Members Only 67 – The Fury of the Northmen Part 11: Economics
Author: Jamie
184 – The Chaos of Bad Governance
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When we left off last time we discussed the viking raids of Paris and Hamburg… though they were far more than the raids we’d seen in the last 40-50 years. Now we’re looking at fleets that number in the hundreds and we’re seeing the nobility on the continent, especially the Frankish nobility, hiring many of these men as mercenaries to fight against their local rivals.
Western Europe is unravelling.
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183 – Ragnar’s Siege of Paris
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This is a big event for Medieval Western Europe, and it doesn’t come out of nowhere. The surge of Northmen, and in particular the Danish attacks against Frankia, had a starting point. This wasn’t a simple matter of pagans picking a random point on the map and charging… the Vikingrs may have been motivated largely by money, but the Danish political structure had something else going on that was leading them to Frankish towns.
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Members Only 66 – The Fury of the Northmen Part 10: From Birth to Old Age
182 – Ragnar Lodbrok
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Ok, when we left off, a fleet of 120 ships set sail from Scandinavia. And at their head, according to legend, was Ragnar Lodbrok. Ragnar Hairy Breeches.
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181 – Vikingrs Gotta Viking
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When we left off last week, the Vikingrs had established fortified bases in Ireland… Not only that, but after building the bases they decided to hang out there for the winter, choosing to stay in the relatively warmer climes of the British isles rather than return home to freeze in the long northern nights.
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180 – The Cracks in the Shieldwall
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It’s 838. Only two years earlier the West Saxons were defeated by a fleet of Vikingrs, and they responded to this loss the way you would expect them to… by completely ignoring the loss and, instead, focusing on dynastic politics and making endowments to the church at Canterbury.
And now another fleet of Vikingrs was sailing south, towards their allies in Cornwall.
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Halloween Special: H.P. Lovecraft’s The Music of Erich Zann
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The Music of Erich Zann
By H. P. Lovecraft
You can read a copy of the story at hplovecraft.com.
Happy Halloween!
179 – The Battle of Carrum
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When we left off last week, 35 ships launched from Denmark and set their course for England. As we have been learning, the Anglo Saxon kingdoms were now seriously in danger of Vikingr attacks for the first time, having lost the protection of the Frankish coast guard. Not only that, but over the last approximately 40 years, the Vikingrs and the kingdoms that supported them had been growing quite wealthy and powerful from plundering their neighbors and absolutely hammering Scotland and Ireland.
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Members Only 65 – The Fury of the Northmen Part 9: Marriage