This 1959 Encyclopedia Britannica Film explores the lives and actions of Vikings, also called Norsemen or Northmen. While perhaps slightly romanticized, the film attempts to depict the Vikings’ travels and impact on history, by showing their traditions, explorations, their raiding and pillaging of their neighbors, and their eventual conversion to Christianity. The film also portrays the daily life of Vikings, including people plowing fields, harvesting hay, grinding grain, and men making tools and doing metalwork. This is followed by a map and animation of the furthest Viking explorations including to North America and through Russia to Constantinople. The film concludes with the departure of a Viking longship.
0:12 “The Vikings – Life and Conquests” Encyclopedia Britannica Films, 0:24 a Viking longship on the ocean, 0:31 close ups of the faces of Vikings while they row and navigate, 1:00 a father teaching his son how to navigate, 1:35 Viking long ships in the ocean, 1:53 Vikings killing Priests and raiding a village, 2:54 a fleet of long ships in the harbor, 3:06 map of Northern Europe with the routes that Vikings took, 3:50 a Viking party resting, 4:42 a Viking storyteller talking in front of a fire, 5:13 a longboat rowing on the ocean, 5:43 a burial mound, 5:52 large stones with inscriptions on them, 6:08 people plowing a field and harvesting hay, 7:03 a woman grinding grain, 7:09 inside of a Viking house including women cooking and men playing board games, 8:10 a woman spinning wool, 8:34 older men playing a table game, 9:02 men making tools and doing metalwork, 9:18 a meal being eaten, 10:12 an animation of a ship landing in Iceland, Greenland, and North America, 10:44 map of permanent settlement in Britain, 11:07 map of Vikings sailing down the rivers of Russia and to Constantinople, 11:38 Vikings converting to Christianity, 12:24 a meeting between a Christian King and Vikings, who place down a statue of Thor, 13:26 statue of Thor smashed and the Vikings flee, 13:52 a Viking Church, 14:16 a long ship being boarded, 15:03 the long ship departing, 15:36 “The End”
The Vikings is a modern name given to an historical group of seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (now Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and settled throughout parts of Europe. They also voyaged as far as the Mediterranean, North Africa, Volga Bulgaria, the Middle East, and even North America. They were expert sailors and navigators who used longships. They established Norse settlements and governments in the British Isles, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Normandy, and the Baltic coast, as well as along the Dnieper and Volga trade routes across modern-day Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, where they were also known as Varangians. The Normans, Norse-Gaels, Rus’ people, Faroese and Icelanders emerged from these Norse colonies. The Vikings spoke Old Norse and made inscriptions in runes. For most of the period they followed the Old Norse religion, but later became Christians.
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