Vikings: The Incredible Origins Of Europe's Bloodthirsty Pirates | The Vikings | Absolute History

They were bloodthirsty Scandinavian warriors and fine craftsmen. They opened trade routes, founded cities and captured ancient hubs. The Saxons of England feared them but mocked their careful grooming habits. In short, they were pirates with style. This series follows the Vikings everywhere they went, revealing new discoveries that turn Viking history on its head. We tell their incredible story from eye-witness accounts and the foremost experts on Viking warfare and way of life.
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[@fredriks5090]

Big respect for showing local pictures instead of regurgitated images of horned vikings.

[@rhzyo]

Norse magic & Beliefs is one of the best channels to find out true "Viking" history

[@Halli50]

Karmöy rings a bell! I live in Ísafjörður in the West Fjords of Iceland. Following WW2, a Norwegian named Alf Överby married a woman from Ísafjörður and made it his home - and he, probably due to his knowledge of the fruits of the sea in his native fjords, started a new industry in our part of Iceland, catching and processing "Kampalampi" ("rækja" in Icelandic, "reker" in Norwegian, shrimp in English). This became a thriving industry in our part of Iceland. When I was still a teenager (I'm now 71), Överby went down with his ship (I believe in a sudden storm) - and his boat was famously named "Karmöy", presumably named after the place he came from. In fact, of all the Norwegian dialects I believe I (and my countrymen) use the oldest and least-changed Norwegian dialect of all: Icelandic!

[@annagroen2491]

This is amazing. Love the viking route we are on now! One of the best channels of KZbin.

[@maxwellt91]

The Kensington runestone was proven to be a fake years ago. Get your head out of the conspiracy clouds

[@kstreet7438]

@N. Fairchild uh no.

[@darthanakin3334]

@N. Fairchild Vikings had reached the Americas before they were known as such, but they did not stay here. They kinda just went, "This isn't where we're supposed to be..." then they just left. As far as I recall, they didn't make any settlements or permanent villages. Probably some camps, but not much more. The areas were to the west of Greenland and really not much deviance from there.

[@motordude67]

@@darthanakin3334 they stayed for a century or more, according to some scholars. L'anse aux Meadows is well known: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Anse_aux_Meadows

[@darthanakin3334]

@@motordude67 didn't know that! That's cool!

[@gardenislandbradda]

I love everything Vikings.

[@wingy200]

27:27 Odin and his brother, Thor? I thought Thor was son of Odin.

[@adversary0932]

yea they get some stuff quite wrong here, bad doc.

[@maud3444]

It's always a good indication when you start watching a docu on KZbin and of 48k viewers there are only 36 dislikes. I reckon those were just Irish monks

[@adversary0932]

No its those that know there history. They leave things out so they arent called racists. Never trust anything put out by mainstream academics and tv docs. Also it 1.5k likes 56 dislikes. Not usre where you get your numbers from.

[@mykel808]

@@adversary0932 oh thats horse shit people will dislike over dumbass shit like not liking the intro music, or the narrators voice being annoying, or simply getting mad it exists in their recommended because they looked up norweigan rap

[@dylanrus8117]

Or super religious people

[@garychynne1377]

this was a very honest view of the times of our ancestors. thank yew

[@terminallyaverage6758]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

[@Coyote1.618]

39:00 it was probably violent..One doesn't carry a battle axe around for the heck of it..

[@markhirstwood4190]

Sure they did because axes (small or large) were used on the farms then only for fighting when needed. Swords were too expensive for most so axes, spears and sax knives were common as they served more than one purpose.

[@shailonnoelle7175]

Drunk viking (burp) does bone art Narrator: it means great respect for the dead

[@MoniqueAO888]

Well, it seems that at least a quart or third of great britan had been occupied by scandinavians, which can nowadays be recognized by endings of community-names like -thorpe or -by (which means village). Also family-names ending by "son" (like Johnson) give a hint to scandinavian heritage.

[@larseriknyman4101]

O

[@catmoon2009]

it so good and interesting thank you !!!

[@carleryk]

Estonia isn't "far across the Sea" it's relatively near instead, and we also should remember that sea was the quickest way of transportation back then. Also, the Estonian island of Saaremaa has Swedish name Ösel which is very similar name to the name of Swedish island of Öland. Both mean roughly 'island land' in English. Western and Northern Estonia had Scandinavian and Finnic mixed population already before the Viking Age.

[@aintrestforthewicked]

I just finished playing AC: Valhalla. This viking series is well met.

[@thedude8046]

Yes yes, everything is a videogame.

[@UndeadPanda]

Aeeee same lol perfect timing

[@mohdsajad5247]

same here dude....

[@shawnsmith2383]

Is Valhalla worth buying?

[@aintrestforthewicked]

@@shawnsmith2383 absolutely

[@Minnastina]

You forgot to include the Finnish people too. Alth9ugh back then, Finland didn't exist, coz it was all part of Sweden!

[@TheKingsofFrance]

Awesome ! I literally know nothing about this topic !

[@TheKingsofFrance]

@N. Fairchild very cool !

[@holliewilson5521]

Me either! High five!

[@TheKingsofFrance]

@@holliewilson5521 high fives you !

[@guzelataroach4450]

@slush thas pseodo history

[@georgiafan775]

"Oden and his brother Thor", really? Am I missing something or what? 27:27

[@jannes3290]

The narration in this documentary is a bit off at times, it seems.

[@EgoShredder]

Anyone wanting a more accurate and honest account of European history, should check out the work of scholar and author Carolyn Emerick. She is constantly having to counter the BS and lies put out in the media about our history every week.

[@explodingmonad4535]

I like this. It is really good, but the script is full of small factual errors. Fenrir was not a god for example he, was Loki's son and instrumental in Ragnarök. And hnefa does not mean king, it means hand! Modern cognates in Danish næve, Swedish näve, Icelandic hnefa for example. Maybe the game just meant "handboard". And lots of other small errors. This is a real good effort but you need to fact check.

[@vashposh]

thank you for sharing that!

[@adversary0932]

If it has that many errors it wouldnt be classified as good by any sane person.

[@Smaimn]

As a note to people pointing out issues, Absolute History doesn't really have much to do with the content in this video, it was released in 2015 by a different studio and the license was acquired by the company behind this channel so they can rehost it. Even if they fact check it the best they could do is throw some overlay up or layer audio overtop to try and correct things, assuming the license allows that. Also they are posting three of these videos a week, I'm not sure how big the team behind this is but going over all of that is a pretty serious ask on top of whatever other duties they must have.

[@adversary0932]

its ok to point out the wrong and inconsistent no matter who puts this up on youtube.

[@CHESME11]

I'm here due to AC Valhalla

[@chris.asi_romeo]

Love watching documentaries like this

[@MiracleFound]

We thought that our one line was German based on the last name and records found in Germany of our great-great grandparents. We (two second cousins, my mother, myself and a 3rd cousin) did DNA through 4 different companies (three of us did 2 different companies each with crossover). We didn't show up with the expected German ancestry, but rather Scandinavian ancestry. Based on what we knew, my mother should have been a quarter German because her grandmother from that line was supposedly 100% German. She tested as 99.7% Scandinavian through 2 different companies. My 2nd cousin should have been almost 100% German (his mother tested as 99.4% German), but turned up as 49.4% Scandinavian from two different companies. I tested almost 50/50 German and Scandinavian when I expected 75% German and 25% Scandinavian. It is interesting because it was across the board with all of us that we had that extra 25% Scandinavian. It is a mystery.

[@briananderson2219]

Scandinavian history is not lost it clearly is Proto Indo Aryan. The creation myth is one clear point of evidence to my point

[@reds1325]

Its interesting that they burned them in their ship, and also made a ship shaped silhouette of rocks. Very neat.

[@OverlordViciousKiwi]

Odin and His.... Brother... Thor...

[@SecretSquirrelFun]

Please, could someone, anyone that teaches this particular subject explain the errors in this documentary because I’m confused. Even just an accuracy score as a percentage.

[@jannes3290]

I think it's okay, there are a few mistakes and inaccuracies in the narration though.

[@laara1426]

I totally agree . It is clear Absolute History cuts corners, spreads misinformation , contributes to gross generalizations and the dumbing down of America.

[@ikkedansk]

you speak of vikings, yet you show kievan rus with spiked helmets

[@ikkedansk]

@go away probably, but the vikings are usually only considered to be the scandinavians

[@j.p.foleyjr.6333]

We will NOT STAND FOR THIS!!! HE GETS....The Blood eagle!!!!!! No ?? To harsh??? To soon ??? Ok well...just cut off his arm or something ....shit man....

[@tweezerjam]

Having your arm cut off four separate times trying to defend yourself is a brutal way to go. Like stop it already. 😂

[@deetalashoma3514]

We Hopi eminate the Vikings by way of our hair style. That "dutch boy" cut, but the hair in back is long. We knew of the Vikings even before C. Columbus got lost at sea and "discovered" America as it's called now.

[@TVTransmo]

25:45 Odin had two ravens not one: Huginn and Muninn

[@johnbrowne3950]

He's not real... so.

[@adversary0932]

@@johnbrowne3950 Who says? You? Can you prove he wasn't a real person, cause some who have studied the subject think he might have been a leader way back when. Even if he was proved to be not real, its an important part of a culture so have respect.

[@marvwatkins7029]

No bows and arrows?

[@user-ul7pd7vf1l]

dat waren een paar toffe jongens kan je leuk mee op stap gaan

[@umutisk5480]

DARK skinned mongolian princess from Siberia !!!!? I wonder if she had seen a Mongolian before 🙄

[@adversary0932]

Its to be inclusive you know the commie bs they inject everywhere now.

[@davidchisenhall5001]

Dr, Mait Vea 😍

[@michaelwilton2981]

Yeah equality

[@markhirstwood4190]

782 CE was the Verden massacre. 789 was the first official Viking attack on Dorset, southwest England, by ships from Hordaland, Norway, that had likely gone over to the Shetlands before coming down the west side of England to hit, retreat, re-evaluate then later, Lindisfarne, then Jarrow and so on. The Scandinavians were showing the Roman Catholics, first, remember Rome's greatest defeat in the Teutoberg Forest much earlier, and secondly, don't think you can kill off Saxons for refusing your religion without blowback, and third, don't think you can push into Denmark, Sweden and Norway to do more of the same, and fourth, that they would use anything of value from the churches in England, to fund more war bands, build more ships and liberate their Anglian cousins from what they viewed as having weakened them in just a couple centures, i.e., living as Catholics. This snowball effect allowed the Great Heathen Army to settle and stay, mainly in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Leicestershire, where their descendants still live to this day. It's uncanny, in these parts of England you meet virtual clones of people from Norway and Denmark, same eyes, height, voices, preferences in styles and tastes, movement and gait and so on. They can't tell a first wave Angle apart from a later wave Danish Viking by DNA.

[@veronicalogotheti1162]

Those stones are older

[@emmaemma9211]

36:21

[@hudsontoo1212]

SKÖLL

[@warsameadam5572]

Ö means Island in Swedish language.

[@jannes3290]

Same with øy in Norwegian.

[@atlet1]

The viking wars can be seen as a defence war. Charlemagne and his roman catholic church was a serious threat to Scandinavia. He waged a brutal war on northern Germany at the border of Denmark, with lots of refugees in Denmark. A big defence wall had to be built to defend Denmark. Charlemagne even started a trade war against Scandinavia, so of course Scandinavians know the may be next and wanted their young men to join the war and defend them. To plunder and take slaves was part of a war at that time. No different from what the catholic church did then and even later, but the catholics was more cruel. By the way, Scandinavia had to defend itself against the Roman catholic church once more during the 15th century. Scandinavia have had no problem with orthodox Christianity. The wars between Russia ans Sweden was pure Russian expansionism.

[@Vladklx]

Ha ha funny history revisionist.. In the end Vikings got their ass whooped ,they all converted and western civilization prevailed not ur dumb tribal paganism

[@atlet1]

@@Vladklx false! But the vikings was converted to roman catholicism and suffered ard during the little ice age. Starvation and pandemic almost got the Nordic people living in Scandinavia extinct. Before that they ware unstoppable, due to superiour technology, tactics and organisation. After recovery they left the antichristian Roman church and defended the faith in Christ with superiour technology, tactics and organisation. During the viking age they ockupied a big part of Europe, including the Brittish islands and parts of todays France and Italy. The Brittish empire was based on former vikings. They even discovered America. So they had a worldwide impact on humanity.

[@Vladklx]

@@atlet1 British empire formed after king Alfred and his successors kicked out every single viking one off the island.. Vikings put England under dark ages.. Regarding France Normans re Catholis and were forefront even in Crusades..

[@veronicalogotheti1162]

The greeks wrote about Scandinavians They were going for the amber

[@fokkenhotz1]

obviously how Viks got their wild reputation, some of them were crazy biches, Right on!

[@veronicalogotheti1162]

And children

[@veronicalogotheti1162]

In europe

[@veronicalogotheti1162]

Old Norse is their language

[@georgikirov6560]

Correction: The vikings are not the last barbarians. The last barbarians are the baltic tribes. At least if we are talking about Western Europe.

[@OverlordViciousKiwi]

Maori were still Barbaric 400 years ago, we've come a long way into the Modern Age.

[@tessjuel]

The last barbarians haven't been born yet and won't be for many centuries.

[@georgikirov6560]

What from "at least if we are talking about Western Europe" was not clear enough

[@adversary0932]

@@georgikirov6560 ik idiots lmao. They probably liked this video too.

[@traver1965]

I kinda like this video but 90% is based on speculations. As of today we know little about the vikings. Graves has been found. Ships has been found but no one really knows the life of a viking today. So this video is constructed to get viewers and not new knowledge on the vikings

[@traver1965]

You are not explaning why Charles Allgemeine stopped his conquest against the Danes. Instead you jump to the Norwegians who has not a viking history except from fleeing and discovering (maybe) Iceland. Norwegians lived in small "fjords" and they did not have the possibilities to build Kingdoms like Sweden and Denmark. But they did try to invade England once and they failed. The fairytales surrounding Norway is build on the TV series "Vikings". In fact Norway has never really contributed to Vikings. They do have been a vasal state of Denmark and Sweden for years

[@veronicalogotheti1162]

They had small boats for rivers before and we're going around stealing

[@veronicalogotheti1162]

They were cannibals also

[@veronicalogotheti1162]

Actually vikings were very late Got sails in 800 this era

[@donitaforrest9064]

Just as with stonehenge you've got it wrong. Those are not grave site markers, they are the boat building scaffolding of the most ancient mariners, who put up these sites in forests up hill from the waters edge, for launching. The forests & woods are long gone, used in the constructions of thousands of ships for war, trade, and exploration. Whatever they were used for after, was an afterthought that needs to be exposed.

[@j.p.foleyjr.6333]

Interesting!!!

[@gigglepantsiii9350]

18 seconds in "the last barbarians" are we judging their actions through the lens of modern morality? Because oof that is some really poor wording

[@jimsterrett8214]

"...the last barbarians." Yes, this will age well. Too ironic to see the hypocrisy in the narrative. Did you watch your own video?

[@0yst3in]

Marit Vea is a beautiful viking woman.

[@WestAbbey]

And full of shit!

[@veronicalogotheti1162]

Runes is greek

[@veronicalogotheti1162]

The dragon is chinese

[@cordrus412]

The should mention the fins. They're viking as it used to be apart if Sweden. Not to mention russia and Ukraine history stems from viking bloodlines. Keivian russ were viking tribes living along the baltic twords the east. The only real reason Russia and Ukraine isn't mentioned as being viking origin is they were the first viking culture to adopt Christianity. And stopped much of their raiding except for raids on pagen cultures.

[@veronicalogotheti1162]

The sagas were written in 1200 this era A lot not true

[@raduraducu2668]

Vikings : Stop claiming the acicvents of my no longer existing people !!!!!!!! Stupid blondes: My ancestor:) NO COMENTS

[@veronicalogotheti1162]

The Romans wrote the same

[@rolandrabier5984]

Charlemagne died and his sons did not follow his steps, else after the Saxons the Danes would have been next. I see nothing heroic in the first wave, vikings attacked only soft targets like monasteries and undefended villages.

[@andreikorshun5849]

Please Russian subtitres

[@robertfoster2988]

I love documentaries that aren't fluff or alien b!@#$%!

[@tonyu5985]

Absolute, his story.

[@samsquach3799]

Grave robbers. Not good.

[@wanderluster9034]

Vikings, germanic race are Gog and Magog people. Read Ezekiel

[@laara1426]

If the programs Absolute History shows is not specifically their content and the content is historically WRONG , then they are guilty of spreading MISINFORMATION. Vikings are NOT a specific group . Norsemen is correct. They were NOT pirates . The word pirate did not exist during the the time of the Norsemen era. They were raiders and traders . I am so tired of the gross generalizations .

[@jespernystad]

Absolute rubbish ... full of errors.

[@even8847]

Stop calling them bloodthirsty pirates, they were slavers, so why would they kill their income, it does not make sense, they would try to kill as little as they had to, but before everything else, they were traders.... Its just clickbaiting, calling someone insane murderers or crazy barbarians is more interesting than traders or settlers...

[@nadershah4845]

Ofc ofc. Viking historians with hours and days of viking study vs you, a nobody commenting on a KZbin video

[@even8847]

@@nadershah4845 haha, yeah, i know nothing, as a matter of fact ive spent hours and hours reading and gone trough many different opinions from historians about the matter.. So maybe, just maybe, i know a thing or two about this, jerk...

[@nadershah4845]

@@even8847 oh wow hours and hours of reading yeah? Alright you're a certified historian now. So these acidemia educated researchers vs you Dr. Hours and hours reading...who to believe...hmmm it's tough.

[@even8847]

@@nadershah4845 You should do your own research, read some books, and dig a little deeper than the mainstream storyline they always have on Norsemen, then you will see that we dont know that much about them, we know more about the ancient Romans, some of the Vikings were bad and some good, they were not all evil men..

[@j.p.foleyjr.6333]

You two should settle this with knives! How dare you let one or the other disgrace your Manhood ! Armor up and settle this !!!! ONCE AND FOR ALLLLLLLL !

[@JoyElectric567]

This is really bad work. I would not take the information in this documentary seriously. It’s not that everything is wrong but it’s so much blatant speculation and biased perspectives from some of these «experts». Yes, we KNOW there was human sacrifice going on, and A LOT of it!! The old pagan traditions here in Scandinavia was some real nasty stuff.

[@herbert42069]

False, the Faroese have the earliest modern democracy, predating the Icelandic one by 50-100 years We also had a slightly vital role as a harbour, a dock to expand further ventures, hence the name " Tórshavn " Thor's Harbour.

[@BastardOfTheNorth]

Rome?

[@jannes3290]

@@BastardOfTheNorth Rome didn't have a Democracy. A case could be made for Ancient Greece, but their democracy was vastly different from a lot of modern democracies.

[@knutnputn]

I think the reason they usually attribute this to Iceland is because they have the longest surviving one. While the Faroe Islands still is there and the people live rather independently they are still owned by Denmark and Norway before that. Iceland however has kept themselves independent and hasn't been controlled directly by another country since it's establishment around year 900

[@adversary0932]

@@jannes3290 America is a republic and based their democratic values on Greek notions yet they knew pure democracy is mob rule and dangerous.

[@tonyu5985]

Not all Vikings were Scandinavians.

[@adversary0932]

oh and what were the other persons that were not Scandinavians, I think I can guess what you will answer lol.

[@akiraasmr3002]

didnt vikings come from Germanic tribes

[@adversary0932]

they are all Germanic, and the tribes in Germany came from Scandinavian (Sweden mostly they postulate and some genetic evidence) countries.

[@WestAbbey]

That blonde woman has a personal agenda of her own..... Silly.

[@veronicalogotheti1162]

They copied mythology

[@antoniescargo1529]

German Immigration? I thought German Immigration startet under Adolf? Ik denk dat je Germaanse volken bedoelt. Jutten, Saksen, Friezen, Angelen.

[@JMDinOKC]

"Stunning" discoveries. "Epic"; "iconic"; "shocking." I wish these documentarians would purge these overused, worn-out words from their vocabularies.