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00:06One stormy day, sometime in the second half of the 9th century, a Viking ship was blown off course.
00:15It finally beached up on an uninhabited, unexplored shore, here on Iceland.
00:22It must have presented a truly terrifying alien landscape.
00:30But its discovery meant that the Vikings were no longer just raiders and traders.
00:35From that moment onwards, they were explorers and adventurers.
00:48I'm retracing the steps of the Vikings to discover the truth about their lives
00:58and their mysterious world.
01:02Even now, this place feels like it's on the edge of everything.
01:08And, as an archaeologist, I'll be seeking out some of the most telling evidence of all.
01:15Their very remains.
01:19This flamboyant hairstyle just adds to his allure.
01:28Last time, I travelled east to discover the far reaches of Viking trade.
01:34These dark lines, etched into the marble, are Viking runes.
01:40Ancient Viking writing.
01:43Now, I'm heading west.
01:45To find out how the Vikings became explorers.
01:49And kings.
01:51Creators of an entire Viking empire.
01:54Of the north.
02:10By the end of the 9th century, the Viking age was in full swing,
02:14with their territories and influence spreading outwards from their Scandinavian homelands.
02:19The Swedes travelled east, down the great rivers of Russia.
02:24The Danes crossed the North Sea, raiding and colonising,
02:28and establishing, at York, the hub of a trading network in the west.
02:33For the Norwegians, however, it was a different story.
02:43I'm starting in Bergen, Norway,
02:46to see how the people of the north, the Norsemen,
02:50carved out their own slice of the Viking world.
02:55In the wild, uncharted Atlantic Ocean.
03:01From up here, you can clearly see that between the mountains and the fjords,
03:05there's precious little in the way of available farming land.
03:09So, for an expanding population, many of them ambitious young men,
03:14that absence of available land could have only one outcome.
03:19The most adventurous of them would seek to change their circumstances and their opportunities.
03:24And to do that, they would up and leave.
03:34The secret of the Norsemen's success was their notorious longship.
03:44It's the icon of the entire Viking age.
03:50And here in Bergen, people have built a decent seagoing reconstruction of one.
03:56Rowing one of these, well, on a day like today, is actually quite pleasant.
04:01If you can get into the rhythm.
04:06Oh, hold on, hold on.
04:09It's all gone terrible.
04:14The Vikings were notorious for their fast and manoeuvrable warships.
04:20But to conquer the ocean, they also needed sturdier vessels.
04:28Shorter, wider and powered by sail,
04:31They were perfect to carry goods, animals, tools and people.
04:40Crewed by as few as six men,
04:42ships like these carried the Norse to the end of the known world.
04:47And far beyond.
04:53Lena Beersen has spent months at sea,
04:56navigating without modern technology,
04:58to understand just how the Vikings did it.
05:04They were dependent on the sun.
05:06If they didn't find the sun,
05:08they were half-veal, they got lost at sea.
05:11Half-veal.
05:11Half-veal.
05:12That's a word you don't want to hear on a Viking ship, then.
05:14Right.
05:17From experiments at sea,
05:20Lena has discovered that being so dependent on an unreliable sun,
05:24the Vikings often had to be flexible
05:26about exactly where they ended up.
05:31If you don't end up in Shetland,
05:33you would end up in Orkney.
05:34And that's not bad, is it?
05:35Right.
05:37So you just have to be a bit more open-minded about where you're going.
05:40You've got it.
05:44Their epic voyages are a defining part of the Viking legend.
05:49From coast-hopping raids,
05:51it wasn't long before the Norwegian adventurers
05:54started to strike out into the open ocean
05:56in search of new lands to settle.
06:04Now, I'm following in their footsteps.
06:08Travelling from Bergen to Shetland.
06:12One of their first stops.
06:27We know that large numbers of them arrived on Orkney
06:30and here in Shetland from around 800 A.D. onwards
06:33because virtually all of the place names are Norse in origin.
06:37No Pictish names survive.
06:39We don't know if the local population was enslaved
06:42or exterminated or just driven off.
06:45But knowing how badly the Vikings behaved elsewhere,
06:48it was probably all three.
07:02On Shetland, there'd already been raiding and pillaging.
07:06But some Vikings who arrived here came to stay.
07:15And relics of their farms still survive.
07:20This ancient site of human habitation
07:23is cheek-by-jowl with the airport.
07:26So if you hear a roaring sound in the background,
07:29that'll be the 345 to Bergen.
07:34Over here, there are the foundations
07:37for seven long rectangular buildings.
07:40These were built and used by the Vikings.
07:42This would have been part of the main family quarters.
07:46Along here, there would have been wooden-topped benches
07:49for sitting on and sleeping on, on either side.
07:52A central hearth.
07:54That's one of those plains I was talking about.
07:58It would have been quite dark in here, quite smoky.
08:01Then at the far end, there's a corn-drying room
08:04where there would have been heat
08:05that would have dried the crop for storage.
08:08And then at the far end, the archaeologists found burnt stone.
08:12So it suggests there may even have been
08:14a fairly primitive sauna in use here.
08:21Often across the Viking world, we discover burials, treasure,
08:25or the remains of warriors.
08:30But on Shetland, there are relics of more ordinary lives,
08:34of Viking farmers and craftsmen.
08:38It's a fantastic piece, as you can see.
08:40It is.
08:41It's lovely.
08:41It was found in a peat bug.
08:44You'll see there's a hook shape on the handle there.
08:49The reason for that is that the thing is used in a boat
08:53and you're bailing water.
08:55Ah, it's a bailer, right.
08:56Yeah, that's right.
08:58It would be all too easy just to let the thing
08:59shoot out of your hand and it might plop into the sea.
09:02So you want to have a little bit of a backstop on it
09:05to stop it shooting out.
09:06And you can see here that the wear pattern is on that side.
09:11It's a right-handed person.
09:12Right-handed person.
09:14Wow.
09:16This object was found in the 1970s in Shetland.
09:20It's so fine.
09:21Look at the tines.
09:23That's the little rivets.
09:24Because it's composite, isn't it?
09:26It's been made from multiple parts.
09:29That's gorgeous.
09:30Look at that.
09:32Look at the shine on it from being handled.
09:34You know, that patina there of being held and used.
09:38Exactly.
09:39That's what brings the past to life.
09:43Handling these simple objects
09:44took me right into the practicalities of Viking daily life.
09:49It's got this little depression there,
09:50and that's for your thumb.
09:51It's so you can carry it.
09:54Lamps,
09:55wet stones,
09:56loon weights,
09:57and fishing tackle.
10:00But best of all
10:01was one very personal possession.
10:05And it's a piece of a glove or a mitten.
10:08That's for a thumb.
10:09That's her thumb.
10:10That's her thumb.
10:10That's for a Viking thumb.
10:11Yes, yes, a Viking thumb.
10:13It's one thing to talk about Vikings,
10:14but that was worn by a Viking hand.
10:18Well, it's been carbon dated to 975 A.D.
10:22Oh, wow.
10:23How can that be 1,000 years old?
10:25Is that knitted?
10:27It's woven, believe it or not.
10:29Oh, gosh.
10:31I think it's just absolutely electrifying to see an item like this
10:34where something as powerful as the human hand is there to be seen.
10:46Through the 10th and 11th centuries,
10:50Chetland supported a huge community of around 10,000 Vikings.
10:57But these island settlements were just the first stepping stones
11:01for even greater and far more daring journeys.
11:09While the Swedes were getting rich from trade in the east
11:12and the Danes were establishing a kingdom in England,
11:15the Vikings here plotted a route into the west
11:18and the lands they revealed were much more than just a day's sail away.
11:28From Shetland, I'm continuing north and west, to Iceland.
11:40Having braved the wild seas,
11:43the Vikings reached here in the late 9th century.
11:57I've been digging in this bank for a very good reason,
12:00because I was told that if I went deep enough,
12:02I would find a very important, significant layer.
12:05Now, if you look down in here,
12:08first of all, ignore that very obvious thick grey band.
12:13Down into that deep section,
12:15do you see the quite narrow band of sandy-coloured material
12:20in amongst much darker stuff?
12:23Now, that, believe it or not,
12:25is debris from a volcanic eruption dated to 872 AD.
12:30Now, no evidence of human habitation
12:33has been found below that layer,
12:36meaning there was no-one here before 872.
12:39Above that layer,
12:41after that date,
12:42you start to get evidence of Viking settlement.
12:45And that's how we know when they arrived.
12:55Iceland was some way north of the Viking homelands.
12:59And although the Norwegians here
13:00were well used to surviving long, dark, cold winters,
13:04this place was in a league of its own.
13:10The very first settlements here were on the coast,
13:14where there was easy prey in the water.
13:20Fish, walrus, seals, even whales.
13:26Today, just outside Reykjavik,
13:31there's a Viking-themed restaurant
13:33that recreates the delights of a unique diet.
13:39I remember it when I was five, six years old.
13:42My father told me,
13:43you will get strong if you eat it.
13:44And he'd tell me, keep telling me that.
13:48The local Viking speciality?
13:51Rotten shark.
13:52And you say rotten, do you mean rotten?
13:55What is that?
13:55It is actually rotten.
13:56They cut the best pieces of the shark
13:58and put it in a box.
14:00And they put the box into the sand.
14:03And let it be lying there for a couple of weeks.
14:07You just eat it slowly.
14:09Just let it be in your mouth for a long time.
14:11Enjoy the taste.
14:14Okay?
14:15It's a formidable scent.
14:22That is amazing.
14:24Whoa.
14:26It's like, it's like a blue cheese,
14:30but a hundred times more.
14:34Wow.
14:35Give him snuffs.
14:37Fortunately, there was something on hand
14:39to take the taste away.
14:42That is Black Death.
14:43Black Death and Rotten Shark.
14:45Right.
14:45I can't remember the last time I had those two together.
14:52That's amazing.
14:53I like that.
15:03Natural maritime resources
15:05led to successful coastal settlements.
15:09But as the population grew on Iceland,
15:12new settlers had to forge lives elsewhere,
15:15building farmsteads inland.
15:21I'm standing inside the ruins of a buyer
15:24for keeping livestock.
15:26These upright stones
15:26marked the individual stalls.
15:29There'd maybe be seven or eight animals
15:31on this side
15:32and the same again on the other.
15:33So maybe 14, 16 head of cattle
15:36and maybe sheep.
15:38In other parts of the island,
15:39they would have had pigs and goats.
15:42They would have brought up seaweed from the coast
15:45to feed the animals
15:46and the animals would also have grazed
15:48on whatever naturally occurring grasses
15:50were all around.
15:54The introduction of domestic animals to Iceland
15:57brought a whole new diet,
16:00but not necessarily a better one.
16:05That is what they put in the air
16:07and let it be just...
16:10They put it in the air
16:11where the wind was blowing,
16:12the rain was coming in.
16:14It's not been cooked?
16:14Not been cooked at all.
16:16It smells awful,
16:17but it is okay to eat.
16:19If you eat this, then...
16:20Is this a challenge?
16:21Then I think that you are born in Iceland,
16:24and have been a Viking in the past.
16:29There's something almost,
16:30there's something almost like the...
16:32Well, to be honest,
16:34flowers or fruit that has turned
16:37and gone back.
16:40To survive the winter,
16:42the Vikings preserved every single body part.
16:45Nothing went to waste.
16:48These will be the first testicles
16:50I've ever had in my mouth.
16:51Really?
16:52As far as I remember.
16:53Okay.
16:57That's a challenging flavour.
17:02That is a taste sensation.
17:06Blood pudding.
17:08Sheep's brain.
17:09Even the head were all consumed.
17:13That is my favourite.
17:15Let's try that.
17:18But that is the tongue.
17:20Okay.
17:20And that is the best muscle
17:22of the whole lamb.
17:24That comes from the meat,
17:26what they try in the wind.
17:29You like it?
17:30That's lovely, yeah.
17:31Yeah.
17:32It's very soft.
17:33Yeah.
17:33Yeah.
17:39I'm always saying to my kids
17:40that you've got to try things.
17:43And don't tell me you don't like it
17:46till you've tried it.
17:47So I felt on that basis
17:49I had to really give these things a go.
17:53I could easily understand
17:55why someone like Johannes,
17:57who's actually got a connection to this stuff,
17:59why you become addicted to it.
18:01And every now and again
18:02you would want to remind yourself
18:04about the past
18:06and you get it from something as strong.
18:09You know, the past is strong here.
18:12You can smell it and you can taste it.
18:14And I get that.
18:17If unreliable summers
18:19and freezing winters
18:20weren't bad enough,
18:22the Viking settlers
18:23had to contend with another,
18:25even deadlier threat.
18:27Not from the skies,
18:31but from deep beneath the earth.
18:37Iceland is a volcanic island
18:39and that carries its own risks.
18:42Scattered all across here
18:43is this material,
18:45which is pumice.
18:47Volcanic rock.
18:48Now that has come originally
18:49from Mount Hecla.
18:51You can see the white summit
18:53just nosing above the horizon.
18:55Hecla erupted famously in 1104.
18:58It was a catastrophic event.
19:01It scattered ash and debris
19:02over half the island.
19:04This farm and many others like it
19:06had to be abandoned.
19:12Viking farmers were tough folk,
19:15and undaunted by the occasional volcanic eruption,
19:19the early Icelandic communities thrived.
19:25And amazingly,
19:27they decided that even this very challenging land
19:30wasn't an end to their endeavours.
19:34Not when there was still a whole lot more ocean
19:36to be explored.
19:40And in 1000 AD,
19:42the unforgettably named Eric the Red
19:44led a fleet of 25 ships
19:46out into the North Atlantic
19:47in hopes of founding a new colony.
19:51They had reliable ships.
19:53They were renowned sailors.
19:55But even so,
19:56there are references
19:57to countless people washed overboard,
20:00ships driven onto rocks,
20:01plain old lost at sea.
20:06Eric the Red's expedition
20:08colonised what we now know
20:09as Greenland.
20:13But the Viking explorers
20:15still weren't done.
20:19Evidence of Viking camps
20:20has been found
20:21as far west as Newfoundland.
20:25And it's thought they even sailed
20:27down the eastern seaboard of America.
20:32The distance
20:33from Norway to Newfoundland
20:35is 4,500 miles.
20:38And we're talking about a time
20:39when that land mass
20:41was beyond the knowledge,
20:43far less the reach
20:44of any other Europeans.
20:46What those Vikings did
20:47then
20:48was simply staggering.
20:52No permanent colonies
20:54were ever established
20:55in North America.
20:56And eventually,
20:57the harsh extremes
20:59of Greenland
20:59also proved too much.
21:08But on Iceland,
21:09despite all the hazards,
21:11the Vikings went on
21:12to build a whole new society.
21:17And,
21:18without a king in charge,
21:19they had to find
21:20a whole new way
21:22to govern.
21:25The first settlement
21:26of the island
21:27was essentially lawless.
21:28But after two generations,
21:3036 of the leading farmers
21:32came together
21:33and formed an assembly
21:34to govern Iceland.
21:36It was called the Arthingi.
21:38It was founded in 930 AD
21:40and it met once a year
21:41for two weeks
21:42to make laws,
21:43to judge disputes
21:45and to appoint a law speaker
21:47whose responsibility it was
21:49to remember
21:49and recite the law.
21:55But this being Iceland,
21:58a special location
21:59was chosen
22:00for the assembly.
22:02And it's here
22:03where two of planet Earth's
22:04tectonic plates divide.
22:07So the Arthingi straddled
22:09the old world
22:10of Europe in the east
22:11and the new world
22:13of the west.
22:14And it seems strangely apt
22:16that those first Icelanders
22:17chose this place
22:19to form a new kind
22:21of government.
22:24That government
22:25met on this site
22:26for the next 800 years,
22:29well into the modern era.
22:36But what's incredible to me
22:38is that the 36 men
22:39who met here
22:40over a thousand years ago
22:42unknowingly gave birth
22:44to the oldest extant democracy
22:46in the whole world.
22:56Leaving Iceland
22:57and its proto-Republicans
22:59behind
22:59and returning south
23:01to Scandinavia
23:02and a Viking site
23:04close to Denmark's capital.
23:09Because while the Norwegians
23:11were busy creating colonies
23:12in the North Atlantic,
23:14back in the old world,
23:15things were also changing.
23:22In the middle of the 10th century,
23:24the Danes were being ruled
23:25by a new dynasty
23:27that was forging
23:28the beginnings
23:29of a nation-state.
23:34The new royal house
23:36was the Yelling dynasty
23:37and theirs is the most visible
23:39legacy of the Viking age
23:40because towards the end
23:41of the 10th century,
23:42they built an enormous amount
23:44of infrastructure.
23:45Towns were fortified.
23:47A huge earthen rampart
23:49was built across the neck
23:50of the Jutland Peninsula
23:51to protect against invaders
23:53from Germany.
23:54They also built numerous bridges
23:56and roads
23:57as well as these
23:58huge fortresses.
24:08This fortress
24:10is at Trelleborg,
24:11around 60 miles west
24:13of Copenhagen.
24:16It's an impressive symbol
24:18of royal power.
24:22All of the fortresses
24:23are built
24:24on the same ground plan,
24:26perfectly circular
24:27earthen bank,
24:28each topped
24:30with a timber palisade
24:31adding an additional
24:32eight metres in height.
24:34There are four entrances
24:36and then the interior.
24:38There were 16 buildings
24:40in there,
24:41four in each of the quadrants
24:42and in each case
24:43laid out in a square.
24:44But you don't have to try
24:45too hard to imagine
24:46what those buildings
24:47looked like
24:47because there's a perfectly
24:48good reconstruction
24:49just over there.
24:57It's thought each
24:58of these fortresses
24:59housed around 500
25:00trained warriors
25:01and their families.
25:03This was centralised power
25:05and it represented
25:07a watershed
25:08in Viking history.
25:12These fortresses
25:14were much more
25:14than just defensive positions.
25:16They were very visible
25:18statements of wealth
25:20and power
25:21and centralised control.
25:23The power
25:24was Harald Bluetooth,
25:25king of Denmark
25:26and he exercised
25:28total control
25:29over the people,
25:30the land
25:30and its resources.
25:32And his legacy
25:33was much more
25:33than constructions
25:35like this.
25:36He changed
25:36his country forever
25:37and he did that
25:39by converting his people
25:40to the modern religion
25:41called Christianity.
25:49Since the end
25:50of the Roman Empire,
25:51Christianity
25:52had dominated
25:53religious life
25:54right across
25:55mainland Europe.
25:58Scandinavia
25:59was the last outpost
26:00of the old
26:01pagan ways
26:03but not for long.
26:07At one of Denmark's
26:09oldest towns,
26:10Riba,
26:11archaeologists
26:12are making
26:12some startling
26:13discoveries.
26:17Graves of some
26:18of Scandinavia's
26:19very first
26:20Christians.
26:23I spent most
26:24of my years
26:24digging on
26:25prehistoric sites
26:26so it's genuinely
26:28remarkable for me
26:29to see
26:31such obvious
26:33remains
26:34in the ground.
26:35You can see
26:36the clear outlines
26:37of the graves,
26:38you can even see
26:38the remains
26:40of the coffins.
26:40what is it about
26:42the skeletons
26:43that says
26:44these are Christians?
26:46They are all
26:46east-west
26:50burials
26:50with the skull
26:53in the west end
26:54facing east
26:55as the Christian doctrine
26:57says
26:58you should face
26:59the upgoing sun
27:01on the judgment day.
27:03So when the trumpet
27:04sounds
27:05and Jesus
27:06comes back
27:06and they rise
27:08from the grave
27:08they're facing
27:09the direction
27:10he's coming from.
27:12The oldest ones
27:13are
27:14carbon dated
27:15to around
27:15850.
27:17That is actually
27:17some of the
27:18oldest Christian
27:20graves
27:20in Scandinavia.
27:22Right,
27:22so right early on
27:23in the Viking age
27:24you've got
27:26Christian Viking
27:27burials here.
27:29So in terms
27:31of official
27:31Danish history
27:33that children
27:34learn at school
27:35these finds
27:36here
27:36change that
27:38quite significantly.
27:39We actually
27:40now know
27:41we have a
27:41prolonged
27:43christening period
27:44much longer
27:45than we
27:45first thought
27:47meaning that
27:49pagans
27:50and Christians
27:50lived alongside
27:51each other
27:52maybe for
27:52200 years
27:54until
27:55Christianity
27:56completed
27:57took over.
28:02The Vikings
28:03here
28:03were some
28:04of the very
28:04first
28:05to adopt
28:06the new
28:06religion
28:08but it
28:09appears
28:09that these
28:10first Viking
28:11Christians
28:11still hung
28:12on to
28:13their
28:13traditional
28:13maritime
28:14burial
28:14rites.
28:16And then
28:17we have
28:17all these
28:18rivets
28:19set
28:20alongside
28:20the
28:21coffin
28:22edges.
28:23They're
28:23big as
28:24well.
28:24They're
28:24big pieces
28:25of metal.
28:25Yeah.
28:26We hope
28:26to find
28:26out
28:26if this
28:27is a
28:28part
28:28of a
28:28boat.
28:29So you
28:30might have
28:30within a
28:31Christian burial
28:31the suggestion
28:32of a
28:33boat burial
28:34or being
28:34buried
28:35with part
28:35of a
28:35boat.
28:36Yes.
28:37Of course
28:37being
28:38Christian
28:39in these
28:39early stages
28:40didn't mean
28:41that you
28:41should
28:42abandon
28:42all your
28:43old
28:43practices.
28:47So
28:48they
28:48may
28:48still
28:49be
28:49paying
28:50homage
28:51to
28:51Thor
28:52and Odin
28:52but when
28:53it suited
28:54they will
28:55just pray
28:56to Jesus.
28:57It's just
28:57amazing to
28:58think that
28:58these people
28:59weren't just
28:59Vikings and
29:01the product
29:02of the
29:02Viking
29:02tradition but
29:04they were
29:04Christian at
29:05the same
29:05time.
29:11Excavating
29:12these graves
29:12is like turning
29:13a bright light
29:14onto a few
29:15pages of
29:16history.
29:17They illuminate
29:18the moment
29:18when the
29:20Vikings are
29:20no longer
29:21just part
29:22of their
29:23own private
29:23Scandinavian
29:24world.
29:25They're
29:25becoming part
29:26of a much
29:27bigger picture.
29:28They're joining
29:28something more
29:29modern,
29:30more European
29:31and the catalyst
29:32for that
29:33is Christianity.
29:36All over
29:37Scandinavia
29:38Vikings began
29:39to turn
29:39to the new
29:40god
29:42and their
29:43conversion
29:43would signal
29:44the beginning
29:44of the end
29:45of the
29:45Viking Age.
29:54This
29:55religious
29:56revolution
29:56was endorsed
29:57around 970
29:58when Denmark's
30:00king Harald
30:01Blutu
30:01made Christianity
30:03his country's
30:04official religion.
30:08From here
30:09on in
30:09all Danes
30:11were expected
30:11to worship
30:12Christ
30:13and to
30:14celebrate
30:14the moment
30:15Harald
30:16Blutu
30:16installed
30:17a huge
30:18stone
30:18monument.
30:21Today
30:21it's one
30:22of Denmark's
30:23most precious
30:24national
30:25treasures.
30:32Because all
30:33the tourists
30:34have gone
30:34I've been
30:34allowed
30:35inside
30:35for some
30:36privileged
30:37access.
30:38The stone
30:39once upon
30:40a time
30:40was brightly
30:41painted
30:41red,
30:42white and
30:42blue as
30:43it happens
30:43but a
30:44thousand
30:46years of
30:47weathering
30:47and winter
30:48have faded
30:49it so that
30:50it's very
30:50indistinct
30:51now.
30:52Now I'll
30:53grant you
30:53it's almost
30:54impossible to
30:54make it out
30:55but what you
30:56are in fact
30:57looking at
30:58is this
30:59image here.
31:00It's Jesus
31:01Christ
31:02emerging from
31:03within a
31:03thorn bush
31:04and it's
31:06interpreted as
31:07a representation
31:08of Christianity
31:09humanity itself
31:11disentangling
31:12itself from
31:13amongst the
31:14thorns of
31:15the old
31:15pagan beliefs.
31:17This is
31:17actually the
31:18first page
31:19of a modern
31:20Danish passport
31:21so that this
31:23image is alive
31:23and relevant for
31:24Danes even
31:25today.
31:33the story goes
31:34that before his
31:35conversion
31:35King Harold
31:36witnessed a
31:37divine miracle
31:41a moment
31:42commemorated in
31:43some early
31:44Christian art
31:46here on
31:47these gilded
31:47plates set
31:49into the
31:49altar
31:50in this one
31:51you can see
31:52a priest
31:53performing a
31:54miracle
31:54he can
31:55extend his
31:56hand into
31:57the fire
31:58and then
31:59withdraw it
31:59apparently
32:00unhurt
32:01although he
32:02does seem
32:02to be wearing
32:03a giant
32:04oven glove
32:05then in this
32:06one we have
32:07Harold himself
32:08fine figure
32:09of a man
32:09being baptised
32:11while standing
32:12up to his
32:13waist in a
32:14barrel.
32:16This is all
32:17very nice
32:17but you can
32:18see it as
32:20PR spin
32:21stories to
32:22please the
32:23masses
32:23because Harold's
32:24conversion to
32:25Christianity
32:25more than
32:26anything else
32:27was a
32:27calculated
32:28political move.
32:33Christianity
32:34wasn't just
32:34a belief
32:35it was a
32:36social and
32:37political
32:37institution
32:38that dominated
32:40every other
32:41kingdom in
32:41Europe
32:45and Harold
32:46Bluetooth knew
32:47that joining
32:48the club
32:48would give him
32:49protection from
32:50aggressive neighbours
32:53because no other
32:54Christian ruler
32:55could now claim
32:56a legitimate
32:57right to
32:57attack him.
33:03the land to
33:04the south of
33:04Denmark was
33:05ruled by
33:05Otto the
33:06Great, Duke
33:07of Saxony,
33:08King of
33:08Germany and
33:09Italy and
33:10Holy Roman
33:10Emperor and
33:12he wanted to
33:12add Denmark to
33:13his list of
33:14territorial
33:15acquisitions but
33:17Harold's conversion
33:18made that
33:19impossible because
33:20now the Danes
33:20like everyone
33:21else were
33:22protected by the
33:23one true God
33:24and that
33:25wasn't all
33:25Christianity
33:27also helped
33:28Harold to
33:28rule as a
33:29king and
33:30all because of
33:31this, the
33:33Bible.
33:36Christianity
33:37gave kings a
33:38divine right to
33:39rule under a
33:40single God.
33:42The days when a
33:43brave warrior might
33:44rise to fight
33:45alongside the
33:46old gods through
33:47epic earthly
33:47adventures was
33:49over.
33:51For those being
33:52ruled, Christianity
33:53would change their
33:54lives forever because
33:56conversion to the
33:57one true God struck
33:59at the very heart of
34:00all that it had
34:01meant to be a
34:02Viking.
34:07Seeing the
34:08benefits of
34:09Harold's conversion,
34:10other Viking
34:10rulers started to
34:11follow suit.
34:13Within just a
34:14hundred years, most
34:15of Scandinavia was
34:16officially Christian.
34:21And as their
34:22ancient pagan roots
34:23were left behind,
34:25the modern nation
34:26states of Denmark,
34:28Norway and
34:28Sweden were being
34:30born.
34:33Christianity was
34:34central to that
34:35modern world.
34:36The king was
34:37Christian.
34:38The trading partners
34:39all across Europe
34:40were Christian.
34:41Christianity also
34:42dictated that the
34:43old pagan beliefs
34:44were to be stamped
34:45out, not just in
34:46Denmark, but all
34:47across the Viking
34:48world.
34:49In Norway, edicts
34:51were issued banning
34:52the performance of
34:53spells to awaken
34:55trolls.
34:56Strict no-no.
34:59Get that, please.
35:01There was also a
35:03raft of new laws.
35:04Oh, perfect.
35:06Meat could only be
35:07eaten on certain
35:08days.
35:09Rules for married
35:11life even dictated
35:12when you could and
35:13couldn't have sex.
35:20The old pagan gods
35:21had been like friends.
35:23Provided you made
35:24your sacrifices, then
35:25you felt entitled to
35:27help from Odin and
35:28Tor.
35:29But the new Christian
35:30god wasn't like that.
35:31He was more of a
35:32judge.
35:33If you misbehaved, he
35:35was the injured party
35:36and you'd be made to
35:37suffer in the next
35:38life.
35:39So instead of the
35:40promise of Valhalla, now
35:42Vikings learned to live
35:43in fear of eternal
35:44damnation.
35:46The whole focus of
35:48Viking life was
35:49shifting away from the
35:51here and now, the
35:52adventure, the heroic
35:53deed, the reputation.
35:56Instead, it became about
35:57hoping for life after
35:58death.
35:59And there's something
36:00about that that feels
36:02a little bit sad.
36:07The wild north that
36:10had been the backdrop
36:10for the entire Viking
36:12world was leaving its
36:13mysterious and ancient
36:15past behind and
36:17emerging into a much
36:18more European age.
36:23It was all very well,
36:25becoming Christian and
36:27exercising royal power.
36:29But to effectively run
36:31a state, you also
36:32needed an efficient
36:33administration and
36:35effective taxis as
36:36well.
36:40And the masters of
36:41that operated just
36:44across the North Sea,
36:46the Anglo-Saxons.
36:51Now I'm heading for
36:52England, because for
36:55the 9th century Danes,
36:57this country was more
36:58important than ever
37:00as an easy source of
37:02cash.
37:08England had been
37:09Christian for centuries
37:10and she was also
37:11streets ahead of her
37:12Viking counterparts when
37:14it came to commerce.
37:16Hiya.
37:18Hi, how are you doing?
37:19Not bad.
37:19Can I have four of these
37:20braver, please?
37:20All right, sir, thank you.
37:25Manufacturers and farmers
37:26ensured a steady flow of
37:29goods and currency.
37:34One, three, two.
37:37Relatively speaking, this
37:39was a rich trading nation.
37:41There was also a huge
37:42army of bureaucrats,
37:44administrators, to look
37:46after the land, to dispense
37:48the justice and to
37:49collect the tax.
37:51Thanks, sir.
37:52That's five pounds.
37:53Lovely.
37:55Okay.
37:56To put it mildly, she was
37:59rich and well-organised.
38:06For nearly a hundred
38:07years, between 866 and
38:10954 AD, Denmark had had
38:13a piece of the action,
38:15controlling the kingdom
38:16of York from the Danish
38:17city of Jorvik.
38:22Now, though, York was
38:24back under Anglo-Saxon
38:25control, so Harold
38:27Bluetooth's descendants had
38:28to resort to some very
38:30old-fashioned Viking
38:31tactics.
38:35Not that that just meant
38:37more raiding for slaves or
38:39monastic treasure.
38:40By the late 10th century,
38:42the Vikings had a new
38:43scheme to issue threats
38:46and demand tribute payments
38:48in cold, hard cash.
38:57England had the most
38:59well-organised and efficient
39:00currency anywhere in Western
39:02Europe at this time.
39:03They had up to 70 mints
39:06active at any one time,
39:08from York down to Exeter
39:09and Canterbury, and each of
39:11them would be making silver
39:12pennies, much like this one.
39:14So it's all solid silver,
39:16that's this unifying feature
39:18of them.
39:18They've all got the same
39:19worth.
39:19Precisely, yes.
39:23England had a sophisticated
39:24coinage system and well-organised
39:27tax collection.
39:29Denmark had neither.
39:32But King Harold's son and
39:34successor, Svein Forkbeer,
39:36didn't see the need for
39:37improvement.
39:41Not when you had neighbours
39:42who did it so well for you.
39:52Svein might have been baptised,
39:54but his veins ran with Viking
39:56blood.
39:57And when he came to the throne,
39:59he crewed up the Danish longships
40:01once more and set sail for
40:03England.
40:05So it's from around the 980s
40:08that the Vikings begin to go
40:10and attack and extract money
40:12from England again.
40:13And we see the English coins
40:15begin to flow into Scandinavia
40:16in massive quantity.
40:18How much money are the Vikings
40:20taking out of the country?
40:22A very great deal.
40:23We know from the Anglo-Saxon
40:24Chronicle that more than
40:25£200,000 was paid to them
40:27overall between 991 and
40:291018.
40:32Are the English producing
40:33coins precisely because they
40:36know the Vikings are coming
40:37and will want paying?
40:38Well, the most vivid example
40:40we have of this is this coin
40:42here.
40:43With all of these other types,
40:44you have the bust of the king
40:45and a cross.
40:46But in this case, you don't.
40:48You have the Lamb of God and
40:50you have the Holy Dove.
40:52This coinage is all about an
40:54invocation to God trying to get
40:57him to send the Vikings away
40:58and bring the English to safety.
41:02But invoking God on their coins
41:04didn't help.
41:05The more they paid the Vikings
41:07off, like any blackmailer,
41:09the more they came back
41:11with new demands.
41:14Realising that England was
41:15being bled dry, the English
41:17king decided to hit back.
41:24Now, the English king, æthelred.
41:27We generally know him as æthelred the
41:29Unready.
41:30And he was given that nickname,
41:32Unready, for a very good reason.
41:34In Old English, unready means
41:36ill-advised.
41:37And the policy of continually
41:39buying off the Vikings was a pretty
41:41poor plan.
41:42In 1002, he made a ruthless decision and
41:46ordered that all Danish men in England
41:48were to be killed.
41:49What happened next is known as the St. Bryce's Day
41:53Massacre.
42:00By the 11th century, England was home to
42:03thousands of born and bred ethnic Danes whose
42:06families had lived in England for generations.
42:10But they dressed differently and they stood
42:13out in society.
42:19Now, every one of them was a target for revenge.
42:25These are the skeletons of three men.
42:28They were excavated in Oxford during work in
42:32advance of a building project.
42:34There was three here on display, but 38
42:37skeletons were found together, and there's far
42:41too many to display here and now, so the
42:43rest are in their carefully numbered and
42:45catalogued cardboard boxes.
42:48All men, all, as far as we can tell, aged between
42:5216 and 25, certainly none of them older than 40.
42:57But what is particularly amazing about them is
43:01that they're all the victims of violent death.
43:04I almost don't know where to start.
43:06This individual here, you can tell that he's a big, robust
43:09character, but for all that, he's been felled initially by a
43:14blow to the back of the legs, like a sword swung at him from
43:18behind, and it's cut through the muscles, the flesh, the tendons, and
43:22finally through the bones themselves.
43:23So he's been felled like a big tree.
43:26But that's not the end of it for this guy.
43:29On this side of the pelvis, do you see that hole, that puncture wound, that's where the
43:35point of whatever it was, spear or sword, went in and out the other side.
43:40Huge damage to the skull, something like a sword or something sharp and heavy has caused
43:46this massive slicing blow, it's opened his head up like an egg.
43:51There are cut marks on the ribs.
43:53Too much has been done here.
43:55Any one of these wounds would kill the person.
43:58This is crazy violence.
44:00These are not the kinds of injuries are inflicted upon people who are standing up and fighting.
44:06All of these men, the three here and the rest in the boxes, were killed, butchered, while
44:13they were running away.
44:19A particularly grim piece of evidence suggests that all these men were victims of Ethelred's
44:24massacre in 1002.
44:29If you look at this one, you see this burning on the forehead, on the front of the skull,
44:34and then there's more burning here, on the right hand.
44:39He's been in a fire somewhere, after death.
44:42And some of the other bodies show evidence of burning as well.
44:49An account of the killings from Oxford, where these skeletons were found.
44:54records that a group of Danes sought sanctuary in a church, to no avail.
45:02The local Anglo-Saxons simply burnt it to the ground, with everyone inside.
45:08So it's possible, just possible, that this and they were some of those who sought refuge
45:14in a church a thousand years ago, for all the good it did them.
45:21King Ethelred's desperate action, though, was a failure.
45:25The Viking raids continued unabated.
45:29And soon, England was on its knees.
45:33For the Danish king, it was the chance of a lifetime.
45:39In 1013, Svein Forkbeard launched a full-scale invasion of England, and it worked.
45:45The English king, Ethelred the Unready simply ran away, abandoning the English crown to the Dane.
45:52But it turned out to be a very short reign.
45:59Five weeks later, Forkbeard was dead, but by his side was his young son, called Canute.
46:07Canute.
46:07Now, there's a name we're all familiar with.
46:12Canute was grandson of Harold Bluetooth and son of Forkbeard, a continuation of the Yelling Royal dynasty.
46:24Canute returned to Denmark, but he kept his eye firmly on the English crown.
46:33Just two years later, he was back with 200 ships and 10,000 men, and after some bloody fighting, he
46:41became king of all England.
46:48Everyone knows the story about King Canute and the sea, how he ordered that his throne be taken down onto
46:54the beach.
46:55And then he sat there, and as the tide came in, he told the waves to turn back, and of
47:00course they didn't.
47:01And his feet got wet, and he ended up looking a bit foolish, a bit arrogant.
47:06But that wasn't what he intended at all.
47:09What happened that day was a pure PR stunt.
47:13His subjects, his followers, were supposed to see that he was just a man, and that only God had the
47:19power to control the sun and the moon and the tides.
47:24In conquering England with an axe, Canute had shown his Viking roots, but he was also determined to prove he
47:32was a devout Christian king.
47:35Combining both powerful traditions, he would go on to become ruler of an empire, a member of the European royal
47:44elite.
47:48And when he died, his tomb was no Viking longship beneath a grassy mound.
47:54Instead, it was a cathedral, so that nowadays we hardly think of him as a Viking at all.
48:08Originally founded by the Anglo-Saxons over a thousand years ago,
48:12Winchester Cathedral houses tombs of the great and the good,
48:15centuries of England's most worthy.
48:24In medieval England, a more celebrated,
48:27a more Christian location for your mortal remains could hardly be wished for.
48:31So for a king who was born Viking, whose heritage was pagan, and who was viewed as a brutal conqueror
48:38of England,
48:38you might think this is an unlikely final resting place, but the truth is, by Canute's death in 1035,
48:46he was known as Canute the Great.
48:54Canute's invasion of England could be viewed as the ultimate Viking expedition,
48:59a rite of passage for a true hero of the sagas.
49:06Though tradition had it that after your adventures, you were meant to return home.
49:14For most Vikings, that meant farming a plot of land at the end of a year,
49:18a fjord, but Canute was king, and his bones are inside that box up there,
49:25or possibly that one, or that one, any of these.
49:31The truth is, we don't actually know where his mortal remains really are,
49:36because during the English Civil War, around 600 years after his death,
49:41parliamentarian round-head soldiers used the bones inside these reliquaries
49:45to smash out what they regarded as the frankly idolatrous stained-glass window
49:50above the cathedral entrance.
49:52A bunch of killjoys.
50:00Soon after, the good people of Winchester collected up the glass and rebuilt the window,
50:06although the colourful patchwork ended up more modernist than medieval.
50:16The bones used to smash the windows were collected up too,
50:20and returned to the reliquaries, but like the window, in a slightly random way.
50:27So, although we don't know where his bones actually are,
50:31we hope and suspect he's up there somewhere.
50:42Canute's ambition had extended beyond ruling England.
50:45He was soon king of the Scottish islands, Denmark, Norway, and parts of Sweden too.
50:55He'd created a Viking empire.
51:06From England, I've come south, to Austria, right in the heart of Europe.
51:12Because Canute wasn't just a northern ruler, but an early European statesman.
51:21Canute was smart.
51:23He knew that more trade across Europe meant more taxes to fill his coffers.
51:28So he set about standardising the whole European economy.
51:35Now, you might think of the Euro as a modern concept, but it's not really.
51:40And in the 11th century, it was neither France nor Germany that was the centre for monetary union.
51:46It was England.
51:50First of all, Canute standardised Scandinavian and English coins,
51:56so that there was a common currency.
51:58And then, it appears that right across his empire,
52:02the ounce, the weight that was used for measuring gold and silver,
52:05was altered to match up with the ounce of Byzantium,
52:09of the Byzantine Empire.
52:11And that was at a time when Constantinople was not only the largest,
52:14but also the wealthiest city on earth.
52:18Canute was carefully integrating his empire into a medieval single European market.
52:29Canute the Great was a player on the world stage.
52:32And here in Vienna, there's an incredible object that shows us how influential he was,
52:39and how far he had come from his Viking roots.
52:44A decade after becoming king,
52:47Canute attended the coronation of the man who ruled most of Central Europe,
52:51the Holy Roman Emperor.
52:57And this glorious object is what he was crowned with.
53:02It's called De Reis Crona, the Imperial Crown.
53:05And back in 1027, watching this being placed on the Emperor's head
53:10was the hot ticket of the season.
53:23It's decorated with 144 emeralds, sapphires and amethysts.
53:31Back then, the technique of cutting facets into precious stones was unknown.
53:38Instead, they were polished into these smooth shapes.
53:42They look a bit like boiled sweets, to be honest,
53:46although a lot more expensive.
53:48And they're then mounted to let light shine through them.
54:07The final touch are the four picture plates,
54:11which depict messages from the Old Testament.
54:16And most important, most tellingly for our story,
54:19is this one on the corner.
54:22It shows Jesus Christ, enthroned as the Lord of Hosts.
54:28And above his head, in red enamel,
54:31are the words in Latin,
54:34Per mi regis regnant.
54:36By me, kings rule.
54:40And this idea, this concept of divinely ordained kingship,
54:45was something Canute was very enthusiastic about.
54:52When the Holy Roman Emperor was crowned,
54:55Canute the Great walked as part of the imperial procession.
55:02And afterwards, the Emperor even arranged for his own son
55:06to marry Canute's daughter,
55:08to cement a powerful political alliance.
55:13Canute's attendance at that coronation showed that he was a major European player.
55:19He had arrived.
55:21And he clearly believed that he was the equal of the Holy Roman Emperor.
55:25Because when he got home, he had one of these made for himself.
55:35Canute's reign lasted less than two decades.
55:38But in that time, he had utterly changed his Scandinavian world.
55:44He had been born a Viking.
55:46But he died a European.
55:51Canute himself had left four children.
55:53And his empire was divided.
55:57Norway, Denmark and Sweden soon found their own new rulers.
56:15It was the end for the Great Yelling dynasty.
56:18And with it, the entire Viking Age.
56:25But by then, Scandinavia was no longer a remote, pagan backwater.
56:30The violent, plundering men from the north had become colonisers.
56:35Christians.
56:36Nation and empire builders.
56:44It had been an incendiary time in European history.
56:47But it had burnt itself out.
56:50Nonetheless, the impact of the Vikings on modern Europe is inescapable.
56:55The politics, the economics, the national and religious identities were forged, at least in part, by their exploits.
57:07The Vikings had raided and pillaged coastlines across northern Europe.
57:15That set out on journeys beyond the knowledge of any other Europeans.
57:22Colonised uninhabited lands.
57:26And traded goods from the distant empires of the Far East.
57:32In little more than two centuries, the Vikings had expanded the Western world, voyaging from Newfoundland in the west to
57:40Constantinople in the east.
57:45A world far, far bigger than even they could have imagined possible.
57:52And they're still with us today, in our towns and cities.
57:56In our culture, in our language and in our blood.
58:01And in the very existence of the modern nation states of northern Europe.
58:07But that's not what we remember, or why.
58:11The truth is, the myth and the legend of them, the excitement and the adventure, is all there in the
58:18sound of one word.
58:21Vikings.
58:21Vikings.
58:26Unearthing a monument in Suffolk to rival Stonehenge.
58:30Digging for Britain is here on BBC4 next.
58:33Then Vic and Bob are ghost hunting and George Ezra guests on their big night out.