The Viking New York You Never Knew Existed

Bright Side

You know how Vikings are often associated with Scandinavia and their epic journeys across the seas? Well, turns out, there's a lesser-known Viking connection right in New York City! Back in the 9th century, Norse explorers are believed to have landed in the area we now call New York, long before Columbus or any other Europeans. Archaeological finds like a Norse coin and a runic stone in the Hudson Valley provide tantalizing clues. So, while we typically think of skyscrapers and subways when we think of New York, it's pretty cool to imagine Vikings roaming those same streets over a thousand years ago!  Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV   Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me

Transcript

00:00The authorities in a town in northwestern Poland decided to build an observation tower in a public park.

00:06Nothing special about that, right?

00:08It wasn't until a local archaeologist started digging.

00:12It seemed that he had found remains of a fort.

00:15But not just any fort.

00:17The legendary Jomsborg, or as people also call it, the Viking medieval New York.

00:22It's not unusual for Viking finds to pop up in this area.

00:26Archaeologists have suspected for a long time that the Polish island near Germany could be the site of the legendary city.

00:32And the locals believe in this too.

00:34Every year they hold the continent's biggest Viking festival there.

00:38People dress up and reenact the Vikings' way of life.

00:41The time period I'm talking about is the 10th century.

00:44Scholars believe Jomsborg thrived back then, if it was even real.

00:48And that's a big if.

00:50The mystery has been going on for more than half a millennium.

00:53The two most important questions troubling historians are whether the Viking stronghold was real and where it was located.

01:00The first historical records that mention the town can be traced back to the 12th century.

01:04Recently a golden disc appeared in Sweden.

01:07It contained the names of Jomsborg and Harald Bluetooth.

01:10Does the man's last name sound familiar?

01:13That's because the Bluetooth technology we use today was named after him.

01:17He was a Danish king who apparently ruled over Jomsborg as well.

01:21And historians know he lived in the 10th century.

01:24Right around the time the Viking legendary city reached its peak.

01:28All the historical sources we have lack one thing.

01:31The city's exact location.

01:33Ancient texts describe Jomsborg as a vibrant trading post that grew around a fortress.

01:38It had thousands of residents and a pier for ships to dock.

01:42This settlement should be somewhere along the southern coast of the Baltic Sea.

01:46Just the Polish section of the coastline is more than four times longer than the Grand Canyon.

01:51The city could be anywhere within the medieval Wendland.

01:54Today this region is split between Germany and Poland.

01:57And it's called Pomerania.

01:59Luckily for archaeology buffs, there are clues.

02:03The Polish city with the newly discovered fort lies near a lagoon.

02:07According to ancient sources, the legendary city had room for hundreds of ships.

02:13Sagas put the total number of vessels at 360.

02:17These are old Norse epics and prose.

02:19A lagoon is the perfect place to moor a large fleet.

02:22The waters here are calm.

02:24There are no big waves like in the open sea.

02:26Speaking of the sea, some historians believe that the city now lies underwater.

02:31According to them, the site was located off the northwest coast of Eustim Island.

02:35Today this area is submerged under the Baltic Sea.

02:38Let's say Jomsborg really existed.

02:40Who lived there?

02:41The name of the inhabitants is not very imaginative.

02:44Jomsvikings.

02:45These people are just as mysterious as their fabled city.

02:48They are mentioned in sagas and legends.

02:51And there are a couple of rune stones, those are raised stones with runic letters,

02:55that mention battles they took part in.

02:57Runes were a writing system used by Germanic peoples, including the Vikings,

03:02before they adopted the Latin script.

03:04And that's pretty much it.

03:06There's no hard archaeological evidence that would prove Jomsvikings ever existed.

03:10If these myths and legends turn out to be true, then Jomsborg really resembled New York.

03:16All nationalities with historical ties to the region lived there.

03:19Germans, Slavs, and Vikings.

03:22Now keep in mind that a Viking wasn't a nationality, but more of a profession.

03:26The hotspot of Viking activity was present-day Sweden and Denmark.

03:30A lot of Vikings had Scandinavian origins, but not all of them.

03:34In terms of genes, they were a mixed bunch.

03:37Scientists even found evidence that some Vikings came from Southern Europe.

03:41But none of them wore those helmets with horns.

03:44We owe that image to 19th century operas.

03:47The real Vikings had simple iron helmets with a prominent nose guard.

03:51The Jomsvikings were sort of a brotherhood.

03:54And in any tight-knit community, members had to obey certain rules.

03:58One of them stated that you had to be brave.

04:01This meant that if your opponent is not bigger than you, and didn't have better fighting tools,

04:06you weren't allowed to flee the scene.

04:09Sounds a bit far-fetched, but this was an actual Viking rule of conduct.

04:13Also, Vikings could leave the city for only three days.

04:17Any longer absence required permission from the elders,

04:20and they wouldn't allow you to have a conflict with anyone from the brotherhood.

04:24Forgive and forget seemed to have been the Jomsvikings' motto.

04:27These rules sound fair, but Jomsborg didn't last long.

04:30It only existed for some 85 years.

04:33That's the length of the average lifespan in the European Union today.

04:37Basically, one human generation.

04:39In fact, the whole Viking Age lasted shortly, just over two centuries in total.

04:44But this was long enough to create the legend of the Norsemen.

04:47They are all over our popular culture.

04:50There was a TV show Vikings, and the movie The Northmen.

04:54Even the animated movie How to Train Your Dragon had a little Viking as the main hero.

05:00Most of them mention a place from Norse mythology, Valhalla.

05:03Now, if Jomsborg is semi-legendary, Valhalla is 100% fiction.

05:08It is the Hall of Fallen Warriors.

05:11Remember how the Jomsvikings had to honor a code of behavior?

05:14They did so in the hope of earning their place in Valhalla.

05:17This was a splendid place.

05:19The people there feast on boar meat every day, under a roof made of shields.

05:23Every Viking's dream, right?

05:25That's not all.

05:27Vikings got into scrimmages with each other on a daily basis.

05:30But what exactly motivated the Vikings to take up a life of seafaring?

05:34There is no simple answer, but this seems to be a rags to riches story.

05:39Scandinavian people traded fur with other European nations.

05:43From them, they found out about the riches that lay to the south of their homeland.

05:47And they also knew that European leaders didn't always get along well with each other.

05:51So why not take advantage of this and earn extra cash on the side?

05:54The Vikings' motivation seems pretty modern.

05:56The very first raid was carried out by Norwegian Vikings.

05:59They sailed across the North Sea to northeast England.

06:02Europeans were shocked by the boldness of these raiders from the north.

06:06The Viking Age was about to begin.

06:09The Norsemen soon realized that European nations were ready to pay a hefty sum to avoid their visits.

06:15At the beginning of the 11th century,

06:17the English paid the Vikings more than $300,000 in today's money to leave them alone.

06:24There was even a special word for this tax.

06:26The influx of all this wealth made the Vikings' appetite only grow bigger.

06:31But this was all about to change in 1066,

06:34possibly the most important date in English history.

06:37That year, the last great Viking king went to England.

06:40However, he couldn't find victory at Stamford Bridge.

06:44Yes, the place where the Chelsea Football Club plays its matches today.

06:48After the Norwegian king lost, the number of raids decreased.

06:52The Europeans were better equipped to defend themselves.

06:55The Viking Age slowly came to an end.

06:58But this didn't mean that the Vikings were gone forever.

07:01They stayed in Iceland for 400 years.

07:04The island was largely uninhabited before they came in the 9th century.

07:08And in England, the Vikings left their trace in place names.

07:12Every town that ends in by was first settled by the Scandinavians.

07:16There are around 2,000 place names across Great Britain and Ireland

07:21that can be linked to the Vikings.

07:24And can you guess which part of France has the most Viking-related toponyms?

07:29The name says it all. Normandy.

07:32The mouth of the river Seine is where most Danish Vikings settled in the 9th century.

07:36From there, they sent several raiding parties to Paris itself.

07:39That's it for today.

07:40So hey, if you pacified your curiosity,

07:42then give the video a like and share it with your friends.

07:45Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side.

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