In Search of the Great Viking Army
Digging up History
•
1h 1m
In 865 AD, England was invaded by the Great Heathen Army. The Great Viking Army, as it was also known, was made up of a coalition of Scandinavian warriors mainly from Denmark and, legend has it, four of the five sons of Ragnar Lothbrok, including Halfdan Ragnarsson, Ivar the Boneless, Bjorn Ironeside and Ubba.
This was an army that would change Britain forever. It would lay siege to towns, attack monasteries and kill kings - the most famous of course being St Edmund, who was brutally beheaded by the Norse warriors in 869 AD.
Dan Snow was recently joined by bioarchaeologist and Viking specialist Cat Jarman on a road trip across England to retrace the path of this conquering Viking Army.
Up Next in Digging up History
-
Uncovering The Bayeux Tapestry
One of the world's most famous and well-preserved pieces of medieval embroidery, the 70-metre-wide Bayeux Tapestry depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England concerning William, Duke of Normandy, and Harold, Earl of Wessex, later King of England, culminating in the Battle of ...
-
The Rollright Stones: Mind, Myre and ...
The Rollright Stones are some of Britain’s most remarkable and mysterious ancient monuments. They consist of three separate sites - a looming funerary monument built to contain dismembered corpses, a venerated stone circle, and a single monolith with an innominate purpose. Alice Loxton traces six...
-
The Welsh Romeo and Juliet: The Maid ...
Chris Lloyd looks into the story of Ann Maddocks and Wil Hopcyn, known as the Welsh Romeo and Juliet. The 18th century story of love and heartache still echoes across the south Welsh Valleys to this day. Chris visits Llangynwyd, the village at the heart of this story, to discover what it still me...