The Brutal Reality of Viking Raids

A brutal look at Viking raids! Get your free trial of MagellanTV here: https://try.magellantv.com/historydose. It's an exclusive offer for our viewers: an extended, month-long trial, FREE. MagellanTV is a new kind of streaming service run by filmmakers with 3,000+ documentaries! Check out our personal recommendation, “Sigurd Bjornson: Viking Exile,” and MagellanTV’s exclusive playlists: https://www.magellantv.com/explore/hi...

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Viking berserkers rush into a town and villagers scatter. Many are cut down with axes, spears, and arrows. From Lindisfarne to Seville, these lightning raids are unpredictable, brutal, and strategically aimed at vulnerable targets. For many coastal regions, Vikings raids bring an inevitable massacre. Today, we look at how best to survive a Viking raid.

Whether fighting for mere earthly plunder or glory in Valhalla, the #Vikings were situated in a Scandinavian society that offered unique conditions and motivations for raiding. We use as a case study the Viking attack on Moorish Spain and Portugal as an illustration of the drivers and vulnerabilities of Viking raiders. We lastly ask what happened to the Vikings? Were they mere assassins? Did the fearsome Norse raiders disappear in one final, Ragnarok-esque battle? And yes, we produced this history documentary in anticipation of the release of Assassin's Creed Valhalla!

An enormous thank you to all of our wonderful Patreon supporters, especially
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SOURCES

Brink, Stefan, and Neil Price, editors. The Viking World. Routledge, 2008.

Lawler, Andrew. “Kinder, Gentler Vikings? Not According to Their Slaves.” National Geographic, 28 Dec. 2015, www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/12/151228-vikings-slaves-thralls-norse-scandinavia-archaeology/.

Ogg, Frederic Austin. A Source Book of Mediæval History: Documents Illustrative of European Life and Institutions from the German Invasion to the Renaissance. American Book Company, 1907.

Stefansson, Jon. “The Vikings in Spain from Arabic (Moorish) and Spanish Sources.” Saga Book of the Viking Club for Northern Research, vol. 6, 1909, pp. 31–46.

Winroth, Anders. The Conversion of Scandinavia: Vikings, Merchants, and Missionaries in the Remaking of Northern Europe. Yale University Press, 2012.

MUSIC

Gealdyr
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Danheim
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