They did a lot of trading with the Muslim world. Vikings were the personal guard for the emperor of the Byzantime empire for 500 years (Varangian guard).

The Christians simply didn't behave very Christian… And I really think you can't say the Vikings were "unnecessarily" violent. Or unusually so. They weren't the ones crucifying people, throwing them in snakepits, doing torture.

yup! thing is I don't claim anyone is morally superior. people are just people, no matter when and where. things were just less corrupt in Scandinavia at this particular time, perhaps this is why the vikings were successful? you only think about those horror stories from the monasteries. of which most were like…

Vikings didn't do the blood eagle either! That's just fiction. Even if it's old fiction.

Hahahahah! Yes! There is question to that! Hahahahaa!

The blood eagle is still not real, even if you want it to be.

This is from the Viking sagas, written on Iceland hundreds of years after the Viking age. The characters aren't really real, they are sort of half real. There was no Ragnar Lodbroke in real history. That's a mashup of two different Ragnars.

You said something absurd, that all written history indicate… well you know. That's absurd. It really is. Much written history do indicate that, yes. Because it was written by Christian monks. Who wanted to demonize the northmen. The more neutral sources you find, the more that bit just isn't there anymore.

Now you are just lying. "All the histories written indicate the Vikings were terrifyingly cruel". No, no they don't. You are thinking about the stories the Christian priests wrote down about the Viking raids. They also featured dragons in the sky.

Well, yes. In battle, I'm sure that happened. But it seems you think the Christians at this time were better than that.

Well, this series is based on different Viking sagas - mainly Ragnar Lodbrokes Saga. Not history. The sagas do have some ground in reality, but really not that much.

Well, that's just stupid and just what the director, Hirst, talks alot about. Those stories were written down by the priests, the english- of course they would slander the vikings. In reality, what you are saying is just plain wrong.