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Vikings, The
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Program Overview
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On 8 June 793 AD, a boat full of Scandinavian raiders landed at the
undefended island monastery of Lindisfarne in northeast England.
They savagely attacked the monks and pillaged one of Christendom's
holiest shrines, sending shock waves through Europe; many believed
God had sent the Northmen as an act of divine judgment. For the next
century, Europe's kingdoms were locked in a life-and-death struggle
against massive onslaughts by Viking fleets and armies. In this
bitter fight for survival, the first stirrings of national identity
in England, France, and Russia were born.
But who were their aggressors? In this two-hour special, NOVA
presents a dramatic investigation of a people who were much more
than axe-wielding pirates. It features stunning camerawork in
Scandinavia and the far-flung countries that the Vikings penetrated,
while historians and archeologists present us with an image of the
Vikings that goes far deeper than their savage stereotype. The
latest research shows that they were canny merchants, expert
shipbuilders, superb artisans, and bold colonizers of lands that lay
beyond the edge of the known world.
The special retraces Viking voyages in faithful replicas of their
magnificent ships, probing such questions as how they were able to
navigate so far beyond the sight of land in the stormy north
Atlantic. NOVA searches for traces of Leif Eriksson's legendary
exploits in North America and the poignant extinction of Erik the
Red's colony in Greenland. Less familiar is the story of the
extraordinary Viking journeys along Russian rivers that led them
ultimately to Istanbul and Baghdad. The Scandinavian contribution to
the formation of Russia—the very name comes from Rus, meaning
Swede or Scandinavian—is one of the liveliest Viking
controversies investigated by NOVA.
With state-of-the-art computer animation and fresh archeological
discoveries, NOVA breathes life into the towns the Vikings founded,
from Dublin to Novgorod. "The Vikings" strips away the myth of
savagery to reveal a compelling portrait of a people who brought
fear, prosperity, and new horizons to the world of medieval Europe.
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