En la alta edad media, los vikingos o normandos (hombres del norte) adoraban a Odin, el dios pagano de la guerra, que los guiaba a través de los mares cada vez que emprendían sus habituales incursiones de saqueo.
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00:00A peaceful summer morning in the year 793 AD, the Viking Age was born.
00:30The Viking Age was born in the year 793 AD.
00:35The Viking Age was born in the year 793 AD.
00:40The Viking Age was born in the year 793 AD.
00:45The Viking Age was born in the year 793 AD.
00:50The Viking Age was born in the year 793 AD.
00:55The Viking Age was born in the year 793 AD.
01:00The Viking Age was born in the year 793 AD.
01:05The Viking Age was born in the year 793 AD.
01:10The Viking Age was born in the year 793 AD.
01:15The Viking Age was born in the year 793 AD.
01:20Its origins must be found in the attack on the Christian Monastery of Lindisfarne,
01:25Its origins must be found in the attack on the Christian Monastery of Lindisfarne,
01:30on the north-west coast of England.
01:35A rapid, violent and unexpected attack.
01:40The pagan assailants are aware that the monasteries hide great riches,
01:45The pagan assailants are aware that the monasteries hide great riches,
01:50but they are not afraid of the attack.
01:55but they are not afraid of the attack.
02:00but they are not afraid of the attack.
02:05but they are not afraid of the attack.
02:10The news spreads rapidly throughout Europe.
02:15In the Christian churches a new prayer is heard.
02:18Lord, protect us from the fury of the men of the north.
02:23A heartbreaking beginning for an age full of adventures and discoveries.
02:28A heartbreaking beginning for an age full of adventures and discoveries.
02:33For the next 300 years, Scandinavian warriors, farmers and explorers
02:38transcend the limits of the world they know and beyond.
02:43The Vikings fascinate us.
02:48However, there are some facts that are not true.
02:53The Vikings were not afraid of the fog.
02:58On the contrary, they took advantage of it to make their raids.
03:03The Vikings did not wear helmets with horns,
03:08nor did they draw cartoons.
03:13Not all men from the north were fearful sea wolves.
03:18During the Middle Ages, almost all the population worked in the fields,
03:23and the Vikings were no exception.
03:28The assault on Indisfarm is the result of a journey in search of new riches,
03:33fame and, above all, new territories.
03:37In the 8th century, this changed rapidly
03:42thanks to an important technological discovery, the Viking ships.
03:47The Viking ships strengthened the Viking era.
03:52Viking warriors and explorers traveled on revolutionary boats,
03:57whose bows were shaped like dragons and inspired fear.
04:02Viking merchants, explorers and settlers used a special type of boat, called a nor,
04:07which was larger in size, in order to transport goods, cattle and people through the ocean.
04:18The hull of all Viking ships was made of fine boards,
04:23anchored and secured with nails and sealed with alkytran.
04:28The boats were light and flexible.
04:33They were driven by a lateral rudder, which hung from the so-called stirbord,
04:38a word that in English evolved to the current term translated as stribord.
04:43The boats were fast and symmetrical, and it was possible to change their course easily.
04:48These elongated boats had little hull,
04:53and the construction of the boats required great skill.
04:58The huge square sails were woven with linen or fine wool,
05:03and were later waterproofed with grease.
05:08In the Viking ships, ropes were used to perform precise maneuvers
05:13and to advance over the waters when the wind did not blow.
05:18Their skill was legendary, to the point that it was believed that the legends of the huge Viking ships,
05:23which transported 200 warriors, were only the result of the exaggeration of the storytellers.
05:28Then, in 1997, a huge Viking ship of 36 meters long,
05:33with a capacity for 180 men, was found in Roskilde, Denmark.
05:38The giant Viking ships did exist.
05:43Those ships gave the Vikings a firm superiority over the waters.
05:48Thousands of them set off in search of wealth, land and glory.
05:53In two centuries, the Nordic, Danish and Swedish, or Rus, as they were known in the East,
05:58spread throughout Europe.
06:01They took over large areas of land in England and Scotland,
06:05and also in Ireland, where they founded Dublin.
06:08In France, the invaders from the North took over a region known as Normandy.
06:14The Vikings' wrecks even reached the Mediterranean.
06:18In the East, the Rus used the rivers to reach the Middle East,
06:22creating a commercial network of 1,600 kilometers,
06:25and founding their own kingdom, Russia.
06:30The success aroused the ambition of the Vikings.
06:33They organized themselves in large fleets to carry out important attacks.
06:38The city of Paris had to pay a huge tribute in order not to be a victim of the invasions.
06:43Shortly after, a large Viking army conquered York and much of the eastern coast of England.
06:50In the East, the Vikings attacked Constantinople,
06:53today's Istanbul, with fleets made up of hundreds of ships.
06:57The city resisted the invasion twice,
07:00but the Byzantine emperors were so impressed
07:03that they decided to hire Viking warriors as imperial guards.
07:11The Europeans considered the Vikings infidels,
07:14who dared to attack the Christians.
07:17But it wasn't just that, it was a clash of cultures,
07:20of contradicting traditions and religions.
07:24Giants, dwarves, beasts and gods make up the Viking pantheon.
07:28The warriors who die weakening their swords
07:31earn a place in Valhalla,
07:33a paradise that offers a second life full of wars and feasts.
07:37Here, the Viking gods are mortal,
07:40they can be ambushed and they can lose battles.
07:43Despite everything, wisdom reigns among the gods.
07:46Odin, the supreme deity and god of war,
07:49gave an eye in exchange for wisdom.
07:52Thor has the power to control the weather
07:55and sends lightning and thunder.
07:58Frey gives fertility to nature, people and their fields.
08:02These gods are still present in our daily lives.
08:05Wednesday is Odin's day, Thursday is Thor's day
08:08and Friday is Frey's day,
08:10something evident in the names of the days of the week in English.
08:14To the south and east of their domains,
08:17the Vikings earn their reputation as assaulters and warriors.
08:21In the West, they become mainly settlers and explorers.
08:25They completely take over the North Atlantic.
08:28After occupying several small islands,
08:31they find a huge island that until then
08:34had only been inhabited by a small number of Irish monks.
08:38There, the Vikings build a new world.
08:41THE LEGEND OF THE BAT
08:44The legend says that a man suffered a winter with a temperature of 3.5 degrees Celsius.
09:14He suffered extreme frostbites on this island, which he called Iceland, the land of ice.
09:20Despite everything, numerous Vikings from Norway and the British Isles came to trample on this virgin country.
09:27A country sculpted by the volcanic forces and by the immense glaciers.
09:32Iceland is a place with a beauty from another world.
09:35An island of mountains, lava plains, sandy beaches and deep valleys.
09:40A supernatural land, a land of the gods.
11:05In Iceland, the Vikings, mainly farmers, found what they longed for so much, abundant fertile land.
11:36Many Vikings also come to Iceland with the intention of leaving behind the Norwegian monarchy,
11:41ruled by self-proclaimed kings.
11:55In this new country, the settlers divide the land using the custom originally called landnam,
12:02according to which a free man can take possession of a land as large as the territory he can travel in one day.
12:09A few decades later, all of Iceland was divided following this custom.
12:17My name is Liv the Fortunate and I am the son of Erik.
12:20I was born in a farm in Iceland.
12:22There I learned the skills and customs typical of my people.
12:26I learned to value virtues such as wisdom, courage and justice,
12:30and to honor warriors, poets and artists.
12:34Art is constantly present in our lives.
12:37It strengthens everything, from our most precious possessions to the most common objects.
12:45I have always been proud of my family and my clan.
12:49Like any Viking, I have striven to stand out in various fields.
12:53In war, in the field, in art, in the sea.
12:57Like any Viking, I had the hope of achieving my most desired dream,
13:01a favorable reputation, since fame only survives those who have earned it.
13:09I had the hope that our poets, the skalds, would tell our story with well-chosen words,
13:15and that it would be transmitted from generation to generation.
13:19The Vikings equally valued the transmission of stories
13:23and the recitation of poetry as a skill in the battlefield.
13:27But even though they had their own alphabet, the runes,
13:30history and tradition rest mainly on the spoken word.
13:36Fortunately, two centuries after Liv's existence,
13:39the Icelanders wrote all these stories,
13:42including the life of the king.
13:45The set of these forms what is known as the Icelandic sagas.
13:49The word saga simply means what was told.
13:53The sagas contain a mixture of history, poetry, myths and religious fables.
14:04They tell us how the Vikings lived and what their priorities were in life.
14:10The thousands of pages of the sagas, beautifully written by hand,
14:14constitute a touchstone in the Viking heritage.
14:21The sagas are considered one of the most important documents of the Middle Ages.
14:26They are kept in a security chamber
14:28and are a permanent responsibility of the guardians of the sagas.
14:32They are also the most important documents in the history of the Vikings.
14:36Two sagas tell an interesting story.
14:39A crucial turning point occurred when several leaders of neighbouring clans,
14:44who represented several families,
14:46met in an assembly called a Þing.
14:49This assembly had the functions of a local court.
14:53It resolved disputes and, in case of need, decided the sentences.
14:57The Þing was a court of law,
14:59and the Þing was a court of law,
15:01and the Þing was a court of law,
15:03and the Þing was a court of law,
15:05and the Þing was a court of law,
15:08and the Þing was a court of law,
15:10and the Þing was a court of law.
15:12In 1930, 36 leaders representing all these assemblies in Iceland
15:16met in a place called Þingveir.
15:19There they created the Alþing,
15:21a national assembly that defined the laws of the lands.
15:25Each summer, when they met,
15:27a spokesman recited the code of memory,
15:30adding new laws and rules.
15:33Today, it is still the most active national assembly in the world.
15:45Many people came to Iceland voluntarily.
15:48Erik, my father, had no choice.
15:51He was banned from entering Norway for a crime he had not committed.
15:56My father was a man with a lot of genius,
15:59and he had all the qualities necessary to be a leader.
16:02Feared or respected, he was known as Erik the Red.
16:08In Iceland, Erik marries and has a wealthy family
16:12descended from the Irish kings.
16:14In this way, he improves his reputation.
16:17However, as the sagas tell us,
16:19Erik cannot escape his volcanic nature.
16:22A dispute with a neighbor acquires violent tints
16:24and both sides die.
16:26Erik has to respond to the assembly.
16:29My father had as many followers as detractors.
16:33However, the law prevailed.
16:35Erik the Red was banned from entering Iceland for three years.
16:47Erik, my father, took full advantage of his time in exile.
16:51He went to an unknown land in the west,
16:55a direction to which the sailors who got lost in the high seas went.
17:02The Vikings traveled without using maps or compasses.
17:05They relied on the clues given to them by nature,
17:08the sun, the stars, the presence of sea birds and the color of the water.
17:13In spite of everything, they got lost many times.
17:16Sometimes the sailors used crows,
17:19mythical messengers of the Nordic god Odin.
17:22If they released a crow about 370 kilometers from the coast,
17:26it would go to the mainland.
17:45Erik did not know this,
17:47but he was heading to the largest island in the world.
17:53THE ISLAND OF ISTANBUL
17:56THE ISLAND OF ISTANBUL
18:19For three long years, Erik explored the western coast of the island.
18:23In those days, the climate was warmer than today.
18:26The icebergs abounded,
18:28but during the winter the fjords were not obstructed by the ice.
18:3885% of this island is covered by layers of ice up to 3 kilometers thick.
18:44An arid, mountainous and grassy land.
18:48But Erik discovered fertile lands around the fjords of the southwest of the island.
19:10Erik found traces of civilization,
19:13but there was no one who dared to defy his supremacy.
19:19THE ISLAND OF GROENLAND
19:27In order to attract the attention of a community of farmers,
19:31he decided to call this island Groenlandia,
19:34in English, Greenland.
19:37When he finally concluded his exile,
19:39Erik returned to Iceland
19:41and gathered volunteers to settle in those distant lands.
19:46A total of 25 boats full of hundreds of people
19:49left for those latitudes,
19:51loaded with everything necessary to start a new life in an unknown place.
19:56Those people had faith in Erik the Red.
20:02Our journey was not as good as we expected.
20:15THE ISLAND OF GROENLAND
20:46GROENLAND
20:59Only 14 of our boats managed to reach the coasts of Groenlandia.
21:0311 of them turned around or got lost along the way.
21:07We did not give up.
21:09My father refused to forget the inspiring promise of this new land.
21:15THE ISLAND OF GROENLAND
21:32During his exile, Erik explored the area known today as the Fjord of Erik.
21:38There he found some of the most fertile lands in Groenlandia.
21:46Erik ruled this island from here,
21:49from this farm called Bratallid, or Climbing Slope.
21:53Under his leadership, the most western Viking settlement
21:57became a prosperous colony.
22:02At the same time that many Vikings became Christians all over the world,
22:07Erik's wife, Tjodild, built a chapel on her farm
22:11and educated her children in the new faith.
22:14However, Erik continued to worship the Nordic gods.
22:27We had just arrived in Groenlandia
22:29when a man named Bjarni appeared in Bratallid.
22:33He had come by sea from Iceland.
22:35He had got lost in the fog
22:37and the currents had taken him to the west.
22:40He had seen three unknown lands,
22:43but he hadn't set foot in any of them.
22:46Hearing that, my life changed forever.
22:56My great moment would come 15 years later.
22:59I had earned the respect of my equals
23:02and I had the character necessary to exercise as a leader.
23:05However, I still had to make a name for myself
23:08and get nothing less than the figure of Erik the Red.
23:14I bought Bjarni the boat that had brought him there
23:17and I gathered several volunteers to sail the route he had traveled.
23:33I had been dreaming of discovering those new latitudes since my childhood.
23:38I had been dreaming of discovering those new latitudes since my childhood.
23:43I just wanted my journey to be worth it.
24:08The first thing Leif and his men saw
24:10was a rocky surface covered with ice,
24:13without trees or meadows.
24:16Unlike Bjarni,
24:17Leif was eager to set foot on solid ground.
24:20He named that land Heluland,
24:23or land of the flat rocks.
24:33Then they found a land of immense forests on the edge of the sea.
24:38This aroused great interest among the people of a country like Greenland,
24:42where trees did not exceed the size of people.
24:45They disembarked.
24:47Leif called that land Markland, or land of forests.
24:55Leif and his men traveled for more than one day
24:58all over the coast of Markland,
25:00admiring its vast beaches of white sand.
25:03In the sagas, they are referred to as the wonderful beaches.
25:20We arrived at another land.
25:23As we set foot on the shore,
25:24we noticed that the grass was covered with dew.
25:26We picked it up and drank it.
25:30We had never tasted anything so sweet.
25:35So I decided that we would set up our camp near there.
25:42The sagas tell us that as they explored that region,
25:46they found very green land and meadows with sweet grapes.
25:51There was no snow,
25:52and even during the winter,
25:54the sun rose in the sky for many hours a day.
25:59Leif called this new land Vinland.
26:02However, several centuries later,
26:04the experts questioned themselves.
26:06Did Heluland, Markland, and especially Vinland really exist?
26:13In the 19th century,
26:15many interpretations of the sagas began to be heard.
26:18The wise began to investigate
26:20where wild grapes could have grown,
26:22and in particular, where they could have been harvested.
26:25They also began to investigate
26:27where wild grapes could have grown,
26:29and in the first place,
26:31they directed their attention to Cape Cod,
26:33then to Newport, Rhode Island, and even to New York.
26:36Other experts suggested that the Gulf of San Lorenzo
26:39or the coasts of New Scotland
26:41could have been Vinland in their day.
26:43The Vinland sagas contain contradictory information
26:46about who had discovered what and where.
26:51To which we must add the lack of evidence.
26:54The skeptics wondered
26:56whether it was possible to trust any of the sagas.
26:59Many people continued to believe
27:01that Christopher Columbus had discovered America,
27:04as indicated in the text books.
27:09A couple from Norway,
27:11the explorer Helge Instad
27:13and the archaeologist Ann Steen Instad,
27:15set out to solve the mystery of Vinland.
27:19In 1953,
27:21Helge Instad made the first trip
27:23to the Bratallit of Erik the Red,
27:25where he began to suspect
27:27that perhaps Vinland could be further north
27:29than he had initially thought.
27:33His impressions were reflected
27:35on the map of Skallholt.
27:37Drawn in 1590,
27:39you can see Greenland, Geluland and Markland,
27:42as well as a promontory of Vinland
27:44reminiscent of the great northern peninsula of Terranova.
27:48In the summer of 1960,
27:50Helge Instad sailed on a boat
27:52along the coast of Terranova.
27:54He stopped in each of the fishing villages
27:56he encountered
27:58to ask about those ancient places,
28:00but he only found faces of ignorance.
28:02However, when he reached his last destination,
28:04L'Anse aux Meadows,
28:06a fisherman named George Dekker
28:08mentioned some ancient Indian ruins.
28:10When he saw those remains in the water,
28:12he thought it was the remains
28:15of the Nordic settlements
28:17he had seen in Greenland.
28:19Thousands of years had passed,
28:21but only 15 centimetres of history
28:23had been accumulated
28:25on the remains of those three Viking houses
28:27and five small buildings.
28:34For seven years,
28:36Instad conducted an archaeological excavation
28:38in L'Anse aux Meadows.
28:40There he found irrefutable evidence
28:42that this used to be a Viking settlement.
28:46Carbon samples determined
28:48that the origins of the area
28:50date back to the year 1000,
28:52when it was said that Leif Eriksson
28:54had travelled to Vinland.
28:56The sagas were true.
29:00The itinerary followed by Leif
29:02left no doubt.
29:04The island of Baffin was Heluland
29:06and Labrador, Markland.
29:08As he walked through those lands,
29:10Leif Eriksson had first stepped into America
29:12500 years before Columbus.
29:14Using L'Anse aux Meadows
29:16as a gateway,
29:18the Vikings would cross the Gulf of San Lorenzo
29:20and enter an immense region
29:22called Vinland.
29:26I had high hopes for Vinland
29:28as a new Viking settlement.
29:30I spent a year exploring
29:32and storing food
29:34before returning to Greenland.
29:36But a few years later,
29:38my father,
29:40Erik the Red,
29:42died there
29:44and I became a chief.
29:46I never returned to Vinland.
29:52However, more expeditions took place,
29:54including one led by
29:56Leif's brother, Thorvald.
30:04A few women arrived in North America,
30:06including one known as
30:08Gudrid the Traveler.
30:10During her stay in Vinland,
30:12Gudrid gave birth to a boy
30:14named Snorri.
30:16He was the first European
30:18to be born in North America
30:20and would be the only one
30:22in the next 500 years.
30:28Over the course of a decade,
30:30part of Leif's family
30:32traveled several times to L'Anse aux Meadows.
30:36The expedition of Thorvald
30:38made an extraordinary discovery.
30:40In these new lands,
30:42the Vikings are not alone.
30:44This meeting has a crucial meaning
30:46for the history of mankind.
30:50Since the beginning of time,
30:52our ancestors have lived
30:54among the Vikings
30:56and the Vikings have lived
30:58among the Vikings
31:00and the Vikings
31:02have lived
31:04Since the beginning of time,
31:06our ancestors have emigrated
31:08all over the world.
31:10They have crossed Europe and Asia,
31:12they have crossed the American continent
31:14and they have reached the borders of the earth.
31:16When the Vikings set foot
31:18firmly in North America,
31:20mankind had already traveled
31:22all over the globe.
31:24When the eyes of the Vikings
31:26and the natives met,
31:28the world suddenly shrank in size.
31:34In the end,
31:36the relations between the Vikings
31:38and the natives became conflictive.
31:48In one of the sagas,
31:50we read that on one occasion
31:52Thorvald Ericsson attacked
31:54nine natives while they were sleeping.
31:56Eight of them died
31:58and one managed to escape.
32:04The natives took revenge.
32:22Thorvald's death proved
32:24that the conflict with the natives
32:26was an important obstacle
32:28for a permanent Viking settlement.
32:30Oscar Wilde claimed
32:32that the Vikings had discovered America
32:34but that they had done well
32:36by letting it slip out of their hands.
32:38In part, he was right.
32:40The Vikings returned to Labrador
32:42with great ferocity to collect food,
32:44especially wood.
32:46The evidence shows that they maintained
32:48a regular contact with the ancestors
32:50of the Inuit people.
32:54Meanwhile, the Viking territories
32:56were ruled by Christian kings,
32:58as was the case
33:00in many European countries.
33:06In places like Normandy, England
33:08or Russia, the Vikings
33:10mixed with the local population
33:12in such a way that it was no longer
33:14possible to use the term Viking.
33:16Curiously, it was a descendant
33:18of the Vikings who put an end
33:20to the Viking era in Europe.
33:22The Duke William of Normandy
33:24led an army of French knights
33:26and Viking attackers to defeat
33:28the English king Harold
33:30in the Battle of Hastings
33:32in 1066 AD.
33:34This fact was immortalized
33:36in the Bayou tapestry,
33:38an incredible narration
33:40embroidered in almost 70 meters of canvas.
33:48Viking Greenland continued
33:50to exist for almost five centuries
33:52after the trips to Vinland.
33:54The inhabitants of the island
33:56traded with very valuable material
33:58such as bat fangs and hawks,
34:00but agriculture was losing
34:02importance gradually,
34:04as the climate became colder.
34:06Adaptation could have meant
34:08following a lifestyle more
34:10similar to that of the Inuit,
34:12but the inhabitants of Greenland
34:14insisted on living as Europeans.
34:16The last event of which
34:18there is evidence in Greenland
34:20is a wedding at the church
34:22Several decades later,
34:24the Vikings had disappeared from Greenland.
34:36In places like Iceland,
34:38the Viking settlements
34:40endured the passage of time.
34:42Even today, part of the Viking culture
34:44continues to survive in the area.
34:48On their wild and paradisiacal island,
34:50the Icelanders speak a language
34:52that the Vikings could have understood.
34:56In schools, children read
34:58the sagas written so many centuries ago.
35:00It means a link with the past
35:02of an incalculable value.
35:06Beyond the warrior image
35:08and the numerous conquests,
35:10the most valuable legacy of the Vikings
35:12is their love for words,
35:14their passion for memory,
35:16their sense of beauty
35:18and their desire to explore the world
35:20in search of a better destiny
35:22in which to settle and prosper.
35:24Even today,
35:26the fascination for the Viking world
35:28is breathed throughout the world.
35:30Thousands of companies, products,
35:32sports equipment names
35:34and even space probes
35:36proudly carry the word Viking.
35:38It is an honorable label,
35:40a symbol of love for the conquest
35:42and for exploration.
35:44The deepest value of the Vikings
35:46is their love for words,
35:48their passion for memory
35:50and their desire to explore the world
35:52in search of a better destiny
35:54in which to settle and prosper.