Thor's Hammer

This article is about the Echoes of History episode. You may be looking for Thor's weapon Mjölnir.

The Sons of the Great North is the third episode in the Vikings season from Ubisoft's Echoes of History podcast series.

Description

Set off with the Great Army to conquer English Kingdoms. Find yourself in the midst of a conquest, battles, and pillages. Also discover some very special ordeals reserved for a few unhappy prisoners...

Transcript

• Introduction: Assassin's Creed: Valhalla and Xbox present, Echoes of Valhalla: Life of Vikings, the podcast.
• Narrator: Pirates, pagans, mercenaries, blood-thirsty barbarians: our sinister reputation precedes us, all the way to the farthest lands. Our name has been dragged through the mud. It is easy for our enemies to paint a black picture of us. But there is one thing that everybody can agree on: the Vikings show no mercy! After an endless crossing of the North Sea, they finally reach land. The warriors all jump from their ships to tread this coveted ground. Under the command of Ivarr the Boneless and his faithful companion Halfdan, they waste no time setting off to take over the land that lies before them.
• Ivarr Ragnarsson: You, you, and you, go and scout around the area. Find the supplies, and water above all. You! Gather our men and equipment, they mustn't have any time to mount their defenses. Let's go! Give them a good reason to pray to their single god!
• Narrator: The news spreads like wildfire from one terrorized village to the next, "The Danes are here!" "The Danes", that's how they used to call us, with no distinction. Never mind the name, the message was clear. The Norsemen landed without warning to spread chaos, like demons straight out of Hell. Could we be the legions of the apocalypse the Christians believe in?
• Thierry Noël: How large was their army? We don't know.
• Narrator: Thierry Noël, content and inspiration consultant at Ubisoft.
• Thierry Noël: We mustn't forget that, at that time, especially in Anglo-Saxon England, there were no permanent armies. It was possible to assemble large groups of warriors, so a few hundred Vikings was more than enough to destabilize a whole region.
• Villager 1: The Danes! Ah! The Danes!
• Villager 2: Run for safe haven, leave everything behind! Spread the word!
• Villager 3: WAIT!
• Narrator: The locals are completely defenseless against the brutal invaders. They offer no resistance. The Great Army takes advantage of their weakness to gather supplies and horses, and to wait for reinforcements. A few groups had already settled in Ireland and Scotland join ranks with the Great Army. Like a clap of thunder, the news of the invaders spreads across all Saxon kingdoms, and beyond. But the army landed further south than expected. Ivarr and Halfdan hear that a völva, a seeress witch, lives in the area and they decide to pay her a visit to seek guidance from the gods.
• Ivarr Ragnarsson: We pay tribute to you, daughter of Freyja. Tell us what you know. Njörðr carried us to different shores. Is it a sign from him? Should we take over this kingdom the sea has brought us to?
• Völva: Know Ivarr, one day this kingdom will be yours, but the time has not yet come. Do not take your eyes off your revenge on Ælla. Travel north by land to meet him.
• Ivarr Ragnarsson: And when will we take East Anglia?
• Völva: Be patient. Forget not the gods who are with you. Thank Odin and Thor, but praise Freyja as well, who is even stronger than him in the arts of magic and war.
• Narrator: The wheels were already in motion, King Edmund of East Anglia thought he would get away by helping the Vikings attack Northumbria. He even offered the invaders horses to get rid of them as quickly as possible. But little did the poor man know what was in store for him.
• Ryan Lavelle: England in the 9th century looked like something of a patchwork of different kingdoms.
• Narrator: Ryan Lavelle, professor of History of the Dark Ages at the University of Winchester.
• Ryan Lavelle: There were, say, a kingdom in the south of England, which we know as the Kingdom of Wessex, or the Kingdom of the West Saxons; and there was the Kingdom of the East Angles, or East Anglia, at the east of the country in the kind of fenlands of Eastern England; and then in the north there was Northumbria. In the center of England, there was the Kingdom of Mercia.
• Narrator: We pay tribute to Thor. The mightiest of all warrior-gods, his name means "thunder". He triumphed over all giants thanks to his colossal strength and magic belt. But above all, Thor has the most powerful weapon in the universe, Mjölnir, his hammer. With it, he can wield thunder and smite his enemies. Under the protection of this invincible god, the great Viking army was ready to take on the giants of its time, the Saxon kingdoms who ruled over Great Britain. And Northumbria was the first of them to feel the wrath of Thor's hammer.
• Viking 1: Archers!
• Viking 2: Burn everything to the ground!
• Viking 3: Burn them all!
• Viking 4: Kill them!
• Lucie Malbos: The Vikings were violent—
• Narrator: —Lucie Malbos, lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Poitiers—
• Lucie Malbos: —but no more or less than other armies. The violence of the Vikings was particularly striking, because the Scandinavians had no respect for holy sites.
• Narrator: The warriors wreak havoc on Northumbria, burning and razing everything to the ground. The invasion is made even swifter by the infighting between the kingdom's two leaders, Ælla and Osberht.
• Thierry Noël: Players will have the possibility to do dual-wielding, meaning wielding two weapons at once, which was very typical of the Vikings. They used anything they had at their disposal, almost like a barroom brawl.
• Narrator: King Osberht falls on the battlefield. Ælla, on the other hand, is captured alive. Hungry for revenge, Ivarr and his brother inflict the cruelest tortures on him—the blood eagle.
• Ivarr Ragnarsson: Ælla, after so many years, we have you captured. The time has come for you to pay for the execution of our father, the great King Ragnar!
• Ælla: I remember him, of course. And you will burn in Hell with him!
• Ivarr Ragnarsson: My father is feasting at Odin's table, and your Hell—if it exists—is right here, and I am its guardian! I swore I would make you suffer, and you will see that Ivarr the Boneless is a man of his word. Upon your dying breath, you will beg me for mercy!
• Ælla: You have no authority here! I am the king of these lands.
• Ivarr Ragnarsson: Heh heh heh heh heh! We will see about that...
• Ælla: (screams of pain)
• François Emion: The blood eagle is something of a 13th century obsession for the saga writers. We see that from one source to another, this form of torture becomes more and more refined.
• Narrator: François Emion, lecturer in Northern Studies at the Paris Sorbonne University.
• François Emion: In its final version, we see a man with his back cut open, his ribs sawed away, his lungs extracted, looking like the wings of an eagle.
• Narrator: Revenge is consummated. Emboldened by the conquest of the Kingdom of Northumbria, Ivarr and his troops can now turn their attention to East Anglia. However, they decide to leave a garrison in York, which they have chosen as a bridgehead for the invasion. Reinforcements from overseas come to settle there; nobody could stand in the way of the Sons of the Great North. A mere glimpse of the raven banner fluttering in the wind would fill our enemies with a sense of dread and panic. Some fortified cities even surrendered without any resistance at all.
• Ryan Lavelle: The raven was a very important bird in Viking culture because it was a bird that came to symbolize both Odin, the All-Father, and to symbolize the aftermath of a battle as ravens, ah, came upon the corpses and fed upon the corpses of the enemy.
• Narrator: The Great Army is back in East Anglia, two years after landing on its shores. This time, King Edmund stands up to them, in vain. The Viking wave sweeps through his kingdom and annihilates his forces. Edmund was weak and cowardly in the past, but this time he exhibits exemplary courage. Captured by the Vikings he refuses to pledge allegiance to them, and to rescind his Christian faith.
• Edmund: Cursed pagan! I will not break under your torture. Christ is my savior and I will never deny him.
• Ivarr Ragnarsson: You prefer to die for your God, who abandoned you, rather than live for our gods who conquered you?
• Edmund: Go to Hell pagan! I do not fear God's judgment. I should have killed you as soon as you stepped foot on my land.
• Ivarr Ragnarsson: Well, you chose to do otherwise, and now you're at my mercy!
• Edmund: You don't scare me. I know I have served my Lord and can face the Heavenly Tribunal without fear.
• Ivarr Ragnarsson: Ha ha ha ha! Well, that's what we're about to find out. Take him away! And we'll see how his Christ answers his cries of pain!
• Narrator: Ivarr orders him to be executed on the spot; he, too, will suffer terribly. King Edmund is tied to a tree and riddled with arrows. And because, even then, he refused to renounce his faith, he was immediately decapitated. His courage in the face of death would leave a strong impression on the population, turning his martyrdom into a symbol. Christians see Edmund as a saint, but is it not their way of saying that we Vikings are demons?
• Alban Gautier: Edmund became a symbolic figure—
• Narrator: —Alban Gautier, Professor of Medieval History at the University of Caen—
• Alban Gautier: —of resistance to the pagan invasion. And it even seems that the Viking kings of East Anglia, who converted to Christianity, worshiped him as a saint.
• Thierry Noël: The Anglo-Saxon record hardly mentions that the pagans came to East Anglia, yet later sources would offer a detailed accounts of Edmund's martyrdom. Historically, however, there exists only one sentence stating that Edmund died when the Vikings came.
• Narrator: After Northumbria, East Anglia is now under Viking control. Kingdoms fall one after the other. Ivarr leaves the army in the hands of his greatest allies and travels to Ireland, where groups of Vikings are set to run rampant. Under the command of Olaf the White, these two ruthless warriors were made to see eye-to-eye.
• Ivarr Ragnarsson: Good old Olaf, the only thing greater than your appetite is your thirst!
• Olaf the White: I am hungry for victory above all! Like you, Ivarr, my belly is never full.
• Ivarr Ragnarsson: Ha ha ha! Well, then, if there is a place at your table, I will join you in combat. I imagine you must have something planned.
• Olaf the White: Ha! Of course! I want to return to Scotland, where I've already fought the Picts! Now I wish to defeat the Britons! I can think of no greater pleasure than to see their fortresses fall!
• Ivarr Ragnarsson: Well, you can count on my axe! We'll bring those Britons to their knees!
• Olaf the White: Ha, I love the sound of those words! Raise your goblet, let's drink to their downfall.
• Thierry Noël: It seems that Vikings launched attacks a bit pell-mell, choosing targets based on whatever was easiest to capture or pillage. It doesn't seem there was much of an overarching strategy, yet, Dumbarton was different. At that time, Vikings already had control of Dublin, which was a big commercial hub, and in England they controlled York, which was a gateway to Scandinavia. So, logically, they wanted to capture Dumbarton, which was a midway point between these two big commercial centers of the age.
• Narrator: After a four month long siege of the city of Dumbarton, the Breton fortress, Olaf and Ivarr decide to take drastic measures.
• Ivarr Ragnarsson: The siege has gone on long enough, Olaf. Our warriors are exhausted.
• Olaf the White: I know! But what can we do? These blasted Britons are tougher than I expected. I see no other option than to continue laying into them.
• Ivarr Ragnarsson: Iron will not end this battle. I have an idea. Do you see that river?
• Olaf the White: Er, yes. Why?
• Ivarr Ragnarsson: Let's dry it up. They can fight against the sword, but not against thirst. Tell your men to get to work.
• Narrator: Once they are out of water, the besieged have to choice but to surrender. After such a long siege, Ivarr and Olaf take their anger out on the city. Meanwhile, under the command of Healfdene, the Great Army continues their conquest of the south and west. It has set its sights on a bigger fish, better armed and better prepared—the Kingdom of Wessex.
• François Emion: Wessex was a kingdom that stretched across the south of England, meaning all the lands south of the Thames. In the year 870, its king was named Æthelred, who had led the armies of Wessex into battle on several occasions. Kings were expected to be warlords. Anglo-Saxon Kings had two principle duties: lead armies to victory, and protect the church.
• Narrator: The first clash with the southern kingdom takes place in Englefield. First off, the Vikings suffer defeat. But for Wessex, victory would be short lived. Four days later the armies clash again nearby in Reading. This time, Æthelred of Wessex is defeated. But once again, the wind would turn. Alfred, Æthelred's younger brother challenges the great army in Ashdown. It is a long, grueling battle. It is the young lord's first battle, but he is tenacious.
• Thierry Noël: Ashdown is a very important battle, because the young Alfred showed very well just how capable he was on replacing his brother. He was truly a major figure, so makes sense the game makes him a principle adversary to the Vikings.
• Narrator: Even though our warriors' pride was hurt, the strength of our army was in no way crushed by the defeat. The war wages on, battle after battle, until the news of Æthelred's death a weeks later.
• Crier: The king is dead! The king is dead!
• Villager 4: No! The Danes took him! May God have mercy on his soul. What tragic news on this Easter day!
• Narrator: In truth, the news was tragic for us Vikings. Æthelred's demise meant that his younger brother would be crowned king, the much-vaunted Alfred. At first, our chiefs did not capture the full measure of this event.
• Villager 5: Long live King Alfred! God bless the King!
• Villager 6: Long live King Alfred!
• Villager 5: God bless Alfred!
• Villager 8: Long live King Alfred!
• Narrator: In a twist of fate, the advent of King Alfred would go hand-in-hand with the disappearance of Ivarr the Boneless. No one knows what became of him. Some say he went back to Ireland. Others maintain he succumbed to a sudden hideous illness. Could that be a way for them to tarnish the memory of this great Viking? Whatever the case, four years after landing on these shores, the Great Army's onslaught on the Saxon kingdom was far from over. Soon, the great island will be struck once again, by Thor's hammer.

Cast

(By order of appearance, host indicated with italics)

• Bibi Jacob as Narrator
• Alex Noon as Ivarr the Boneless
• Thierry Noël as himself
• Hannah Rutherford as Völva
• Prof. Ryan Lavelle as himself
• Prof. Lucie Malbos as herself
• Uncredited as Ælla of Northumbria
• Prof. François Emion as himself
• Uncredited as Edmund
• Prof. Alban Gautier as himself
• Uncredited as Olaf the White