NOVA - The Vikings

Lots of great information. However, Live Shreiber is just reading and is so monotone and monotonous, I fell asleep three times watching this, and I am an insomniac. Worked better than a handful of melatonin ...... When I did watch it in its entirety- sound off, captions on, it was actually very factual and well done. I would prefer it to be politically correct and be called "Norse People" but right now, Viking is in vogue and its a slur to those of us who are Norsefolk. The thing about this documentary was that it was unbiased and did show all the artistic and technological advances the Norse contributed to Europe-and America. They have done nothing different from any advanced civilization- want a better life,study, share and implement technology, engage in commerce and trading, build permanent settlements and have agrarian livestyles and still raid when they needed to fund survival of community. I think if William Shatner or even Christopher Walken narrated this documentary, it would be a must see. There was much information and scholars and facts, but I was disappointed in the hypnotic narration. Schreiber is a good actor, he must have had an off day. Norse culture touches everyone. The days of the week are even named after Norse Gods/

Off my bf's Amazon wish list. He loved it

This DVD is a well made production in the tradition of Nova. Generally well done, with a great deal of archeological fact to counter centuries of "bad press" in regards to a brave, industrious and adventurous people.This documentary covers Viking history, alluding to the population pressures that drove these people to "go a viking". Covers their conquests and exploration to their west as well as their forays to the east into what is now Russia.This is a very good introduction to the "viking age", but - imho - does not go as far as I would like to show not only what they did but also who they were. Given the length of television documentaries, this is somewhat understandable, but I would have liked to have seen them explore more of Norse culture, their art, manufacturing techniques (ship building was covered well, though), the role of women in society, etc.This is a very good primer on the influence these people had on the late dark age/early medieval period and I reccomend it to those interested on the subject. I would hope that it would whet appetites for further reading on the subject.

Boy do I love reading books and watching videos about these guys! Two ships with only 120 men could storm a town of thousands, pillage it senseless, and get away clean to do it again 20 miles down coast. Once their ships were so full of booty they couldn't plunder another town, they headed home, only to have to worry about later-launching Vikings who might decide to plunder them! How such barbarism could be so effective for centuries without anyone finding a way to thwart them is a mystery to me, but there it is.Another mystery is why all of "civilized" Europe stayed within comfortable sight of land, while only the Vikings had the courage to sail beyond the horizon, braving the monsters and the end of the earth. Some say it was just greed, but that greed had to be backed up with a lot of courage and skill. It took another 500 years before Columbus risked a western voyage.

It's NOVA so with any luck it's going to be somewhat above average. It was. I'd say the basic outline was done well enough along with enough curious detail to fill in parts of the picture, but as ever NOVA can be annoyingly general and incomplete in areas. I thought too much time was frittered on Vikings in North America. So what? Not much is known and nothing came of their effort so why dwell there? Give us more on the nuts and bolts of Viking agriculture and other known elements of the story.

Teaching 6th grade students about the Vikings and needed a documentary that reported the facts without demonstrating the gory brutality. This was an excellent choice. The students enjoyed all the various nuggets of truth. We did not watch it from start to finish in one sitting, but spread it out over the course of several days.

Since I have a distant Viking heritage, I hoped for and found new facts about Vikings. Very enjoyable.

Often hard to find anything positive about the viking early travels ... marauding is about we hear about but this DVD indicates that their expeditions were often to the eastern countries and thereabout ... I purchased this DVD to learn more about their exploits within England, Scotland & Wales But not a lot is given in this area

A little dry ...reminded me of being back in high school for a history lesson.