All language subtitles for The UnXplained S06E04 Mysteries of the Vikings 1080p HULU WEB-DL AAC2 0 H 264-playWEB_track4_[eng]

WILLIAM SHATNER:
Ruthless raiders plundering throughout Europe.

Bold navigators braving
treacherous high seas.

And mighty heroes, who wielded

unbreakable swords.

During the Middle Ages,
the Vikings were infamous

for being a bloodthirsty band
of seafaring warriors

who would appear out of
the mists of the Atlantic Ocean

and attack without warning.

But while we’re all aware

of the Vikings’
notorious reputation,

is it possible that they were

not merely the savage brutes
we think of today

but rather
a highly advanced civilization?

Well, that is what
we’ll try and find out.

♪ ♪

It’s a land of wild beauty,

filled with towering fjords

and dense forests.

This region in northern Europe

that includes Norway,
Sweden and Denmark,

is a place
of spectacular vistas,

where vast sheets of ice
lie beneath night skies

that are illuminated
by the northern lights.

And over a thousand years ago,

this untamed region gave birth

to a legendary
and mysterious people

who fascinate us to this day.

We call them... Vikings.

The Vikings are embedded
in our consciousness.

When we think of
the archetypal warrior,

we think of the Viking.

The Vikings are
the quintessential

fighting race.

We love the idea of the Vikings
being these superheroes,

and we’ve embellished them
a little bit.

We’ve made them
blood-curdling savages.

It’s just because these
characters really appeal to us.

What we term a Viking today
is a Scandinavian person

who lived between 793 and 1066.

And that is a period when

Scandinavians were raiding
and pillaging,

and they were known
throughout Europe

for specifically brutal
Viking culture.

This is a maritime culture,
it’s focused around boats,

and all based on the waterways.

The Vikings poured in with sort
of brute strength, with fury.

They ransacked
sacred monasteries

and completely upset the balance
of power throughout Europe.

The Viking Age goes
through phases.

At the start,
the raids are just raiding.

And then armies land,

and they’re there
to take land and conquer.

And then Viking kingdoms
come together.

At one point, the Vikings had
conquered all of England.

And so the impact of the Viking
Age is, um, extraordinary.

ALAN WILLIAMS:
What is interesting is they seem to have achieved

so much while being
functionally illiterate.

Some historians have tended
to assume that because

the Vikings were illiterate,

their technology
must have been primitive.

But in fact, their achievements
in technology are considerable.

They were great shipbuilders,
they were great sword makers

and great metalsmiths.

It was simply
that they weren’t at a stage

where they could write down
what they were doing.

SHATNER:
Trade routes established by the Vikings

would change the course
of world history.

And their impact on medieval
Europe can still be seen today.

Yet the lack of written records
about these fierce conquerors

has left the details
of their life and times

shrouded in mystery.

We have a lot of archaeological
excavations which tell us about

where the Vikings settled
and where they went.

But what we lack is long,
epic descriptions of

the lives of the Vikings,
that is, long stories

in the words
of the Vikings themselves.

What I find baffling
about the Viking Age

is how little we know.

You can come across wonderful
material finds, buildings,

forts and whatnot,
but you don’t know anything

about, really, the story
of the people themselves.

SHATNER:
While there are no definitive historical accounts

written by
the Vikings themselves,

there is a curious collection

of fictional poems and stories

written about the Vikings

that might potentially offer a
glimpse into their civilization.

These epic tales are known

as the Icelandic Sagas.

The Icelandic Sagas, most of
the ones that are preserved,

come from the 13th,

14th, even 15th century.

So they are talking
about events that happened

centuries before
when they were written down.

They reproduce stories

that has been told and retold
over the centuries.

The storytellers who are
behind the sagas

take motifs and ideas from other
stories that they have heard,

or from the history
that they think that they know.

And that’s why some of
the stories are so good.

What we should remember
about the sagas

is that they were meant
to entertain.

Because of this, historical
accuracy was not really

the top priority
for the person who was--

who was telling the saga.

SHATNER:
For centuries, historians have dismissed the Icelandic Sagas

as nothing more
than the fictional creations

of anonymous
storytellers and poets

who had no direct knowledge
of the Vikings.

But is it possible that these
fantastic stories contain

shreds of truth that could
shed light on the Viking Age?

Perhaps the answer can be found
by examining the Sagas’ account

of a legendary, larger-than-life
Viking warrior named...

Ragnar Lodbrok.

The story of
Ragnar Lodbrok is really

one of the most exciting
Viking Age stories.

It starts by
Ragnar defeating a dragon

in order to be able to marry
a very beautiful woman.

Later on,
Ragnar is out sailing

on adventures
in various places in Europe.

In the end,
Ragnar is defeated in battle,

and the death of Ragnar

is famous in the Sagas.

He’s captured by his opponent,

and thrown into a pit of snakes,

where he dies
after being bitten by many.

It’s a kind of torture death,
of course.

This is, of course,
a literary motif

that has been told
about many people before Ragnar.

I mean, this is--
this is great storytelling.

It’s not historical fact.

SHATNER:
While many parts of the Ragnar Lothbrok story,

such as his death
by snakebites,

are most likely
fictional embellishments...

...some experts claim
that the events in the Sagas

which took place
after Ragnar’s death,

may actually have a basis
in fact.

WINROTH:
In the saga, very soon after Ragnar apparently died,

a lot of Vikings got together

to form what is called
the Great Army.

This Great Army starts to

more or less systematically
conquer England.

CAT JARMAN:
In the Sagas, the Viking Great Army headed for

one of the key sites in England,
which was Repton.

And Repton was the site
of a very wealthy monastery.

Now, archaeological excavating
actually found evidence of this.

We know that it was attacked
by, presumably, the Vikings,

because a lot of it was ruined.

And there were a lot
of Scandinavian graves.

So, this is a really
quite unique example where

we have archaeological evidence
backing up

something that comes up
in the Saga literature.

The Sagas are written by people

who wanted to preserve

a great deal of information
about the past.

So they’re not making up
this stuff out of whole cloth.

Are they changing the story
slightly in their rendition?

Yes.
But they’re relating a story

that was very,
very influential to them,

and had been
for hundreds of years.

SHATNER:
Do the Icelandic Sagas contain important information

about the Vikings that has
been overlooked for centuries?

Perhaps the answer can
be found by examining

a number of mysterious
Viking swords

that were so
exceptionally strong

we still don’t know
how they were made.

SHATNER:
Throughout Europe

there are numerous museums

that house a countless number

of ancient Viking artifacts,

some of which are
more than 1,000 years old.

Perhaps the most
fascinating objects

left behind by the Vikings
are their swords.

These extraordinary blades

are an iconic symbol
of the Viking Age.

And not only were they
formidable in battle,

but they also feature detailed

and exquisite craftsmanship.

The thing about the Viking
swords in particular

is you’ll see, on a lot of
these hilts of the Viking era,

repeating geometric symbols.

Oftentimes, these hilts were
further decorated

largely with silver,
or perhaps copper

or gold inlaid into the hilt.

And some were incredibly
advanced in their techniques.

Quite beautiful,

and hard to produce
even today in a modern shop.

SHATNER:
The sophistication of Viking swords

shows how important
these blades were

to their warrior culture.

And, in fact, powerful weapons
featured prominently

in Viking mythology.

The Icelandic Sagas are
filled with epic tales

about supernatural swords
and spears

that were wielded by the gods.

The god Odin is the supreme
being of the Norse system.

He had an unusual spear,
the Gungnir.

Now, this is an incredible
spear. It can travel.

It’s well-balanced, so it can
go far with great accuracy.

Odin has this spear that almost
seems to be laser-guided.

It finds its target
regardless of how it’s thrown.

And then Thor,
of course, as we all know,

has his hammer called Mjölnir.

It creates thunder,
but it also can,

uh, create massive devastation.

THOMPSON:
Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir, it’s associated with

the skill of the blacksmith.

Blacksmiths were
often considered,

just by nature, somewhat magic.

Right? To be able to take
this raw material

and produce
an incredible steel sword.

SHATNER:
While the Sagas speak of magical armaments,

in reality, 170 special Viking
swords have been recovered

which are so unparalleled
in strength and craftmanship

that they are
the real-life embodiment

of mythical weapons
celebrated in the Sagas.

To this day, no one knows
how they were made.

And curiously, many of them bear

the mysterious inscription
"Ulfberht."

The Ulfberht swords were
made between about

800 and 1000 AD.

So, right solid in
the high Viking period,

when they were trading
and raiding.

Some of the Viking swords seem
to be much better than others.

And these were
the so-called Ulfberht swords.

It was assumed,
without any evidence,

that it was a swordsmith’s name.

But why the name Ulfberht was
used is still a mystery.

FURRER:
What does Ulfberht mean?

It’s probably not a person.

It was probably a word of power.

Typically, ulf means "wolf."

And berht is an adjective
meaning "bright."

So it might be "bright wolf."

SHATNER:
Even more mysterious than their enigmatic inscription

is the seemingly impossible
strength of Ulfberht swords.

I’ve analyzed 40
or 50 Ulfberht swords.

It’s certainly interesting
to find that many of them

still have a sharp edge,
which is certainly unexpected.

These swords were made of
a very high carbon steel.

The chemistry’s completely
different to any other weapons

found in medieval Europe.

It would be vastly superior
to any other weapon in combat.

SHATNER:
To forge these extraordinary swords,

the Vikings would have had to
generate extreme temperatures,

exceeding
3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

But incredibly, the technology
to accomplish such a feat

is not known to have existed
until the Industrial Revolution,

nearly 800 years
after the end of the Viking Age.

So how did
Viking blacksmiths forge

these marvels
of medieval warfare?

The search answers leads
far from Scandinavia...

...to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.

Here in his workshop,

blacksmith Ric Furrer
is committed to forging swords

that closely resemble
an authentic Ulfberht.

How I reproduce
an Ulfberht blade

is prepare the raw materials.

It would start with rock,
with iron ore;

something that mirrors
the chemistry

of some of the blades
that have been found.

So, you’d crush that,

put it into a ceramic cup,
a crucible,

fill it completely to the top,

and then join it together

with other materials.

So we need
a little bit of glass.

The glass acts as a flux
and a protective coating.

And then, right after that,
all of that material

gets brought up to about
3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

So, very hot.

Hotter than
a typical blacksmith fire

would be allowed to get.

A little more.

In the Sagas,

heat control in the fire
was very important.

It was even mentioned
as being important when

when, uh, the two dwarf brothers
made Thor’s hammer.

And we’ve got
a nice temperature here.

SHATNER:
After heating the metal with temperatures that,

as far as we know,
were supposedly impossible

to achieve during
the Viking Age,

the raw material becomes
molten liquid.

And when the liquid cools down,

it hardens into
a purified chunk of metal

called an ingot.

FURRER:
And you would take this steel ingot,

and then start forging it.

So, you’d change its shape,

making it progressively
more bar-like as you go.

Ready, ready? Three hits.

One hit. Hit. Hit.

And that’s it.
That looks really good.

So, if you look here,
we have the finished blade.

SHATNER:
How did Viking blacksmiths,

working with
comparatively primitive tools,

complete this process with
such precision and expertise?

It’s a fascinating
question that,

despite his extensive
understanding of metallurgy

and years of intense study,
even Ric cannot answer.

I don’t think anyone has
produced an Ulfberht

using completely
traditional methods.

Because we don’t know
what those methods were.

The Vikings had
these mythological stories

that involve weapons
in the hands of a god.

And it isn’t a far stretch
to say that some of the swords

that they actually had
could also do miraculous things.

There’s still
a huge mystery in steel.

Were the Ulfberht swords

really infused
with mystical powers?

It may sound incredible,

but then again,
we still don’t know

how the Vikings were able
to forge

such exceptionally
strong blades.

And there’s another artifact

that is just as astonishing.

It’s a small, seemingly ordinary
piece of crystal

that Viking sailors used
to navigate

beyond the edge
of the known world.

SHATNER:
For centuries, the Vikings were

masters of the high seas.

Employing the era’s
most sophisticated techniques,

Viking shipbuilders created
iconic vessels

that are referred to
as longships.

Incredibly, numerous longships
from the Viking Age

have actually survived
the ravages of time,

and can be seen today
in museums.

MELLOR: When you think
about our image of the Viking,

of course we all know
the iconic ship and how

that’s part of the mythos
of Vikings today.

However, people don’t realize

that the Viking ships
were fairly large,

sometimes 100 feet long.

Boats were arguably

the most important component
of Viking life,

and they were very good
at building them.

Their technology was
so much more advanced

in shipbuilding
than anyone else’s.

THOMPSON: These boats were made
to flex with the waves.

That’s why often
referred them as a sea snake.

Because they could sort
of snake through the waves.

So, a lot of it was the prowess
of their boat-building skill

that really defined
the achievements

of the Vikings, and
enabled them to do so much.

JAN BILL:
Without the Viking longship,

there wouldn’t have been
a Viking Age.

The longship, of course,
was the tool

that you could use
to project power.

You could transport soldiers,
warriors,

over long distances, quickly.

And you could ride
far up rivers,

and you could get across oceans,

making these long expeditions

that takes you
all the way to faraway lands.

SHATNER:
While the incredible shipbuilding prowess

of the Vikings is well-known,

another very important key to
their success on the high seas

remains shrouded in mystery.

When talking about the Vikings,

you’re faced with a mystery:

how did the Vikings navigate?

They were able to navigate
with tremendous accuracy.

Yet, for all we know,
they had no compass.

The compass was
a Chinese invention,

and without a compass,
how could they navigate?

Well, "the stars," you say,

but actually,
if you’ve ever been there,

to the Northern Atlantic,

you realize how cloudy it is.

On a cloudy day,
you cannot see the Sun,

you cannot see the stars.

And yet here they were,

navigating
throughout Northern Europe.

And the question is,
how did they do it?

SHATNER:
Some researchers believe the mystery of Viking navigation

may be solved by
examining the Icelandic Sagas,

which include tales
of a legendary tool

used by Viking sailors.

In the Norse Sagas,
we get an account

of what could be described
as Viking technology,

and it involves
a mysterious crystal

called the sunstone,

or the sólarsteinn,
as they term it.

And this is a kind of
translucent stone

that had special,
magical powers.

The Viking sagas tell us
about how this great sunstone

was held by the captain
of a Viking warship

up to a cloudy sky

in order to be able
to make out

where the Sun was located

in order to be able to navigate.

THOMPSON:
It’s been long rumored from little glimpses in the Sagas

that the sunstone
may have been a major part

of the navigational abilities
of the Vikings,

giving them an edge that other
people at the time did not have.

But knowing exactly what it is

is tantalizingly
in the realm of legend.

SHATNER:
Was the magical sunstone just a fictional creation,

or could it have
actually been a real-life tool

that allowed the Vikings

to become
extraordinary navigators?

SHATNER:
While investigating a 16th-century

sunken English warship,

underwater archaeologists
uncover an unusual crystal.

Although the shipwreck
is English, some believe

this crystal may be connected
to the mythical Viking sunstone.

BILL:
There was a find from an Elizabethan shipwreck

from the Channel Islands,
where they actually have

picked up a piece of calcite

quite close to
some navigational equipment

on a shipwreck site.

It’s a mineral, calcite,

and it has a particular quality

that it lets polarized light
pass through it.

And polarized light
comes from the Sun,

even if it’s covered by clouds.

SHATNER:
Does the discovery of a calcite crystal

inside an English warship
suggest that this same material

was the real-life sunstone
used by the Vikings

to navigate the high seas
centuries earlier?

According to tests
conducted in 2011

by physicists from the
University of Rennes in France,

the answer is yes.

It turns out that if you
look at a calcite crystal,

you see not one image,
but two images,

each one polarized
slightly differently.

And as you scan the sky,

the intensity
of these two changes,

depending upon
where the Sun is located.

But when you lock on to the Sun,

the two images are
equally bright.

Bingo, that’s where
the Sun is located.

And that’s how the Vikings
could do it without a compass,

without superior
navigational equipment,

without elaborate maps.

No, they simply matched
the two images,

and bingo, that was it.

To think that a crystal
was the tool the Vikings used

to precisely navigate
the high seas

centuries before
the invention of the compass...

It’s intriguing.

And it begs the question,
how far did they sail?

Believe it or not,
there’s evidence to suggest

that the Vikings traveled
all the way

to the heart of North America.

SHATNER:
One of the most intriguing tales

from the Icelandic Sagas

involves a group of Vikings

who embarked on a daring voyage
across the Atlantic Ocean...

...on a quest
to reach a faraway realm

known as Vinland.

According to the Sagas, Vinland
was a bountiful paradise,

and for centuries,
historians thought it was

merely the stuff of myth
and legend.

But then, in 1960,
Norwegian husband-and-wife team

Helge and Anne Ingstad
set out to prove

not only that Vinland was
a real place

but also that it was located
in North America.

MELLOR: Helge and Anne Stine
Ingstad combed the entire coast

of Canada to try
and find this site.

And they were very
confident that the Sagas

had an element of fact about it.

And they were right, they did.

SHATNER:
The Norwegian couple uncovered

the remains
of a Viking settlement

on the northern tip
of Newfoundland

that dated to
the 11th century AD.

This profound discovery,

which is now a UNESCO
World Heritage Site

called L’Anse aux Meadows,

is indisputable proof

that the Sagas may hold
more truth about the Vikings

than we ever thought possible.

BILL:
L’Anse aux Meadows is actually the physical evidence

of Scandinavian habitation

on the North American continent.

The Vikings did discover
North America

500 years before
Christopher Columbus.

THOMPSON:
We know that there were Viking settlements in the New World.

When I was a young boy,
that was considered a legend.

Now it is historical fact.

And they may have
actually been more extensive

than we see
in the Sagas themselves.

MELLOR:
L’Anse aux Meadows is in Newfoundland.

And we know
that they were there,

but then, of course,
it begs the question,

how far in did they get?

SHATNER:
Is it possible the Vikings

traveled deep into
North America?

Well, there are those
who believe the answer is yes.

And they claim
that the proof can be found

more than 2,000 miles away
from Newfoundland...

...in Alexandria, Minnesota.

This small city, about 130 miles
northeast of Minneapolis,

is home to the Runestone Museum.

Inside is an artifact

that many point to as evidence

that the Vikings traveled

well beyond the northeastern
tip of Canada

and into the heartland
of America.

Because on display
is the remarkable,

yet controversial,
Kensington Runestone.

The Kensington Runestone

is about the size
of a gravestone.

And it was discovered
in 1898 in Kensington,

in Douglas County in Minnesota

by a Swedish immigrant,
Olof Ohman.

And it is covered in runes.

And what intrigues people
is that it seems to be

incontrovertible proof
that the Vikings were there.

THOMPSON:
Runes are Viking works of art.

And runestones are located

pretty much throughout
the Viking realm.

Runes were kind of
cumbersome to write with,

and so things
tended to be short.

So what you end up with
is very often cryptic poetry

with a tremendous
amount of meaning

packed into
very obscure passages.

So, even to be able
to understand these runes

was sort of a master craft.

SHATNER:
For over a century, people have speculated about the meaning

of the cryptic markings
on the Kensington Runestone.

By comparing it with
other known runestones,

historians have theorized
that the stone tells the tale

of a Viking expedition.

McMAHON:
Allegedly, the Kensington Runestone has

an intriguing story

written in runic script,

about a group of
about 30 Vikings,

who journey from Vinland

all the way down
into what is now Minnesota.

Now, ten of them are massacred

en route by the local people.

But the suggestion is
that these Vikings made it

to the interior
of North America.

SHATNER:
Based on this translation,

many believe
that the Kensington Runestone

is a memorial
to Vikings who died

on their quest
to explore North America.

But skeptics have questioned

the stone’s authenticity.

McMAHON:
This could either be a genuine account

of an incredible journey

by intrepid warriors
deep into America.

Or the other theory is
that this was Swedish immigrants

trying to prove
to their neighbors

that they had
a much longer presence

and an entitlement to be there

because their ancestors
had been there.

But the idea that
these warriors ventured

deep into North America,

into places that we know
well today, Minnesota....

That really captures
the imagination.

The truth about
the Kensington Runestone

is a fascinating enigma
that continues to be explored.

But there’s another
Viking mystery

that has drawn
even more attention.

It involves the fate
of a settlement

that was home to more than
2,000 people who vanished.

SHATNER:
A fleet of Viking longships

sets off
from the shores of Iceland

on a 900-nautical-mile journey

to settle a new colony
in Greenland.

The expedition is led
by famed explorer

and notorious outlaw
Erik the Red.

MELLOR: Erik the Red
is kind of a character.

Because he’s in Norway,
kills a man, gets outlawed,

leaves Norway, gets to Iceland,

kills a man, gets outlawed.

So, he’s constantly, like,

one of these guys that is

trying to evade the law.

So he thinks, "All right,
off to Greenland I go."

THOMPSON:
When the Vikings travel to Greenland,

they’re bringing
the whole households over.

So, these would have been
a major, major movement in

these boats
going across open oceans,

with cows and pigs and ducks
and dogs and things.

And these were rough seas,

these north seas can be
very rough and very wavy,

and could
potentially be dangerous.

BYOCK:
A large number of people go there.

They set out with 24 ships,

and then there was a terrible,
almost a tsunami,

and only 14 ships
made it to Greenland.

And they settled there.

SHATNER: Historians estimate
that approximately 500

Viking settlers landed
and established

the colony in Greenland.

And remarkably,
several ruins of this settlement

have endured for nearly
a thousand years.

You can do tourism
in Greenland today,

and you can see the remains.

There’s a lot of
archaeology going on.

They dug up a lot of farmsteads,

but the buildings are mostly
just, you know, foundations.

Which is interesting, since
they were made out of stone.

The place is a wild place
where the wind blows.

It’s a harsh, barren,
treeless landscape.

And yet, they survived
with this thriving colony.

SHATNER:
Over time, Viking colonists in Greenland

became successful merchants,

and established lucrative trade
routes all throughout Europe.

In the Middle Ages,
there was a craze for ivory.

Rich people, churches
couldn’t get enough ivory,

and a lot of that ivory
came from

walrus tusks in Greenland.

So the Vikings who were
living in Greenland were making

lots of money selling ivory
to the rest of Europe.

SHATNER:
Over the course of nearly 500 years,

the prosperous
Viking colony grew

to a population of
more than 2,000 people.

And their descendants lived
in Greenland until the 1400s,

centuries beyond what
is commonly thought to be

the end of the Viking Age.

And then...

the colonists mysteriously...

disappeared from history.

GEIGER:
We know that they were there in 1408,

because there was a wedding,

and that record made it
into records in Iceland.

So, in 1408,
there was a big ceremony,

big enough to say that this was
still a thriving community,

and that is
the last written record

of the Vikings in Greenland.

SHATNER:
Numerous theories have been proposed to explain

the mysterious disappearance
of the Greenland colony.

Some say that
the colonists fell victim

to mankind’s greatest adversary,

Mother Nature.

SHATNER:
During this period, known as the Little Ice Age,

Greenland was blanketed

in a punishing
and interminable frost.

In the north,
it made summer so cold,

it maybe seemed like winter.

And it happened for
several years in a row.

It might have also promoted
people to just leave the area.

SHATNER:
It’s possible that Mother Nature’s wrath

obliterated the Vikings’
booming economy.

In 2018,
groundbreaking new research

from scientists at
the University of Oslo revealed

that an unexpected set of
circumstances may have triggered

the Viking equivalent
to the Great Depression.

Something like 80% of
the ivory that turns up

in Europe came from Greenland.

We know from scientific evidence
now that that walrus declined.

So, all of a sudden,
that whole economic

basis seems to disappear.

SHATNER:
While there are many theories

for the cause of
the Greenland colony’s

mysterious disappearance

an even more confounding
question is...

...where did the people go?

If 2,000 people from Greenland
moved back to Iceland

or to Norway, there would
be some sort of record.

There’s not.

But if they all packed
onto ships, you know,

the seas were very dangerous.

And so, yeah, it’s possible
that the entire population

of Greenland was killed
in a storm, maybe.

That’s at the bottom
of the ocean

where we can find it,
or maybe it’s lost forever.

SHATNER:
The disappearance of the Greenland colony

was the fascinating
final chapter in Viking history.

And although the truth about
their fate remains elusive,

archaeologist are
making new discoveries

that could reveal secrets
about the Vikings

that have been lost
for centuries.

SHATNER:
Just outside the small village of Gjellestad,

a group of archaeologists
from the Norwegian Institute

of Cultural Heritage Research

is investigating
an ancient Viking burial mound

when they make
a remarkable discovery.

The team unearthed
a 65-foot-long Viking ship

that is the largest ship
recovered

in more than 100 years.

This huge vessel was buried

at the beginning
of the Viking Age,

around 800 AD,
and is referred to...

...as the Gjellestad ship.

There’s a good reason
for being very curious about

the Gjellestad ship, and
that is that it might actually

be one of the very oldest
sailing ships in Scandinavia.

So, you could say
that the Gjellestad is

a new piece to the puzzle
about the Viking Age.

And I think
it’s a very important one.

SHATNER:
For over a thousand years,

this hallowed ground

concealed 5 longhouses

and 13 burial sites.

Curiously, experts believe

that an ancient Viking king was

ritually buried
inside the Gjellestad ship.

BILL:
The Gjellestad site provided the first opportunity

for 100 years
to excavate a ship grave.

And, uh, and this was
a fantastic opportunity,

because 100 years ago,

archaeological
excavation methods were

much, much different
from what they are today.

With our modern technology,
there was much bigger chance of

really harvesting a lot
of knowledge from the excavation

of this mound.

SHATNER:
The excavation of the Gjellestad ship

will reveal details
of Viking culture

that have yet to be discovered,

and could prove
the Icelandic Sagas

are based more on fact
than fiction.

It’s exciting to think
that each new artifact found

brings us closer
to understanding

the real life of
this fascinating

and exceptional
Norse civilization.

The Vikings represent these

people who are adventurous...

...who did things that,

as we think about it,
were amazing.

How do you go
thousands of miles on a boat,

from this place to this place,

at a time when no one else
is doing that?

I think those kinds
of components

are part of the reason why we’re
so fascinated with the Vikings.

It’s really great that there’s
so much interest in the Vikings.

Because it creates
a space for scientists

and the researchers
to really back it up.

We’ve got new sites
coming to light, and we’ve got

new scientific methods that are
telling us more and more

about these real people
behind those legends.

And that combination
of the real evidence and

the fictional side is
really something quite special.

It’s surprising
how little we actually know

about the Vikings.

Were they merely
ruthless and barbaric invaders,

or does their notorious
reputation overshadow the fact

that they were
a highly sophisticated culture?

The mystery of
who the Vikings really were

is perhaps what
makes them so fascinating.

But for now,
their true history remains...

...unexplained.

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