When berserker Vikings ran amok…
The original Hell’s Angels of the Far North! This very good 5-part BBC documentary tells the story of the Vikings, especially with respect to the people of the British Isles – from the Picts in the Scottish islands of Shetland and the Orkneys to Southern England, Wales and Ireland. Using genetic testing, we see how much Norse blood is still evident where the Vikings once settled. Hints also come from the English language itself as well as place names scattered all over north eastern England (throughout the ‘Danelaw’).
I’m working my way through this.
Good lord.
Comment on February 1, 2013 @ 6:14 pm
There was more to these people than a battle-ax and a bad attitude… though there was plenty of that.
It’s not till after around 870 and the founding of Iceland that we begin to see what sort of folks they were – because they were great storytellers – and they produced what came to be called the ‘Sagas’.
Although I don’t understand Old Norse, it somehow doesn’t sound all that ‘alien’ – in fact it sounds rather a lot like ‘Anglo-Saxon’… Which shouldn’t be too big a surprise since the Angles and Saxons came from the south of what is now Denmark – So ‘Old Norse’ and ‘Old English’ (aka ‘Anglo-Saxon’) were ‘kissing cousin’ languages… Only in Iceland is the Viking language still spoken… more or less.
Anyway, this video explains something about the Icelandic Viking Sagas:
Comment on February 2, 2013 @ 12:45 am