Legends of the Lost with Megan Fox (2018–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - Viking Women Warriors - full transcript

For nearly 300 years,

the Vikings were
one of the most brutal

and feared armies
in the history of the world.

Some say their military prowess
was a gift from the gods.

Others say it came from
their unrivaled skills

on the battlefield.

But new controversial evidence

points to another source
altogether.

This has been unprecedented.

Was the fearsome Viking army
so powerful...

It's crazy.



...because women
were warriors, too?

I'm going on a journey back
1,300 years to Viking times...

It's like a really cool
"Game of Thrones" set.

...through historical
Norse texts...

It looks like Merlin.

...actual Viking remains...

This is the richest
Viking Age grave ever found.

Wow.

...and Scandinavian magic...

...to uncover the truth...

...of Viking women warriors.

And this forces us
to rewrite everything

that we thought we knew
about all ancient cultures.

All across the world,
our ancient ancestors



left behind towering mysteries
and enchanting myths.

That looks like a magic wand.

As an actress,
I've been lucky enough

to peek behind the curtain
at some of these ancient sites.

I've never been
in a crypt before.

And it's ignited
an insatiable curiosity in me

to know more about
these lost worlds...

It's amazing
that under our feet,

there's so much history.

...some of which
are still buried

deep in our distant past.

That is amazing.

This looks really beautiful.

And then there's also all this
incredible archeology

in, like, every direction.

Just pick a spot, start digging,

and you'll find
something amazing.

I've traveled to the small town
of Borre, Norway,

a land of misty fjords
and unspoiled beauty.

But over 1,000 years ago,
this was a center of power

and influence
for the Viking empire.

There's much written about
Viking legend and lore,

but in actuality,
we know very little about

who they were
and how they lived.

Megan. So nice to meet you.
Great to meet you.

So I'm at
the Midgard vikingsenter

to meet Marianne Moen,

an archeologist who has
dedicated her professional life

to deciphering the mysteries
of the Viking people.

So, we're here at
the reproduction

of what we think a chieftain's
hall would have looked like.

So it's not your average house.

This is where
the chieftains would have

shown off their wealth
and their power.

At this site,
archeologists have studied

thousands of Viking artifacts
to try to reconstruct

how this mysterious people
would have lived.

Like a really cool
"Game of Thrones" set.

It really is, actually.

You're quite right.

Everything that you see here

is more or less reconstructed
or based on

archeologically found artifacts.

What was the Viking Age like?

So, the Viking Age comes
at around about 750,

and it finishes about 1050.

In the Viking heartland,
it's a fairly peaceful society.

But then you get the view
of the Vikings abroad,

and it's a completely
different story.

Well, if you're trying
to conquer a land,

I mean, it's hard to do that
in a kind, gentle way. Yes!

Yeah, it really is, isn't it?

For 300 years,
from 750 to 1050 A.D.,

the Vikings were arguably
the most feared

and powerful army in the world.

They began as
small Scandinavian tribes

that banded together
to raid towns,

but by 793,
their power had grown,

conquering the island
of Lindisfarne

off the coast
of modern-day England.

Their success on the battlefield
centered around

their ambush tactics

and the use of thousands
of advanced longships.

These boats could sail
deep oceans,

as well as rivers
as shallow as three feet,

allowing the Vikings to launch
surprise amphibious attacks

on wealthy waterfront targets.

At the height of their power,

the Vikings controlled
settlements

in over 50 of today's
modern countries,

from Newfoundland
to Europe to Russia.

In total, the Viking territory
stretched more than 5,500 miles.

That's larger than
the Roman Empire.

I think when most people think
of the Vikings... Mm-hmm.

...myself included,

we picture
a very patriarchal society.

- Yeah.
- Do you agree with that?

When you talk about
the Viking Age,

a lot of people have this idea
that women ruled the inside

and that men basically
ruled everything else.

Just a few months ago,

a Viking warrior grave
in Birka, Sweden,

first discovered in 1889,

underwent state-of-the-art
DNA analysis,

and the results have set
the archeological world ablaze.

This is the Birka grave?
Yeah.

The Birka warrior is
fascinating in so many ways.

What is the most
interesting thing

is that it contains things
that indicates military rank

that are pretty much
purely associated with

a male typical burial.

So, you have your sword,
and you have your ax.

There are arrows in here.
There are shields.

So, this was talked about
and written about

as a male grave
for well over a century.

People spoke about it being
a typical example

of a very high-status warrior
at this town,

until last year when
the DNA study was published,

and it turns out to have been
a woman all along.

For an archeologist,
this has been unprecedented.

For centuries, many have
believed that Viking women

were merely
subservient housewives.

But is it possible
that the ferocious Viking army

had women warriors in its ranks?

It is now a fact that
this person is a woman.

What you do with that and where
you go with the interpretation...

That's what
the open question is.

It brought out such
strong feelings in people

who so much wanted this
to be a female warrior,

and then it brought out
such strong feelings

in those who really didn't want
her to be a female warrior.

These new findings have
sparked a massive debate

among archeologists,

with some insisting
that just because

this woman was buried
with weapons,

it doesn't mean
that she actually used them

on the battlefield.

What is the likelihood of
these weapons were gifts

from a husband or things
that she had inherited?

Personally, I don't think so

because there is
nothing else here,

so that would be that
her entire identify

is made up of her husband's.

- Her husband.
- Yeah.

So I think a very interesting
placement of that body

in sort of communication
with the rest of the grave.

Well, yeah, the sword is on either
side of her hands... Yeah. Yeah.

...where she would put them up
if she was gonna use them.

Exactly, exactly.

Why do you think
it's so controversial?

One of the main objections
is that, you know,

she wouldn't have been able
to use her weaponry.

We have women in the military
now that carry those guns...

Oh, yes... that are
about 50 to 80 pounds.

Exactly.
Just because you're small

doesn't mean
you can't be strong.

- Do you have a husband?
- Yeah.

Have you ever been
mad enough at him

that you could swing a sword?

- Every day.
- Right?

I know.
I'm a small person.

Brian's a lucky man
we don't have those

laying around the house.

If there were female warriors,

then centuries
of well-established history

that says the Vikings
were an archaic culture

with rudimentary gender roles
would be shattered.

And that would force us
to rewrite everything

we thought we knew
about the Viking culture

and possibly about
all ancient cultures.

But solving this 1,300-year-old
puzzle won't be easy.

It's about finding
the bread crumbs

and connecting them.

So I'm heading to a small island
50 miles off the coast of Sweden

where an active archeological
dig is currently unfolding.

Dan?

Hi. Megan.
How are you?

Dan Carlsson is
the site's lead archeologist.

His recent discovery of
Viking graves on the island

could be the key

to putting these
centuries-old pieces together.

How many graves
do you think are here?

Mm-hmm.

Of the dozens of graves
in the area,

Dan is excavating nine of them,

and he's determined that all of
them hold the remains of women.

Yeah, yeah, please.

Hundreds of artifacts
were discovered

in these female graves,

which provide
an unprecedented look

into the lives of Viking women.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah.

This is?

Wow.

It's cool to get to hold it.

What is this?

It looks like magic.

Yeah.
That's amazing.

So, this comes from where?

Mm. So that's evidence of
trade, obviously. Yeah.

The Vikings were not only
brilliant on the battlefield,

they were also
shrewd businessmen,

setting of sophisticated
trade routes

stretching through Europe, Asia,
and the Middle East...

Trade route riches and resources
to build the ships and weapons

necessary to keep
their war machine running,

Dan and his team
have also uncovered

hundreds of thousands
of silver coins on this island

from as far away
as the Middle East,

suggesting that Gotland would
have been an extremely wealthy

Viking trading center,

connecting goods from the east
and Viking money from the west.

Yeah.

No.

It feels like a bullet, almost.

Oh, it's a weight?

For a scale.

Yeah.

Yeah. So she was
maybe a merchant.

Yeah.

Viking women were
supposed to be at home

tending to their families.

But now, here's evidence
that they could have been

traveling the world
as financial power players,

keeping the Viking coffers
filled

for more pillaging and conquest.

Was being a merchant
and a trader...

Was that typically thought of

as a male occupation
or thing to do?

You have to sort of
guess or assume

to a certain point to connect
the dots in archeology,

so why do you think the theory
that there could have been

a Viking female warrior
is so outrageous?

Because it doesn't require
any more guesswork

than any of
this other stuff does.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

If Viking women were
traveling the world as traders,

they weren't just homemakers.

They served a central
and critical role

in financing one of
the most revered fighting forces

in Europe.

So, Viking women worked
to support the war efforts.

But could they actually
have fought in those wars?

We're actually getting
special access today. Wow.

This is the richest
Viking Age grave ever found.

Wow.
That is amazing.

The recent discovery

that a Viking warrior grave
in Birka, Sweden,

actually contains a woman

has generated
an archeological firestorm.

For centuries, Viking women
were believed to be

not much more
than subservient housewives.

But is possible that
1,300 years ago,

the ferocious Viking army had
female warriors in its ranks?

Hi.
Hi.

- How are you?
- I'm good. How are you?

Good.

I'm meeting Leszek Gardela,

a leading expert
on Viking burials.

Today we'll get to see a lot
of exciting Viking stuff.

We're actually getting
special access today.

I was wondering why we were
coming in through the back way.

Look to your right.

- To my right?
- Yep.

Wow.

- So...
- That is amazing.

Although first excavated
in 1904,

this Viking burial discovered
65 miles away

in Oseberg, Norway,

is still helping archeologists
answer questions

about the Vikings.

This is the richest Viking
Age grave ever found. Wow.

This was in a grave?

This is a grave.

The entire ship
was under the ground?

The entire ship was underground,

buried under a burial mound,

and containing numerous,
numerous objects.

Amazing.

Viking burials like this,

where the dead were sent to the
afterlife inside their ships,

were reserved for the most
important members of society,

like kings, nobles,
and highly decorated warriors.

Commoners were either cremated

or buried with their belongings
under a mound of earth.

The ship is definitely a symbol
of power and prominence.

It is something
that commands respect.

Someone who was given
a burial like this

must have been someone
really, very, very important.

- Mm-hmm.
- But guess what?

What?

This is also a female grave.

A female was buried
with this massive ship?

Actually, two women
were found on board.

The two women buried
in this ship died in 834 A.D.,

one at 80 years old
and the other at about 50.

These are from the grave?
From the grave.

- She wore those shoes?
- Yep.

That's amazing.
I don't know why that...

I guess 'cause it's
so human all of a sudden.

You see someone had their
feet in those shoes. Yeah.

It's really amazing.

What is the theory of why
there were two women inside?

Various theories.

The original theory
was that one of them

was someone really powerful

and that the younger woman
was perhaps her servant.

And today a lot of people
are thinking that perhaps

both women were of equal status,
of equal importance.

But we don't know exactly
how and why they died.

The key to understanding
who these women were

and why they were so important

lies not only
in how they were buried,

but what they were buried with.

- Please, after you.
- Thank you.

Leszek takes me to
the rare-artifacts section,

where belongings from the burial
are kept under lock and key.

Do you know
what we're about to see?

- I do.
- Oh, okay.

- Do you?
- No, I have no idea.

- You'll find out in a second.
- Is it a snake?

Wow.
Yes.

That looks like a magic wand.

It's like Professor Snape's
wand from "Harry Potter."

Mm, of course. Or like
Gandalf's staff if you...

Or like Gandalf's staff, yeah.

How old is this?

This is 1,000 years old.

- It's made out of iron?
- Yes.

You can see there are
different details

that are still preserved.

Magical staffs are
all over pop culture today.

But there are references that
go back as far as 2,000 B.C.,

with the tales of priests
in ancient Persia

using bunches of sticks to
connect to the spiritual realm.

2,500 years later,

the Vikings were also
no strangers to conjuring magic.

They were rumored to use
pieces of wood called runes

to predict the future
and to heal the sick.

Don't you wonder who
the first person was to decide

that there was something magical
about a staff and why? Hmm.

And maybe there was something
magical about that first staff,

because they believed it for
centuries and centuries. Yeah.

Even in the story of Moses,
he cast down his staff,

it turns into a snake, and it
eats the other snake. Absolutely.

Of course, it is
definitely something

that was an emblem
of great power.

This magical staff was
clearly very important

to the Viking women
buried with it.

But exactly what kind of
powerful rituals

could they carry out with it?

There seems to be this idea

that these ritual practitioners

were involved in warfare
in one way or another,

either perhaps providing some
form of supernatural protection.

That's cool. Of course, know about
the barsark, or the berserkers.

What were the berserkers?

The berserkers...
They are described as warriors,

fearless warriors,
who could not be hurt.

Berserkers were champion
Viking warriors

who fought in a trace-like fury.

This is where the English
word "berserk" comes from.

To enter this war-frenzy state,

they would take these
special substances.

So there definitely are
very strong aspects of magic

used for warfare.

So it's possible that these
two women were buried like kings

because they had mastered
a type of magic

that gave them unrivaled power
on the battlefield.

And, of course, archeology is
extremely dynamic... Yeah.

...so people keep finding new
things all the time. Right.

So, were these two Viking women,

in fact, champion warriors?

And is there a bigger story

that their bones and scepters
are telling us?

Did the ferocious
and powerful Viking army

have female warriors
in its ranks?

Or were women rarely more than
subservient housewives,

like the history books tell us?

I'm turning to
Norse oral traditions

to try and let Viking women
speak for themselves.

The mythology of people...

They reflect on their attitudes,
their ideals,

and to some extent also
the world in which they lived.

Did the myths actually
reflect reality? Yeah.

Maria Kvilhaug is one of
Norway's leading experts

on Norse mythology.

She has a near-supernatural
grasp on the "Poetic Eddas,"

a collection of Viking myths

orally passed down
from generation to generation

and finally written down
in the 13th century.

What god was actually
the most important varied,

so each tribe had
slightly different gods

that they paid more attention
to than the others.

Viking myths,
like the story of Thor,

the god of thunder
who slayed giants,

or Odin, the god of war who
sacrificed his right right eye

to drink from
the Well of Knowledge,

are still powerful legends
today.

But in the hundreds of pages
of the "Eddas"

that mention dozens of gods,
kings, and legendary warriors,

there is one striking trend that
sets Viking mythology apart.

Most of the myths that
we know from the Viking Age,

female are just as powerful in
Norse myths as the male. Mm-hmm.

Women... they could take
leading roles,

and we see that
in the mythology.

These warrior women...
Those women who

do pick up arms
and they do fight...

They're sometimes called
shield-maidens.

The shield-maidens
of Norse mythology

are as ferocious and powerful
as their male counterparts,

from Hervor, who avenged
her father's death

by leading Viking raids
on a haunted island,

to Lagertha,

who fought alongside Viking
kings in Sweden and Norway.

And the legends
of powerful Viking women

go all the way to the top.

Ahh.

The Volva is one of
the most important figures

in Norse mythology.

She used powerful magic
to see the future,

and even Odin turned to her
for critical advice.

Not only is the Volva on the
Mount Rushmore of Viking gods,

but she also spawned a real-life
class of Viking women.

I'll follow you.
You lead the way.

I'm visiting a group
of Viking historians

who live like this class
of ancient women

as a way to try
to understand them.

That was awesome.

Thank you.

This class of women,
also known as seeresses,

were rumored to channel
the power of their ancestors

to predict the future
and to conjure magic.

They were in such high demand
that they would be lavished

with gifts
in exchange for their powers.

So much for women just being
subservient housewives.

Our ancestors in the past
were in a lot of ways

more progressive
than we are right now.

Deep in the forest
of Tomter, Norway,

the Volva women
have arranged for me

to take part in
one of their ancient rituals.

There's no, like,
dark spirits or anything

we're calling in?

Maria Jacobsen is
a modern-day seeress

that practices the traditions
of Viking magic.

Maria will guide me
in a ritual called utiseta,

which means "sitting out."

It's the Viking version
of a vision quest.

The seeresses would sit out
in the forest

overnight in solitude,

and by entering
a trace-like state,

they could channel
the spirits of nature

and their ancestral magic.

Some say magic is just science
that we don't understand yet.

For me, like,
I believe in magic.

I have a need
to believe in magic.

It gets into my bones.

Okay.

One of them is my grandmother,

so I know she's here right now.

I'll wait for the sun to go down

and then find
a spot in the forest,

and in that quiet,
try to connect

to the power of my ancestors

and the nature spirits
around me.

It's gonna alter
my consciousness

because, like, I sleep with a light
on in my hotel room... Yeah.

...'cause I'm scared...
Yeah.

...'cause
I'm really sensitive

to energies and spirits
and things like that.

And so I would never go out
into the forest alone.

No.

It's getting dark.

I'm scared of the dark.
I'm scared of forests.

I'm scared of being alone.

I'm scared of a lot of things.

I mean, on a scale of 1 to 10
of on a terror scale,

I'm at about a 7,
creeping towards an 8.

Okay.

And as soon as you guys
start to trickle away,

it's gonna go up to a hard 10,

and then I don't know.

Nanny, are you with me?

All of my spirit guides,
stay close to me, be with me.

Oh, man.

All of my spirit guides,
stay close to me, be with me.

I'm on a Viking vision quest

deep in the Norwegian forest.

It's an ancient practice carried
out by powerful female sorcerers

who were rumored to channel
the power of their ancestors

to predict the future
and to conjure magic.

After hours of complete
isolation in pure darkness,

my quest is complete.

- So, you did it.
- I did do it.

I wasn't as scared as
I thought I was gonna be.

It made me very present
to my own emotions

and I think put me
in touch with people

that had been there
maybe thousands of years ago,

but I felt like I was feeling
and receiving

a lot of different energy.

It wasn't necessarily
all my own.

I don't know about being able
to see the future,

but I definitely felt
some power in these woods.

But when it comes to determining
whether women

could actually have been
full-on warriors,

the Vikings didn't make
finding the truth easy.

They left behind literally
no written records.

But other cultures may have.

So I'm heading to the National
Library of Norway in Oslo.

It houses some of
the rarest books in the world.

Hi.

- How are you, Megan?
- How are you?

- Hi. I'm Kim.
- Nice to meet you.

Awesome.

Kim Hjardar is
one of the world's

most prolific historians
on Viking warfare.

He's gotten me unprecedented
access to a selection of texts

that could help
piece together the past.

By 1090, the Vikings had
expanded their empire

into parts of modern-day Italy,

leading to clashes
with the Eastern Roman Empire,

known as the Byzantines.

This is a chronicle
of a Viking loss.

Mm-hmm.

Of course.
Of course.

Yeah.

All those scholars
are still debating

the meaning of this account.

There is another rare text
written about 100 years later

that may be the key to unlocking
the secrets of Viking women.

But this book is very old.

It's very fragile.

It's not every day
you see a book

with the same security
as the Hope Diamond...

...but this book is priceless.

This book,
written around 1,200 A.D.,

is a detailed chronicle
of the history of the Danes

called "Gesta Danorum"

by the first-ever Danish
historian, Saxo Grammaticus.

300 years later, this work would
inspire William Shakespeare

to write "Hamlet."

Wow.

This is one of
the rarest books in the world.

It's crazy because it looks like

when you think of, like, Merlin,

and it's right there,
and I can't touch it,

but I'm very close
to touching it.

I just have to take a picture.
It's crazy.

That is really cool.

"There were once
women in Denmark"

who dressed themselves
to look like men

and spent almost every minute
cultivating soldier skills.

They courted military expertise
so earnestly

that anyone would have guessed

"that they had un-sexed
themselves." Yeah.

"Those especially who had
forceful personalities"...

Moi...
"or were tall and elegant,

"tended to embark on this
way of life." Right.

"They put toughness
before allure,"

aimed at conflicts
instead of kisses,

and desired not the couch
but the kill,

and those they could have
appeased with looks

"they attacked with lances."

- Yeah.
- That lights a fire in me.

No, she's not...
That's just a woman.

You think so?
Yeah. Okay.

This is a man
that's afraid of a woman.

They all died

because they didn't
sit on the couch

waiting for those kisses.

Right.

It's frustrating for me because,

well, where is the truth, then?

What do we know
about history for sure?

Well, what if we have
the source and now

we're recovering bodies in tombs

that seem to be the tombs
of warriors,

and they're female bodies?

Mm-hmm.

Viking graves, Norse mythology,

and now these texts
are challenging everything

we thought we knew
about Viking women.

But what's buried deep
in the British countryside

could be the final piece
of the puzzle.

Some of skeletons from
that mass grave... Okay.

...were actually women.

Then there's a very good chance

that they were actually
actively involved in battle.

I've discovered Viking society

was not the male-dominated
patriarchy

our history books
had led us to believe.

But did women fight
alongside men

as warriors in the most feared
military force of its time?

The answers could be at

an active archeological
dig site in Repton, England.

I love walking through
a graveyard.

That's one of my favorite things to do.
It is... yeah.

I used to always do this
when I was a child, as well.

I'm being so sarcastic.
It's not...

I'm so scared of energy
and spirts and all of that.

Okay.
Fantastic.

Archeologist Cat Jarman is
using state-of-the-art science

to examine the largest
Viking mass grave

ever discovered in England,

located in the shadow
of this church.

All these excavations
took place in the 1980s,

and it's also where
I've been working

for the last three years.

Although the mass grave
was first discovered

more than 35 years ago,

no one has been able to say
for sure

who these Vikings were
or why they died.

But Cat might be the one
to finally change that.

We have some new methods
and new techniques,

and now with those new methods
we can find out stuff

we couldn't find out 30 years ago.
Yeah.

So, if you look at
the plan here,

here's the mass grave.

The mound is found over here.

So this is a photograph
from the excavations.

So these are all femurs
or thigh bones.

How many bodies?

The minimum number of
individuals was 264...

At least 264 people
all in the same space.

All right here.

Yeah, right where
we're standing now.

And no possessions,
no swords or...

There were artifacts there.

Yeah, so there were
some artifacts,

including an ax...
A Viking ax...

And several other weapons
that were clearly Viking...

Various knives and things.

Oh, I love that.
That's exciting.

Viking axes were a common
weapon of choice

because they could be both
thrown from far distances

or be swung during
hand-to-hand combat.

Are you confident that
the burial site

was related to a battle?

So, we've been looking at things
like how these people died.

Many of them do have injuries.

They have evidence of trauma.

These were war dead.
These were battle dead.

If they're buried with weapons,

if they have all these injuries,

then there's a very good chance

that they were actually
actively involved in battle.

Does seem really likely that
it is Viking Great Army. Yeah.

These warriors likely died
here around 873 A.D.

in an attempt by the Vikings

to take land
from the Mercian dynasty,

which controlled modern-day
England from 600 to 900 A.D.

And with nearly 300
Viking bodies found so far,

this must have been
one serious battle.

But that's not even
the coolest part.

Some of the skeletons
and some of the skulls

from that mass grave
were actually women.

Wow.
That's amazing.

We can look at sex
from the skulls.

So we look at things
like the brow,

which is if they're
really defined.

Archeologists often use
the size of a skull's brow

to determine sex.

Women have a smaller
and less pronounced brow line.

The brow ridge to me...

Much smaller than the other.
Smaller, yeah.

- Yeah.
- Okay.

So, this is a female skull.

Cool.

That's a female skull.
It has to be.

Yeah, this isn't very pronounced.
It's just more delicate.

You can see a pretty big
difference in the skulls. Yeah.

- Yeah.
- Exactly.

Where we could determine
what sex an individual was,

20% were actually women.

Yeah.

If this is a burial site
from a battle

and they were all injured
or killed in war,

and 20% of them are female,

the implications would be
the warriors were female.

- Yeah.
- That's very exciting.

And that's blowing a
story wide open. Yeah.

This is incredible.

We aren't talking about
a single instance

of a powerful woman or a lone
female warrior's grave.

Now we have hundreds
of Viking warriors,

and many among them are women.

This changes everything.

If this a burial site
from a battle,

and 20% of them are female,

the warriors were female.

Yeah, then there's
a very good chance

that they were actually
actively involved in battle.

That's very exciting.

Human remains in a Viking
mass grave in Repton, England,

have provided archeologist
Cat Jarman

with shocking evidence.

1,100 years ago,

a squadron of Viking soldiers
fought and died here,

and many of them were women.

That's blowing a story wide open.
Yeah.

But what was
this squad's mission?

Were women an integral part
of the Viking war machine?

Or would they have been sent
to the slaughter

because they weren't actually
respected warriors at all?

The answer could lie in the
bowels of St. Wystan's Church,

located just feet
from the Viking mass grave.

So, this church
is quite special.

So, there is actually
a part of this church

that dates right back
when the Vikings were here.

Although this church was
rebuilt 400 years

after the Vikings
would have fought here,

two stories below are remnants

of what these Viking warriors
might have been after.

This is really the only
original part,

which was what
would have been there

when the Vikings were here.
Okay.

And this dates back to
about 700 or 800 A.D.

So it's quite dark down there,
so a torch for you.

You take that one.
Should I be nervous?

- No, no, absolutely not.
- Okay.

Quite steep steps, so just
take care, and we'll go down.

So this is the crypt.

Okay.

This is a really
important place.

This was where a lot of
the kings were buried.

It was very wealthy.

Ancient crypts guarded
the remains and possessions

of the most important people
of their day.

This crypt contained
the grave goods

of powerful Mercian kings
who controlled

what is now modern-day England

when the Vikings attacked
this church.

These pillars date back
about 1,300 years.

A lot of this is
exactly the way it was

when the Vikings attacked.

I've never been
in a crypt before.

Do you like it?

I don't hate it.

But I wouldn't want to stay here
for very long, though,

and I wouldn't want
this torch to die out.

This crypt would have
likely housed priceless riches

with a value
that we can only guess.

They assumed that there would be

treasure of sorts here, as well...
Yeah, definitely.

...gold and so forth?

Yeah, all sorts of treasure.

And we know that because
the archeological excavations

have found some items
of treasure...

Really precious bits of jewelry,

really nice glass.

We know this was really wealthy,

so that's exactly
the sort of thing

that the Vikings
were looking for.

So taking over this is
a really powerful thing.

We've all seen
"Braveheart."

What I picture in my mind
is just, like, a ruthless,

bloody pillaging of everything
and everyone that was here,

and then we're standing
right here

where that took place.

And the idea that
they were female

and they were female warriors...

That opens up
a lot of new things.

This crypt likely
would have been

an extremely high-value target
for the Vikings,

and capturing it
would have required

exceptionally skilled soldiers,

like a Viking SEAL Team 6.

And some of these
highly skilled warriors

appear to have been women.

They were here,

standing in the footsteps
of a lot of history.

History books have said
that Viking women

only adhered to conventional
gender stereotypes.

But that is dead wrong.

Human history
is not written in stone.

Just like our understanding
of the Vikings,

it's always evolving.

With just one
profound discovery,

mankind's entire story
could change.

So, if we're ever going to
unlock the secrets of the past,

we need to be open
to change with it.