As an Englishman with an interest in history I've been watching episodes of a series called "War Walks". I've just been watching the episode about the Battle of Hastings. I know quite a bit about the battle, including that Harold was probably not killed by an arrow in the eye (that was damage caused to the Bayeux Tapestry), and that the ancient flag of Anglo-Saxon England was a white dragon on a red background, a flag that is shown on the tapestry being flown by Harold's army during the battle. What I didn't know was how close ancient Anglo-Saxon culture was to Norse. Just watch the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwTKvIbMP04 and you'll see exactly what I mean!

Can't see the video in my country (US). But yeah I love European history.

I can't view it either. But it sounds interesting.

Are you saying that you're blocked? Bloody YouTube! Oh well, just Google "War Walks Hastings" and you should get your own watchable version. You'll know it when you get it 'cause it's a BBC Four documentary. To cut things short, not only were the weapons and outfits very similar, but they also had thanes and housecarls too!

It appears to have been blocked by Warner Music Group. The message I get is: "This video contains content from WMG, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds."

I'll try Googling "War Walks Hastings."

Well, the Anglo-Saxons did come all the way from Jutland during the 5th century. They even kept a few "ties" with them. I like the Normans better, their flag has leopards!

Thanks for posting that, it was really very interesting! I couldn't watch it on you tube, but I did find another source.

Notice the Viking style axe, shields and clothes? The helms were also very similar (nope, Vikings didn't have horns either). And yep, the Angles came from southern Jutland, whilst the Saxons came from, what is now northern Germany. It's so interesting how their ranking system was such a parallel of Scandinavian ranks. I'm guessing most normal viewers would have to take a while to translate the ranks, but us Skyrim players know them off by heart! About the only thing they didn't seem to use was the title "jarl". Instead they used the European title of king. As a matter of fact, they seemed to be more Viking like than even the Normans, who themselves were originally Vikings who settled in northern France!

The nords in Skyrim are obviously vikings(or their romantic version that was born with the rise of german nationalism in 19th century) + celts. Not sure what are you trying to do here. Some kind of misplaced national pride maybe?

I'm just really not getting what you're trying to say. Just who do you think the Vikings were, if not Scandinavian? And since a great many Scaninavians settled in the British Isles about 450 ad, doesn't it make sense there would be many commonalities?

Personally, I find it fascinating that Skyrim actually incorporates the King/Housecarl/Thane system, just as did the army and people of Harold. the Housecarl and thanes who fight on to the death even after the death of their liege is great historical stuff, eh? So when Lydia says "I will protect you with my life" she is merely stating the Housecarl code of honor just as it really was.

Appararently the Anglo-saxon equivalent to Jarl is "Earl" which was probably pronounced E-arl and not Errl in the modern sense. Which is the only surviving anglo-saxon noble rank to survive the Normans, Duke being French in origin (from Dux, a late Roman military title). Jarls are really chiefdoms, the rank of King didn't exist in Scandanavia until the 11th century when the first King of Norway united all the various independent chiefdoms under a single rule, and ended the Viking age at the same time.

n.b. I remember War Walks I think I'll take a another viewing, thanks. R.I.P Professor Holmes

n.b. anyone else watching The Last Kingdom on TV just now about King Alfred and the Danes? Reminds me very much of Skyrim minus dragons and actual magic.

Have you watched the documentary, or are you talking through pure knee jerk ignorance? "Misplaced national pride"? What, to say that ancient Anglo-Saxons had a culture almost exactly the same as a bunch of Viking pillagers? Nah, nah, nah, national pride is saying that the English invented the computer, the aircraft carrier, the jet engine, the World Wide Web, radar, fixed wing VTOL aircraft, the tank, Chobham armour, the computer, camouflage, the police, the hovercraft, caterpillar track, steam catapult, the horizontal tail fin, the battleship, the fighter plane, cat's eyes, seat belts, submarines, hydrofoils, plastic, aircraft carrier angled flight deck, aircraft carrier Optical Landing System, the English language, military Special Forces, Capitalism, modern Western government and legal systems, the fire extinguisher etc. etc. etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_inventions_and_discoveries

Yeah, the British are mostly Germanic and Scandinavian in origin, with a bit of French and Italian (i.e. Roman). Even the Celts originally came from southern Germany and Austria!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celts

Well, didn't watch it but i assumed you are trying to compare Anglo-Saxon England to Skyrim and gaining some form of satisfaction from it. If this is a general history talk about purely real world stuff not sure why would you wanna do that in these forums.

By the way medieval western Europe, including the Normans, and even the Anglo-Saxons to some extent are more similar to the bretons(ingame) imo.

Chadric......don't rise to the bait mate

Your kinsman hears you.....good stuff

Once got into a discussion with a colleague about "Why the West is so 'nice.' [meaning "just," focused on rule of law, and even to some extent egalitarian]" His response was "Because of the Anglo-Saxons," and I couldn't disagree.

I think William and his sons and cousins would have been happy enough to enslave and oppress everyone else, but they just found it to be administratively too much. And so the roots of modern democracy were born.

The fact based documentary made all the connections, not me, right down to the Viking style axe, helms and shields, not to mention the exact same military ranks. (which Skyrim makes full use of)

I haven't watched it either. However, I think myself to be somewhat familiar with world history and frequent historical documentaries. I thought this thread was how our own historical culture influenced the racial creations of the game.

I thought that's what it was about too...

I'm pretty certain that statement is included somewhere in a list of famous last words, eh?

You do realize that at the time of the anglo-saxon migration germanic and norse culture were essentially still the same, yes?

Norse culture held onto it's original germanic traditions longer then the more southern germanics.
The latter were more or less influenced by the lingering remnants of Roman culture, partly because the germanic Franks who came to dominate much of mainland Europe loved to emulate Rome and Roman power.


It's a fallacy to identify Angles or Saxons as Norse. Comparable culture to theirs was prevalent in Scandinavia longer then southwards, yes. But the distinction "Norse" stems from a date later then their migration.

Never once have I called Anglo-Saxons "Norse". Both you and Kaedus have put those words into my mouth. I was just astonished at how close the cultures were to each other, and that a lot of the things we see in Skyrim and think of as Norse were shared by Anglo-Saxons in ancient England. Anglo-Saxons were also wholly infantry, just like the Vikings. You just look at the reenactments in that documentary and you could almost mistake them for a bunch of Vikings! In other words, they're very, very similar, but not the same, and most of those similarities were put into the game. I mean, I could identify with and automatically understand exactly what they were talking about simply because of my study of Skyrim!

Yep, cottoned onto that long time ago. Thought it was obvious, sorry.

Throw in some celt too, of course.