[inspirational music] When vikings were sailing here in the early days, only the strongest and toughest people survived. And I still believe that it’s still in our genes. The thing with the vikings; what was the key to their success, they were master shipbuilders and navigators. The most popular sport throughout the centuries from the viking age was lifting heavy stones. I have a Jon Pall Sigmarsson on my calf, he won the World Strongest Man title four times. As a kid, he was a big inspiration to myself and many others. To be a strongman in Iceland comes from the old tough fishermen and farmers. Talking to the old farmer here, his family for generations has been lifting it. The saga of Grettir the Strong is a more deep-going psychological study of the hero. What he is fighting all his life are not beasts, or enemies; it’s his inner demons. There’s a support from the community, in Iceland, to be a strong and independent woman: we got the voting rights really early, we had the first female president in the world. I’m proud to be Icelandic because we have such a beautiful country, beautiful culture Like, I believe. I believe that this is all connected to the past. You had to be strong, you had to be tough, you had to be mentally strong to stay here and live off this land. We are just 300,000 people living here in Iceland. To see our small nation growing up and fighting
with the biggest one, that is Vikings. [footsteps] [door creaks] This is my instrument here. [xylophone plays] [plays a scale] [starts to play a song] [chisels clanking] [hammering] [light hammering] He found this, up in the hill in the mountains and he carried it with him. He split- they were like a sandwich, and he just opened them up. [screeching drone] [low rumble] [begins a lullaby] I believe, and I always had, the genetics in the Icelandic people comes from hardworking- comes from the Viking. We have a lot of those just- I don't know if you call it farm strong people, they're just naturally strong. You know, in the beginning, living here or settling here, only the strongest and toughest survived. [inspirational music] To be a strongman in Iceland it comes from the old, tough fishermen and farmers. [wind] And of course originally from Vikings. It's a test of manhood. You were not a man if you couldn't do that, or if you couldn't lift that big rock. The most popular sport throughout the centuries from the Viking age was lifting heavy stones. A very famous set of stones is in Dritvik. There are four; Amlóði is the lightest one. Hálfsterkur, which is you're half strong and then you've got Fullsterkur, you know, fully strong. They used to have these tests, you know if you could lift the heaviest one you were allowed to be one of the crew on the fishing boats. On the boats in the old days, you had to lift the stone, and if you lift a big stone, you get a full share. If you lift a small stone, you get a half a share, so that is how it was actually measured, your power. So your physical power was your way to success. Lift the stones, go out, feed your family. Try to survive. Now you're half strong. I'm half strong, yes. The strength of a half of a man... Half a man? The grip you have to have very strong forearms to uh- so you won't drop it. I'm only half strong. I'm weak. I'm pretty sure- I could probably do it if it was more dry. -Why don't we take you back to the gym- -And we train. -We have work to do. -Must train. -Must train. [dramatic music] But only very few- maybe one out of a thousand or something could lift the most heavy one Full strong. They were highly respected because they could lift the stone. -I've picked it up a few times before. Never as hard as this. The rain, it's very slippy. Slippy when it's dry, try doing it when it's wet. Maybe it's called super strong; Supersterkur. That was very very good. His first time. There's some connection; can't explain it. You know, something about being Icelandic which is deep in our culture, in Iceland. You know you read the sagas that were written maybe in the year 1100, 1200. They were written on calfskin so you know it was precious, you couldn't just write gibberish, but they would take out pages just to write about men at the time lifting heavy stones. So it runs deep through our blood. [waves crashing] There is some history with the women in Iceland. It's that pure will, you want to see how far you can go and you want to go further than anybody else. There are some strong women that have done extremely well. There's a support from the community to be a strong and independent woman. I've never felt like it's been looked down on, it's rather the opposite; we have a lot of really strong role models. Not just physically, but mentally and empowering. Growing up, I looked up to Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, the first female president that we had that I thought was extremely cool. There's something special about her. An extraordinary woman and she was someone that I looked up to. My biggest role models were my parents because they were just extremely hardworking people. They taught me that I can be the best in gymnastics, or the best in school, the best doctor in the world, or whatever I want to as long as I'm just willing to put in the hard work. It's never been like a dream to be someone else, I've always been happy with being me and just wanting to be the best me I can be. My name is Anníe Thórisdóttir, I'm from
Reykjavik, Iceland, and I'm a professional CrossFit athlete. Anníe Mist Thórisdóttir. A CrossFit World Champion, an unbelievable
athlete that puts a lot of guys to shame. I've always been super active as a kid growing up, and always needed competition, something. I just enjoy competing. Annie Mist, she was before that in gymnastics, so a lot of people from gymnastics go into pole vaulting and then she moved into CrossFit when that kind of came along, with great results. Yeah, my plan was to go to Olympics in pole vaulting 2012, but I found CrossFit in 2009 and got obsessed. I think I've finally found my sport. I think it was that drive of wanting to see how good I could become. I don't know what it is, but I feel it a lot here in Iceland. You want to be different, you want to stand out, you want to show that you're strong. Iceland is pretty much everything. You've got the roughness, desert-like places you've got places full of lava, and you've got places that's just ice. Iceland is, of course, a tough country with cold weather. We have long winters, summers here are short and cold. I honestly don't think I would've survived back in the days, yeah I'm strong physically- I don't like the cold. [laughs] I would suck it up. [laughs] Some places are very isolated. We only live in the outskirts of Iceland, there's nothing inside, only mountains and glaciers and volcanoes. So travel is not so easy. Most of the land is sparsely populated. We are very few in a relatively big land. Big distances between people throughout the centuries, but for the last 100 years, most Icelanders have been moving here to Reykjavik. Two-thirds of Iceland now live in the capital, so we live here but our soul was from somewhere else. It's a rough country and I don't think you were able to survive here unless you were strong. So the strong men lived better lives, like they were able to survive in these hard conditions and provide for their families. It has to do with environment and genetics. In the past, to come here to Iceland and live in the really really hard winter, good summers, and, you had to be intelligent to survive and you also had to be really strong to survive. [metal hammering] [metal hammering] One of the most famous of the first settlers, his name was Skádla Grimsson, and there is a huge book written about his son, this blacksmith. [hammering] Skádla Grimsson, who was one of the most famous of the Icelandic Vikings and poets, very strong and brave. He was, among other things, a very skillful blacksmith. It tells of the settlement when he comes to this great fjord, Borkafjerld, where he settles with his people, but he didn't have the right stone to hammer the iron. [hammering] [metal hammering] In the story, it is said that he, Skádla Grimmur, this blacksmith, he swam to the bottom of the sea outside the coast, where he found the right stone, and he took the stone and came back with it. This stone is still existing there. [metal hammering] [boat motor starting up] [waves cresting] [wire hitting metal] We have some of the best fishing grounds around Iceland here, just out of the fjords. In the middle of the 19th century, these fishing villages you see here today, they were not here. They started to form like in the middle of the 19th century. Probably the most dangerous fishing back in time was the shark fishing because you had to go further out and stay for a longer time out in the sea. You were up to one week out in the ocean, on open boats. You were probably constantly wet and cold. You had to be strong. [fish hitting the side] [seagulls calling] At the fishing stations, you couldn't go out to sea every day because the weather conditions, so they had to do something and stone lifting at the fishing station was probably important for them to show their strength. Both men and women were doing a lot of physical work. you had women in the fishing stations on the rowboats doing fishing during the wintertime so you had some mentally and physically strong women. [rumbling waterfall] [roaring curent] [rain hitting windshield] We're driving around my beautiful island that is Iceland in our quest to lift ancient history stones and challenges all over the place. I haven't done these stones and challenges in over a decade. I remember we did a little stone challenge tour with some- foreigners, organized by Pétur Guðmundsson. I remember I was a young aspiring strongman, but I didn't feel completed because I hadn't done the tests. So I remember that trip in 2008. it was very fulfilling for me to lift all these stones, these rocks with all its history. So now I'm on this journey to reconnect with all the- stones, the history, and myself as a strongman. I'm very excited for the, ah- stone test that's Kvállodrót. It's a very old test at a very cool place in my mind. There's a very deep history around it. [waves splashing] -Just going to get ready. completed! The children's stone, he says. This is the, uh, the extra test. This is for the extra strong guys like yours truly. Around 200 kilos he says. Its name is Klóvi. This is an old test, so I was excited to come here. I haven't been here in, ah ten years. I was here- almost- exactly ten years ago to the date. so, ah Just look at this setting, and the history and everything here. It's- it's- it's something else. [wind] I grew up in Reykjavik, but, erm- when there wasn't school I was usually at my grandfather's farm and I remember- from a very young age, I took an interest in, ah strongman events and strength in general. I was four years old when my parents took me, we were going into a grocery store and unexpectedly, Magnús Ver Magnússon and Jón Páll Sigmarsson were doing like a small exhibition, they did some demonstrations of strength. I remember as a toddler I was so- fascinated by their power, size. I remember coming home that day and asked my father, "how can they be so strong?" "Son, because they finish their food. And they work out" So I finished my food that night, of course. I remember I had a big box with my toys and I was running around the living room with it, screaming like I was lifting something heavy. So that sparked the interest that- ignited the flame that is still burning in me, and from my father, I would learn to- just work ethic and hard work. I always had the feeling I would be a strongman, somehow just because it was a dream of mine since I saw Jón Páll. Today, I've traveled all over the world, competed in the biggest shows. But still coming to a place like this always feels extra special. It's deep in our roots in Iceland; strength and power. [seagulls crying] My name is Magnús Ver Magnússon, I'm from Iceland, and I've won the World's Strongest Man four times. Magnus Ver is a powerful athlete. He comes from Seyðisfjörður, in the east of Iceland and he was very inspiring to me as a child, obviously by winning the World's Strongest Man competition four times. -This is one of them- -Oh yeah that's good. -Now that's lifting a rock- that's when I was pressing a rock overhead. -well, I mean, I know that you did- I- I still remember the fact that you saw that there was a way to hold it -Yeah. -and you could do it, and you did it and, I mean, that was- -for the little- little ants -and that was the record! And it stood for years. -oh yeah -This was for a credit card, which is basically a MasterCard that was done here in Iceland. [laughter] -That's really something. That's great. I'm made- looking like a caveman here. In this kind of a sport, I was fortunate enough to be the best in the world many times. When I was young, I was always strong. My grandfather, grandmother lived on farms, so I stayed there. You know, you had to shovel the hay and everything, you know. or you got the big hay bales- with the ropes on, and I always had to carry them and, ah you know I was like eleven, twelve years old and I was staggering these up to a big truck, like, ah, 150 of them on top, like that, then take it into the barn, stack it again in there. So you know it was hard work. That's what I was brought up with. This place I've had for about seven years, I think. Six, seven years, yeah. Some of the equipment I have here is actually from Jón Páll Sigmarsson's gym that he used to have. The power racks here are made by me. This bar here that's on this bench, actually right now was made by me years ago and it just came to my possession again. This was made out of a regular bar, and I put this loop around it- you can actually turn your hands. When I made this thing, was when Jón Páll Sigmarsson tore his bicep and his forearm bones in his forearm grew together, so he got in a position he could not turn his- hand, like that, it got stuck. So he couldn't do a normal bar, so that's why I made this, basically so he could do his bench pressing and training. When I was starting out in sports, of course you had some idols. Our very own, you know Jón Páll Sigmarsson was there when I started out and I remember him doing powerlifting meets he goes from that to winning World's Strongest Man. and we became good friends, and I learned a lot from him. He was- really unique. and proud of where he comes from. [Announcer] -Now, the champion, the man with the built- in megaphone, Jón Páll Sigmarsson. -Of Iceland! [crowd cheers] Yeah, he was really a national hero and he was really popular also because he was- he was witty, he could be very funny and he would be saying unusual things. I think it was in- France, World's Strongest Man in '86, they were doing a deadlift and somebody from the audience yelled, "Eskimo!" but he yelled back at him, "I'm not an Eskimo, I'm a Viking!" -I'm not an Eskimo, I'm a Viking! [crowd laugh & applause] And he always had this- smile on his face. At some time in his youth, he lived in the west, called Skáleyjar. That was actually a small island where, maybe ten people lived there. It was a really tough upbringing and they were eating seals and all kinds of meat, you know, because there were no shark, there was nothing there, but then he found himself in power lifting and very soon he started breaking the European records. So he actually put up the European record in the deadlift. He pulls it up, then he holds it, and he says in Icelandic: "This is no problem for Jón Páll." And everyone in the country, in Iceland, this is still used, so he was like world famous in Iceland at that moment. But then, soon after that, he was invited for the World's Strongest Man, and at the World's Strongest Man competition they thought he was a lunatic or crazy because he starts screaming and showing a lot of emotions. -I told you all the time! I told you! I bloody told you! He was the only guy who people would talk about. He won every competition, he won the world title four times. Jón Páll kind of changed me and many other young men, and the whole society here. He was like the first superstar, in a way, like sporting superstar. and uh- With his personality, his smile, and just his person, changed the whole society here in Iceland and he gave me and many other people some kind of hope to come out of almost a poverty and do something, and be famous. Because he could do it, maybe someone else could to it too. He was a pioneer in a way for so many others all over the world. I have a Jón Páll Sigmarsson on my calf. As a kid, he was a big inspiration to myself and many others. I didn't know him personally you know I was young when he passed away. He won the title that I'm trying to win now, four times, so he was a huge inspiration to myself, and he is still today. -Hafthor trains a lot. When you get a new tattoo you have to rest and- not maybe train so much. -You all know, training is very important to me, so... I can't really skip a session. My name is Reynir. I am Hafthor's grandfather. I was a farmer there for thirty years. Hafthor is really used to picking up rocks, 'cause in the old days he was a farm hand on my farm, he used to pick up rocks when I was re-cultivating the fields. He stayed with us as a farm hand during the summertime until he got too occupied practicing basketball,. and after that, he- he started practicing all this weightlifting. -come on! [loud music] -up! -Yeah! Hafthór Júlíus Björnsson. Many of you know him as The Mountain in Game of Thrones. Got himself involved with strongman, strongman training, strongman competitions and he has come a long way since then and has done really well for himself and is one of the top strongmen in the world today. [inspirational music] [panting] This is- the heaviest someone has lifted in Iceland, raw. This is 400 kilograms for two reps, personal best for me. I'm aiming for over 1,000 pounds, 455 kilograms in the squats. You can see it here: "road to 455kg." 1,003 pounds. So that's my- always have a lot of goals in my life, and this is one of those goals I have as well. [crowd whistling & cheering] If you look at Hafthor and at how big he is, he would definitely categorize as a Viking- A huge Viking. but I don't think, ah you know Vikings in the past were that big! The connection between Iceland and the Viking age is that the Vikings even though when we hear the word, 'Viking,' we picture a very strong person, heavy and fierce fighters with a helmet with horns on them and all this, but the thing with the Vikings, what was the key to their success had nothing to do with this; they were master shipbuilders and navigators, and the first people that were able to navigate systematically over the Atlantic Ocean. Before that, no one could do this, and after their time no one did this until Columbus, about 700 years later. So this is- the reason why Iceland was settled and they heard of this place, a huge island, green, where no one lived. So ship after ship came here. This is the Bayeux Tapestry. It was found in Bayeux in France around 1300, the year 1300. That was made at the Viking time, and that is one of the few things which have been found, and for sure telling us how the Vikings made the ships, how they built up the houses, what kind of dress they wear, what kind of weapons they had, and this is the battle of Hastings, when the British and the French were fighting. This is in Bayeux, and this copy of carpet is nowhere else except here in this restaurant. My name is Jóhannes Vidar Bjarnason, I am the owner of the Viking Village. There are many, many, many, many things you can find here carved in wood or stones, or whatever, who remind us from the Viking time. So you see, this house where we are now is here. and that is where the houses that are out there, 1841. In 1841 it was like that, just 60 houses. And here in the front there is a- is a good artist, my daughter, who made this picture. And you can see Thor here, sitting with Odin, and then you can see Frigg and Freya here, with the cat, and Heimdall. We are sitting now in a Viking temple, that was the first Viking temple that was made in Iceland in '94. They had it in Norway; a very similar temple like we are sitting in. What I want do about Vikings is just to tell people what they did. They were explorers, they were good artists, they were sailors. They were travelers. They were farmers, and through Vikings I've been showing our culture. Iceland was founded as a Viking colony around the year 900. It lasted for almost 300 years, and after that a new system took over when we became a part of the Norwegian Kingdom. When the sagas were written, you can almost say it was the end of the age of the Viking society in Iceland. The sagas were written here. We can still read this language even if it is 1000 years ago or more. That's why we say, we have the Viking language. [wind] Yeah, the runes, tattoo are Hávamál it's an old Viking poems basically just how to go on about life, like ethics stuff like that. First one is: ...Basically just says: “be on the bright side of life.” The other one is probably the most famous one… ...It basically says that everything has its time, everything dies, but if you make a good reputation in life, it will go on. So that’s what I strive for. They wrote on calfskin- with ink on calfskin, their stories, and this Snorri is known for many of his stories. There’s a few women, most of them are just men that are in there, but there’s always at least one woman that’s represented strongly. Here we have Nielsaga... Many times they come through as evil because they’re just really determined or strong-minded, but they are many times the heroes in the story as well. A saga is very similar to what we call a novel today. and the sagas, they usually deal with things that took place about the first generations that came here on the Viking ships, and the feuds, and fights, and friendships and everything. Grettir the Strong. The saga of Grettir the Strong is a more deep-going psychological study of the hero. The hero is brave and strong and good looking, and he is clever, he is witty, he comes from a good family. The main topic of the story is that what he is fighting all his life are not beasts, or enemies; it's his inner demons. He cannot control his temper. This leads to him becoming an outlaw, living out of the society, so his story is: he's fighting loneliness all his life, he is- he's afraid of the dark which is a bad thing when you have to survive a winter in the Icelandic highland alone and he always misses his mother. So it's more like a study of how it can be that a man with all these qualities is not lucky and happy in his life. So this is the most interesting thing about the sagas and makes them so modern. All around Iceland we have heavy stones that most people cannot lift that are named after Grettir the Strong because he lifted them. [wind] [waves roaring] Let's see... Brynjolur the Strong Ekarson, from Söndow. He carried the stone, with straps, from the shore around 1845. The stone weighs 281 kilos, around 620 pounds. Impressive. Yeah, we don't have any straps, so I can't imitate that. [laughs] [grunts] Yeah. It felt like 620 pounds. -You're never gonna make it, sorry -Do you want to show him the photo, he doesn't believe I lifted it up! [laughter] [laughter] On-site Photoshop. -That's very good. [laughs] - She told her kids, when she would drive into the fog they would meet some monsters, then here I am. -she told the truth! -Yeah! [laughter] Ah! -Slippery shoes, he says. Next year, maybe. -Yeah! [wind] -There is a big rock, it is a little bit triangle shaped so you can get a little grip on it. Well, if you're strong enough, it's easy, but, you know, for even- reasonably strong people, they have troubles with it. Now, the legend says the farmer's daughter picked that stone up and carried it around the corral. Now if that legend is true, that must've been a hell of a woman. I just know that it's a ridiculously heavy stone that a lot of people have tried to lift back in the days it became famous because hardly anyone could lift it except if you were a giant, and so it's one of those things, then, that a lot of the strongmen try out to see if they can do. It's the famous Húsafell Stone. It's 186 kilos, located in Húsafell. This stone, it used to be the gate to open for the sheep. It was Andrés that I met when I was going to compete in a school competition when I was a kid, and I looked up to him because I knew he was a part of the strongman community, you can see that he's really strong and a big guy. [laughter] Hafthor and Stefán Sölvi are like fun characters. Both of them are so sweet guys, like, it's not what you'd expect when you just see pictures of them, you see these mountains and kind of scary characters and then you start talking to them, and they're- yeah, they're so cute. Andri said- he was going to do it. -Andri, lift it! Andri Reyr. He's a very good friend of me and Hafthor. and he travels a lot with us to shows all over the world. He's a great guy, he's a legend in Iceland. He said, 'grab the handle,' there's a handle down there. Remember, you have to be friends with it, speak gently to it. -Uuhh! [panting] Now it's the masters at work. [dramatic music] -YEAH! [laughter] That's quite a rock, it is- it has so much history and- I'm not as strong as I was, so I'm really happy I got it now. because I tried it a couple of times before and it didn't work out. So, being here gave me some extra strength I don't know why Like, I- I believe I believe that this is all connected to the past. like, from the Viking age. you had to be strong, you had to be tough, you had to be mentally strong to- stay here, and live off this land in the wintertime when it's- everything is freezing, everything is cold. so definitely I think that's in our DNA, or in our culture. -As a famous strongman, you know, as a toddler, you know, you hear the stories about Jon Páll and the strongmen at that time, lifting that stone, you know, yeah I have respect for it. you know, like, talking to the old farmer here, his family for generations has been lifting it. so people were very strong back in the day- very strong. and, ah I'm part of history now. This history. Right here, there's a piece of my soul. Very good. To future enthusiastics about stone lifting, coming to Iceland, and visiting our beautiful sites of stones, especially these stones; you have to respect them, hug them, kiss them, I- I managed to lift them all all our famous stones The Tombstone is called Leggstein in Icelandic. which is 'tombstone' in English and it is 220 kilos so, roughly 480 pounds. It's in Heydalur, in Mjóifjörður in, ah, the northwestern corner of Iceland. And there's a story behind it: It's, ah, it's like a twelve meter circle around a big, big boulder and underneath that boulder is a is a farmer, he is buried there. He made a pact with the Devil in the old days, he was a lazy farmer he just wanted to fool around and play around and- so the Devil brought that stone- the Tombstone, to him and said, 'if you can lift it, you will be prosperous and- if you cannot, I get your soul.' And he couldn't lift it. So he is buried under that stone- that big boulder and then a Deacon in the- in the- in the country, he saw what was happening and made a deal: if men could carry the tombstone 100 circles, his soul would be freed. We know of 56 circles right now, so, people have to continue carrying the stone, and see what happens. So, ah- we have to help that poor bastard out. Try to set him free. I don't know if I'm going to go 100 revolutions, but I'll try my best. So now we are here, in Heydalur. Here it is. Let's go take a look now. There he is waiting. The Tombstone. It's big. I'm going to attempt to, uh carry the tombstone, all 220 kilos of it, around this big rock here, and try to, ah do my part in setting the old farmer free. [grunts] -ah. You feel this? The calm. After the effort. This gives me peace. Yeah! Alright. It felt good. Felt good, been a long time. Nine years ago, I believe was the last time we met. yeah. I did it as an event; Westfjord's Strongest Viking competition in 2009, and that's the first competition of a- guy you might have heard of called Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson and he beat me in that event, I remember that because I was hoping to win every event, but this new kid showed up and beat me in this event. Me and Hafthor are very good friends; best friends. yeah. Times have changed, but the stone weighs the same. We can't leave it like this. [grunts] yeah. You know, this admiration for the strong continues in many ways, like shot putting. My name is Pétur Guðmundsson, I am from Reykjavik, Iceland, I am a policeman and a shot putter through the years, so I went to Seoul in '88 and Barcelona in '92, so I threw the shot, as a young man, three times a day, like twelve years old at the farm. I laid down pavement for my own shot put circle. Every time I had to go attend the cows, I would throw the shot ten times on the way. You know, that's how I was brought up; there's nothing you can't do or you can't overcome. You know, you want to challenge these here mountains, you wanna climb it. There is no surrender, and I think that's a lot of the mentality here. I feel like women here are- they're not afraid to be strong and they have such a strong mindset. It was a rough country to live in, and you also had to be a really strong woman to live here back in the days, so I think that has just been engraved in us throughout the years, and it's definitely still here. If we talk of- the soul of a nation, what we identify with- it's all rooted in the sagas. This is our cultural background, so, having a strong heart has always been regarded as a very valuable quality and I still think this is something that you want to show. It's a natural thing here in Iceland to be strong and be training and be tough. Every person's soul, they are a well of strength and power. And we still are! You know, still going up against the bigger countries, in many sports, still doing really well. [Puffins calling] [waves] We are very proud of being Icelandic. I remember growing up, you feel like the world is such a big place, and you come from small Iceland, and we are the strongest in the world. And to a small kid, that's very inspiring. And I think that goes to all aspects of life here. Just everything we do, we want to do it good, want to do it properly, and we want to make some noise in the world. Iceland's people are proud. They are proud of their country, they are proud of where they come from. A lot of times, we feel like David beating the Goliath, so the fighting spirit is there. This unbelievable willpower that Icelanders have, we believe we can do anything, even though we are a small nation, and we can always exceed or do something great. -Just like they qualified for the World Cup in Soccer. -Yea. Smallest nation in the world to ever done that. There's nothing we can't do. [inspirational music] I'm proud to be Icelandic because we have such a beautiful country, beautiful culture. To belong to such a small population makes you even more proud. I don't know, there's so much power, there's so much freedom and just rough, real land. It's still the way it used to be. I feel like I can just feel the power from the country. I think we definitely feel and sense the power of the Vikings from the old days, no doubt about that. It's always, when you're training hard and competing somewhere, you can always dig into that: I'm a Viking. We are just 300,000 people living here in Iceland. To see our small nation growing up and fighting with the biggest one, that gives us the power here in Iceland; that is Vikings.
Compared to the previous docus, it takes a while for the ice to melt.
This is worth your time.
How many times was something similiar to this mentioned? "I think the strength comes from the old vikings that made it here and then turned farmers/fishermen and to surivive the harsh weather you had to be strong"
Annie felt like a fairly tokenistic inclusion.