10 Unsolved Viking Mysteries

Viking raiders were terrifying which is why I haven't been to Denmark I will never go to that medieval death trap of a country never ever they say Denmark is the world's most mysterious country and when I say vey I mostly mean myself it's mysterious because of the Viking influence on it's absurd culture Vikings were like the team ten of nice century Europe everywhere they went they left a trail of destruction and mystery here are some of those mysteries in the late 10th century Viking explorers reached Greenland they settled there and colonized the islands along with Iceland they settled in the southwest which ad for time was uninhabited Inuit Greenlanders were living in the north Viking colonies and Greenland's grew rapidly as their exports of walrus tusks was valuable but after 400 years V Greenlandic Vikings mysteriously disappeared their settlements became ghost towns and it's unknown why until recently as forte abandoned Greenland's due to climate change but modern studies show such climate change didn't happen not in Greenland at least some say they left to settle in Canada because the soil in Greenland had eroded over say the Inuits forced them back to Scandinavia all we know for sure is they suddenly disappeared roof but swords are a type of medieval sword the swords were a Viking origin but spread across Europe as they were known for their strength goofbot swords were seen as legendary dominating battlefields every King wanted one but less than 200 genuine ulfberht swords have been found although there are many imitations it's obvious to know which a genuine and Witcher imitation but no one knows how the Vikings made ulfberht swords they were much stronger than any other sword of the era they were made using crucible steel which as far as history can otherwise tell was only possible to create in the 18th century but the Vikings clearly used crucible steel one thousand years before this how did Viking sword smiths use technology so advanced one thousand years before their time they were forging super-strong swords and no knows how [Music] Abuk blood axe was a Norwegian Viking who became king of Northumbria in northern England it's unclear how he became king but the English King wasn't happy about this he ordered his soldiers raid Northumbria in revenge and promising more destruction unless they removed their Viking King before long erik blood axe lost his phone but just four years later in 92 he became king again and again we don't know how he did this this time he converted to Christianity but that wasn't enough as we know from beings once again forced him out of power Alec was exiled and while in Spain assassinated while that's one story of how he died we don't know for sure what happens to erik blood axe another story tells he was betrayed in battle cut down by his own soldiers but we don't know what happens to him or if he was also king of norway as some sagas describe either way he died in 954 and as Northumbria was absorbed into england he was their last king a mysterious urban legend comes from November of 1965 it goes like this a police officer was doing the rounds in a small town near Liverpool late at night he arrested a man thought to be a mugger but suddenly they noticed a green glow from above looking to the sky they saw the cloud glowing brightly and in the shape of a Viking longship it was moving faster than the other clouds as if sailing through the sky they can see 20 Vikings inside the cloud which was gradually appearing as a real ship rather than a cloud before long the ship disappeared into the air they later found out an old Viking ship was discovered in that area in 1828 [Music] medieval sagas tell that Vikings use Sun stones to navigate vest ships a mysterious crystal Vikings would hold to their eye the crystal would show them which direction to sail in or so Norse myth tells and since medieval times people have wondered if there was any truth to that and if so what were sunstones a 16th century shipwreck was recently discovered underwater amongst the wreckage was a cloudy but transparent crystal some researchers think it could be a Sunstone it was made from a crystal mines in Iceland it turns out looking through the crystal can help see the Sun on cloudy days which would have been useful for navigation rotating the crystal can reveal the sun's position to have in one degree so maybe sun stones were real or maybe not if you've seen the show Vikings you might be familiar with Ragnar lothbrok he was a Viking hero mentioned in various sagas and poems his adventures were legendary leading many raids against England it said he became a powerful Viking King but was eventually captured by the king of Northumbria and executed by being thrown into a pit of snakes the only problem is we don't know if he existed there are no historical records of him but he's mentioned in over 30 poems in the poems he was the father of Ivar boneless a Viking who did exist Ivar boneless was a Viking commander who invaded England we don't know why he was called boneless suggested reasons ranged from erectile disfunction to disability so Ivar boneless existed but his father might not have or something like that [Music] Rollo was a notorious Viking known for his raids into what is now France the Frankish king granted Rollo and his warriors an area of land called Normandy which Rollo became the first Duke of the Kings advice to stop Rollo's raids on his cities historians have always wondered why Rollo came from but never known it was likely Denmark or Norway who finds out they opened the tomb of his grandson and conducted DNA tests but on opening the tomb they realized the skeleton was much older than Rollo and had family connection it seems to be an ancient Celtic chief but he was buried in the fashion of a medieval Duke in 1888 a Viking grave was discovered in Norway it seemed to be an important leader buried with a long ship far too important a discovery to risk damaging survey sealed the grave for future historians in 2007 it was finally reopened inside a burial mound atop a Viking ship he was clearly a wealthy man who died around 900 AD but there are no records of who this man was something he might have been king of a small kingdom unknown to historians it would have been short-lived and soon absorbed into Norway in Norway people hunt reindeer and to be honest I'm surprised Santa Claus allows it reindeer hunter was recently a table a remote mountain when he found a Viking sword he was five thousand three hundred and eighty one feet above sea level when he noticed a well-preserved Viking sword on the ground it most likely has been there for over a thousand years undisturbed it's impossible to know why it was left there possibly being lost during a heavy Blizzard the iron of a sword is well rusted the fact that it survived for so long out in the open just shows how strong Viking swords were it's incredible how far Viking explorers reached and don't clear how far their colonies stretched there are two questions but some of the biggest Viking mystery of them all how far did Viking colonies reach and where is Vinland Finland is an area of North America explored by Vikings in the year 1000 it was described in verse Arges and fought to mean land of wine it was a large Viking colony but its location is unclear only one long-term settlement has been found in North America the settlement is not fought to be Vinland but part of a larger colony called Vinland so the real question is how far did Vinland stretch and where are the other settlements this August Hellas Vinland failed because of internal conflicts between Viking settlers it's possible other settlements were completely destroyed okay that's the end of this video and it was a glorious video if I do say myself I hope you enjoyed it and I'd love for you to answer this question for me in the comments and if you want even more content you'll find interesting facts on my Instagram daily you'll find bonus videos on my Facebook page and that's also daily [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Eskify

Views: 1,171,698

Rating: 4.4925728 out of 5

Keywords: Viking, Viking Mysteries, Vikings, Ragnar Lothbrok, Ulfberht swords, Ulfberht, Unsolved Viking Mysteries, Greenland Vikings, Viking greenland, Greenlandic vikings, Ivar the Boneless, Vinland

Id: bjYrYEjoWYg

Length: 8min 43sec (523 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 06 2017