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Who were the Vikings? · Stuff You Should Know

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  Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
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  Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know
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  Speaker 1: from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to
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  Speaker 1: the Super Weird Podcast. This is a weird podcast, not
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  Speaker 1: necessarily for you guys, but it is for Chuck and I. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: I'm Josh Clark. That's Chuck Bryant. Let's get back to
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  Speaker 1: what this is a weird podcast. Yes, to explain, our
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• 0:35
  Speaker 1: gonna be super fancy and like a real studio. But
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  Speaker 1: right now we are actually recording in some odd office
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  Speaker 1: that has windows. Yeah, this is really weird. This's the
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  Speaker 1: first time we've recorded a show outside the regular studio,
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  Speaker 1: and um, it might sound a little different. Jerry has
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  Speaker 1: explained that there's something called room tone, and it's different
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  Speaker 1: from room to room. Jerry just made that up. I
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  Speaker 1: bought it. Plus, it looks like the walls are closing
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  Speaker 1: in on us. We're actually a lot closer than a
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  Speaker 1: little cramped. This is just odd. So if if we
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  Speaker 1: seem a little angrier than usual, it's because of the
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  Speaker 1: stupid room So uh, I think we're gonna call this,
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  Speaker 1: what do we determine? I voted for the Reconstruction Tapes
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  Speaker 1: of the Reconstruction Era, and I made the joke saying
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  Speaker 1: that we should call it the Eponymous Era because that
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  Speaker 1: was a much better album. But that was just the
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  Speaker 1: greatest hits collection by Orim. No it wasn't. It was,
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  Speaker 1: well it was, That's why it was so good. All right,
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  Speaker 1: So what's your witty intro? Or is this all just
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  Speaker 1: out the door? It's way off the door, buddy, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: you see it, yes, leaving Chuck, Josh. Have you ever
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  Speaker 1: met a Viking? Uh? No, I haven't. Well, you know
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  Speaker 1: the football team, right, Minnesota Vikings. Yeah, I've seen them.
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  Speaker 1: You can tell their helmet a mile away because they
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  Speaker 1: have those horns on the side, which are very Viking.
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  Speaker 1: Se No, not true, Yes it is. Uh. It turns
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  Speaker 1: out a bunch of archaeologists were um digging around, uh,
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  Speaker 1: the north, the Nordic area Scandinavia, which includes what Sweden, Denmark,
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  Speaker 1: the Netherlands and yeah I think Finland, sure, Norway too,
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  Speaker 1: can you forget the Norwegians? Um And they found an
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  Speaker 1: ancient helmet with some horns on it, and this was
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  Speaker 1: before we had um reliable carbon dating technology and they said, well,
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  Speaker 1: it's a Viking, but it turns out that it was
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  Speaker 1: probably from the pre Viking era, right, Well that's when
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  Speaker 1: it was popularized in the in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
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  Speaker 1: You know, the the enormous woman would come out with
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  Speaker 1: her bosom very prominent and uh, you know, a helmet
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  Speaker 1: with with horns or wings. And it turns out they
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't have worn this because these guys were or dedicated
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  Speaker 1: to battling as efficiently and as brutally as any group
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  Speaker 1: that's ever sprung up on the global map. Yes, they
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  Speaker 1: were very good at what they do. And I just
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  Speaker 1: want to point out this is a listener request, a
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  Speaker 1: very recent one actually that piqued our interest, and this
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  Speaker 1: is from David d from Waterloo. He said, can you
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  Speaker 1: do something on vikings since you've covered Ninja and um,
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  Speaker 1: what else did we cover? Pirates? He said, I hear vikings.
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  Speaker 1: You stuff warriors called berserkers who would eat magic mushrooms
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  Speaker 1: before sending them into battle. And uh, we're going to
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  Speaker 1: talk about that, so stay tuned. It's a teaser. So
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  Speaker 1: chuck there there does seem to be a lot of
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  Speaker 1: um misconception around vikings. But one of the things I
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  Speaker 1: took from this article by the Grabs their a Grabanowski
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  Speaker 1: he writes good stuff he does, um, was that there's
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  Speaker 1: also a lot of accuracy in the history associated with
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  Speaker 1: with Vikings, Like they were extremely brutal, they would indiscriminately
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  Speaker 1: kill men, women, children. Um. So let's let's peel this apart.
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  Speaker 1: Let's separate fact from fiction as it were. Right, Yes,
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  Speaker 1: when were they around? H josh? The Vikings were prominent
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  Speaker 1: in uh Europe in the ninth through the eleven centuries,
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  Speaker 1: commonly known as the Age of the Viking. Right, and Um,
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  Speaker 1: you tend to think of Vikings as Nordic. They were
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  Speaker 1: sure they were from Scandinavia, which are the countries we
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  Speaker 1: listed off earlier. But this These weren't communities of Vikings.
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  Speaker 1: Vikings were like a job. Yeah, it was a profession, basically,
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  Speaker 1: a you were a professional conqueror. Yeah, because Scandinavians are
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  Speaker 1: also farmers and um did many other things weavers, and uh,
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  Speaker 1: they weren't just Vikings. It's not interchangeable. Viking and Scandinavians
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  Speaker 1: not interchangeable. Weaving has never really been a lucrative job.
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  Speaker 1: You know, it's not not even back then. But yeah,
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  Speaker 1: so there was a group that that were dedicated to
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  Speaker 1: moving out of the North Lamb downward into Europe. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: because Scandinavia it wasn't a very hospitable place. I imagine
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  Speaker 1: it still isn't, you know. Lots of ice, lots of
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  Speaker 1: winter snow, not that much land, and the land that
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  Speaker 1: is available isn't all arable. So yeah, they went and
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  Speaker 1: took it, you know, like broadwater. Uh. There was also
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  Speaker 1: evidence that population pressure led to Viking plundering, yeah, because
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  Speaker 1: they started to grow and then obviously as they grew,
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  Speaker 1: they needed more things. And this is before they started
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  Speaker 1: spreading out, because eventually they would do that, but at
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  Speaker 1: first they would just go plunder and then return home
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  Speaker 1: to Viking land Scandinavia. You said that they were around
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  Speaker 1: from the ninth of the eleventh centuries, right, So there
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  Speaker 1: were Scandinavian cultures before the ninth century. There were Scandinavian
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  Speaker 1: cultures after the ninth century, so two years basically, um,
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  Speaker 1: this population explosion forced this group out to go get
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  Speaker 1: more resources, to more conquering, to conquer more land, and
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  Speaker 1: then the end point at the eleventh century actually generally
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  Speaker 1: represents the adoption of Christianity. The Vikings did readily. Yeah
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  Speaker 1: once you once you converts, like, you can't plunder any longer,
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  Speaker 1: at least not you know, only plundering in the name
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  Speaker 1: of God. And Vikings were were pagans pre pre Christianity, right,
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  Speaker 1: and which also means that they worshiped the pantheon of gods.
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  Speaker 1: There Um, their religion was actually highly personalized. There was
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  Speaker 1: no central church in any of the Scandinavian cultures and
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  Speaker 1: their their religion was actually highly personal Uh. It evolved
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  Speaker 1: in relative isolation without a central church and any of
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  Speaker 1: these Scandinavian cultures. Um, but there was a a pantheon
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  Speaker 1: of gods that were recognizable across these cultures generally, right,
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  Speaker 1: two groups should we talk about them real quick? Yeah, Uh,
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  Speaker 1: the s and the Veneer were the two groups of gods,
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  Speaker 1: and the scre were very warlike. That's Odin and Thor,
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  Speaker 1: and then the Assir were kind of like hippies like
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  Speaker 1: fertility goddesses and gods. Uh. They lived. The gods lived
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  Speaker 1: in Asgard and it was a kingdom connected to mortal
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  Speaker 1: Earth by a rainbow bridge, which I didn't know which
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  Speaker 1: is you think Okay, so um, Scandinavian pre Christian pagan
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  Speaker 1: religion is pretty sweet. They've got hippies, they have rainbow bridges.
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  Speaker 1: They had evil giants and dark elves. Yeah, here's where
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  Speaker 1: it gets dark dwarves. And apparently the gods were destined
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  Speaker 1: to fight against these giants and evil forces in a
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  Speaker 1: battle known as Ragnarok. Right, and they were also predicted
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  Speaker 1: to lose, which would plunge uh Mortal Earth and uh
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  Speaker 1: Asgard into chaos, darkness, disorder, which I mean to think
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  Speaker 1: about that, chuck. All of our religions today are pretty hopeful, Like,
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  Speaker 1: even if there isn't into the world, if you adhere
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  Speaker 1: to that religion, you're gonna be saved. You won't be
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  Speaker 1: around for like the torment. Right, this this religion as
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  Speaker 1: loose as it was predicted, Like, no, our gods are
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  Speaker 1: gonna lose and we're all gonna be in really big trouble. Right.
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  Speaker 1: But if you were a noble, awesome warrior and you
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  Speaker 1: died in battle, you would go to Valhalla, which was
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  Speaker 1: warrior heaven, and you would be transported there by the Vulkyrie,
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  Speaker 1: which were little warrior angels at the command of Robert
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  Speaker 1: Duval right, and uh, what happened was in heaven you
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  Speaker 1: would fight alongside Odin and feast and die in battle
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  Speaker 1: every day, and you would get up alive the next
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  Speaker 1: day and do it all over again. Right, that's their
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  Speaker 1: idea of heaven. It was who was pretty funny. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: so them that that battle part is really significant because, um,
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  Speaker 1: in Scandinavia and many of the Scandinavian cultures, a young
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  Speaker 1: man proved himself by going, I Viking. Yeah that I'm
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  Speaker 1: gonna get a T shirt made it says I Viking.
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  Speaker 1: And just see how many people know what that means.
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  Speaker 1: That's like the verb of what Vikings did, leaving your homeland,
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  Speaker 1: going down, butchering, raping, pillaging, studying, churches on fire. Churches
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  Speaker 1: are actually a big target of their's because the churches
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  Speaker 1: are where most of the gold was stored, livestock, spices, jewels, whatever, um.
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  Speaker 1: So they would target churches and and kill everybody or
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  Speaker 1: else they would take them as thralls slaves, which I
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  Speaker 1: looked up the etymology of enthrall. Then that's where it
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  Speaker 1: comes from. So when you're telling somebody you're enthralled by them,
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  Speaker 1: you're saying that you're enslaved by their by how interesting
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  Speaker 1: they are interesting. And you know that Actually all the
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  Speaker 1: church thing is kind of key too, because that's how
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  Speaker 1: the that's like, the only written history about the Vikings
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  Speaker 1: where it was was written by the hand of the
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  Speaker 1: church that was plundered. So that's one reason. Because the
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  Speaker 1: Vikings only told oral orald stories folklore, right, but scrawls,
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  Speaker 1: scrawls which told saga's it's where all these words come from.
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  Speaker 1: And uh, but the church was the ones who actually
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  Speaker 1: wrote down stuff. So that's why a lot of the
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  Speaker 1: written history of the Vikings is so brutal, because they
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  Speaker 1: were the people that were just you know, had someone
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  Speaker 1: went I Viking on them, right, chuck. And they also
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  Speaker 1: attribute the word Viking to um Europeans who were conquered. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I mean there are a lot of different uh theories
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  Speaker 1: there on the word. There are most of them. Do um.
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  Speaker 1: Either the Norse adopted a word that was that they
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  Speaker 1: were called by the Europeans like um uh, an old
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  Speaker 1: English word vic w i c means port port of
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  Speaker 1: trade um, which is where the Vikings like to attack.
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  Speaker 1: Another theory is that it came from the Norse word
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  Speaker 1: vic big different, but this one's v I k meaning
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  Speaker 1: bay or body of water. Or there's another word that
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  Speaker 1: sounds similar that means to turn away or to leave
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  Speaker 1: on a journey, which is as we said, what going.
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  Speaker 1: I Viking began with um. And then there's the last one,
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  Speaker 1: which makes a lot of sense, is called um. It's
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  Speaker 1: an old Norse word called viking or which means pirate.
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  Speaker 1: That's that's my guess, right, But they think that they
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  Speaker 1: picked that up from the Europeans they conquered. So either way,
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  Speaker 1: these people were written about by Europeans, they were named
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  Speaker 1: by Europeans. They were just going to get some food
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  Speaker 1: and gold cheap. Yes, how they do this though? Should
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  Speaker 1: we talk about that? Yeah, I Viking. Yeah, they were
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  Speaker 1: famous for being experienced seamen. They were built awesome boats
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  Speaker 1: and built boats that traveled really fast through the water.
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  Speaker 1: So when the when the Christian uh you know, let's
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  Speaker 1: say a monastery would see the Viking ships approaching and
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  Speaker 1: dragon ships, yeah, dragon boats, they didn't have much time
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  Speaker 1: because they would get there really really fast because they
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  Speaker 1: were very experienced fishermen. And uh, I guess since we're
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: on the boats, we we should talk about that for
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  Speaker 1: a second. Yeah, they had pretty particular boats as Um,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I think anybody could pick one out. They
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  Speaker 1: had a double sided hole, which I thought was pretty
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  Speaker 1: cool because you can go forward or backward without having
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  Speaker 1: to turn around. You just pick up your butt and
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  Speaker 1: turn around and start rowing the other way right, or
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  Speaker 1: just switch the sail around. Um. They had a keel,
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  Speaker 1: They had riveted wood construction. Um. And then they had
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  Speaker 1: a single mask, and this mask could be as much
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  Speaker 1: as um or the the sail that that was attached
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  Speaker 1: to the mass could be like three thirty square feet
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  Speaker 1: of double sided wool, all hands sewn, usually painted red
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  Speaker 1: to symbolize the blood that was about to be spilled
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  Speaker 1: by the people who saw it approaching. UM. And then
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  Speaker 1: you see pictures of Viking ships with like the little
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  Speaker 1: circles along the side. Yeah, that's actually accurate. Um. Most
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  Speaker 1: Viking ships had mounts where somebody could put their shield
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  Speaker 1: up as extra protection to to protect the guys who
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  Speaker 1: were rowing. Of course makes good sense. Took about a
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  Speaker 1: seventy ft Viking long ship. Josh would have required about
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  Speaker 1: eleven trees to make it about three ft in diameter each,
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  Speaker 1: and then one really tall tree to make the keel.
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  Speaker 1: So I guess it was all one piece. Yeah, and
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  Speaker 1: these things could haul but through the water apparently because
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  Speaker 1: they're real narrow and they used wind power and manpower.
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  Speaker 1: Viking manpower was that was something. So what happened when
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  Speaker 1: you saw a dragon boat chuck? You saw a dragon
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  Speaker 1: boat docks and all of a sudden, this horde of
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  Speaker 1: Vikings just comes streaming off at you. You poop your
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  Speaker 1: pants the first thing you do. I would have rolled
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  Speaker 1: around the ground crying like a baby and offering up
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  Speaker 1: my cattle to be spared. But you might not be spared.
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  Speaker 1: They generally would not leave much. Anything woulden was burned.
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  Speaker 1: They would just burn the town to the ground. Kill people,
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  Speaker 1: take women if they wanted, or kill them, take children
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  Speaker 1: if they wanted, or kill them. Take the cattle. Probably
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't kill the cattle now they wanted the cattle. They
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  Speaker 1: were more useful in humans generally. Um. And you would
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  Speaker 1: also see these guys coming at you with the acts, which,
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  Speaker 1: as everybody knows, is my weapon of choice for a
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  Speaker 1: zombie apocalypse. Right, you would go I Viking on zombies, sure,
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  Speaker 1: and Josh. As far as their battle gear, like you said,
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  Speaker 1: the sword was huge. The swords are about as long
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  Speaker 1: as the uh as a man's arm, right. They also
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  Speaker 1: had bows and lances and javelins. Uh, And they wore
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  Speaker 1: like you would think, they wore big heavy iron helmets
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  Speaker 1: with a little nosepiece that came down a lot of
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  Speaker 1: times they wore iron on their breastplate unless they had
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  Speaker 1: some dough and they could afford chain mail. But this
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  Speaker 1: kind of indicates how strong these dudes were. Do you
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  Speaker 1: know what, Like an iron Viking helmet would weigh a
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: lot a lot and actually Vikings, well not Vikings, but
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: skin Navians, I should say. Skin Navian cultures were really
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: really adept at doing whatever they wanted to do with
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  Speaker 1: iron because they've been pulling it from bogs um very
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  Speaker 1: easily without any need for mining for many, many centuries.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: So they were kind of ahead of the curve as
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: far as the iron age goes. And chuck. When these
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  Speaker 1: guys died, let's say you were a Viking, had had
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: some successful raids, garnered some powers, some money. The concept
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: of a Viking funeral, you know, being put on a
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  Speaker 1: ship instead of fire a fire and pushed out to see,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: that's actually accurate. Yeah, that's one way they did it.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: They also, Yeah, the other way would be that they
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: entombed you in uh an earthen barrow, which is like
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: a mound. It was called mounting. Right. The thing is,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: if you were a thrall, let's say you have been
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: captured in battle and taken back to Scandinavia, and you
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: were a servant to this guy, especially particularly useful servant,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: you would probably be murdered and entombed in the thrall
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: or the barrow. Yeah. The deal there was they believed
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: in a life after death. Um. Whether it was like
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: an eternal life, didn't really know, or just like a
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: temporary life until you get to your old life. But
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: they definitely believed that you did not just die. So
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: that's why they would send you along with maybe your
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: favorite slave or your possessions. They would your cat, they
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: would bury you with your clothes on, and maybe with
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: your your acts, and they would send you along with
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: these things that they think you would need in the
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: following life to go I Viking. Uh. You know there
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  Speaker 1: was another a stratified class almost um in Viking warrior culture. UM.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: And there was this little subgroup that the guy who
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: called for this podcast mentioned berserkers. So these guys I
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: want to talk about berserkers yeah, if you've seen the
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: movie Clerks. Did you see Clerks? Yeah? Remember uh Silent
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Bob's cousin Olaf from my Russia. He sang a medal.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: He was in a Russian metal band he had. It's
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: long called Bezerka. I don't remember that. That was the
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: first time I heard Berserker And wait, we can't say
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  Speaker 1: the lyrics because they're really filthy, but it was funny. Well,
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  Speaker 1: what he was talking about where this this group of
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: warriors that were they think that they grew out of
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: a bear cult, like these people worship bears. They were nuts.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: They during battle especially, they would go nuts. They would um.
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  Speaker 1: It was told in the Sagas that they would take
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: on they would either become a bear or a bowl
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: for something like that. They would shape ship or else
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  Speaker 1: they would take on the qualities of a bear like.
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  Speaker 1: They would go into battle naked or shirtless, or at
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  Speaker 1: the very least armorless. They would cut five people's heads
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  Speaker 1: off at once with one swing of an axe. They
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  Speaker 1: couldn't feel pain. Supposedly, they would scream a lot. Their
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: eyes were kind of glazed over. Part of the problem
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: was is they would get into such a um war frenzy,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: a battle frenzy that if you were near them, even
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: if you were on their side, they'd kill you just
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: as soon as they would kill somebody else. And as
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: the guy said, they do think that, um, this bear
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: colt that went berserk, the berserkers um were on mushrooms
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: during battle. That may be the case. Can you that?
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  Speaker 1: So you would take this regular already super badass warrior
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  Speaker 1: viking then jack him up on magic mushrooms and give
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  Speaker 1: him an ax, give him an ax and tell him
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  Speaker 1: to like take his clothes off and wear like a
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  Speaker 1: bear skin. And uh, it was That was it. It
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: was all over. I've read a little bit more about them,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: and what's weird is the same guys. They also think
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: it's possible that this cult was largely made up with
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: them mentally ill, right or else maybe a little slow? Yeah, Um,
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  Speaker 1: these same guys would also go berserk during like physical
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  Speaker 1: labor sometimes too. You just didn't want to hang out
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: with the berserkers, basically you wanted to be in battle
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: with them. But like fifty meters to the left or
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: the right, nowhere near him, I would go in way
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: behind there. I would drag up the rear behind the
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: berserk also saw another theory that um, they weren't in
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: fact on magic mushrooms, but they uh drank heavily and
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: got wasted basically on mead before battle too. Huh. Wouldn't
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: that slow you down? Though? Um, I would think so,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: but it would also kind of make you somewhat impervious
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: to pain and not care as much. And yeah, I've
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: gone berserka on a Friday night. Yeah, yeah, I subscribed
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: to the mushroom theory for two reasons. One, it's awesome
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: to uh. Ritual use of mushrooms in certain Scandinavian cults
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: is known for a fact, so it's entirely possible. These guys,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: all right, we're Truman, So David d from Waterloo. That's
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: what initially piqued my interest, and that's why we did
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: this podcast. So Josh says, yes, okay, uh, chuck, these
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: guys weren't all berserk, right, No, the the Vikings and
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: the Scandinavian cultures they came from actually were pretty good
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: at democracy. Yeah. Supposedly, the the the common farmer would
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: have just as much say in matters Viking as as
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: the higher ups. Right, they had um assemblies. I don't
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: know if they were annual or more frequent, but they
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: had scheduled assemblies where everybody got together talked about matters
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: of the day, divided land. Um. And they called them
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: things because I think they just couldn't think of the
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: word at the time, right, Maybe they were a little slow.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: And there was a guy. I love this part. There
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: was a guy who was in charge of running the meetings.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: He was an impartial judge and they called him the lawmaker,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: So he was the lawmaker of the thing. Pretty generic stuff,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: primitive democracy, you could call it. Um. And they actually
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: extended this downward to the lands that they conquered. Um.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: These guys made it a lot further south than I realized.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: Did you know all this? And now I didn't as
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: far as going through Europe? Yeah, Um, they the Vikings
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: um conquered a town called Ulster. A Danish Viking did
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: an eight thirty nine and crowned himself king, and um
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: founded what is now the town of Dublin. Did you
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: know that? I did not know that until I read this. Uh.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: They said they actually laid siege to Paris at some point.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: They controlled part of England half of England from the
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: late nineteenth century to the eleventh century Danish Vikings, and
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: they struck a deal with France with Frederick the Simple Charles, Charles,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: Charles is simple. You don't want your king to be
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: called the simple, No, especially when the Viking leader was
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: named Rolo. So they were causing a lot of problems
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: with the Franks. And so Charles the Simple, poor thing
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: sat down with Raloh and struck a deal and said, hey, um,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: why don't you guys leave us alone and convert to
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Christianity and I'll give you Normandy And they said okay,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: said and uh, Frederick the Simple went that was easy.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Charles is simple. Yeah, he's a simple guy. Yeah. Um.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: And like we said, the Vikings were they readily converted
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: to Christianity. These lands that they conquered and held um
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: for centuries, and they especially in Ireland and England. The
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: the Celts and the Anglo Saxons would defeat the Vikings,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: and then more Vikings would come in and defeat whoever.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: So it changed hands pretty much constantly. But through this interaction,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: even though it was fighting, Vikings eventually became absorbed into
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: these local areas. They brought their customs, but took on
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: new customs, and the the whole milange or the whole
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: area of Ireland, England, France. Um is a milange actually
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: of Nordic culture and Southern European culture. I learned a
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: lot with this one. And they actually had trading routes
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: all the way down in North Africa. They did. And Chuck,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: we've talked about this before. You know that they settled
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: North America. Of Eric the Red. He was exiled for murder.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: This is another thing that they probably did it the
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: things they tried people. Uh, Eric the Red was accused
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: of murder. He was convicted, so they exiled him. He
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: took a bunch of guys with them and went from
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Sland over to Greenland. His son was born there, Leif Ericson,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: son of Eric, Right, and he said, you know, I'm
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: going to travel even further west and he ended up
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: in Newfoundland. This is just part of the oral tradition
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: until the nineteen sixties when an archaeologist discovered the traces
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: of this um of Leif Ericson's Viking settlement in Newfoundland.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: He found a horned helmet, right, He's like, oh, it's
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: a Viking of course. So yeah, they were all over
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: the place. Yes, And if they sound like all they
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: did was rape and pillage and plunder. They did a
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: lot of that, but not so much anymore than anyone
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: else at the time. That was just kind of the
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: action of the time. But they were just so much
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: better at it than anyone else. They got this rep.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: But they also, Josh had entertainment. Did you know that?
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: I did not check layd on me. They did. They socialized,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: and when they socialized, they it was generally competitions because
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: they were clearly big on competing. There was cutting, so
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: they would compete in friendly games like running and wrestling
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: and horseback riding. Uh. They had acrobats and entertainers, poem
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: tellers and tall tale tellers. And they actually ice skated.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: What they did they made ice skates out of animal
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: bones and played a game on the ice skates, similar
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: to hurling, which I looked at hurling hurling. Hurling is
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: sort of like the best I can say is, uh,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: it looks sort of like a cross between rugby and
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: field hockey. I think it was on ice because you
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: had a stick and you're hitting a ball toward a net,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: So maybe it was the first ice hockey. No, nothing
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: to do with hote. Uh. Yeah, so they were. They
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: were into all sorts of games. Actually had a game
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: called Kinky Bat, which was like ping pong, except they
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: used shields. I wanted. So they would use a shield
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: to hit like a ball back and forth over. I
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: don't know if it was a net or just back
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: and forth on some surface, but they potentially invented ice
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: hockey and ping pong. Wow, how about that? That is something.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: Speaking of Viking culture, Chuck um Vikings made it into
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: our culture popular culture big time, quite a bit. Obviously
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: The You Got Thor, the Marvel superhero, one of my
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: favorites of all time, soon to be a movie next year. Yeah,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: made at least one appearance in um Adventures in Babysitting.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Oh I didn't see that movie. He played the mechanic.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Oh really very interesting. Uh yeah, Kenneth Brandon was making
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: that movie. Um, Anthony Hopkins plays Odin and some Australian
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: guy plays Stor. He didn't look very thory though. When
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: I looked at the pictures, I'm sure they're going to
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: deck him out and give him long blonde hair. Oh. Actually,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: I meant to mention that apparently some of them used
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: to um bleach their hair. Blond because I guess it
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: was more intimidating, so that that is not a myth.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: So where else popular culture led Zeppelin? Can we we
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: can't not talk about led Zeppelin? Go ahead, Well, anyone's
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: ever seen song remains the same obviously, or listened to
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: some Zeppelin songs knows that they were big on aside
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: from Lord of the Rings, Valhalla, Vulkyrie, that kind of thing,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Hammer the Gods was the name of their biography. Uh
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: did you ever read that on crazy? Uh? And the
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: Immigrant Song is the most clear example after the famous Whale.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: At the beginning, Um, you'll hear lyrics like we come
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: from the land of the ice and snow, from the
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: midnight sun, where the hot springs blow Hammer of the
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: Gods will drive our ships to land to fight the Horde,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: singing cry Valhalla, I am coming. So I always thought
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: that song was about apple Chians. No, that is Vikings. Huh. Yeah,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: Robert Plant was big into that and uh, Spike TV.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Have you heard of the show Deadliest Warriors? I have. Actually,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: it's pretty cool. They picked like warriors against each other,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: and the Vikings actually in their scenario lost to the Samurai.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: I could see that barely though, these uh shallon monks samurais.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: But I know they said the samurai UH wanted a
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: squeaker because they were a little bit more disciplined than
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: the the Crazy Eye Viking. I wonder if they took
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: mushrooms for that show. I don't know, and I think
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: that's it. Oh, actually I got one a couple of
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: more myths if you want to hear him. Vikings were
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: not dirty. They have the reputation of being dirty, filthy people.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: They actually bathed once a week, which was a lot
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: for back then. Yeah, definitely, and they washed their face
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: every day apparently. So you were just saying before the podcast,
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: so you're the cleanest person that we know you were
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: the Vikings, I'm cleaner than a Vikings. Sure well sure.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: And they did not drink from the skulls of the conquered.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: That was a mistranslation apparently into Latin. And they they
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: apparently would drink mead from a horn occasionally as as
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: like a ritual, but ordinarily they would just drink from
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: a mug. That's it for the Vikings. Chuck for real,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: nice additional research. Appreciate that, um and Uh. If you
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: want to learn a little more see some cool picks,
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: including some actual swords, which I thought was pretty cool.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: What about you, Chuck loved it. You could type vikings
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: into the handy search bar how stuff works dot com,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: which leads us to listener mail. Not quite yet, Josh,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: you always do that. I'm teasing. Uh, actually, I'm not teasing.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: We just want to plug. We did a little interview
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: with the dude named Wayne and Omaha, Nebraska. Yes, Worlds
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: of Wayne. Worlds of Wayne podcasts which he interviews artists
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: and musicians and cool people. So I don't know why
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: he called us, but he did. And uh, it's actually
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: already up. So if you want to hear a pretty
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: fun interview with us and go to Worlds of Wayne
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: dot l I B s y N dot com or
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Josh said, you can just google Worlds of Wayne and
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: that's the first thing that comes up. It is, I've
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: done it. So apparently there's no store called Worlds of Wayne,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: which is good, and it's episode one thirteen and you'll
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: see our big logo there and click on it. It's
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: kind of a cool, fun little interview. No listener mail, right, yes,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Okay to Josh, I'm gonna call this another list of
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: first from Patrick Okay is our our our super fan,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: Patrick compolsies list of first in our show, which I
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: think we're kind of cool because I wouldn't take he is. So.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: The first podcast, of course was how grassoline works? And
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: was that you and Poulette? Yeah? And is that accurate?
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: I don't remember. Okay, that was like two episodes ago.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: I know, well, uh what what we're close to that? Actually? Um?
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: The first podcast with Candice Gibson was now Candice Keener
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: was how altruism works? First podcast with me remember doesn't
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: does come stay in your stomach? I thought it was
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: the introduced toothpaste? That was it. It was one of
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: those two Patrick, que might have to take issue with
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: your steps, buddy. Uh. First mentioned the fight or flight
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: response was how hysterical strength works. That was a great one.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: First podcast with three people, How contagious yawning works. First
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: time Josh mentions being born in Ohio. Oh, how the
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: eye of the Tornado works? No, that's what he says.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: First bleeped out swear word, first of many, how swearing
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: works obviously. First mention of Josh and Chuck's pets are
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: dogs of Shark's favorite meal. First podcast over ten minutes.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: How can a cat scuba dive? Remember scuba cat Sure?
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: First over twenty is Quitting Smoking Contagious? First over thirty,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: How lobotomies work, and recently the first over forty, How
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: witchcraft Works? And then just a couple of more. First
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: listener mail was issued in How Einstein's Brain Works, and
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: the first podcast that Patrick listened to is is the
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: World Going To End? In twelve? Awesome? I love the
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: first there's some great stats. This is the first one
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: in the new the new room. Yeah, make a note, Patrick,
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: and then we'll have the first in the awesome studio.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: I don't like this room at all. Yeah, Like my
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: neck feels weird. I'm on the opposite side. Everything's wrong,
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: and I'm bury out of sorts. Well, if you have
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: a story about going berserk, we would love to hear it.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: You can wrap it up in an email and send
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: it to stuff Podcast at how stuff works dot com.
• 31:15
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• 31:18
  Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. Want more how stuff works,
• 31:22
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• 31:24
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• 31:29
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