WEBVTT - Who were the Vikings? 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:02.920 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:07.480 It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:16.360 from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:20.960 the Super Weird Podcast. This is a weird podcast, not 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:23.759 necessarily for you guys, but it is for Chuck and I. Yes, 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:26.200 I'm Josh Clark. That's Chuck Bryant. Let's get back to 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:30.480 what this is a weird podcast. Yes, to explain, our 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:35.639 studio is being renovated drum roll, which is awesome. It's 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:38.720 gonna be super fancy and like a real studio. But 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:42.879 right now we are actually recording in some odd office 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:45.600 that has windows. Yeah, this is really weird. This's the 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:48.640 first time we've recorded a show outside the regular studio, 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:52.599 and um, it might sound a little different. Jerry has 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:56.800 explained that there's something called room tone, and it's different 0:00:56.840 --> 0:01:00.280 from room to room. Jerry just made that up. I 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:02.360 bought it. Plus, it looks like the walls are closing 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:04.760 in on us. We're actually a lot closer than a 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:08.360 little cramped. This is just odd. So if if we 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:11.040 seem a little angrier than usual, it's because of the 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:15.560 stupid room So uh, I think we're gonna call this, 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:19.120 what do we determine? I voted for the Reconstruction Tapes 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:22.280 of the Reconstruction Era, and I made the joke saying 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:24.480 that we should call it the Eponymous Era because that 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:27.039 was a much better album. But that was just the 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:30.280 greatest hits collection by Orim. No it wasn't. It was, 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:34.240 well it was, That's why it was so good. All right, 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:37.520 So what's your witty intro? Or is this all just 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:40.160 out the door? It's way off the door, buddy, Okay, 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:44.959 you see it, yes, leaving Chuck, Josh. Have you ever 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:51.000 met a Viking? Uh? No, I haven't. Well, you know 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:54.320 the football team, right, Minnesota Vikings. Yeah, I've seen them. 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:56.480 You can tell their helmet a mile away because they 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:59.440 have those horns on the side, which are very Viking. 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:04.559 Se No, not true, Yes it is. Uh. It turns 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:08.600 out a bunch of archaeologists were um digging around, uh, 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:15.760 the north, the Nordic area Scandinavia, which includes what Sweden, Denmark, 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:20.440 the Netherlands and yeah I think Finland, sure, Norway too, 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:25.959 can you forget the Norwegians? Um And they found an 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:30.040 ancient helmet with some horns on it, and this was 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:35.360 before we had um reliable carbon dating technology and they said, well, 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:37.720 it's a Viking, but it turns out that it was 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:43.119 probably from the pre Viking era, right, Well that's when 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:46.080 it was popularized in the in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:49.840 You know, the the enormous woman would come out with 0:02:49.919 --> 0:02:54.800 her bosom very prominent and uh, you know, a helmet 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:57.720 with with horns or wings. And it turns out they 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:02.120 wouldn't have worn this because these guys were or dedicated 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:07.239 to battling as efficiently and as brutally as any group 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:11.000 that's ever sprung up on the global map. Yes, they 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:13.120 were very good at what they do. And I just 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:16.720 want to point out this is a listener request, a 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:19.120 very recent one actually that piqued our interest, and this 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:21.960 is from David d from Waterloo. He said, can you 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:25.239 do something on vikings since you've covered Ninja and um, 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:28.440 what else did we cover? Pirates? He said, I hear vikings. 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:31.480 You stuff warriors called berserkers who would eat magic mushrooms 0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:34.880 before sending them into battle. And uh, we're going to 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:37.640 talk about that, so stay tuned. It's a teaser. So 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:39.640 chuck there there does seem to be a lot of 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:43.280 um misconception around vikings. But one of the things I 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:46.840 took from this article by the Grabs their a Grabanowski 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:50.280 he writes good stuff he does, um, was that there's 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:54.360 also a lot of accuracy in the history associated with 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:58.920 with Vikings, Like they were extremely brutal, they would indiscriminately 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:03.600 kill men, women, children. Um. So let's let's peel this apart. 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:07.280 Let's separate fact from fiction as it were. Right, Yes, 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:12.760 when were they around? H josh? The Vikings were prominent 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:17.039 in uh Europe in the ninth through the eleven centuries, 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:21.159 commonly known as the Age of the Viking. Right, and Um, 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:24.680 you tend to think of Vikings as Nordic. They were 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:27.600 sure they were from Scandinavia, which are the countries we 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:34.400 listed off earlier. But this These weren't communities of Vikings. 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:38.600 Vikings were like a job. Yeah, it was a profession, basically, 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:42.640 a you were a professional conqueror. Yeah, because Scandinavians are 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:46.920 also farmers and um did many other things weavers, and uh, 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:51.760 they weren't just Vikings. It's not interchangeable. Viking and Scandinavians 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:54.680 not interchangeable. Weaving has never really been a lucrative job. 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:57.560 You know, it's not not even back then. But yeah, 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:00.040 so there was a group that that were dedicated to 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:04.760 moving out of the North Lamb downward into Europe. Yeah, 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:08.680 because Scandinavia it wasn't a very hospitable place. I imagine 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:10.479 it still isn't, you know. Lots of ice, lots of 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:13.920 winter snow, not that much land, and the land that 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:18.720 is available isn't all arable. So yeah, they went and 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:23.719 took it, you know, like broadwater. Uh. There was also 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:29.000 evidence that population pressure led to Viking plundering, yeah, because 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:31.400 they started to grow and then obviously as they grew, 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:35.400 they needed more things. And this is before they started 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:37.560 spreading out, because eventually they would do that, but at 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:40.360 first they would just go plunder and then return home 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:45.000 to Viking land Scandinavia. You said that they were around 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:47.880 from the ninth of the eleventh centuries, right, So there 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:53.320 were Scandinavian cultures before the ninth century. There were Scandinavian 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:57.400 cultures after the ninth century, so two years basically, um, 0:05:57.440 --> 0:06:01.800 this population explosion forced this group out to go get 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:05.120 more resources, to more conquering, to conquer more land, and 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:09.200 then the end point at the eleventh century actually generally 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:14.040 represents the adoption of Christianity. The Vikings did readily. Yeah 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:18.120 once you once you converts, like, you can't plunder any longer, 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:20.720 at least not you know, only plundering in the name 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:27.000 of God. And Vikings were were pagans pre pre Christianity, right, 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:30.159 and which also means that they worshiped the pantheon of gods. 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:34.720 There Um, their religion was actually highly personalized. There was 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:38.720 no central church in any of the Scandinavian cultures and 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:43.680 their their religion was actually highly personal Uh. It evolved 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:47.360 in relative isolation without a central church and any of 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:52.440 these Scandinavian cultures. Um, but there was a a pantheon 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:58.280 of gods that were recognizable across these cultures generally, right, 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:01.320 two groups should we talk about them real quick? Yeah, Uh, 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:04.320 the s and the Veneer were the two groups of gods, 0:07:04.520 --> 0:07:08.200 and the scre were very warlike. That's Odin and Thor, 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:11.600 and then the Assir were kind of like hippies like 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:15.800 fertility goddesses and gods. Uh. They lived. The gods lived 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:19.360 in Asgard and it was a kingdom connected to mortal 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:22.760 Earth by a rainbow bridge, which I didn't know which 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:28.120 is you think Okay, so um, Scandinavian pre Christian pagan 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:31.920 religion is pretty sweet. They've got hippies, they have rainbow bridges. 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:35.080 They had evil giants and dark elves. Yeah, here's where 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:38.360 it gets dark dwarves. And apparently the gods were destined 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:41.560 to fight against these giants and evil forces in a 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:46.440 battle known as Ragnarok. Right, and they were also predicted 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:50.960 to lose, which would plunge uh Mortal Earth and uh 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:56.360 Asgard into chaos, darkness, disorder, which I mean to think 0:07:56.400 --> 0:08:00.960 about that, chuck. All of our religions today are pretty hopeful, Like, 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:04.080 even if there isn't into the world, if you adhere 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:06.760 to that religion, you're gonna be saved. You won't be 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:11.240 around for like the torment. Right, this this religion as 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:14.320 loose as it was predicted, Like, no, our gods are 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:17.600 gonna lose and we're all gonna be in really big trouble. Right. 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:22.360 But if you were a noble, awesome warrior and you 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:25.520 died in battle, you would go to Valhalla, which was 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:29.480 warrior heaven, and you would be transported there by the Vulkyrie, 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:33.040 which were little warrior angels at the command of Robert 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:37.160 Duval right, and uh, what happened was in heaven you 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:40.920 would fight alongside Odin and feast and die in battle 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:43.959 every day, and you would get up alive the next 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:45.720 day and do it all over again. Right, that's their 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:48.320 idea of heaven. It was who was pretty funny. Yeah, 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:53.360 so them that that battle part is really significant because, um, 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:56.600 in Scandinavia and many of the Scandinavian cultures, a young 0:08:56.640 --> 0:09:00.240 man proved himself by going, I Viking. Yeah that I'm 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:01.959 gonna get a T shirt made it says I Viking. 0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:03.800 And just see how many people know what that means. 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:07.719 That's like the verb of what Vikings did, leaving your homeland, 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:14.240 going down, butchering, raping, pillaging, studying, churches on fire. Churches 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:17.200 are actually a big target of their's because the churches 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:22.680 are where most of the gold was stored, livestock, spices, jewels, whatever, um. 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:27.200 So they would target churches and and kill everybody or 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:30.200 else they would take them as thralls slaves, which I 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:33.000 looked up the etymology of enthrall. Then that's where it 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:35.559 comes from. So when you're telling somebody you're enthralled by them, 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:40.800 you're saying that you're enslaved by their by how interesting 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:45.520 they are interesting. And you know that Actually all the 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:47.800 church thing is kind of key too, because that's how 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:50.640 the that's like, the only written history about the Vikings 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:54.440 where it was was written by the hand of the 0:09:54.520 --> 0:09:57.400 church that was plundered. So that's one reason. Because the 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:02.360 Vikings only told oral orald stories folklore, right, but scrawls, 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:06.040 scrawls which told saga's it's where all these words come from. 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:08.160 And uh, but the church was the ones who actually 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:10.319 wrote down stuff. So that's why a lot of the 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:13.120 written history of the Vikings is so brutal, because they 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:16.120 were the people that were just you know, had someone 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:18.600 went I Viking on them, right, chuck. And they also 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:24.800 attribute the word Viking to um Europeans who were conquered. Yeah, 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:26.840 I mean there are a lot of different uh theories 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:30.000 there on the word. There are most of them. Do um. 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:34.520 Either the Norse adopted a word that was that they 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:39.560 were called by the Europeans like um uh, an old 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:43.720 English word vic w i c means port port of 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:46.920 trade um, which is where the Vikings like to attack. 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:50.679 Another theory is that it came from the Norse word 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:54.640 vic big different, but this one's v I k meaning 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:58.080 bay or body of water. Or there's another word that 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:01.320 sounds similar that means to turn away or to leave 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:03.920 on a journey, which is as we said, what going. 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:08.679 I Viking began with um. And then there's the last one, 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:10.959 which makes a lot of sense, is called um. It's 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:14.120 an old Norse word called viking or which means pirate. 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:17.360 That's that's my guess, right, But they think that they 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:21.679 picked that up from the Europeans they conquered. So either way, 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:24.040 these people were written about by Europeans, they were named 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:26.960 by Europeans. They were just going to get some food 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:32.679 and gold cheap. Yes, how they do this though? Should 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:36.000 we talk about that? Yeah, I Viking. Yeah, they were 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:42.320 famous for being experienced seamen. They were built awesome boats 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:46.040 and built boats that traveled really fast through the water. 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:49.480 So when the when the Christian uh you know, let's 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:52.400 say a monastery would see the Viking ships approaching and 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:55.080 dragon ships, yeah, dragon boats, they didn't have much time 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:57.040 because they would get there really really fast because they 0:11:57.080 --> 0:12:00.920 were very experienced fishermen. And uh, I guess since we're 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:02.880 on the boats, we we should talk about that for 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:06.040 a second. Yeah, they had pretty particular boats as Um, 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:08.720 you know, I think anybody could pick one out. They 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:11.000 had a double sided hole, which I thought was pretty 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:13.920 cool because you can go forward or backward without having 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:15.960 to turn around. You just pick up your butt and 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:18.240 turn around and start rowing the other way right, or 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:22.160 just switch the sail around. Um. They had a keel, 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:25.719 They had riveted wood construction. Um. And then they had 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:27.960 a single mask, and this mask could be as much 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:31.160 as um or the the sail that that was attached 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:34.240 to the mass could be like three thirty square feet 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:38.120 of double sided wool, all hands sewn, usually painted red 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:41.400 to symbolize the blood that was about to be spilled 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:44.240 by the people who saw it approaching. UM. And then 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:47.040 you see pictures of Viking ships with like the little 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:50.880 circles along the side. Yeah, that's actually accurate. Um. Most 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:54.280 Viking ships had mounts where somebody could put their shield 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:57.720 up as extra protection to to protect the guys who 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:00.840 were rowing. Of course makes good sense. Took about a 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:04.920 seventy ft Viking long ship. Josh would have required about 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:08.480 eleven trees to make it about three ft in diameter each, 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:10.680 and then one really tall tree to make the keel. 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:13.560 So I guess it was all one piece. Yeah, and 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:15.840 these things could haul but through the water apparently because 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:20.599 they're real narrow and they used wind power and manpower. 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:25.240 Viking manpower was that was something. So what happened when 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:28.160 you saw a dragon boat chuck? You saw a dragon 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:32.440 boat docks and all of a sudden, this horde of 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:35.360 Vikings just comes streaming off at you. You poop your 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:38.440 pants the first thing you do. I would have rolled 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:41.200 around the ground crying like a baby and offering up 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:44.840 my cattle to be spared. But you might not be spared. 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:48.640 They generally would not leave much. Anything woulden was burned. 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:51.439 They would just burn the town to the ground. Kill people, 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:54.920 take women if they wanted, or kill them, take children 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:58.080 if they wanted, or kill them. Take the cattle. Probably 0:13:58.080 --> 0:13:59.840 wouldn't kill the cattle now they wanted the cattle. They 0:13:59.840 --> 0:14:03.000 were more useful in humans generally. Um. And you would 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:05.400 also see these guys coming at you with the acts, which, 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:08.240 as everybody knows, is my weapon of choice for a 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:12.200 zombie apocalypse. Right, you would go I Viking on zombies, sure, 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:14.679 and Josh. As far as their battle gear, like you said, 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:19.600 the sword was huge. The swords are about as long 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:22.520 as the uh as a man's arm, right. They also 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:26.320 had bows and lances and javelins. Uh, And they wore 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:30.120 like you would think, they wore big heavy iron helmets 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:32.640 with a little nosepiece that came down a lot of 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:36.880 times they wore iron on their breastplate unless they had 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:39.280 some dough and they could afford chain mail. But this 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:41.720 kind of indicates how strong these dudes were. Do you 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:44.080 know what, Like an iron Viking helmet would weigh a 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:47.560 lot a lot and actually Vikings, well not Vikings, but 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:51.200 skin Navians, I should say. Skin Navian cultures were really 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:54.600 really adept at doing whatever they wanted to do with 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:58.360 iron because they've been pulling it from bogs um very 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:01.920 easily without any need for mining for many, many centuries. 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:04.920 So they were kind of ahead of the curve as 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:08.840 far as the iron age goes. And chuck. When these 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.880 guys died, let's say you were a Viking, had had 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:17.880 some successful raids, garnered some powers, some money. The concept 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:20.560 of a Viking funeral, you know, being put on a 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:24.680 ship instead of fire a fire and pushed out to see, 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:26.960 that's actually accurate. Yeah, that's one way they did it. 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:29.640 They also, Yeah, the other way would be that they 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:32.480 entombed you in uh an earthen barrow, which is like 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:36.000 a mound. It was called mounting. Right. The thing is, 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:38.440 if you were a thrall, let's say you have been 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:41.720 captured in battle and taken back to Scandinavia, and you 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:46.560 were a servant to this guy, especially particularly useful servant, 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:50.120 you would probably be murdered and entombed in the thrall 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:53.600 or the barrow. Yeah. The deal there was they believed 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:56.520 in a life after death. Um. Whether it was like 0:15:56.560 --> 0:15:58.480 an eternal life, didn't really know, or just like a 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:00.800 temporary life until you get to your old life. But 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:04.160 they definitely believed that you did not just die. So 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:06.040 that's why they would send you along with maybe your 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:09.760 favorite slave or your possessions. They would your cat, they 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:12.400 would bury you with your clothes on, and maybe with 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:15.160 your your acts, and they would send you along with 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:16.880 these things that they think you would need in the 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:21.360 following life to go I Viking. Uh. You know there 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:29.200 was another a stratified class almost um in Viking warrior culture. UM. 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:32.560 And there was this little subgroup that the guy who 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:37.480 called for this podcast mentioned berserkers. So these guys I 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:40.000 want to talk about berserkers yeah, if you've seen the 0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:45.640 movie Clerks. Did you see Clerks? Yeah? Remember uh Silent 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:50.000 Bob's cousin Olaf from my Russia. He sang a medal. 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:51.560 He was in a Russian metal band he had. It's 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:54.600 long called Bezerka. I don't remember that. That was the 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:56.480 first time I heard Berserker And wait, we can't say 0:16:56.520 --> 0:17:00.120 the lyrics because they're really filthy, but it was funny. Well, 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:02.840 what he was talking about where this this group of 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:06.320 warriors that were they think that they grew out of 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:09.320 a bear cult, like these people worship bears. They were nuts. 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:13.040 They during battle especially, they would go nuts. They would um. 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:16.520 It was told in the Sagas that they would take 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:19.440 on they would either become a bear or a bowl 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:21.760 for something like that. They would shape ship or else 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:24.080 they would take on the qualities of a bear like. 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:27.119 They would go into battle naked or shirtless, or at 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:31.120 the very least armorless. They would cut five people's heads 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:33.159 off at once with one swing of an axe. They 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:36.200 couldn't feel pain. Supposedly, they would scream a lot. Their 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:38.840 eyes were kind of glazed over. Part of the problem 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:42.040 was is they would get into such a um war frenzy, 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:45.080 a battle frenzy that if you were near them, even 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:47.399 if you were on their side, they'd kill you just 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:51.160 as soon as they would kill somebody else. And as 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:53.840 the guy said, they do think that, um, this bear 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:58.640 colt that went berserk, the berserkers um were on mushrooms 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:03.440 during battle. That may be the case. Can you that? 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:08.240 So you would take this regular already super badass warrior 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:11.960 viking then jack him up on magic mushrooms and give 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:14.400 him an ax, give him an ax and tell him 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:16.520 to like take his clothes off and wear like a 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:19.480 bear skin. And uh, it was That was it. It 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:21.720 was all over. I've read a little bit more about them, 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:24.720 and what's weird is the same guys. They also think 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:27.119 it's possible that this cult was largely made up with 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:33.040 them mentally ill, right or else maybe a little slow? Yeah, Um, 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:36.520 these same guys would also go berserk during like physical 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:40.160 labor sometimes too. You just didn't want to hang out 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:43.000 with the berserkers, basically you wanted to be in battle 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:46.399 with them. But like fifty meters to the left or 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:49.000 the right, nowhere near him, I would go in way 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:50.800 behind there. I would drag up the rear behind the 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:55.199 berserk also saw another theory that um, they weren't in 0:18:55.280 --> 0:19:00.199 fact on magic mushrooms, but they uh drank heavily and 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:04.119 got wasted basically on mead before battle too. Huh. Wouldn't 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:07.119 that slow you down? Though? Um, I would think so, 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:09.400 but it would also kind of make you somewhat impervious 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:12.200 to pain and not care as much. And yeah, I've 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:16.200 gone berserka on a Friday night. Yeah, yeah, I subscribed 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:19.360 to the mushroom theory for two reasons. One, it's awesome 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:24.959 to uh. Ritual use of mushrooms in certain Scandinavian cults 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:27.800 is known for a fact, so it's entirely possible. These guys, 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:31.320 all right, we're Truman, So David d from Waterloo. That's 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:33.439 what initially piqued my interest, and that's why we did 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:38.080 this podcast. So Josh says, yes, okay, uh, chuck, these 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:43.560 guys weren't all berserk, right, No, the the Vikings and 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:48.119 the Scandinavian cultures they came from actually were pretty good 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:53.280 at democracy. Yeah. Supposedly, the the the common farmer would 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:57.120 have just as much say in matters Viking as as 0:19:57.160 --> 0:20:01.440 the higher ups. Right, they had um assemblies. I don't 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:03.480 know if they were annual or more frequent, but they 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:07.440 had scheduled assemblies where everybody got together talked about matters 0:20:07.440 --> 0:20:11.600 of the day, divided land. Um. And they called them 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:13.720 things because I think they just couldn't think of the 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:16.680 word at the time, right, Maybe they were a little slow. 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:18.840 And there was a guy. I love this part. There 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:20.800 was a guy who was in charge of running the meetings. 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:23.719 He was an impartial judge and they called him the lawmaker, 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:27.800 So he was the lawmaker of the thing. Pretty generic stuff, 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:32.440 primitive democracy, you could call it. Um. And they actually 0:20:32.440 --> 0:20:35.920 extended this downward to the lands that they conquered. Um. 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:40.159 These guys made it a lot further south than I realized. 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:42.520 Did you know all this? And now I didn't as 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:46.560 far as going through Europe? Yeah, Um, they the Vikings 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:51.240 um conquered a town called Ulster. A Danish Viking did 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:55.080 an eight thirty nine and crowned himself king, and um 0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:58.000 founded what is now the town of Dublin. Did you 0:20:58.040 --> 0:21:00.360 know that? I did not know that until I read this. Uh. 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:02.879 They said they actually laid siege to Paris at some point. 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:07.080 They controlled part of England half of England from the 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:10.480 late nineteenth century to the eleventh century Danish Vikings, and 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:15.480 they struck a deal with France with Frederick the Simple Charles, Charles, 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:17.639 Charles is simple. You don't want your king to be 0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:20.840 called the simple, No, especially when the Viking leader was 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:24.480 named Rolo. So they were causing a lot of problems 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:27.280 with the Franks. And so Charles the Simple, poor thing 0:21:27.680 --> 0:21:32.360 sat down with Raloh and struck a deal and said, hey, um, 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:34.440 why don't you guys leave us alone and convert to 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:38.320 Christianity and I'll give you Normandy And they said okay, 0:21:38.040 --> 0:21:41.520 said and uh, Frederick the Simple went that was easy. 0:21:41.960 --> 0:21:46.200 Charles is simple. Yeah, he's a simple guy. Yeah. Um. 0:21:46.280 --> 0:21:49.080 And like we said, the Vikings were they readily converted 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:52.840 to Christianity. These lands that they conquered and held um 0:21:53.400 --> 0:22:00.480 for centuries, and they especially in Ireland and England. The 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:03.880 the Celts and the Anglo Saxons would defeat the Vikings, 0:22:03.920 --> 0:22:05.959 and then more Vikings would come in and defeat whoever. 0:22:06.200 --> 0:22:10.200 So it changed hands pretty much constantly. But through this interaction, 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:14.080 even though it was fighting, Vikings eventually became absorbed into 0:22:14.119 --> 0:22:18.600 these local areas. They brought their customs, but took on 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:22.679 new customs, and the the whole milange or the whole 0:22:22.760 --> 0:22:27.360 area of Ireland, England, France. Um is a milange actually 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:33.080 of Nordic culture and Southern European culture. I learned a 0:22:33.119 --> 0:22:35.359 lot with this one. And they actually had trading routes 0:22:35.400 --> 0:22:39.200 all the way down in North Africa. They did. And Chuck, 0:22:39.240 --> 0:22:42.720 we've talked about this before. You know that they settled 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:49.400 North America. Of Eric the Red. He was exiled for murder. 0:22:49.520 --> 0:22:51.320 This is another thing that they probably did it the 0:22:51.359 --> 0:22:54.920 things they tried people. Uh, Eric the Red was accused 0:22:54.920 --> 0:22:57.600 of murder. He was convicted, so they exiled him. He 0:22:57.680 --> 0:22:59.800 took a bunch of guys with them and went from 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:04.119 Sland over to Greenland. His son was born there, Leif Ericson, 0:23:04.280 --> 0:23:06.560 son of Eric, Right, and he said, you know, I'm 0:23:06.560 --> 0:23:08.800 going to travel even further west and he ended up 0:23:08.800 --> 0:23:11.720 in Newfoundland. This is just part of the oral tradition 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:17.520 until the nineteen sixties when an archaeologist discovered the traces 0:23:17.600 --> 0:23:21.360 of this um of Leif Ericson's Viking settlement in Newfoundland. 0:23:21.359 --> 0:23:24.080 He found a horned helmet, right, He's like, oh, it's 0:23:24.080 --> 0:23:26.800 a Viking of course. So yeah, they were all over 0:23:26.800 --> 0:23:30.520 the place. Yes, And if they sound like all they 0:23:30.560 --> 0:23:33.159 did was rape and pillage and plunder. They did a 0:23:33.200 --> 0:23:35.800 lot of that, but not so much anymore than anyone 0:23:35.800 --> 0:23:37.639 else at the time. That was just kind of the 0:23:37.680 --> 0:23:40.040 action of the time. But they were just so much 0:23:40.080 --> 0:23:42.760