Portage: How vikings dragged their ships overland
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- Опубліковано 26 чер 2024
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Countries like Norway and Sweden were much more maritime than today, and people almost entirely dependent on the waterways for travel. But travel by water was not always possible. The river or lake might suddenly be broken up by dangerous rapids or a passage of land. For these purposes, almost every maritime culture has practiced some form of portage - the act of transporting a vessel over land, to the next body of water. From the Scottish Highlands to the Caspian Sea, it is most associated with the Vikings, dragging their massive longships from one river to the next, upon large wooden trunks constantly moved in front of the bow.
Sources:
De Administrando Imperio - Constantine Porphyrogenitus
Färder i österled - Rune Edberg
Investigating Portages in The Norse Maritime Landscape of Scotland and the Isles - David Alexander McCullough
Portages in South Scandinavia - a typology - Frans-Arne Stylegar
Ship and society - Gunilla Larsson
Music credits:
Skyrim Solstheim OST - Jeremy Soule
Too Cool - Kevin Macleod
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
4:19 Suitable boats
8:04 Brief history
11:53 Techniques
21:34 Improving the portage
28:37 Portage examples
35:45 Conclusion
#vikings #history #ships
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No. F*ck you and your disingenuous bullsh*t sponspor!!!
Note: BetterHelp has done a lot of controversial stuff, including breaching patient confidentiality, qualification issues, payment issues, and more. The FTC come after them for some of these things.
Not for nothing chief, but these guys do you more harm than good.
yeah....betterhelp is a very sketchy business. better look into their dealings and decide wether you really want to advertise for them still or not.
Online for profit therapy? Sounds dodgy af
I'm laughing my ass off to the idea of a bunch of engineers figuring out how to put wheels on a ship and trying the steer one in the open land with violent winds. Must've been unwieldy as hell if they actually did that.
Man I'm glad you're getting sponsors but you should filter out scammers and charlatans like Better Help and Established Titles, etc.
Its fun to think about how my home town used to be mostly under water during viking times and that the highest point would have been a small rock near the shore where vikings would land to raid finland
A modernish version -- Porlock UK --On 12 January 1899, RNLI lifeboat volunteers undertook one of our most arduous feats to date - dragging a lifeboat overnight in terrible weather to launch in aid of a ship in distress. This was a 13-mile journey which included a quarter gradient climb of 434m over Countisbury Hill and a trek across Exmoor. The overland journey was re-enacted in daylight on 12 January 1999 to commemorate its centenary.
Odin was said to own a ship he could fold in his pocket. I've always wondered if it meant he had large canoes covered with hides. When the river became impracticable, he would just remove the hides, take them over the portage, cut new trees to make the canoe's skeleton, fit the hide on them and continue their travel.
Ohthere of Hålogaland in his travels to the far north during the late 9th century also mentions the Kvens, a Finnic group, using small and portable vessels to raid the Norse. This was described to Alfred the Great of Wessex and then written down as follows:
"[Ohthere] said that the Norwegians' land was very long and very narrow and to the east are wild mountains, parallel to the cultivated land. Finnas inhabit these mountains. Then along this land southwards, on the other side of the mountain, is Sweden and along that land northwards, Kvenland. The Kvens sometimes make depredations on the Northmen over the mountain, and sometimes the Northmen on them; there are very large meres amongst the mountains, and the Kvens carry their ships over land into the meres, and thence make depredations on the Northmen; they have very little ships, and very light."
0:28 "In many European countries..." is illustrated using a video clip from the opera house in Sidney, Australia...
I knew someone was going to comment this!
Ever notice how Australia is full of white people descendant from (mainly) England and Scotland? Lol. The Aborigines are not in charge in case you hadn't noticed
@@balticempire7244well Australia is absolutely a "European" country. Just not a country in Europe. Same for Great Britian. They just happen to be Islands. Just as I am a European man, but not a man who lives in Europe.
Dragging a ship sounds like a lot of work, I would simply just die
There were at least 58 more people who dragged that ship with you, so it's not that horrible as it sounds.
And people were in better physical shape
The Viking moved rather big boats over portages. The 15 km portage from Haithabu to the Treene river was used for seagoing boats. It was a corduroy road. The use of this portage avoided the travel around Jutland, when you wanted to go west. You followed first the Rheider Au, than the Treene, Eider and end up in the North Sea.
Ngl that ad break was a banger.
Baltic Empire published a new video, everyone gather!
I have carried a 40 foot replica viking ship aboout 100 ft with a group of reenactors. It wasn't too bad, but I wouldn't want to do it for miles.
Søren Ryge from the Danish National Television (DR) once made a program about how the Norse or Vikings dragged their longboats across land. It was quite simple with the use of planks of wood.
Lunne (modern spelling if Hlunnar) is still used in Norwegian as both a verb (to store logs), and a noun (a pile of stored logs)
Thank you for yet another wonderful historical documentary! The earlier history of the Baltic and nearby eastern Europe is a really interesting topic!
There's still a portage on the Trent Severn canal. About a 60 foot lift with rail cars to carry the boats.
Great publishment, love your work, found this one particular interesting , thanks! =)
Quality content, well documented (as always) Nice job !
Fitzcarraldo greatest portage on film.
The Morrowind music made it impossible for me to pay attention now I just wanna play Morrowind
In Scotland (and I believe Ireland), there are many places (often villages) called Tarbert (13 in Scotland). This is derived from the old Gaelic TAR "across" and BER "to carry". These are all isthmuses between bodies of water. The most obvious one is Tarbert on the Isle of Harris
I had plans initially to talk about portages in Scotland but it didn't make it sadly.
You forgot Schløyen the third passage from and to the Limfjord mentioned in the Icelandic Sagas. A North west passage to Jammerbugten north Sea over land in a canal it was in use untill 1500 an is still there this day but not longer connected to North Sea a ship Dutch kogge was found 2 km in land at Kollerup from around 1400-1500
didn't forget anything, I can't mention every single instance in a video with a limited scope
Wait, this is the same guy that does Gold and Gunpowder right? I love ur videos!
Always has been...
Here's an interesting modern comparison to portages and their social dynamics.
•••
In some modern day sub-Saharan African countries, the roads are in a very bad state of disrepair. At certain particularly difficult and muddy sections of those roads, the locals sit on the sides, waiting for the next transport truck to get mired into the deep thick mud.
Said locals then offer to said truck's operators to pull them out of the mud for a fee.
Whatever fee they choose is usually considered fair, since no other option is available.
That would be good if it didn't incentivize the locals to purposefully damage the roads
I want to see you portage an Iowa class battleship !
Of course, you couldn't travel the Scandinavian rivers with a Viking ship anymore because, there is road construction in the way.
Excellent Information and presented so well. One point it was Princess Olha of Kyiv. Hopefully wiki will catch up once the war ends in Ukraine.
Olga of Kiev*
I had a big ass canoe and we had to carry it five miles I have never cursed and kicked shit so much in my life seemed like we would get five feet and it would snag on something and we'd fall or someone would trip
dudes will put wheels on ships and try and sail it, and make tracks for ships to roll on land, before figuring out how to make a train
i recognize this voice.. its pirate daddy aint it
Sips gang represent.
Unrelated but I thought you should know that Mary Read and I have been seeing each other since the live stream. She thinks it’s funny when I send a senator to fight a lion.
But good video as usual.
your meds, sir 💊💊💊
Man, you sound a lot like the pirate guy?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Yes I know he has another channel I'm being stupid
Really well made video. Gotta be real though this feels so off. Is everything okay? Are you being held against your will? Blink for yes.
Now a days your boat is made of plastic, and you have to drag it across course concrete.
drög my guy
So we're just not gonna give a shit that our sponsor is a straight up scam? Cool.
He has to pay the bills i guess. im guessing a channel whit 26k subs doesnt get many offers,
I'm more worried by how dead he sounded after the ad. Almost Chills-levels of script reading.
@@montanelas6716 He's got at least another channel with 70k views which I get is not much either, but these ads just show total disregard to you the viewer.What if this chump buys a useless service? I gotta pay the bills, so fuck em.
There are many good sponsors out there, which may not pay as much and not pay as generously as these but again, it's about respecting your audience and respecting their time.
Yeah, these guys are almost as bad as "established titles". I wouldn't wanna be affiliated or associated with them in any way.
i promise if you take 10% of the goofyness from the add it to your videosyoull gain a whole new demographic
I see BetterHelp is back on their scamming spree once more sponsoring UA-camrs. Guess 4 years worth is about how much they skimmed last time.
Rus people were not vikings
Fake