History isn't just a bunch of names and dates and facts.

It's the collection of all the stories throughout human history that explained how and why we got here.

Welcome to the History Unplugged podcast, where we look at the forgotten, neglected, strange,

and even counterfactual stories that made our world what it is.

I'm your host, Scott Rank.

I have never seen bodies as nearly perfect as theirs.

As tall as palm trees, fair and reddish, they wear neither tunics nor coughtons.

Every man wears a cloak, with which he covers half of his body, so that one arm is uncovered.

They carry axes, swords, and daggers, and always have them to hand. They use Frankish swords with broad, rich blades. That is a complementary

description of a group of Vikings from the Arab traveler Ahmad Ibn Faldon, a scholar of Baghdad,

who was sent by the Caliph on a diplomatic mission to the Bulgars in 921 AD.

He first met these Norse warriors as he was traveling along Russia's steps, and the reason

he met them is because these Norsemen were by far the wealthiest civilization in Western

Eurasia, particularly as Europe struggled to consolidate in the centuries after the collapse

of the Roman Empire.

So we think of Vikings as not doing that much

except raiding coastlines and pillaging Irish monasteries, which they did, but they were also

some of the most well-traveled people of the time. They went to the courts of Constantinople,

the castles of England, and Ireland, and they left their deepest mark by traveling across

the Atlantic, where some would say the Vikings' legacy became the American

dream. Today's guest is Arthur Herman. He's the author of the book The Viking Heart, and we're

going to be discussing some of the unexplored legacies of the Vikings. In his book, he looks at

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