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Short Stuff: Ivar The Boneless · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck and this is short stuff, just the two
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: of us, um with the Viking hordes. We've taken a
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: bunch of mushrooms and we're entering berserker mode. Now. Yeah, man,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: this I remember. That was one of the early, early,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: early stuff you should know episodes, was our episode on Vikings.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: That was one of the great facts of the podcast
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: in the early days. Berserker in the mushrooms. Yeah yeah.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine seeing a Viking with the battle axe
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: on mushrooms coming at you going crazy? Yeah? And I
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: know I think I mentioned it recently, but the guy
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: who did The Lighthouse, his his next movie is a
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Viking movie. I just that's a good reason to build
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: a time machine so we don't have to wait around
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: for that. Yeah, Robert Egger's boy, that's gonna be good.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: And I bet it's gonna be crazy. Yeah, I can't
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: wait because the Vikings were crazy. And if you watch
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: the History Channel show Vikings have not I haven't either,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: but it was pretty popular. It ran for about six seasons.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: But there was a character in their name I have
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: are the Boneless uh And on the show, he was
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: a ruthless guy. He was sort of the leader on
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: the battlefield, and he had a medical condition on the
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: show that made his legs useless basically, so he would
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: crawl around and he would ride on chariots and stuff,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: and he had crutches. Um. But he led what was
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: known as the Great Heathen Army on that show, and
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: he was actually a real person. But there's a lot
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: more mystery about who he was and whether or not
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: he even had this condition in real life. Yeah, so
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: I've are the boneless one of the great all time
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: nicknames ever. Um. But he he does pop up here
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: there in historic documents that chronicle the Vikings. Um. And
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: we're working from a house Stuff Works article that I
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: think makes a great point or one of the historians
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: that they interviewed very cast historians in this article, which great, Um.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: But this this historian makes a really great point that
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: first off, let's let's kind of get across that the
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Vikings and everything we understand about the Vikings were written
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: by our historic or cultural ancestors here in the States
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: and in the US or the UK and Australia and Canada, um,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: who were the enemy and the sufferers at the hands
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: of the Vikings, so they didn't paint the most flattering
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: portrait of the Vikings around. And um, you know, you
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: can make a really good case that the Vikings were
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: no more violent or terrifying than anybody else. Um, during
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: the Medieval Age, it was a violent time. Like we're
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: not saying they were, you know, just super chill dudes
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: who had just hang around and and drink beer. But
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: it was just a violent time, like everybody was killing everybody. Charlemagne,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: they you know, they point out this article ordered the
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: beheading of Sacks since and he was in one day.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: He was the Holy Roman Emperor at the time too,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: not a Viking. Yeah, so there were plenty of violent
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: cultures at the time, and this whole image of these
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: barbarians that we get. You're right, it's because it was
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: written by people who were their victims. And I'm sure
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: they were pretty scared, right exactly, Um and again rightfully,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: So it's not that the Vikings weren't violent, it's just
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: that everybody was violent. And I feel like that was
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: such a mind blowing, paradigm altering part, Chuck, that we
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: should take a break real quick. Let's do it all right,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: late ninth century. Ninth I said that weirdly, uh, something
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: came out called the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, which was this,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: uh sort of a history book. It was a collection
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: of records about English history and it was you know,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: update over over the next couple of hundred years. And
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: in that book we do find a notation for the
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Great Heathen Army or the Great Army, which were the
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Scandinavian invaders in this big Viking army basically that hit
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: the British Isles and eight right, So, um, this is
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: like the Viking Horde that you think of. Apparently, this
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Great Heathen Army, which again they called it the Great
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Army too, but I'm not going to call it anything
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: but the Great Heathen Army because it's just so much cooler. Um.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: This was a number of different armies from different Scandinavian
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: lands that kind of um all work together. But over
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: the course of more than a decade of invasions and
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: conquerings and all that, they were just this kind of
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: fluid group um that collectively were called the Great Huthan
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: arm And it wasn't just one single solitary mass of
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: the same people over thirteen years who invaded England. So
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: they are mentioned in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, and Ivar
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: himself has mentioned I believe in the Anglo Anglo Saxon
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Chronicle as well, right, yeah, I think so it was Um, Well,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: at least the brother of Ivar was mentioned with two rs,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: which was would have been the North spelling of it.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: So it's the brother of Ivar has mentioned. Therefore Ivar
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: has mentioned, right, and it actually makes Ivar seemed that
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: much more important if you're you're saying that somebody is
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: a brother of somebody else, you know what I'm saying. Otherwise,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: who cares? So I guess that's the only time that
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: he pops up in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle. It's more
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: that he's associated as a leader um of the Great
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Heathen Army in the Anglo sex and Chronicles. So we
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: have a contemporary piece of writing that basically chronicles, at
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: least in part, the Great Heathen Army coming from the
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: North and messing stuff up pretty bad. Um. And Ivar
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: is in there, okay, right, And he's also mentioned in
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: some Irish records. The Annals of Ulster really cool, great read,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: and they reveal a Viking by the name of Ivar
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: or Emar, who was the king of the Northman and
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: all Britain and Ireland when he died in eighty three.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: And the thing here is, we just don't know if
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: that is the same person, but chances are it probably was. Yeah,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: I think most historians of that period in that region
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  Speaker 1: tend to think that this is the same Ivar. Think
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: the timing potentially works out. Um, And yeah, it's possible
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: there's more than one Ivar. But if he was a
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: leader of the Heathen Army in the Anglo Saxon Chronicles
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: and the leader of all the Great Army um in
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: the Ulster Annals or the Annals of Ulster, why not
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: it could be the same guy. Doesn't really matter if
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: it's not at this point really so, uh yeah, they
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: think that the same You know, it's England and Ireland.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: They're close enough to where he was probably just conquering
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: everywhere he went. But none of this has anything to
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: do with his boneless nickname um that he that you
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: know that we hear on the TV show. Uh So,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: now we need to talk about the Icelandic sagas which
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: were transcribed in the thirteenth and centuries. These are pros narratives.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: These aren't history books. These are novels basically. Yeah, and
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: they were written um by the descendants of these same
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: vice king conquerors, who would have revered and looked up
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: to and probably exaggerated the legends of these guys. But
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: it's apparently in the Icelandic saga's and they've been compared
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: to like historic novels, like definitely based on real things,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: but just maybe a little more overblown. So you got
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: to take him a bit with a grain of salt.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: But apparently it was in the Icelandic saga's that um
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Ivar gets his boneless nickname. I guess that's boneless is
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: just because all I can think of his chicken. Sure,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: you know, yeah, boneless wing is awesome. Uh So this
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: is where you know, it could have been some transcription problem,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: like boneless could have met legless maybe, which you know
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: that would make sense of if you've watched the TV show.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: He wasn't legless, but he at least didn't have the
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: use of his legs, so they may have called someone
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: with that disability legless at the time. But Chuck, there's
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: another potential transcription error that makes the History Channel interpretation
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: UM really unique or singular. I guess you could say, okay,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: let's hear it. So there's um two Latin words that
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: medieval transcriptionists may have UM mistaken. One is exos, which
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: means boneless. One is xo suss, which means detestable. So
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: it's possible that Ivar's nickname really was i've are the
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: detestable or i've are the hated, and that some medieval
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: monk got it wrong and he became i've are the boneless,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: and then centuries after that some executive producers for History
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Channel decided to actually take that literally and create this
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  Speaker 1: character i've are the boneless, who did not have the
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: use of his legs. Even probably the likely story is
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: this great conqueror probably did not have no use of
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: his legs, would be my guess, which makes it UM
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: kind of funny and TV way right. But from what
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: the historians are saying, it just it just doesn't jibe
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: with the Viking culture. That's just probably not the case.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Although they do say it's possible the History Channel's interpretation
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: is correct, it's also it seems to be doubtful. You
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: never know, you never know. Uh, that's what this is
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: when we need the way Back machine, but it's in
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: the shop right now. Unfortunately. Yeah, we uh, we should
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: do a go fund me to pay that bill. We should,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: although I think we might be convicted of fraud if
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: we actually collect any of those funny I think, So
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: you got anything else? I got nothing else? Short stuff
• 10:35
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• 10:41
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