Original subtitles

Paris,

the scene of a battle that will change history

and seal the fate of two peoples.

In the 9th century, the Carolingians, heirs of the great Charlemagne,

dominate Europe.

Army against army, the Carolingians have the upper hand.

A people relentlessly harass them,

attracted by the riches of the empire:

the Vikings.

These men from the north dream of adventure and fortune.

The Seine is the perfect route for plundering wealthy merchants.

and the prosperous abbeys that dot it.

An obstacle stands in the way of these men.

Paris and its fortified bridges.

And the determination of two men:

Gozlin, a man of faith determined to vanquish these pagans

and the young Count Eudes of Paris

who does not want to abdicate

facing the hundreds of Viking longships that obscure the horizon.

At the head of this armada,

Siegfried, a warlord determined to crush all resistance

of the Frankish citadel.

Who were these Frankish and Viking warriors?

who, when face to face, never wanted to lay down their arms?

Heroic music

...

We are in the 9th century,

Charlemagne's Carolingian Empire

wants to establish order throughout Europe.

Thanks to their stronger army, the Franks protect

tens of millions of kilometers of borders.

And yet, men from the north

fully intend to challenge their power.

They will manage to infiltrate the heart of the territory

and threaten the domination of the Franks.

Within this vast Carolingian empire,

The Seine was the preferred route for the Vikings' raids.

770 km, along many rich regions.

A boon for these Scandinavian warriors.

The Scandinavians know perfectly well

It's so complicated in the West.

They also know where they can intervene

and at what point and based on

on which actors.

Due to the peace negotiated between the English and the Danes,

the Vikings decided

to invest in the coasts of the continent.

Siegfried, a Viking chief,

which has prevailed

on other battlefields,

gives an appointment

to several Viking bands

in Rouen on September 5, 885

to organize plundering expeditions

along the river as far as Burgundy.

They are leaving from Rouen,

conquered the previous year, in a large-scale operation.

30,000 warriors spread across a huge fleet of 700 ships.

The Scandinavian expedition is ambitious.

The Vikings want to sail beyond Paris

which they besieged on numerous occasions.

They know all the bends of the Seine

on which they have been sailing for over 80 years.

All the abbeys

shots will be taken from the Seine to Paris .

burned, looted.

That's what will deeply frighten

the populations.

To prevent the Scandinavians from sailing up the Seine,

The Carolingians will build dams all over the place.

at various points of interest along the Seine.

To counter these looters,

Charles the Bald, Frankish emperor until 877,

had grasped the extent of their capacity to cause harm

and embarks on a policy of major public works.

As here in Pont-de-l'Arche, where the Eure and Seine rivers meet,

an essential crossing point for the Vikings,

where Charlemagne's grandson decides to build a bridge

who must stand against these pagans.

A remarkable work.

It's to stop

these radiant attacks

and conducted further and further into the kingdom

that the decision to build this structure was made

at the royal assembly of Pîtres in 863.

The construction of such a structure will take nearly 15 years.

and will be, for the time, a remarkable achievement.

It is an exceptional work due to its dimensions.

since crossing these waterways

takes place over several hundred meters.

What made this work effective ,

it was the presence of these small castles, these structures

for the defense of entry points, of bridgeheads

which were formed of moated enclosures

which allowed for the stationing of permanent garrisons.

There was no longer any Nordic threat.

in the Paris area, in the Oise region.

The Carolingians manage to restore calm on the Seine.

Their art of warfare and forging is envied by all.

Including by men from the north who wear the same outfits.

We're going to get the chainmail back.

An iron helmet with a nasal guard to protect the face,

made up of 4 metal plates riveted together.

He can carry a shield.

As in this case, we have a fighter oriented towards throwing weapons.

He will stay out of range.

The Carolingian weapons remained the most sophisticated.

from all over Europe.

One of the distinctive features that will make us proud

For the Franks, it's all about swords.

The typical sword found in Europe in the 9th and 10th centuries.

It's a sword with a massive, triangular pommel

which can be worked, the short chunks.

A double-edged, one-handed sword

with a central gutter to lighten it

and give it flexibility, so that it can be handled with one hand.

These are models that have been copied all over Europe.

One of the weapons of the Carolingians,

also copied,

winged stakes or spears

recognizable by its fins at the base of the lance socket

which allows you to block your opponents' weapons

and to move aside the shields.

Very long irons that must be used for pruning, striking with

or deliver thrusting blows.

The Carolingian army will steamroll.

That's why the Vikings sought to avoid combat.

because in open terrain, army against army,

The Carolingians have the upper hand.

The peace will be short-lived.

Because the Viking armada, led by Siegfried,

has a fierce will.

Men also possess a key advantage.

The longships.

When the Vikings were in an estuary, they would go upstream

far inland. The boats were quite light.

to be dragged

between two waterways on land,

pulled by the strength of the arms by the crew or by horses.

There we go, we put the boat back in the water to continue the ascent.

The boat is a definite tool

of the expansion of the Scandinavians

which made it possible to navigate the seas bordering Scandinavia

whether it be the Baltic Sea, the English Channel, or the North Sea,

but also the Mediterranean, the Atlantic

as far as Greenland and America.

The Viking epic and its dynamism are exceptional.

These soldiers are, in all likelihood, at the start

simple adventurous merchants,

wanting to get rich off their neighbors.

We went to Denmark to the Roskilde site

where the archaeologist Morten Ravn works,

in order to understand the secrets

of the journey of the Normans on the Seine.

And more specifically , these longships

commonly called drakkars.

These frightening boats are one of the keys to their success.

Even today,

We study the art of these exceptional shipowners.

This boat behind me, which is of medium size,

corresponds to the types of boats used by the Vikings

during their campaigns and military operations

during the siege of Paris from 885 to 886.

The Vikings advanced construction

of their ship. These ships were truly state-of-the-art.

of technology. They concentrated all the innovation

and the skill of the craftsmen of the time.

This boat could be propelled by sail,

but also by oars

thanks to the men who propelled the boat forward.

It's important to understand this.

They were no longer dependent on the wind or the weather.

These boats allowed rowing against the wind.

Being able to navigate the rivers was essential.

even when it was difficult to use the sail.

They were able to navigate quickly

and in shallow waters.

Europe was connected by sea,

the fastest way to transport men and cargo

was the river and maritime network.

The Vikings were the specialists,

experts in this field.

To unlock the secrets of how these boats are built,

naval engineer Martin Dael

strives to rebuild Viking ships as they were in the past.

To carry out this experimental archaeology,

He uses ancestral techniques.

And one Scandinavian tool in particular is ubiquitous.

The axe in all its forms.

There are different kinds

axes to begin refining the board.

To make the first cut,

We use a double-sharpened axe.

This is a tool with two angles.

For example, to make a first groove.

We cut out a few pieces like this

and then, we use a single-edged axe.

It's flat on one side

and the cutting edge is inclined towards the other part.

It's very effective for flattening a board.

It's pleasant to work with these tools.

It's lightweight, you get a flat surface

and then you can turn the piece of wood over

and do the same thing on the other side.

The boats are very light.

They are built with good materials,

oak that is cut into strips.

This technique involves following the direction of the wood grain.

When you use wooden wedges

to split a solid oak tree,

We can take one like this one.

You insert it by 16 cm.

after splitting it with the axe.

It's starting to crack.

You just have to follow the opening.

Then you get a lightweight piece of wood

et flexible.

When you split it this way,

The result is lightweight. It's very elastic.

and resistant. I weigh 85 kg,

The board doesn't break. It's thanks to these characteristics.

that you can row quickly.

When you launch the boats,

The wood swells and puts pressure on the rivets.

It strengthens the structure.

And between the planks,

You have sheep's wool which can be used to waterproof everything.

Pounding

Thanks to their flexible and maneuverable boats,

The Scandinavians sailed the seas

until reaching remote lands.

Thousands of kilometers from their place of residence,

expeditions, which have become a way of life.

We don't say "to be a Viking," we say "to act like a Viking."

in the Old Norse language.

To be a Viking means partnering with several entrepreneurs

to buy a boat or a small fleet,

its cargo and set off on an expedition.

The goal is to make a fortune.

The Viking is a pirate and a trader.

The Viking is a trader and a pirate. Both at the same time.

That's what the word means. There are two ideas

in the word.

Gradually, trade disappears.

replaced by much more lucrative raids .

The Scandinavians plunder everything in their path.

To satisfy their thirst for wealth,

They need to go further.

To find new territories that were previously untouched.

Burgundy was attractive at the time,

because the entire Atlantic coast had already been looted

and most of the monasteries had repatriated their fortunes

in their Burgundian dependency

which had been less affected than the rest.

There was a lot of wealth in that place.

The further these distant expeditions venture into the heart of enemy territory,

plus they require a lot of organization.

Scandinavians have to plan for everything.

This is somewhat of a novelty among the Vikings.

Before, they would come in the spring and in the summer they would go back home.

Siegfried wants to spend the winter with his men in Burgundy.

To achieve this, he wants to ensure free passage over the bridges of Paris.

What he also wants,

it's about ensuring

that when he wants to go back home,

cross the Seine again in order to regain

the sea,

His retirement will not be hindered by Parisians and bridges.

Siegfried and his men left Rouen three months ago.

After several bridges were destroyed,

The Vikings are getting closer to their goal.

Burgundy.

One last major obstacle remains : Paris.

The nerve center of West Francia.

Parisians fear these northern barbarians

who arrived on the island of the city in November 885.

They are prepared for their arrival.

Imagine that in 885,

Paris consists of the Île de la Cité

where several thousand inhabitants live.

It is an area protected by an old perimeter wall.

Around,

We have fields, countryside with unprotected suburbs.

Parisians who are used to it

These Viking visits have been taking place for several decades.

began to rebuild their walls.

So the Île de la Cité has a bridge

which connects the left bank and a bridge

which connects the right bank.

These bridges are defended by towers,

but these towers are still unfinished.

In particular, the tower of the great bridge

which connects the city to the right bank.

The capital of France has lost some of its former prestige.

However, two men have ambitions for the city.

Bishop Gozlin

and Count Eudes of Paris.

They are the guarantors of the authority of the Carolingian emperor.

and will not let these Scandinavians dictate their conduct.

lawless.

At dawn on November 26th,

These Vikings will request an audience with the people

who represent the authority of the Frankish emperor.

These two people are Bishop Gozlin

who is the bishop of the city, a high-ranking aristocrat.

He was chancellor

of King Charles the Bald.

He is a character who knows the Vikings well.

since he was taken prisoner

several years earlier.

He is one of the important figures in the city of Paris.

He is a man of the Church,

a politician,

A man of power. He straddles the line between the two.

but the boundary between politics and religion

is very porous in medieval times.

Gozlin is a man of the Church. The Vikings are pagans.

He may have been fed up with these decades of attack

actions against Church property

and that it was time for someone to stand up.

The other character is a young man of 30 years old.

Count Eudes of Paris.

It represents the other facet of Carolingian power alongside the Church.

the aristocracy.

His family comes from a line of Franks.

and became very famous thanks to his father,

Robert the Strong.

The man prevailed against the Vikings on numerous occasions.

before succumbing in 866

in yet another battle against the Scandinavians.

From then on, this family was called the Robertians.

The Robertians built a significant part of their renown

on the fight against the Vikings, on the defense of the Christian world.

Eudes is already surrounded by this father figure.

who was a major military leader.

Naturally, when he becomes Count of Paris,

He has not yet achieved any extraordinary feats of arms,

but he already has that psychology and that heredity which makes

that he will never give up

in front of the Vikings.

Siegfried may know that the two men will oppose him,

He is counting on a show of force.

that its 30,000 armed men represent .

Bishop Gozlin and Count Odo receive Siegfried in audience

And that's when Siegfried will present his request.

What he and his men want is to spend the winter in Burgundy.

To achieve this, he wants to ensure free passage

bridges of Paris.

They will tell Siegfried that they are in charge of the city.

and that they cannot grant his request.

Siegfried will withdraw , threatening them.

since they refuse,

He will set the city ablaze.

It so happens that we have side by side

Gozlin and Eudes agree to say no.

If one of them had said "I'm in favor of letting them through",

They would have passed.

Since the Treaty of Verdun in 843,

Charlemagne's empire crumbled under the weight of internal struggles.

between the kings of West Francia,

Lotharingia and German Francia.

Little by little, the Carolingian aristocracy and great lords

are increasingly asserting their authority.

The safety of Parisians depends on Eudes' will.

the Count of Paris and Gozlin.

With the weakening of Carolingian authority,

it has been decades since the population

got into the habit of turning

towards the leading figures of the regions.

Depending on the location, it could be a count, a duke,

a bishop or an archbishop.

They are calling on the population to take refuge.

within the walls of the Île de la Cité

and close the doors

before the horde of a stunned Siegfried.

The Scandinavians will decide to force

the crossing over this large branch of the Seine,

because it is space that is navigable

towards Burgundy.

They're going to attack him.

from November 26, 885,

to the defensive tower built on the right bank

which protected access to the large bridge for taking the city,

besiege this city

and take control of the Seine.

The two Parisian bridges block the passage to ships.

On the Châtelet side , where the Vikings are engaged,

The Franks can launch crossfire of stones and arrows.

However, they are not reassured.

One aspect of Viking tactics will be psychological.

There are so many ships

that we can't see the water of the Seine.

The fact of seeing

700 boats, or 8km,

It terrifies the Franks.

The Parisians see this army approaching them,

They know that if they oppose the Scandinavians,

This might be a game that's lost before it even begins.

Under the leadership of the Count of Paris,

The Franks' defense is being organized.

They will be hit by projectiles

and especially from Count Eudes

who participates in the resistance.

They use flammable materials

which cause burns to Scandinavians.

Caught in a pincer movement by the two towers,

The longships are stuck.

The warriors on the ground cannot attack the Châtelet tower

protected by its moat.

The bridge is protected by archers.

The Vikings are kept at a distance , and yet,

They don't give up.

On the evening of this first day of battle,

the Vikings think

that they will be able to take it away the next day,

but the Parisians, with Count Eudes,

will enjoy the night

to add another floor to this tower

which closes the large bridge.

During the night,

The Franks will reinforce the tower's defenses.

More than just an additional story, they adorn the tower with hoardings.

vertical defense platforms .

Christine Laborde, a historian, works at Castelnau Castle

and is perfectly familiar with these defense techniques.

The principle of a stronghold

is to be held by a minimum number of people.

The attackers still outnumber the others.

compared to those who defend the stronghold.

Because a fortress is designed in such a way

so that it would be strong thanks to the height of the walls

and to the thickness. Active defense organs will be added.

such as hoardings

which help to protect against vulnerabilities,

the weak points of the fortress, namely the gates.

The hoardings allow for two things.

They allow the archers, the artillerymen of the fortress,

to control the attackers' progress.

If they advance far enough to the foot of the fortifications,

The hoardings allow archers to perform vertical shooting.

to shoot at those who find themselves below.

The hoardings are very effective and easy to implement.

Their weak point,

It's the material they are made of.

The wood can catch fire.

In this month of November 885,

For another 2 days, Vikings and Franks clashed.

The assault is focused on the defending towers.

the bridges and the main weapons of this assault,

These are not siege machines.

These are arrows, slings, and fire.

They are trying to fill the gaps surrounding this defensive tower.

They are trying to set it on fire.

We used a double lockout

by placing a tower at each end of the bridge.

So the Franks had transformed Paris into a safe.

It was impossible for the Vikings to reach the gate

or the top of the walls. It's a resounding failure.

For the moment, Paris is resisting the Scandinavian army.

This first attack, it is undoubtedly,

a first attack which is carried out impulsively.

These Scandinavians were not well prepared for this attack.

will find themselves confronted with rage

Parisian defenders

who do not want

grant them access and resist

with great bravery to the Scandinavians.

It's a failure for them and in the end, they withdraw.

Siegfried will realize that he will never be able to pass

nor go to Burgundy as he had planned.

They are not well armed.

in order to be able to storm this tower.

And that's it.

that he decides to blockade the city of Paris.

Siegfried thought he could take the city in a few hours.

But after 3 days of fighting,

He is forced to change his strategy.

It's a few hundred meters from the Île de la Cité.

opposite the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois

that the army retreat and set up its camp.

The objective,

to spend the winter in order to prepare for a new attack.

The date is November 29, 885.

Paris is now under siege.

The siege is the worst option for the Vikings.

This forces them to remain still.

to build machines, to waste time.

Wasting time, money and energy

for a seat whose outcome is unknown,

It's not a good investment.

Every day, 30,000 men need to be fed and kept busy.

The siege of the city is extremely costly for the Vikings.

Their combat technique, commando-style,

will allow them to hold on.

Viking terror spared no city around Paris.

Their tactic is a tactic

of quick raids. We attack, we loot, we retreat.

Their weapon is to terrorize the population.

They are going to loot a city,

They are going to loot churches.

And they're going to set fire to those churches.

so that we have an image

terrifying of their stay and their passage.

And they know perfectly well how to use this terror.

The Scandinavians' tactical advantage is their mobility.

The ability to strike by surprise,

to withdraw and strike again.

For two months, while maintaining the Paris headquarters,

They take up arms and longships to plunder the region.

Each time, they know perfectly well where the riches are.

They are going to attack Chartres, Evreux.

The entire Paris basin is under attack.

With 40,000 men, they had the resources.

Siegfried and his men are having a wonderful time pillaging the surrounding area.

Yet, they are powerless against the Parisian walls.

To reach the Frankish defenses,

The Vikings lacked siege weapons like the mangonel.

and must change their approach.

The Vikings were excellent craftsmen.

They built boats, bridges...

They were exceptional carpenters.

So the jet machines...

Even if the siege was not part of their culture,

They are familiar with all the siege engines used by the Romans.

They only need to see one to know how to build it.

Renaud Beffeyte specializes in siege warfare.

the art of besieging a city.

These passionate carpenters know the technical details

of these devastating machines.

The advantage of these machines is that there is no plan.

We went into the forests; back then, that was all there was.

And we cut down the trees. We can work with green trees.

These are machines that are quick to make, easy to make.

It is assembled with leather or rope strips.

and they are usable.

These are machines with 5 or 6 carpenters.

It was assembled in one day.

They don't have powerful enough machines.

to break down walls, but they know how to do it

which have a very fast rate of fire.

Roughly one shot per minute, sometimes more.

The ball will add weight which will facilitate disengagement.

That's what the break is. That's this ring .

who, at some point,

between 42 and 45 degrees will slip

and will release the pocket opening.

In principle, we have tensioners.

Minimum 8 men, up to 16 men

who will pull on the ropes

and will put it under tension. You pull.

Again.

Again. There you go, you're all very tense.

Go ahead, shoot.

One two three.

The cannonball was launched to a height of over 30m.

he will arrive at 80m

at a speed of over 100 km/h

to expose what are called the apex defenses.

Everything above the walls. One shot per minute.

It's a hail of bullets falling on the defenders.

They are going to put up ladders.

The fewer defenders there are,

The more likely they are to gain a foothold on the walls.

For two months, the Scandinavians built

catapults, mangonels and battering rams.

Little by little, they managed to adapt to the challenge of this siege.

On January 31st,

At this point, Siegfried believes he is ready.

and he will launch the real attack on the bridges of Paris.

This attack will last 3 days.

They will attack the stone tower, on the one hand,

And on both sides, they will attack

the wooden bridge

and the tip of the Île de la Cité.

Siegfried's military strategy is to disperse

the Frankish resistance and to attack on several fronts.

War cries

The Vikings are now convinced

to have all the assets to defeat the Parisians.

We see them arrive during the battle

siege machines

We see the Scandinavians using rams.

To ensure that these weapons are not reduced to ashes,

The Vikings planned some clever parades.

This protection is made with skins

of freshly skinned oxen,

so that remain moist

to prevent them from catching fire

under fire from the defenders.

The men approach to fill the ditches

with whatever they can get their hands on.

Having no more branches, no more leaves

or herbs to put in ditches,

Siegfried will take the prisoners he has captured.

in the region and will kill them

to be able to fill the gap in the tower.

The rams will never arrive

to cross the ditches that protect the base of the tower.

Siegfried n'arrive pas

to take the city.

After 3 days and 3 nights of hard struggle,

determined not to let it end there,

Siegfried is taking a desperate gamble.

Fire is a preferred technique.

for the assault against a city or fortification.

The bridges and walkways are made of wood, as are the gates.

We're going to use boats, burned-out boats.

Fireships to set fire to boats, to throw them overboard

against the bridge.

He will push the boats towards the bridge

with the hope that the current

will take them under the bridge

and in that way, set the bridge on fire.

And a miracle,

the current is carrying the three ships away

who are going to kill

against the shore. The scheme will fail.

After 5 months of siege,

The Vikings have still not managed to enter the city.

Paris, which resists, is suffocating.

When the siege lasts,

The main fear is food.

Food will run out

and epidemics will develop.

There is no longer enough land to bury the dead

in the city.

The morale of the Parisians is at its lowest in this battle

which pits pagans against the Christian world.

Faith and hope rest on Bishop Gozlin.

For the city of Paris, the figure of authority to whom people turn

In case of difficulty, it's the bishop, it's Gozlin.

The heart of the defense is the archbishop.

However, on April 17, 886,

a tragedy that strikes Parisians

will finally favor the Scandinavians.

Another event is happening , and it's also a difficult blow.

For the city of Paris, the Bishop of Gozlin is going to die.

Eudes, for once, will find himself alone

to lead the defense of the city.

This will decide Eudes

to smuggle out.

Eudes decides to cross enemy lines

to join the emperor

and ask him to send reinforcements.

The Count of Paris succeeded in bringing back in June 886

troops to defend his city.

The emperor and king of the Franks, Charles the Fat,

is still two long months away

before finally arriving at the gates of Paris.

The emperor will eventually arrive in Paris.

will be based on Montmartre.

He is not going to engage in combat

with these Vikings.

He doesn't dare confront the Vikings.

He doesn't want to sacrifice his armies

to defend a city

which was foreign to her until then.

The emperor seems to have nothing of the providential man about him.

that Eudes hoped for.

Charles the Fat has nothing to do with a Charlemagne.

He is a contested, weakened emperor.

He would prefer to pay for the army's departure.

He will give in

on all levels.

He will give them a tribute of 7,000 pounds

and above all he will

to allow them to go to Burgundy as planned.

A decision that is incomprehensible to the people of Paris.

The one who must defend his people

and ensuring its salvation, that is the king.

When the Carolingian kings preferred to pay tribute

To buy the Vikings' departure is very poorly received .

because they are not fulfilling their mission

which is a mission granted to them by God.

during their coronation.

For Count Eudes, this is a major blow.

to see the emperor finally negotiate with the Vikings

and grant them what they themselves have tried to refuse

a whole year.

They never came to the rescue

of the troubled city.

The consequence of this siege,

that is because she definitively discredits

the Carolingians.

The Empire is fracturing,

Then the great Frankish aristocrats asserted their power.

They deposed Emperor Charles the Fat in 887.

He remained king of West Francia until his death.

one year later.

Carolingian power falters

and new ambitions are emerging.

In 888,

an assembly of the kingdom's elite

who had reproached the Carolingians

their inefficiency, their irresponsibility

and who had decided to give the royal crown

to Eudes, precisely,

who had shown his heroism

and his determination during the siege of Paris.

This determination in the face of the Scandinavians

was celebrated in Versailles in 1837,

by Louis-Philippe, King of the French.

Inside the castle, in the South Wing,

He inaugurates a gallery where the battles are depicted.

having left its mark on the history of France

in 33 imposing canvases.

Eudes, Count of Paris,

It is established there as a national figure.

Eudes is depicted on a pristine white horse.

a symbol used during the 1830s

to Versailles to represent the heroes.

He wears the crown that commemorates his coronation.

of the king of West Francia.

He has, in fact,

a kind of light emanating from him

and which reminds

also the light that one could find in the sky

who tells us well

that the sun cast its rays upon the shields

The Parisians were eager for Eudes and his comrades.

to find that star, that sun,

in order to dispel the darkness

who had been

disseminated by the invader.

This family

Count Eudes' family is the one that will give rise to the lineage

to the Capetian dynasty.

The Capetian dynasty

and the Robertians owe a great deal to the Vikings.

That's what allowed them to step into the spotlight.

However, Paris remains a target for raids by men from the north.

In 911, Rollo, the new strongman of the Scandinavians,

sows discord all along the Seine.

To counter him, the King of Francia

is forced to consider a new approach.

There is a deal struck between Rollon

and Carolingian power.

Since the Western power does not have the armed force

to withstand the Vikings in a lasting way,

He will rely on certain Vikings

to defend themselves against others.

Rollon gets what he wanted, a piece of land.

In exchange, he pledges to defend this territory

against the arrival of other raiders.

The device is quite clever, the region that is chosen,

This is the region around Rouen.

To harmonize the mouth of the Seine

For Rollon, it's a way to protect the Seine

and therefore indirectly Paris.

This is about twenty years after the siege of Paris,

It's a way to ensure that it won't happen again.

Rollon will become Robert.

first count of Normandy.

Normandy, land of the Northmen, of the Vikings,

will become the birthplace of William the Conqueror,

future king of England.

Subtitles: VDM