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- S1 E1 - The Vikings in Medieval HistoryNovember 22, 202332minHostile Christian sources demonize the Vikings; Muslim accounts render them exotic; and recent revisionist historians downplay the impact of Norse raids. Archeological finds such as ship burials, coin hoards, and human remains, combined with close study of the Norse sagas of Iceland, can enrich and balance our understanding of Scandinavia's place in medieval history.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E2 - Land and People of Medieval ScandinaviaNovember 22, 202330minScandinavia's landscape shaped its culture. Dense forestation led to small, close-knit communities, skill in woodworking, and to sailing as the primary means of long-distance transport. Long, harsh winters engendered skill in cold-weather travel, a unique cosmology, and the emergence of great halls where storytelling and hospitality traditions were born.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E3 - Scandinavian Society in the Bronze AgeNovember 22, 202330minThe physical evidence, expertly interpreted, paints a compelling picture of the Bronze Age in Scandinavia (2300 - 450 B.C.) Viking ancestors traded Arctic goods, amber, and slaves in exchange for foreign copper and tin to produce impressive bronze objects. A gilt bronze sun chariot, rock tracings, and other material culture indicate the beginnings of the Norse pantheon.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E4 - Scandinavia in the Celtic and Roman AgesNovember 22, 202330minScandinavia fed off of trade with the Celts (450 - 50 B.C.) importing improved cart, ship, and metalworking technology. Contact with Rome (c. 50 B.C. - A.D. 400) enriched the upper classes with fine silver, ceramics, and glass. More ominously, Scandinavians returning from Roman military service brought back advanced weapons and armor.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E5 - The Age of MigrationsNovember 22, 202331minAs the Roman political order collapsed in Western Europe, Scandinavians poured in: Anglo-Saxons in England, Franks in Gaul, Swedish Goths in Italy and Spain, Danes in Frisia. Cultural ties were so close that Scandinavian legends celebrated legendary West Germanic figures for centuries. But Christianization and linguistic change transformed these immigrants into targets for Viking raids.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E6 - The Norse GodsNovember 22, 202331minNorse religion was integral to Scandinavian life. A creation myth tells of primeval frozen wastes and sacred trees. The pantheon contained gods of war (Odin), sky (Thor), and fertility (Frey and Freya). The afterlife in Valhalla and other great halls was a reward for great deeds. Worship of these gods, and veneration of their ancestors, united communities and separated them from Christendom.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E7 - Runes, Poetry, and Visual ArtsNovember 22, 202330minAs a non-urbanized culture, Viking society expressed its visual genius in elaborate woodcarving and intricate jewelry, not architecture. Gods were represented by charming cult statues and contacted through magical runic drawings. Without writing, great myths and legends were transmitted in great halls by poets, playing a harp and composing spontaneous, witty, and metrical verse.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E8 - Legendary Kings and HeroesNovember 22, 202331minThe Epic of Beowulf (c. 675 - 725) and The Saga of Hrolf Kraki (c. 13th century) look back to the 6th century when legendary kings of Denmark and Sweden ruled from great halls and won great victories, albeit without the Viking longships of the 9th and 10th centuries. These figures were role models and inspirations to the sea kings and territorial rulers of the Viking Age.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E9 - A Revolution in ShipbuildingNovember 22, 202331minWithout the advances in shipbuilding that occurred in the 9th and 10th centuries, Viking success in raiding and trading would have been impossible. Viking vessels evolved from the earliest paddleboats to the great cargo and war ships that carried Viking goods and armies farther and faster than anyone else in the Medieval world.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E10 - Warfare and Society in the Viking AgeNovember 22, 202330minSwords, bows and arrows, javelins, spears, and axes made up the Viking arsenal, but their greatest weapon was unit cohesion. Trained since youth, they were expert in winter travel and foraging, the building of fortifications, and coordinated attack in advanced formations like the "shield wall."Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E11 - Merchants and Commerce in the Viking AgeNovember 22, 202331minFrom 675 - 840, Western economic and political activity revived, fueled by improved agriculture, growing towns and monasteries, and renewed Mediterranean trade. But it was the need for slaves in the Islamic world that led Vikings to pioneer extensions of this trade, southwest to Islamic Spain and southeast to Constantinople and Baghdad.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E12 - Christendom on the Eve of the Viking AgeNovember 22, 202330minThe Carolingian Empire, which had actually conquered Germanic peoples under Charlemagne, possessed the economic and military strength to challenge the Vikings. But partition in 843 and civil conflicts between the nobles weakened Carolingian defenses, even as Frankish prosperity invited Viking raids.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E13 - Viking Raids on the Carolingian EmpireNovember 22, 202331minVikings raided the Carolingian Empire throughout the 9th century, disrupting trade routes and depleting imperial coffers through the extraction of tribute (Danegeld). Local vassals stepped into the power void and claimed fiefs, while veteran Viking companies put down roots in the empire at fortified camps and bases. The axis of trade shifted away from the weakened empire, towards Scandinavia.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E14 - The Duchy of NormandyNovember 22, 202331minIn 911, Frankish king Charles the Simple faced the Viking sea king Hrolf and a massive Viking fleet en route to Paris. With no money to offer as ransom, Charles offered Hrolf the land around the town of Rouen. Hrolf's warriors, and their families and descendants, forged the powerful feudal state of Normandy that would later found two great feudal kingdoms.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E15 - Viking Assault on EnglandNovember 22, 202331minVikings had been merchants in England for centuries when the first Viking raid destroyed Lindisfarne in 793. Viking raids climaxed in the Great Army's methodical ravaging of southern England and the Midlands from 865 - 878. They conquered three English kingdoms, but the fourth, led by Alfred the Great, fortified itself militarily and fiscally, preserving its independence.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E16 - The DanelawNovember 22, 202331minMany Danes settled in the northern areas of England conquered by the Great Army. In the 9th and 10th centuries, Anglo-Danish rule brought lasting changes in language, customs, and legal institutions. But in adopting Christianity and becoming a landed class, these Danes also surrendered their Viking identity and, with shocking docility, accepted the rule of the kings of Wessex by 954.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E17 - Viking Assault on IrelandNovember 22, 202331minIn 432 - 433, St. Patrick brought Roman Christianity to Ireland, but not Roman government. So in the Viking Age, Ireland possessed great, learned, clan-supported monasteries surrounded by chieftain-led tribes. Norse Vikings devastated the monasteries, dominated the river systems and coastal ports, and co-opted local chieftains, transforming Ireland into a hub for the slave trade to Muslim Spain.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E18 - Norse Kings of Dublin and IrelandNovember 22, 202332minIn 917, Hiberno-Norse kings reestablished rule over Dublin and its hinterland, and many key ports. With Norse immigration in decline, however, they lacked the numbers to dominate the island. Cooperation, intermarriage, and assimilation marked Norse-Irish relations. Irish king Mael Sechlainn's victory over the Norse at Tara in 980 cemented their secondary position thereafter.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E19 - The Settlement of IcelandNovember 22, 202331minIceland filled with settlers between 870 and 930. Some sought relief from an overcrowded Norway, some sought free land, and others desired freedom from the tyrannical Norwegian king Harald Finehair. On this remote, barely habitable island just below the Arctic Circle, a purely Scandinavian experiment in self-government produced a remarkably independent society of free farmsteads.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E20 - Iceland - A Frontier RepublicNovember 22, 202331minThe rugged terrain of Iceland necessitated egalitarianism. As men left home to hunt, fish, and tend pastures, women ran the households, handled legal settlements, and even acted as delegate chieftains. Law was informal, and justice "face to face," adjudicated by a trusted member of the community. These traditions persisted for centuries, even after timber depletion and civic unrest.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E21 - Skaldic Poetry and SagasNovember 22, 202330minIcelanders preserved memories of their Scandinavian homeland and transmitted tales of the ancient Germanic gods through recited poems, consistent with an oral culture in which even law was recited publicly from memory. From the 10th century onward, literature became ever more ornate and sophisticated, culminating in the great collections of Norse poetry and mythology, and the prose sagas.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E22 - Western Voyages to Greenland and VinlandNovember 22, 202332minThe daunting climate and the ultimate paucity of marketable trade goods prevented Greenland from becoming a viable settlement, while Vinland settlements foundered due to hostile Algonquins and remoteness from the Scandinavian homeland. The American fascination with these voyages reveals a sentiment the Icelanders would have appreciated, a yearning for connection with an ancient past.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E23 - Swedes in the Baltic Sea and RussiaNovember 22, 202330minBy the 8th century, intrepid Swedes had moved into the Russian forest zones, acquiring slaves to trade with Khazar middlemen that controlled the Volga. These Swedes, or Rus, braved rapids and marauding steppe-peoples, adapting to a foreign land and adopting some indigenous customs and institutions. The market towns they established formed the core areas of future Russian states.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E24 - The Road to ByzantiumNovember 22, 202330minThe shift in Swedish trading activity from the Volga in the east to the Dneiper in the west was also a shift away from the Islamic world and towards a Byzantine Christian civilization that greatly impressed the Swedes. The Rus became mercenary allies and trading partners with the emperors in Constantinople and imported imperial institutions into an incipient Russian kingdom.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E25 - From Varangians into RussiansNovember 22, 202331minPrince Vladimir of Kiev's momentous conversion to Orthodox Christianity in 989 was revolutionary. The Rus adopted literacy and the Slavic language, imported Byzantine builders to create masonry churches, shifted patronage from pagan poetry to Christian works, created cavalry and a military elite, and converted a slave-trade economy into an agricultural economy.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
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