#495 – Vikings, Ragnar, Berserkers, Valhalla & the Warriors of the Viking Age

Where this was said

History and human nature

At 1:58:35 · chapter starts 1:56:57

The episode's closing hour ranges widely, from the surprising fact that Vikings were mocked by English settlers for bathing too frequently (and were reportedly more attractive to English women because of their grooming habits), to a deep discussion of the great man theory of history. Lars Brownworth comes down firmly on the side of individual agency: he cannot imagine the Protestant Reformation without Martin Luther, the Roman Empire without Augustus, or the Mongol conquests without Genghis Khan. But he qualifies this: 'the moment needs the man, but the man also needs the moment.' Lex and Lars discuss what the Byzantine Empire — with its 1,000-year lifespan and never a year of peace on all frontiers — teaches about governance, immigration, inflation, and the dangers of absolute power. Brownworth draws on Frederick Douglass and Marcus Aurelius to make his central argument: the great conversation of human history is accessible to everyone, because the people in it were not alien — they were psychologically identical to us. Human nature has not changed, which is why we must study history not as a collection of colorful anecdotes but as a diagnostic tool for understanding ourselves. The episode closes with two lines from the Volsunga Saga: 'Fear not death, for the hour of your doom is set, and none may escape it' and 'Better to fight and fall than to live without hope.'