0:00:08 > 0:00:09'Here in Ireland
0:00:09 > 0:00:13'evidence is being unearthed of a Viking fortress.'
0:00:13 > 0:00:17The Viking site is re-emerging.
0:00:17 > 0:00:19You can see it back again
0:00:19 > 0:00:21for the first time in a thousand years.
0:00:23 > 0:00:29This was built to help colonise a land that provided a key commodity
0:00:29 > 0:00:33in a trade network that stretched all the way to the Middle East...
0:00:35 > 0:00:37slaves.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45I'm finding out the truth about the Vikings.
0:00:47 > 0:00:52Leaving Britain behind to enter their land
0:00:52 > 0:00:56and their own mysterious world.
0:00:56 > 0:00:58Even now,
0:00:58 > 0:01:01this place feels like it's on the edge of everything.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05And as an archaeologist,
0:01:05 > 0:01:08I'm seeking out some of the most telling evidence of all...
0:01:10 > 0:01:13..the very remains of the Vikings themselves.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16This flamboyant hairstyle
0:01:16 > 0:01:19just adds to his allure.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25Last time, I searched out the ancient, prehistoric roots
0:01:25 > 0:01:27of the Vikings.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30It's such a Baltic thing to do.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33You don't get ship settings in France or in Britain.
0:01:34 > 0:01:38Now, I'm travelling out from Scandinavia...
0:01:38 > 0:01:40THEY HEAVE THE BOAT
0:01:40 > 0:01:44..to explore how the Vikings extended their reach
0:01:44 > 0:01:45into new lands...
0:01:45 > 0:01:48HE SPEAKS ARABIC
0:01:48 > 0:01:51..building a vast trading network,
0:01:51 > 0:01:54from Ireland to the Middle East.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16I'm starting off in the heart of Scandinavia,
0:02:16 > 0:02:19heading to the coast of the Baltic Sea -
0:02:19 > 0:02:23the capital of Sweden - Stockholm.
0:02:32 > 0:02:36Here in Stockholm, life is very much about the Baltic.
0:02:36 > 0:02:38Britain feels like a long way away towards the west.
0:02:38 > 0:02:42From here the nearest neighbours are Finland, Latvia and Estonia
0:02:42 > 0:02:43in the east.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51In Britain, the force of the Vikings
0:02:51 > 0:02:54was Norwegians and Danes sailing westwards.
0:02:54 > 0:02:59But here it was a different story of settlement and exploration,
0:02:59 > 0:03:04starting on the Baltic and heading east into Russia and beyond.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08It was settlement built on trade in luxury items,
0:03:08 > 0:03:11many of them obtained from as far afield as China
0:03:11 > 0:03:13but at a dreadful human cost -
0:03:13 > 0:03:18countless slaves rounded up from their homes in Britain and Ireland
0:03:18 > 0:03:23and shipped eastwards for unimaginable lives in far-off lands.
0:03:23 > 0:03:28It's not a story of north and south but rather of an east-west axis
0:03:28 > 0:03:33and of a Viking footprint that began in the eighth century and in just
0:03:33 > 0:03:38100 years or so was planted firmly over a vast tract of territory.
0:03:38 > 0:03:43It was the beginning of a Viking trading empire.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56Here in Sweden archaeologists have discovered evidence
0:03:56 > 0:04:02of one of the extremes of this network far to the east.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05These are Arabic dirhams...
0:04:07 > 0:04:13..minted in places like Tashkent and Baghdad and Samarkand.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16Those exotic names,
0:04:16 > 0:04:21and yet these pieces found their way back to Scandinavia
0:04:21 > 0:04:25in truly vast quantities, tens of thousands of coins like this.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31These were found in rich Viking hordes,
0:04:31 > 0:04:362,500 miles from where they were minted.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40Also Middle Eastern in origin are these necklaces
0:04:40 > 0:04:44made of rock crystal beads.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47They're so colourful, they're almost gaudy.
0:04:51 > 0:04:56Perhaps best of all, this unprepossessing sliver here
0:04:56 > 0:05:00is a piece of Chinese silk.
0:05:00 > 0:05:05To me, gold and silver are statements of wealth,
0:05:05 > 0:05:09but with silk, you're talking about luxury.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13The way it looks, but more importantly the way it feels.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18All this kind of material makes the people of Sweden
0:05:18 > 0:05:21different from their neighbours,
0:05:21 > 0:05:25because although they live on an outcrop of north-western Europe,
0:05:25 > 0:05:28out on the edge of the world,
0:05:28 > 0:05:33they have connections that reach all the way to the Orient and China.
0:05:41 > 0:05:45To track down those Viking traders I'm crossing the Baltic,
0:05:45 > 0:05:52heading for Russia and its cultural capital - St Petersburg.
0:06:05 > 0:06:10This place is such a symbol of Russia from the time of the tsars
0:06:10 > 0:06:14and then its reincarnation as Leningrad during Communist rule,
0:06:14 > 0:06:17and now reinventing itself again, but incredibly,
0:06:17 > 0:06:20this part of Russia as late as the 17th century
0:06:20 > 0:06:24wasn't under Russian rule. It was Swedish
0:06:24 > 0:06:27because the deepest heritage here is Viking.
0:06:31 > 0:06:32We're so obsessed
0:06:32 > 0:06:35with what the Vikings got up to in Britain and Ireland
0:06:35 > 0:06:39that the folk who came here tend to be completely overlooked.
0:06:39 > 0:06:44The fact is more Viking artefacts have been found here in Russia
0:06:44 > 0:06:47and Eastern Europe than in the whole of Western Europe put together.
0:06:54 > 0:06:59Some of the relics preserved here in Russia's most famous museum -
0:06:59 > 0:07:04The Hermitage - paint a completely new picture of the Vikings for me.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12Not one of bands of bearded men out on warlike raids,
0:07:12 > 0:07:17but ordinary people, living settled lives.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23This wonder
0:07:23 > 0:07:27is a magnificent, well-preserved leather shoe or ankle boot.
0:07:30 > 0:07:32Look at the workmanship in this.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35Here's where the lace would have gone to hold it in place
0:07:35 > 0:07:37around the foot and ankle.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43This has been worn to make someone look good,
0:07:43 > 0:07:46somebody who cared about her appearance
0:07:46 > 0:07:49and presumably wanted to appear fashionable.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53And this, it's a distaff,
0:07:53 > 0:07:58part of the quite simple equipment needed to spin wool into thread.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02What makes this one especially memorable
0:08:02 > 0:08:07is this carefully prepared smooth face,
0:08:07 > 0:08:11into which have been etched Viking runes.
0:08:12 > 0:08:14This is Viking writing.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18This, it's thought, says something poetic like,
0:08:18 > 0:08:20"clad from above
0:08:20 > 0:08:22"the spindle is spinning.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26"Starry-eyed maiden will have a long thin thread.
0:08:26 > 0:08:29"Navluk owns this distaff."
0:08:31 > 0:08:34So often when you find archaeological artefacts,
0:08:34 > 0:08:39you're left to wonder helplessly about who made it
0:08:39 > 0:08:44and who owned it and who left it behind, but here, we know.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49Navluk, a starry-eyed Viking maiden.
0:08:51 > 0:08:56So much attention is given to Viking men, it's striking that the
0:08:56 > 0:09:01pioneers of this eastern frontier also included women.
0:09:02 > 0:09:06The objects come from one of the very earliest Viking communities
0:09:06 > 0:09:08outside of Scandinavia,
0:09:08 > 0:09:13one of the first steps in the creation of a vast trading empire.
0:09:18 > 0:09:22To discover the source of those artefacts, I have to head
0:09:22 > 0:09:2690 miles east of St Petersburg to a tiny riverside village.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37It's called Staraya Ladoga
0:09:37 > 0:09:40and it's here in the rural backwaters of western Russia
0:09:40 > 0:09:44that the story of Viking expansion begins.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47SNOW CRUNCHES
0:09:47 > 0:09:53Even now this place feels like it's on the edge of everything.
0:09:53 > 0:09:55It feels remote,
0:09:55 > 0:10:00it feels surrounded by wilderness, nothingness really,
0:10:00 > 0:10:06so what on earth must it have been like for the first Vikings,
0:10:06 > 0:10:11who found this place beside the river
0:10:11 > 0:10:16and furthermore decided to stay, actually to set up home and shop?
0:10:17 > 0:10:21It would have been wild in the extreme.
0:10:23 > 0:10:29The very earliest Viking finds from here date back to 753AD -
0:10:29 > 0:10:32a generation before the first recorded raids on Britain.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40So this Russian outpost marks some of the very earliest evidence
0:10:40 > 0:10:44of the Vikings outside their Scandinavian homelands.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49And this soon became the gateway to a route that would
0:10:49 > 0:10:54stretch as far as Constantinople and even Baghdad.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01A route that could only be tackled by river.
0:11:07 > 0:11:11Morning, Vikings. Where can I be? Up here?
0:11:18 > 0:11:21Using a replica Viking boat, these Russian enthusiasts
0:11:21 > 0:11:27are figuring out how the Vikings made extraordinary journeys east.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33Today there's too much ice on the river to launch our own boat so just
0:11:33 > 0:11:39like the eighth century Vikings, we've got to shift it ourselves.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57This is just the way the boat has to be moved on dry land.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00If it got to an obstacle - rapids, waterfall or ice -
0:12:00 > 0:12:03they have to take the boat out of the river and either go round
0:12:03 > 0:12:06the obstacle or find another river. This is the only way to do it
0:12:06 > 0:12:09so it's just rolled over land on these logs.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12Hopefully over the shortest possible distance.
0:12:16 > 0:12:20It's literally yard by yard, foot by foot.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25ENCOURAGEMENT IN RUSSIAN
0:12:27 > 0:12:28Oh, God!
0:12:31 > 0:12:34Imagine how long it would take to get anywhere.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38You leave home in Sweden,
0:12:38 > 0:12:41cross the Baltic in ships
0:12:41 > 0:12:43and then get everything into boats like this and every now and again
0:12:43 > 0:12:48you've got to take the boat out of the water and move it over land.
0:12:48 > 0:12:50These guys must have been away for years at a time.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58By navigating the Russian rivers and lugging their boats
0:12:58 > 0:13:01when necessary, the Vikings could transport themselves all the way
0:13:01 > 0:13:06from the Baltic to the Caspian and Black Seas.
0:13:08 > 0:13:13It's time consuming and it's laborious but there's enough men
0:13:13 > 0:13:19here to move a boat this size so the system does work, as history shows!
0:13:19 > 0:13:22ENCOURAGEMENT IN RUSSIAN
0:13:28 > 0:13:32The journeys east along the Russian rivers demanded incredible
0:13:32 > 0:13:34feats of organisation,
0:13:34 > 0:13:36boatmanship and endurance.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39And as well as overcoming the physical hardships,
0:13:39 > 0:13:43the Vikings had to find ways of dealing with the very strange
0:13:43 > 0:13:47and often very violent locals they encountered along the way.
0:13:48 > 0:13:53For the people from the East, the Vikings also seemed strange.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06Preserved in contemporary accounts written by Islamic scholars
0:14:06 > 0:14:08are vivid descriptions
0:14:08 > 0:14:11of how they saw those strange people from the North.
0:14:13 > 0:14:15Arabic scholar James Montgomery
0:14:15 > 0:14:18has studied the remarkable written records
0:14:18 > 0:14:22of a Middle Eastern traveller called Ibn Fadlan.
0:14:22 > 0:14:26HE SPEAKS ARABIC
0:14:29 > 0:14:32"I've never seen more perfect bodies than theirs.
0:14:32 > 0:14:34"They were like palm trees."
0:14:34 > 0:14:37And then there's this absolutely fantastic phrase which I just love.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40ARABIC PHRASE
0:14:40 > 0:14:45They're red, bright red, light haired, they're like a burst of fire.
0:14:45 > 0:14:50He says, "From the tip of their fingers right up to their necks,
0:14:50 > 0:14:57"every one of them is covered in dark green trees and shapes
0:14:57 > 0:14:59- "and other things."- Tattoos.- Tattoos.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02He then goes on and describes what the women look like,
0:15:02 > 0:15:05and this is really interesting, because they are accompanied by their wives.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09It says that, "Each woman has some form of a box
0:15:09 > 0:15:14"made of iron or silver or bronze or gold,
0:15:14 > 0:15:17"depending on how much money her husband has.
0:15:17 > 0:15:19"And every box has a ring
0:15:19 > 0:15:22"and from the ring there is a dagger suspended."
0:15:22 > 0:15:26Are they settling and colonising in the East or are they just moving through?
0:15:26 > 0:15:30Well, if we turn to another one of the texts that we have with us today,
0:15:30 > 0:15:32we can see a sense that they are both settling,
0:15:32 > 0:15:36but they are not setting down any particular roots.
0:15:36 > 0:15:43HE SPEAKS ARABIC
0:15:48 > 0:15:52So he says, "They don't have any fields that they sow,
0:15:52 > 0:15:54"they don't have any villages,
0:15:54 > 0:15:56"they don't have any agriculture.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58"The only thing they do is trade
0:15:58 > 0:16:02"and that is trade in martens and squirrels and other pelts."
0:16:02 > 0:16:06So I think the picture that we have at this point
0:16:06 > 0:16:08is of a set of trading emporia.
0:16:08 > 0:16:10You get off your boat, you do your trade,
0:16:10 > 0:16:12build a couple of huts or whatever
0:16:12 > 0:16:14and then get back on the boat.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19The Islamic writers even had a special name
0:16:19 > 0:16:21for the intrepid merchants from the North.
0:16:23 > 0:16:25They called them "the Rus,"
0:16:25 > 0:16:28which means something like "the men who row".
0:16:28 > 0:16:30And it shows how influential they became,
0:16:30 > 0:16:34because, after all, this land is now called Russia.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46It's remarkable to think that one of the biggest nations in the world
0:16:46 > 0:16:48gets its name from the Vikings,
0:16:48 > 0:16:50who navigated its waterways
0:16:50 > 0:16:54setting up trading posts and colonies as they went.
0:16:58 > 0:17:03Their target was the greatest city on Earth - Constantinople.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25When I started looking into the Vikings,
0:17:25 > 0:17:28I didn't think I'd have to go 1,500 miles south of Scandinavia
0:17:28 > 0:17:31to find out about them.
0:17:35 > 0:17:40But here I am, in a city that's the gateway to Asia -
0:17:40 > 0:17:42Istanbul.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46Once known as Constantinople.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56For the Vikings, this glorious city
0:17:56 > 0:18:01was the culmination of their journeys.
0:18:02 > 0:18:04Because, within its walls,
0:18:04 > 0:18:07were some of the greatest markets in the world.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24For a Viking, this would have been all but overwhelming,
0:18:24 > 0:18:27because this is on a completely different scale
0:18:27 > 0:18:30from anything he would have witnessed before.
0:18:32 > 0:18:34Instead of hundreds of people,
0:18:34 > 0:18:37here there would have been thousands or even tens of thousands
0:18:37 > 0:18:38and from all over the world.
0:18:42 > 0:18:46And then, there were all the exotic sights and sounds and smells.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49It's all but an assault on the senses.
0:18:52 > 0:18:57The trouble was that Constantinople was tightly controlled
0:18:57 > 0:19:03with strict trade quotas, taxes and even immigration rules.
0:19:03 > 0:19:08But, by the early 900s, the Vikings had been granted access.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12- Hey!- Yes?- Do you speak English? - I speak English, my friend.
0:19:12 > 0:19:16- Can I have 100 grams of the red spice?- 100 grams.
0:19:16 > 0:19:18- OK.- Something else?
0:19:18 > 0:19:19No, that's all. How much?
0:19:21 > 0:19:24Once here, they could buy finely woven silk
0:19:24 > 0:19:30worth its weight in gold in exchange for their own exotic wares.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34Baltic amber, Arctic furs,
0:19:34 > 0:19:38and the Vikings' most important commodity of all -
0:19:38 > 0:19:40slaves.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45Any Viking who spent three months or more in the city
0:19:45 > 0:19:50was entitled to buy silk up to the value of two slaves.
0:19:50 > 0:19:52And that silk was so valuable,
0:19:52 > 0:19:57it made the perilous river journeys to get here more than worthwhile.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00A merchant could earn, in just a year or two,
0:20:00 > 0:20:04more wealth than a prosperous farmer back home in Scandinavia
0:20:04 > 0:20:07could acquire in an entire lifetime.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16Some Vikings made Constantinople their home.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20And one of them even left his mark on the city,
0:20:20 > 0:20:25in one of the most historic and holy places on the planet.
0:20:25 > 0:20:27This is the Hagia Sophia.
0:20:27 > 0:20:30Most of what you're looking at was built in the sixth century,
0:20:30 > 0:20:33which means that, by the time the Vikings turned up,
0:20:33 > 0:20:37that building was already old.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43Hagia Sophia was built as a Christian church.
0:20:45 > 0:20:49'And it later became a Muslim mosque.
0:20:49 > 0:20:50'All around me are remnants
0:20:50 > 0:20:54'of over 1,000 years of Christian and Muslim worship.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59'But one tiny corner is Viking.'
0:21:05 > 0:21:09These dark lines etched into the marble are Vikings runes,
0:21:09 > 0:21:12ancient Viking writing.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15They're almost indecipherable.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18The only bit that's in any way clear is part of someone's name, a man's name -
0:21:18 > 0:21:20Halfdan.
0:21:20 > 0:21:22And the rest of it is assumed to read "was here".
0:21:22 > 0:21:25So you've got, "Halfdan was here" or made these runes.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30We'll never know for sure who Halfdan was,
0:21:30 > 0:21:32but it's possible that he was a member
0:21:32 > 0:21:37of the near-legendary elite bodyguard of the Byzantine emperor,
0:21:37 > 0:21:39the so-called Varangian Guard,
0:21:39 > 0:21:42who escorted the Emperor on special occasions
0:21:42 > 0:21:44and for special ceremonies.
0:21:44 > 0:21:46So we can allow ourselves to imagine
0:21:46 > 0:21:48that, one day, Halfdan was up here on duty
0:21:48 > 0:21:51during a long, boring religious ceremony.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54And to pass the time, he carved his name
0:21:54 > 0:21:56and some words into the stonework.
0:22:01 > 0:22:06These few lines are such a moving, visceral reminder of just how far
0:22:06 > 0:22:08the Swedish Vikings had come
0:22:08 > 0:22:13since they first set out across the glassy Baltic Sea.
0:22:21 > 0:22:25'But what's left in Constantinople is only part of the story,
0:22:25 > 0:22:29'because everything the Vikings achieved on their journeys east
0:22:29 > 0:22:32'also had a huge impact back home.'
0:22:43 > 0:22:47From Istanbul, I'm heading back to Sweden.
0:22:48 > 0:22:50My destination - a tiny island,
0:22:50 > 0:22:55just a stone's throw from Stockholm, called Birka.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02- Hello.- Hello. Welcome.- Thank you! Can we head off?- Yes.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11Today, it's a remote rural place.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14And its isolation from the modern world
0:23:14 > 0:23:17has meant that Birka has been remarkably undisturbed
0:23:17 > 0:23:20for over 1,000 years.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26In Birka, we should glimpse traces of everyday life,
0:23:26 > 0:23:31not the lives of the warrior class, but ordinary working people.
0:23:31 > 0:23:36Because what's preserved in Birka is more than just a town,
0:23:36 > 0:23:39it's an entire culture.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49Swedish archaeologist Charlotte Hedenstierna-Johnson
0:23:49 > 0:23:53has been excavating Viking Birka for a decade.
0:23:54 > 0:23:59In the league of Viking towns, where does Birka rank?
0:23:59 > 0:24:01If you ask me, very top.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03- Number one?- Yeah.- OK.
0:24:05 > 0:24:10Birka was one of the very first urban centres in Scandinavia
0:24:10 > 0:24:13and it thrived on international trade.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17So Birka is like a department store where you can get clothes,
0:24:17 > 0:24:21you can get jewellery, you can get furnishings for your home...
0:24:21 > 0:24:23Weaponry, food...
0:24:23 > 0:24:26Imported food, I should say.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29Um... Spices, textiles.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32What kind of things do you find?
0:24:32 > 0:24:36You know, is it rich pickings out where the people lived?
0:24:36 > 0:24:38Yeah, it's very rich pickings.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42- Gold and silver?- No, not today.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50Now, this is a very good example of what they actually did here.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53Their trade is at the heart of everything.
0:24:53 > 0:24:55This is an iron weight.
0:24:55 > 0:24:57- So this isn't for weighing the goods themselves.- No.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00- This is how you make sure someone's paid the right price.- Exactly.
0:25:00 > 0:25:02So, by the time they got these weights,
0:25:02 > 0:25:04they've moved from, you know,
0:25:04 > 0:25:10simple barter to objects having an established value in silver?
0:25:10 > 0:25:12Yeah, yeah, much more advanced.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15It's coming close to a monetary system.
0:25:18 > 0:25:20But Birka was far more than just a market.
0:25:21 > 0:25:23This was a whole society
0:25:23 > 0:25:26with a garrison and an industrial area
0:25:26 > 0:25:29as well as markets and residences.
0:25:33 > 0:25:37For Vikings, places like Birka were a new world.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40It was about urban living,
0:25:40 > 0:25:44it was about life in an international trading centre
0:25:44 > 0:25:48and it was about having connections, contacts,
0:25:48 > 0:25:53with people living as far afield as Ireland and Constantinople.
0:25:57 > 0:26:02And the Vikings who once lived here clearly wanted to be remembered.
0:26:04 > 0:26:08These humps and bumps are the unmistakable outlines
0:26:08 > 0:26:12of Viking burial mounds.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16They're all around me here, they stretch off in every direction.
0:26:16 > 0:26:21It's reckoned that there are at least 3,000 visible graves
0:26:21 > 0:26:24in and around Birka.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29Within these graves, archaeologists have found the remains
0:26:29 > 0:26:33of wealthy merchants with Eastern goods.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37And even their Viking children who lived over 1,000 years ago.
0:26:45 > 0:26:50It's an unusually well-preserved skeleton,
0:26:50 > 0:26:54especially given that it's the skeleton of a child.
0:26:54 > 0:26:59There's nothing on the skeleton to reveal how she died.
0:26:59 > 0:27:00That will remain a mystery.
0:27:00 > 0:27:04But we know from analysis that she was no more
0:27:04 > 0:27:07than maybe six years old when she died.
0:27:07 > 0:27:09And I can confidently say SHE
0:27:09 > 0:27:13because of the things that went into her coffin with her.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21She was wearing a necklace of brightly coloured glass beads,
0:27:21 > 0:27:24silver and gold and blue in there.
0:27:25 > 0:27:30Also, her clothing was fastened across her chest
0:27:30 > 0:27:34with a very heavily decorated gilded brooch.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40And on the back of the brooch, there's the impression
0:27:40 > 0:27:44of some of the fabric that it was holding in place,
0:27:44 > 0:27:46and it's a very finely made, expensive fabric.
0:27:46 > 0:27:48We don't know quite what it was,
0:27:48 > 0:27:50but it would have cost a lot of money
0:27:50 > 0:27:52and it may well have been an exotic import.
0:27:56 > 0:27:57Because she was expensively dressed,
0:27:57 > 0:28:00she was obviously the daughter of a wealthy family.
0:28:03 > 0:28:10The wealth here tells us that she was part of Birka's trading elite.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21In places like Birka, all those luxury Eastern goods could be found,
0:28:21 > 0:28:24but they also had to be paid for.
0:28:25 > 0:28:27Furs could be traded and trapped.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30Amber could be found in the ground itself.
0:28:32 > 0:28:36But much of the Vikings' wealth depended on slaves.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40And THEY had to be taken by force.
0:28:55 > 0:28:59Having travelled east, I'm now heading west,
0:28:59 > 0:29:02to the other extreme of the Vikings' trading network.
0:29:06 > 0:29:12Dublin, Ireland's capital, was founded by Norwegian Vikings in 841AD.
0:29:17 > 0:29:20Dublin was one of the Vikings' most important bases
0:29:20 > 0:29:22and Ireland's very first town.
0:29:22 > 0:29:24It's often thought that the Vikings came here
0:29:24 > 0:29:28to raid gold and silver treasures from Irish monasteries.
0:29:39 > 0:29:45But it turns out that the engine behind the Vikings expansion into Ireland
0:29:45 > 0:29:48was that oh, so important human commodity -
0:29:48 > 0:29:50slaves.
0:29:54 > 0:29:59In here is evidence of what the Vikings came here for.
0:30:00 > 0:30:02Part of what Dublin was all about.
0:30:04 > 0:30:08These are slave collars and chains made of iron.
0:30:08 > 0:30:13You can imagine the discomfort, never mind the humiliation,
0:30:13 > 0:30:16of having something like this placed around your neck
0:30:16 > 0:30:18with a chain attached.
0:30:23 > 0:30:27The going rate for a male slave at the time was 12 ounces of silver.
0:30:27 > 0:30:30And a woman could be had for eight ounces of silver.
0:30:32 > 0:30:36There were even different kinds of chains and collars
0:30:36 > 0:30:39for different classes of captives.
0:30:40 > 0:30:43Look at this.
0:30:43 > 0:30:48It's hard to use terms like "luxury item" in relation to a slave collar and chain,
0:30:48 > 0:30:51but everything about it seems to speak to the status
0:30:51 > 0:30:54of the person whose neck it was once around.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57It's nothing less than ornate,
0:30:57 > 0:31:00quite a lot of work has gone into making this look
0:31:00 > 0:31:05like the kind of collar you would put round an expensive neck.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09So perhaps this was briefly worn around the neck of an Irish king
0:31:09 > 0:31:12before his ransom was paid
0:31:12 > 0:31:16or he agreed to some specific set of terms.
0:31:16 > 0:31:21And it's harrowing to think a city owes its foundation,
0:31:21 > 0:31:24its existence, at least in part,
0:31:24 > 0:31:29to one civilisation's appetite for buying and selling human beings.
0:31:33 > 0:31:37Dublin quickly grew into one of the largest slave markets in Europe,
0:31:37 > 0:31:42attracting merchants from all across the continent.
0:31:42 > 0:31:46In 871, it was reported that 200 ships arrived
0:31:46 > 0:31:49packed with Angles, Britons and Picts.
0:31:51 > 0:31:55This was organised human trafficking
0:31:55 > 0:31:57on a scale that even bears comparison
0:31:57 > 0:32:00with the early years of the slave trade to the Americas,
0:32:00 > 0:32:02almost 1,000 years later.
0:32:10 > 0:32:14Incredibly, the remains of some of the very early pioneers
0:32:14 > 0:32:18who came to seek their fortune in the slave trade have been found.
0:32:22 > 0:32:26Archaeologist Lindsay Simpson has recently examined four skeletons
0:32:26 > 0:32:29on the site of the original Dublin settlement.
0:32:33 > 0:32:37How can you tell that this is a Viking and not a local?
0:32:37 > 0:32:39Yes, very good question.
0:32:39 > 0:32:41Well, we knew by the way that he was buried, is the short answer.
0:32:41 > 0:32:44He wasn't buried in a Christian burial, as an Irish person would be.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47He's a pagan, he was buried with grave goods, which is not something
0:32:47 > 0:32:50that happens with Irish people who are Christian.
0:32:50 > 0:32:53Based on his skeleton, what do you think he looked like in life?
0:32:53 > 0:32:56He was probably five foot nine,
0:32:56 > 0:32:57which is very big for that time.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00You can see that his bones are really quite enormous.
0:33:00 > 0:33:02And when you look down at his legs,
0:33:02 > 0:33:05his legs are incredibly powerful.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08The upper shoulder here, you can see the strong lines
0:33:08 > 0:33:13where the ligaments have actually worn a groove in the bones.
0:33:13 > 0:33:17- Is that happening during hard physical work?- This has happened through rotation movement.
0:33:17 > 0:33:21So a big part of his daily life involved some kind of
0:33:21 > 0:33:24rotational, repetitive movement.
0:33:24 > 0:33:28So this could be either sword fighting or it could be from rowing.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31Cos they would have been doing an awful lot of rowing.
0:33:31 > 0:33:35It's always amazing to me that all of that hard work -
0:33:35 > 0:33:40rowing, swinging a sword, it's all written into the bones.
0:33:40 > 0:33:44Everything you do with your skeleton is reflected at the end of the day.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47And he was a very bulky, stocky, scary guy.
0:33:47 > 0:33:49You would not want to meet this individual,
0:33:49 > 0:33:53especially not when he had all his paraphernalia with him.
0:33:56 > 0:34:00It's clear that, just like the Swedish Vikings in Russia,
0:34:00 > 0:34:04many of the Norwegian Vikings who came here didn't go home again,
0:34:04 > 0:34:06but decided to settle.
0:34:11 > 0:34:14With Dublin established as a thriving base,
0:34:14 > 0:34:18the Vikings of Norway began to settle more widely,
0:34:18 > 0:34:22over large parts of Ireland, much of Scotland,
0:34:22 > 0:34:26the Isle of Man and coastal Wales.
0:34:27 > 0:34:32Dublin was the centre of this vast and expanding sea kingdom.
0:34:32 > 0:34:34It commanded the Irish Sea
0:34:34 > 0:34:37as well as the sea routes headed north to Scotland,
0:34:37 > 0:34:39south to Wales and east to England.
0:34:39 > 0:34:43From this frontier town, the Norsemen commanded it all.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48But the Vikings weren't content with just controlling the sea routes
0:34:48 > 0:34:50and settling barren land.
0:34:51 > 0:34:54They had much greater ambitions.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06A vast Viking trade network
0:35:06 > 0:35:07from Russia to Ireland
0:35:07 > 0:35:11had led to increasingly widespread Viking settlement.
0:35:14 > 0:35:17But there was one more prize that lay right on their doorstep.
0:35:18 > 0:35:19England.
0:35:21 > 0:35:25The trouble was, though, that unlike the great wilderness of Russia
0:35:25 > 0:35:27or the tribal lands of Ireland,
0:35:27 > 0:35:30the valuable, golden land of England
0:35:30 > 0:35:34already had some well-organised sitting tenants.
0:35:34 > 0:35:35The Anglo-Saxons.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42Leaving Dublin behind, I've come to Oxford,
0:35:42 > 0:35:48once part of Wessex, the most powerful of all England's kingdoms.
0:35:51 > 0:35:52And it's here that
0:35:52 > 0:35:56one of the greatest treasures of the age can be seen.
0:35:58 > 0:36:00An Anglo-Saxon masterpiece.
0:36:12 > 0:36:15This is the Alfred Jewel.
0:36:18 > 0:36:22It's so irreplaceably valuable that I'm not even allowed to touch it.
0:36:22 > 0:36:26Which, frankly, given the price on it, is a relief!
0:36:29 > 0:36:34This once belonged to Alfred the Great, King of 9th-century Wessex.
0:36:34 > 0:36:38The most powerful man in all of Britain.
0:36:40 > 0:36:44It's made of gold and enamel and crystal.
0:36:44 > 0:36:49But, more impressive than the raw materials, by far,
0:36:49 > 0:36:53is the artistry that's gone into making it.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56So finely worked, and it terminates
0:36:56 > 0:37:01in this weird and wonderful head of a beast.
0:37:06 > 0:37:10There's been a lot of theory over the years about what it was for.
0:37:10 > 0:37:15Could it be a centrepiece for a headdress, making it a crown jewel?
0:37:15 > 0:37:20Could it have been worn as a pendant on a chain around someone's neck?
0:37:22 > 0:37:25The abiding theory now is it's the handle of a pointer.
0:37:25 > 0:37:26It would have been a little piece
0:37:26 > 0:37:30of maybe worked ivory, something suitably glamorous,
0:37:30 > 0:37:32in the mouth of the beast.
0:37:32 > 0:37:36And then it could be used to point out lines and words
0:37:36 > 0:37:38on an illuminated manuscript
0:37:38 > 0:37:42that was itself too valuable to be touched.
0:37:42 > 0:37:44This was made for King Alfred.
0:37:44 > 0:37:46The letters around it say,
0:37:46 > 0:37:49"Alfred ordered me to be made."
0:37:49 > 0:37:52And right here, in this tiny object,
0:37:52 > 0:37:55is a powerful statement of wealth
0:37:55 > 0:37:59and authority and commitment to learning.
0:38:00 > 0:38:02And you can only imagine what it did
0:38:02 > 0:38:04in the hearts and minds of Vikings,
0:38:04 > 0:38:06when they knew that objects like this
0:38:06 > 0:38:11were here and that they could get their hands on them.
0:38:17 > 0:38:21Around 50 years after the foundation of Staraya Ladoga,
0:38:21 > 0:38:24and 50 years before the birth of Alfred,
0:38:24 > 0:38:27the British had their first taste of the Vikings.
0:38:27 > 0:38:29On the 8th of June 793,
0:38:29 > 0:38:34the peace of the Northumbrian coast was shattered.
0:38:37 > 0:38:40A band of Vikings launched a surprise attack
0:38:40 > 0:38:43on the monastery at Lindisfarne.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48They hacked most of the monks to death
0:38:48 > 0:38:52and stole the unguarded religious treasures.
0:38:52 > 0:38:56It was the 9/11 moment for Anglo-Saxon Britain.
0:38:56 > 0:38:58Things could never be the same again.
0:38:58 > 0:39:01From that moment, monks and nuns living in monasteries
0:39:01 > 0:39:06all around the coastline had to accept the threat of terror attacks.
0:39:06 > 0:39:08Murder, enslavement, all of it,
0:39:08 > 0:39:11could come at them from just beyond the horizon.
0:39:13 > 0:39:16The unprecedented violence of this raid
0:39:16 > 0:39:18seared itself into the nation's psyche.
0:39:20 > 0:39:22For all their other endeavours,
0:39:22 > 0:39:26it's raids like this for which they've been remembered.
0:39:29 > 0:39:31But the brutal attack on Lindisfarne
0:39:31 > 0:39:33was just the beginning.
0:39:43 > 0:39:48In 865AD, a combined alliance of around 3,000 Vikings,
0:39:48 > 0:39:53mostly Danes, arrived on English soil.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57Their aim wasn't trade, or another attack.
0:39:57 > 0:40:02It was conquest of the whole of England.
0:40:02 > 0:40:06At a time when a band of 30 men was routinely described as an army,
0:40:06 > 0:40:09this was truly a force to be reckoned with.
0:40:09 > 0:40:11The Anglo-Saxons called it The Great Heathen Army,
0:40:11 > 0:40:16and it wasn't just a raiding party, intent on slaves and gold.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19The Great Heathen Army wanted everything.
0:40:19 > 0:40:22And to get it, they would have to take on the Anglo-Saxons.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29The conquest of England would be a task far greater
0:40:29 > 0:40:34than anything the Vikings had ever attempted before.
0:40:34 > 0:40:39England was divided into four powerful, well-organised kingdoms.
0:40:39 > 0:40:41Northumbria, East Anglia,
0:40:41 > 0:40:43Mercia and Wessex.
0:40:46 > 0:40:50To succeed, the Vikings would have to defeat them all.
0:40:53 > 0:40:56After a few brutal years of fighting,
0:40:56 > 0:41:01and the deaths of the Northumbrian and East Anglian kings,
0:41:01 > 0:41:04in 873, the Vikings turned to the very heart of England.
0:41:06 > 0:41:09When The Great Heathen Army arrived here in Repton,
0:41:09 > 0:41:12they'd come to take Mercia.
0:41:12 > 0:41:14Now Repton's small and out of the way today,
0:41:14 > 0:41:19but 1,000 years ago, it was the most important town in Mercia.
0:41:19 > 0:41:23And Mercia was the second most powerful kingdom in all of England.
0:41:27 > 0:41:29When the Vikings descended on Repton,
0:41:29 > 0:41:32they transformed the sacred church of St Wystan
0:41:32 > 0:41:35into a centre of operations.
0:41:38 > 0:41:40HE PANTS
0:41:40 > 0:41:44The tower doesn't look very tall from the ground.
0:41:44 > 0:41:47But it is. I can assure you!
0:41:47 > 0:41:52It was a huge step along the way to controlling the whole of England.
0:41:57 > 0:41:59Well, there you go.
0:41:59 > 0:42:03The whole of the Trent Valley laid out before us.
0:42:03 > 0:42:06Stretching right off into the haze on the horizon.
0:42:06 > 0:42:08If you look down just beyond the graveyard,
0:42:08 > 0:42:10you can see a stretch of water.
0:42:10 > 0:42:13And that's a relic of a much older course of the River Trent.
0:42:13 > 0:42:17And it's right there that the Vikings would have pulled up
0:42:17 > 0:42:20in their ships, come out onto the bank,
0:42:20 > 0:42:23to set about the business of takeover.
0:42:23 > 0:42:26And you can see why Repton mattered to them.
0:42:26 > 0:42:31From up here on the tower, you feel like the master of all you survey.
0:42:31 > 0:42:35And the Vikings, great strategists that they were,
0:42:35 > 0:42:38they realised that Repton was the key
0:42:38 > 0:42:41that would unlock Mercia for them.
0:42:45 > 0:42:47In the churchyard,
0:42:47 > 0:42:52archaeologists have found remnants of the Vikings' fortress.
0:42:52 > 0:42:54This is a map of the excavations
0:42:54 > 0:42:58that were done around the church in the 1980s.
0:42:58 > 0:43:02Look at the genius of what's going on here.
0:43:02 > 0:43:04We've got a D-shaped enclosure
0:43:04 > 0:43:08with a fourth side created by a river.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11And, great tacticians that they were,
0:43:11 > 0:43:15the Vikings here have even employed the Christian church
0:43:15 > 0:43:19and turned it into a defensive gateway into their fortress.
0:43:19 > 0:43:21Genius!
0:43:22 > 0:43:26The Vikings even used the Christian graveyard
0:43:26 > 0:43:28to bury their own, pagan dead.
0:43:30 > 0:43:33This is where archaeological evidence
0:43:33 > 0:43:39brings us face-to-face with the men of The Great Heathen Army.
0:43:39 > 0:43:44Just here is grave number eight.
0:43:44 > 0:43:49That's one of the most important Viking graves ever found in Britain.
0:43:49 > 0:43:52I must be just about standing on the spot.
0:43:52 > 0:43:54Just about here. Imagine that!
0:43:56 > 0:44:00Right here, archaeologists discovered the remains
0:44:00 > 0:44:02of a six-foot-tall skeleton.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06A quintessential Viking warrior.
0:44:10 > 0:44:12He was buried in the pagan style,
0:44:12 > 0:44:16with his most precious possessions,
0:44:16 > 0:44:19preserved today at the Derby Museum.
0:44:25 > 0:44:29These are some of the most important things
0:44:29 > 0:44:32that the Repton Warrior was buried with.
0:44:32 > 0:44:34The Viking belief dictated that
0:44:34 > 0:44:37whatever you needed and wanted in the next life
0:44:37 > 0:44:40had to go into the ground with you.
0:44:40 > 0:44:44First of all, you've got the perfect weapon.
0:44:44 > 0:44:47Which is not just giving him the ability to fight,
0:44:47 > 0:44:49but it says something about who he is in life.
0:44:49 > 0:44:54Now, it's no ordinary warrior that's armed like this.
0:44:55 > 0:44:58The vast majority are armed with something that's quite simple
0:44:58 > 0:45:02and cheap to make, like axes.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05A sword is of a different order of magnitude.
0:45:05 > 0:45:09You feel as if you're looking at the iron blade, but you're not.
0:45:09 > 0:45:11The brown colour is deceiving.
0:45:11 > 0:45:15This is actually an iron sword in a scabbard.
0:45:15 > 0:45:17It's a wooden scabbard
0:45:17 > 0:45:21with a fleece lining to protect the blade,
0:45:21 > 0:45:23and then on the outside, there's a leather casing.
0:45:23 > 0:45:25So a man on the battlefield with a sword
0:45:25 > 0:45:28is already someone you would notice.
0:45:28 > 0:45:32But a man with a sword and a scabbard is another step up again.
0:45:32 > 0:45:37So this man was clearly a leader amongst his own kind.
0:45:37 > 0:45:42A sword is always an impressive thing to see,
0:45:42 > 0:45:45but for me, it's just as affecting
0:45:45 > 0:45:48and moving to see the other items that he wanted with him.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55This is a little silver hammer.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58The Repton Warrior was wearing this around his neck
0:45:58 > 0:46:00in the same way that a Christian would wear a cross.
0:46:00 > 0:46:05It's connecting him physically to the god Thor.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08Thor is one of the big three Old Norse gods,
0:46:08 > 0:46:12and he was definitely the soldier's, the warrior's, friend.
0:46:12 > 0:46:14They felt that Thor understood them.
0:46:14 > 0:46:18Thor was armed with a legendary hammer called Mjolnir,
0:46:18 > 0:46:21and with it, Thor could level mountains.
0:46:24 > 0:46:27For a man like the Repton Warrior,
0:46:27 > 0:46:32everything about him was building to one ideal conclusion.
0:46:32 > 0:46:34He wanted a heroic death on the battlefield
0:46:34 > 0:46:37that would guarantee him access to the next world,
0:46:37 > 0:46:38which for him was Valhalla,
0:46:38 > 0:46:42which was a place where he would fight all day with other heroes
0:46:42 > 0:46:44and then feast all night.
0:46:44 > 0:46:47It was the perfect Viking heaven.
0:46:47 > 0:46:52For the Anglo-Saxons, this is the worst-case scenario,
0:46:52 > 0:46:56because it's in the Viking mindset to fight to the death.
0:46:56 > 0:47:01And it's a horde of men who think like this
0:47:01 > 0:47:05that the Anglo-Saxons here had to face.
0:47:12 > 0:47:17East Anglia, Northumbria, and finally, Mercia,
0:47:17 > 0:47:19all fell into the hands of the Danes.
0:47:19 > 0:47:23Only King Alfred's kingdom, Wessex, withstood the onslaught.
0:47:26 > 0:47:31But even he wasn't quite strong enough to drive them out completely.
0:47:31 > 0:47:35So eventually, a peace treaty was agreed,
0:47:35 > 0:47:39the terms of which basically gave the Vikings control
0:47:39 > 0:47:41of a territory north of a line
0:47:41 > 0:47:44stretching between Chester and the Thames.
0:47:44 > 0:47:47The territory became known as the Danelaw.
0:47:49 > 0:47:52It was basically a Danish Viking colony.
0:47:52 > 0:47:55All of this land that I'm travelling through now
0:47:55 > 0:47:57was under Danish Viking control.
0:47:59 > 0:48:03What the Vikings did here in England was unprecedented.
0:48:04 > 0:48:07The taking of England wasn't settlement or expansion.
0:48:07 > 0:48:12It was conquest, by war.
0:48:12 > 0:48:15It was different from anything they were to do anywhere else,
0:48:15 > 0:48:18and the result was unique,
0:48:18 > 0:48:22a fusion of Viking and Anglo-Saxon culture in the North
0:48:22 > 0:48:25that even today gives Northern England
0:48:25 > 0:48:27so much of its distinctive character.
0:48:27 > 0:48:30The establishment of the Danelaw
0:48:30 > 0:48:33essentially created our North-South divide.
0:48:40 > 0:48:44The city that became the capital of the Danelaw was York.
0:48:47 > 0:48:51And Viking settlers started flooding in to what was already
0:48:51 > 0:48:55one of the most important Anglo-Saxon centres in England.
0:49:03 > 0:49:07All of these items here shows that there were Vikings in York.
0:49:07 > 0:49:09They're classically Viking material.
0:49:09 > 0:49:13The comb for personal grooming and taking care of head lice.
0:49:13 > 0:49:16You've got amber jewellery, possibly from the Baltic.
0:49:16 > 0:49:20This is a gaming piece, and it's walrus ivory,
0:49:20 > 0:49:23maybe from as far away as Greenland.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26So it's precisely the sort of stuff you expect from Vikings
0:49:26 > 0:49:28and from people who are trading,
0:49:28 > 0:49:30at a time when York has become a centre
0:49:30 > 0:49:32with material coming in from all over.
0:49:35 > 0:49:38On the back of Viking trade, York boomed,
0:49:38 > 0:49:40and became a thriving city,
0:49:40 > 0:49:43second only to Anglo-Saxon London.
0:49:43 > 0:49:47Its population exploded from 2,000 to 10,000.
0:49:51 > 0:49:53But for the Vikings who settled here,
0:49:53 > 0:49:56it was a very strange experience.
0:49:56 > 0:49:59York was quite unlike Birka, or even Dublin,
0:49:59 > 0:50:03let alone the farmstead settlements of most of Scandinavia.
0:50:05 > 0:50:11And the new city life had some very serious downsides.
0:50:11 > 0:50:14I'm quite glad to be putting on gloves,
0:50:14 > 0:50:17because these contain Viking excrement.
0:50:17 > 0:50:21Fragments thereof. It's all been collected from cesspits.
0:50:21 > 0:50:23Examination of this, though,
0:50:23 > 0:50:26glamorous though it certainly isn't,
0:50:26 > 0:50:27is very informative,
0:50:27 > 0:50:32because this contains traces of what the people were eating.
0:50:32 > 0:50:37You get traces of things like bran, cereals, fruit stones.
0:50:37 > 0:50:42So we can tell that, in some ways, their diet was quite healthy.
0:50:42 > 0:50:45However, most tellingly of all,
0:50:45 > 0:50:48the excrement is full of eggs
0:50:48 > 0:50:50left behind by intestinal parasites. Worms.
0:50:50 > 0:50:51It was unavoidable.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54And it was caused by the sanitation,
0:50:54 > 0:50:56or frankly, the lack of it.
0:50:56 > 0:50:59There wasn't the infrastructure for running water.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02So, by and large, people had cesspits in their yards.
0:51:02 > 0:51:05They were living close to, surrounded by, their own waste,
0:51:05 > 0:51:07their own infections.
0:51:07 > 0:51:09That took its toll.
0:51:09 > 0:51:14Something like 50% of Viking women were dead at 35.
0:51:14 > 0:51:16Viking men were lucky to make it to 50.
0:51:18 > 0:51:20Despite its drawbacks,
0:51:20 > 0:51:24York became a place of manufacture, craft and design,
0:51:24 > 0:51:26as well as trade and settlement.
0:51:28 > 0:51:32As the second and third-generation Vikings grew up here,
0:51:32 > 0:51:34there was inevitable integration
0:51:34 > 0:51:38of people and language.
0:51:41 > 0:51:43How many of the words we use every day
0:51:43 > 0:51:46actually have their roots in Viking words?
0:51:46 > 0:51:49Lots and lots of really basic everyday words.
0:51:49 > 0:51:50So a word you've just used, "root,"
0:51:50 > 0:51:53itself probably comes from Old Norse.
0:51:53 > 0:51:55Comes through the Viking side of English's ancestry.
0:51:55 > 0:51:57What about things around us in this market?
0:51:57 > 0:52:00Well, things like eggs, skirts,
0:52:00 > 0:52:02I see some bags over there.
0:52:02 > 0:52:03The sky, windows,
0:52:03 > 0:52:07other things that I can see include skin, leg, skull...
0:52:07 > 0:52:09So very simple words?
0:52:09 > 0:52:12Very simple, basic words for things, yeah.
0:52:12 > 0:52:16Also words which describe how we feel and how we react to stuff.
0:52:16 > 0:52:20So if you're angry, if you're happy, if you're ill...
0:52:20 > 0:52:22- Those words as well? - All these words come from Norse.
0:52:22 > 0:52:24Basic verbs as well.
0:52:24 > 0:52:28So, give and take, get, call.
0:52:28 > 0:52:32Does language reveal anything about the extent of Viking colonisation?
0:52:32 > 0:52:34Well, the easiest way to tell that
0:52:34 > 0:52:38is by looking at the evidence of the place names.
0:52:38 > 0:52:41Anywhere in a band across the North and the East,
0:52:41 > 0:52:43from Cheshire right down to Suffolk,
0:52:43 > 0:52:45there are lots of Old Norse place names.
0:52:45 > 0:52:48Words which are wholly or partly from Old Norse.
0:52:48 > 0:52:50So anything involving '-by'. B-Y.
0:52:50 > 0:52:53Places like Grimsby...
0:52:53 > 0:52:55- Or Whitby.- Whitby, yes. Selby.
0:52:55 > 0:52:58And what does the '-by' mean?
0:52:58 > 0:52:59"-By" seems to mean a settlement, village.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02Somewhere round a farmstead. There are lots more.
0:53:02 > 0:53:04It's amazing, isn't it?
0:53:04 > 0:53:06We're talking about people who arrived, you know,
0:53:06 > 0:53:081,300, 1,200 years ago,
0:53:08 > 0:53:10and yet the words they brought with them
0:53:10 > 0:53:13are still echoing around us today.
0:53:13 > 0:53:16They're all around, yes. That's right. That's right.
0:53:18 > 0:53:20When you come to a place like this,
0:53:20 > 0:53:25is easy to see the impact that Vikings have had on us.
0:53:25 > 0:53:26And it's not just the place names
0:53:26 > 0:53:28or the words in our everyday language.
0:53:28 > 0:53:31The Vikings are part of who we are.
0:53:31 > 0:53:35By setting up their own towns, and by marrying the locals,
0:53:35 > 0:53:38their blood mixed with our blood.
0:53:38 > 0:53:40And they're still here with us today.
0:53:43 > 0:53:47What started with attack and war became,
0:53:47 > 0:53:51as so often with invaders, assimilation.
0:53:51 > 0:53:55Bloodshed giving way to a new cultural fusion.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02But for the Vikings, this wasn't only something that happened
0:54:02 > 0:54:04with the Anglo-Saxons of England.
0:54:04 > 0:54:07It was global.
0:54:13 > 0:54:18To end my journey, I'm returning to Stockholm one last time.
0:54:21 > 0:54:24Because right here, at the geographical hub
0:54:24 > 0:54:27of East and West, North and South,
0:54:27 > 0:54:30at the heart of the Vikings' trading network,
0:54:30 > 0:54:33there's something that epitomises
0:54:33 > 0:54:37the global reach of that trading empire.
0:54:37 > 0:54:39And it also graphically illustrates
0:54:39 > 0:54:43just how many cultures the Vikings were exposed to.
0:54:50 > 0:54:55A collection of treasure discovered on a little Baltic island
0:54:55 > 0:54:58was once the property of a single Viking household.
0:55:00 > 0:55:02Look at these three marvels.
0:55:02 > 0:55:07They are known collectively as the Helgo Treasure.
0:55:13 > 0:55:16They were all found together in one house.
0:55:18 > 0:55:22First of all, there's a bishop's crosier,
0:55:22 > 0:55:26which is the headpiece that would be on top of a staff
0:55:26 > 0:55:29carried by a bishop as a mark of his office and status.
0:55:29 > 0:55:35Everything about its decoration is typically Irish.
0:55:35 > 0:55:39How did it come to be in an island in Sweden?
0:55:39 > 0:55:43Well, we've talked about raids on Irish monasteries,
0:55:43 > 0:55:45and it's very believable
0:55:45 > 0:55:48that this has been plundered during one of those raids.
0:55:50 > 0:55:52Next here, we have a ladle.
0:55:52 > 0:55:55It would've been used in religious ceremonies,
0:55:55 > 0:55:58specifically for baptism.
0:55:58 > 0:56:00It's to pour water over the head of someone
0:56:00 > 0:56:03who's being welcomed into the Christian church.
0:56:03 > 0:56:06It's made of bronze,
0:56:06 > 0:56:10and it's probably from North Africa.
0:56:14 > 0:56:20The Christian crosier and Coptic ladle are incredible objects.
0:56:20 > 0:56:24But there was something found beside them
0:56:24 > 0:56:27that I find even more extraordinary.
0:56:29 > 0:56:31It's a bronze Buddha.
0:56:31 > 0:56:33This was probably made
0:56:33 > 0:56:35in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent.
0:56:35 > 0:56:37Maybe Pakistan or Afghanistan.
0:56:37 > 0:56:42And it has made its way here, likely, along the Silk Road.
0:56:42 > 0:56:45Passing through many hands,
0:56:45 > 0:56:49going through Constantinople, through Russia,
0:56:49 > 0:56:51and eventually finding its way to Helgo.
0:56:54 > 0:56:58Within the heart of Scandinavia, in the far north,
0:56:58 > 0:57:00you have objects that represent
0:57:00 > 0:57:03the other three points on the compass.
0:57:03 > 0:57:06West, South, and East.
0:57:06 > 0:57:11The products of Africa, Ireland, and India,
0:57:11 > 0:57:13and in one place.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16One little Baltic island.
0:57:18 > 0:57:20It's almost inconceivable.
0:57:20 > 0:57:24Quite marvellous to behold.
0:57:24 > 0:57:27Think how far the Vikings have come.
0:57:27 > 0:57:30It's only 100, maybe 150 years,
0:57:30 > 0:57:32since those first raids.
0:57:32 > 0:57:34But by now, those Vikings
0:57:34 > 0:57:39have stretched their hands across the face of the known world.
0:57:39 > 0:57:41The Vikings have arrived.
0:57:43 > 0:57:45Next time,
0:57:45 > 0:57:48the Vikings head for unknown lands.
0:57:48 > 0:57:52The Vikings were no longer just raiders and traders.
0:57:52 > 0:57:58From that moment onwards, they were explorers and adventurers.
0:57:58 > 0:58:02They begin to form powerful nation states.
0:58:02 > 0:58:07We have Harold himself being baptised.
0:58:07 > 0:58:10And finally, say goodbye
0:58:10 > 0:58:12to their ancient pagan gods,
0:58:12 > 0:58:17to join the kings of Christian Europe.
0:58:46 > 0:58:49Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd