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Name some famous vikings, can you?

August 16, 2021 by Daniel

Buondì.

Yet again I am confronted by the vast gaps in my knowledge of history (despite having half-heartedly studied the subject at college…)

Name some famous vikings, can you?

I came up with Erik the Red, and that was about it. Perhaps you’ll do better? If not, you can Google it, as I did, and found this page, which more or less confirmed what we learnt at primary school – raiders from the north, long ships, Iceland, etc.

And then… today’s episode of our FREE thirty-part Summer Series on the Medieval period in the Italian peninsula covers the Norman invasion of, wait for it, Sicily!

What THOSE Normans? The ones from Normandy in France? William the Conqueror, who defeated Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066?

The very same, though not William. Some of his cousins, also seeking their fortunes. According to our writer, the Normans were known as Normans due to them being ‘men from the north’, fierce ship-borne warriors from the chillier parts of Europe.

You got it. William the Conqueror was a viking! Nah, I thought, that’s got to be wrong…

So I looked it up and it turns out to be correct – though by that time the vikings had settled down and become good French-speaking Christians (or some Latin dialect more likely.)

Anyway, these very same Normans/Vikings were the next wave of fortune seekers to arrive in what is now Italy.

Read all about it in today’s free episode:

Episodio 16, Gli uomini del nord arrivano nel sud Italia (X-XII secolo)

The earlier parts of the story can be found on our History page, here. Scroll down past the Romans to find them.

A mercoledì, allora.

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Comments

  1. Laury Burr says

    August 16, 2021 at 1:07 pm

    Yes, they got around a bit, those Vikings! All round the Baltic; Sicily & southern parts of the Italian mainland (Puglia, Calabria); all the way down the Volga (hey, my Russian friend in Saratov might be part Viking – I wonder if she knows?!), southern Greenland and a tiny bit of Canada… As far as Will the Conk is concerned, I think the name Normandy is actually a reflection of its Viking history. Who knows, there might’ve been more truly French invaders in Caesar’s army than in William’s!! History, it seems, is never as straightforward as it seems. Maybe that’s why I opted for geography!

    All the best

    Laury

    • Daniel says

      August 16, 2021 at 1:53 pm

      Vikings all over the northern part of England, too! I remember reading somewhere that you can tell by the names of the settlements along the navigable rivers which they sailed along, raiding as they go. And that there’s some high ground about mid way down (so no rivers crossing it, obviously), beyond which most of the names are Saxon origin. Fascinating how geography and history are so connected!

      • Laury Burr says

        August 16, 2021 at 5:50 pm

        Absolutely, Daniel. When I was at uni (reading geography) the Prof’s speciality was historical geography and he was most famous for the definitive book on the derivation of English place names. Fortunately my wife’s main interests are history and art, hence once we’d “discovered” Italy it’s drawn us back time and again. Oh, the food helps, too!

      • Laury Burr says

        August 17, 2021 at 10:41 am

        Absolutely, Daniel. When I was at uni (reading geography) the Prof’s speciality was historical geography and he was most famous for the definitive book on the derivation of English place names. Fortunately my wife’s main interests are history and art, hence once we’d “discovered” Italy it’s drawn us back time and again. Oh, the food helps, too!

        [EDIT]
        A bit before your time, no doubt, but the one name not mentioned so far that I recall is Noggin the Nog…

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