I LOVE learning about the life of Harald Hardrada and had no idea about his epic saga outside of the footnote in which he appears alongside the Invasions of England of 1066. Can't thank you all enough for recommending we do a deep dive!!! What do you think of doing more of these character centric series?
Knud d. Store Svend Tveskæg Harald "Blåtand" Godfred Horik I &II For many of these you will need local assistance as there is little available in English- just as there is some about Harald Hårdråde that has not been translated.
Perhaps or perhaps not. If Harald Hardrada had won in 1066 he have probably ruled his North Sea empire from England and not from Norway. The norwegians was to few to ruled over England for a long time.
Imagine spending almost your entire life to be the famous warrior/ruler you became after many, MANY years of training/fighting/traveling/sceeming. And THEN you die from an arrow to the eye. Which, for all we know, was a lucky shoot from a fresh levy, who wasn't even borne when Harold was already taking names in Kiev or the Eastern Roman Empire. Yeah, that's harsh.
@@goatwornarmband3896 "His coat of mail was called Emma; and it was so long that it reached almost to the middle of his leg, and so strong that no weapon ever pierced it."
Instead of doing that weird amalgamation that the Vikings series, they coukd have just told the story of Harald....he's had a life larger and richer than any person could imagine.
Einar Tambardskjelve was a Trønder though, not from Bergn as shown in this video, a migthy archerer who uttered the famoes words " to weak, to weak is the Kings bow" at the battle of Svolder where he was given the King Olav Tryggvasons bow. The king gave his bow to him after an arrow broke Einar's , the saga says the King asked what broke with such a high sound, and Einar answered "Norway off your hands Lord King" such was the power of the Chieftain from Melhus that his bow alone could turn a battle.
Posted one hour ago??? Counting back, when I saw this in my suggestions, I looked for and watched part 1, then this one, both around 20 minutes, meaning Inwas among the first to be greeted by this formidabele vid. Many thanks !
I love how they depicted the Battle of the Roskilde Mountain range - although the mountains are much bigger IRL.... Danes will get this highly sarcastic joke
This saga is EPIC!! Harald’s life is really an example of real life being more interesting than fiction! Before this, I only knew him as that guy who didn’t take England right before William did. Fascinating!
Does anyone know of a more literal translation of Harald Hardrada's Saga? Preferably without the rhyming poetry of Samuel Laing's translation. Asking for personal reasons.
Harald Hardråde. Means directly hard rule in Norwegian. Should be the greatest Norwegian legend. In truth his half Brother Olav Digre (Olav the holy) who died at Stiklestad is more famous in norway.
There was a rumor of a movie or even a trilogy about Harald Hardråde 8-ish years ago. Leonardo DeCaprio was supposed to star in it. Haven't heard anything since tho...
i think a series about the Viking age and specifically england would be SUPER fun. if you used gameplay from thrones of Britannia too would be juicy ahah:)
It's kinda funny using the GoT analogy because in the scandinavian languages the word for the nordic countries is actually "The North" (Norden) so when GoT is translated (at least in swedish, not 100% about danish/norwegian) they keep using the same word for the Westeros North that we use for the Nordic countries.
Norseman in this era, "might was right". If you were the strongest, you clearly had the better argument, thus you were right. Harald Hårderåde without doubt had some of the "best (strongest) arguments" in Scandinavia. The essense of a Viking leader.
Hello , Death is surely not an easy experience, especially when it's coming from a blade and on a brutal "slaughterfield" I'm sure there'll be some records of soldiers describing the last seconds of their enemies in the full glare in imminent death. Please do a video on that topic , how fallen soldiers pleaded with their enemies for mercy and how they tried convincing them to let them live for another day Will be glad if it can also incorporate that of wounded soldiers in the face of the enemy , when their own army has lost and fled from battle
@@shanebraaten9553 to me it looked like the producers were busy sucking a diversity ck. If you read between the lines of the story (and against the intentions of the producers), the conqueror, besides a huge ego, was quite lame. His army was shitty, his navy was shitty, just that he had more people.
@@clownphabetstrongwoman7305 I can agree with all that. But as an avid history buff, I just thought it was cool to see one of my favorite historical figures brought to life, and even though he had all that power and wait on his shoulders, he was still dealing with very human feelings and emotion..
Most people would be after a few centuries, simply due to the cumulative genetic dispersal from generation after generation of families and clans intermarrying to solidify. Like, in the unlikely event that Ragnar Lodbrok even existed, I would be descended from him through Ivar the Boneless (ancestor of the Ui Imair family in Ireland, ancestors of the Crovan clan of Man and the Isles, ancestors of clan Malcolm, ancestors of my Scottish clan Robertson), but so are probably whoever is reading this if you have any British, Irish or Scandinavian heritage whatsoever.
Invicta, when are you going to do some documentaries about these topics?? Albanian - Ottoman Wars between 1431- 1481 and especially the period of Skanderbeg and Gjergj Arianiti before him. History of the Stratiot mercenaries, the Albanian light cavalry that outplayed heavy cavalry in Europe especially under Merkurio Bua and Gorgio Basta. The wars of Justinian the Great and Belissarius, and now Romans reconquered Italy, Northern Africa and southern Spain. Emperor Anastasius from Durres. History of the Roman Emperors from Illyricum from Decius to Phocas between 249- 610 AD including Diocletian and Constantine the Great . Some topics you can do?
The gracious ruler reddened lances in the river of spears; a harsh encounter took place there; and that was a short time ago; the gods were wrathful towards the Danes. The lord planted his banner on level Serkland; the standard stood [high] at the command of the ruler; but that was a long time ago. - Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, one of the many poems composed about Hardrada's ever victorious war making. It should be noted that the Norwegians (under Harald) met the Danes many times in battle during the near 15 years of constant campaigning in Denmark and Harald was always victorious. {The most excellent destroyer of Sjælland-dwellers} [= Haraldr] deployed his valour; men’s courage determines half the victory; Haraldr is the proof of that. - Þjóðólfr Arnórsson. Harald lost only two battles in his entire life - his first and his last). Quite remarkable that even in his two only defeats Harald showed that he truly was the embodiment of the ultimate viking - to live or die on the battlefield - eternal glory or Valhalla.
Something I don't really understand, is if all of those verses and quotes from sagas you read were originally written in Norwegian, how do they rhyme in English so much??
Translation! Basically, when you're translating poetry, there's a massive challenge to translate the words, the meaning, and the art, all separately. Most non-english poetry doesn't necessarily rhyme. English poetry, however, often depends on it. So translating poetry to English properly often requires you to choose words that rhyme :)
Why do the sagas, written not in English originally, rhyme when translated to English? You'd have to change most of the structure and words of the poem to make it like that surely?
What I wonder is how badly mangled the sagas are after being forced into rhyming English verse. I get that they probably rhymed in the original language, but it must be impossible to keep the true meaning of the original text when trying to translate them and keep the rhyming structure.
Yes they probably had many layers of meaning and coincidence and wordplay. What we heard is probably just the most barebones surface level of the text.
Norse poetry didn’t typically rhyme, poems functioned quite like in Tang China or Shakespearean England, with about a dozen commonly recognized meters of varying complexity, and the better you were at fitting a scenario into those meters, the better of a poet you would be considered. If you wanted to impress a king you would send him a master poet who could compose a drápa (complex longform poem that could be sung while also having a repeatable refrain relevant to all parts of the poem) on the spot, about whatever subject the King wanted. Translating Norse poetry to English particularly tends to remove the kennings (synonyms), which is a real shame, since part of the skill of the skald was to come up with lyrics speaking about a subject without naming it directly. For example, swordsong would be combat, because of the sound. Ravenfeeder would be warrior, because he creates corpses for ravens to eat. White-winged Swan would be a ship because of the shape of it and the colour of the sail. Similarly, swan-road would be a sea or river. And so on and so forth. The best skalds would always be able to come up with original kennings rather than using common ones like the ones in my examples.
I want to be all gloating that us English were the ones to bring Hadrada down given how badass he was, but I know that as soon as that happened we were immediately thrashed and conquered by the Normans.
![The Last Viking - The Campaigns of Harald Hardrada [FULL DOCUMENTARY]](/img/n.gif)
I LOVE learning about the life of Harald Hardrada and had no idea about his epic saga outside of the footnote in which he appears alongside the Invasions of England of 1066. Can't thank you all enough for recommending we do a deep dive!!! What do you think of doing more of these character centric series?
There are so many amazing characters from our history, whether it's fact or fiction it's fascinating!
More is always great! Also loving the warhammer videos as well!
Yed please, i enjoyed this so much
Knud d. Store
Svend Tveskæg
Harald "Blåtand"
Godfred
Horik I &II
For many of these you will need local assistance as there is little available in English- just as there is some about Harald Hårdråde that has not been translated.
Will you feature Hakon Ivarsson in the next video? Hakon was one of the men who would instigate a civil war in the Opplands during Haralds reign
Harald Hardrada is one of my favorite historical figures precisely because he is literally a Mount and Blade protagonist.
Or a GTA protagonist. :p
@@ElBandito far from
@@ElBandito no where near gta. Play mount and blade xD
@@Kenzaljenners000 Is it playable now? As in no overtly visible bugs, no stupid AI, and graphics that actually is modern?
@@ElBandito MB Warband Viking Conquest DLC is where he appears. The DLC actually has a pretty good stroryline as well.
Babe wake up, the (not so)long-awaited sequel of the Harald Hardrada Documentary by Invicta just dropped!
Got me with this one 😂😂
ua-cam.com/video/tdapzMRJg4Q/v-deo.html
Bro you better put a ring on that woman's finger, that's legit AF... Wish mine would do this, Lol...
Legit how my relationship is sometimes ngl
@Igor Miele damn, sounds like you and me haven't had the best luck with the women we've been with haha.
Hard to believe that this man actually existed. If only the arrow missed its mark we could have had a VERY different Europe.
A damn shame.
Perhaps or perhaps not. If Harald Hardrada had won in 1066 he have probably ruled his North Sea empire from England and not from Norway. The norwegians was to few to ruled over England for a long time.
Hard to determine fate
Imagine spending almost your entire life to be the famous warrior/ruler you became after many, MANY years of training/fighting/traveling/sceeming.
And THEN you die from an arrow to the eye. Which, for all we know, was a lucky shoot from a fresh levy, who wasn't even borne when Harold was already taking names in Kiev or the Eastern Roman Empire.
Yeah, that's harsh.
@@246vili life is harsh live hard today while you can
this is a "life beats movie" story. absolutely exquisite.
The killing of Einar seems a very Byzantine court ploy. Harald was taking notes when he was there.
Honestly, history can be cooler than Game of Thrones, it's just about how the educator presents it!
Agreed 💯
Give it a decade. It will become a HBO series at some point. LoL
I like how you show Harald still wearing some Varangian gear back in Scandinavia 💪
Which is bollocks because we know he didn't wear that armour; he owned a set of mail he called 'Emma'.
@@goatwornarmband3896 Do you have the quote?
6:32 his footgreaves and chest look distinctly byzantine too
@@willek1335 it's in Heimskringla, which is ironically the very saga this video used as a source.
@@goatwornarmband3896 "His coat of mail was called Emma; and it was so long that it reached almost to the middle of his leg, and so strong that no weapon ever pierced it."
This guy is an absolute madman and his tale is inspirational. I love it, thank you Invicta.
One could easily make a trilogy blockbuster movie of this guy's life.
Or a series. Make it happend Netflix!!
Btw. The Norseman (2022) seems interesting.
HARDRADA! What an amazing story! A perfect combination of Wildman and Cunning. Keep up the great work !
I seriously appreciate all the work you put into these videos, from all those who choose not to have a voice, Thank you.
I've always been fascinated by Harald Hadrada, must have lived a crazy life
Instead of doing that weird amalgamation that the Vikings series, they coukd have just told the story of Harald....he's had a life larger and richer than any person could imagine.
One of those historical personalities that really do read like an epic, great vid
I don't understand how a movie hasn't been made about this guy.
Haraldr Sigurðarson and Renaud de Châtillon are two of my most favorite characters of the era.
I actually like Guy de Lusignan for the fact that he has been so badly misrepresented in modern media to the point that its just insulting.
@@swissmilitischristilxxii3691 same, Tancred was my favorite member of the first crusade and I still need to get a copy of the _Gesta Tancredi_
IM LOVING THIS SERIES! Great job Invicta, y'all are the best.
Einar Tambardskjelve was a Trønder though, not from Bergn as shown in this video, a migthy archerer who uttered the famoes words " to weak, to weak is the Kings bow" at the battle of Svolder where he was given the King Olav Tryggvasons bow.
The king gave his bow to him after an arrow broke Einar's , the saga says the King asked what broke with such a high sound, and Einar answered "Norway off your hands Lord King" such was the power of the Chieftain from Melhus that his bow alone could turn a battle.
this man becomes more epic the more I hear of him
Until Harold Godwinson enters the chat
Live this series it’s awesome! These travelling Nordic warriors are awesome stories/sagas
Could you also go through the events of the Great Heathen Army? There is stuff enough to the complete GoT series.
Posted one hour ago??? Counting back, when I saw this in my suggestions, I looked for and watched part 1, then this one, both around 20 minutes, meaning Inwas among the first to be greeted by this formidabele vid. Many thanks !
What a treat on a Saturday morning
I love how they depicted the Battle of the Roskilde Mountain range - although the mountains are much bigger IRL....
Danes will get this highly sarcastic joke
Norwegians too.
This saga is EPIC!! Harald’s life is really an example of real life being more interesting than fiction! Before this, I only knew him as that guy who didn’t take England right before William did. Fascinating!
This was very nice to wake up to and watch. Great video.
Oakley back at it with the banger content
They need to do a series on this man wow 😯 what an epic life!
There's so much a man can do in 11th century...
Then there's Harald Hardrada.
excellent work
Look at all these mountains we had in Denmark back then before they where raided and stolen by the norwegians...
Yeah, we destroyed your mountains to make you jealous :D
6:35 I really like that this scene is very similiar to the art of ''The King Who Knelt''
Harald Hardrada’s life is a strong contender for the craziest and most adventurous life ever lived by a person.
Does anyone know of a more literal translation of Harald Hardrada's Saga? Preferably without the rhyming poetry of Samuel Laing's translation. Asking for personal reasons.
"Harsh Ruler" is a gentle understatement: from what I've read, translating Harald's name as "Harald the Hard-Ass" really isn't that far out of line!
Harald Hardråde. Means directly hard rule in Norwegian. Should be the greatest Norwegian legend. In truth his half Brother Olav Digre (Olav the holy) who died at Stiklestad is more famous in norway.
Love the content! Please keep sending the goodness mate!
Good stuff, thank you.
perfect just as i’m re watching vikings
I would really enjoy a show about Harold Hardrada, William the Conqueror, and Harold Godwinson...
Great video! Makes one proud to be from the north. But I’ve never seen such mountains in Denmark;). Love from Sweden!🇸🇪🇸🇪
Yes! What a hero.
They gotta make a TV show about him. His life is basically begging for one.
Great job!
I would love a series like this on Olav Trygvason or Harald Hårfagre!
06:12 no danish coast would look like that. We have no mountains
Man, you are spitting hot fire on this video. Dylan better watch out
Well done
This and kings and generals are my guilty pleasures.
Why guilty?
I like how these translated poems rhyme.
Does anyone know what song the music at 14:20 is a part of?
We know no king but the King of the North whose name is Hadrada
The determined one
F the Starks Anyways...
@@shanebraaten9553 Nah Starks are badass and true Northmen
6:34 Thats originally an artwork of Aegon the Conqueror of ASOIAF
6:30 is odly familier to Asiof Aegon the conquer and torrhen stark the King who knelt
Yeah what we have seen on the previous episode was truly a prequel.
I think I’m ready for another adventure…
Great episode
I have been watching your channel for a while.You come a long for that I sub your channel.Waiting to see your future works.
Good video as always 👍🏻 want to wish you, your family and friends a good upcoming holiday season 🥃 Sláinte
Guy really is living a mount and blade campaign
There was a rumor of a movie or even a trilogy about Harald Hardråde 8-ish years ago. Leonardo DeCaprio was supposed to star in it. Haven't heard anything since tho...
i think a series about the Viking age and specifically england would be SUPER fun. if you used gameplay from thrones of Britannia too would be juicy ahah:)
It's kinda funny using the GoT analogy because in the scandinavian languages the word for the nordic countries is actually "The North" (Norden) so when GoT is translated (at least in swedish, not 100% about danish/norwegian) they keep using the same word for the Westeros North that we use for the Nordic countries.
nice man! nice video
Yesterday i learned about his humting hut in South Wales
Harald Hardrada is like a real life mount and blade character
Norseman in this era, "might was right". If you were the strongest, you clearly had the better argument, thus you were right.
Harald Hårderåde without doubt had some of the "best (strongest) arguments" in Scandinavia. The essense of a Viking leader.
Time to fire up CK3 again, Harald will live on!
This series is really good
Awesome episode!⚔🏹
His song poems still rhymed when translated to English thats crazy :P
Great video as always i loved too see the history of harald hardrada i just bough assasins creed valhalla so this video was right on time 😂😂👍
When the ships were made of wood, men were made of steel
Dam!!
Hello ,
Death is surely not an easy experience, especially when it's coming from a blade and on a brutal "slaughterfield"
I'm sure there'll be some records of soldiers describing the last seconds of their enemies in the full glare in imminent death.
Please do a video on that topic , how fallen soldiers pleaded with their enemies for mercy and how they tried convincing them to let them live for another day
Will be glad if it can also incorporate that of wounded soldiers in the face of the enemy , when their own army has lost and fled from battle
Been waiting for this!
the art work is lit
Awesome!!!
It's funny you just listened to Powers and Thrones. I just got the book today.
🤣😂 between 2:50-2:53 the axe head disappears 😂🤣😂🤣😂
Great video but how do you leave how he got over the chain with his ship right in the beginning
Well, when hadrada left kiev he landed in sweden first where he heard that magnus has been king over norway and denmark from that point on he was on
HBO could do a good Viking show with his life
Too much viking stuff lately, they should renew Rome for a season 3
viking stuff is getting stale and boring, east should be more discussed
Check out the Netflix show about the Ottoman empire.... 👍
@@shanebraaten9553 to me it looked like the producers were busy sucking a diversity ck. If you read between the lines of the story (and against the intentions of the producers), the conqueror, besides a huge ego, was quite lame. His army was shitty, his navy was shitty, just that he had more people.
@@clownphabetstrongwoman7305 I can agree with all that. But as an avid history buff, I just thought it was cool to see one of my favorite historical figures brought to life, and even though he had all that power and wait on his shoulders, he was still dealing with very human feelings and emotion..
To think, most of the Viking leaders of this era were descendants of Ragnar Lothbrok.
As long as he really existed.
Could be
Sorry but Ragnar was a myth, and this story about Harald is also overly romanticized. In truth we don't know much unbiased material
@@TheBarser atkeast I'm a bad ass!!
Most people would be after a few centuries, simply due to the cumulative genetic dispersal from generation after generation of families and clans intermarrying to solidify. Like, in the unlikely event that Ragnar Lodbrok even existed, I would be descended from him through Ivar the Boneless (ancestor of the Ui Imair family in Ireland, ancestors of the Crovan clan of Man and the Isles, ancestors of clan Malcolm, ancestors of my Scottish clan Robertson), but so are probably whoever is reading this if you have any British, Irish or Scandinavian heritage whatsoever.
First time the figures dropped, it scared me! 😆
Is there coming a Harald Hårfagre video som day
Invicta, when are you going to do some documentaries about these topics??
Albanian - Ottoman Wars between 1431- 1481 and especially the period of Skanderbeg and Gjergj Arianiti before him.
History of the Stratiot mercenaries, the Albanian light cavalry that outplayed heavy cavalry in Europe especially under Merkurio Bua and Gorgio Basta.
The wars of Justinian the Great and Belissarius, and now Romans reconquered Italy, Northern Africa and southern Spain.
Emperor Anastasius from Durres. History of the
Roman Emperors from Illyricum from Decius to Phocas between 249- 610 AD including Diocletian and Constantine the Great .
Some topics you can do?
This is what I would image if Dr Seuss wrote a Viking book with all the rhymes lol
Our modern world seems so delicate and mundane in compiraison!
Amazing. You managed to depict him throughout the video with scale armour, when he was FAMOUSLY known for owning a shirt of mail called 'Emma'.
The same thought crossed my mind, but I didn't want to cast shade on the AWESOME artwork that went into this!
Well Roskilde in Denmark is also filled with mountains. Lets just say you should take this tale with a grain of salt.
The gracious ruler reddened lances in the river of spears; a harsh encounter took place there; and that was a short time ago; the gods were wrathful towards the Danes. The lord planted his banner on level Serkland; the standard stood [high] at the command of the ruler; but that was a long time ago. - Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, one of the many poems composed about Hardrada's ever victorious war making. It should be noted that the Norwegians (under Harald) met the Danes many times in battle during the near 15 years of constant campaigning in Denmark and Harald was always victorious.
{The most excellent destroyer of Sjælland-dwellers} [= Haraldr] deployed his valour; men’s courage determines half the victory; Haraldr is the proof of that. - Þjóðólfr Arnórsson. Harald lost only two battles in his entire life - his first and his last). Quite remarkable that even in his two only defeats Harald showed that he truly was the embodiment of the ultimate viking - to live or die on the battlefield - eternal glory or Valhalla.
This man needs a video game done prince of persia style.
EPIC!!!
Something I don't really understand, is if all of those verses and quotes from sagas you read were originally written in Norwegian, how do they rhyme in English so much??
I think the sources I was drawing from did some massaging to first translate and then rhyme things while keeping as true to the original as possible
Translation! Basically, when you're translating poetry, there's a massive challenge to translate the words, the meaning, and the art, all separately. Most non-english poetry doesn't necessarily rhyme. English poetry, however, often depends on it. So translating poetry to English properly often requires you to choose words that rhyme :)
Harald takes on William of Normandy. What ifs.
Why do the sagas, written not in English originally, rhyme when translated to English? You'd have to change most of the structure and words of the poem to make it like that surely?
What I wonder is how badly mangled the sagas are after being forced into rhyming English verse.
I get that they probably rhymed in the original language, but it must be impossible to keep the true meaning of the original text when trying to translate them and keep the rhyming structure.
Yes they probably had many layers of meaning and coincidence and wordplay. What we heard is probably just the most barebones surface level of the text.
Norse poetry didn’t typically rhyme, poems functioned quite like in Tang China or Shakespearean England, with about a dozen commonly recognized meters of varying complexity, and the better you were at fitting a scenario into those meters, the better of a poet you would be considered. If you wanted to impress a king you would send him a master poet who could compose a drápa (complex longform poem that could be sung while also having a repeatable refrain relevant to all parts of the poem) on the spot, about whatever subject the King wanted.
Translating Norse poetry to English particularly tends to remove the kennings (synonyms), which is a real shame, since part of the skill of the skald was to come up with lyrics speaking about a subject without naming it directly. For example, swordsong would be combat, because of the sound. Ravenfeeder would be warrior, because he creates corpses for ravens to eat. White-winged Swan would be a ship because of the shape of it and the colour of the sail. Similarly, swan-road would be a sea or river. And so on and so forth. The best skalds would always be able to come up with original kennings rather than using common ones like the ones in my examples.
Excellent
I really hope Vikings does him justice, but like most characters - probably not.
right on
I want to be all gloating that us English were the ones to bring Hadrada down given how badass he was, but I know that as soon as that happened we were immediately thrashed and conquered by the Normans.
I see your arrow to throat of that king and raise you by an arrow to the eye of your king!