Blood of the Vikings

Season

2001

UK

7.4

The Vikings were an ambitious, daring and frightening people who left an indelible mark on the British psyche. Yet archaeology has revealed very little about their time in Britain and even less about what happened to them afterwards. Archaeologist Julian Richards finds new evidence about what really happened during the dramatic period when Vikings roamed the seas around Britain. And in a ground-breaking genetics research project designed specially for the BBC series, internationally renowned geneticist, Professor David Goldstein, sets out to answer some of the most intriguing questions about the Vikings. Samples taken from around 2,000 people in Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia and Northern Europe have been processed and the results are revealed during the series.

Episode List

S1 • E1

First Blood

Loot found secreted in pagan graves in Norway provides some major clues that point to Viking perpetrators following the discovery of murder victims in Wales and a monastery razed to the ground in Scotland.

S1 • E2

Invasion

Julian Richards chronicles the Danish Viking Great Army's battles with Alfred the Great and his grandson, Athelstan, uncovering new evidence of the brutality of the era as well as Viking immigration and settlement in England.