What Made the Viking Longship So Terrifyingly Effective 

Was wondering if I would see a Valheim comment lol

That must be a karve lol

A brother

Um actually, you need 100 iron nails. 40 ancient AND fine wood and LEATHER for the longship. (edit: added um actually)

longships take more than that

hi Gary! 😊

hi Gary! 😊

hi Gary! 😊

hi Gary! 😊

Many people don't realize how early these ships where developed. They where one of the best of theyr times. And i personally don't know what differentiates a boat from a ship. But i'd call it a ship :D

Also most major European cities, since they tend to be around large rivers.

Lindesfarn would like to have a word with you

It was a blazing fast ocean going ship and also a landing craft.

I don't understand why people repeat what we just heard in the video.

The ships became very ultimate tools for trade and war. Being able to unload a large group of heavily armed men on a flat beach. We know about Leding Fleets from Denmark being 3000 ships during attacks on England (Palle Lauring). The similar Leding Fleet from Norway was around 300 ships and was never called in full strength for any war!!

Now I must see a rubber duck donning horned helms

Quack quack mamma jävla

Vikings one of a fews with less homosapiens DNA and more neanderthal DNA

I'm not sure about that. It is time to poke a few holes in the myth about the vikings being super-humans. What made the vikings extra scary was the fact that they were pagan. A very terrifying concept to christians in the dark and early middle ages. The ships gave them a strategic advantage over their victims whose defences was organized around a different kind of warfare. The feudal system relies on a system of lords and vasalls. This system is quite effective at massing a large and somewhat organized army. The problem is though, that it takes some time to gather the men. Under normal circumstances this was appropriate for the type of conflicts that existed in that society. The feudal system provides security from raids, where people give up their independence in exchange for protection from their lord. They were not prepared though, for a bunch of raiders that seemed to be able to teleport in and out of their territory. There was some cultural difference that maybe comes into play, but more likely is that the men who got to go on viking raids were chosen just because they were young, healthy, and strong. They were among the social elite of their society, and if they would have faced up against a force consisting of their counterpart, -European knights instead of unarmed monks and local militia, the fights would have been more even. Scandinavians may be a bit taller than many other nationalities, but in this age stature would be way more determined by health and nutrition during childhood than by genetics. Again, the viking raiders were from the elite class of their society, most of their victims were not. The Crusades should be testament enough to the fact that the British and French could be quite capable of both combat and savagery if they were the invading army wrecking havoc in foreign lands. And don't tell me that the 10'th century Brits were that different genetically from their great grandfathers. Also, the vikings did not disappear. Their society changed as they became christians and adopted a more continental culture. The people were the same. Raids became less fruitful as their former victims built castles and standing armies defending the coasts. Trade became more lucrative and way less dangerous than raiding. The scandinavian countries were not medieval power-houses, and waged internal wars over the control of trade routes. The Scandinavians were among the last of the europeans to abandon the barbaric lifestyle. But as is the case with most barbarians in history, they were more than eager to do so.

J H another thing that made them so powerful was that every Viking chieftain fought differently while people like the British had many generals who fought the exact same way

So bad its good!

Get out 😂

I always found Fjord's to be quite affordable. I'm driving a Fjord Ranger now.

Fun fact: this ship was the original Fjord Escape.

Spelling out ones dream correctly helps you get there when you can afford it🤣good luck

Women's rights early on, a lot of what they did was out of necessity due to the climate. Doesn't excuse everything. Danmark has the oldest continuous navy & the biggest commercial fleet (Maersk). Check out the story behind the Maersk Star on all of their ships & the "Viking Apocalypse" on PBS. Michael Arne Herbst (pronounced Mee kal Ah ne)✌

@@azmike1956 i thought i read greece had the largest merchant fleet or is it maersk is the largest single entity?

@@halehortler5349 that may be it. Maersk has over 700 vessels registered the last I checked. Some of them among the largest container ships, the Triple E's.

@Samuel Prince soon to be taken over by diversity. not much of retirement.

They don't have the population size to be anything but chill.

Well I’m 67 and I when I was much younger I too was fascinated by the History of the Scandinavian people that our olds history books termed Vikings. Not all the Norse People were “Vikings” but all “Vikings” were Norse. As a descendant of an old Alsatian Family from West of the Rhine and I was quite surprised to discover that my DNA shows 49% Scandinavian and only 47% West European (along with small percentages of Mediterranean/Middle Eastern) and maybe that’s is why my interest in Norse History was present growing up.

@@Aswaguespack Meanwhile I'm just 22 yrs old, I suppose 99% chinese and 1% mongolian or something, born and raised in South America and find "vikings" fascinating aswell. Fearless warriors that will glady die in the battlefield to enter Valhalla, metal af.

LA Raine 14 and starting to obsess over the “Vikings”

Emma R Louisiana

@@Aswaguespack my family has been swedes since the 1600s at least, I haven't done a DNA test though.

@cobainzlady Over 2/3 of Sweden is currently forest.

What does quarter-sawn/rift-sawn mean? Do you mean that they cut across the grain of the wood?

The planks have the grain alignment like quarter-sawn, but the planks were not actually sawn but split. The vikings did not have acsess to steel that could produce that kind of saw. The logs are prepared by cutting a groove lengthwise with an axe. Wooden wedges are hammered into the groove, and the log starts to split. Depending on the size of the log and the size of the desired plank, you continue to split the log so that when seen from the endgrain, the pieces are shaped like slices of a pizza. This is insanely back-breaking work btw. ( and they need to be further worked with hewing axe, drawknife, and plane before they are done) The benefit is that the split runs along the grain, so the fibers in the wood are not cut, like they would if the log was milled. A plank split this way is insanely flexible and strong and can be made very thin. It's really quite hard to describe how different the wood feels when you handle it. It is springy and flexible and will bend without cracking. Trees tend to twist as they grow, and the skilled builder will choose trees with the right twist, so the split-out planks will be almost pre-shaped to fit the shape of the ship. Most trees twist counter-clockwise, one in twenty trees twist clockwise, and yes: you need an equal amount of each type of planks... Check out the viking ship museum in Roskilde, where they build ships and boats with this method.

@@johnroberts8233 it is a very time-consuming method of milling a log, so that the rings in the wood (the grain) end up perpendicular (or close to) to the flat side of the plank. This produces a very stable lumber that maintains it's shape as it dries. This is used in for example in windowframes, doors or drawers where a slight deformation due to changes in humidity would cause the door (or whatever) to jam. It has many applications in joinery. Modern industrial mills do not bother with this, but they will usually end up with two planks out of every log that has standing grain by default. This, however is not how the vikings made their planks, although the alignment of the grain is the same, the method of getting there is something else. See my other post.

@@JH-lo9ut Thank you, that was very informative. 👍

Running back to my body

Sailing back to my body and longship on a half destroyed raft

I have arrived!

At a plain setting up a farm hah

Aye Viking Brother

One good wave and it's swamped or at least all your supplies were sodden. Kind of sloppy reporting from Smithy.

Is that the one Floki made?

It was actually a distant relative of mine (granddad’s cousin) who found the Gokstad ship back in the day. Good times.

After reading a little about it on wikpedia I found that they built a new replica in 2010 and that it sailed perfectly well, so proving it wasn't just a funeral ship.

@@NottMacRuairi Yeah, I read the same thing. It has been a while since I have studied Viking ships. One question though, and I do not know if it was answered, was that the gunwale strake that made her seaworthy was missing when the ship was excavated. Of course that could have happened by accident during the excavation. In either case, IMOH, I still believe the ship was restricted to fjords and calm inland waters.

Or a funeral ship, still rad.

@@melelconquistador didn’t they burn the funeral ships in the end?

@@geronimomajinbro I think so, maybe they burried this one instead.

@@geronimomajinbro In some areas cremations were usual but not in (modern day) Norway. These preserved funeral ships started out as sea going vessels. When their chieftain (or other nobility, male or female) died they were buried in them. Most graves found so far only has an imprint, with the rivets, left in the ground. No ship was designed to be a "funeral ship".

@@melelconquistador Not built as funeral ships. These ships had decades of sailing behind them.

Especially one of them named Thors...

Tomato lol, i guess. Its based on a true story tho. Ofc he was a little too strong in the anime😂

@@ThinkingRepublic I believe Thorkell was too OP.

Vikings themselves aren't very terrifying though... everyone I've ever met from Minnesota has been extremely friendly.

@@tn15_ Minnesota? viking?

There is a really good show about vikings that you can watch if you like them

Vikings were pretty much the Mongols of northwest europe

@@user-un9ll4wt7r more like the huns of the southeast og Europe,the vikings are the huns but in northwest europe,I think they're more similar to huns (like attila and stuff) than to mongols

Yep they're amazing until you get invaded.

@@cloudy2803 and the name of the show would be...? :D

Basically Scandinavia is a land of pirates and they grow big enough to make their own countries. Edit: and some of those countries even capable to invade the Britain

@@DBT1007 We Will fight back .

Nowadays we call legal pirates politicians.

No international laws to answer to back then, pirates and them were no more “legal” or illegal than each other. You just go and conquer, and then other people try and conquer you

@@phillipleblanc7823 trump is actually nordic royalty. So yea lol

Would that be "cavitation"?

Arni S., thank you for giving us the real story. Typical "history channel" video waffles on at great lengths without getting to the real topic.

@@nix4644 no , that is something else .

It also seems like the width would give it stability being the draft was so shallow. It's almost like having outboard runners (stabilizers) but without the bulk of those sticking out so far inhibiting where they could go inland and if damaged causing instability. It's clear it's a sleek and squatted version of a boat. Very interesting.

@@hectorheck1353 talk about friction OKAY DUD

Museum ad

STOP

longest 4 minute vid ever i love it not sarcasm

and yet they don't mention all the negative aspects that comes with a shallow draft. Going with such a ship in the ocean or larger sea is much more difficult than with a boat which is extended 2-4 meters bellow water. You're basically sitting in a bathtub when using the longship and the waves impacting the boat has a much stronger affect than with a boat that goes several meters bellow water. Its because of this reason so many ships were lost going from Norway to England as a result of minor storms, meanwhile people in mediterania had boats that were much better suited to travel vast distances.

Welcome to RU-vid.

There are over 5 million of us.

@@Member3285 6 million now my battle brother.

17th November to be exact

Plot twist: Valheim came out

dont forget the pacing drums

Yeh

Floki was a real person. While he didn't discover iceland, he was one of the first to build a home on it. They called him raven-floki because he used odins birds to find land

I can imagine the fruit all shriveled up but the color of the skin still somewhat recognizable

The Vikings would preserve their apples in human blood.

I didnt believe it

Yeah, I mean, who's to say Vikings didn't like Granny Smith's?

@@Komyets probably looked like raisins but bigger and somewhat red

Where?

Don't know

Tell me more

See my comment was valid so check it worth a laugh

wow ......your pretty Allie ;-)

You are interesting...

@@1_fishin_magician153 dude...

indeed. and quite annoying because they are so quick

Fires a rain of arrows, love playing the Vikings in aoe2

Invite them on a drink

Thats the spirit! Oh I ment bring out the spirits and let us help you bring down one of your enemies just to hang him to the crows ;D

Sköl!

Wjhat?

Ja...

wtjf!!

One bad harvest, or poor fishing season. It wouldn’t take much. Even into the 19th century Norway had occasional famine.

Vikings robbed each other until they realised that there are richer countries in the south

He is just a fiction bruh

Ah yes. Floki the builder and his floosi Miss Flicky

I hate Floki for killing Athelstan! I hope Flatnose speared him into Hel!

@@Vladklx Floki was a real person. He wasn't a ship builder but one of the first vikings who built a home on iceland. They called him raven-floki because he used ravens to find land

L J he was a real person, and he came from Rogaland,Norway. All thoug, most of the stuff he does in the series are fiction.

Oh.

But they drank Mjöd from the horns :D. Thats something at least ;D

Krösus yes it is 😅

Very few Vikings wore helmets. Helmets are for babies. Real man wear bear pelt.

Strange indeed. You would think that in a warrior culture they would also burry weapons and helmets on those ships

Ooose. Like that?

@OP 1000 - Correct .

@ The best pronunciation that I can think of, using English words, would be "Ooze-eh-berg"". And if you change that Z with the hard S-sound from "sing", I think you'll be right on the money.

35oz 19g oh ohhh

Indeed. The Vikings probably stole one and then copied the design.

history is lost. you think you know but you dnt

That's a nice head you have on your shoulders.

It's almost harvesting season

FOR VALLHALLAH

@British Empire Oh no!

Who cares what you think when you mention your diet .... sicko .

Have faith. Odin protects the valiant.

They'll break it up for firewood.

"I wonder if poor people with little access to education will appreciate history" those people you mention have more in common with Vikings than you do, I wonder if you'll appreciate that.

Quick Trivia Bits

Well, I was allot in four minutes. Just saying

Vikings one of a fews with less homosapiens DNA and more neanderthal DNA

More than a few perished during storms along the Danish coast . The Vikings stayed close to land in their navigation and tied to shore when seeing bad weather . Old stone carvings in Viking graveyards , Denmark show this .

Quantum Mechanic - Well, they made it all around Europe and to North America.

How did we invade England for over decade long crusades then?

@@erikeggenbakstad I'm not saying we didn't I'm just saying my god, it's Insane to picture. Go look up footage of storms at sea on youtube, to be in that in a Longboat is I would have thought suicide.

I know. Absolute useless information. LOL