Dan Carlin's Hardcore History 69 - Twilight of the Æsir

Today's Show is sponsored by sega's Company of Heroes 3 available February 2023 this Story begins well probably like most stories before this Story begins I mean what historical account doesn't have its precursors or its backstories or its prologues in this case we had an entire show and an extra show devoted to this very story we called it Thor's angels and you'll hear me say that a couple of times in this discussion upcoming this is the last chapter in that story involving a people history often calls Vikings but Vikings are not a people and how connected the people in this era are to today's modern day Danes Norwegians and swedes is iffy and the idea of ethnicity and cultural aspects and everything else is fraught with all sorts of baggage I mean this story about who these people were about to talk about really were is buried beneath layer upon layer and Century upon Century of romanticizing and demonizing and fetishizing and nationalizing of a people that once upon a time were just real Folk and converting them into hollywood-ized Barbarian tropes but once upon a time there were people all over Northern Western and Central Europe who had a linguistic affiliation a cultural affinity and believed in the same sorts of values and deities that these Viking era Scandinavians believed in by the time the Early Middle Ages rolls around these people in modern day Scandinavian maybe just north of Germany are the only people left to do and there's a certain historical irony that the peoples who will put the Lion's Share of sweat into extinguishing these old gods these ancient deities are people who not that long before this time period believed in themselves this is as the old radio announcer Paul Harvey would have said that when it comes to the Thor's Angels Tale this is the rest of the story December 7 th 1941 it's history a date which will live in infamy it's one small step for man was diabetes the events the figures from this time and place I take pride in the words I welcome this kind of examination because people have got to know whether or not their president the Deep question if we dig deep in our history in our Doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men [Music] okay it's hardcore history ...