okay so good morning um today we start the Vikings we will do it over two classes um and the Vikings are extremely interesting and I believe that they are one of the most underappreciated and un and misunderstood European cultures in the westan tradition uh there are two main pillars the Greco Romans and the judeo Christians um the four traditions uh the Greeks the Romans the Jews the Christians um have been over studied uh and over appreciated I would argue that the Vikings are very important and should be part of these four pillars I think there should be five pillars and I think um that over the next few decades people will Scholars will slowly reveal to us the importance of Viking culture to to development of Western Civilization so that's my argument to you over the next two classes that the Vikings are uh extremely influential and um so today I'll do an overview of Viking history and influence and the next class I'll focus more on the cultural system of the Vikings what they believed um and how they understood the world okay so let's do a brief historical overview so the Viking age is what Scholars term the period from the year 793 to 1066 79 793 is uh when there was the first recorded written down um incident of a Viking raid on a monastery in Europe and this is really the first uh one of the first written records of the Vikings the Vikings were always there actually and there was some interaction between U the Vikings and the rest of Europe for example Vikings did serve as mercenaries in the Roman Empire okay so there was always a bit of interaction but um for the most part um the Vikings were an isolated culture 1066 the year that the Viking age is supposedly to have ended is a year of the Battle of Hastings that is when um Normandy the Normans um who lived in France they crossed English Channel and conquered England and this is the last time that uh England would be conquered and this would Mark the end of the Viking age because it really marked the assimilation or integration of Viking culture into the broader European framework okay so that's what Scholars mean by the Viking age all right so the the Vikings um are from the three countries today we call Denmark Norway and Sweden okay collectively they are known as the Scandinavian uh countries what's interesting about this area is the geography this is a top topography okay red means High attitude high altitude blue means low altitude so by the Sea and as you can see from the topography um the scan area is extremely diverse and as a result um the region historically has been very poor isolated um and diverse okay so uh so this area for the longest time had geres diversity in terms of culture and politics you had Kings you had tribal Chieftain and then you had um different systems as as well okay um during the Viking age what we need to keep in mind is this was a period in history when Europe was being invaded or attacked or pillaged from everyone basically okay so the three main Invaders are the Vikings who come in from the north but then you have people call the mag yards who are the modern name hungarians coming in from the east from the south comes the Arabs okay next week we will do the Arabs the mards uh just just that you know who the mag yards are they are just the most recent iteration of the Proto indo-europeans they have NAA remember uh last semester we discussed that 3 to 4,000 years ago Old Europe who are mainly um who are which was mainly in Agricultural Society they were eventually invaded and conquered by the Proto Indo Europeans the yah who lived in the steps uh these are pastoral nomads and as a as a result they brought their culture to them so the mards are just the most recent uh iteration of this culture okay same as the Hunts same as the gos same as the jtic people um what's interesting about the mag yards is that they are mainly a land people mean they ride horses into battle and for and during the Viking age they were extremely successful pen penetrating into many parts of Europe before they are eventually defeated and they're integrated into the M the main European culture mainly by you guys remember making into Christians right that that's how you assimilate people in Europe by turning them into Christians and because um uh this is the Western Europe a lot of them become Catholic but some also become um Orthodox as well the Vikings are a very different culture because they attack Europe not by land not with Cavalry and horses but by sea and rivers okay this is a um Maritime people and what's really interesting about the Vikings is how far they extend across uh the world okay so the first um the first sort of encounter is when the Vikings start to raid and pillage um Europe okay Northern and Central Europe but over time what they will do is they will extend over to the east as well where they will found two major settlements the first is ke Kei uh in modern day Ukraine as well as novag grad okay so they are going going into the dener as well as the vocal why are they here um there's some pillaging but mainly it's for trade purposes because if you look at where they are in KF and novad it it gives them access to three major cental of global wealth the first of course is the b b Empire in conop which we um studied then there is something called the Abbasid califit which is the Islamic empire in Baghdad and the third of course is the Silk Road right which gives them access to China so in other words the Vikings encountered every major culture in the world at this time through their trade routes and then what they will also do is go west to found colonies they will make settlements in Iceland in Greenland and in modern day uh Canada uh the settlement is called vinand uh and it's in modern day New Foundland okay so Iceland is still with us today and Iceland is very interesting in uh for three reasons the first reason is even though in this class I keep on saying there's no such thing as cultural and genetic Purity the the the icelanders come pretty close okay there's about 3 330,000 people who live in Iceland today and they're all related to each other and that's because For the Longest Time Iceland uh has been isolated from the rest of the world and it it has always been extremely peaceful egalitarian and Progressive Society they had the world's first uh concept of parliament called the all thing and that's where every um citizen would come together once a year to discuss the major political events um of of Iceland so in other words they really built they really built the Cornerstone of modern European democracy but not only that but a lot of the stories the mythology of the Vikings were reconceptualized and written down in Iceland and these sagas they're called sagas okay would become the foundation of modern European literature so the cultural contribution of Iceland and the uh wider Viking culture to the European cultural framework it cannot be um overstated okay also they will make their way to the British Isles um they will have ma major encounters with the uh British people as well as the Irish people they will found a new city in irand called Dublin which as you know is the mar capital of of Ireland okay and as and what they will also do is they will settle down in Normandy and the reason why is they keep on attacking northern Europe mainly the coral legian Empire um and Charles simple the king um of the Corian Empire he will defeat them in a battle and then he will give them land in Normandy so Normandy means land of the Norse people and then from normany as I mentioned they will cross the English Channel and Conquer England in the year 1066 at the Battle of Hastings so if you look at this map what you will discover is the Vikings either founded or influen four major European civilizations they are Germany France Britain and Russia now what's interesting is that for the past 500 years these four nations were the dominant militaries in the world and not only that but they were the dominant civiliz civilizations in the world we think of modern Russian civilization really we really mean these four nations Britain France Germany and Russia that's where the very best literature philosophy and art uh comes from and what I will show you next class not this class but what I'll show you next class is this is not just a historical coincidence there are reasons and factors that would uh that will help us better explain why this happened okay um this is the um settlement in New Foundland okay so this was actually the first European settlement in the New World North America and this is 500 years at least 5 years before Christopher Columbus um this is a map that shows the Viking expansion over time okay so as you can see from this map they they they basically expand outwards and as they gather more information about the world they continue to expand okay so what is the culture what is the mentality of the worldview that drives this aggressive expansion what is the Viking worldview and this is something that I will introduce this class but explain uh more in detail next class um so today when we think of the Vikings we just think of Raiders and pillagers but what's important for us to remember is that the larger Viking culture most people did not do that most people when they engage with the uh European world it was mainly through trade okay the vast majority was through trade and there were and there and then you have people Vikings who um join the European world as Mercenaries because they were very good Fighters and then you you had a small minority who uh were Raiders and pillagers but because they were so violent they capture the imagination of the Europeans and they inform um how we today see the Vikings um this is a map of the Viking expansion and the yellow are written records documented Viking rates in Europe and as you can see there's a lot of them okay they're mainly by the coast they're mainly by Rivers because again the Vikings raided mainly by using their long ships their ships um they mainly R monasteries and uh to better understand monasteries what they were imagine that they are the equivalent of universities they're basically the medieval equivalent of universities these are places where monks spent most of the time um worshiping God by celebrating his literary Works mainly the Bible okay um the so the the monasteries were built during something called the Kion Renaissance and this marked the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire during this time there's a major major Focus the major cultural Focus was on producing books our modern ception of the book actually comes from this period they took all this sort of diverse Innovation such as printing uh book making uh fonts ink and combined to a system of book binding that we still use today okay so they mainly focus on uh religious Classics like the Bible okay and what they would do is they would illustrate them it would take about 20 to 30 years for an individ ual monk to create one of of these books so it was it was a it was an artwork basically um during this time they experiment with they experiment with different fonts if you go to your computer and you ask Microsoft Word what kind of font you want to use like Corgan or others a lot of these fonts were actually invented during this time okay uh they also invented book binding at this time as as well and what they would do um to mark their cultural achievement is they would make covers of gold and jewels diamonds sapphires rubies um as a book cover all right so these were extremely valuable unique artwork this is another book cover okay extremely gorgeous again they would spent a lot of resources 20 30 years in crafting each of these books and that's why the Vikings raided them because the Vikings knew through their trade networks that the monasteries had this contribution of wealth in them there's a lot of gold and silver and jewelry in monasteries and in Lan culture um these precious metals were were a status symbol they wanted them okay but you can imagine what the Vikings did because the Vikings were a pagan non-literate people they didn't understand books they have no use for books so they they would come in and they would take these books the Bible rip out the pages and keep the gold and then leave okay so you're a monk and you see this right and it's the equivalent of having your child killed before you it was EX traumatic for them and again the monks are litered people so they had nothing nice to say about the Vikings in fact they thought that the Vikings were basically the equivalent of Satan okay and and that's and that's why we have such a Negative understanding of the Vikings mainly through these raids which again were only a minority of Viking activity um during this time um gradually over time what would happen is that as the Vikings made more wealth from monasteries W would spread back to um the larger Viking culture and more and more people would partake in these raids until eventually they develop the skill the Systems and Technology to sack even cities like Paris which was a heavily fortified City okay and they would do this multiple times um during the Viking age so what's important for us to understand is that this these Viking raids would drive population growth in Scandinavia and then this would drive further uh Viking expansion throughout the world okay so it was a cycle um let's look at some cultural aspects of the Vikings so this is these are pictures of high status meaning basically Warriors um in the uh Scandinavian culture and these this is a picture of these Vikings uh in the East they are called the Roose okay the Roose and the Roose would would lend would would become Russia okay so Russia the country would borrow its name from the the Vikings Roose so some things some things to uh I will point out about um these visuals look at the helmets okay the Vikings the popular depiction of the Vikings is they had helmets of horns right have you seen movies they do not have horns guys because horns are extremely un promatic impr practical okay you might get stuck on on your boat or or your enemy could Yank It Off you okay so these were extremely practical and UT turn people they were not that wealthy that they to be very careful and conscious about everything they did okay so that's the first thing second thing is that you will see major cultural differences between Western Vikings and Eastern Vikings and the reason why is as the Vikings are um interacting with different cultures they're also assembling themselves into different cultures they're intermarrying they're adopting local languages and local cultures and they're also Landing their own culture to these cultures okay so history is a continuous process of cultural integration all right and it's Dynamic process it never really ends Okay the third thing we need we need to appreciate is these are a poor people and as such they're extremely egalitarian even though this these are high status people they're not that different from the majority of of Vikings who are independent Farmers basically okay this is where they usually live this is called long housee all right and so because the weather in Scandinavia it's very cold for most of the Year these are a very social people they live together they spend most of the time together okay so this is a picture of a Viking Hall um most of the time the Vikings are together and they're usually drinking and they're telling stories to each other okay and so they're they're very much focused on the oral tradition let's look very quickly at their longships which is the dominant uh Maritime technology of the day okay these are not that big but they're but they are purposely designed to be small so that they have flexibility um and maneuverability okay um so this this is what we think the ships look like and this is what they really look like um so some points we need to know about the ships is first of all from these ships you can see that there's really no hierarchy in place we don't know who the captain is there's there's a captain but he's really not that different from the others okay so the Viking culture is extremely egalitarian which is important if you want um cohesion on the battlefield these the Vikings rated for gold but also for slaves okay so they're trading with the wider world the Arabs the byzantines uh the Chinese um they what what they were trading were slaves in exchange for silver which was very important for their culture okay so they were so they these were slavers um the other thing to know about these ships is they're not that big and the reason why is they're usually traversing Rivers when you when you're traversing Rivers you need to be flexible so some sometimes you might hit some rocks well then what you have to do is move that ship out of those rocks and go somewhere else okay all right so that's theide idea of the long ships and again this was the dominant Maritime technology of that time the Europeans had absolutely no way to counter this okay um also what's important for us to understand is the Vikings had also many different designs so the thing about the Viking ships is they're ex extremely lean and mean they're extremely efficient the only way you can achieve the this efficiency is through constant Innovation so the Vikings are constantly always thinking about how to better improve these ships um the last thing I will mention is the idea of the Viking funeral now in cultures that we've studied there's always a spectacle that is the highlight of this culture so uh the romance there something called the triumph which was a military parade to celebrate a general's military victories overseas it was it it was like the um biggest event in in the life of a Roman okay so this would be the equivalent of the Nobel Prize today the Greeks had as equivalent of the Triumph theater right um every Greek wanted to be a playwright that was the highlight of ethian cultural life what's interesting for us is that for the Vikings the spectacle that they they cared the most about was a funeral okay obviously not everyone would get an elaborate funeral only the chieftain or the great warriors would get an elaborate funeral but these funerals would take 10 days and it would be very expensive basically the entire Savings of this great warrior would be invested in the funeral um there there be a lot of sacrifices mainly horse and animals humans be sacrificed as well and the warrior the king will be buried with a ship all right so next class what I will do is go into detail about these funeral explain to you why they happen and their cultural significance all right okay so that's an overview of the Vikings what I will do now is um explain the Vikings in the larger historical framework that we've been studying this semester but before I do that are there any questions about the Vikings yes okay the slave trade right okay so the slave trade it is just an in grow interesting part of life in Europe at this time um the population was very limited because Europe was a poor place and there was very few agricultural Surplus plus there was always these wars to be fought okay so slavery was was just very important um the people who really drove the slave trade um were the Banes the and the Arabs and there's always demand from these two cultural centers for slaves which the Vikings provided now what's interesting for us about the slave trade is the Arabs are Muslim and the bises are Christian and the consensus at that time is you cannot enslave a fellow believer so Arabs could not enslave Muslims Christians could not enslave fellow Christians that's why the Vikings were so that's why the Vikings found slave trade so profitable because the Vikings were pagans So in theory they could be sold to anyone okay so the Vikings basically um enslaved other pagans and sold them to both the byzantines and and the Arabs okay and and look look um the slave trade it it has been an integral part of human interaction human trade for most of civilization okay does that make sense it's only it's it's really only only until the British Empire that we see a clamp down an abolishment of the slave trade but and also guys I mean I hate to say this but slavery still happens it just happens secretly we don't really pay much attention to it but it still happens all right okay great great question any more questions before I I I continue it's just a small question I remember a long time ago this is probably like 20 years ago um in Sweden they discovered a few of the Viking graes from the ships were all that Y and at that time the Swedish government decided like this was too Sac we're not going to we're going to keep it basically mysty that's right since then do you know if anything has changed has anyone conduct these or yeah so um so so question then is um we found in the like archaeologist have found a lot of these ship burials a lot of Graves and there's just a lot of them and uh we we've we've had a chance to study a lot of these Graves and here are some interesting characteristics about these Graves okay the first thing is these graves are unique unto themselves there doesn't seem to be a system of bearing someone okay so you have these Graves where um maybe a woman is Beed with a horse then you have another grave where a woman is bearded with a ship that's the first really interesting thing about these Graves second thing is these Graves seem to have a um a record of of lineage and and what we mean by that is these people are buried on top of their ancestors so um uh if if a woman is buried here then maybe her granddaughter would be buried on top of her okay so there seems to be a story going on um in these burials Okay the third thing about these Graves uh that we've discovered is that um there there's been a lot of care and attention paid to how someone was buried okay clearly um someone put a lot of thought or or the culture has put a lot of thought into how this person will be remembered all right and what I will show you uh next class is what's important is not the burial what's important is the funeral the process of the burial and that's where the culture expresses itself and what I will show you in next class is these burials they're meant to send the dead into the Afterlife okay and that's very important what's really important important um and why they have this pageantry or ritual in the funeral process is it's really about um memorizing that person into the larger culture making sure that everyone remembers the contributions of that person and having that person contribute eternally into the overall culture okay if that makes sense right but again as as as you know most of these great have not been duck up so right now we are making some rudimentary guesses based on the available evidence okay all right any more questions before I continue okay so so I know this is a lot to take in but we are spending two classes on this and hopefully uh this will make more sense to you as we move along okay all right good so let me um discuss the larger historical framework that the Vikings are in okay so the major thesis of the semester is the idea of the oceanic Oceanic currents of history and so one pattern that we see in history is a culture you know what call the Borderlands they're isolated from most of History okay um they're not completely isolated but they're mainly isolated and then what happens is that an Empire a major civilization expands so that it starts to interact with uh this borderline culture and what will happen for thisa action is the energy of the Empire will start to transfer to the Borderlands the Borderland itself will expand okay and until it comes into conflict with the Empire and when this uh conflict happens the Borderlands might be assimilated into the Empire it might be destroyed by the Empire or it might become the Empire itself all right so that's the uh major idea of this class and we see this throughout history okay so think of um the Greeks and the Persians think of the Romans and the the carthaginians think of the Arabs and the um the Persians okay so we see this pattern uh repeat itself throughout history what I want to do now is apply this idea to the Vikings and explain how this process works why does this work well if you think about it an Empire and when I mean Empire I just mean large civilization um an Empire and a Borderland culture they are almost um complete opposites of each other they're advantages um miror they compensate for each other's advantages and disadvantages so for an Empire an Empire usually has three major advantages they are Mass organization and death okay some historians use the word strategic death okay all right so what what do we mean by this mass is a very simple idea it just means a lot a lot of people okay very simple idea second idea organization means that there's a hierarchy in place that allows the Empire to organize its people in a way that most benefits the Empire so for example the Empire Can field large armies and the idea of stratgic death is that the Empire can actually afford to lose a lot of battles and still continue the fight so think about when Alexander invaded Persia he had already defeated the Persians at the Battle of Isis but Darius was able to go deeper into his Empire and assemble another large army for the Battle of guaga okay and Darius could have could have when he lost that battle he could have also built a third Army But ultimately he was assassinated by his by his generals on the other hand Alexander the Macedonian he could not have afford to lose one battle all right if you think about the World War II Japan had already conquered China's entire Eastern Seaboard but the ging dong under changed refused to surrender and he didn't have to surrender because he could continue to go Inland right he first went into Chongqing and then chongu if he had to he would have gone to kuming as well okay so that's the idea of strategic death also um remember in the history of Rome Hannibal had won every single battle on the Italian Peninsula he had destroy all Roman armies but because of the idea of death Rome did not have to surrender and Rome only won one battle against Hannibal in it in its history but that battle was the only battle that really mattered it was a battle of Z uh between cpio africanist the Roman general and Hannibal and Hannibal lost that battle and so therefore Carthage lost a Second Punic War okay that's the idea of death that's the three major advantages of Empire if you are a Borderland you have none of these advantages okay but you have three other advantages that compensate for your weakness okay the first is the idea of energy so you have fewer people but they're more energetic they're more ambitious they're stronger they're more aggressive overall second you don't have um you don't have organization okay but you have openness the idea here is you are open to new ideas and you can change as a society at will and the reason why is we said this when we talked about y okay there's a very important principle that drives Innovation it's called open Cooperative competition that's why Thea were able to innovate that's why the Greeks were able to innovate open means there's no Central Authority there's no government Co Cooperative means that you're separate but you're still learning from each other competition means you want to be better than your neighbor okay and that's true for the Vikings as as well and that's how they were able to develop the ship technology that enabled them to um pillage across Europe okay so that's a main advantage of the the Borderlands okay does that make sense okay okay so again the Borderlands have no death they can be wiped up by an Empire very quickly that's why the Borderlands are opportunistic this a very important idea just it just it basically means the Borderland have to be strategic in picking their fights if you are bigger than me and stronger than me I'll be your friend right but if you're weaker than me then I will steal from you that the idea here is opportunistic you're Shameless in taking advantage of those who you can okay doesn't make sense so these are the three major advantages of the Borderlands and I want you to remember this idea because it will repeat itself over and over all right so let me um very quickly explain the idea of energy and mass and for this let's do a thought experiment okay let's pretend that you are 16y old in Scandinavia and you're about 800 okay that's when the Viking age Begins by by by age 16 what have you learned what have you mastered well you your family are basically independent farmers who will engage in trade in order to supplement um their income okay so this is what you can do you can um uh basically work the farm work the farm basically means you know how to grow your own food you know how to cook your own food it means you know how to to take care of animals if a cow is about to give birth to a calf you know how to do so okay you know how to um save the life of a horse you know how to speak with a horse okay you also engag in uh sea trade okay and the idea here is is that you know how to cut wood and from the wood build a boat and you know how to we the stars and sail across Europe okay also you're a good fighter you're able to wield an axe as a weapon you're able to use a sword as a weapon you're able to shoot an arrow okay if I dropped you anywhere in Scandinavia you'll able to find your way home you'll be you'll be able to fight wolves you you'll be able to feed yourself in the forest and you'll be able to find yourself home okay if I put you anywhere in the European World you'll know how to navigate yourself as to find yourself home okay and so this builds the idea that the Vikings at age 16 they're extremely worldly people okay they're strong when I mean worldly I don't mean Cosmopolitan what I mean is they have Street smarts okay they're very strong and they're very resilient all right that's what a viking teenager looks like now let's come back to China in the present day and what do you guys do what do you guys able to do two things okay memorize useless facts do stupid tests okay I'm sorry to tell you the truth but this is the truth okay you throughout your education in China have learned exactly two things memorize uses facts and do stupid tests all right and the reason why China is like this the way the way that the reason why most Mar societies are like this is they want to reduce your energy right they want to be able to control you they want you to fit into larger society does that make sense so now you can see the difference between um an En energetic Society like the Vikings and a mass like China okay um I am I'm I'll be very serious with you I have three young kids my eldest is seven my second one is almost four my youngest is only one as you know um I received a very good education I was at Yale College for my undergraduate um and I've spent the past 20 30 years thinking deeply about education and I'll be very honest with you if I had a choice whether to send my child to Yale or to Viking school I would send my kid to Viking school because I want my child to be worldly strong and resilient okay all right and yeah I'm not joking guys if there if there were if there was s such a thing as a viking school where you learn to be a viking I would send my kids to that school unfortunately um there isn't okay let's talk about let's talk about the idea of opportunistic so the question that Scholars have debated for a long time is why the liking age start what prompted the beginning of a Viking age why did the Vikings go attack these monasteries and there are different theories okay the most popular theory is that as Charlamagne and this Holy Roman Empire um expand it it threatened Scandinavia and so the Vikings had to come out and challenge him okay that's the most popular historical understanding and then there's some other theories for example population growth com change internal conflict within Scandinavia today I want to I want to explain a different Theory to you which is just that the Vikings were opportunistic an opportunity arose that didn't exist before and they took advantage of it okay the opportunity are monasteries after the collapse of the Roman Empire everyone believes that Europe became a lot poorer okay and that's a historical understanding but you think about it what really happened is that wealth became much more distributed okay during the time of Empire all wealth was being channeled into certain centers but we don't have an Empire then farmers can keep the keep the wealth for themselves so after the collapse of the Roman Empire wealth was much more distribute distributed but as these kingdoms start to arise under Charlamagne then wealth became much more concentrated okay so these monasteries they are universities they are places of worship and of learning but much more importantly they are places where wealth is concentrated okay concentration of wealth these monasteries like Martin universities are extremely wealthy okay the first reason why they're wealthy is their Banks so the nobility was actually storing the Surplus wealth meaning silver and gold in these monasteries these monasteries were considered to be protected by divine power right no would deer steal from a monastery monks are extremely trustworthy so these monasteries had a lot of gold and silver stored and hidden within their premises not only that but the monasteries were are uh land owners so they controlled up to 20% of local land and of course what they would do is they would take this land and lease it out to Farmers and they made a lot of money that way um they themselves engage in their own businesses for example um they had their own breweries okay they could make and sell alcohol and beer to locals also as you can imagine because these are religious centers the locals would invest heavily in them okay the locals would uh give them treasures and as you can imagine because there was this contition of wealth and because monasteries were not protected because they were considered protected by God they made perfect places to pillage right the Vikings knew about these places and so these places were perfect to pillage and that's what we started the Viking age the fact that weal was out being concentrated whereas before it wasn't all right so mon stories then you had the idea of armored Knights so the main military Innovation um in Europe at this time were these tanks called armor knights they were fantastic in battle that's how charlam man was able to build the Holy Roman Empire okay but you think about it armor knites do not like water they will drown in water and so these Rivers were completely unprotected and the Vikings had these long ships that were perfect for for River navigation okay so that that was another opportunity that presented itself the armor knights would give rise to the idea of feudalism feudalism just basically means that these Arman knites became landowner landowning Nobles that took advantage of farmers so in order to get these Knights to fight uh for them Kings would give them land grants these Knights would take this land and run it to Farmers over time as we know farmers will incur a lot of debt which me which means that they will not become slaves to these Nobles and this is the idea of feudalism okay um and what this means is that by the time the vi the Vikings attacked Europe was becoming a very hiero Society the thing about hieres is they don't like to change so one question historians had is well why didn't the Europeans adapt themselves to these Viking raids some did okay but most didn't and the reason why is if you change your military tactic in order to respond to liking threat you have to change your hierarchy you have to change your cultural hierarchy remember we we did the Greeks we learned that depending on your Society the structure of your Society you had a different military okay so if you were a Navy like Athens you were democracy if you had a Cavalry like the macedonians you were a monarchy if you had hop lights like the Spartans you were an oligarchy okay so the structure of your military determine the structure of your political system so the Europeans purposely did not respond to the liking threat because they want to maintain their feudal system okay and of of course this is this is a very general statement a lot did respond to liking threat but overall they did not respond to liking threat with the same emergency or sense sense of anxiety um that they should have the Viking age came to an end when the Vikings amassed enough wealth to align themselves with the European nobility okay so the idea here is if you're banded and you steal a lot of money what what do you want to do you want to become an aristocrat because that's the best way to protect your wealth right once you're an aristocrat you your wealth becomes legitimate so the Vikings um once they have mass enough wealth the Europeans start to into marry with them and the Vikings in turn became Christians because that was the best way to assimilate and as Christians they would convert their own followers and their own people as well remember the spread of religion is usually a topown process where you first convert the convert the elite who then convert the people it is not a bottomup process okay and also the Vikings provided military um protection and support to the European powers okay and that's what ended the Viking age the Vikings were so successful that they were eventually coopted into the European nobility okay so um um as I mentioned the Vikings their culture would heavily influence um four new civilizations that we will discuss later on the semester and they are the British the English the French the Germans and the Russians okay and so what I what I will do next class is show you why Viking culture is so influential okay and to prepare for next class what what I want to do is give you a preview of how the Viking worldview is very different from other World Views okay so um there's a premodern understanding of the world and there's a modern understanding of the world okay so in the modern understanding the world the world we live in today the community is distinct from the individual okay the individual can be outside the community okay that's why even though you are Chinese you're still able to go to America because you're you as an individual ual can be separated from your community and often in the modern world we believe that the community and individual are in conflict with each other so for example if you are a woman historically you have been oppressed by your community if you are homosexual the same is true if you're a minority you're often oppressed okay and that's and that's what justifies the idea of the nation state the nation state is a entity that protects the rights of all individuals against the community okay so that's a modern conception of the individual and we'll go into this later on in the semester towards the end because it's a very important concept but first I want to introduce it to you okay now historically most cultures have not believed this okay most cultures have believed that the individual can only exist within the community okay the community is that which gives you history tradition and a worldview a religion a mythology and as your interpretation of these things that allow for your individuality but but you cannot exist outside this tradition okay that's why um most cultures the worst punishment they inflicted on the individual was not execution it was actually banishment if you killed someone we didn't kill you we banish you from the community because that was considered the worst possible punishment to a person you cease to be an individual you cease to be alive if you're removed from the community that gives you nourishment okay now but within this tradition within within this understanding there are different ways you could conceptualize the idea of the community and the individual okay so for example let's look at the Greeks the Greeks sorry um Let me let me do this the Greeks believe that the community was a was the polus okay the polus and that's where we get the word politics from the polus is a place where people Gather in order to discuss the political Affairs of the community okay that's what community was it was where people came together to discuss politics and as a result the individual is someone who stands out okay that's why we have Concepts ER and udonia in this community you are an individual you are the best individual if you can speak the best if you can argue the best if you can stand out okay so the prime purpose of Greek life was to stand out so that you could achieve yonia human flourishing as well as achieve ER Human Excellence that is the um Greek understanding then you have the Romans the Romans Define community as tradition and history and place as long as you are in Rome and you believe in Roman history and practice Roman tradition then you are a Roman citizen okay doesn't matter where you come from as long as you're in Rome and you practice Roman Traditions then you are a Roman that's why for Romans what's important is for the individual to be Pious right individual is a Pious person someone who is loyal to the Trad TR sorry someone who is loyal to the traditions of Rome and who extends the traditions of Rome through Conquest that's why everyone wanted to be a general like Julius Caesar to Eng glory for Rome and that's how you show piety to Rome okay so we did the Greeks and the Romans um now the Vikings are very different the Vikings are very different people for them community and the individual are very different the community is a collection of stories all right the community are stories that are told over and over by the people inside the community and as such the individual has responsibility to add to the story how do you add to the story through exploration through Adventure through personal courage that's why the Vikings went off to settle Iceland and Greenland that's why they pillaged these monasteries in the South that's why they went to the East and found settlements like KF and novigrad and traded with a wider world because they were trying to add to the larger stories of the Viking community and that's and that's what's important for them to be remembered by the community Through adventure and exploration okay that's a very different concept and this is what I will explain next class how the entire culture revolved around this understanding of the community and the individual right the last thing I will say is what's really interesting uh for us is remember that these three different cultures are extremely different right they have a very different approach to the world but they all come from the same cultural origin which is the Proto indoeuropean culture right what's interesting is that as they came into Europe and they settled down in different GE Geographic locations interacted with different people they adapted their culture accordingly so the story of human history is always one of innovation change and resilience okay all right great any questions before I conclude the class was there anything you you not you're not clear about okay okay so the idea of inter marriage okay what's the idea of inter marriage okay so what's really hard for us to understand is that for most of human history we didn't have a concept of race culture ethnicity and borders and States okay these are all modern Concepts that we go that we use to apply to history they're not very useful so what I mean by that is the Vikings didn't see themselves as in culture they didn't think we're Vikings we are not Greeks we're not Germans no one saw themselves that way the Germans broke the the G sorry the Vikings their main political unit was the village or the tribe right and the way they fought Wars is these tribes would join into temporary confederations but these confederations were extremely fluid so if you're a tribe and you you want to switch alliances you could do so and no one could stop you okay so the very idea of identity was extremely fluid and what they understood was in order to survive in the world you have to build alliances that means you build alliances with other Vikings but if you could you could you also want to build alliances with the European nobility because they have far more wealth technology and resources than you do okay so when the opportunity presented itself for them to into Mary into um these um EUR into European nobility and they did so okay so for example the byzantines the Byzantine Empire was as we discussed a walled Empire so it's impossible to invade and Conquer okay the Europeans the Vikings couldn't really conquer the B Empire but at the same time because they were closed in the Banes couldn't really protect their empire so the only way they could protect their empire was not through the military but through diplomacy through bribery through intermarriages okay so the Vikings in KF the byzantines made an offer we will let you guys marry into the Empire okay basically by having their ruler marry a princess but on the condition of course that you now serve the Empire and that you uh converted Christianity Orthodox Christianity right and as you can see this makes sense for everyone the byzantines now have uh more soldiers who are proven and who have their own territory and the nobility in KF like basically the prince he now has legitimacy right because he's also fighting against the other Vikings in the area okay does that make sense and that's the idea of inner marriage to form a political Alliance that benefits you and and ultimately if you are a ruler Prince you're always looking to inter Mar as much as possible right that's why these Kings had so many wives these wives represent different political alliances it wasn't because he was really horny and he loved sex it was because as a prince as a king you have to have different alliances and the best way to form an alliance was through inter marriage and but if you if you marry someone you must also marry into her faith okay that was a precondition and that's why uh the Vikings in KF would convert to Christianity the king converted and then then the king wouldn't make his followers convert but it's a process that that would take Generations okay these things are very slow because I as I keep on saying this class mer uh culture is persistent right you do you understand great great question okay any more questions yep okay so the question then is how like were these premodern cultures these Pagan culture uh t to an how do they perceive gays and minorities well okay um this is a propaganda from the nation state okay this is what you're taught today that we are a much higher civilization because we're much more tolerant towards minorities and the truth of the matter is again when you live in a culture which doesn't really have boundaries and borders you're a pretty open person so in the Pagan culture there just is isn't the idea of homosexuality men had sex with with each other all the time and no one cared okay and women um had fewer rights but in the Viking culture women had status okay often because they were uh they practiced magic okay in their culture men weren't allowed to practice Magic Woman practice magic and as you can imagine that would give woman tremendous status okay okay so the idea the idea that we have that Community suppress the individual is something that we believe we have faith in it but it just is not historically true okay also remember there's a fluidity Within These communities so it's perfectly possible for you to get up with your family and move somewhere else no one could stop you okay does that make sense so the premodern world uh was much more tolerant than the world we live in today mainly because we not categorize people back then okay so one thing that we will learn um uh later on the semester is that the the very idea of race and racism it's a new modern concept that didn't exist before we only have this because of the idea of imperialism right when you go and talk other people you need to justify it somehow the best way to do it is for racism because they are an inferior race and therefore we have come to civilize them okay but this is only the past 20 years and before we didn't have a concept of race all right great question any more questions fluid y okay uh the Vikings okay um the Vikings their worst punishment is banishment as well so if you so for example if you killed someone You' be banished okay um the actual punishment would be determined by a community discussion but it was usually banishment or exile for a number of years so in Athens um you would be banished for at most 10 years that was that was considered like the most Grievous if you commit the most Grievous crime um then the worst punishment would be banishment for like 10 years okay because the understanding was that um the worst thing that could happen to you is banishment because again the individual is part of the community you uh were nourished by the community by the community you were a nobody you were basically a ghost or a zombie okay so people man to come after years yes yes they they always come back yes so the Athenians banish a lot of people okay and they always came back and if if they if they're banished they're always thinking about coming back because again there was no idea of the individual existing outside the community you were the community and if you came into a new community then people just just assume that you were a bad person and you were ostracized because where's your community man right because in the ancient world the first question they would always ask you is not what is your name but where are you from right what is your community because that's what mattered not what is your name like what do you like who are you it's always like where are you from from what family from what community from what Clan what tribe are you from then we know how to interact with you okay great great any more questions great okay so next class we will do the cultural system the cultural worldview of the Vikings okay we'll take this we'll take the idea of community individual and expand it okay