logo
episode-header-image
Jan 2019
50m 4s

Vikings in North America

Bbc World Service
About this episode

The discovery that proved the Vikings got to North America, a former Marxist rebel describes how his group overran an army base in El Salvador's bitter civil war in the 1980s, the enormous palace built by the Romanian communist dictator, Nicole Ceausescu, how the prolific romantic novelist Barbara Cartland was made a Dame by the Queen and the summer of 1987 when thousands of tins of marijuana washed up on a Brazilian beach.

Photo: Replicas of Norse houses from 1000 years ago at L'Anse aux Meadows. (LightRocket/Getty Images)

Up next
Nov 22
Juan Carlos becomes King of Spain and ending the Bosnian war
<p>Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Mercedes Peñalba- Sotorrío, a senior lecturer in modern European history at Manchester Metropolitan University, England.</p><p>We start with the death of General ... Show More
1 h
Nov 15
Speed of Sound and prosecuting Nazis
<p>Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is aviation historian Dr Victoria Taylor.</p><p>We start with an archive interview of American Chuck Yeager who became the first pilot to fly faster than the speed ... Show More
1h 1m
Nov 8
The largest dinosaur and creating Miffy
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.Our guest is Darja Dankina, who's a palaeontologist from the Natures Research Centre in Vilnius, Lithuania. We start with the discovery of the largest dinosaur ever, uncovered by ... Show More
1 h
Recommended Episodes
Apr 2022
The Vikings
Viking exploration changed the course of history in the northern hemisphere. As raiders and pirates, they dominated the seas of northern Europe for centuries. Their fearless and brutal reputations struck fear into hearts from Constantinople to Canada, while their folklore and myt ... Show More
56m 2s
Nov 2010
The Volga Vikings
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Volga Vikings. Between the 8th and the 10th centuries AD, fierce Scandinavian warriors raided and then settled large swathes of Europe, particularly Britain, Ireland and parts of northern France. These were the Vikings, and their story is w ... Show More
42m 3s
Dec 2023
The Barbary Corsairs
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the North African privateers who, until their demise in the nineteenth century, were a source of great pride and wealth in their home ports, where they sold the people and goods they’d seized from Christian European ships and coastal towns. Nominal ... Show More
52m 59s
Dec 2023
The Barbary Corsairs
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the North African privateers who, until their demise in the nineteenth century, were a source of great pride and wealth in their home ports, where they sold the people and goods they’d seized from Christian European ships and coastal towns. Nominal ... Show More
52m 59s
Apr 2023
Episodio 61 Los Reyes Vikingos de Inglaterra
<p>Los vikingos eran comerciantes, agricultores o guerreros marinos originarios de los países nórdicos que vivieron durante la Edad Vikinga, que duró aproximadamente desde el año 800 d. C. al 1050 d. C., era una población intrépida que se embarcó en expediciones a otras partes de ... Show More
27m 4s
Jan 2023
The First Indigenous Americans in Europe
<p>1492 marked the beginning of the Colombian Exchange - the transfer of people, goods, ideas and commodities across the Atlantic between Europe and the Americas. We hear a lot about the conquistadors, the settlers, Jesuit priests and colonisers from Spain, Portugal and Britain w ... Show More
24m 13s
Sep 2022
The Rise of the Vikings
<p>September is Vikings month on&nbsp;<em>Gone Medieval</em>, as Dr. Cat Jarman presents a mini-series about her favourite, specialist subject. Over four episodes, Cat is taking a deep dive into the Viking age, looking at how it all started, how it all ended, and the stories we t ... Show More
32m 34s