Barbarians
They were the dreaded forces on the fringes of civilization, the bloodthirsty warriors who defied the Roman legions and terrorized the people of Europe. They were the Barbarians, and their names still evoke images of cruelty and chaos.
But what do we really know of these legendary warriors? From the frigid North Sea to the Russian steppes, this ambitious series tells the fascinating stories of four of the most fabled groups of fighters in history, tracing 1,000 years of conquest and adventure through inspired scholarship and some of the most extensive reenactments ever filmed. Mongols rides with Genghis Khan and his descendants as they sweep from Asia to the heart of modern Germany in a frenzy of expansion.
They came in waves from out of the dark forests of Europe and over the course of a millennium they drove a mighty empire to its knees. Relentless unmerciful and united only in their hatred for Rome each of these warrior tribes had its own violent agenda dark rites savage tactics and secret weapons.
This documentary follows eight of history's most fearsome tribes: The Goths, Mongols, Huns, Vikings, Vandals, Saxons, Franks and the Lombards as they cut a swath of destruction through the world. BARBARIANS recreates the world of these invaders through even more intense stunts large-scale battle re-enactments and a fast-paced exciting narrative.The whistle of the war axe and the clank of the shield will ring in viewers' ears as these four programs bring the epochal clash of civilizations to life as never before.
Did anyone else notice the painted water cooler jug in the wagon?!?! Somebody must have forgotten the prop and switched that in! LOL
I can't comment on the accuracy of the other episodes, but the episode that covered the Saxons was so badly researched I have my doubts.
So it was the Britons defending their culture against the Saxons?
Although the British isles have existed much as they are since the end of continental drift (one has to assume :)), Britain is a unitary state created through the 1707 Treaty of Union, which joined the parliaments of Scotland and England. A political union made for the economic gain of English trade, and which will face its first democratic test in September, 2014.
Credit for spotting that Scotland is not part of England, despite what Whitehall civil-servants might say.
So who were these heroic defenders of what would be called England now, though I suppose England only became a nation when it was conquered by the Normans. Though that might be debatable.
There's a lesson for us moderns in this tale of the Goths bringing down the enfeebled Roman Empire. Look at the Third World; note its rising populations of have-nots and note our own reluctance to defend our borders....
barbarian is what greeks used to call anyone who wasnt greek or roman. they called them that because thats what their language sounded like.BAH BAH BAH
I find it disturbing, that they dont represent the danes as vikings. Denmark is also a part of scandinavia... Embarassing
Barbarism has not disappeared from this world yet , unfortunately enough :
See the western & israeli barbarism in Plaestine, Irak, Afghanistan, Hiroshima Nagazaki , Vietnam & elsewhere ....WWI , WWII , nazism, fascism, communism , The cold war , the former world wide western imperialism, the western neo-imperialism slavery ...
Great docu
Great documentary!
really good doc . tied up a lot of loose ends for me
lesson learned: authority is just a matter of dates and who has the most power at the time. it is merely a means to control people and keep their loyalty. trusting in authority figures can lead to your death
why do people think Norway and Sweden were the vikings and the kings of battle when Denmark was the power in Scandinavia putting the fear of god into nations and using fire and sword to it. Denmark had conquered most of the UK, France, Norway and Sweden during the time of King Canute the Great. I guess I know more than the historians who produced that farce of a film.
Once again Denmark got screwed over, our days of glory vanish slowly into the distance because we failed later. Thank you for kicking it into us again. I'm not surprised though, just disappointed. Seems like we have to think of something brutal and bloody so people outside Scandinavia might actually know we exist in ten years -_-
WHAT THE FUDGE?
The mongolians were not caucasians with bad nose jobs. They STILL aren't. They're not magical made-up people. Mongolians are still around, living in mongolia and china where they preserved 80% of their culture and practice 100% less massacre.
@Phil Atio --In large societies,the lowly ,poor and oppressed pockets of that society are exploited as Slave labour or soldiery.Captured or defeated enemies and desperate fringe dwellers also filll the lowest castes.However I hypothesize that White European dominance began at the time of Exploration and Conquest starting in the late 15th century.With terrifying modern weaponry.,ravenous diseases,ruthless cruelty and insatiable greed,the native societies were crushed and enslaved under the various crowns of Europe and the Holy Christian Church>.Later americans,once colonists from Europe,embraced Manifest Destiny as a sacred duty to displace Native peoples and claim their land by force,if necessary.Today,in most developed western countries,the economy and government is still controlled by a small elite white minority with non whites and impoverished or uneducated of all races filling the bottom of society.Therefore inasmuch as exploitation of the poor and weak(like the Goths of Eastern Europe) was not so much a colour or racial issue long past,It became so starting with the Conquistadores and Global Colonization.What is the future of Greed,do you think?
LOL, they get westerners to play Mongolians? FAIL. Other than that, good documentary but I can only bear listening.
this film about vikings, is highly iregular, and just plain wrong, im from Denmark, and aparently we are not a part of scandinavia in this movie, even though we are and always have been, we have viking writings and settlements, and even "castles" here, and evedence that the first king of vikings lived and ruled from Denmark... nothing of this is mentioned and all glory is given to Norway... its like whoever wrote this documentary only took some of the available material and disregarded the rest.... BAD
The vikings ataced the christians because the christians were making genoside against there religion. In north mythology the christianety is the worm, the enemy of man.
@Reason Voice
'"“for reasons unknown to me the great kingdoms of Africa had fallen to decay shortly before European arrival”
The reason is slavery and European invasion and genocide.”' "Hey lets zoom in a bit “kingdoms of Africa had fallen to decay shortly BEFORE European arrival” so you are saying that white men were enslaving and murdering people before they even got there? White men are not only the devil but quite talented as well."
Nice try, you misquoted me or misread what I said, I think youq uoted erik and then attritubed his quote to me and cleverly snuck in your own little tid bid there. I said African kingdoms were collapsing as a result of european arrival and wars. Europeans have been invading africa from the roman in carthage and greeks/alexander + macedonians in egypt.
"LOL As to whites being oppressed I am not underscoring the oppression suffered by any other race when I say that yes they have been. As mentioned before the Irish by Brittan. Also the Scottish by Brittan, Almost All of Europe by Rome-The Mongols the (every group shown in all of the above docs.) Europe has been fought over and ruled by so many racial and or regional groups most of whom absolutely oppressed the natives who you guessed it were white. Yes people life can suck for us white folks too sorry to burst your bubble."
The white on white crimes and oppression is not even comparable to what the white folks have done to black people. Killing of 600 million people according to doctor khalid muhammad in lecture at templeton university, not even close. It was a genocide.
Ah, history channel... the bane of real history. Cover says it all. There marketing to kid-like minds.
I thank you for a great doc.
@ryan; You are correct. I abhor the diamond industry. I refuse to purchase any diamond for any reason. how about you?
Reasons Voice, you don't really sound like the voice of reason.
Yes, African slaves work hours upon hours extracting diamonds and minerals with little pay FOR WHO?
While the immediate slavers may be Congolese or Angolan, the people at the top are white men. White men in suits who may not actually cause the slavery, but they don't stop it, do they? It's cheap...it's efficient, so whatever, right?
I can't get over that all the Mongols are white. I can't stop laughing...and the acting is so hilariously bad.
Kim u r dumb
Erik Thorvaldsson (Old Norse: Eir?kr Þ?rvaldsson; 950 – c. 1003 a.d), known as Erik the Red (Old Norse: Eir?kr hinn rauði[1]), is remembered in medieval Icelandic saga sources as having founded the first Nordic settlement in Greenland. The Icelandic tradition indicates that he was born in the Jæren district of Rogaland, Norway, as the son of Thorvald Asvaldsson, he therefore also appears, patronymically, as Erik Thorvaldsson (Eiríkr Þorvaldsson). The appellation "the Red" most likely refers to his hair color.[2] Leif Ericson, the famous Icelandic explorer, is Erik's son.
Can we say, that baltic tribes from the East Coast of Baltic sea was barbarians, also? Those tribes was attacking Denmark, Poland, old russians (everything, what was arround them) somewhere between X - XV centuries. XIII - XV centuries they had a crusade from Europe. One of them, lithuanian tribe, created a state without becoming christians and even tried to unifide rutherian principalieties in XIV - XV centuries (someting like vikings, who created Kievian Rus)...
P.S. sorry for my english ;)
@da truth hurtz; I am afraid you are wrong sir, in your assumtion that I am biggoted. Or misinformed and perpetuating the blindness in the world. You are correct in your statements about De Beers and Oppenheimer. But understand that the corporations are not doing this by force of arms. The African nationals, in the form of armed militia groups are selling the souls of their own people. Without the cooperation from these native groups the corporations would be stopped in their tracks. I will be the first to say that it is due to the European domination of Africa that things are as they are today. When the whites dominated the continent the forced tribes who had been at war for centuries to coexist within one nation. Now without a powerful governing power the peoples are once again splitting into tribalistic groups and fighting. I do not detract from the greatness of the native peoples but in my opinion it is their infighting and failure to unify as nations that is costing them. Not once in my previous comment did I refute white involvement in past days in fact I mentioned it. I addressed todays issues and stand by my statements. The truth, no matter how much you don't like it, is still the truth. Mentioning those truths does not make me a biggot.
Thank you