Lars Brownworth is a historian, teacher, podcaster, and author specializing in Viking history, medieval Europe, and the Byzantine Empire.
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See below for timestamps, transcript, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc.
*Transcript:*
*CONTACT LEX:*
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*AMA* – submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama
*Hiring* – join our team: https://lexfridman.com/hiring
*Other* – other ways to get in touch: https://lexfridman.com/contact
*EPISODE LINKS:*
Lars’s Website: https://larsbrownworth.com/
The Sea Wolves (book): https://www.amazon.com/Sea-Wolves-History-Vikings/dp/1909979120
Lars’s Books: https://amzn.to/4sHY0xw
12 Byzantine Rulers Podcast : https://12byzantinerulers.com/
Norman Centuries Podcast: https://apple.co/4sgSxNi
*SPONSORS:*
To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts:
*Larridin:* Measure AI adoption in your business.
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*OUTLINE:*
0:00 – Episode highlight
1:17 – Introduction
2:37 – The start of the Viking Age
12:30 – Viking military strategy, tactics & technology
26:13 – Ragnar Lothbrok
35:40 – The Great Heathen Army
40:23 – Rollo and Normandy
50:34 – Viking religion and Valhalla
1:01:06 – Viking explorers
1:06:13 – Vikings in North America
1:19:35 – Vikings in the East
1:39:14 – Byzantine Empire
1:47:57 – History and human nature
*PODCAST LINKS:*
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41 Comments
Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep495-sa
See below for timestamps, transcript, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc.
0:00 – Episode highlight
1:17 – Introduction
2:37 – The start of the Viking Age
12:30 – Viking military strategy, tactics & technology
26:13 – Ragnar Lothbrok
35:40 – The Great Heathen Army
40:23 – Rollo and Normandy
50:34 – Viking religion and Valhalla
1:01:06 – Viking explorers
1:06:13 – Vikings in North America
1:19:35 – Vikings in the East
1:39:14 – Byzantine Empire
1:47:57 – History and human nature
Transcript:
https://lexfridman.com/lars-brownworth-transcript
CONTACT LEX:
Feedback – give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey
AMA – submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama
Hiring – join our team: https://lexfridman.com/hiring
Other – other ways to get in touch: https://lexfridman.com/contact
EPISODE LINKS:
Lars's Website: https://larsbrownworth.com/
The Sea Wolves (book): https://www.amazon.com/Sea-Wolves-History-Vikings/dp/1909979120
Lars's Books: https://amzn.to/4sHY0xw
12 Byzantine Rulers Podcast : https://12byzantinerulers.com/
Norman Centuries Podcast: https://apple.co/4sgSxNi
SPONSORS:
To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts:
Larridin: Measure AI adoption in your business.
Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/larridin-ep495-sa
BetterHelp: Online therapy and counseling.
Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/betterhelp-ep495-sa
LMNT: Zero-sugar electrolyte drink mix.
Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/lmnt-ep495-sa
Fin: AI agent for customer service.
Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/fin-ep495-sa
Shopify: Sell stuff online.
Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/shopify-ep495-sa
Perplexity: AI-powered answer engine.
Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/perplexity-ep495-sa
lex I’m a big fan and you have some interesting guests but your exhausted genius shtick is a bit much. it comes off as rude and uninterested. and stop reading off AI when the expert is right in front of you. god bless!
Если вы увлекаетесь историей викингов, прочтите книгу "Люди Севера"-Джона Хейвуда, это один из лучших исторических анализов той эпохи, на данный момент!
This is like standing under an ice cold waterfall compared to much of the doom and mindless bullsh*t on the internet.
Its long been established in Scandinavian academia that from the beginning or very soon after, raids were backed by kings and elites in a concerted effort. Not random raids but very soon a war of conquest. Lets not forget that there were strong ties between anglo-saxons and Scnadinavia. The "explosion" was not coincidal. yes technological breakthroughs that facilitated this (especially the sail). But serious scholars like Niels Lund wrote ages ago (late 1990'ies) that it was probably a consolidation of power in Scandinavia in the preceeding centuries that was the basis. not overpopulation or tech alone. This vid is a fun story but somewhat simplified
Lex, you need to have on Jackson Crawford. He's a specialist in Old Norse and other Germanic languages. Plus, he is captivated by the Sagas about the Vikings. He can fill in much more specific information that this guy isn't able to give you. He can give you more information about their code of conduct via their book of common wisdom and how the Sagas describe their actions with what's accepted and what's considered dishonorable. It's important to note that they were an honor culture who had general rules for taking care of guests, while still going all out in raids and warfare.
This guy gives a good primer, but it's clear he hasn't delved into the sources in their original languages, so a lot of nuance is lost.
Swede here ….Great episode but Ragnars wife was wearing a fish net, (as well as biting an union with a dog by her side) so not naked 😛
Rollo was Ragnars bro
Blood Eagle is Roganesque Gee-Wow- what Savages homo erotic muscle worship TV theatrics! The real academics believe a carved symbol rather than surgical dismemberment is
more consistent with the language, more consistent with the evidence gap and closer to current mainstream scholarship (Frank, McTurk, Jesch).
So nice to here something about another time the world was on fire to distract from tge dumpster fire going on right now
So many historical inaccurracies. They're drawing on the idea of the noble savage which is a simplification. The knew how to govern it was not a "rapid change"
Viking lifestyle 2.0 will begin once spaceships become reality, well rip and run, raiding planets before coalition can be warped to galaxy to commandeer your space ship…
One of your best podcasts yet Lex. Thank you. I'm a Danish Viking, and I'd like to share a bit about that. It is, to my mind, a very specific genome, almost as if it was engineered. Danish Vikings were feared by all other Vikings, for two reasons: 1. there is a saying in Scandinavia, even to this day, that if you try to buy a gallon of milk from a Dane, you'll end up owning the whole dairy farm. We were/are known as great entrepreneurs. Next, we were the big brothers of all other Vikings, and, we were thought to be a little crazy. The Mongolians didn't even dare set foot in Denmark. I am and have always had to be acutely aware of this genome. It has to be managed very carefully. There is extreme violence buried within it, still. I was MVP as a fullback in Highschool, I was ranked in the top ten in CA men's double racquetball, I still lift about as much as I did in Highschool, I'm a long distance minimalist runner (at 66 I still run barefoot across LA and back), I'm 6 foot 220 lbs. (on a skinny day), and I'm the runt of the family. All my grandparents were giant Danish Viking farmers. And we weren't just violent muscle-heads. I graduated with honors from UC Berkeley, and studied at the PhD level at UC Davis, and I'm an entrepreneur and investor. That all said, nosce te ipsum, if you are aware of what you are, it can be managed. I have, for example, never been in a fight in my life. Further, my faith is everything to me. I'm Catholic. I also love Judaism, and attend Shabbat service as often as mass, when I live somewhere where there is a nice temple. Wilshire Boulevard Temple is my fav. Lastly, in our defense, it wasn't until Charlemagne executed approximately 4,500 Saxons in 782 AD (capturing them, baptizing them Christian, then cutting off their heads so they couldn't revert), that we went after anything and everything remotely connected to Christianity. The Saxons were our German Viking brethren. Europe was in ruins not long after that. And, lastly, as I hope you know, we can be very civilized as well. During the NAZI occupation of Denmark, no Jews died on our watch. We rescued all of them. Many of my family members, were members of the Danish underground, Holger Danske. I can tell you, a lot of NAZI officers rued the day they set foot in Denmark. We still have a home guard, based on Holger Danske; 60K heavily armed Vikings, who quietly slip into the cut, with a single cell phone call from our commanding general. All of my KGB buddies back in Russia were terrified of this force. So, as long as you do not try to cut off our heads, everything's cool. Contrariwise, buckle up.
Thanks for the good work!
Scandinavia was probanbly NOT thought to be an island. Adam of Bremen in Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum mentions Scania which is Skåne in modern day Sweden. and the linguistic root of the term Scandinavia. He writes "Scania magna terra est" meaning sometimes a very large island but more often a region, NOT an island
Need more episodes like this one please! Brilliant. Thanks. Lex and Lars
So the show Vikings was loosely accurate.
Wow, who knew.
He. Talks. So. Slow.
Lex using AI chatbot for "clarification" on certain matters makes him look less smart than he is, also … this was strangely chaotic conversation, jumping through subjects seemingly out of the blue, unless some things were cut out. Also … how high is Lex in this conversation ?
Vikings survived on Iceland by adapting by becoming fishermen. But failed on Greenland? Why?
Please next interview Dan Jones about everything British Kings & Queens.
I’m such a Viking history geek that nothing new here to me, but I’m happily enthusiastic about this conversation. Lindisfarne, Ragnar, Bjorn Ironside, Ivar The Boneless, Great Heathen Army, Cnut, Rollo, William The Conqueror…Leif Erikkson..etc. Different times but all together so interesting.
I had trouble listening to it seemed bias as you never mentioned what Saint Boniface did to these people that caused the resentment and made these monks a target. Just that the violence was unwarranted seems uneducated for a legitimate historian or just biased. I will stay away from these books.
Where's podcast with Khabib?
Anyone listening through the eyes of Ragnar from Vikings show???
Love these types of episode. Could listen to this for another 2 hours.
Thanks 😊😊
Wow. Cool. I'm excited to listen to this one! I have a "viking horse" — an Icelandic horse from Iceland! Their bloodline has allegedly been preserved since the time of the Vikings! Once they leave Iceland, they can never go back.
My paternal great grandfather's name was Einar — a big, strong, hardworking man. I believe him and his wife's ancestry (my great grandmother) can be traced back to the Vikings (Swedish & Finnish). Take care, everyone.
Something similar is happening in the uk and ireland now
Great episode…very interesting!
Thank you for a brilliant episode Lex and Lars, and at 1hr 30min… was great to see Ireland in the mix, (I am Irish).
The historical footprint and living legacy that we have in Ireland, from both the Vikings and then latterly the Normans… cannot be overstated.
It is like tree rings over the centuries, mixed into our Irish/Celtic culture.
You talk too much. Let the guest speak.
why does lex always look like hes so bored in all of these podcasts like he wants to be anywhere but there
29:10 this is a horrible add for proplexity. All its news sources are from Wikipedia the best news source around
Let's admire thugs for their grit.
I know about the Duke of Normandy's long power conflicts with France & England, didn't really understand why such long history of rivalry until now…
Coz they're the vikings! that clarifies everything for me about what happened in the European history later on.
Such an important piece of info!
Why wasn't this mentioned everywhere?
The Vikings & The Genghis khan Mongols played such important roles that truly shaped the world we know today, they piece the world history together.
While vikings are often remembered for their raids, their true legacy lies in their sophisticated maritime technology and their role as the first global navigators. Long before the magnetic compass was common in Europe, Vikings utilized highly creative methods to find their way across the open Atlantic: sunstones: there is strong archaeological evidence they used calcite crystals (Iceland Spar) to locate the sun’s position even on overcast days or after sunset by detecting polarization. They also used nature as a guide: They observed the migratory patterns of whales and the flight paths of birds to determine their proximity to land.
The deranged penguin also reminds me of the seal doesn’t know how to explain to its fellow seals from the Elon episode 😂 that penguin really hit you in some sort of way
The inuits didn't colonize Greenland until 200-300 years after the vikings. So trade how? https://youtu.be/iKx3gAODybU?si=fY0t8GgDIiSkDuSz&t=4153
This is the British history of the Vikings. They were much more. The Viking phenomenon is not limited to raiding and looting; that is pretty much the Hollywood version.
10mins in, but so much stuff already inaccurate.