In a house by the sea, somewhere in Norway, a baby is born. History will not remember his name, and no skald will sing of his deeds. His family are not lords or warriors, yet he-and people like him-will spread Scandinavian influence from Constantinople to western lands unseen by Europeans. For this village prizes one skill above all others. The father takes his newborn son and lays him in a crib-a crib shaped like a boat.
Only way to move around, especially in Norway (which literally meant the Northern Way). With boats being the foundation of society, it is little wonder they were revered.
Thanks for the unromanticised version of the story....too much "Vikings were the crulest" and "Vikings were awesome and fearsome" content out there......nuance is much needed!
A lot of people have this image of them based entirely on Rule of Cool. I once had an argument where the other guy refused to believe most Medieval Scandinavians were subsistence farmers. He somehow thought a pre-industrial society could live off raiding alone.
During these times a whole lot of countries committed nasty acts, what made the Vikings notable was they did it to a lot of different people for no better reasons than "they could". When your main exports is pillaging and trade people tend to forget about the trade really quick if they see you on the horizon. For the same reason no one will want to have a lovely chat with a guy who wears a balaclava mask all the time. Bad vibes ya know?
I mean the video also pointed out they traded slaves and acted as espionage to vikingers. Its good to get context of the time but let's not go into apologetics and act like slaving, rape and pillage is not worth playing up when we examine it or we could start doing the same to things like colonialism. In both examples you lose a lot of cultural context if you don't accept all aspects. Good and bad.
@@yehiarizk1836 Anthropology is the study of human culture. This person was obviously excited. History is too often focused on individuals or wars. It refreshing to see it spoken about from the viewpoints of the common people of the land.
..."He learned to exist in a small space with other men, for months at a time, without descending into-" Buggery? "-Violence." That was my second guess.
I think I've said this before, but I rather like these "simple beginnings" things, and thinking about how big-ish movements in history came to be. Which is good, because you guys seem to do them a lot (here, Genghis Khan, Zulu, etc).
Great Man Theory makes for great storytelling, but I'm glad modern historians are more wary of it and take the stories of normal people seriously in the work to build a real picture of what we were like in eras other than our own.
I really like the idea of starting a serries with the tale of a hypothetical trader. Really nice idea to examine history from the average citicens perspective.
Probably because modern Swedish and Danish often uses "ing" when referring to people (for example, in Swedish "Viking" means Person from/of the bay and "Skåning" means person from/of Scania. I myself didn't know that "Viking" could be used as a verb.
@@BlindandMad its because swedish has been influenced by other languages heavily over the centuries, granted even "ing" in icelandic(which is closest to old norse because isolation) is really never used as a ending in words, its usually accompanied by "ur" or "ir", for example Viking is Víkingur in icelandic.
Yeah. Those akward moments when you find your fellow compatriots on a river, but they happen to be vikings. You were going to trade in the city they just left, because you have gained much before there, and also made a lot of friends and contacts. Just a shame they are probably not in the mood to talk with scandinavians now... or never. Fortunately, they burned the city to the ground and killed all of it's inhabitants. So you don't have to worry about akward reunions later, right? ... Right?
Vikings rarely burned things to the ground, nor killed everybody, but they took slaves, raided churches and killed anyone resisting which rarely left anyone in a good mood.
Already I'm seeing similarities between the Vikings and Majapahit; both looked at the water, the oceans and rivers, not as barriers or natural borders, but as pathways of trade, exploration, war, and statehood, in essence making the water their territory.
@@twotone3471 Not the Vikings. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden all got involved in a boatload (no pun intended) of asskicking in the name of Christ. See the Danish campaigns in Livonia, Norman Crusades expelling Muslims from Sicily, and Swedish campaigns in the Thirty Years' War.
@@strategicgamingwithaacorns2874 but these instead of sea campaigns were Land ones, Siciliy as taken by Knights, the 30 years war showed Swedish infantry and cavalry as a formidable force. Scandinavia soon found itself outclassed in sea by the hanseatic league and the western Europeans powers
@@strategicgamingwithaacorns2874 Their culture was so changed they forgot about Vineland, and had to be re-educated about it by more modern archaeological surveys of Newfoundland. Truly one of the Mysteries of history wondering what would have been the result if the Vikings had made it to the Mainland and colonized instead of the events we had.
The beginning part was beautifully written. At first, I thought that "the screaming of one became the screaming of two" was about a Viking raid, but then it turned out to be about a birth. The writers for this show do a great job.
I literally have just had one of the worst day of my life (so far), this upload really makes it a little bit better! I can't thank you guys enough! :')
I'm glad you feel a bit better, and hopefully you'll have more moments in life you'll feel like was the best. It's incredible how much these videos help us beyond simply by giving us knowledge, it's something to be grateful for.
@@Simon39759 Thanks a lot Simon! I know it will, it has to.. Thanks again, a random person saying something like that is really nice. I hope you have a nice day too!
This was a very nice episode, and touching for me personally. My father passed me the knowledge of fishing in the sea, rivers and lakes, taught me how to trade or sell the fish we caught, taught me some sea navigation and how to predict the weather. I can't quite make a boat but I can repair them, I can make basic furniture... and my mother and grandmother taught me farming, harvesting in the wild, etc. This was back in Latvia although I live in London now and I often ache at not being able to use these skills or do these things in nature.
This was one of the coolest episodes so far. I really felt like I was there with the boy as he grew up. You've accomplished in 11 minutes what usually takes a whole adventure novel to convey. Thanks!
Why ? The name originated from the Kievan Rus, the first real-ish Russian kingdom in the east. The reason Vikings are responsible for it was that while the population were never majority Viking there were Viking lords
@@unknowndane4754 It's about anti-normannism. It's a holdover from the Great Northern War and was Russian state policy intermittently. Basically, official remembrance at time denied any influence by Scandinavians on Russian culture or any influence of Scandinavian (read: Swedish) people on the existence of Russia. Some Russians do still hold these beliefs and tend to be salty about them being not validated and instead casually proven wrong.
So the Scandinavians kinda like the Mongols but for trade. They're a highly specialized group of people trained from birth to be the best at their specialty.
except Mongols were Professional soldiers and founded the strongest empire, Vikings were raiders, they were not better or worse than their counterparts in Europe at their time.
Except the Mongol Empire lasted less than 100 years from 1206 to 1299 when they broke into 4 separate khanates and 69 years later the Chinese captured the capital and the other Khanates slowly disappeared. And they didnt have professional soldiers. They had good warriors and a warrior culture. But so did the native Americans and Zulu and so on. Most of the Mongolians were children, women, slaves and vassals.
I find this video series very interesting because I myslef am scandinavian, and I find our history very enjoyable to learn about. Great content just in general too, Love your videos.
Coming from a Norwegian family, I really appreciate it when somebody makes a video on scandanavian culter and history because I think American schools should focus on the important things that they laid the groundwork for. So thanks guys for the video on the unsung culter on early Norwegian traders.
I like how you follow a common person in a society like this. Makes for a good impression of what everyday life was like. Would be interesting to see it in other cultures as well. Especially non-European ones.
Awesome video! Sometimes we got so wrapped with the stories of kings and warriors that we forgot other groups who shaped our world, like the merchant family of this first episode.
Born and placed into a boat crib, died and placed in a grave marked by rocks in the shape of a boat, traveled along the seas on a boat, lived in a house with a boat roof, learned to make boats, traded every now and then on boats, this video should be called Scandinavian boat montage.
It's really rare to find an educational video that is both informative and tells a truly beautiful story. You did that here. You should be proud of what you created.
I really love this kind of anthropological reconstruction. Stories of what life could have been like for a common person are so fascinating, even if they are bound to be oversimplified and paint with a broad brush.
I'm struck by how the supportive cultural environment from that time you outlined mirrors the pro-social society we associate with that same world region today.
My ancestors were Scandanavians and I have ancestry from Sweden Norway Denmark France Scotland Ireland and England. So seeing a REAL detailed story of my ancestors is nice. Keep up the great work!
OMG You have no idea how happy it makes me to have someone talk about the Irish Slave Trade. Every time I bring it up I get called a bigot, or that "It never happen" I can't thank you enough!
Yeah, norwegian history in elementary school was fun.. I've literally never had any use of any of this information. Like, it's neat to know, but I forget it every few years :p
It's cultural heritage and information on how we Norwegians became what we are today. History is important to know and understand for a multitude of reasons, one of the most important is so that we don't do the same mistakes we did in the past.
@@Solitude_Guard_ But for other less mentioned and much less overused answers to "why study history" it is also to learn as a human being of the ebb and flow of time, and how the multiple things we know and learn interact with each other in long terms. It teaches us what to expect from certain situations in life that we'll probably experience at least once in life but will be so far apart and with ramifications so extensive that you may never be able to predict what could happen if you always just focus on the day to day and what's in front of you. It tells us of relations of communities in large scale and how humans think in a variety of levels of magnitude, from individuals, to small communities, to the entire planet. Even if you think you aren't using it at all, it's highly likely you are using it all the time. Maybe not the exact dates or the exact way events unfolded, but the ideas from those events and what led to them and why they happen and what concequences they led to is a powerful tool to survive in today's society. That's why at least most history classes don't bother with asking you to remember all of the exact dates if not at least the general point in time in which they happened. Take for example my countries history, if you never knew Argentina's history, you might never be prepared for the disastrous whirlpool that is our economy, constantly going up and down with absolutely no care for anybody. You might not understand how the bigger companies have survived in this environment. You may not understand why your local market for car parts went missing 20 years ago (hint: the multinational companies left the country about the same time). You may not understand why the roads are constantly blocked. Why you can't trust that the roads to the other provinces are filled with trucks that won'tlet you pass (or at least it may surprise you as you find out too late). You may not be prepared for what happens after a new presidential election. You may wonder why riots are so common. History is widely useful for such a variety of things, that its use may be lost to many.
@@Solitude_Guard_ For me it's also about understanding culture which might translate into pop-culture and fiction and a little bit of cultural background knowledge can really enhance one's enjoyment for fictional things, even if you don't notice that at the time. It can also be great inspiration for your own fictional stories and characters if that's something you're interested in.
@Cegesh Not entirely, many places still have the same customs and norms that they had many hundred years ago, and there is also the fact that culture brings unity among people, if people feel they belong to a society they are MUCH more inclined to work hard and sacrifice for that society.
This is what I love about this channel. No matter what they did, every society is simply laid out before you so that you can simply learn. Not all Scandinavians were Vikingr, they were mainly tradesmen. After all, it's far easier to buy and sell than to just try and knock over the nearest town where someone will die.
Used to live next to an old viking era graveyard when I was little. Basically a hilly forest were you were not allowed to dig deeper than 15-20cm so as to not disturb anything. There were atleast 4-5 of these stone ship graves scattered around and two or three stand alone hills that were grave mounds.
I think this might be my favourite single episode of Extra History. Not a story of a big conflict or some really famous historical figure, but of the life of a single person who lived during an interesting time 😊
I know I say this quite a lot but this video is so well done. The animation is so simple yet so beautiful; it relies on the simple yet detailed artwork and has very little change from frame to frame. The writing is on par if not better than the animation and does a great service to those interested in history.
It's like the old story about the Scots travelling halfway around the world and meeting the Maoris in NZ. Both sides glared at each other and had a few fights before smiling and going "Aye, these boys seem alright."
I absolutely adored this style of video. It doesn't always have to be about the big characters and their achievements. Just learning about how an average person of a specific position in a culture in the past spent their day(s) was at least as enthralling as any story about a great empire. I really wouldn't mind seeing more in this style!
@@TheAztecGamer123 If you Google it you'll find rules and stores selling beautiful sets of it. I was given the pieces and taught the game by my grandfather, it's simple yet brilliant.
I’ve played it a couple times it’s kinda like chess with a little bit of checkers and the guy in the middle has to defend and the the men on the boat have to wipe out the other player
Dublin was founded by Danish vikings. Ireland in general was settled and traded with by Norwegian vikings. Dublin was the only Danish foothold on the island.
Pretty much all of the big costal towns and cities in Ireland were founded by the Norse, they introduced the idea of urban living to the island essentially.
"It begins with screaming and blood". That is so fucking metal. Also, they make boats sound pretty cool. It's like if I, an argie, took so much pride in raising cows that I wear their leather to feel protected by the cows, I drink their milk to grow as strong as the cows, I feed the cows so I can gain their favour, I eat their meat so I increase my power thanks to the cows, and I drink mate from their horns so I get my energy from the cows (yes, people empty the cow's horns and use them to drink mate).
@@muzutus Indeed. They used to swaddle the babies and put them in a cradle or in the co-bed. The toddler-bed is from the 18th century and the later baby crib from the 19th as you said :-).
Half the time you show the round shield, the soldiers holding the shields backward (somehow holding the front of the shield at, that vertical metal bar is the handle for the shield): 3:04 (far left, rest are correct), 3:13, 4:18 (you have one on the left correct and the one on the right magically holding the shield boss), & 5:35.
You might be right - it looks like it was misinterpreted as an optional bar over the boss, but then the boss is dark like it's in shadow, which would imply that's the back side of the shield rather than the front. There's another instance at 8:58.
@@mme.veronica735 www.forhonorreview.com/images/For-Honor-weapon.jpg good visualization of what a typical viking round shield looked like front and back
I’ve been lucky enough to be part of a crew that sails a Viking longship, based off of the skuldelev 6. They really do just slither through waves and rough seas!
4:50 This is a treat that is still a part of Scandinavia. The ability to discuss and debate without resorting to violence. To have an open mind towards others and to compromise to avoid conflict. It all started in the longhouses during those long winters.
"In the depths of winter, he spends his time playing music, listening to and reciting poetry, matching wits over board games, and drinking vast quantities of mead." And hunting, fishing, skiing and skating, since there is plenty of physical activities that could be performed outside in winter to keep you in good shape.
In English the r sound at the end became silent because the nasal r sound disappeared. This is the same r lost from words like alfr or jormungandr. To make it, touch your tongue to the top of your palate like you would for making the regular r sound, then blow air into the top of the palate without engaging the larynx. I can only make this sound on its own (not as part of a word) because my brain isn't wired for it.
man great episode, really well written, congratulations, and the topic is one thats been covered so many times, but usually everyone follows the same aproach, focusing on the raiding of england, so i m liking this series.
With the Irish term for Scandinavians, was it that Dark foreigners referred to Danes, and Fair Foreigners referred to Norwegians, or is it the other way around? Because I know the Irish made a distinction, but I can't remember which it was.
Finngaill and Dubgaill. But what they meant by it, is unknown. It could be that the Finngaill were the first to come, and the Dubgaill came later. It could be that they referred to their clothes, since the people from the "Danish" area, were in general wealthier, and as such probably had more colourful, and thus darker, clothes. Or it could be something else. The hair colour is unlikely, since there are almost no difference in hair colour today, and they were more uniform genetically back then (Denmark have had a larger influence from Germany since).
6:30 A boat hull can't go faster than it's hull speed unless it has enough power to actually climb out of the water and skip along the surface like a ski boat. The hull must also be designed to do this. The Hull speed is the speed at which the wavelength of a vessel's bow wave is equal to the waterline length of the vessel. Longer boats are faster, not because they have more power, but because they have a higher hull speed.
I'm worldbuilding for my D&D campaign, and occasionally I wonder just how much STUFF is floating around (literally) in the form of trade. Having an accurate picture of just how much ONE family's ship can carry is incredibly useful data to have. Thank you for your hard work!
Loki turning himself in to a mare to exhaust the stallion, Svaðilfari, via a night of "unbridled" equine passion; leading to the birth of Sleipnir, is certainly a high point of weirdness in the Viking myths.
In a house by the sea, somewhere in Norway, a baby is born. History will not remember his name, and no skald will sing of his deeds. His family are not lords or warriors, yet he-and people like him-will spread Scandinavian influence from Constantinople to western lands unseen by Europeans. For this village prizes one skill above all others.
The father takes his newborn son and lays him in a crib-a crib shaped like a boat.
Yaaaaaaa finally more Viking history
Wait wait, when you where talking about the boy at 13 did you mean to say "vast quantities of beer" into stem of "vast quantities of meat?"
I knew something like Vikings will come back in episodes
amazing video!
Omg...
This story was great and had me on the brink of tears ;-;
In Sweden there’s like a circle of rocks historians were debating about. They finally agreed that the stone circle was made to resemble, a boat…
Ales stenar?
@@Lajosen jajamen
They seem to really like boats.
Only way to move around, especially in Norway (which literally meant the Northern Way). With boats being the foundation of society, it is little wonder they were revered.
Try standing high up upon a ship with cloudless skies, hot weather and the sea breeze upon your face. Then you'll know why we love to sail.
We still do, At least here in Denmark,
What are you talking aboat?
Just like todays society likes there cars 😉
Thanks for the unromanticised version of the story....too much "Vikings were the crulest" and "Vikings were awesome and fearsome" content out there......nuance is much needed!
And no horned helmets
I kind of imagine them as being like the Mafia (Vikings) and legitimate American-American Businessmen (Traders) having to co-exist.
A lot of people have this image of them based entirely on Rule of Cool. I once had an argument where the other guy refused to believe most Medieval Scandinavians were subsistence farmers. He somehow thought a pre-industrial society could live off raiding alone.
During these times a whole lot of countries committed nasty acts, what made the Vikings notable was they did it to a lot of different people for no better reasons than "they could".
When your main exports is pillaging and trade people tend to forget about the trade really quick if they see you on the horizon.
For the same reason no one will want to have a lovely chat with a guy who wears a balaclava mask all the time.
Bad vibes ya know?
I mean the video also pointed out they traded slaves and acted as espionage to vikingers. Its good to get context of the time but let's not go into apologetics and act like slaving, rape and pillage is not worth playing up when we examine it or we could start doing the same to things like colonialism. In both examples you lose a lot of cultural context if you don't accept all aspects. Good and bad.
"lets look at scandinavian society" - Oh my god another Anthropology series! Finally!
?
@@yehiarizk1836 Anthropology is the study of human culture. This person was obviously excited. History is too often focused on individuals or wars. It refreshing to see it spoken about from the viewpoints of the common people of the land.
..."He learned to exist in a small space with other men, for months at a time, without descending into-"
Buggery?
"-Violence."
That was my second guess.
Buggery is how you *avoid* violence. :P
Isn’t that how the Spartans avoided violence too?
But what about *violent buggery* ? :o
These are Norwegian sailors, not British :P
@@Vityvikt0r That sort of of thing gets uploaded to XVideos.
I think I've said this before, but I rather like these "simple beginnings" things, and thinking about how big-ish movements in history came to be. Which is good, because you guys seem to do them a lot (here, Genghis Khan, Zulu, etc).
YT search: Armstrong origin
DragoniteSpam same
Such is life. Big things don't spring out of nowhere; they all have humble roots. When we _know_ those roots, it's worth sharing them.
Great Man Theory makes for great storytelling, but I'm glad modern historians are more wary of it and take the stories of normal people seriously in the work to build a real picture of what we were like in eras other than our own.
"...despise not the days of small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin ..." - Zechariah 4:10
Ah, they go off of the batman principle: Can it be shaped like my favorite thing?
Wouldn't it be the reverse Batman principle, since he took the bat motif because he was scared of bats.
We do like boats alot. My family hade a two masted boat before I was born. P.S. My real last name is Wiking.
The Brony Wiking is your first name The or Brony?
the Batman principal an ever quotable phrase
@@angelaphsiao His father named him disappointment after what he grew up to be.
I really like the idea of starting a serries with the tale of a hypothetical trader. Really nice idea to examine history from the average citicens perspective.
Oh thank god you adressed the fact viking is a verb. Not enough stories about the viking age take that into account.
Robert Walpole , a Viking we will go!
Probably because modern Swedish and Danish often uses "ing" when referring to people (for
example, in Swedish "Viking" means Person from/of the bay and "Skåning" means person from/of Scania.
I myself didn't know that "Viking" could be used as a verb.
I mean it is a noun now, even though it wasn't originally.
Aye, I say let us go a-viking men
@@BlindandMad its because swedish has been influenced by other languages heavily over the centuries, granted even "ing" in icelandic(which is closest to old norse because isolation) is really never used as a ending in words, its usually accompanied by "ur" or "ir", for example Viking is Víkingur in icelandic.
Yeah. Those akward moments when you find your fellow compatriots on a river, but they happen to be vikings.
You were going to trade in the city they just left, because you have gained much before there, and also made a lot of friends and contacts. Just a shame they are probably not in the mood to talk with scandinavians now... or never.
Fortunately, they burned the city to the ground and killed all of it's inhabitants. So you don't have to worry about akward reunions later, right?
...
Right?
oi
it's vikingrs
get it right
Vikings rarely burned things to the ground, nor killed everybody, but they took slaves, raided churches and killed anyone resisting which rarely left anyone in a good mood.
@@Carewolf r/woosh
@@Carewolf After all if you burn it down and kill everyone you can't come back in a few years to do it again.
MMM Chuckey Cheese3424 that’s not a whoosh my guy
Here on Extra History, we feature... some guy!
I await the memes of Some Guy with sightly baited breath.
That likes boats.
And this rando dude is a total badass, aside from the slavery.
Some Guy went on to shape the course of human history.
Area man is born, lives and dies in a boat.
Already I'm seeing similarities between the Vikings and Majapahit; both looked at the water, the oceans and rivers, not as barriers or natural borders, but as pathways of trade, exploration, war, and statehood, in essence making the water their territory.
Yeah. My favorite example of this is Norway (the North Way), a string of villages in isolated fjords only connected by the sea.
And both cultures were eventually overthrown by a change to a Abrahamic Religion.
@@twotone3471 Not the Vikings. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden all got involved in a boatload (no pun intended) of asskicking in the name of Christ. See the Danish campaigns in Livonia, Norman Crusades expelling Muslims from Sicily, and Swedish campaigns in the Thirty Years' War.
@@strategicgamingwithaacorns2874 but these instead of sea campaigns were Land ones, Siciliy as taken by Knights, the 30 years war showed Swedish infantry and cavalry as a formidable force. Scandinavia soon found itself outclassed in sea by the hanseatic league and the western Europeans powers
@@strategicgamingwithaacorns2874 Their culture was so changed they forgot about Vineland, and had to be re-educated about it by more modern archaeological surveys of Newfoundland. Truly one of the Mysteries of history wondering what would have been the result if the Vikings had made it to the Mainland and colonized instead of the events we had.
A yes I almost forgot about my boat shaped phone
I wish mine was shaped like a boat.
We need to make this
*Scared English noises*
*Ominous Norse chanting*
*Disinterested Swedish humming*
Låt oss skåla med våra engelska skallar fyllda med mjöd!
Ad furore Normanorum Libera nos Domine!
[ sighs deeply in spearing you in the balls through the planks of the bridge you're valiantly holding against all comers ]
The beginning part was beautifully written. At first, I thought that "the screaming of one became the screaming of two" was about a Viking raid, but then it turned out to be about a birth. The writers for this show do a great job.
And on his first voyage he saw an interesting cloud, a cloud shaped like a boat.
@Anonym Anonym damn, where can i get one?
I literally have just had one of the worst day of my life (so far), this upload really makes it a little bit better! I can't thank you guys enough! :')
Hope tomorrow is better.
SuperAwesomeCaptain McFluffyPants Hope it gets better dude
I'm glad you feel a bit better, and hopefully you'll have more moments in life you'll feel like was the best. It's incredible how much these videos help us beyond simply by giving us knowledge, it's something to be grateful for.
Skallagrim Crankiest video is funny to watch
@@Simon39759 Thanks a lot Simon! I know it will, it has to.. Thanks again, a random person saying something like that is really nice. I hope you have a nice day too!
"Viking is a verb"
"Hey Frank, wanna go viking?"
" *HELL YEAH!* You know how much I love viking!"
its actually a noun as in to go on a viking like a voyage, you dont do voyage, you go on a voyage
@@PowersOfDarkness it's also a verb, viking means to go on a raid
@@PowersOfDarkness Vikingr is a noun
@@mariustan9275 while yes, there does exist a runestone that uses "vikingr" as a noun, but many use "viking" which is a different word and is a verb
@@PowersOfDarkness source on attestations of it being used as a verb? It's not a verb.
This was a very nice episode, and touching for me personally. My father passed me the knowledge of fishing in the sea, rivers and lakes, taught me how to trade or sell the fish we caught, taught me some sea navigation and how to predict the weather. I can't quite make a boat but I can repair them, I can make basic furniture... and my mother and grandmother taught me farming, harvesting in the wild, etc. This was back in Latvia although I live in London now and I often ache at not being able to use these skills or do these things in nature.
Extra Credits:
"Learning, but... fun."
But... But... Learning IS fun.
This was one of the coolest episodes so far. I really felt like I was there with the boy as he grew up. You've accomplished in 11 minutes what usually takes a whole adventure novel to convey. Thanks!
“Sir how would you like your hair?”
Random Norwegian: “you ever heard of boats?”
Marie antoinette would lile to speak with you
A haircut...Shaped like a boat
This ONE video perfectly sums up SO MUCH of the reason behind Scandinavian success in the era it's a little mindblowing.
Nobody:
Scandinavian dog: *Bjärk*
Boat shaped dog*
@@theskiypdee dog shaped boat*
@@ballisticm0use72 did i stutter
@@theskiypdee did you?
@@ballisticm0use72 i dont think i did
8:22 "Was there a monastery?"
"Not anymore."
I think those North American Nordic settlements still exist, I mean, that's what Ikeas are, right?
Roflmao....
They have fish and candy...oh and furniture...and meatballs lol
"...and give Russia its name"
Oooh boy, there be some salty boys from that.
Why ? The name originated from the Kievan Rus, the first real-ish Russian kingdom in the east. The reason Vikings are responsible for it was that while the population were never majority Viking there were Viking lords
I believe all the salt on the topic has already been exchanged in Imperial Russia.
@@unknowndane4754 It's about anti-normannism. It's a holdover from the Great Northern War and was Russian state policy intermittently. Basically, official remembrance at time denied any influence by Scandinavians on Russian culture or any influence of Scandinavian (read: Swedish) people on the existence of Russia. Some Russians do still hold these beliefs and tend to be salty about them being not validated and instead casually proven wrong.
RURIK SUBJUGATES ALL SLAVS
@@cyberavenger8668 But the Scandinavians were the ones afarid of Slavs, not the other way around
Thank you I’m danish and I love that you did a episode on Vikings
Yeah, i live a few miles away from one of the largest Viking city's(hedeby) and this video taught me more then years of living her.
Im Norwegian
I'm English
im gonna have to raid your village then
They didn't.
So the Scandinavians kinda like the Mongols but for trade. They're a highly specialized group of people trained from birth to be the best at their specialty.
The Mongols horse is like a vikings ship. The steppe is like the ocean.
except Mongols were Professional soldiers and founded the strongest empire, Vikings were raiders, they were not better or worse than their counterparts in Europe at their time.
@@fakofakooglu7460 What I'm saying is that Monglols are to fighting as Vikings are to seafaring.
Except the Mongol Empire lasted less than 100 years from 1206 to 1299 when they broke into 4 separate khanates and 69 years later the Chinese captured the capital and the other Khanates slowly disappeared. And they didnt have professional soldiers. They had good warriors and a warrior culture. But so did the native Americans and Zulu and so on. Most of the Mongolians were children, women, slaves and vassals.
The Mongols were massively into trade.
I find this video series very interesting because I myslef am scandinavian, and I find our history very enjoyable to learn about. Great content just in general too, Love your videos.
One of the best episodes in recent memory! Epic, enjoyable, yes still smaller and "mundane," very grounded in a real world. Fantastic work!
Coming from a Norwegian family, I really appreciate it when somebody makes a video on scandanavian culter and history because I think American schools should focus on the important things that they laid the groundwork for. So thanks guys for the video on the unsung culter on early Norwegian traders.
I like how you follow a common person in a society like this. Makes for a good impression of what everyday life was like. Would be interesting to see it in other cultures as well. Especially non-European ones.
Awesome video! Sometimes we got so wrapped with the stories of kings and warriors that we forgot other groups who shaped our world, like the merchant family of this first episode.
Born and placed into a boat crib, died and placed in a grave marked by rocks in the shape of a boat, traveled along the seas on a boat, lived in a house with a boat roof, learned to make boats, traded every now and then on boats, this video should be called Scandinavian boat montage.
Vi seglar på de sju haven!
"I'm going to put my oar on my shoulder, and keep walking inland. And I'm going to settle down the first place that no one recognises what an oar is."
They left Scandinavia because Walpole told them too
Edit:thanks for 150 likes
They left because Bismarck had a plan for them
Actually it was his ancestor Wælpøle
@@samlund8543 Bismarck always had a plan
Yep.
Psst! I know where you can get a butt-load of treasure. ;)
It's really rare to find an educational video that is both informative and tells a truly beautiful story. You did that here. You should be proud of what you created.
Love the video. Today, there are so many misconceptions about Scandinavians. You managed to clear them up nicely. Keep up the good work!
Great dude!
I've always loved viking history and I'm glad you're all covering it!
I really love this kind of anthropological reconstruction. Stories of what life could have been like for a common person are so fascinating, even if they are bound to be oversimplified and paint with a broad brush.
Extra history is my favorite!!!! All of Extra Credit is good times. Keep up the great work!!!
I'm struck by how the supportive cultural environment from that time you outlined mirrors the pro-social society we associate with that same world region today.
My ancestors were Scandanavians and I have ancestry from Sweden Norway Denmark France Scotland Ireland and England. So seeing a REAL detailed story of my ancestors is nice. Keep up the great work!
OMG You have no idea how happy it makes me to have someone talk about the Irish Slave Trade. Every time I bring it up I get called a bigot, or that "It never happen" I can't thank you enough!
I have to say this might be one of the best episodes you have done yet! Amazing work! A very interesting perspective!
Yeah, norwegian history in elementary school was fun.. I've literally never had any use of any of this information. Like, it's neat to know, but I forget it every few years :p
It's cultural heritage and information on how we Norwegians became what we are today. History is important to know and understand for a multitude of reasons, one of the most important is so that we don't do the same mistakes we did in the past.
@@Solitude_Guard_ But for other less mentioned and much less overused answers to "why study history" it is also to learn as a human being of the ebb and flow of time, and how the multiple things we know and learn interact with each other in long terms. It teaches us what to expect from certain situations in life that we'll probably experience at least once in life but will be so far apart and with ramifications so extensive that you may never be able to predict what could happen if you always just focus on the day to day and what's in front of you. It tells us of relations of communities in large scale and how humans think in a variety of levels of magnitude, from individuals, to small communities, to the entire planet. Even if you think you aren't using it at all, it's highly likely you are using it all the time. Maybe not the exact dates or the exact way events unfolded, but the ideas from those events and what led to them and why they happen and what concequences they led to is a powerful tool to survive in today's society. That's why at least most history classes don't bother with asking you to remember all of the exact dates if not at least the general point in time in which they happened.
Take for example my countries history, if you never knew Argentina's history, you might never be prepared for the disastrous whirlpool that is our economy, constantly going up and down with absolutely no care for anybody. You might not understand how the bigger companies have survived in this environment. You may not understand why your local market for car parts went missing 20 years ago (hint: the multinational companies left the country about the same time). You may not understand why the roads are constantly blocked. Why you can't trust that the roads to the other provinces are filled with trucks that won'tlet you pass (or at least it may surprise you as you find out too late). You may not be prepared for what happens after a new presidential election. You may wonder why riots are so common.
History is widely useful for such a variety of things, that its use may be lost to many.
@@Solitude_Guard_ For me it's also about understanding culture which might translate into pop-culture and fiction and a little bit of cultural background knowledge can really enhance one's enjoyment for fictional things, even if you don't notice that at the time. It can also be great inspiration for your own fictional stories and characters if that's something you're interested in.
Do they teach you about Bjorn the Noob? The Vikingr who wield his shield backwards? 8:57
@Cegesh Not entirely, many places still have the same customs and norms that they had many hundred years ago, and there is also the fact that culture brings unity among people, if people feel they belong to a society they are MUCH more inclined to work hard and sacrifice for that society.
This is what I love about this channel. No matter what they did, every society is simply laid out before you so that you can simply learn. Not all Scandinavians were Vikingr, they were mainly tradesmen. After all, it's far easier to buy and sell than to just try and knock over the nearest town where someone will die.
It’s so cool to see you tackle the story of my homeland! As a Norwegian, I hope this becomes a series!
Scandinavians unite!
Skandinaver förena eder!
Asså Norge är ju budgetversionen av Sverige
@@kbar9267 Jeg kan ikke høre deg over alle oljepengene våre.
Used to live next to an old viking era graveyard when I was little. Basically a hilly forest were you were not allowed to dig deeper than 15-20cm so as to not disturb anything. There were atleast 4-5 of these stone ship graves scattered around and two or three stand alone hills that were grave mounds.
Now this will be a good series (But everything you do here is awesome I can't wait for a mythology episode about Dionysus)
I think this might be my favourite single episode of Extra History. Not a story of a big conflict or some really famous historical figure, but of the life of a single person who lived during an interesting time 😊
Very good episode. I really like the focus on the culture and lifestyle of the traders.
It's far too rare to see a history of the Viking Era begin with an emphasis on trade instead of violence. Good job!
Víkingr is the nominative form of the word. Someone who is viking. The accusative case is Víking, and the plural is Víkingar.
Finally! A series on early Nordic expansion! The southern empires are interesting and all, but I really find the North the most fascinating.
I can't believe ye mentioned Ireland and Vikings without mentioning me home county, Waterford! First viking town in Ireland!
I know I say this quite a lot but this video is so well done. The animation is so simple yet so beautiful; it relies on the simple yet detailed artwork and has very little change from frame to frame. The writing is on par if not better than the animation and does a great service to those interested in history.
I like the one where they slipped into the universe through a cracked barrier to invade the mortal realms with their demon armies.
Great episode! It was nice following the story of a Scandinavian boy, gives me some insight into what my ancestors lives might have been like.
There's an interesting number of parallels between the Vikings in Europe and the Atlantic and the Austronesian people in Asia and the Pacific.
Makes me wonder of an alternate reality if the two expanding groups had ever met. How might they interact?
@@tec-jones5445 They would bond over bartering, drinking, telling thrilling sagas of their heroes and beating the living crap out of each other.
It's like the old story about the Scots travelling halfway around the world and meeting the Maoris in NZ. Both sides glared at each other and had a few fights before smiling and going "Aye, these boys seem alright."
@@ArkadiBolschek yeah pretty much 😂
I absolutely adored this style of video. It doesn't always have to be about the big characters and their achievements. Just learning about how an average person of a specific position in a culture in the past spent their day(s) was at least as enthralling as any story about a great empire. I really wouldn't mind seeing more in this style!
4:32 what game is that? Viking Chess?
sten stensson TEACH ME
@@stenstensson2610
What kinda name is that? How's it pronounced?
@@TheAztecGamer123 If you Google it you'll find rules and stores selling beautiful sets of it. I was given the pieces and taught the game by my grandfather, it's simple yet brilliant.
@@stenstensson2610 they also had Halatafl, known in English as "Fox games"
I’ve played it a couple times it’s kinda like chess with a little bit of checkers and the guy in the middle has to defend and the the men on the boat have to wipe out the other player
This is the type of excellent storytelling that I can get behind! Bravo guys!
storytelling gets in the way of an objective understanding of history
Dublin was founded by Danish vikings. Ireland in general was settled and traded with by Norwegian vikings. Dublin was the only Danish foothold on the island.
Carewolf didn't they settle some villages in Wexford
Wasn't Waterford a Viking city?
Pretty much all of the big costal towns and cities in Ireland were founded by the Norse, they introduced the idea of urban living to the island essentially.
No I'm quite sure Dublin was a Norwegian founded city.
Dublin was setteled by Norwegian Vikings not Danish, the Danelaw was first settled by Danes But not Dublin
Just chipping in to say I really loved this episode! Sometimes little views into a culture like this are fascinating.
I see my time playing mount and blade Viking conquest is coming in handy with this series
"It begins with screaming and blood".
That is so fucking metal.
Also, they make boats sound pretty cool.
It's like if I, an argie, took so much pride in raising cows that I wear their leather to feel protected by the cows, I drink their milk to grow as strong as the cows, I feed the cows so I can gain their favour, I eat their meat so I increase my power thanks to the cows, and I drink mate from their horns so I get my energy from the cows (yes, people empty the cow's horns and use them to drink mate).
Could you do a episode on Grigori Rasputin if you could that would be awesome
Thanks for the likes
It was a shame how he carried on.
Ra ra rasputin
@@addaccount9246 sorry indeed
@@hall1023 thanks
@@addaccount9246 you mean the Russias famous love-machine ;)
Omg I’m so excited I love Vikings and Extra History so this is a dream come true for me thank you soooo much!!
4:22 tiny mistake: No European knew how to swim like that. That way of swimming was introduced from the peoples of the Indian ocean.
Might be, but the Scandinavians actually knew how to swim. Prolly like a dog or some weird form of crawl. But hey, it's the idea that counts :-)
Also they certainly didnt have baby cribs. Thats a 19th century invention
@@muzutus Indeed. They used to swaddle the babies and put them in a cradle or in the co-bed. The toddler-bed is from the 18th century and the later baby crib from the 19th as you said :-).
Oh…
I'm going to say this right now. "March of the Northmen" is an awesome song and I can't wait for you guys to release it.
i thought this was dlc for something for a second
Baker's Bread Viking Conquest DLC for Mount & Blade Warband. You’re welcome
Thank you for this episode! I was always hoping you will do one of these.
Half the time you show the round shield, the soldiers holding the shields backward (somehow holding the front of the shield at, that vertical metal bar is the handle for the shield): 3:04 (far left, rest are correct), 3:13, 4:18 (you have one on the left correct and the one on the right magically holding the shield boss), & 5:35.
I think that's either a joke or a misinterpreted design on your part
You might be right - it looks like it was misinterpreted as an optional bar over the boss, but then the boss is dark like it's in shadow, which would imply that's the back side of the shield rather than the front. There's another instance at 8:58.
@@mme.veronica735 www.forhonorreview.com/images/For-Honor-weapon.jpg good visualization of what a typical viking round shield looked like front and back
Ff
This voice is so soothing I could fall asleep to it, but can also be so captivating and commanding that I jolt to attention.
It is music to my ears.
I’ve been lucky enough to be part of a crew that sails a Viking longship, based off of the skuldelev 6. They really do just slither through waves and rough seas!
4:50 This is a treat that is still a part of Scandinavia. The ability to discuss and debate without resorting to violence. To have an open mind towards others and to compromise to avoid conflict.
It all started in the longhouses during those long winters.
Man, Norwegians love their boats so much that you would think they were riding them.
It's fascinating to learn how people lived during these times. Your entries on the lives and day to day struggles of normal folk are wonderful.
“And ride with the wind. Our kingdom will fall if you don’t believe....”
"In the depths of winter, he spends his time playing music, listening to and reciting poetry, matching wits over board games, and drinking vast quantities of mead."
And hunting, fishing, skiing and skating, since there is plenty of physical activities that could be performed outside in winter to keep you in good shape.
i dont think hunting would have been big during winter, at least not if you stored enough provisions as you should do
I have been watching your videos for a while now and i love them.
I don't normally look at all of your history videos, but anything about Scandinavians piques my interest thoroughly.
So it’s been vikingr this whole time!?
You learn something new
In English the r sound at the end became silent because the nasal r sound disappeared. This is the same r lost from words like alfr or jormungandr. To make it, touch your tongue to the top of your palate like you would for making the regular r sound, then blow air into the top of the palate without engaging the larynx. I can only make this sound on its own (not as part of a word) because my brain isn't wired for it.
man great episode, really well written, congratulations, and the topic is one thats been covered so many times, but usually everyone follows the same aproach, focusing on the raiding of england, so i m liking this series.
With the Irish term for Scandinavians, was it that Dark foreigners referred to Danes, and Fair Foreigners referred to Norwegians, or is it the other way around? Because I know the Irish made a distinction, but I can't remember which it was.
Both Danes and norwegians were pale so no clue.
@@natanoj16 I think the "fair" and "dark" referred to hair colour: dark-haired Danes, fair-haired Swedes and Norwegians, if memory serves.
Finngaill and Dubgaill. But what they meant by it, is unknown. It could be that the Finngaill were the first to come, and the Dubgaill came later. It could be that they referred to their clothes, since the people from the "Danish" area, were in general wealthier, and as such probably had more colourful, and thus darker, clothes. Or it could be something else. The hair colour is unlikely, since there are almost no difference in hair colour today, and they were more uniform genetically back then (Denmark have had a larger influence from Germany since).
@@ArkadiBolschek yes you're correct
8:25 I really love the style horses have in your animations. They are so cute!
Born: Is put in a boat
Dies: Is put in a boat
They must like boats.
Norwegian here. Can comfirm that we like boats.
6:30 A boat hull can't go faster than it's hull speed unless it has enough power to actually climb out of the water and skip along the surface like a ski boat. The hull must also be designed to do this.
The Hull speed is the speed at which the wavelength of a vessel's bow wave is equal to the waterline length of the vessel.
Longer boats are faster, not because they have more power, but because they have a higher hull speed.
I would love to see something about Shiroyama!
I'm glad to see this. I kinda feel like EH has had a bit of a lull, and this is a really good episode.
"History will not remember his name" Technically it does: Patterson, Ericcson, Peterson, etc.
I'm worldbuilding for my D&D campaign, and occasionally I wonder just how much STUFF is floating around (literally) in the form of trade. Having an accurate picture of just how much ONE family's ship can carry is incredibly useful data to have. Thank you for your hard work!
When you said "ring of stones" ... I honestly thought you were about to say Stonehedge. Sometimes... History disappoints.
Bruh
As a Norwegian I'm really happy you decided to make this
I liked the part about boats
Yo EH, I just wanted to thank you for making an hour long series more interesting than the entirety of Vinland Saga.
Ah yes why hello there ancestors, my kinky kinky ancestors.
What about them is kinky?
Read the Norse creation myth its a compact bascet of fetishes
Yeah, we where kinky.
@@dr.vikyll7466 Very much on level with the Greek myths, just with better descriptions ^^
Loki turning himself in to a mare to exhaust the stallion, Svaðilfari, via a night of "unbridled" equine passion; leading to the birth of Sleipnir, is certainly a high point of weirdness in the Viking myths.
THIS IS WHAT I WAS WAITING FOR. Excited! Y'all made a crappy day so much less crappy. Thanks!
Do miss the voice though.