Ancient DNA reveals the truth about Vikings - BBC REEL

Vikings are often thought of as 'pure-bred', blonde-haired, and blue-eyed warriors who changed the course of European history.

Now a team of international scientists has debunked this modern-day myth of the Vikings by examining their genetic ancestry. The largest-ever DNA sequencing of Viking remains reveals their surprising ethnic diversity.

Video by Alexandra Rasmussen
Executive producer: Camelia Sadeghzadeh

#bbcreel #bbc #bbcnews

[bobbob]

Being a BBC production, I'm half surprised they didn't say they were african...

[markbirkeland]

As a person of 100 % Norwegian background, I find this program fascinating. My great grandfather Kolnes whose picture I have looks like a Viking from a picture book. His name was Enoch and he received a medal from the king of Norway for saving the lives of a shipwreck in the Stavanger area by rowing his rowboat into the north sea and saving people from shipwreck on the rocks.

[freezegopher]

I don't think I've ever seen someone work so hard at speaking as Prof. Willerslev.

[OmenfromNature]

In the early 90s I spent 2 years in Pamir, Karakorum and Hindu kush mountains. In some of the most remote and isolate valleys I've met indigenous people with blond hair and blue eyes, we know that the Azores in the middle Atlantic ocean was inhabited 2000 bc so imo no doubt of the indo-european migration theory and much more frequent contacts than previous thought between ancient peoples. These people were more capable travelling long distances across land and sea than anyone believe.

[matthewg.]

I find listening to Eske Willerslev’s Danish accent more fascinating than his conclusions.

[FrAnCo]

Imagine being a proud warrior, tough as hell and fight with no fear and end up in someone's office as a paperweight

[marypiper]

I recently had a DNA test, and I found that Danish and Scandinavian genes were still present in my ancestry from my father, who came from Yorkshire!

[agneteht]

There are currently plenty of norwegians a swedes who are not typically blonde, yet their facial features are distinctly belonging to their countries. Sure, blondes are more common in nordoc vountries than elsewhere but Scandinavians are no where near exclusively blonde. Norwegians especially have all sorts of spectacularly "tall, dark and handsome" types and a fascinating array of deep dark blue eyes instead of conventional greyblues or clears. In fact you'll probably find more "typical" blonds in westrussians than in Norwegians. There are just a lot of assumptions anout what scandinavians look like.

[hevnervals]

I wouldn't call adding Anglo-Saxons and Celtic peoples to the warband very diverse. The genetic distance between the British isles and Scandinavia is tiny.

[alamudesky]

Showing a nineteenth century sail ship makes no sense in talking about Vikings 500 years earlier

[andrewgray]

I note that there was very little mention of Scotland, for some unknown reason. The Vikings in Scotland were from Norway and they ruled the north of Scotland, the Northern Isles (Orkneys and Shetland) as well as the Western Isles (the Hebrides). Those areas were all part of the Norwegian kingdom. Norwegian genes are a larger part of Scottish DNA than Danish DNA is in English DNA.

[marieo]

Considering the vikings brought people (non vulantary househelps) home with them after raids and probably had children with them, their genetics must have mixed t some point

[jackieblue]

That man has the most Danish accent ever.

[markfiedler]

I'm not gonna pretend like I have a clue about what real viking scandinavian culture was actually like, but there was nothing presented here that drastically changes the outlook or necessarily supports the conclusions shared.

[jessicamartin]

That guy learned English watching Arnold Schwarzenegger movies😂

[lowriderhd]

I fully expected “We wuz kangz and sheeit, we wuz Beethoven we wuz Vikings”

[Ass_of_Amalek]

come on, everybody who actually knew a bit of norse history already knew this. the vikings travelled and settled all over the place.

[robertmurdock]

Anyone should know that Scandinavians were more blue eyed and blonde back then than they are today. Entropy increases with time.

[paradoxward]

wow..., human genetics and migration is endlessly fascinating. I am not remotely Viking but I am fascinated by the 'culture' and the impact that their conquest had on Europe.

[markfitzgibbon]

100% thought the BBC was going to say they were black!