The Real Björn Ironside // Vikings in Spain & the Mediterranean

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Björns barrow is just a 40 minute drive from Stockholm center. If you do make the trip, make sure to take the ferry to Adelsö and Hofgården and see the mounds there and see the runestone of King Håkon the red and have pic nic at what remains of the foundations of the palace of Alsnö hus where Swedens first "constitution" was written in 1280. If you like you can also take another ferry to Björkö where the viking city of Birka was located. If you do want to visit the barrow of Björn Ironside you will need a guide thought, it is hard to find and it is not a typical tourist location.

Incredible how much distance the Vikings covered!

In the religion of the Northmen, the only thing of true value in the afterlife is reputation. Bjorn and Hæsten certainly achieved that!

Björn/Bjørn, means Bear. The name is still widely used in Scandinavia.

I was stationed in Rota from 1986 - 1989 and was able to visit Seville, Cordoba, Granada and Marbella. Love Spain.

Im swedish and in medieval time it was rumored that Björn Järnsida (ironside) landed in munsö and died there. Today in Munsö there is a broken runestone near a massive chieftain grave there which means they burned A LOT for whoever was buried there someone had been a succesful viking and buried in a boat most likely. Also in nearby area there are places from medieval time named "järnsida" and we dont know why it was- maybe as a sign of proud or places his ancestors owned back i nthe day- so it adds up. Also, Berno who raided Italy means = bear in latin and Björn = bear in Swedish.

Most people do not know that the ONLY KINGDOM the Vikings did NOT attack (at least not regularly.. initially there were a few raids) was Byzantine "East Roman" Greeks. They tried a couple raids but were mostly unsuccessful. The Vikings decided it was more beneficial to fight for the Byzantines and formed and alliance with them. They actually fought for and defended Constantinople for hundreds of years ! They were known as the Varangian Guard...they are never talked about in Modern History (at least in the US).

In the Irish/Gealic language today, a "black man" is "fear gorm" which actual means blue man in a direct translation to English. This must trace its origins to this viking era. Very good production.

The Viking defeat in AL Andalus was close to a manslaughter, and made sure that vikings would never have an ambition to raid or to invade. even thought the vikings managed to reach main cities like Sevilla, the out come was catastrophic for them when Abd AL Rahman ll , casualties were by the thousands and ships destroyed were over 30 not only that the Vikings were unaware that Andalusians were masters of the sea themselves and have their own navy they chased the vikings those events happened in 844 and the astonishing thing is that it was well documented since al Andalus the peak of culture and innovation during that period of time. A lot writers accounted those events in their books

Superb this - I first read about this in a book my grandmother had called "Vikings" by Magnus Magnusson which was based on BBC series he did in the 70's (I believe). I remember being fascinated that a Viking got to Spain, sacked a town called Luna thinking it was Rome and took some Africans back to Ireland or Denmark. This really fills in the gaps! And as I live near Seville and have worked in Gibraltar it was amusing for two reasons. Firstly its an understatement to say the current is strong in the straits - I have seen a lot of many thousand ton tankers/container ships being forced/pushed to the side and struggle against its diesel / steam turbine's wishes - so what it would do to little 100 ft boats being rowed by tired raiders would be ridiculous (its also why so little underwater archaeology is done there as a local diver told me often they can't go out due to current and there is virtually no visibility due to the current stirring up the sediment). Secondly the Guadalquivir bends in places dramatically and the land around is very flat - so the perfect place for a river Greek fire / horse army ambush - those Moors were no fools.......

Judging from the maps, the common belief that most people of the era never travelled more than a couple miles from their homes didn't apply to raiders.

Best channel on YouTube still after all these episodes. Awesome all around.

Brilliant, thorough, nuanced, and thoughtfully interpretive of the meaning of primary sources. You continue to live up to your growing reputation as the best History channel on YT.

This is so badass, this may as well be called art. Thank you for this gift.

This period of history is my favorite of all. I am writing a book/ D&D campaign setting and it revolves a lot around exploring the world and watching kingdoms and dynasty’s be born. “It is important to reflect upon human history to reach true creative potential.” Author Unknown.

See this is the good thing about YouTube! Great documentaries, real educational stuff! “It is great to sail with power but it’s better to sail with great knowledge” Ragnar

This is a very well made video. Thanks for making it I subbed because it was too good to miss what you'll likely produce in the future

I love vikings and the work you do is incredible, please please keep it up bro

This really highlights just how devastating the Vikings were and how important their longships were to their success.