franks, they usually just said 'dane' when they referred to north men (just like the Greek did the same with 'rus'). Secondly; who fucking cares?
He became a swedish king yes, but his "supposed" father, ragnar, would have been king of a territory wich was compose of sweden and a part of Denmark, he and his sons were danish
Ryker 7 it is no real evidence that even ragnar exsisted and i dont belive ragnar ever owned Svidjord (sweden) from what i know björn ruled near stockholm and also founded the bjälbo dynasti
Judging the huge scope of your channel and your videos and your extensive use of sources I beg you to make a series based on Polybios Histories universe: middle hellenistic era, Punic wars era, first conflicts between Rome and hellenic east etc. Like in your other videos youll find out about how developed the international relations were back then, how intense and quite lawfully was the diplomacy back then, ridiculous movement of historical characters, mercenaries from one part of the world to another etc
*We have it so much nicer now.* Not much war. Better food :-) Collaboration, sharing of knowledge and a bit of free movement for work. Also, looks like a lot of gold did sink near the Gibraltar coast.
Where did you get "Björn and Hasteinn, leaders of the Oissel Vikings" from? I've had a search around in google and can't find the connection or that term whatsoever. The reason I'm asking is the Vikings from my island (Saaremaa/Ösel/Oesel, Estonia) were called Oesilian Vikings, great warriors and seafarers, with Arabic treasures found there aswell. Got me a little excited, although I know it's a bit far fetched to think such great leaders and kings (Björn was actually a Swedish king, not Danish, I believe) originated from eastern shores of the Baltic Sea :D But a boy can dream, right? :D
How did the Basque survive all these years? Luck, continually moving, or they were designed to survive because of their blood type? Love your videos and we need more like this one!!! Keep up the great work.
The Basques are a hearty people who are generally burly and strong compared to the majority of mediterrenean people who are mostly lithe/slender. Combine that with their isolation within the mountain range it becomes extremely difficult to conquer.
Much like its language Basque society was secluded & isolated. It shares linguistics with oldest European cultures (all other languages originate from India).
Minute 2:13. I'm from Pamplona, Navarra, the northern brown territory but neither Vikings nor Muslims were my ancestors according to MyHeritage because I'm 100% Iberian, so no Roman, no Jew, no Greek, no Visigotht DNA on me, I guess pure Celtiberic and Basque ancestors isolated at the Pyrenees mountains. Eoin Sweetman, watch this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KgqjLMESS78.html
Excellent video. However, there is a slight mistake in one of your maps. By the IX cenury, when the vikings raided (or tried to), Galicia and Castilla were still part of the Kingdom of Asturias. Later, Galicia gained semi.independence for a short time and Castilla became a separate kingdom many years later. The map in minute 39.39 is perfect. Also, there was an importan battle en Gigia (now Gijón) where the vikings were also defeated. The Asturians, as you said. used to called them "lordomanos".
@@JoseGarcia-eadgbe Thankou for your comment. In my case, it has to do with family stories. One of my ancestors was inthe battle of Gigia where the noprthmen were repelled, orso the family tales say and that awakened my curiosity. Anyway, It isknown history. I wrote a sort of tale on that event, in the unlikely event that you want to read it. If so, I would happily send tit to you. But it is in Spanish.
Watching the show Vikings you would think that Andalusia was sacked without resistance whereas in reality as we see here, it was completely the other way around..
So amusing they state the Abassids as more tolerant in this video when you know about the banquet were they invited Umeyad leadership and killed 400 of the Umeyad leaders using this trickery.
Yeah, but did that have anything to do with the Abassids being intolerant? Y'know, you can murder, rape and torture people by the hundreds while being entirely tolerant of their beliefs and ethnicity and yet still being a sadistic psychopath who bathes in the blood of young virgins (it's good for the skin apparently....)
When a historical figure is described as "tolerant" it is usually meant that they were fair and tilerant to their subjects and held different ideas or faiths. It has nothing to do with political turmoil or execution of opponent leaders.
@@aliazi8727 I am not defending anyone. I have little knowledge of the andalusian history but I am just correcting you on what you said. Tolerance to your subjects is how you treat the people under your rule and it has nothing to do with how one came to power or one's crimes against political opponents. I am not taking sides for Abbasids or Umayyads. You are simply confused about what it means to describe an entire ruling faction's long stretching reign as tolerant and are mixing things up.
What happened to the physical treasures, the precious metals etc? I mean for so many years it was pouring into these Scandinavian / Norse countries, are there vast quantities of archeological artifacts and treasure locked in vaults and museums? Or has it just melted away invisible to the notice of time, I always think how wonderful it would be if all of those shiny gold bars so heavily guarded around the world could transform back into the ancient shapes that they once had, they'd probably be worth a damn sight more. I wonder if the spread of Catholicism didn't bring with it a greed for these things, transferring them into the secret vaults of the Pope. Excellent documentary, thank you so much.
I'd wager a large portion of it was traded to foreign merchants, then paid to the English, which goes back to Rome @ the Vatican. All roads lead to Rome
Bruh. The badassery of this story just pisses me off that the writers of the Vikings tv show barely skimmed over and belittled it. Such a colossal waste of potential smh 😠
@@ryufight7987 Lol what? It was a raid, one of many in a long voyage of raids strung together; not a conquering army. And Björn got what he came for: mountains of loot lol. And he went home after he was tired of raiding, at which point he had to skirmish with the Muslims along the way. It wasn’t a defeat that sent him home 😂.
Hi Guys! I've writing books about the Viking conquest of Gascony by 840 and Aquitaine by 844. One of the goals of the invaders was to gain footholds on the Mediterranean shore. The closest Viking port was not Nantes, but Bayonne on one side and Narbonne on the other. Vikings were far too cautious/clever to come back with their booty across Gibraltar. The booty was taken to Narbonne and crossed to the ocean by land. Most of the ships remained in the Mediterranean. Vikings needed a permanent fleet in Mare Nostrum to weight on Mediterranean trade. Björn and Hastein entered the Mediterranean to obtain treaties, explore this sea and organize their permanent fleet remaining there. These guys were traders, not tourists. All this was never understood because French historians decided that only the founders of Normandy (the Danes) were interesting while the "Norwegians" who attacked south of river Loire would have been "uninteresting pirates". In fact, Björn, Ragnar, Asgeir and Hastein fought on both sides of river Loire. The truth is that French Historians only studied the Northern part of the French battlefield which is absurd and explain why our understanding of the "Viking migration" is so poor. Joelsupery@yahoo.fr Joël Supéry, La Saga des Vikings, Une autre historie des invasions, Autrement, 2018. You can also have a look on Academia.edu.
After all the Vikings were not so successful against a well-trained army... they had more success against the weak kingdoms of the British Island and the northern Frankish kingdoms...
@@davidsandell7833 I'm not sure a 50- 75% casualty rate south of Frankia is a successful venture on the whole. Then again if you look at the casualty rates of armies during that time period, just from disease I guess they didn't do half bad for journeys up to two years long. Kind of amazing any of them made it back at all when you think about how many raids and battles they fought during that time and all within enemy territory. They certainly earned their reputation even if in the long term most of them actually failed.
@@MrBottlecapBill It sure was. For unlanded, impowerished non-first borns of scandinavia, death at sea wasn't a big price for 1 in 4 chance of coming back as rich, as a prince.
Nice video, man those guys were greedy as hell. It almost feels like they were seeking death. I mean, How many times can you raid around until something goes very very wrong?
By the way the vikings my ancestors were not pagans, nor babarians but people.. Our Kingdoms in Scandinavia (The oldeste kingdoms in the world) is build way back with beginning at the end of our viking age. The last danish, viking highking were our frist King to unified Denmark and Norway as one and made us Christians.
I don't think we can claim Björn Jernsida as Danish. He was Uppland Swedish and inherited Svitjod near Birka from his father, Ragnar Lodbrog. Hastein on the other hand is considered Danish by the few available sources.
Tariq bin Zyad's adventure of conquering al-Andalus in just as interesting as the viking raids. Moreover, I don't think that the muslims were very interested in conquering the northern kingdoms because of their taxation system. The Muslims had to pay 2.5% of their wealth as taxes and military service was compulsory for them, whearas the Christian had to pay higher taxes, but military service was not an obligation to them. That's way it was lucrative for the umayyds not to conquer the northern kingdoms, but to keep them as protectorates and buffer states. The same story was repeated by the Ottomans and the two kingdoms of Moldavia and Wallachia. In my opinion there was no Christian heroism and or Islamic fanaticism. It's all about money.
The obligation for all Muslims is Jihad against the unbeliever. Conquest plunder and dhimmification was the Muslim economic model. Islam ran out of steam because it created the Dark Ages in Europe and the lucrative sources of plunder were exhausted. Early Islamic fanaticism was fuelled by the thirst for plunder and slaves but unlike the Vikings the Muslims had divine sanction for their criminality.
I'm a Rollo descendant; my 3rd Grandfather come from queens county Ireland now called Leix to Canada great Gran father come to America I'm Richardson I have certified document I'm still learning about Rollo and thank y for great video !
Good stuff, the channel has a passion for Vikings which does show, good quality stuff. (Re doing some your shorter videos may be a not so bad ideal, this was nice but probably wouldn't be realistic for every video, 20-30 minutes though maybe?).
Wrong, and demonstrably so. Roger d'Hauteville was able to make quick work of the conquest of Sicily precisely because he was able to exploit the animosity between Berber and Arab factions both in Sicily and Tunisia.
The Guru of Kangs So its Islam's fault. not the Arabs or Berbers. Islam destroyed the middle east and north Africa like Christianity destroyed Europe. and about black africa. mate, they were living there for centuries without any help. i pretty sure they don't need the European man to survive.
@Asier Linazasoro it's not true, I'm not a fucking Muslim, and if I'm a Muslim, This does not mean I am a Muslim, so Religion does not determine your origin, "you don't show nothing brother"
Muslims attacked the Lavante, the Middle East, Persia, North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, Francia, India, Asia Minor, Central Asia, the Urals and Caucasus, Eastern and Central Europe, East Africa, Italy and the Mediterranean Islands/basin and are on the attack, as they have been in the last 1400 years, but apparently the only colonizers were the Europeans and despite being the first major civilization to outlaw slavery and try and put a stop to the practice globally, to this day, Europeans are still tarred as the evil slave traders and let's never even whisper about the Ottomans, in relation to any of it. Islam got 'Arabic numerals' from Indians and scientific knowledge from the Eastern Roman Empire and Zoroastrian Persia, al-Khwarizmi for example was a Persian, likely Zoroastrian who was forcefully converted to Islam. All they did was map some stars in order to better calculate which way they should face when praying. I'm being facetious ofcourse but here are some examples of myths that need to be busted. I wonder for example why Diophantus of Alexandria circa third century BCE is known as the father of Algebra, nearly 900 years before Islam attacked out of the Arabian peninsula? And while people think Arabs invented distillation, they only helped further the process. The indians distilled alcohol as early as 150 BCE using 'Gandhara stills'. Alexander of Aphrodisias described the process of distilling water c. 200 CE in Alexandria and Zosimos of Panopolis continued his work c. 200 BCE. Not to mention references to distillation on ancient Akkadian tablets by Babylonians who seemed to be familiar with a primitive form of the process c. 1200 BCE. Weird thing is though, if you Google 'who invented distilation' it says Jabir ibn Hayyan. Yet some people tout those mythical achievements as indicators of some great golden age, which even if true ended nearly 800 years ago with the Mongol apocalypse - yet crap all over Western civilization that brought things like the enlightenment, secularism, germ theory, the industrial revolution, vaccines, the microchip and space travel to the world, it's unbelievable. Now, I fully understand that those inventions had nothing to do with me personally but neither does this suggestion that I'm somehow tainted by some kind of European original sin regarding colonisation and stuff like that. And speaking of Islamic achievements while Europe was in the 'dark ages' and the glorious Islamic civilization was ascending, a huge factor in Europe descending into said dark ages was the Islamic takeover of the Mediterranean basin which retarded European trade with North Africa, the Byzantines and the Levant and Syria. One of the major reasons for the crusades, which paled in comparison to the continuous Jihad Islam waged in the above mentioned Lavante, the Middle East, Persia, North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, Francia, India, Asia Minor, the Asiatic Steppes, the Caucasus, Eastern and Central Europe, East Africa, Italy and the Mediterranean Islands was to once again secure trade and trade routes, hence for example the fleet build up of the North Italian city states and Europeans only ended up in the new world when trade with the far East once again became impossible. Seems like when Islam was the dominant power they had no qualms about flexing their military and economic muscle. And to this day, that Jihad rages on in places as far away and different from each other the West, South East Asia, all over Africa, Russia and even Western China, just as it's been happening for 1400 years, well before the USA or Israel were ever even conceived of. When even Buddhists violently want to expel you from their country, it's time to admit you are the problem.
I’m syrian, my heritage is palstainian. I my great grandma is from turkey. I have an odd last name (swead) which translates to sweden in Arabic. My friends are also palstainian they have spanish heritage. Could we be vikings?🤔
Could be of Viking heritage. Your Palistian friend might have had ancestors from Spain, traders, travelers, crusaders, or slaves which came to the Levant. It's hard to say. History is very interesting like that.
Some swedish vikings went to the Middle East and the Byzantine Empire during the Viking era. Some also came there after the Viking era, during the crusades along with the franks, italians and the germans. It is believed some stayed permanently, usually being hired as soldiers or working as merchants or sailors.
Varangians (Vikings) in Turkey, working for the East Roman Emperor. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zWx8Q42xxao.html My Grandma came from Hebron, definitely NOT Viking, and her Family had lived their since at least the return from the Babylonian Captivity, thanks to Cyrus the Great. But given that the Levant is at the crossroads of Eurasia and Africa, the Trade Roads crossed in the Region, More Armies and Merchants have tromped through that piece of Real Estate...further, the Crusaders brought in all sorts of Northern Europeans, and don't forget that the Normans also ruled Sicily for quite a stretch of time, and there was a large amount of trade between the Levant and Sicily..
