In the second episode of Icelandic Vikings, Dan Snow investigates this land of extremes and reveals how the Vikings didn’t just survive on this remote island, they changed its history forever.

His journey begins by visiting a Viking parliament set up right in the heart of two tectonic plates ripping away from each other. But survival is so much more than politics! Dan discovers how a key part of survival through those long cold winters wasn’t through something physical, it was something humans have done for thousands of years…storytelling. Iceland is home to some of the most amazing stories in the world, from folk tales of hidden people, witches, zombies and ghosts but most famously the tales of the Icelandic sagas.

The sagas cover everything from relationships to revenge, rivalries to justice, even tales of the supernatural and of loneliness. Dan uncovers the life of the man who helped collate them and looks at the stories of Egil and Njals. These sagas contain violent viking raids and accounts of day to day life on this Arctic frontier, but was this really the case in Iceland? Dan discovers that perhaps these Icelandic Vikings were less violent than their neighbours in Europe.

Finally he heads back to the Arni Magnusson institute to meet up with Curator Gisli to trace one of the world's most famous and adventurous viking dynasties, the family of Erik the Red and his son Leif, the first European to step foot on the continent of North America.

With thanks to Visit Iceland.

If you’d like to visit some of these epic locations find out more below:
Visit Iceland: https://www.visiticeland.com/
Visit Westfjords: https://www.westfjords.is/
Visit West Iceland: https://www.west.is/
Visit South Iceland: https://www.south.is/
Visit Reykjanes: https://www.visitreykjanes.is/
Visit Reykjavik: https://visitreykjavik.is/
Thingvellir National Park: https://www.thingvellir.is/
National Museum of Iceland: https://www.thjodminjasafn.is/en
The Settlement Exhibition: https://visitreykjavik.is/service/adalstraeti-settlement-exhibition
Eiriksstadir - https://www.eiriksstadir.is/
The Arni Magnusson Institute: https://www.arnastofnun.is/en/institute
Special tours Iceland: https://specialtours.is/
Sturlureykir horse farm: https://sturlureykirhorses.is/