- 21/06/2025
Documentary, Real Vikings S01E01 (TV-Show 2016)
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00:00The drama series Vikings tells the story of one man's meteoric rise from simple
00:10farmer to Viking King. Inspired by both legend and history, the show portrays the
00:19brutality and the humanity of the Vikings. But where does myth end and fact begin? This
00:30series is a journey of discovery across eight countries with the world's top Viking
00:37experts and members of the Vikings cast to reveal who the Vikings really were.
00:49In this episode, the story of the Viking invasions of Europe. Why do the Vikings
01:02start to do what they do? The secret of the Viking longboat. They could hit hard and
01:10there wasn't an awful lot that people on land could do to stop them. A country ripe
01:15for plunder and an empire on the brink of collapse. If you wanted an event that had
01:24sort of a similar impact, it would have to be something like 9-11.
01:27Michael Hurst is the creator and writer of the drama Vikings. I've always been
01:47interested in Vikings. Most little boys are interested in Vikings, I think. And I still
01:51remember the day that my father brought home a little Viking model. I started to do a little
01:59research and I found them fascinating. Their culture, their social habits and their pagan
02:07gods. Vikings is based on the legend of Ragnar Lothbrok and his band of raiders in the age of invasion.
02:18I've always said that the stories and the scripts begin with real events, with real people, with real
02:27things. But then I have to join them together. I have to make narrative roads as authentically and
02:33logically as possible. Forgive me if I do not kiss you. But where does fact meet fiction in the story
02:41of the Vikings? And what do we really know about the Viking invasions that transformed Europe
02:49and cemented the legend of the Norsemen?
02:58Actor Clive Standen plays the war chief Rolo, a real-life Viking who was part of the wave of invasions
03:05that touched every corner of Europe and beyond. We imagine them as these, these horned helmet,
03:14devil monsters who came from the sea on their longboats and raided their way through Britain.
03:21We're not trying to say that they didn't do any of these questionable things.
03:25It's more that history was recorded by the invaded as opposed to the invaders, because the Vikings
03:36were very much illiterate. They didn't write anything down.
03:42Neil Price has devoted his career to understanding the real Vikings through archaeology, unraveling
03:49myth from history and drilling down on the forces that pushed them out into the world in the first
03:54place. One of the most fundamental questions of Viking studies is why do the Vikings start to do what
04:04they do? Why does the Viking age, as we conceive it, begin? What is it that pushes these people out
04:10from Scandinavia? Was it the climate? Was the weather and the environmental conditions in
04:16Scandinavia worsening? Was it something to do with the internal power struggles? Were some people pushed
04:22abroad as exiles as exiles? That's certainly a factor in this, but not the only one. One of them is
04:28undoubtedly technological. The development of improved shipping techniques, shipping construction
04:35that quite simply makes these things possible. The construction is different. It's built with a
04:42strong central plank than you think it could handle along sea voyages. That's why I'm building it.
04:52In the drama Vikings, the character of Floki is the master builder of a revolutionary new kind of ship.
04:59I told you I could do it!
05:01And it's a radical new approach to shipbuilding. One that the real Vikings mastered that propelled them out of Scandinavia
05:11and ignited the age of invasion.
05:12The classic Viking ship is a masterpiece of design. It can cross the open sea, but also go up the rivers.
05:23It has a sail that's perfectly adapted to those kinds of circumstances. It's very maneuverable. It's quick to take down.
05:30And this means that the crew can switch from sail power to ore power in a very short space of time. It's a very formidable weapon.
05:40In the late 1950s, near Roskilde, Denmark, archaeologists discovered five amazingly well-preserved Viking ships in the frigid waters of a nearby fjord.
05:51Now, they're the models for a growing fleet of replica ships, built by hand, the old way, and using the very same materials they did in the Viking age.
06:16Today, 60 volunteer sailors are putting the sea stallion through her paces.
06:20To see what can be learned about Viking seamanship.
06:30Archaeologist Ben Raffield specializes in the warrior culture of the Norsemen.
06:34And he's come to Roskilde to see for himself how the longship helped transform the Vikings into the most feared warriors of the Middle Ages.
06:43In my own research, I'm interested in the kind of social aspects of generally of the Vikings, but especially in situations involving warfare and conflict.
06:53And remember, if you don't work, you don't want to sit down.
06:56No!
06:59That's actually the crew coming together as well as the technology just to make sure that you're getting the most out of the ship at any one time.
07:06Yeah, both in terms of speed, but also in terms of safety. It's really important that everybody is working together.
07:16Actually experiencing this, you really get an idea of how spending fairly long amounts of time in a confined space like this, how it really brings together a group of people.
07:25They had to rely upon each other as sailors and as fighters.
07:40All those things helped establish significant social unity that made them somehow even more powerful.
07:50Sail down!
07:55The idea of becoming a strong unit. Once you hit the beach and you want to fight with the enemy, then these things, in my opinion, becomes really vital in staying together, becoming a unit and fighting together.
08:07In the late 790s, small bands of heavily armed raiders crashed down on the coast of England.
08:23The West!
08:24The West!
08:25The West!
08:26The West!
08:27The West!
08:28The West!
08:29The West!
08:30The West!
08:31The West!
08:34When the Vikings arrive in England at the very, and the sort of late seven eighties, early seven nineties, what's happening is they're coming into a world that's completely different from their own.
08:44There are these little monasteries scattered usually in very isolated a out of the way places.
08:48places so here we are in the chancel of modern-day Saint Paul's Church which is
09:01still a working church 1300 years after its foundation and was actually the
09:08first building to be built here when the monks arrived don't be afraid trust in
09:16God and let us pray what would it look like in here I mean the walls would have
09:25been whitewashed and it would have been very highly decorated this is the very
09:33site that a very well-known Viking raid took place 1200 years ago
09:46the Viking Raiders would have entered the church perhaps to find the cowering monks
10:03terrified for their lives
10:14it's these things that the Viking Raiders would have wanted to get their hands on
10:18of course they weren't Christian so they weren't being respectful to these very
10:24sacred relics to the Anglo-Saxons so they would have pillaged the place and took
10:30whatever they could get their hands on and to them it's just a complete culture
10:36clash it's extraordinary that they turn up somewhere where there is a huge amount
10:41of movable wealth the idea that these non-Christians were coming and so easily
10:49destroying and taking things that were so sacred to the Anglo-Saxons that there
10:55would have been perhaps some fear and also disbelief that this was actually taking place
11:00during the Viking raids in the late 8th century England is slowly climbing out of the dark ages
11:21fragmented and vulnerable
11:27in northern England just outside modern-day Newcastle beads world is a reconstructed Anglo-Saxon village
11:50the transports visitors back to the medieval era the buildings on the farm are based on excavated
11:58sites from sites throughout Northumberland and they've all been reconstructed using Anglo-Saxon tools
12:07Anglo-Saxon techniques what's going on in Anglo-Saxon England you know and the eve of the Viking Age
12:14England didn't exist you know Britain was broken up into a number of different kingdoms all of which
12:22had their own rulers and the borders were constantly changing so you know these weren't actually often
12:29friends there was a fair amount of conflict going on between them at times that's right there's
12:36certainly no centralized force within Britain at this time in the drama series and in the real history
12:47of Anglo-Saxon Britain at the beginning of the ninth century expert is one of seven kings vying for
12:53control of England even before there was an England the character of King Egbert in the drama series is the
13:03the viewers kind of point of contact to Anglo-Saxon England its politics its culture and many of the
13:10things that are depicted in in his court are absolutely accurate reflections of the Anglo-Saxon
13:18kingdoms and how they related to each other and to their past
13:22Egbert was to be king of England and he really plants the seed of this idea that there will be a
13:33country called England and it will have a ruling family and that ruling family will pass power down
13:39from generation to generation that's completely new idea the different Anglo-Saxon kingdoms all have
13:49their own agendas that are meshing together sometimes they conflict sometimes they run in parallel
13:55if you and I join together not only against the Northmen but also against Mercia we should surely
14:03overcome it just drink to our alliance Egbert enjoys power he enjoys using power for larger and better ends
14:13he believes he believes I'm sure this is true that if you could unite the English kingdoms under one
14:20authority England would be better able to defend itself against Vikings
14:25inside the British library in London historian Claire Downham has uncovered remarkable 1200 year old
14:41documents laying out the plans for the earliest Anglo-Saxon resistance to the Vikings tell me about
14:47what we have here in front of us okay so this is one of a series of charters which come from
14:53Christchurch Canterbury so what we have here is a grant of land which dates the year 811 it's also
15:01referring to the fortification of strongholds and also and the building of bridges against the pagans and
15:09this term Contra Paganos here is the interesting bit because they are clearly being identified as the
15:15main threat to the security of this land holding and the kind of activities there is also indicative of
15:22a level of military organization in the face of Viking attacks we tend to have a this view of the early part
15:30of the Viking ages you know this Vikings coming over and ransacking targets and actually anglo-saxons
15:35not having much of a response but they should be able to actually defend themselves and even mount
15:41offensives against these incoming forces yeah exactly it's showing coordinated organized defense
15:47just as the anglo-saxons switch tactics so to do the Vikings they now set their sights on the riches of
15:58mainland Europe Vikings are very practical Raiders they go for at least resistance if the fighting is too
16:09hard if the enemy is too well-prepared they just cross the channel they go to the other side
16:17for the Vikings the Frankish Empire represents a kind of cornucopia of choice
16:24it's a tremendously rich place and a tremendously tempting target in in every way
16:36the Vikings are about to unleash hell on Frankia the superpower of the Middle Ages
16:47when we think of the Viking raids and how they've begun there's there's no sense in which the Vikings
17:04are heading out into an unknown world they know exactly what's out there and really their attention
17:10is principally south into the Frankish Empire one of the great superpowers of the time with its markets
17:17its towns so there's really an embarrassment of riches for them to choose from today the city of
17:25Aachen is in western Germany but in the 8th and 9th centuries it was the site of one of the greatest
17:30courts in the ascendant Frankish Empire and no star burned more brightly than the mighty Charlemagne who
17:38ruled the Franks from the year 800 until his death in 814 Charlemagne creates around him Renaissance in
17:50art in literature he creates a really a glittering court a court that by by the standards of summer like
17:56Ecbert arriving from Wessex is just awe-inspiring there are buildings that are made of stone there are
18:03palaces that are 500 meters wide we're about to walk into the presence of Charlemagne himself we are
18:12perhaps the most famous image of Charlemagne from the Middle Ages piece of his skull in there
18:19the year is 814 and finally Charlemagne is dead we're standing here in front of his his coffin
18:27a reused Roman sarcophagus fit for an emperor and things really start to go wrong
18:35after Charlemagne's death internal rivalries soon plunge Francia into a state of civil war
18:44in true Viking fashion Francia's crisis becomes the Norseman's opportunity
18:51once again they prepare to raid
18:56one of the things that makes the Frankish Empire intensely vulnerable is water if you look at the
19:05main centers of Frankish power they're situated on rivers
19:09for the Vikings they're nothing less the motorways they take them quickly directly to the heart of
19:20things after Charlemagne's death the Vikings sack Arcan Cathedral
19:30these doors are actually the doors that have stood there since Charlemagne's time these are 1200
19:43year old doors 1200 years old and 1200 years old it's quite extraordinary to stand here in modern
19:49day Arcan and see exactly what the Vikings would have seen took what they could that was the thing
19:57you're battling a Viking you took your plunder you took you look you took about home but these things
20:00well they wouldn't fit in your hand lockers with that no and you would just think your boat with
20:04one of these do you think you certainly wouldn't fit two of them on a like a Viking longship and
20:09that's probably why they're still here today because they're far too big to take away with you
20:16if you were a Scandinavian who came here the idea was it will blow your socks off you'd be so impressed
20:23the other jewel in the crown of Frankish cities is Paris with the nobility fighting amongst themselves
20:34for control it had never been more vulnerable or more attractive to the restless Viking raiders
20:40tell me about Paris it was amazing I have never in my whole life seen anything like it it was like a
20:50dream and churches such churches in the third season of the drama series this is what Ragnar starts
20:57to plug into he he hears about Paris this this fabled city in in his terms perhaps the ultimate target
21:05it's a draw I've made up my mind and this year we shall attack Paris Paris
21:15historical records from the time describe Ragnar as a leader of the siege for this for Ragnar to
21:25hear that there are such places which are almost beyond imagining of course stimulates him and interest
21:31the Viking attacks on the Franks on the empire provide an opportunity for material gain for loot and wealth but there are other
21:46things just as important to the Vikings and that is the opportunity to increase their status to increase their
21:53fame perhaps almost as a kind of religious act there is and the Viking psyche this belief that your fate
22:04has been decided at your birth all you can do is hope that the gods have a heroic death in battle planned for
22:13you because a best Viking death is to die in battle that way you go to Valhalla so Paris is a good place to go if
22:21you fancy going to Valhalla
22:23Paris in the year 845 the splendors of the royal court of King Charles are legendary for Viking raiders on a constant prowl for fresh plunder it's an irresistible urge
22:52not only is Paris a very valuable target to attack it is a famous target to attack it speaks volumes so if
23:04you can go there and attack them there it does say I have a free hand I can do what I like wherever I like
23:11sailing south by southeast we come upon the mouth of the sea the gateway to Paris here is the entrance
23:21the entrance to paradise
23:25starting as early as 810 Viking raiders begin terrorizing the northern coast of Francia
23:37it's the beginning of a century of invasions deep into the heart of continental Europe
23:45in the drama series Ragnar's attack on Paris is very much the Vikings first contact with the Empire but of necessity this is very much a compression for dramatic reasons of what is actually decades of escalating Viking attacks
24:06in Wazelle in northern France archaeological evidence of Viking camps have been found along the Seine River
24:14actor Clive Standen who plays Rollo in the drama series has come to Rouen to see where real Vikings lived and fought
24:24Nicola could you talk us through a little bit of what we see on the table so I've got here a little selection
24:30of Viking items from our collections so first of all this sword here has been excavated in Normandy during the Latin
24:39pantry from Wazelle which was a very famous and important winter camp for the Viking on the Seine River and if you look closer to the
24:48to the nub you can see this semi-circular shape and it's a typical Viking shape for a sword
24:54it's amazing actually we have to have them out instead
24:56do you want to handle this sword?
24:58we can be cautious about that but
25:00okay so just put one in here now
25:02wow
25:03right
25:04up
25:05now this is something
25:06you don't get to do every day
25:08so it's very light
25:09it is light but it must be just because it's corroded so much as well
25:12yep
25:13continuing their relentless move upriver from their camps on the Seine the Vikings seem unstoppable
25:27more than a thousand years after the last Viking longships ravaged the Seine
25:32echoes of the terror that was the Norseman can still be felt
25:36archaeologist Gareth Williams is an expert on Viking battle strategies
25:43one of the things that's hard to imagine today is just how terrifying it would be to see an entire fleet coming up the river
25:53that dragon head prowl comes around the corner and then another and then another and then another
26:03we hear accounts of hundreds of ships in a fleet able to divert quickly to either bank attack to either side seizing the opportunity
26:16lying between the Vikings and Paris is the Abbey of Saint-Denis
26:21one of the holiest sites in all of Francia
26:24this is the resting place of the Frankish kings
26:35it's also the keeping place of holy relics
26:38the Frankish emperor is using this as his command center
26:41this is where he's gathering his troops outside Paris in advance of the Viking attack
26:47when Ragnar attacks in Mercia in the series that's based entirely on an account of the Vikings attacking on the Seine
27:01where Charles rather foolishly puts half his army on one side of the river and half on the other
27:05the battle that takes place here is at that time the greatest confrontation that has been between the Franks and the Vikings
27:15by this stage we're told 120 ships sailing up the Seine that could easily be a force of 5,000 men
27:30and similar numbers if not greater on the Frankish side
27:33so it's a real battle
27:37concentrate the full attack on the right bank
27:40on steel board
27:42there was two armies on opposite banks of the river and we have Ragnar just deciding that well obviously I'll go and attack this small army
27:53and not only do I stand a better chance of beating them but the army on the other side will see me do it
27:58the Franks expected that when there was a battle you lined up and you fought each other that was the sort of decent thing to do
28:12the Vikings didn't do that
28:17they capture 111 people and they hang them on an island in the middle of the Seine in front of the other army
28:23the other army at this point not surprisingly runs away
28:29they come across with the heads hanging from their ships
28:32and fear is just a good weapon as a sword and Vikings were very happy to use that whenever they could
28:37if you wanted an event that had sort of a similar impact to the Vikings attacking Paris in the modern world
28:47it would have to be something like 9-11 where you have a group of people who are prepared to do something that is simply unthinkable
28:55that don't play by your rules
28:56both sides lose many people but Charles is left in possession of Saint-Denis
29:05but by taking his stand there he had of course left Paris wide open
29:12with the collapse of the Franks at Saint-Denis the way to Paris is clear
29:16the siege of Paris is about to begin
29:25we're floating in the middle of the Seine
29:39if we were the Vikings we would have come down the coast all the way following the coastline of Europe
29:47down from Scandinavia and into the mouth of the river here
29:50and we know that by the time they got all the way here to the outskirts of Paris
29:56the Vikings had been fighting a number of engagements as they proceeded up the river
30:00that's right they had to fight their way past a number of towns and through hostile countryside all the way
30:15the year is 845 as the Viking fleet masses at the walls of Paris
30:19the city was defended by enormous Roman walls none of which unfortunately survive today and that's why we're here in Le Mans precisely because the walls of this city do survive and they give us just about the best chance we've got of seeing what Paris's defences would have looked like
30:40if we think of this as Paris what we're looking at is the Seine out here the ships right up against the base of the wall which we know came down to the water
30:59these really are very impressive fortifications very high very thick solid a very daunting obstacle to any Viking force attacking
31:10they have to get up the wall presumably with scaling ladders or some other device but certainly ladders all the while people are raining all kinds of stuff down on them from the parapet
31:35archery is a very important part of these sieges isn't it yes very much so
31:40and with towers like this every 50 feet or so those enable to shoot across the gaps so from here you can really only attack directly downwards but from the towers you've got crossfire as well
31:57if they manage to get up the ladder which is a difficult enough undertaking sooner or later they're going to appear there on the edge and facing them are a number of very angry Franks who want to prevent that and this is where all the other close quarter weapons come into play
32:16a very very bloody affair indeed
32:25outnumbered and overwhelmed the Frankish army is crushed the city plundered
32:35but it doesn't end there 40 years later the Vikings are back on the Seine and this time at least one historic record puts Rollo among the leaders
32:56the wonderful thing about the 885 siege of Paris is we have a really an unusually good account of it written by a monk called abo conius who lived just outside the city and he's present he's there and he records in detail what happens so we did take some elements of this fantastic account
33:18after the disastrous siege of 845 the Franks have built a series of defensive bridges designed to stop the Vikings
33:31you look at a bridge like this and a modern bridge it's designed to allow boats to come underneath it easily that's exactly what these bridges were not designed to do they'd be much lower
33:44they might even have blockages across to stop anything getting under at all and if you did come under you'd come underneath you don't need trained soldiers to drop rocks onto a wooden boat
33:57so in 885 the focus of the campaign is on the bridges to stop the Viking fleet from passing Paris and continuing on up the river
34:14yes well fire would have been an important weapon in siege at that time
34:18although the walls were stone most of the buildings inside would have been timber the bridges would have been largely timber
34:32this time the city holds fast it holds strong despite being massively outnumbered
34:38at the end they simply fight themselves to a standstill
34:41and the rather anticlimactic end of the siege is that the Franks simply pay the Vikings to go away so both sides in a way get what they want the the Franks have their city intact the Vikings have their reward
34:56but as the drama series shows not all the Vikings go away historic records reveal that Rollo continues raiding for more than 20 years
35:16when we get to Rollo get a more sophisticated Viking than the just I'm gonna sack your monastery and I'm gonna threaten you until you pay me to go away
35:24he's someone who wants more
35:41the drama series character of Rollo is one of the most famous Vikings of history absolutely a real person
35:49Rollo is his English name comes from the French Rollo
35:54this is a man who has been on decades of Viking raids
36:04the biggest artistic license we took with the TV show Vikings is to make Ragnar and Rollo brothers in the show
36:10because they they weren't related in any way and actually lived many decades apart
36:13but they're two fantastic characters in Viking history and what better way than to to blend the stories in one TV show than to make them siblings
36:23we are brothers
36:25you and I will always be equal
36:30Rollo could have just been a jealous brother
36:34my brother
36:35and I remember saying to Clive early in the process I said you'll never guess that in the end you're probably the most successful of them all
36:48desperate to stop the Vikings the Frankish King offers Rollo a deal in the year 9-11
36:53you will be offered a vast area of land in the northern part of Francia
36:59the Emperor will also make you a Duke the highest honor he can bestow
37:03you will be very rich and you will be very important
37:06what must I do in the return?
37:09Neil Price and Gareth Williams have arrived at the Auguste French National Archives to see what records remain of the Frankish King's attempt to buy peace with Rollo
37:26so what we have here is one of the very early documentary records of the granting of land to Vikings in France
37:39yes
37:43yes it's a charter of the Frankish King Charles the Simple
37:48it's from 9-18
37:52there's Rollo himself
37:55together with his companion Northmen
37:59for the defence of the kingdom
38:01and that's really the point of this settlement
38:04it's effectively setting a thief to catch a thief
38:06putting Vikings at the mouth of the Seine
38:09to stop other Vikings coming up the river
38:14that grant of land is made at the mouth of the Seine
38:17because that is the point of access ultimately to Paris
38:20if we settle Vikings there
38:22they can stop other Vikings from getting into the river
38:25eleven hundred years after it was signed
38:30this extraordinary document is the only remaining record of Rollo agreeing to a settlement
38:35what we're seeing is the essence of Rollo's transformation actually from
38:41from a pagan Viking raider to what he would later become
38:45in the name of the Father
38:49and of the Son
38:51and of the Holy Spirit
38:53shortly after the one-time Viking warlord becomes a Christian convert
38:57he gets land
39:03he gets power
39:04he gets status
39:06and above all he minimizes the risk
39:08he gets all of these things without fighting anymore
39:11Rollo would go on to rule a large part of northern France for close to 20 years
39:17today that region is known as Normandy or the land of the Norsemen
39:25Rollo, c'est vos salut
39:28j'avous salut
39:31this is why we've come to Rollo Cathedral
39:42this is the heart of Normandy
39:44it's the place where Rollo was baptized
39:47and here he is, his burial place
39:50we have every reason to believe that his bones really are in here
39:54it's an incredible moment for me
39:56because I remember coming here when I was about 11 years old on a school trip
40:00and I would have had no idea that, you know, this would have been full circle
40:06and I'd be playing this character
40:09this also marks a different kind of full circle for Rollo
40:13at the end of his life he's a Christian ruler of a Christian duchy
40:19and buried here in this magnificent cathedral
40:23I never forgive myself if I didn't touch him
40:26incredible
40:30the Viking invasions don't end with the death of the mighty Rollo
40:40for the next 150 years
40:44the Vikings carve a path of conquest and plunder across Europe
40:48and their legacy will last much longer
40:51much longer
40:54in the next century
40:55in the next century Rollo's descendant
40:57William the Conqueror
40:59will become the King of England
41:01I just am very proud of the fact that this is as authentic as we can make it
41:13it's done in the belief that the Vikings were and are incredibly interesting
41:21we are
41:31we are
41:33we are
41:34we are
41:42we are
41:44we are
41:46다
41:47we are
41:49atong
41:51we are
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