Vikings, Ragnar, Berserkers, Valhalla & the Warriors of the Viking Age | Lex Fridman Podcast #495

6ft towers over 5'10" 😂😂

This is so inaccurate and unacceptable for a educated historian

I am Scandinavian and went to a Scandinavian University in Parkland Washington. I made friends with one of the Alumni there online and he sent me so many wonderful videos of how the Viking ships are built and about what great explorers and merchants they were. They brought cats and peacocks to the far North and kept them in their Longhouses during long cold winters.

The word “Viking” is often misunderstood as referring to a specific people or ethnic group, but historically its meaning is more nuanced. In modern English, “Viking” is used as a noun to describe individuals from Scandinavia during the Viking Age. However, the term originates from Old Norse, where the distinction between action and identity was clearer.

The Old Norse word víking referred to an activity… a seaborne expedition, often involving raiding, trading, or exploration. To fara í víking meant “to go on a Viking expedition.” The corresponding term víkingr described a person who took part in such an activity. This suggests that being a Viking was not a fixed identity, but rather a role someone assumed temporarily.

Importantly, not all Scandinavians were Vikings. Most people were farmers, traders, or craftsmen who never took part in such journeys. A man could be a farmer for most of his life and only occasionally “go Viking.”

The exact origin of the word is still debated, but many scholars connect it to vík, meaning “bay” or “inlet,” referring to the coastal areas where ships could gather or hide.

In summary, while “Viking” is grammatically a noun today, its historical roots lie in describing an activity. It was something one did, not something one inherently was.

I loved "the normans!" So enjoying this podcast.

Loved this! Can’t believe there wasn’t more talk about the Vikings TV show and the differences.

Got to stop this perplexity bullshit though during interviews.

The Man in the High Castle but instead, Vikings explored and colonized America creating a Norse-Native culture. Who's filming this? 01:06:12

4th Crusaders were a bunch of a-holes!

well .. they just recalled white rice at walmart and target.. everyone better buck up .. ha ha ploop

The Blood Eagle really sounds brutal, and it is. On the other hand it is not out of the ordinary compared to what Christians did at the time and for centuries to come. Burning heretics alive comes to mind, but the English punishment for traitors, Hanged, Drawn and Quartered is probably worse and was used up until the 17th century. They didn't show the gory details in Braveheart.

As a Norwegian, I am beyond excited for this episode

Excellent episode!

Bring on Dr. Jackson Crawford next, he is universally loved by all Norsemen.

Westerns need to go back as far as the vikings for horror stories while the rest of the world just need to look out their window

It’s crazy that you have three seconds of this guest speaking and you immediately think yep I’m in for this one

It's important to be open to new evidence to prevent becoming dogmatic. Scott Wolter identified that the Minnesota Kensington runestone was carved in 1362, the Knights Templar artifacts discovered at Oak Island are also irrefutable.

Just started playing AC Valhalla again, funny timing. One thing I have always thought about though in regards to longevity of empires is that war and conflict are almost necessary to keep the empire sharp and ''trim the fat'' so to speak. Much like a necessary evil and unfortunate reality of human life.

I'm such a nerd, and I love that Lex Fridman is on this planet.

He mentions the Norman monks for the linguistic development of the English language and I am left to assume he meant starting with Latin and all variants afterwards, for the separation of words in the grammatical composition, which is new info to me, I didn't know that and will sure look it up as I find linguistic as a whole very interesting, and he also mentioned the tip on Ragnar Lothbrok having the surname suggest that the character is most likely a mythological creation for it's meaning, and how much there's more to the history of Vikings than what's portrayed and that however he does not mention the fact that in English and all Anglo Saxon nations therefore name the days of the week after the Pagan Gods of Scandinavian mythology and not Roman nor Greeks although they were the same and referred to the same forces of nature and with the same fairytale of story behind them, their names were different and the days of the week are named after the Scandinavian ones, what did not happen in the Mediterranean where when Christianised they removed all memories of Pagnism completely and the days of the week are named after number position after the Sunday day of almighty rest from all the chaos he/she/they was creating Monday thru Saturday, and in Estearn European languages I am not sure what they're named after and will have to look that up too, which I'll do straight after this as I'm now curious about that too as it goes. 😊

1:29:16 Wait is that Mount and Blade art?

🔥🔥😈😈👽👽😘😘

Lol at lex for thinking there's going to be a future that will write about us. Your boy gunna nuke the world.

Damn, white guys who pretend they are descended from Vikings would love to see this if they could read.

1:00:07 There is a small town in Norway with the name Hell.