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One stormy day, some time in the
second half of the ninth century,

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a Viking ship was blown off course.

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It finally beached up
on an uninhabited,

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unexplored shore,
here on Iceland.

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It must have presented a truly
terrifying, alien landscape.

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But its discovery meant that
the Vikings were no longer
just raiders and traders.

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From that moment onwards,
they were explorers and adventurers.

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I'm retracing the steps
of the Vikings...

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..to discover the truth
about their lives...

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..and their mysterious world.

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Even now, this place feels like
it's on the edge of everything.

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And, as an archaeologist,

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I'll be seeking out some of the most
telling evidence of all...

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..their very remains.

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This flamboyant hairstyle
just adds to his allure.

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MAN SHOUTS

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Last time, I travelled east

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to discover the far reaches
of Viking trade.

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These dark lines, etched into
the marble, are Viking runes -

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ancient Viking writing.

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Now, I'm heading west to find out
how the Vikings became explorers

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and kings,

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creators of an entire Viking empire
of the north.

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By the end of the ninth century,
the Viking age was in full swing,

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with their territories and
influence spreading outwards

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from their Scandinavian
homelands.

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The Swedes travelled east,
down the great rivers of Russia.

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The Danes crossed the North Sea,
raiding and colonising,

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and establishing, at York, the hub
of a trading network in the west.

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For the Norwegians, however,
it was a different story.

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I'm starting in Bergen, Norway,
to see how the people of the north,

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the Norsemen, carved out their own
slice of the Viking world...

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..in the wild, uncharted
Atlantic Ocean.

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From up here, you can clearly see
that between the mountains
and the fjords,

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there's precious little in the way
of available farming land.

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So, for an expanding population,
many of them ambitious young men,

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that absence of available land
could have only one outcome.

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The most adventurous of them would
seek to change their circumstances

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and their opportunities, and to do
that, they would up and leave.

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The secret of the Norsemen's success
was their notorious longship.

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It's the icon of the entire
Viking age.

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And here in Bergen, people
have built a decent seagoing
reconstruction of one.

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Rowing one of these, on a day like
today, it's actually quite pleasant

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if you can get into the rhythm.

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Oh, hold on, hold on.

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It's all gone terrible.

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The Vikings were notorious for their
fast and manoeuvrable warships.

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But to conquer the ocean, they
also needed sturdier vessels.

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Shorter, wider and powered by sail.

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They were perfect to carry goods,

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animals, tools

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and people.

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Crewed by as few as six men,

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ships like these carried the Norse
to the end of the known world...

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..and far beyond.

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Lena Borjesson has spent months
at sea, navigating without
modern technology

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to understand just how
the Vikings did it.

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They were dependent on the sun.

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If they didn't find the sun,
they were "hav vill",

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they were lost at sea.

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Harv ville. Hav vill.

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That's a word you don't want
to hear on a Viking ship. Right!

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From experiments at sea,

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Lena has discovered that being so
dependent on an unreliable sun,

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the Vikings often had to be flexible
about exactly where they ended up.

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If you don't end up in Shetland,
you would end up in Orkney.

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And that's not bad, is it? Right.

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So you just have to be a bit
more open-minded

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about where you're going.
You've got it.

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Their epic voyages are a defining
part of the Viking legend.

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From coast-hopping raids,
it wasn't long before

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the Norwegian adventurers started
to strike out into the open ocean,

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in search of new lands to settle.

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Now, I'm following
in their footsteps...

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..travelling from Bergen
to Shetland...

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..one of their first stops.

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We know that large numbers
of them arrived on Orkney

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and here in Shetland from around
800 AD onwards,

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because virtually all of the place
names are Norse in origin.

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No Pictish names survive.

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We don't know if the local
population was enslaved

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or exterminated or just driven off.

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But knowing how badly the Vikings
behaved elsewhere,
it was probably all three.

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On Shetland, there had already
been raiding and pillaging.

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But some Vikings who arrived
here came to stay.

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And relics of their farms
still survive.

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This ancient site of human
habitation is cheek by jowl
with the airport.

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So if you hear a roaring
sound in the background,

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that'll be the 3.45 to Bergen.

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Over here, there are the foundations
for seven long,
rectangular buildings,

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and these were built
and used by the Vikings.

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This would have been part
of the main family quarters.

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Along here, there would have been

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wooden-topped benches
for sitting on and sleeping on,

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on either side, a central hearth.

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PLANE ROARS OVERHEAD

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That's one of those planes
I was talking about.

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It would have been quite dark
in here, quite smoky.

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Then, at the far end,
there's a corn-drying room,

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where there would have been heat

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that would have dried
the crop for storage.

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And then at the far end, the
archaeologists found burnt stone,

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so it suggests there might
even have been a primitive
sauna in use here.

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Often across the Viking world,
we discovered burials, treasure,

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or the remains of warriors.

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But on Shetland, there are relics
of more ordinary lives,

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of Viking farmers and craftsmen.

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It's a fantastic piece, as you
can see, it's lovely.

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It was found in a peat bog.

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You'll see there's a hook shape
on the handle there.

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The reason for that is that
the thing was used in a boat,

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and you are bailing water

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Oh, it's a bailer, right.

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Yeah, that's right.

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It would be all too easy just to
let the thing shoot out of your hand

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and it might plop into the sea.

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So you want to have a bit
of a backstop on it to stop it
shooting out.

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And you can see here that the wear
pattern is on that side. Mm-hm.

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It's a right-handed person.
A right-handed person.

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Wow!

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This object was found
in the 1970s in Shetland.

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It's so fine. Look at the tines,
the little rivets,

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because its composite, isn't it?

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It's been made from multiple parts.

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That's gorgeous. Look at that.

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Look at the shine on it
from being handled,

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you know, that patina there
of being held and used.

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Exactly, that's what brings
the past to life.

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Handling these simple objects

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took me right into
the practicalities
of Viking daily life.

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It's got this little
depression there.

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That's for your thumb,
so you can carry it.

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Lamps, whetstones,

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loom weights and fishing tackle.

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But best of all was
one very personal possession.

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And it's a piece of a glove,
or a mitten.

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That's for a thumb?
That's a thumb.

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For a Viking thumb
Yes, yes, a Viking thumb.

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It's one thing to talk about Vikings

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but that was worn by a Viking hand.

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Well, it's been carbon dated
to 975 AD.

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Oh, wow! How can that be 1,000
years old? Is that knitted?

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That's woven, believe it or not.

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Gosh.

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I think it's just absolutely
electrifying to see an item
like this

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where something as powerful
as the human hand

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is there to be seen.

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Through the 10th and 11th
centuries,

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Shetland supported a huge community
of around 10,000 Vikings.

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But these islands settlements were
just the first stepping stones

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for even greater and far more
daring journeys.

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While the Swedes were getting
rich from trade in the east

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and the Danes were establishing
a kingdom in England,

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the Vikings here plotted
a route into the west,

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and the lands they revealed
were much more than just
a day's sail away.

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From Shetland, and continuing
north and west to Iceland.

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Having braved the wild seas,

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the Vikings reached here
in the late ninth century.

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I've been digging in this bank
for a very good reason,

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because I was told
that if I went deep enough,

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I would find a very important,
significant layer.

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00:12:06,800 --> 00:12:09,080
Now, if you look down in here,

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first of all, ignore that very
obvious, thick, grey band.

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Down into that deep section,

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do you see the quite narrow band
of sandy coloured material

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in amongst much darker stuff?

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Now that, believe it or not,
is debris from a volcanic eruption
dated to 872 AD.

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Now, no evidence of human habitation
has been found below that layer,

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meaning there was no-one here
before 872.

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Above that layer, after that date,

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we start to get evidence
of Viking settlement.

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And that's how we know
when they arrived.

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Iceland was some way north
of the Viking homelands.

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And although the Norwegians
here were well used to surviving

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long, dark, cold winters, this place
was in a league of its own.

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The very first settlements
here were on the coast,

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where there was easy prey
in the water.

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Fish, walrus, seals,

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even whales.

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Today, just outside Reykjavik

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there's a Viking-themed restaurant
that recreates the delights
of a unique diet.

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I remember when I was five
or six years old,

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my father told me you will get
strong if you eat it.

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And he kept telling me that.

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The local Viking speciality?
Rotten shark.

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00:13:53,120 --> 00:13:55,840
And you say rotten,
do you mean rotten?

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Yes, it is actually rotten.

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They cut the best pieces of
the shark and put it in a box.

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00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:06,280
They put the box into the sand
and let it be lying there
for a couple of weeks.

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00:14:08,320 --> 00:14:12,560
You just eat it slowly, just let it
be in your mouth for a long time.

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00:14:12,560 --> 00:14:14,400
Enjoy the taste.

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00:14:14,400 --> 00:14:15,840
OK?

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00:14:15,840 --> 00:14:18,000
It's a formidable scent.

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00:14:22,400 --> 00:14:24,560
That is amazing!

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00:14:24,560 --> 00:14:26,160
Whoa!

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00:14:27,320 --> 00:14:28,640
It's like...

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00:14:28,640 --> 00:14:31,800
it's like blue cheese,

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00:14:31,800 --> 00:14:34,800
but 100 times more.

199
00:14:34,800 --> 00:14:36,600
Wow!

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00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:37,760
Give him schnapps.

201
00:14:37,760 --> 00:14:42,040
Fortunately, there was something
on hand to take the taste away.

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00:14:42,040 --> 00:14:43,760
That is Black Death.

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00:14:43,760 --> 00:14:46,280
Black Death and rotten shark.
Right.

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00:14:46,280 --> 00:14:49,080
I can't remember the last time
I had those two together.

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00:14:52,760 --> 00:14:54,560
That's amazing. I like that.

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00:15:03,960 --> 00:15:08,400
Natural maritime resources led to
successful coastal settlements.

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00:15:11,360 --> 00:15:16,520
But as the population grew
on Iceland, new settlers had
to forge lives elsewhere,

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00:15:16,520 --> 00:15:19,520
building farmsteads inland.

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00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:26,600
I'm standing inside the ruins
of a byre for keeping livestock.

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00:15:26,600 --> 00:15:30,160
These upright stones mark
the individual stalls,

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00:15:30,160 --> 00:15:33,240
there'd maybe be seven or eight
animals on this side

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00:15:33,240 --> 00:15:39,160
and the same again on the other,
so maybe 14, 16 head of cattle,
maybe sheep.

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00:15:39,160 --> 00:15:43,800
On other parts of the island,
they would have had pigs
and goats.

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00:15:43,800 --> 00:15:47,440
They would have bought up seaweed
from the coast to feed the animals,

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00:15:47,440 --> 00:15:49,840
and the animals would
also have grazed

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00:15:49,840 --> 00:15:53,480
on whatever naturally occurring
grasses were all around.

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00:15:55,720 --> 00:16:01,000
The introduction of domestic animals
to Iceland brought a whole new diet,

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00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:03,280
but not necessarily a better one.

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That is what they put in the air,
and let it be just...

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00:16:11,200 --> 00:16:14,360
They put it in the air and when
the wind was blowing,
the rain was coming in.

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00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:16,440
So it's not been cooked?
Not been cooked at all.

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00:16:16,440 --> 00:16:19,840
It smells awful but it is OK to eat.

223
00:16:19,840 --> 00:16:22,040
If you eat this...
Is this a challenge?

224
00:16:22,040 --> 00:16:24,360
..then I think that you were born
in Iceland,

225
00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:27,600
and have been a Viking in the past.

226
00:16:29,480 --> 00:16:33,720
There is something almost...
almost like the, um...

227
00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:39,600
Well, to be honest, flowers or fruit
that has turned and gone bad.

228
00:16:41,360 --> 00:16:45,880
To survive the winter, the Vikings
preserved every single body part.

229
00:16:45,880 --> 00:16:47,600
Nothing went to waste.

230
00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:52,600
These will be the first testicles
I've ever had in my mouth. Really?

231
00:16:52,600 --> 00:16:55,800
As far as I remember. OK.

232
00:16:57,480 --> 00:17:00,120
That's a challenging flavour.

233
00:17:03,160 --> 00:17:05,200
That is a taste sensation.

234
00:17:07,360 --> 00:17:10,280
Blood pudding, sheep's brain,

235
00:17:10,280 --> 00:17:12,960
even the head were all consumed.

236
00:17:14,040 --> 00:17:17,360
That is my favourite.
Let's try that.

237
00:17:19,640 --> 00:17:23,480
But that is the tongue
and that is the best muscle

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00:17:23,480 --> 00:17:25,640
of the whole lamb.

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00:17:25,640 --> 00:17:28,560
That's come from the meat
that they dry in the wind.

240
00:17:30,600 --> 00:17:32,920
You like it?
That's lovely, yes.

241
00:17:32,920 --> 00:17:34,920
It's very soft and... Yes.

242
00:17:39,560 --> 00:17:43,680
I'm always saying to my kids
that you've got to try things.

243
00:17:43,680 --> 00:17:48,000
And that don't tell me you don't
like it till you've tried it,

244
00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:52,440
so I felt, on that basis, I had to
really give these things a go.

245
00:17:54,200 --> 00:17:57,440
I could easily understand
why someone like Johannes,

246
00:17:57,440 --> 00:18:00,240
who's actually got a connection
to this stuff,

247
00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:01,840
why you'd become addicted to it.

248
00:18:01,840 --> 00:18:03,600
And every now and again,

249
00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:07,120
you would want to remind yourself
about the past,

250
00:18:07,120 --> 00:18:10,200
and you get it from something
as strong,

251
00:18:10,200 --> 00:18:12,920
you know, the past is strong here.

252
00:18:12,920 --> 00:18:15,760
You can smell it and you can
taste it, and I get that.

253
00:18:19,160 --> 00:18:22,440
If unreliable summers and freezing
winters weren't bad enough,

254
00:18:22,440 --> 00:18:27,480
the Viking settlers had to contend
with another even deadlier threat.

255
00:18:28,880 --> 00:18:31,480
Not from the skies...

256
00:18:31,480 --> 00:18:34,560
but from deep beneath the earth.

257
00:18:38,120 --> 00:18:42,560
Iceland is a volcanic island,
and that carries its own risks.

258
00:18:42,560 --> 00:18:46,360
Scattered all across here
is this material,

259
00:18:46,360 --> 00:18:48,880
which is pumice, volcanic rock.

260
00:18:48,880 --> 00:18:52,080
Now, that has come originally
from Mount Hekla.

261
00:18:52,080 --> 00:18:55,360
You can see the white summit just
nosing above the horizon.

262
00:18:55,360 --> 00:18:59,760
Hekla erupted famously in 1104.

263
00:18:59,760 --> 00:19:02,120
It was a catastrophic event.

264
00:19:02,120 --> 00:19:05,480
It scattered ash and debris
over half the island.

265
00:19:05,480 --> 00:19:08,760
This farm and many others
like it had to be abandoned.

266
00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:15,640
Viking farmers were tough folk,
though.

267
00:19:15,640 --> 00:19:19,480
And undaunted by the occasional
volcanic eruption,

268
00:19:19,480 --> 00:19:22,640
the early Icelandic
communities thrived.

269
00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:30,600
And amazingly, they decided that
even this very challenging land

270
00:19:30,600 --> 00:19:32,880
wasn't an end to their endeavours.

271
00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:39,440
Not when there was still a whole
lot more ocean to be explored.

272
00:19:40,960 --> 00:19:42,480
And in 1000 AD,

273
00:19:42,480 --> 00:19:46,880
the unforgettably named Erik the Red
led a fleet of 25 ships

274
00:19:46,880 --> 00:19:50,520
out into the North Atlantic in hopes
of founding a new colony.

275
00:19:52,680 --> 00:19:55,840
They had reliable ships,
they were renowned sailors,

276
00:19:55,840 --> 00:20:00,920
but even so, there are references to
countless people washed overboard,

277
00:20:00,920 --> 00:20:03,920
ships driven onto rocks,
plain old "lost at sea".

278
00:20:07,640 --> 00:20:11,880
Erik the Red's expedition colonised
what we now know as Greenland.

279
00:20:15,320 --> 00:20:17,680
But the Viking explorers
still weren't done.

280
00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:24,040
Evidence of Viking camps
has been found as far west
as Newfoundland.

281
00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:29,920
And it's thought they even sailed
down the eastern seaboard
of America.

282
00:20:33,200 --> 00:20:38,520
The distance from Norway
to Newfoundland is 4,500 miles,

283
00:20:38,520 --> 00:20:43,600
and were talking about a time
when that land mass was beyond
the knowledge,

284
00:20:43,600 --> 00:20:47,440
far less than reach,
of any other Europeans.

285
00:20:47,440 --> 00:20:51,280
What those Vikings did, then,
was simply staggering.

286
00:20:53,760 --> 00:20:57,800
No permanent colonies were ever
established in North America.

287
00:20:57,800 --> 00:21:03,040
And eventually, the harsh extremes
of Greenland also proved too much.

288
00:21:08,840 --> 00:21:12,000
But on Iceland,
despite all the hazards,

289
00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:15,840
the Vikings went on to build
a whole new society.

290
00:21:18,480 --> 00:21:23,560
And, without a king in charge,
they had to find a whole new way
to govern.

291
00:21:25,360 --> 00:21:29,880
The first settlement of the island
was essentially lawless.

292
00:21:29,880 --> 00:21:34,360
But after two generations,
36 of the leading farmers
came together

293
00:21:34,360 --> 00:21:37,400
and formed an assembly
to govern Iceland.

294
00:21:37,400 --> 00:21:39,160
It was called the Althingi.

295
00:21:39,160 --> 00:21:41,360
It was founded in 930 AD,

296
00:21:41,360 --> 00:21:43,880
and it met once a year
for two weeks,

297
00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:47,760
to make laws, to judge disputes,
and to appoint a law speaker,

298
00:21:47,760 --> 00:21:51,680
whose responsibility it was
to remember and recite the law.

299
00:21:56,800 --> 00:22:02,480
But this being Iceland,
a special location was chosen
for the Assembly.

300
00:22:02,480 --> 00:22:07,240
And it's here where two of planet
Earth's tectonic plates divide.

301
00:22:08,880 --> 00:22:12,920
So the Althingi straddled
the old world of Europe in the east

302
00:22:12,920 --> 00:22:14,960
and the new world of the west.

303
00:22:14,960 --> 00:22:17,040
And it seems strangely apt

304
00:22:17,040 --> 00:22:20,240
that those first Icelanders
chose this place

305
00:22:20,240 --> 00:22:22,480
to form a new kind of government.

306
00:22:25,960 --> 00:22:29,560
That government met on this site
for the next 800 years,

307
00:22:29,560 --> 00:22:32,440
well into the modern era.

308
00:22:37,360 --> 00:22:42,600
But what's incredible to me is
that the 36 men who met here,
over 1,000 years ago,

309
00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:47,080
unknowingly gave birth to the oldest
extant democracy

310
00:22:47,080 --> 00:22:49,080
in the whole world.

311
00:22:57,440 --> 00:23:01,520
Leaving Iceland and its
proto-Republicans behind,

312
00:23:01,520 --> 00:23:04,360
I'm returning south to Scandinavia,

313
00:23:04,360 --> 00:23:08,000
and a Viking site
close to Denmark's capital.

314
00:23:10,680 --> 00:23:13,640
Because while the Norwegians were
busy creating colonies

315
00:23:13,640 --> 00:23:14,960
in the North Atlantic,

316
00:23:14,960 --> 00:23:18,720
back in the old world,
things were also changing.

317
00:23:23,040 --> 00:23:27,480
In the middle of the 10th century,
the Danes were being ruled
by a new dynasty,

318
00:23:27,480 --> 00:23:31,440
that was forging the beginnings
of a nation-state.

319
00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:38,680
The new royal house was
the Jelling dynasty.

320
00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:41,720
And there's is the most visible
legacy of the Viking age,

321
00:23:41,720 --> 00:23:44,040
because towards the end
of the 10th century,

322
00:23:44,040 --> 00:23:46,800
they built an enormous
amount of infrastructure -

323
00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:50,680
towns were fortified, a huge
earthen rampart was built

324
00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:53,080
across the neck of the Jutland
peninsula

325
00:23:53,080 --> 00:23:55,760
to protect against invaders
from Germany.

326
00:23:55,760 --> 00:23:58,560
They also built numerous
bridges and roads,

327
00:23:58,560 --> 00:24:02,000
as well as these huge fortresses.

328
00:24:10,160 --> 00:24:15,000
This fortress is at Trelleborg,
around 60 miles west of Copenhagen.

329
00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:20,560
It's an impressive symbol
of royal power.

330
00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:26,760
All of the fortresses are built
on the same ground plan.

331
00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:30,160
Perfectly circular earthen bank,

332
00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:32,280
each topped with a timber palisade

333
00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:35,120
adding an additional eight metres
in height.

334
00:24:35,120 --> 00:24:37,280
There are four entrances,

335
00:24:37,280 --> 00:24:41,800
and in the interior, there were
16 buildings in there,

336
00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:45,560
four in each of the quadrants, and
in each case laid out in a square.

337
00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:48,960
But you don't have the try too hard
to imagine what those buildings
looked like

338
00:24:48,960 --> 00:24:52,080
because there's a perfectly good
reconstruction just over there.

339
00:24:58,080 --> 00:25:02,240
It's thought each of these
fortresses housed around
500 trained warriors

340
00:25:02,240 --> 00:25:04,120
and their families.

341
00:25:04,120 --> 00:25:06,400
This was centralised power,

342
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:10,880
and it represented a watershed
in Viking history.

343
00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:17,400
These fortresses were much more
than just defensive positions -

344
00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:23,680
they were very visible statements
of wealth and power
and centralised control.

345
00:25:23,680 --> 00:25:27,960
The power was Harald Bluetooth,
King of Denmark,

346
00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:33,240
and he exercised total control
over the people, the land
and its resources.

347
00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:36,920
And his legacy was much more
than constructions like this.

348
00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:38,960
He changed his country for ever

349
00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:41,640
and he did that by converting
his people

350
00:25:41,640 --> 00:25:44,400
to the modern religion
called Christianity.

351
00:25:50,120 --> 00:25:55,200
Since the end of the Roman Empire,
Christianity had dominated
religious life

352
00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:57,200
right across mainland Europe.

353
00:25:58,560 --> 00:26:04,480
Scandinavia was the last outpost
of the old pagan ways.

354
00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:05,640
But not for long.

355
00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:11,360
At one of Denmark's oldest
towns, Ribe,

356
00:26:11,360 --> 00:26:15,280
archaeologists are making
some startling discoveries.

357
00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:22,160
Graves of some of Scandinavia's
very first Christians.

358
00:26:24,200 --> 00:26:27,880
I spent most of my years digging
on prehistoric sites,

359
00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:32,520
so it's genuinely remarkable
for me to see...

360
00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:36,000
such obvious remains in the ground.

361
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:39,080
You can see the clear outlines
of the graves,

362
00:26:39,080 --> 00:26:42,520
you can even see the remains
of the coffins.

363
00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:46,760
What is it about the skeletons that
says these are Christians?

364
00:26:46,760 --> 00:26:48,280
They are all, er...

365
00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:54,640
east-west burials,
with the skull in the west end

366
00:26:54,640 --> 00:26:58,520
facing east, as the Christian
doctrine says.

367
00:26:59,960 --> 00:27:04,040
You should face the upgoing sun
on the Judgement Day.

368
00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:07,440
So when the trumpet sounds,
Jesus comes back...

369
00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:09,440
And they rise from the grave,
facing east.

370
00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:11,640
They're facing the direction
he's coming from.

371
00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:18,240
The oldest ones are carbon dated
to around 850.

372
00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:23,480
That is actually some of the oldest
Christian graves in Scandinavia.

373
00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:29,160
So right early on in the Viking age,
you've got Christian Viking
burials here.

374
00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:36,120
So, in terms of official Danish
history that children learn
at school,

375
00:27:36,120 --> 00:27:40,680
these finds here change
that quite significantly.

376
00:27:40,680 --> 00:27:45,480
We actually now have
a prolonged Christian period,

377
00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:48,400
much longer than we first thought,

378
00:27:48,400 --> 00:27:53,400
meaning that pagans and Christians
lived alongside each other

379
00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:59,440
maybe for 200 years until
Christianity completely took over.

380
00:28:03,360 --> 00:28:07,280
The Vikings here were some
of the very first to adopt
the new religion.

381
00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:13,760
But it appears that these first
Viking Christians
still hung on

382
00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:16,920
to their traditional
maritime burial rites.

383
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:23,240
And then we have all these rivets,
set alongside the coffin.

384
00:28:23,240 --> 00:28:26,480
Yes, they are big as well,
they're big pieces of metal.

385
00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:29,480
Yes, we hope to find out
if this is part of the boat.

386
00:28:29,480 --> 00:28:35,160
So you might have within
a Christian burial, the suggestion
of a boat burial,

387
00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:37,120
or being buried with part of a boat.

388
00:28:37,120 --> 00:28:41,720
Yes, of course, being Christian
in these early stages didn't mean

389
00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:44,960
that you should abandon
all your old practices.

390
00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:53,000
So they may still be paying
homage to Thor and Odin.

391
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:57,600
But when it suited,
they would just pray to Jesus.

392
00:28:57,600 --> 00:29:01,720
It's amazing to think that these
people weren't just Vikings,

393
00:29:01,720 --> 00:29:06,720
and the product of the Viking
tradition, but they were Christian
at the same time.

394
00:29:11,600 --> 00:29:15,800
Excavating these graves
is like turning a bright light

395
00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:17,840
onto a few pages of history.

396
00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:19,920
They illuminate the moment

397
00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:26,240
when the Vikings are no longer
just part of their own
private Scandinavian world.

398
00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:29,280
They're becoming part
of a much bigger picture,

399
00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:32,840
they're joining something more
modern, more European,

400
00:29:32,840 --> 00:29:35,360
and the catalyst for that
is Christianity.

401
00:29:37,400 --> 00:29:41,640
All over Scandinavia, Vikings
began to turn to the new god.

402
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:47,840
And their conversion would signal
the beginning of the end
of the Viking age.

403
00:29:56,280 --> 00:29:59,720
This religious revolution
was endorsed around 970,

404
00:29:59,720 --> 00:30:02,560
when Denmark's King,
Harald Bluetooth,

405
00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:06,120
made Christianity
his country's official religion.

406
00:30:09,360 --> 00:30:13,440
From here on in,
all Danes were expected
to worship Christ.

407
00:30:14,560 --> 00:30:19,640
And to celebrate the moment,
Harald Bluetooth installed
a huge stone monument.

408
00:30:21,080 --> 00:30:26,720
Today, it's one of Denmark's
most precious national treasures.

409
00:30:33,720 --> 00:30:35,760
Because all the tourists have gone,

410
00:30:35,760 --> 00:30:38,720
I've been allowed inside
for some privileged access.

411
00:30:39,760 --> 00:30:42,960
The stone once upon a time
was brightly painted -

412
00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:45,160
red, white and blue, as it happens.

413
00:30:45,160 --> 00:30:49,640
But 1,000 years of weathering
and winter have faded it,

414
00:30:49,640 --> 00:30:52,560
so that it's very indistinct now.

415
00:30:52,560 --> 00:30:56,200
Now, I'll grant you, it's almost
impossible to make it out,

416
00:30:56,200 --> 00:31:01,760
but what you are in fact looking at
is this image here.

417
00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:05,920
It's Jesus Christ emerging
from within a thorn bush.

418
00:31:05,920 --> 00:31:11,240
And it's interpreted
as a representation
of Christianity itself,

419
00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:17,320
disentangling itself from amongst
the thorns of the old pagan beliefs.

420
00:31:17,320 --> 00:31:22,880
This is actually the first page
of a modern Danish passport,

421
00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:26,640
so that this image is alive
and relevant for Danes even today.

422
00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:39,440
The story goes that before
his conversion, King Harald
witnessed a divine miracle.

423
00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:45,960
A moment commemorated
in some early Christian art.

424
00:31:47,400 --> 00:31:51,640
Here, on these gilded plates,
set into the altar.

425
00:31:51,640 --> 00:31:55,880
In this one, you can see
a priest performing a miracle.

426
00:31:55,880 --> 00:31:59,520
He can extend his hand into the fire

427
00:31:59,520 --> 00:32:02,000
and then withdraw it,
apparently unhurt,

428
00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:06,080
although he does seem to be wearing
a giant oven glove.

429
00:32:06,080 --> 00:32:10,360
Then, in this one, we have Harald
himself, a fine figure of a man,

430
00:32:10,360 --> 00:32:15,200
being baptised while standing
up to his waist in a barrel.

431
00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:22,040
This is all very nice,
but you can see it as PR spin,

432
00:32:22,040 --> 00:32:24,680
stories to please the masses,

433
00:32:24,680 --> 00:32:28,160
because Harald's conversion
to Christianity,
more than anything else,

434
00:32:28,160 --> 00:32:31,040
was a calculated political move.

435
00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:40,040
Christianity wasn't just a belief
- it was a social
and political institution.

436
00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:43,440
It dominated every other
kingdom in Europe.

437
00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:49,680
And Harald Bluetooth knew
that joining the club

438
00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:53,760
would give him protection
from aggressive neighbours.

439
00:32:53,760 --> 00:32:56,320
Because no other Christian ruler

440
00:32:56,320 --> 00:32:59,360
could now claim a legitimate
right to attack him.

441
00:33:04,160 --> 00:33:07,840
The land to the south of Denmark
was ruled by Otto the Great,

442
00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:12,680
Duke of Saxony, King of Germany
and Italy, and Holy Roman Emperor.

443
00:33:12,680 --> 00:33:17,440
And he wanted to add Denmark
to his list of territorial
acquisitions.

444
00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:21,800
But Harald's conversion
made that impossible,
because now the Danes,

445
00:33:21,800 --> 00:33:25,680
like everyone else, were protected
by the one true God.

446
00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:27,560
And that wasn't all.

447
00:33:27,560 --> 00:33:32,760
Christianity also helped Harald
to rule as a king,
and all because of this -

448
00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:34,440
the Bible.

449
00:33:37,520 --> 00:33:41,760
Christianity gave kings a divine
right to rule under a single god.

450
00:33:43,320 --> 00:33:47,760
The days when a brave warrior
might rise to fight alongside
the old gods

451
00:33:47,760 --> 00:33:50,640
through epic earthly adventures
was over.

452
00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:57,200
For those being ruled,
Christianity would change
their lives for ever,

453
00:33:57,200 --> 00:34:01,840
because conversion to the one true
God struck at the very heart

454
00:34:01,840 --> 00:34:04,680
of all that it had meant
to be a Viking.

455
00:34:08,760 --> 00:34:10,920
Seeing the benefits
of Harald's conversion,

456
00:34:10,920 --> 00:34:13,520
other Viking rulers started
to follow suit.

457
00:34:13,520 --> 00:34:15,560
Within just 100 years,

458
00:34:15,560 --> 00:34:18,600
most of Scandinavia
was officially Christian.

459
00:34:22,560 --> 00:34:25,480
And as their ancient pagan roots
were left behind...

460
00:34:26,640 --> 00:34:31,680
..the modern nation-states
of Denmark, Norway and Sweden
were being born.

461
00:34:34,760 --> 00:34:37,720
Christianity was central
to that modern world.

462
00:34:37,720 --> 00:34:42,520
The King was Christian.
The trading partners all across
Europe were Christian.

463
00:34:42,520 --> 00:34:46,560
Christianity also dictated that
the old pagan beliefs were
to be stamped out,

464
00:34:46,560 --> 00:34:49,880
not just in Denmark, but all across
the Viking world.

465
00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:52,240
In Norway, edicts were issued,

466
00:34:52,240 --> 00:34:55,720
banning the performance
of spells to awaken trolls -

467
00:34:55,720 --> 00:34:57,280
strict no-no.

468
00:34:59,840 --> 00:35:01,680
I'll get that, please.

469
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:05,400
There was also a raft of new laws.

470
00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:06,400
Perfect.

471
00:35:07,680 --> 00:35:09,680
Meat could only be eaten
on certain days.

472
00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:15,960
Rules for married life even dictated
when you could and couldn't
have sex.

473
00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:23,720
The old pagan gods
had been like friends.

474
00:35:23,720 --> 00:35:26,560
Provided you made your
sacrifices,

475
00:35:26,560 --> 00:35:29,800
then you felt entitled to help
from Odin and Thor.

476
00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:32,680
But the new Christian God
wasn't like that.

477
00:35:32,680 --> 00:35:36,040
He was more of a judge.
If you misbehaved,

478
00:35:36,040 --> 00:35:40,400
he was the injured party
and you would be made to suffer
in the next life.

479
00:35:40,400 --> 00:35:42,920
So instead of the promise
of Valhalla,

480
00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:46,680
now, Vikings learned to live
in fear of eternal damnation.

481
00:35:46,680 --> 00:35:50,480
The whole focus of Viking life
was shifting,

482
00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:52,880
away from the here and now,

483
00:35:52,880 --> 00:35:57,040
the adventure, the heroic deed,
the reputation.

484
00:35:57,040 --> 00:36:00,960
Instead, it became about hoping
for life after death.

485
00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:05,320
And there was something about that
that feels a little bit sad.

486
00:36:08,600 --> 00:36:13,680
The wild north that had been
the backdrop for the entire
Viking world

487
00:36:13,680 --> 00:36:17,960
was leaving its mysterious
and ancient past behind...

488
00:36:17,960 --> 00:36:21,520
and emerging into a much more
European age.

489
00:36:24,680 --> 00:36:30,440
It was all very well becoming
Christian and exercising
royal power,

490
00:36:30,440 --> 00:36:36,000
but to effectively run a state,
you also needed an efficient
administration

491
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:38,360
and effective taxes as well.

492
00:36:41,880 --> 00:36:46,600
And the masters of that operated
just across the North Sea -

493
00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:48,640
the Anglo-Saxons.

494
00:36:51,240 --> 00:36:53,720
Now, I'm heading for England...

495
00:36:55,120 --> 00:36:57,560
..because for the
ninth-century Danes,

496
00:36:57,560 --> 00:37:00,120
this country was more important
than ever...

497
00:37:01,400 --> 00:37:03,720
..as an easy source of cash.

498
00:37:09,160 --> 00:37:13,040
England had been Christian
for centuries, and she was
also streets ahead

499
00:37:13,040 --> 00:37:16,040
of her Viking counterparts
when it came to commerce.

500
00:37:17,800 --> 00:37:19,800
Hiya.
Hi. How are you doing?

501
00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:22,320
Not bad. Can I have four
of these Braeburns, please?

502
00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:23,360
Thank you.

503
00:37:25,720 --> 00:37:31,640
Manufacturers and farmers ensured
a steady flow of goods and currency.

504
00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:37,000
Thank you.

505
00:37:38,200 --> 00:37:41,240
Relatively speaking,
this was a rich trading nation.

506
00:37:42,640 --> 00:37:48,440
There was also a huge army
of bureaucrats, administrators,
to look after the land,

507
00:37:48,440 --> 00:37:51,360
to dispense the justice
and to collect the tax.

508
00:37:52,360 --> 00:37:54,160
Thank you, sir. That's £5.

509
00:37:54,160 --> 00:37:57,080
Lovely. 15, 20.
Thank you, OK.

510
00:37:57,080 --> 00:38:01,440
To put it mildly,
she was rich and well organised.

511
00:38:07,720 --> 00:38:12,880
For nearly 100 years, between 866 AD
and 954 AD,

512
00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:15,400
Denmark had had a piece
of the action,

513
00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:20,040
controlling the kingdom of the York
from the Danish city of Jorvik.

514
00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:27,760
Now though, York was back
under Anglo-Saxon control.

515
00:38:27,760 --> 00:38:30,400
So Harald Bluetooth's descendants
had to resort

516
00:38:30,400 --> 00:38:32,600
to some very old-fashioned
Viking tactics.

517
00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:41,560
Not that that just meant more
raiding for slaves
or monastic treasure.

518
00:38:41,560 --> 00:38:46,200
By the late 10th century,
the Vikings had a new scheme -

519
00:38:46,200 --> 00:38:49,640
to issue threats
and demand tribute payments

520
00:38:49,640 --> 00:38:52,320
in cold, hard cash.

521
00:38:58,840 --> 00:39:00,880
England had the most
well-organised

522
00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:04,120
and efficient currency anywhere
in Western Europe at this time.

523
00:39:04,120 --> 00:39:08,200
They had up to 70 mints
active at any one time,

524
00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:11,640
from York down to Exeter
and Canterbury.

525
00:39:11,640 --> 00:39:15,600
And each of them would be making
silver pennies, much like this one.

526
00:39:15,600 --> 00:39:19,160
So they're all solid silver, that's
this unifying feature of them,

527
00:39:19,160 --> 00:39:21,480
they've all got the same worth?
Precisely, yes.

528
00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:29,280
England had a sophisticated
coinage system and well-organised
tax collection.

529
00:39:30,720 --> 00:39:32,560
Denmark had neither.

530
00:39:32,560 --> 00:39:36,920
But King Harald's son and successor,
Sweyn Forkbeard,

531
00:39:36,920 --> 00:39:39,440
didn't see the need for improvement.

532
00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:45,320
Not when you had neighbours
who did it so well for you.

533
00:39:53,040 --> 00:39:57,320
Sweyn might have been baptised,
but his veins ran with Viking blood.

534
00:39:57,320 --> 00:40:00,800
And when he came to the throne,

535
00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:05,040
he crewed up the Danish longships
once more and set sail for England.

536
00:40:06,160 --> 00:40:11,600
So it's from around the 980s that
the Vikings begin to go and attack

537
00:40:11,600 --> 00:40:14,280
and extract money from England again.

538
00:40:14,280 --> 00:40:18,880
And we see the English coins
begin to flow into Scandinavia
in massive quantity.

539
00:40:18,880 --> 00:40:22,880
How much money are the Vikings
taking out of the country?

540
00:40:22,880 --> 00:40:24,400
A very great deal.

541
00:40:24,400 --> 00:40:27,840
We know from the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle that more than £200,000

542
00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:31,440
was paid to them overall
between 991 and 1018.

543
00:40:32,680 --> 00:40:37,720
Are the English producing coins
precisely because they know
the Vikings are coming

544
00:40:37,720 --> 00:40:39,400
and will want paying?

545
00:40:39,400 --> 00:40:43,760
Well, the most vivid example
we have of this is this coin here.

546
00:40:43,760 --> 00:40:47,720
With all of these other types,
you have the bust of the King
and a cross.

547
00:40:47,720 --> 00:40:50,520
But in this case, you don't,
you have the Lamb of God

548
00:40:50,520 --> 00:40:53,200
and you have the Holy Dove.

549
00:40:53,200 --> 00:40:57,080
This coinage is all about
an invitation to God,

550
00:40:57,080 --> 00:41:00,880
trying to get him to send
the Vikings away and bring
the English to safety.

551
00:41:02,840 --> 00:41:06,840
But, invoking God on their coins
didn't help.

552
00:41:06,840 --> 00:41:10,160
The more they paid the Vikings off,
like any blackmailer,

553
00:41:10,160 --> 00:41:13,480
the more they came back
with new demands.

554
00:41:14,880 --> 00:41:18,200
Realising that England
was being bled dry,

555
00:41:18,200 --> 00:41:20,920
the English king decided
to hit back.

556
00:41:25,040 --> 00:41:28,320
Now, the English king, Ethelred,

557
00:41:28,320 --> 00:41:31,400
we generally know him
as Ethelred the Unready.

558
00:41:31,400 --> 00:41:35,400
He was given that nickname,
"Unready", for very a good reason.

559
00:41:35,400 --> 00:41:38,320
In old English,
unready means ill-advised,

560
00:41:38,320 --> 00:41:42,920
and the policy of continually buying
off the Vikings was a pretty
poor plan.

561
00:41:42,920 --> 00:41:46,600
In 1002, he made a ruthless decision

562
00:41:46,600 --> 00:41:50,960
and ordered that all Danish men
in England were to be killed.

563
00:41:50,960 --> 00:41:55,200
What happened next is known
as the Saint Brice's Day Massacre.

564
00:42:01,440 --> 00:42:06,720
By the 11th century, England
was home to thousands
of born-and-bred ethnic Danes,

565
00:42:06,720 --> 00:42:10,080
whose families had lived
in England for generations.

566
00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:16,000
But they dressed differently
and they stood out in society.

567
00:42:19,600 --> 00:42:24,160
Now, every one of them
was a target for revenge.

568
00:42:26,040 --> 00:42:29,600
These are the skeletons
of three men.

569
00:42:29,600 --> 00:42:35,640
They were excavated in Oxford
during work in advance
of a building project.

570
00:42:35,640 --> 00:42:41,240
There's three here on display but
38 skeletons were found together.

571
00:42:41,240 --> 00:42:43,960
There are far too many to display
here and now,

572
00:42:43,960 --> 00:42:47,840
so the rest are in their carefully
numbered and catalogued
cardboard boxes.

573
00:42:49,160 --> 00:42:55,280
All men, all, as far as we can
tell, aged between 16 and 25,

574
00:42:55,280 --> 00:42:57,440
certainly none of them older
than 40.

575
00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:02,240
But what is particularly
amazing about them

576
00:43:02,240 --> 00:43:04,880
is that they're all the victims
of violent death.

577
00:43:04,880 --> 00:43:07,680
I almost don't know where
to start.

578
00:43:07,680 --> 00:43:11,080
This individual here, you can tell
that he's a big robust character.

579
00:43:11,080 --> 00:43:14,640
But for all that,
he's been felled initially

580
00:43:14,640 --> 00:43:17,440
by a blow to the back of the legs.

581
00:43:17,440 --> 00:43:21,480
Like a sword swung at him
from behind and it's cut
through the muscles

582
00:43:21,480 --> 00:43:24,520
the flesh, the tendons and finally
through the bones themselves.

583
00:43:24,520 --> 00:43:27,120
So he's been felled like a big tree.

584
00:43:27,120 --> 00:43:30,080
But that's not the end of it
for this guy.

585
00:43:30,080 --> 00:43:32,800
On this side of the pelvis,
do you see that hole?

586
00:43:32,800 --> 00:43:34,240
That puncture wound?

587
00:43:35,480 --> 00:43:39,320
That's where the point of whatever
it was, spear or sword, went in

588
00:43:39,320 --> 00:43:40,920
and out the other side.

589
00:43:40,920 --> 00:43:43,360
Huge damage to the skull.

590
00:43:43,360 --> 00:43:47,160
Something like a sword or something
sharp and heavy has caused

591
00:43:47,160 --> 00:43:51,400
this massive slicing blow,
it's opened his head up like an egg.

592
00:43:51,400 --> 00:43:55,280
There are cut marks on the ribs.

593
00:43:55,280 --> 00:43:57,640
Too much has been done here.
Any one of these wounds

594
00:43:57,640 --> 00:44:00,240
would kill the person -
this is crazy violence.

595
00:44:01,480 --> 00:44:04,880
These are not the kinds of injuries
that are inflicted on people

596
00:44:04,880 --> 00:44:07,040
who are standing up and fighting.

597
00:44:07,040 --> 00:44:11,400
All of these men - the three here
and the rest in the boxes -

598
00:44:11,400 --> 00:44:14,640
were killed, butchered,
while they were running away.

599
00:44:20,160 --> 00:44:23,240
A particularly grim piece
of evidence suggests

600
00:44:23,240 --> 00:44:27,240
that all these men were victims
of Ethelred's massacre in 1002.

601
00:44:30,720 --> 00:44:33,560
If you look at this one, you see
this burning on the forehead

602
00:44:33,560 --> 00:44:35,160
on the front of the skull?

603
00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:39,120
And then there's more burning here,
on the right hand.

604
00:44:39,120 --> 00:44:43,440
He's been in a fire somewhere
after death.

605
00:44:43,440 --> 00:44:47,080
And some of the other bodies show
evidence of burning as well.

606
00:44:50,560 --> 00:44:54,880
An account of the killings
from Oxford, where these
skeletons were found,

607
00:44:54,880 --> 00:44:59,280
records that a group of Danes
sought sanctuary in a church.

608
00:44:59,280 --> 00:45:01,400
To no avail.

609
00:45:03,320 --> 00:45:05,880
The local Anglo-Saxons simply
burnt it to the ground

610
00:45:05,880 --> 00:45:08,280
with everyone inside.

611
00:45:09,520 --> 00:45:14,840
So it's possible, just possible,
that this, and they, were some
of those

612
00:45:14,840 --> 00:45:18,440
who sought refuge in a church
1,000 years ago,

613
00:45:18,440 --> 00:45:20,480
for all the good it did them.

614
00:45:22,960 --> 00:45:26,040
King Ethelred's desperate action,
though, was a failure.

615
00:45:26,040 --> 00:45:29,000
The Viking raids continued unabated.

616
00:45:30,280 --> 00:45:33,000
And soon, England was on its knees.

617
00:45:34,320 --> 00:45:37,680
For the Danish king,
it was the chance of a lifetime.

618
00:45:39,800 --> 00:45:45,560
In 1013, Sweyn Forkbeard launched
a full-scale invasion of England,

619
00:45:45,560 --> 00:45:47,320
and it worked.

620
00:45:47,320 --> 00:45:51,160
The English king, Ethelred
the Unready, simply ran away,

621
00:45:51,160 --> 00:45:53,240
abandoning the English crown
to the Dane.

622
00:45:53,240 --> 00:45:55,600
But it turned out to be
a very short reign.

623
00:46:00,240 --> 00:46:03,120
Five weeks later,
Forkbeard was dead,

624
00:46:03,120 --> 00:46:07,920
but, by his side, was his
young son called Canute.

625
00:46:07,920 --> 00:46:10,440
Now there's a name
we're all familiar with.

626
00:46:13,920 --> 00:46:18,400
Canute was grandson
of Harald Bluetooth
and son of Forkbeard -

627
00:46:18,400 --> 00:46:22,120
a continuation
of the Jelling royal dynasty.

628
00:46:25,040 --> 00:46:27,560
Canute returned to Denmark,

629
00:46:27,560 --> 00:46:30,560
but he kept his eye firmly
on the English crown.

630
00:46:33,600 --> 00:46:36,840
Just two years later, he was back,

631
00:46:36,840 --> 00:46:39,280
with 200 ships and 10,000 men.

632
00:46:39,280 --> 00:46:42,040
And after some bloody fighting,

633
00:46:42,040 --> 00:46:45,520
he became King of all England.

634
00:46:49,280 --> 00:46:52,520
Everyone knows the story
about King Canute and the sea -

635
00:46:52,520 --> 00:46:55,600
how he ordered that his throne
be taken down onto the beach

636
00:46:55,600 --> 00:47:00,320
and then he sat there, and as
the tide came in, he told
the waves to turn back.

637
00:47:00,320 --> 00:47:02,200
And of course they didn't.

638
00:47:02,200 --> 00:47:06,320
And his feet got a wet
and he ended up looking
a bit foolish, a bit arrogant.

639
00:47:06,320 --> 00:47:09,560
But that wasn't what he intended
at all.

640
00:47:10,600 --> 00:47:14,280
What happened that day
was a pure PR stunt.

641
00:47:14,280 --> 00:47:18,960
His subjects, his followers,
were supposed to see
that he was just a man

642
00:47:18,960 --> 00:47:23,560
and that only God had the power
to control the sun and the moon
and the tides.

643
00:47:25,160 --> 00:47:29,600
In conquering England with an axe,
Canute had shown his Viking roots.

644
00:47:31,800 --> 00:47:35,120
But he was also determined to prove
he was a devout Christian king.

645
00:47:36,360 --> 00:47:39,240
Combining both powerful traditions,

646
00:47:39,240 --> 00:47:42,280
he would go on to become ruler
of an empire,

647
00:47:42,280 --> 00:47:45,800
a member of the European
royal elite.

648
00:47:49,240 --> 00:47:54,520
And when he died, his tomb
was no Viking longship
beneath a grassy mound.

649
00:47:54,520 --> 00:47:57,320
Instead, it was a cathedral.

650
00:47:57,320 --> 00:48:01,560
So that, nowadays, we hardly think
of him as a Viking at all.

651
00:48:08,680 --> 00:48:12,040
Originally founded by the
Anglo-Saxons over 1,000
years ago,

652
00:48:12,040 --> 00:48:16,600
Winchester Cathedral houses tombs
of the great and the good,

653
00:48:16,600 --> 00:48:19,920
centuries of England's most worthy.

654
00:48:24,160 --> 00:48:25,720
In medieval England,

655
00:48:25,720 --> 00:48:30,000
a more celebrated, a more Christian
location for your mortal remains

656
00:48:30,000 --> 00:48:32,280
could hardly be wished for.

657
00:48:32,280 --> 00:48:36,720
So, for a king who was born Viking,
whose heritage was pagan,

658
00:48:36,720 --> 00:48:39,760
and who was viewed as a brutal
conqueror of England,

659
00:48:39,760 --> 00:48:43,000
you might think this is
an unlikely final resting place.

660
00:48:43,000 --> 00:48:46,880
But the truth is,
by Canute's death in 1035,

661
00:48:46,880 --> 00:48:49,480
he was known as Canute the Great.

662
00:48:55,400 --> 00:49:00,120
Canute's invasion of England
could be viewed as the ultimate
Viking expedition.

663
00:49:00,120 --> 00:49:04,320
A rite of passage
for a true hero of the Sagas.

664
00:49:07,800 --> 00:49:12,920
Though tradition had it that
after your adventures,
you were meant to return home.

665
00:49:15,280 --> 00:49:19,440
For most Vikings, that meant farming
a plot of land at the end
of a fjord.

666
00:49:19,440 --> 00:49:22,040
But Canute was King.

667
00:49:22,040 --> 00:49:25,440
And his bones are inside
that box up there

668
00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:27,480
or possibly that one...

669
00:49:28,480 --> 00:49:30,440
..or that one.

670
00:49:30,440 --> 00:49:32,400
Any of these.

671
00:49:32,400 --> 00:49:37,240
The truth is, we don't actually
know where his mortal remains
really are,

672
00:49:37,240 --> 00:49:41,960
because during the English
Civil War, around 600 years
after his death,

673
00:49:41,960 --> 00:49:46,320
parliamentarian Roundhead
soldiers used the bones
inside these reliquaries

674
00:49:46,320 --> 00:49:48,240
to smash out what they regarded

675
00:49:48,240 --> 00:49:51,400
as the frankly idolatrous
stained-glass window

676
00:49:51,400 --> 00:49:53,440
above the cathedral entrance.

677
00:49:53,440 --> 00:49:54,560
A bunch of killjoys.

678
00:50:01,040 --> 00:50:05,040
Soon after, the good people
of Winchester collected up the glass

679
00:50:05,040 --> 00:50:06,280
and rebuilt the window.

680
00:50:08,040 --> 00:50:12,160
Although the colourful patchwork
ended up more modernist
than medieval.

681
00:50:17,480 --> 00:50:21,280
The bones used to smash the windows
were collected up too

682
00:50:21,280 --> 00:50:22,880
and returned to the reliquaries.

683
00:50:22,880 --> 00:50:26,720
But, like the window,
in a slightly random way.

684
00:50:28,360 --> 00:50:31,880
So although we don't know
where his bones actually are,

685
00:50:31,880 --> 00:50:34,200
we hope and suspect
he's up there somewhere.

686
00:50:43,040 --> 00:50:46,720
Canute's ambition had extended
beyond ruling England.

687
00:50:46,720 --> 00:50:50,880
He was soon King of the Scottish
islands, Denmark,

688
00:50:50,880 --> 00:50:54,600
Norway and parts of Sweden too.

689
00:50:55,880 --> 00:50:58,200
He had created a Viking empire.

690
00:51:07,040 --> 00:51:09,840
From England, I've come
south to Austria,

691
00:51:09,840 --> 00:51:11,680
right in the heart of Europe.

692
00:51:13,120 --> 00:51:15,520
Because Canute wasn't just
a northern ruler,

693
00:51:15,520 --> 00:51:17,960
but an early European statesman.

694
00:51:22,680 --> 00:51:23,920
Canute was smart.

695
00:51:23,920 --> 00:51:28,680
He knew that more trade
across Europe meant more taxes
to fill his coffers.

696
00:51:28,680 --> 00:51:32,840
So he set about standardising
the whole European economy.

697
00:51:35,920 --> 00:51:40,240
Now, you might think of the euro
as a modern concept.

698
00:51:40,240 --> 00:51:43,080
But it's not really,
and in the 11th century,

699
00:51:43,080 --> 00:51:47,600
it was neither France not Germany
that was the centre
for monetary union.

700
00:51:47,600 --> 00:51:49,040
It was England.

701
00:51:51,320 --> 00:51:56,800
First of all, Canute standardised
Scandinavian and English coins,

702
00:51:56,800 --> 00:51:59,440
so that there was a common currency.

703
00:51:59,440 --> 00:52:03,480
And then, it appears that right
across his empire, the ounce,

704
00:52:03,480 --> 00:52:08,160
the weight that was used
for measuring gold and silver,
was altered to match up

705
00:52:08,160 --> 00:52:11,760
with the ounce of Byzantium,
of the Byzantine empire.

706
00:52:11,760 --> 00:52:15,280
And that was at a time when
Constantinople was not only
the largest,

707
00:52:15,280 --> 00:52:18,320
but also the wealthiest city
on Earth.

708
00:52:18,320 --> 00:52:22,200
Canute was carefully
integrating his empire

709
00:52:22,200 --> 00:52:25,440
into a medieval single
European market.

710
00:52:30,120 --> 00:52:35,400
Canute the Great was a player
on the world stage,
and here in Vienna,

711
00:52:35,400 --> 00:52:39,240
there's an incredible object
that shows us how influential
he was.

712
00:52:39,240 --> 00:52:43,280
And how far he had come
from his Viking roots.

713
00:52:45,360 --> 00:52:49,520
A decade after becoming King,
Canute attended the coronation

714
00:52:49,520 --> 00:52:52,000
of the man who ruled
most of central Europe -

715
00:52:52,000 --> 00:52:54,040
the Holy Roman Emperor.

716
00:52:58,160 --> 00:53:02,160
And this glorious object
is what he was crowned with.

717
00:53:02,160 --> 00:53:04,440
It's called Die Reichskrone,

718
00:53:04,440 --> 00:53:08,080
the Imperial Crown,
and back in 1027,

719
00:53:08,080 --> 00:53:11,680
watching this being placed
on the Emperor's head

720
00:53:11,680 --> 00:53:14,760
was the hot ticket of the season.

721
00:53:24,720 --> 00:53:28,600
It's decorated with 144 emeralds,

722
00:53:28,600 --> 00:53:31,640
sapphires and amethysts.

723
00:53:31,640 --> 00:53:35,080
Back then, the technique
of cutting facets

724
00:53:35,080 --> 00:53:37,960
into precious stones was unknown.

725
00:53:37,960 --> 00:53:43,640
Instead, they were polished
into these smooth shapes.

726
00:53:43,640 --> 00:53:47,040
They look a bit like boiled sweets,
to be honest.

727
00:53:47,040 --> 00:53:49,320
Although a lot more expensive.

728
00:53:49,320 --> 00:53:53,360
And they're then mounted
to let light shine through them.

729
00:54:08,400 --> 00:54:11,960
The final touch
are the four picture plates,

730
00:54:11,960 --> 00:54:15,960
which depict messages
from the Old Testament.

731
00:54:15,960 --> 00:54:20,280
And most important,
most tellingly for our story,

732
00:54:20,280 --> 00:54:22,160
is this one on the corner.

733
00:54:23,840 --> 00:54:29,040
It shows Jesus Christ enthroned
as the Lord of Hosts.

734
00:54:29,040 --> 00:54:34,040
And above his head, in red enamel,
are the words in Latin,

735
00:54:34,040 --> 00:54:37,560
"Per me reges regnant" -

736
00:54:37,560 --> 00:54:40,080
"By me, kings rule."

737
00:54:41,720 --> 00:54:46,000
And this idea, this concept
of divinely ordained kingship,

738
00:54:46,000 --> 00:54:50,040
was something Canute
was very enthusiastic about.

739
00:54:53,200 --> 00:54:56,160
When the Holy Roman Emperor
was crowned,

740
00:54:56,160 --> 00:55:00,240
Canute the Great walked as part
of the Imperial procession.

741
00:55:03,160 --> 00:55:08,640
And afterwards, the Emperor even
arranged for his own son
to marry Canute's daughter

742
00:55:08,640 --> 00:55:11,600
to cement a powerful
political alliance.

743
00:55:13,840 --> 00:55:16,880
Canute's attendance
at that coronation

744
00:55:16,880 --> 00:55:21,360
showed that he was a major
European player, he had arrived.

745
00:55:21,360 --> 00:55:26,640
And he clearly believed that
he was the equal of the Holy
Roman Emperor.

746
00:55:26,640 --> 00:55:30,840
Because when he got home,
he had one of these made
for himself.

747
00:55:35,760 --> 00:55:39,240
Canute's reign lasted
less than two decades.

748
00:55:39,240 --> 00:55:43,520
But in that time,
he had utterly changed
his Scandinavian world.

749
00:55:44,880 --> 00:55:47,400
He had been born a Viking,

750
00:55:47,400 --> 00:55:49,520
but he died a European.

751
00:55:52,640 --> 00:55:56,880
Canute himself had left four
children and his empire was divided.

752
00:55:58,320 --> 00:56:02,920
Norway, Denmark and Sweden
soon found their own new rulers.

753
00:56:16,200 --> 00:56:19,800
It was the end
for the great Jelling dynasty.

754
00:56:19,800 --> 00:56:22,480
And, with it, the entire Viking age.

755
00:56:25,320 --> 00:56:31,440
But, by then, Scandinavia
was no longer a remote,
pagan backwater.

756
00:56:31,440 --> 00:56:36,680
The violent, plundering men
from the north had become
colonisers, Christians,

757
00:56:36,680 --> 00:56:39,960
nation and empire builders.

758
00:56:45,320 --> 00:56:48,640
It had been an incendiary time
in European history.

759
00:56:48,640 --> 00:56:51,440
But it had burnt itself out.

760
00:56:51,440 --> 00:56:55,960
Nonetheless, the impact
of the Vikings on modern Europe

761
00:56:55,960 --> 00:56:57,200
is inescapable.

762
00:56:57,200 --> 00:56:59,640
The politics, the economics,

763
00:56:59,640 --> 00:57:03,080
the national and religious
identities were forged,

764
00:57:03,080 --> 00:57:06,320
at least in part, by their exploits.

765
00:57:08,640 --> 00:57:13,520
The Vikings had raided
and pillaged coastlines
across northern Europe.

766
00:57:16,320 --> 00:57:20,400
They'd set out on journeys
beyond the knowledge
of any other Europeans...

767
00:57:22,000 --> 00:57:25,040
..colonised uninhabited lands...

768
00:57:25,920 --> 00:57:30,480
..and traded goods from the distant
empires of the Far East.

769
00:57:33,160 --> 00:57:35,640
In little more than two centuries,

770
00:57:35,640 --> 00:57:38,240
the Vikings had expanded
the Western world,

771
00:57:38,240 --> 00:57:42,680
voyaging from Newfoundland
in the west to Constantinople
in the east.

772
00:57:46,200 --> 00:57:50,800
A world far, far bigger
than even they could have
imagined possible.

773
00:57:53,160 --> 00:57:55,480
And they're still with us today

774
00:57:55,480 --> 00:57:57,320
in our towns and cities,

775
00:57:57,320 --> 00:57:59,120
in our culture,

776
00:57:59,120 --> 00:58:02,240
in our language and in our blood.

777
00:58:02,240 --> 00:58:07,160
And in the very existence
of the modern nation-states
of northern Europe.

778
00:58:08,520 --> 00:58:11,160
But that's not what we remember,
or why.

779
00:58:12,280 --> 00:58:15,840
The truth is, the myth
and the legend of them,

780
00:58:15,840 --> 00:58:18,680
the excitement and the adventure,

781
00:58:18,680 --> 00:58:21,480
is all there
in the sound of one word -

782
00:58:21,480 --> 00:58:23,200
Vikings.

783
00:58:30,400 --> 00:58:32,880
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