All language subtitles for Historys.Greatest.Warriors.S01E02.The.Vikings.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

Born...

into a world
of brutality.

Viking combat is gory,
it's gritty, it's real,

it's raw, it's loud.

Trained to attack
with no mercy...

He's swinging
around his great ax,

cutting down people
left, right, and center.

This graphic shock
and awe encounter.

Built into a
fighter without fear...

The Viking warrior
psychology

is to run towards death.

The warrior from the north
becomes a conqueror.

This is an absolute
fear of the Northman.

This is terrorism of its day.

Warriors aren't born...

They're built.

Understanding how

reveals the true nature
of their greatness...

From the cradle
to the grave,

these are the steps
to creating...

History's Greatest Warriors.

The Viking,

a fearsome warrior
like no other.

A force to be reckoned
with on land and on sea...

the Viking's strategic
skills and technical prowess

are matched only by his
brutality on the battlefield.

The people that we
commonly call the Vikings now,

otherwise known
as the Norse,

they're people
from Scandinavia.

They are a great naval force
who know exactly how to

raid coastal settlements and
attack places that are

vulnerable because of
their access to water.

But the Vikings best known
for being the most savage

and brutal warriors
of the Middle Ages.

The Viking Age is a period
in history where Scandinavia,

for one of only
a few times,

steps into the spotlight
of history.

The Vikings make their
way much further afield than

so many other people
before them,

and have a disproportionate
impact

on the history of Europe.

Expansion beyond Scandinavia

will require an elite
warrior as fierce...

as any other in
the Middle Ages.

His path to becoming
a warrior

will require him to endure
years of training. ...

Master the Viking
weapons of war...

And defeat his enemy
through brutal tactics

that terrorize the
Christian world.

It is a path
to greatness

first carved out
centuries ago.

The Viking Age is
approximately understood in

scholarship to be 8th century
to the 11th century A.D.

The countries of
Norway, Sweden,

and Denmark don't
exist at this time.

The Viking's greatest
foes lie to the west.

The Anglo-Saxons
are Christians,

ruling over
medieval Britain.

And the Frankish Empire is an
alliance of Germanic tribes

living in what will
become Northern France,

Western Germany,
and Belgium.

Both maintain
standing armies

that dwarf those
of the north.

Scandinavia itself
is made up into

small independent
communities of farmsteads,

usually the members of
a very large family.

In the very early
society, you've got clans,

and as the clans develop
into chieftainships,

it means that you have
people who are no longer

blood related that
are trying to

organize themselves
together,

and there isn't always
enough land to go around.

Just simply to survive,

you might take advantage
of a less capable

Viking farmstead
or Viking community.

Even if you do have
land, you may decide that

subsistence level living
isn't good enough.

There's a population boom
in Scandinavia at this time,

and they want to go
abroad to look for

more riches and
more opportunities.

If he is to
become a conqueror-

one that can
strike fear

into the hearts
of his enemies-

a young warrior must
learn to live...

and die by the sword.

It is a code of honor that
is instilled in him

as soon as he
enters the world.

The Arabic explorer
and chronicler,

Ahmad ibn Rustah,
of the 10th century,

he is traveling throughout
the eastern reaches of

the Viking world,

and he observes
this Viking father

throw his sword
on the ground.

He says to his son,
"I leave you no inheritance.

All you possess is what
you can gain with this sword."

The promise of greatness
within the young Viking can

only be fulfilled through the
strict discipline that has

created countless
warriors before him.

His first step on the
path to glory...

will be learning
how to survive.

You need to be able to
live in sub-zero degree

temperatures and those
harsh Scandinavian winters.

You're also learning
how to make things.

You have to learn
how to make houses.

Learn how to make boats.

The young Viking
strengthens his body

by working the land,

conditioning him for a
brutal and merciless life.

Oral histories of heroes
and violent conquests

also shape his
understanding of

the ways of the
Viking warrior.

We can picture a Viking
father sitting around

a campfire in his hall,
telling his boy about

Egill Skallagrimsson.

Egill is playing a game
with various children

of his village, and he
feels cheated by

one of the other children,
a boy called Grimm.

So he leaves the match,
goes home,

produces an ax, returns to
his game and then

casually splits the
brain of the boy

who had cheated
against him.

And so, already at
the age of seven,

he's killed his
first person.

But his mother looks
at him and says,

"Egill, you have the makings
of a great Viking."

So, really,
violence is celebrated

in the childhood
of Vikings.

The ambitious youth
also gains practical skills

through a competition
known as "Glima".

Glima is the only sport
that survives the Viking Age.

It's the national sport
of Iceland to this day.

It's a kind of
wrestling or grappling,

not unlike
Brazilian jiu jitsu.

And part of the sport is
that you grip your opponent,

and then you try to flip
your opponent and

slam him to the ground.

Glima is a
way for Viking youth

to impress the elders-

Those who are looking
for the next generation

of elite Viking warriors.

There's an old Norse
word, "drengskapr",

and that is the highest
compliment one could

receive during
the Viking Age.

To say that he demonstrates
drengskapr means that

he demonstrates this sort
of reckless courage

with an element
of fair play.

That's one thing a
Viking is not born with,

and what he needs to
spend his youth

striving and building.

Shaped by an
unforgiving land,

and honed by
fierce competition,

the young Viking has
a singular goal-

join the war band
setting sail

to conquer new lands.

The word "Viking" is
less a people and

more of a job
description.

So, the Old Norse word,
"vikingur",

means sort of a
pirate or a raider,

a medieval Scandinavian
that goes off

raiding and plundering.

The Norse first
arrive on enemy shores

at the end of the 700s,

setting off centuries of
carnage known as...

the Viking Age.

The Viking raid of
the monastic island of

Lindisfarne, which is off the
coast of northern England,

is kind of the shot heard
round the medieval world

when it comes
to the Vikings.

This is kind of the first
recorded raid of the Vikings

in the Middle Ages.

Monasteries during
the Middle Ages

are sources of
immense wealth.

You have chalices of gold.
Gold and silver coinage.

The monks of Lindisfarne
see these longships

on the horizon.

The Vikings come out
seemingly out of nowhere.

The Vikings notice
these men have

no weapons whatsoever.

This is gonna be a cakewalk.

The Vikings
immediately slaughter

several of the monks.

Vikings absolutely desecrate
all of the religious relics.

They trample upon
the altar of God

like dung in the street.

They kidnap several monks,

certainly to be
sold into slavery.

They strip several monks
of their clothing to

humiliate them, and then
actually drowned them

in the sea as well,
so it's this graphic,

devastating shock
and awe encounter.

All that is left is a

handful of monks
bleeding out

in the smoking ruins of
the monastery...

and rumors of fearsome
raiders from the north.

The Christians see
this attack on Lindisfarne

by this heathen horde as
an act of God,

that God is
sending them to...

punish them
for their sins.

And it embeds itself in the
British Christian psyche

for generations.

One of the things that the
Vikings specifically do in

battle to put fear into the
hearts of their enemies

is the Rite of
the Blood Eagle.

This involves hacking open

a high status opponent.

You pin them down,
you hack them open,

and you open out
their rib cage,

you spread out their
internal organs

in the pattern of an eagle.

This is terrorism of its day.

To join the ranks
of the elite warriors

wreaking havoc abroad,
the young Viking

must first
demonstrate his worth.

The Viking youth
has been inspired with tales

of greatness and
groomed for violence.

Now, he must be
hand-selected for

the next stage
of his journey.

If you're a young
Scandinavian,

you want the jarl or
chieftain to invite you

into his "hirth" or "hird."

These are the Viking
raiding parties.

And these hirths
might contain 30 warriors,

50 warriors, sometimes
100 warriors.

Viking chieftains are
ultimately the tacticians

who lead the
raiding parties.

They're the ones that
determine the targets.

Whenever a chieftain
decides that

he's going to set
out to go raiding,

this would be something
that occurs in the

great longhouse,
the biggest longhouse-

the jarl's longhouse-
and he pledges that

he's going to raid such
and such village...

that he's going to select
certain men within the

community to come along.

The chief end of any Viking
raid is to obtain plunder and

great movable wealth so that
a chieftain can reward

his followers and keep
them in his service.

And you could return with
material wealth that

could change the course
of your destiny.

The chieftain will
judge whether or not

a young warrior is
ready for battle.

The skills and traits that
are instilled into a young

Norseman at a very young
age are the very skills that

would propel them
forward as warriors.

You need to be tough.

Those who exhibit
the skills of a warrior

are invited by the chieftain

to a sacred
ceremony.

At the chieftain's great
hall he swears allegiances

and blood oaths
to his followers.

The chieftain is giving you
great gifts of gold and silver,

and ornate weapons,
gem-encrusted sword hilts,

you know, and, and weapons
inlaid with silver and gold,

and armbands of great
precious metals.

In exchange, his followers
pledge to him loyalty.

You're pledging
your life, really,

to the chieftain or jarl
that's sponsoring you.

To join the hird is to

embrace the Viking mindset,

giving the young Norseman
a terrifying advantage.

You have to die
sword in hand

in order to make it
to Valhalla,

which is Odin's realm-
a warrior's paradise.

And those of them who are
slain in battle are then

resurrected to enjoy a feast

of roast pork
and alcohol and

the companionship of
Odin's warrior maidens,

known as the Valkyries.

What allows the Vikings to
be so successful and the

scourge of Europe for over
300 years is the hope

every Viking warrior
has that

he will die a heroic death.

We do know about a few
different rituals and rites.

One can almost imagine-
there's a group of men that

are about to go on
a Viking expedition.

A priestess comes in, and
she looks and says, "Listen,

all of you, you're now
going to go

on a Viking venture.

You're now going to
go on an expedition.

And yes,
you may die.

But you know you're
going to die anyway.

We, at the end of the day,
are all fated to die.

So, live life and
gain honor-

that's what it's about."

The carpe diem of
the Vikings.

Being chosen by the
chieftain is a critical step

on his path to becoming
a warrior.

Now, he will learn
from the hird's

most seasoned soldiers.

There's the trained
warriors, warriors that are

just going on like a
raid for one year.

And then there's
the berserker.

Trained to be the most

extreme warriors
in the hird,

the berserkers and their
violent tactics will be

studied by the
young warrior.

A group of berserkers is
this terrifying spectacle of

wild men howling like a
wolf or like a bear,

causing themselves to
froth at the mouth,

biting the rims
of their shields,

flailing their
arms like mad men.

And this is something which
would have been terrifying.

They are brutal
in warfare.

There is a debate about
what their name means.

Some people think that
their name comes from bear,

or like the bear skin that
they would potentially wear.

But other people say that it
comes from the fact that

they would attack
people bare,

they would attack
people naked.

And this was part of
their shock value.

The Vikings are showing
their victims that

they're so vicious and
so powerful that

they don't even
need armor.

To those who face them,
the berserker appears

to be possessed by some
unnatural power.

There is great debate-

Why did berserkers
go berserk?

For a long time, scholars
have believed that Vikings

are actually doing a form
of hallucinogenic mushroom,

and it's causing them
to lose sense of

where they are and
what they're doing.

This might help describe

why they're acting
so brutally.

Christians describe
the experience of

facing a Viking horde

as being like
the wrath of God,

that this is something that
is so horrific that

there's no way humans could
be responsible for it.

The berserker
dominates the battlefield,

but for the young Viking
warrior looking to earn

his place alongside him,
he must first master

the chieftain's
arsenal of weapons.

The Viking warrior
must be equipped with

all the instruments of war.

Knowledge of the Vikings'
weapons is embedded in

a source that chronicles
the victory at the

Battle Of Hastings by
William The Conqueror,

a Viking descendent.

The Bayeux Tapestry,
which was made in England

around 1066 is a
super important source for

the study of late
Viking era weapons.

The Bayeux Tapestry shows
lots and lots of helmets,

and mail shirts, and swords,
and spears, and shields.

So, it gives us a huge
amount of evidence

about the arms
and armor.

The first weapon a
Viking warrior reaches for

is the one that is
most familiar...

and the quickest to master.

The advantage that Vikings
have in using the ax

as a weapon is that
they've been using axes

almost their whole
lives growing up.

There's cutting wood
with an ax,

and there's using an ax as
a vicious weapon of war.

It is, in many ways, the
Viking's primary weapon.

A simple flesh wound that
might be incurred through

an ax or something
like that could have

life-altering consequences.

There are some big
advantages to axes.

Axes break shields
more easily than

spears or swords do.

Additionally, axes are
more effective against

people wearing armor,
people like

the Anglo-Saxons
and the Franks.

With each new opponent
comes new challenges,

so the Viking warrior
must learn to adapt.

It's clear to us
that the Vikings

evolve their axes over time.

There are great, long,

what are called Dane axes.

And these are two-handed
weapons that

the Vikings develop,
particularly to respond to

the threat of
Frankish cavalry.

The head of the ax,

it hooks down in such
a way where a warrior,

in a single swipe,
could obliterate a

Frankish cavalryman
along with his horse.

In the hands of the Viking's
most ferocious warrior,

the Dane ax unleashes
devastation and mayhem

against a powerful foe.

The Battle of
Stamford Bridge,

September 25th, 1066.

The English chronicler,
Henry of Huntington,

tells us that the Vikings
are taken off-guard with

English forces
that are advancing.

This certain hero
positions himself

on this bridge
with an ax.

This means he can
occupy the space and

the width of the bridge, and
nobody can get past him.

And he's swinging
around his great ax,

cutting down people
left, right, and center.

If you're going to fight
a large number of men,

the way to do it is on a
bridge because

you funnel them all into a
manageable number of people

to fight at any given time.

He slays 40 men,
single-handedly.

And it's only when one
quick-witted Anglo-Saxon

warrior sneaks beneath the
bridge and stabs him from

underneath with a spear
that he is slain in battle.

As the warrior is built into

a more formidable fighter,

he may prove himself worthy
of the ultimate Viking weapon.

The challenge
is getting one.

It's clear that the
Vikings love swords,

but they don't necessarily
have access to

as many swords as,
for example,

people in the Frankish
Empire would do.

The Franks have more
developed centers for the

manufacture of these things,
and they also have more

access to the mines
producing iron ore.

We find out that the
Vikings are interested in this

one kind of sword that's
being produced out of the

region around
the Rhine and,

it's known as the
ulfberht sword.

It's far superior to
the swords that

the Vikings are producing.

There's a lot of debate
as to how it came to be

in the hands of Vikings.

One theory goes that
they encounter it

during their battles with
Frankish troops,

and then they start
trading for it...

and, they end up
incorporating it

more into their arsenal.

In fact, the trade of weapons
into Scandinavia has become

such a problem that people
like the Franks and the

Anglo-Saxons actually
prohibit trading weapons to

their enemies because
they're being raided

so constantly by
these Vikings that

they don't want to
keep arming them.

But the Vikings
will have these blades.

What is no longer
offered in trade

will be taken on
the battlefield.

If a young Viking goes
into battle against

a contingent of
Frankish warriors,

all of them well-equipped
with ulfberht swords,

you know,
he's thinking to himself,

I am looking to
exchange this ax

and come home
with a sword so that

I can then be better
equipped for the future.

Armed with the
finest steel in the land,

the Viking is a menace.

But it's the Norseman's
technical ingenuity

that will produce his most
powerful weapon...

the longship.

The boat is the
innovation that

the Scandinavians
have at this time

that really is
what causes them to

become the fierce warriors
that they are.

Naval conflict is not well
known during the Middle Ages,

and all of a sudden,
the Vikings come up

out of Scandinavia,
seemingly out of nowhere

as this great
naval superpower.

One of the things that
the Vikings love doing is

going up a river and
attacking a settlement,

and in some cases,
attacking fortified bridges.

One of the most famous
examples this happened

was actually London Bridge.

The Vikings have come up
the Thames to attack London,

But London Bridge is their
great big wooden bridge

that's been fortified,
and they actually use

grappling hooks to attach
to the bridge and

pull a section of it down.

They attack the bridge in
order to get access to

the Port of London.

Without the longships,

the Viking Age
doesn't happen.

The Viking's boats will
transform his warrior armies

into an unstoppable
naval battalion.

Their imposing shape sends
a terrifying warning

to the enemy.

The sails of Viking
longships are very iconic.

Viking longships are powered
by both sails and oars.

This combination of
sails and oars is what

affords the Vikings
mobility and speed.

One can assume that a
longship could carry

about approximately
30 warriors.

The hull of the Viking
longship's streamlined design

is what allows the
Vikings to move swiftly,

and easily venture
into shallow waters,

right into the heartland
of enemy territory.

That technology
allows them

to succeed in warfare

in a way that is really
very different

from anybody else in
that time period.

Sailing towards
enemy territory,

the Viking is ready
to meet his destiny.

It is time for combat.

The Viking has
been trained, selected,

and armed.

Now, he must face off
against his enemy.

A true Viking's
mettle is tested...

in combat.

Viking warrior psychology
is to run towards danger,

to run towards death,
because your reward will be

potentially gaining
entrance to Valhalla.

There's one particular
example of Gisli Sursson,

who's an outlaw in Iceland.

He's moving up this
cliff and he's, you know,

killing men who are
pursuing him in the process,

and he's stabbed
with a spear and

his guts are spilling out.

And the saga tells us
that he takes a cord,

and he binds his internal
organs up so that

he's able to fight for a
few more moments,

and it's evident to him that
this is not his day to win

on the battlefield, and he
dramatically jumps off

the cliff, splitting a man
with his sword

as he plummets to
his own death.

With no fear of death,

the Viking stands his ground
and considers his attacker.

They're looking to gain
as much information

about the opponent as
they possibly can.

Does this person
look experienced?

Do they look like
a raw recruit?

Eye contact is an
interesting thing,

There's a psychology
to it, and obviously,

staring with fury at
your opponent can have

a psychological
effect on them.

Viking combat is tough.

It's aggressive,
it's gritty.

Your shields are
banging into each other,

and you're desperately
trying to push somebody's

shield out of the way
with your own

so that you can get
a few hacks in.

Using his own
shield allows the Viking

to dominate his enemy.

The shield isn't just a
passive thing that

you hold there and
receive blows on.

It's something you can smash
into the opponent's shield,

smash into their face-

below the level of their
helmet, break their nose.

The Viking shields have
a distinct element

called the boss.

It's on the front
of the shield.

It almost acts like
a brass knuckle,

because your hand
is positioned

right behind the boss.

The metal boss, in the
middle of the shield,

also serves a unique purpose
in that it can catch blows.

If an enemy comes down on
you with an ax or a sword,

you can catch their blow
with your shield boss,

and parry it away.

The weapon the young Viking
learned to use as a boy...

proves to be his most
versatile tool in combat.

One of the great
advantages to axes is,

apart from the fact that
they hit really hard because

you've got all of the mass
concentrated at the top of

the shaft- in addition to that,
you can hook, because

all axes have a
natural T-junction to them.

Being able to hook the shield
forwards creates an opening

into which you can
stab into or cut into

behind the shield.

The ax, because of the
special hook that it has,

you were also able
to trap individuals,

either grabbing their legs,
pulling them down,

taking them right
down to the ground.

In a life or death struggle,

the young Viking
relies on his training

to anticipate
and respond to

his opponent's
every move.

Vikings definitely
use glima

to take an enemy by force.

Argh!

With wrestling and
glima you can actually do

anything that gets the
other person down.

That's very
practical in warfare,

because they're really in
some ways are no rules to

warfare because basically
of two sides that are

essentially trying
to kill each other.

Death can be
swift for

the Viking's adversary.

Or, he may
suffer a crueler fate...

When a Viking
sees an enemy,

he doesn't see him
just as an enemy.

He sees him as...

prosperity.

They decide, why don't we
take some of these people

for slaves, and we can maybe
take some as hostages

and ransom them off
later on.

Slavery is an essential

part of the Viking economy.

Human capital, if one
can even call it that,

is something that the Vikings
are very well aware of.

If you can subdue the enemy

he's worth far more
alive than dead.

The Viking has been
built to overpower

any enemy he faces.

But, a daunting
test lies ahead...

war is upon him.

The Viking has been molded
into a deadly warrior.

But to conquer enemy lands
and enrich his people...

he will need to show
true courage

fighting alongside thousands
of his fellow warriors.

One of the things that
probably makes the Norse

at this time quite different
to a lot of the people

they're fighting against,
is that they are used to

raiding and operating
together as units.

The Great Heathen Army
is a coalition of

multiple war bands
of Vikings.

By the middle of
the 9th century,

the Great Heathen Army has
conquered all but one of the

Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

Vikings have established,
at this point,

settlements in northern
France, in Normandy,

which is a particularly
strategic location,

as that estuary in Normandy

leads to the Seine River,

which takes you all
the way to Paris.

It is a city of riches,

and the warrior's
next target.

An audacious attack on
an unsuspecting foe.

But to achieve victory,

the Viking will call on all
of the war tactics

he has amassed over the
course of his journey.

The Vikings decide
to besiege Paris

on Easter Sunday in 845

because it's on this day in
the Christian calendar that

the markets of Paris
are overflowing with

all sorts of wealth.

People are celebrating
this great holiday,

and the Vikings
know this.

The Viking siege of Paris is
led by the legendary figure,

Ragnar Lothbrok- larger
than life Viking warrior

who is leading
about 120 ships-

the sources tell us-

about roughly 5000
warriors into battle.

The Viking warrior and his
fleet appear on the horizon,

without warning.

In many cases, the Norse
flee with their ships

before the enemy army
can get there so,

they're operating
for minimal risk

when possible,
and maximum profit.

The sails of his dreaded
longships are designed to

stir terror in the hearts
and minds of his enemy.

The first part of the
Viking assault is

kind of a
propaganda assault.

It's showing you the might.

You can see this
sail coming at you.

You know that you don't
have much time to

prepare to defend
where you are.

The Vikings, under
Ragnar Lothbrok,

are sailing down
the Seine River,

and they come
upon a group of

Frankish warriors
stationed on

either side of the Seine
River by Charles The Bald,

who is king of
West Frankia.

He's the one in charge
of Paris's defenses,

so you have
Frankish defenders

on the right side
of the river and

Frankish defenders
on the left.

And the Franks,

they don't have
boats with which

to meet the
Vikings at sea.

They simply attack
one contingent of

Frankish warriors,
decimating them,

and leaving the other one
unable to help the defense.

And there
are berserks,

and the berserks roared.

And now,
imagine this-

you're on the battlefield
with a group of men,

and they're
standing there,

and the terrifying
sound that would make.

The Vikings capture
111 Frankish warriors,

load them on the Longships,
and move further down

the Seine closer to Paris.

This is the next phase
in the Viking's plan.

He and his fellow warriors
now hold the captives-

and the city of Paris-
for ransom.

This ransom is the entire
reason for the siege.

The Vikings attacked the
Franks to extract

as much money from
them as possible.

Ragnar Lothbrok had been in
touch with Charles The Bald,

and had been undergoing
these negotiations,

saying, you know,
"We'll leave Paris

if only you pay us
enough silver."

In 845, the Franks
defending Paris are

probably asking
themselves,

"Well, can we hold
off this Viking attack?"

It looks to be about
120 longships,

but the Franks have
ballista technology,

they have great
boiling vats of pitch.

They have all sorts of like
counter-defensive technology

that they can use.

But evidently, to Ragnar,
the negotiations weren't

happening quick enough so,
those 111 captives that

he had taken on one side
of the Seine River,

he brings to the island
near Paris and hangs them.

We can only imagine
how terrified

the defending
Franks of Paris are

to see their 111
fellow warriors

hung open in plain sight.

Hanging 111 men
might have been seen as

being very advantageous
and strategic.

By demonstrating that you are
willing to do something that

may seem to be barbaric,
you may be,

in the long run,
saving lives on both sides.

And it's only then that
the Vikings are able to

receive 7,000
pounds of silver.

That's how much the Franks
pay the Vikings to go away,

although it doesn't seem to
work because in the 850s

and then again in 885,
the Vikings,

they're seeing
Paris as sort of a,

an ATM that they can come
back to over and over again.

The Viking has
mastered the art of war through

his unflinching embrace
of bloodshed.

His training, his weapons,
and his dedication

have made him feared
across a continent.

But every great
warrior must fall,

and the Viking's
days are numbered.

The Viking's success
in battle earns him glory...

and, a reputation for
tactical brilliance.

His brutal empire is growing.

In their essence,
the Vikings are seamen,

and that is the absolute
core of their success.

However,
as things move on,

they start to
change their goals.

We see the Franks having
to give them land

because that's clearly
what they want.

And equally, in
Anglo-Saxon England,

they go for a full
invasion in 865,

and they are clearly
not there to raid.

They are there to stay.

We start to see a transition
from raiding to settling.

But incredible gains

give way to
devastating losses.

Over time, the Vikings'
enemies begin to

understand their attackers.

And how to fight back.

People like Charlemagne,

one of the things
that they do to try and

combat this Viking threat
is to build navies.

Building bridges, putting
large chains across rivers

was something else
which was done.

The Anglo-Saxons
in England,

and the Slavs in
Central Europe

are increasingly
using more cavalry.

But, the Vikings
themselves

never actually had cavalry.

Outmatched on land,

and no longer
dominant at sea,

the Viking warrior loses
his tactical advantage.

By the year 1066,

the Viking Age is no more.

Near the end of the century,
the Norseman controls

nothing beyond Scandinavia.

Warring clans
headed by chieftains

are dying out.

You have the formation of
the modern countries of

Norway, Sweden,
and Denmark.

You have chieftains
consolidating power and

submitting to kings.

Now you have a
political organization,

and a king who's basically
not going to allow things

like the Vikings because
it's in that king's

best interest to either

hire them as
part of his army

or to get rid of them
altogether,

so that's a big
piece of it.

The second part
is religion.

Christianity really
takes hold in these

previously
heathen places.

So, you know, here
we see a bit of the

psychology of
warfare is dying out.

Christianity is the
religion of kings

throughout
medieval Europe.

You know, you have the
Pope in Rome as well,

who bestows great
privileges on kings

who follow him
and so forth.

Christianity is the social
club of medieval kings.

But it's a Viking
warrior who emerges to

unify all of the
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

William the Conqueror,
who the modern day

royal family of England can
trace their lineage to,

the first King of England,
is descended from Normans.

He's descended from the
Duchy of Normandy in

Northern France, which was
founded by Rollo,

who was a ferocious Viking
in the 10th century.

By creating
some of the most

fearsome fighters
of the era,

the Vikings change western
civilization forever.

The Vikings are a
warrior culture

that is so larger than life.

They leave their footprints
throughout the world.

The modern-day countries of
England and France

originate from Viking
principalities.

They start these
marketplaces

that then become towns

that then become cities
that still exist today.

Dublin is an old
Viking marketplace.

York is an old
Viking marketplace.

Novgorod is an old
Viking marketplace.

If I were to say
the word Viking,

which has gone on to

bear the name of
football teams and

clothing brands and ocean
liners and so forth,

the word Viking means
bravery, it means courage,

it means being
larger than life.

And, the mythology,

the spirituality
of the Vikings

is very well understood
by modern viewers as well.

J.R.R. Tolkien's own
mythological worlds,

The Lord of the Rings
and The Hobbit,

are directly based upon
Old Norse literature and

given to us in the
forms of sagas.

The other reason
why I think

they loom large
in our memory

has to do with the

freedom, individualism
components of

what we think of when
we think of Vikings.

I think we tend to either
downplay the violence,

or up play the violence,

in our telling of
these stories,

but I think that there is
something about

a group of farmers

that hold Europe at ransom

for several hundred years

that just is
a little bit inspiring.

Centuries after disappearing
from the northern seas...

the Viking warrior
is still revered.

His ferocious training,

devastating fighting technique,

and unique combination of
strategy and brutality...

earn him a rightful
place among

History's Greatest Warriors.