The short answer is: “No, there were literally no black jarls.” Now, the long answer, on the other hand, is: “No”

As a black person and history buff it’s not racist questioning this or other instances where black characters were inserted in history. I’m tired of people telling me what’s racist or not allowing discussion on topics like this. It’s not racist that authentic history shows don’t have black characters it’s just history… Facts don’t care about you’re feelings I’m all for black characters but not forcing or rewriting history.

As someone of Swedish descent, hearing that article state that the Vikings have no written language is a huge slap in the face. RUNES, MAN, RUNES!

I’m half danish but have lived in Denmark my entire life. I honestly find the insinuation that we don’t know a lot about our own history and cultures incredibly offensive. We know a lot about the Vikings both from writing and historical artefacts as well as from the human remains we have found. We know what most vikings looked like and a lot of us Scandinavian people still look like that now. We have gotten more diverse, but historically we haven’t been since the climate up here can be quite harsh. We have many strong amazing women in Scandinavian history so making one up out of thin air and giving her a male name just seems dumb and lazy. Jarl is still a name used in Scandinavia and I’ve never heard of a woman named Jarl.

She's portraying a Norwegian national hero. A white Viking man. I think it's a slap in the face of every Norwegian to have a black female play jarl Haakon. It's like having and Asian woman play Shaka Zulu. I don't think people would be to happy about that.

As to the idea about Vikings being more tolerant of LGBT-minorities. There is a historical insult in old Norse language that was considered so vile that in some places you were not only legally allowed to kill a person who called you this name, but you were OBLIGED to kill the person who called you this, or else the rest of society would assume that the insult is true and you would lose your social standing completely. This insult is "Rasragr". It's refers to a man who will adopt a sexually submissive position during intercourse with another man (I'll let you who read this figure out what that means in detail). A culture that promotes the killing of people who insult you by refering to you as homosexual will hardly be a very "tolerant" culture towards homosexuality in general.

As a teen, my mom fascinated everyone she met in Scandinavia. They’d never seen a black person before.

As someone who has viking heritage, I find this offensive and no different than what is happening with the Egyptians and Cleopatra or a white man playing an African American or African. Having done a lot of research on this subject myself there wasn't an Earl that was African or Egyptian. I was looking forward to seeing this as a close to reality historical story about my heritage but I see now that we can't even get that. Totally agree with you. Hollywood is actually being racist towards African culture by not actually telling African stories. I'd love to learn more about their culture but there's very little out there.

24:32 "If you really cared about black people, talk about black civilizations." Exactly, thank you for spelling out so succinctly and so perfectly.

I am black and I am sick of all this bull. I want proper representation across the board and I will always prefer realistic historical accuracy to forced politics any day of the week.

Haakon is such a masculine name as well and also the current crown prince of Norway, the name literally means "chosen son" 😆 It's like naming a random English female ruler Edward or Alfred.

My good Metraton sir, you took a bitter, ungrateful battle to fight, but also a righteous one. This is the Dark Age of Wokeness.

As a scandinavian. This is truly triggering. Netflix's just bringing in modern thinking and inclusivity into ancient history. This is completely wrong and ruins our historical culture. I'm sure if a white british woman was a ruler in a zulu tribe with a historical zulu chief name it would be worse to Netflix even tho it's the completely same problem with this shit series.

Let's keep it simple: If Netflix would make a fictional series about an african tribe, the Zulus for example, and would swap the main character with a white person, the outcry would be so tremendous that the show would probably get cancelled. The arguments that would be put against it would be something like following: - No respect for the culture of the Zulus - No respect for the history of the Zulus - No respect for the ethnicity of the Zulus - Whitewashing And oh boi, I would be one of them who would rages the most because the Zulu people are freakin amazing! But if I want to defend my own culture and history, I'm a racist......................

Preach my brother! I am so glad I found your channel. I am so sick of the race-swapping currently going on. As a woman of African heritage, we have an enormous catalogue of stories, histories, heroes and villains. We do not need blackwash-casting. I find it insulting, because it implies that we have nothing to offer in the storytelling sphere. Let's stop re-writing history (badly), we have histories that are yet to be told. If these huge film companies and ignorant black people really cared about black characters and stories, they would focus on telling the real and original narratives, instead of rehashing and overriding existing ones.

As a one hundred percent Scandinavian descent person, thank you. I do feel Netflix has murdered my culture here. Thanks for standing up for the truth, even when it is ugly. I do admit it was ugly. Still, they are my ancestors.

Black man here and huge fan of your channel. THANK YOU! This needed to be said. It's more offensive to try and insert black people into other cultures while also not showing black/African peoples culture. Keep up the good work.

I want to see a "Straight Outta Compton" remake Starring Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, Alexander Skarsgård, Mads Mikkelsen, and Viggo Mortensen, as Dr. Dre, Easy-E, Ice Cube, and DJ Yella. LA was a very diverse land, and NWA did travel extensively straight outta compton, and atleast 100 miles and running, so it is realistic that 3 vikings could have started NWA, later adding Viggo Mortensen as a 4th.

11:35 The odds of a native American Jarl would be so close to zero, that it is negligible. Leif Erikson discovered Canada and its inhabitants. We called them Sveklinger (weaklings), because Vikings were thicker, not thin. But after all, this friendly banter led to some trade. The problem was that the distance between Greenland and Vinland was too large to support a permanent colony, so we stopped travelling to America after a short while

To me, it feels a bit weird, because it's kind of like calling a woman "John" and being confused why people find that a bit confusing... Håkon is a pretty well known male name, lots of our kings have had it too.

As a black african I agree with metatron. I'm getting sick and tired of shows pretending to care about what we went through and the world needs people like you metatron people who speaks about the truth and the fact and nothing more and nothing less.

Not only a Black Woman Jarl would be extreme unlikely, the fact that there isn't any records of any women ever serving as a Jarl also shows how dumb this whole thing is, people forget that the Vikings didn't just inherited the titles of their parents, you had to prove yourself in the battle field and gain a reputation so that people would choose you in the Althing.

Its wild to me that, despite us living in an age where information is more readily available and able to be shared than ever before, we have so many people who just want to re-write history with their own fan-fiction.

TV companies think that if they inaccurately shoe-horn black characters into historical dramas, they won't have to invest money in telling black stories. I'm sure there are great dramas waiting to be told about the Zulu Kingdom, Mali Empire etc, or African mythology, but they can't be bothered to take the financial risk.

It’s insane to think racism didn’t exist in the past when historicals events, like Nero being denied his lover by his court/mother because she was a Greek, factually happened.

The thing that I have noticed, when they say they want diversity, 90% of the actors that get the race swapped roles are of Sub-Saharan African origin, it is extremely rare that you see an actor of native South American, native North American, Aborigine, Maori, etc origin. In the case of this fictional character they say that her mother was a princess from Egypt, but by the so called Viking Age, Egypt had been conquered by the Islamic Caliphate (invaded 639-641AD, though the Byzantium Empire tried to re-take Egypt several time), and therefore any Egyptian princess in the Viking Age would have been of Middle Eastern origin, not sub-Saharan African. Unless they are stretching their story to having a sub-Saharan African princess who just happened to be visiting Egypt when the Norsemen also visited, this would be highly unlikely as Islamic Egypt had tried to invade Nubia in 642, resulting in hostile feeling between the nations, so no royal visits. It would be a more realistic story if while visiting the Mediterranean the Norsemen had purchased a sub-Saharan slave, who was brought back to Scandinavia and bore a daughter for a Norseman.

I learned from a man many years ago, before this insanity had left the universities, that there were a few Africans who sailed with Vikings, but that in Norse culture they were known as 'blue' rather than 'black'.

I have a coworker (who is black) who's grandmother did an ancestry DNA test, he showed me the results and he was largely from Ghana and Scandinavia. He asked the "Viking" question. I said the more likely story was a fur trapper married an ancestor and had children. But I left it open, I said there is no evidence to the contrary.

Finally, someone who has the guts to point out that the Norse were white and Cleopatra was Greek. During times of insanity, the simple act of speaking the truth becomes a revolutionary act. Much respect, my friend!

I'm really sick with this inclusivity at all costs. You pointed out clearly. They stuck on the money, and as far an African historical civilization will not be considered economically worthy they will persist on the actual trend. There are amazing historical and legendary events in Africa like the raise to power of Sun Djata (the first Emperor of Mali), the one of Osei Tutu (the founder of the Ashanti Confederation), or the battles of Dongola when Nubians stopped the Islamic advance up the Nile Valley... There are so many others even more fascinating than Shaka Zulu....but all they accomplished to do is Wakanda of Black Panther.... We Africans and afro-descentant deserve far more and are far more worthy than that.

Just came across your channel and quickly subscribed! Dude, as a black woman, I find it EMBARRASSING that people feel the need to insert themselves where they never were. It gives insecurity 😅

This man has become my new hero. An objective, honest and brave man. Never relinquish the Truth. God bless you.

It's crazy to think that these show runners can tell us to "Do our research" while giving us the wrong information but they do it all the time.

Haakon Jarl was not only real, he is a legend amongst the Norwegian rulers. And he was norse, and he was male.

I'm Portuguese, and like most Portuguese, Spanish, Italians or Greeks, i have the "Mediterranean" look, but its not uncommon, especially in the north of the country to find a lot of Portuguese people with light coloured eyes and or light coloured hair, not only that, is also not uncommon having those people to be blood related to you, so much so its look upon as a "feature" like (its blond hair, or green eyed) and never like a race like U.S. people love to put it. With that being said, and most important to the truth of the matter at hand, there is a Portuguese city unlike any other (Póvoa de Varzim) because the number of northern looking folks is way off when compared to the rest of the country, and as it turns out it started as a viking settlement in the 960s, and then again in 1015-1016 a.d. They kept their traditions, the runic writing and most important there was a strong pressure to inbreeding, maybe cultural or to keep the social status within the tribe, so much so it caused some genetic mutations to be amplified to the point that today is the Familial Amyloid Polyneuropathy genetic disease capital of the world! As for black Jarls, well.. you do the math..

Wow, as a Norwegian I have a fairly grounded understanding of our Scandinavian ancestors (Vikings included), and to claim we had no written language is quite egregious.

I'm glad all us history buffs are sticking together about this issue I'm tired of ppl labeling us as racist since we don't support black people in historical films I'm tired of diversity for inclusivity at all costs. It doesn't make sense that like 100 years from now they make the president of North Korea a black chick you know for diversity.

I was in Tromso (Norway) in the 1970's with a USMC unit training with the Norwegians. I spoke some German, and since Norwegian is similar I was able to more-or-less talk to people. I'm light green (white) and was walking down the street with a dark green (black) Marine and an elderly Norwegian lady came up and insisted he come to her home for lunch. Seems my friend was the very first "real live" black person she'd ever seen. I was included since obviously a translator (as lousy as I was) was needed. My point is. In the 1970's, in a Norwegian port small city this lady had never seen a black person in person in her life.

When I was a little girl. My grandmother sat me down and said " I dont care what they teach you at school, Vikings were black women"

As a person who has Viking heritage. I am offended that people want to morph History to what they want. I mean yes we Have Yasuke (the only Black samurai) but nothing like that has happened like that to Norway.

The British, for example, had one of the largest Empires in history, covering one third of the world, including Africa & the Caribbean. I wonder how many Earls or Dukes (equivalent to Jarls) of Britain were black, or even non-white. Just because a country was expansive or diverse doesn't automatically mean that minorities were in positions of power. God knows, the world isn't very accepting of different races nowadays, so I'm doubtful it was much better 1000 years ago.

I also heard the Vikings had the first Chinese takeaway, and people in wheelchairs had the right to go with them pillaging. It was mandatory to have at least one wheelchair user on board of every longship.

The point you get to around the 13 minute mark is especially good. There’s this weird push to make Viking Age society seem somehow progressive and to be an actual Viking as aspirational, but they bloody weren’t. Not by our standards. “Anyone could be a Viking” they argue-and while that’s probably not even true, the more pressing point for me would be, “Why would you WANT to be implicated as a Viking?”

"Do your research" Metatron: "Well, my research says that you're lying"

The real crime in all of this is how there are so many wonderful stories, both historical as well as myths/legends, from all over the African Continent that people would love to hear yet it all gets pushed to the wayside in favor of awkward attempts to change stories that have been around for centuries because they're more well known. If some studio out there would just take the chance to perhaps make a fantasy/adventure movie based off of a tribal legend for instance, I have no doubt it would get the world's attention if for no other reason than people are tired of the same old stories year after year.

I would have loved it if he just said "no" and then went on to thank VKNG Jewelry for sponsoring the video

As a black man, this was just another series I was offended by, Hollywood is just crazy now. Tell you what, I have an idea for a movie, maybe Hollywood or Netflix will produce it. It's called; The Last Negro on Earth, Starring Tom Hanks.

I absolutely LOVE your videos. Thanks for this great work. The modern world seems to despise real history. I was always taught that history was there to enrich us and to give us more wisdom.. seems like when you ignore history things always go badly. Thanks again for your work

The fact, that you have to make a lenghtly video to explain that a female, african-black Viking Jarl is absolutely ridiculous, speaks volumes about how far this historical revisionism BS and the stupidity of society has come. It's like if a Han Chinese woman would be ruling over a kingdom of Zulus or Masai! With every day, we come closer and closer to the society depicted in the movie "Idiocracy".

If medieval scandinavia had been so diverse, then that would show up in the gene pool of contemporary inhabitants of these countries who descend from these populations. Which it does not.

Honestly reading the sagas, and just studying history in general, I’d say the bigger problem was not her being accepted as Viking although black (mixed race). It’s her being accepted as a ruler although an unmarried woman. Just not convincing.

You’re 100% correct. It’s all about pushing sales & coercion. Keep tellin’ it like it is.

When these studies claim that the vikings were "diverse", they actively mislead and try to evoke east asians, middle-easteners and africans with the use of that word, but when you actually read what is stated in the data it paints a different picture. What the "diverse" actually means in this context is simply "not scandinavian". When they intermixed, which was pretty rare, it was very often with closely related peoples such as finns, other baltic peoples, western and central europeans. Italians were also decently common within this small group, mostly because of the Lombards who were a Scandinavian and north Germanic people who settled in nortern Italy a few centuries before the viking age. These in turn married into local Italian aristocracy to create alliances, but still maintained good relations with scandinavia several generations later.

There's a very good short story called "how the leopard got its spots". It's a good read, the story I believe, is based on an Ethiopian folk tale. If people really cared, they would bring up more stuff like this.

It's almost funny that I watched this after your recent Cleopatra video - amazing foresight and I hadn't realized they (netflix and others) were doing this for so long...

your voice is 30% of the reason i am subscribed

"As a human being, yes it is my history" dude that's what keeps me coming back, you are so open to ideas and have strong convictions as well. Thank you for this video 👍

As a Dane, I am glad you decided to deal with this.. As much as I want people to go forward and ensure everyone can be a part of humanity as a whole, this "inclusivity fanaticism" is absolutely disgusting. They really don't give a shit about anyone apart from the paycheck.

History gets re-written all the time. Finding out that a burial mound contains the remains of a woman (in stead of what you thought was a man for 139 years) makes you rethink everything that you derived from that site so far. History is basically a puzzle with often very few available pieces. You kind of have to fill in the pieces you don't have with plausible ones. Every once in a while you dig up a puzzle piece that turns out to be black and you have to throw out the plausible red one. Sometimes you realize that the upper left corner of a puzzle isn't a corner at all. So much has yet to be discovered...

The fact they said there could be a Russian jarl shows how ignorant they are. Russia wasn't even a concept and the Kievan Rus was a later establishment of the Vikings. Total fantasy and silliness this is.

As a half black man myself i feel that people who try and rewrite history by changing race and other things to appease social norms is pure b.s. If your trying to make something with somewhat historical accuracy then you need to stick to the time period and make things as they should be.

I'm glad we have a movie like the Northman, something made by people who actually respect the time period more than modern ideology.

Metatron spitting facts like a machine gun...as usual 😂😂😂

There was a Southern slave who (To broadstroke) escaped, joined the Navy, captured a Confederate ship, captained that ship to baval victories dyring the Civil War, got rich as hell, went back and bought the plantation he was a slave at. Where the hell is HIS Netflix series??? I'd watch the hell out of that.

My grandpa told me a story about when he was a kid here in Denmark in the 1930s where cargo ships would come in sometimes with a few crewmates of african decent, and people got scared of them. Black people until recently was really rare in scandinavia, like seeing a unicorn.

Look at The Last Samurai starring Tom Cruise. That film actually does historical diversity correctly, because it doesn't simply pretend that white men are a normal and respected part of samurai society. The movie shows that Tom's character, Nathan Algren, is different -- an outsider -- and that the samurai *view* him differently, and, indeed, negatively, until he earns their trust.

There are numerous sources talking about the enforced stratification in the Viking societies with Stormän (male rulers), Krigare (warriors), Trälar (slaves) and in rare instances Sköldmöer (shield maids). The slaves were indeed slaves and would rarely advance from their low positions although surely they had children with many of the free men and sometimes women in the Viking society. All other examples are exceptional rarities as would be with a Norse Pharaoh, an Asian Zulu king or a Roman Persian emperor.

As a white Scandinavian! I feel offended that they try to turn and twist our history for a quick buck. I agree that they should instead make series or movies about African history, I would much rather watch that and absolutely enjoy watching it.

Little-known fact, the Norsemen visited Mars via the Rainbow Bridge and therefore have some gray skin and black eyes within their DNA. That's also where Celtic Design came from, crop circles.

Honestly though, just for a moment try to imagine a Netflix series in 2022 set in the Viking age that DIDN’T have a black woman ruler in it! Impossible!

I just want to thank you for the extremely important service you are providing education the population of the truth. I’m sure it’s a thankless job a lot of the time, can’t imagine some of the comments you get from the false-info spreaders; but to 80% of people still grounded in reality, we thank you.

That blackwashing is infuriating! Netflix had a great tv series about black community - Luke Cage - showing contemporary black american culture, with great music, but sadly it was cancelled

Imagine if during the movie Zulu, there was just a random white guy with a spear and shield amongst the hundreds of Zulu warriors... Would it not take you immediately out of the scene? Of course it would. Would it be plausible? I guess... Because, you know, the Europeans and African tribes certainly intermingled. So... Makes perfect sense that there COULD have been a white Zulu warrior.

Thank you so very much sir... As a black person, I appreciate truth above inclusiveness. This, sticking us in places where we never were, is increasingly annoying !!!! I will be sharing this video, as I do with many of your other's... Once again, thank you.

I find it strange to give a woman the name haakon or håkan, since it is a distictly masculine name even to this day.

if it was the other way around, they'd be upset, this is all a joke. historical accuracy is never taken seriously.

Odds of a native American in Scandinavia: vikings came, kidnapped a native, the native American somehow survived the trip, the Scandinavian weather, Scandinavian diseseases (Europen diseases killed millions of native Americans because they didn't have an immune system adapted for it), became a free person, became a viking and no one ever wrote about this not even as a legend.

Thank God! You completely expressed what I've been feeling all along about blackwashing European history. Africa has a lengthy tradition of oral historians---the griots---who had the same role as the bards in Celtic Britain, and much of their narrative was written down by (of all people) white Victorian missionaries. Why doesn't the black community bring these myths/histories to life and take pride in their own ACTUAL backstory?!

I actually have an invisible, untrackable, undetectable unicorn with me, and you can't disprove it. I'm not crazy , you are crazy for not believing me.

Can we all just take a moment to appreciate how difficult it must have been for that poor woman to give birth to twins and have them survive in those times. Good on her.

Living in Sweden I've never even heard of a female Jarl, I'd like to think someone would have brought it up in all the years of fighting for equality.

The history of Africa is fascinating. They could make a historical drama like Vikings but set during the songhai period, for example.

I really do appreciate this channel (definitely subscribing). I have always been a sponge for knowledge and a bit history buff but in today's political climate it is extremely difficult to get the unadulterated truth. Too many agendas are clouding the waters and tainting the interests. For example, the fact that the LGBT has been allowed to piggie back the blk civil rights movement in the Americas is insulting and tiresome. For decades now, it has been a trope that almost anytime they include a blk/POC woman she MUST be lesbian or bisexual. Anyone viewing MSM from THIS time period would likely think there were no straight blk women...lol. The misrepresentation that can happen is hardly completely avoidable but at least this channel proves their are people willing to fully examine the facts and not get swept up in the nonsense.

It's insidious how especially this is going to be unquestionably believed by the younger gens bc the historical truth will have been removed

I grew up reading about all kinds of things about historical peoples and events and military history for fun - and the things they are pushing today, I don’t remember seeing at all. I commend you on your dedication on accuracy and continuing to question things rather than allowing yourself to be silenced by the mob. Keep the flame of truth lit, friend.

Imagine if every week Metatron had a person of different ethnicity/gender/sexual preference in his stead on the show, wearing a false beard and wig and speaking in his accent. I doubt people would be like "Finally! A Metatron I can relate to!". We appreciate people for who they are, history for what it was, and diversity in people's cultures and experience and hold true to it. Because that is a big part of what makes life beautiful and interesting.

Such a person would have been called "First name + the black". In the ancien times people with special characteristics were always designed by this characteristic : Oedipus (swollen feet), Réd haired Samson, Othello the Maure of Venice, Philippe le Bel, Bertha long foot, Louis the fat... In France, lots of names describe the person: Legrand, Legras, Lefol, Lesage, Lenoir, Leblanc. In the case of Lenoir or Leblanc, it means they were dark or fair haired.

this is so different to the character gull in Juliette Marillier's historical fantasy son of the shadows, set in 10th century Ireland. gull is a black man who serves as a warrior with a group of mercenaries' , however he's the only one we see in the entire series. Gull himself explains his backstory, that he was a slave of the Norse captured in a southern raid after being exiled from his home (he was captured somewhere near morocco, though that wasn't where he originally came from just where the norse captured him)), freed by the mercs, who he then stayed with, taking an animal tattoo as the other mercs did and a new name based on that animal. Later in the series, he becomes a medic, marries an Irish woman, and we see his children, who are less dark skinned than he is. Many native Irish do not like Gull, he's described as "A black devil", by one lord, indeed he tries to stay within the mercinary band where people accept him, and does not interact with people outside that group, indeed by the time Gull has children, the mercs have their own island and have established a fighting school, and Gull's kids will stay there, since again they know life will be difficult outside it. Marillier makes no attempt to say Ireland was "diverse", most characters are either Irish, or English. The merccs include a few people from other countries, EG Armoricans (from what is now France), Picts, and Norsemen, but most of the mercenaries are also mostly Irish, or English as well, the mercs are unusually accepting, but that's because of the attitude of their leader, and their general ethos of being a brotherhood where men leave their pasts behind, an attitude which obviously isn't carried outside the band. I don't know whether Marillier included Gull for reasons of "diversity", or just to emphasise the fact that this band of mercs take anyone from anywhere, and give them a chance at a new life, but either way, she gives a great example of how, if you're going to include someone from a distant country in your pre-industrial historical story, you dam well need a good explanation for how they got there, you can't just say "well these people were really diverse", and leve it at that.

As someone who is a history buf on vikings and studies old norse: 1) Jarls were elected. So "passing down" rulership as Jarl didnt happen. 2) In THEORY females could be elected as Jarl, in practise it never happened once 3) Black people amongst vikings did exist but were super rare. We know of one guy in iceland who was bought as slave and served, as slave, 10 years to his master, was then released and got citizenship in iceland so he was a black icelander. Not a viking though cause that happened AFTER the viking age. 4) While norse society was pretty progessive FOR ITS TIME it did have very strict gender roles and while being gay was legal, it was absolutely mocked into oblivion and looked down at. Just like a female could in theory become a Jarl but that would have been mocked and looked down at, not just her but the entire village, which is why it never happened. 5) on a sidenote valkries are mythology. Shieldmaidens too. Yes we have about 3 Sagas of women who took up arms but all of them did so in pure self defense to avoid being raped, and one wanted to protect her kids. They definitely did not join warparties for obvious reasons. 6) Vikings didnt have written....da...hell...what the....the vikings have left us TONS of written texts TONS OF EM, sagas ad nauseam, ballads, songs, texts of law....literacy among the norse was actually pretty good at least any idiot could write his name and a short sentence which they carved in houses, weapons, or just trees. 7) we dont know what they looked like ....ahm...we do. we do a lot. First we have depictions in said texts what certain heroes looked like, we have statues, we have reference of what they looked like from other cultures, and we have norse names like Bjarni which literally just means "blonde guy" 8) minor nitpick valhalla stands in germany. its often forgotten but norse and german(ic) culture was one and the same bar linguistic differences. 9) yes vikings mixed with other peoples but heres the catch - those who did usually stayed n those foreign countries as overpopulation or better said lack of free land in scandinavia was the main drive for young vikings to go elsewhere and explore to begin with... 10) again while true that a rare few scandinavian people of the viking era where not white, scandinavia was (and kinda still is) the whitest area on the planet. Poland, britain and germany in medieval times had more black and asian people than any scandinavian country. and there they were already very rare. say most big german cities had one black family but on the countryside people would never see a black person in their entire life

It's so tiresome to see another northern settlement named "Kattegat". Kattegat is not a habitated place, it's a body of water between Sweden and Denmark!

As a Norwegian I can say that Håkon is the worst name they could have chosen to try to not invoke thoughts of gender bending. It’s a purely male name and never used for females. It is also one of the most used names for kings, and one of the most famous of them are Håkon Håkonsen (Håkon son of Håkon) and Håkon Hårfagre. The actor and producers also seem very dismissive by telling us that we have to do our research to confirm the thing they tell us is absolutely possible. This makes me doubt the legitimacy of the rest of the show as well.

The saddest thing is Ms Hendersen equating divorce as something grand. Very sad what society counts as empowering.

My viking class teacher always used to say "just cuz we cant prove that lazer sharks wasnt a think in norway during the viking age doesnt mean there where lazer sharks in norway during the viking age"

Imagine we take a European, Asian or Native American woman and plop her into the pre-Zulu Kingdom area and name her Shaka Zulu. Then when anyone points out how this is wrong, we tell them that we don't have proof that there wasn't a European/Asian or Native American woman named Shaka Zulu who just so happened to rule in Africa that it's okay. It would be ludicrous. So is this.

Just like Giorgio Tsoukalos from Ancient Aliens said:" I'm not saying it was Alien, but it was Alien". 😂😂

when i read the article i could just feel my blood starting to boil.

Every European culture appears to have been "ethnically diverse" apart from sub Saharan Africa, native Americans etc..... lol

I doubt many Jarls married "for love." Marriage was a political tool in Medieval Europe, and rare indeed was the marriage based on a ruler meeting the woman of his dreams. A more probable story would have been that her Grandfather took her grandmother as a slave/concubine and, failing to produce heirs with his wife elevated one of her grandmother's sons to the throne, and she was that Jarl's only offspring. But I agree, using the name of a REAL Jarl is just baiting the hook so they can call those who take the bait racist.

People that say "Do your research" usually don't do their research.

Imagine if people started “tweaking” the history of other peoples and cultures, the outcry would be deafening. However, it is fair game to rifle through Western civilization and culture.