Show 70 - Twilight of the Aesir II

Is it safe to hand control of the deadliest army in the world to a 20-year old? If you are Thracian, Triballian, Illyrian or Theban, the answer is definitely no. Alexander becomes king and fights off threats to his rule in all directions. 

What's the recipe for making a historically world-class apex predator? In the case of Alexander the Great, it might be the three Ns: Nature, Nurture, and Nepotism. 

This show picks up where Dan's Thor's Angels show left off. In the early Middle Ages Pagan Germanic-language speakers like the Vikings are a dying breed. Many of their contemporaries wish they'd die faster. 

Today I chat with Dr. Else Roesdahl about the Scandinavian king, Harald Bluetooth.Support this podcast by subscribing to Medieval Warfare Magazine. P.S. - You can save 10% off of your subscription by using the coupon code ''VIKINGS'' at checkout.Referenced in Today’s Episode:The ... Show More

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

Presque tout le monde a entendu prononcer au moins une fois le célèbre nom de Harald Hardrada, roi de Norvège, tout simplement parce qu’il fait partie de la “grande” histoire européenne, notamment grâce à une date mythique: 1066 ! 1066 c’est la bataille de Hastings avec la victoi ... Show More

Support this podcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/historyofvikingDuring the Middle Ages, seafaring Scandinavian marauders wrought havoc in lands both near and far—from Iceland to Finland, and Córdoba to Constantinople. These were warriors who belonged to an altogether viol ... Show More

The latest season of The Crown shows how Prince Philip provided the crucial DNA sample which identified the remains of his slain cousins, the Romanovs. Let's explore how the British, Russian and Greek royal families are related through the children of King Christian IX of Denmark ... Show More

793 - 1035 - Glorious literature tells us that the Vikings were savage raiders who sailed the seas and plundered from others.  This episode investigates what we do know about the Vikings and their history and whether those preconceptions are completely fair. 

Today I chat with Dr. Mathias Nordivg who teaches at the University of Colorado Boulder in the Nordic Studies Program. He teaches Pre-Christian Nordic mythologies, Scandinavian folklore, North Atlantic and Greenlandic literature, reception history of the Viking Age, and much more ... Show More

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

Across the eighth and ninth centuries, Britain and Ireland were targeted by a series of brutal Vikings raids. But that wasn’t the end of the story. In the 11th century, they were in the firing line once again – as further Viking naval expeditions were launched from Scandinavia. M ... Show More