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00:00On a calm summer morning in the year 793 A.D., the Viking Age is born.
00:30A.D., the Viking Age is born.
01:00A.D., the Viking Age is born.
01:07A.D., the Viking Age is born.
01:13A.D., the Viking Age is born.
01:19A.D., the Viking Age is born.
01:32It begins with a raid on the Christian monastery at Lindisfarne, on the northeast coast of England.
01:44The attack is swift, savage, unexpected.
01:50The pagan raiders know full well that monasteries hold great riches.
01:55Great, unprotected riches.
01:59A.D.
02:01The UFC
02:06A.D., the Viking Age is born.
02:09A.D., the Viking Age is born.
02:14A.D.
02:18The new spreads quickly throughout Europe.
02:26Christian churches Lord protect us from the fury of the men of the north it is a
02:34brutal beginning for a remarkable age of adventure and discovery over the next
02:45300 years warriors farmers and explorers from Scandinavia venture out to the
02:51limits of the world they know and beyond
03:02in the end the Vikings reshaped the world
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03:44The Vikings fascinate us, but some beliefs are simply not true.
03:56The Vikings never feared fog.
03:59On the contrary, they could take advantage of it when raiding.
04:03Nor did the Vikings ever wear those horned helmets,
04:06made familiar to us by Wagner's operas, Hollywood, and comic strips.
04:14The men from the north weren't all fearsome seafaring warriors either.
04:19During the Middle Ages, most people were farmers.
04:22The Vikings were no different.
04:24At the time of the raid on Lindisfarne,
04:26they were setting out to find new riches, fame, and especially new land.
04:35In earlier times, the people living in today's Norway, Sweden, and Denmark
04:40were mostly known as traders.
04:44In the 8th century, this changed rapidly
04:46thanks to a great technological advantage,
04:51Viking ships.
04:53Viking ships made the Viking Age.
04:57Viking warriors and raiders sailed aboard revolutionary longships
05:01whose dragon-shaped prowheads inspired terror.
05:07Viking traders, explorers, and settlers
05:09used a different kind of ship called the Gnar.
05:12It was made deeper and wider to carry goods,
05:16livestock, and people across the ocean.
05:25All Viking ships had hulls made of thin, overlapping planks,
05:30nailed together and sealed with tar,
05:33producing strong yet light and flexible vessels.
05:35They were steered by a side rudder hanging on a steer board,
05:42the origin of the nautical term starboard.
05:47The ships were fast and symmetrical
05:50and could reverse their course readily.
05:53The longships had a shallow draft,
05:56meaning they could sail far up rivers
05:58and could be beached easily.
06:01Shipbuilding required a variety of skills.
06:04Large square sails were woven from linen or thin wool,
06:08later waterproofed with fat.
06:11On longships in particular,
06:13oars were used for precise maneuvers
06:15and in windless weather.
06:19Shipbuilding was an art,
06:21and master shipwrights commanded great respect.
06:25Their craftsmanship was legendary.
06:27So much so,
06:28the tales of huge longships carrying 200 warriors
06:32were long thought to be the exaggerations of storytellers.
06:36Then, in 1997,
06:39a longship measuring 120 feet
06:42and capable of carrying 180 men
06:45was unearthed in Roskilde, Denmark.
06:48The giant longships had indeed existed.
06:52These ships give Vikings
06:54a strong superiority at sea,
06:57and thousands of them head out
06:59in search of wealth, land, and glory.
07:04In two centuries,
07:06the Norse, Danes, and Swedes,
07:09or Russe as they are known in the east,
07:11are everywhere in Europe.
07:12They take over large areas of England and Scotland
07:16as well as Ireland,
07:17where they found Dublin.
07:19In France,
07:20the Northmen take over a region of France
07:22that becomes known as Normandy.
07:25Viking raids reach as far south
07:27as the Mediterranean.
07:29To the east,
07:31the Russe use rivers to reach the Middle East,
07:33creating a thousand-mile trading network
07:35and founding their own kingdom, Russia.
07:38Success makes the Vikings even more ambitious.
07:46Large fleets mount major attacks.
07:50The city of Paris
07:51must pay an enormous tribute to be spared.
07:56Soon after,
07:57a great Viking army conquers York
07:59and much of eastern England.
08:01In the east, the Vikings attack Constantinople, today's Istanbul, with fleets of hundreds of ships.
08:11Twice, the great city resists, but the Byzantine emperors are so impressed that they hire Viking warriors as an imperial guard.
08:20Europeans saw the Vikings as heathens assaulting Christianity, but it went beyond that.
08:33It was a collision between cultures with different traditions and religions.
08:43Giants, dwarfs, beasts and gods fill the crowded Viking pantheon.
08:48Warriors who die sword in hand gain a place in Valhalla, a paradise offering an afterlife of fights and feasts.
08:56Here, Viking gods are mortal.
08:59They can be tricked and lose battles.
09:02Still, wisdom reigns supreme among the gods.
09:05Odin, chief deity and a god of war, exchanges an eye for knowledge.
09:11Thor rules over weather and sends thunder and lightning.
09:15Fray gives fertility to nature, men, and their lands.
09:23These gods are still present in our daily lives.
09:26Odin's day is Wednesday.
09:28Thor's day is Thursday.
09:31And Fray's day is Friday.
09:34South and east of their homelands, Vikings come largely as raiders and warriors.
09:40Out west, they become mainly settlers and explorers.
09:46They have the North Atlantic to themselves.
09:49After settling several small islands, they find a huge land where only a handful of Irish monks has ever set foot.
09:58There, the Vikings build a new world.
10:01Legend has it that a man suffered an extremely hard time.
10:31harsh winter on this island, and that he vengefully named it Iceland.
10:37Yet, Vikings from Norway and the British Isles came in droves to this unspoiled country.
10:43A country sculpted by volcanic forces and immense glaciers.
10:48Iceland is a place of otherworldly beauty.
10:51An island of mountains, lava plains, sandy beaches, and deep valleys.
10:57It is a supernatural land.
11:00A land of the gods.
11:03A land of the gods.
12:23In Iceland, the Vikings, farmers above all, find what they treasure most, abundant fertile
12:47land.
12:59By coming to Iceland, many Vikings are also fleeing the rise of self-proclaimed kings
13:05in Norway.
13:17In a new country, settlers can stake out property using the custom of land nam, or land taking.
13:27It allows any free man to claim a lot as large as he can walk around in a day.
13:34In a few decades, all of Iceland is settled in this manner.
13:39I am Leif the Lucky, son of Eric.
13:45I was born on a farm in Iceland.
13:47There, I learned the skills and customs of my people.
13:51I learned to praise virtues like wisdom, courage, and justice, and to honor warriors, poets,
13:58and artists.
14:00Art is ever present in our lives.
14:02It enhances everything from our most prized possessions to the most common objects.
14:11My family and my clan have always been my pride.
14:15Like every Viking, I have strived to excel in diverse skills, warfare, farming, craftsmanship, seafaring.
14:24Like every Viking, I hope to gain the most desirable thing, a favorable reputation.
14:30For only fame is undying for those who win it.
14:37I hoped our poets, the Skulls, would tell our story with well-chosen words, generation after generation.
14:50Vikings put as much value in the telling of stories and the reciting of poetry as in the skills of warriors.
14:58And although they had an alphabet called runes, history and tradition relied essentially on the spoken word.
15:08Fortunately, two centuries after Leif, learned Icelanders wrote down these tales, including Leif's own story.
15:17Together they are known as the Icelandic sagas.
15:20The word saga simply means what was said.
15:23The sagas contain a blend of history, poems, myths, and religious fables.
15:36They tell us how the Vikings lived and what mattered most in their lives.
15:40The thousands of beautifully handwritten pages of the saga manuscripts are a cornerstone of Viking heritage.
15:53The sagas are among the most important documents of the Middle Ages.
16:02They are kept in a secure vault and are under the permanent responsibility of the saga keepers.
16:08One story of interest is recounted in two sagas.
16:18A major turning point came when a few neighboring chieftains, each ruling over several families, gathered in a Viking assembly called a Thing.
16:27This assembly acted as a local tribunal, resolved disputes, and if needed, decided punishment.
16:36In the year 930 AD, 36 chieftains representing all such assemblies in Iceland came together at a site called Thingvellir.
16:51There, they created the All Thing, a national assembly that defined the laws of the land.
16:58Every summer when it met, a law speaker would recite the code from memory, adding any new laws or rulings.
17:05It remains the longest-running national assembly in the world.
17:18Many came freely to Iceland.
17:21Erik, my father, had little choice.
17:25He was banished from Norway for a killing he couldn't defend.
17:28My father was a quick-tempered man who had all the qualities of a leader.
17:35Feared or respected, he was Erik the Red.
17:41In Iceland, Erik marries into a rich family descended from Irish kings and gains in reputation.
17:50But as the sagas tell us, Erik cannot escape his fiery nature.
17:55A dispute with a neighbor turns violent.
17:58People on both sides are killed.
18:00Erik is brought before the assembly.
18:02My father had as many supporters as opponents.
18:12But law prevailed.
18:14Erik the Red was banished from Iceland for three years.
18:26Erik, my father, made the best out of his exile.
18:28He headed for a nun named land out west, a place seen by some sailors who had been blown off course.
18:39Vikings sailed without maps or compasses.
18:43They relied on landmarks, the sun, the stars, the presence of seabirds, and the color of the water.
18:51Despite that, they often got lost.
18:53Sailors sometimes used ravens, mythical messengers of the Norse god Odin.
19:00Within 200 miles of land, a raven released into the sky would head towards it.
19:24Unknown to Erik, his destination was in fact the largest island in the world.
19:30In the world.
19:31In the world.
19:32limit of money.
19:34For three years, Eric explored the island's western coast.
20:04It at the time was warmer than today. Icebergs abounded, but fjords weren't clogged up by ice during winter.
20:19Eighty-five percent of this island is covered by ice up to two miles thick.
20:26The land is harsh, mountainous, and barren.
20:30But Eric discovered areas of fertile land around the southwestern fjords.
20:35Eric did find traces of human occupation, but no one was there to challenge his rule.
20:42Eric did find traces of human occupation, but no one was there to challenge his rule.
20:49To make the place sound appealing to a community of farmers, Eric named the island Greenland.
20:56When his exile ended, Eric returned to Iceland and gathered volunteers to find the island Greenland.
21:03When his exile ended, Eric returned to Iceland and gathered volunteers to settle the land with him.
21:10Hundreds of people filled 25 ships with everything they could carry to start a new life in a place they had never seen.
21:17They had faith in Eric the Red.
21:18They had faith in Eric the Red.
21:19They had faith in Eric the Red.
21:24Our journey did not go quite as well as we had hoped.
21:31Our journey did not go quite as well as we had hoped.
21:37Get back!
21:50Get back!
21:53Fjord!
21:57Let go!
22:02No! No! No!
22:32Only 14 of our ships reached the coast of Greenland. Eleven either turned back or were lost. We did not turn back. My father would not give up the infinite promise of this new land.
23:02During his exile, Eric explored what became known today as Eric's Fjord. There he had found some of the most fertile land in Greenland.
23:30It is from this place called Bratelid, the steep slope, that Eric ruled Greenland. Under his leadership, the westernmost Viking settlement became a thriving colony.
23:48At the same time, Vikings everywhere were becoming Christians. Eric's wife, Chodild, had a chapel built on their farm and raised her children in the new faith. But Eric remained faithful to the Norse gods.
24:06We were still new to Greenland when a man named Bjarni arrived at Bratelid. Sailing from Iceland to Greenland, Bjarni got lost in a fog and drifted far to the west. He had come close to three unknown lands, but never put ashore.
24:34This moment changed my life.
24:40It took fifteen years for my time to come. I had earned the respect of my peers, and I had the temperament to lead. Yet I still had to make a name for myself. A name to surpass even that of...
25:02Eric the Red.
25:12I bought the very ship Bjarni had sailed and gathered volunteers to retrace his journey.
25:18I had dreamed of these new lands since childhood. I could only hope it would be worth the trip.
25:38Leif and his crew first saw a rocky and icy land without trees or meadows.
25:56Unlike Bjarni, Leif was eager to go ashore. He called the land Helluland, or Flat Rocksland.
26:16They next found a land of vast forests touching the sea. This was of great interest for people from a country like Greenland, where a tree was no taller than a man.
26:26They came ashore. They came ashore. Leif named the territory Markland, or Forestland.
26:36For more than a day, Leif and his crew sailed the coast of Markland along extraordinary stretches of white sandy beaches. The Sagas called them the Wonder Beaches.
26:46For more than a day, Leif and his crew sailed the Coast of Markland along extraordinary stretches of white sandy beaches. The Sagas called them the Wonder Beaches.
27:16We reached yet another land. Coming ashore, we saw dew on the grass, collected it in our hands, and drank it. We had never tasted anything as sweet. I decided we would build our camp nearby.
27:36The Sagas tell us that as they explored this region, they found great grassy fields and grape vines with sweet grapes.
27:48There was no snow, and even in winter, the sun stayed high in the sky for many hours a day.
27:55Leif named this new land Vinland. But centuries later, scholars wondered, was there really a Heluland, a Markland, and especially a Vinland?
28:18In the 19th century, many interpretations of the sagas emerged.
28:23Looking for places where wild grapes could grow, scholars first looked towards Cape Cod, then Newport, Rhode Island, and even New York City.
28:33Others later proposed that the Gulf of the St. Lawrence River, or the coasts of Nova Scotia, could have been Vinland.
28:43The Vinland sagas contained conflicting information about who found what and where.
28:48And there was no proof to be found.
28:55Skeptics wondered if the sagas could be trusted at all.
28:59Most people still thought that Christopher Columbus had discovered America, just like all the textbooks said.
29:05One Norwegian couple, explorer Helge Ingstad and archaeologist Ann Steen Ingstad set out to resolve the Vinland mystery.
29:20In 1953, Helge Ingstad first sailed to Erik the Red's Bratelid, where he started thinking that Vinland might be further north than previously thought.
29:31His impressions were reinforced by the Skalholt map.
29:40Drawn up in 1590, it shows Greenland, a Heluland and a Markland, as well as a Vinland promontory, remindful of Newfoundland's great northern peninsula.
29:50In the summer of 1960, Helge Ingstad sailed along the coast of Newfoundland.
30:00In every little fishing village, he asked about old sights and drew only puzzled looks.
30:06But when he got to his last port of call, Lasse Meadows, a fisherman named George Decker mentioned old Indian ruins.
30:13As he saw the traces in the ground, Ingstad was instantly reminded of the Norse sights he had seen in Greenland.
30:26A thousand years had put only six inches of dirt over the foundations of three Viking houses and five small buildings.
30:33Ansteen Ingstad led seven years of archaeological digs at Lasse Meadows.
30:46She found indisputable evidence that this was a Viking settlement.
30:51Carbon testing dated the site to the year 1000, the time when Leif Erikson was said to have traveled to Vinland.
30:58The Sagas had it right.
31:04Leif's itinerary became clear.
31:09Baffin Island was Heluland and Labrador, Markland.
31:13There, Leif Erikson had set foot in America nearly 500 years before Columbus.
31:19Using Lasse Meadows as a gateway, the Vikings would sail across the Gulf of St. Lawrence into a vast region called Ville.
31:27Vinland.
31:32I had high hopes for Vinland and the promise it held as a new Viking settlement.
31:38I spent a year exploring and gathering supplies before returning to Greenland.
31:42But there, within a few years, my father, Erik the Red, died, and I became Chieftain.
31:53I never returned to Vinland.
31:59Still more expeditions follow, including one led by Leif's brother, Thorvald.
32:04Only a few women make the journey to North America, including one known as Goodrid the Well-Traveled.
32:18While in Vinland, Goodrid gives birth to a baby boy named Snorri.
32:24He is the first European born in North America, and the only one for another 500 years.
32:29Over the course of a decade or so, relatives of Leif's family come to Lasse Meadows several times.
32:42Thorvald's expedition reveals an extraordinary fact.
33:00In these new lands, the Vikings are not alone.
33:03And for humankind, this encounter has an exceptional meaning.
33:12Since the dawn of humanity, our human ancestors had been migrating around the Earth.
33:19They crossed Europe and Asia, entered the Americas, and traveled as far as they could.
33:25When the Vikings landed in North America, humankind had come full circle around the planet.
33:35When Vikings and natives looked into each other's eyes, the world became smaller than ever before.
33:47Relations between Vikings and natives eventually turned into conflict.
33:52One saga tells us that Thorvald Eriksson once attacked nine natives as they slept.
34:08Eight were killed, but one escaped.
34:18The natives struck back.
34:19Thorvald's death showed that conflict with the natives was a serious obstacle to a permanent Viking settlement.
34:40Oscar Wilde said that the Vikings discovered America, but had the good sense to lose it again.
34:51He was only half right.
34:53Vikings regularly returned to Labrador to gather supplies, especially lumber.
34:59Evidence shows that they had regular contact with the ancestors of the Inuit people.
35:03Meanwhile, the Viking homelands were now ruled by Christian kings, much like other European countries.
35:16In places like Normandy, England or Russia, the Vikings blended in with local populations, until they could no longer truly be called Vikings.
35:29Ironically, it was a Viking descendant who put an end to the Viking age in Europe.
35:34Duke William of Normandy led an army of French knights, not Viking raiders, to defeat English King Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 A.D.
35:47The event is immortalized in the Bayeux Tapestry, an amazing 230 foot long embroidered narrative.
36:07Viking Greenland lived on for nearly five centuries after the Vinland voyages.
36:12Greenlanders traded precious goods like walrus ivory and falcons, but farming slowly declined as the climate turned colder.
36:22Adapting might have meant living more like the Inuit, but the Greenlanders insisted on living like Europeans.
36:29The last recorded event in Greenland is a wedding at Valsey Church on September 16th, 1408.
36:39A few decades later, the Vikings had disappeared from Greenland.
36:42In places like Iceland, Viking settlements withstood the test of time.
36:59There, something of the Viking culture still survives.
37:03In their untamed, otherworldly island, Icelanders speak a language that the Vikings would have understood.
37:14School children read the saigas as they were written centuries ago.
37:20It is an invaluable connection with their past.
37:23More than their warrior image and wide-ranging conquests, the Vikings' most valuable heritage is found in their love for words, their passion for memory, their sense of beauty, and their powerful drive to explore the world in search of a better place to live and prosper.
37:44The worldwide and sustained fascination for the Vikings endures.
37:51Thousands of companies, products, sports teams, and even space probes bear the name Viking.
37:58It is a badge of honor, a symbol of conquest and exploration.
38:04The best of the Viking spirit sails on.
38:14One, one, two, one, three, one, one.
38:20One, two, one.
38:26Two, one, one, two.
38:34One, one.
38:41Two, one!