Yet behind their remarkable success lay one of history’s most turbulent marriages. Their relationship was defined by ambition, passion, rivalry, and eventual rebellion. Frequently divided by politics and war during their lives, they remain united in death at Fontevraud Abbey, where their effigies rest side by side.

In History Hit’s documentary The Ascent to Power: Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II, historians Matt Lewis and Eleanor Janega trace the rise of these extraordinary figures. Janega follows Eleanor’s journey from the wealthy courts of southern France, while Lewis examines Henry’s struggle to reclaim his inheritance during England’s civil war. Together, their stories reveal how two formidable personalities created one of the most powerful partnerships of the Middle Ages.

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Aliénor: Heiress of Aquitaine

To understand Eleanor, one must first understand Aquitaine. 12th century southern France was culturally and economically distinct from the feudal north. The region of Occitania was renowned for its wealth, wine, and vibrant artistic culture.

Born Aliénor of Aquitaine, Eleanor belonged to one of Europe’s most powerful noble families. The Dukes of Aquitaine controlled vast territories and cultivated a sophisticated courtly world. Their wealth is still reflected in the grand halls of Poitiers, where magnificent architecture proclaimed their prestige.

Aquitaine was also the birthplace of the troubadours – poet-musicians who travelled between aristocratic courts performing songs of politics, satire, and love. Eleanor’s grandfather, Duke William IX, is widely regarded as the first troubadour, helping to establish a cultural tradition that spread across Europe.

When a series of family tragedies left 13 year-old Eleanor as sole heir to Aquitaine in 1137, she became the most desirable bride in Europe. Unlike many regions, Aquitaine permitted female inheritance, and Eleanor had been educated to rule. To secure this immensely valuable duchy, the French crown arranged her marriage to the 17 year-old Louis VII, who soon became King of France.

Eleanor Janega and Matt Lewis in Aquitaine vineyard

Image Credit: History Hit

A failed royal marriage

The marriage quickly proved ill-suited. Eleanor was confident, charismatic, and politically engaged. Louis was deeply pious, having originally been raised for a religious life before the death of his older brother unexpectedly made him heir.

As royal historian Professor Kate Williams explains in the documentary, Louis’s upbringing left him deeply uncomfortable around women. Although Eleanor eventually bore two daughters, the absence of a male heir placed increasing strain on the relationship. Hostile chroniclers and political rivals fuelled rumours and accusations that further damaged the marriage.

Eleanor Janega and Professor Kate Williams discuss Eleanor of Aquitaine and Louis VII’s marriage.

Image Credit: History Hit

By 1152 the union had collapsed. After years of tension, church authorities annulled the marriage on the grounds of consanguinity, ruling that the couple were too closely related as fourth cousins. Aged 28, Eleanor found herself divorced but still in control of one of Europe’s richest territories.

Her independence made her powerful, but also vulnerable. She needed a strong ally capable of protecting Aquitaine and preserving her authority.

Henry of Anjou

That ally emerged in the form of Henry of Anjou.

Born in 1133 in Le Mans, Henry was the son of Geoffrey of Anjou and the Empress Matilda, daughter of King Henry I of England. Following Henry I’s death, Matilda’s claim to the English throne was challenged by Stephen, triggering the prolonged civil war known as The Anarchy.

Henry grew up amid violence and uncertainty. From an early age he believed the English crown belonged to him by right and dedicated himself to securing it. Contemporary accounts portray him as energetic, intelligent, and relentless, with exceptional military ability matched by fierce ambition.

As Matt Lewis notes, Henry was a rare medieval ruler whose strategic brilliance matched his determination. By his late teens he was already leading campaigns and negotiating with powerful rulers across Europe.

The documentary highlights a remarkable piece of evidence from the British Library: a series of 12th-century horoscopes compiled by the scholar Adelard of Bath. Drawing upon newly translated Arabic astronomical knowledge, the charts reveal that King Stephen’s court was consulting the stars to predict whether the formidable young Henry would successfully invade England – the medieval equivalent of forecasting a looming political crisis.

Series of 12th-century horoscopes compiled by the scholar Adelard of Bath, at the British Lilbrary

Image Credit: History Hit / The British Library

The marriage that created an Empire

Henry and Eleanor first met while she was still Queen of France. Whether romance played a role remains uncertain, but both recognised the political advantages of an alliance.

Following her annulment, Eleanor is said to have approached Henry with the prospect of marriage. On 18 May 1152, just eight weeks after her separation from Louis VII, the 28 year-old duchess married the 18 year-old duke at Poitiers Cathedral.

The consequences were immense. Through their union, Aquitaine joined Henry’s existing territories of Normandy, Anjou, Maine, and Touraine. The balance of power in France shifted overnight, leaving Louis VII facing a rival whose lands far exceeded his own.

Eleanor soon gave birth to a son, William, strengthening the new dynasty and providing the heir Louis had never had.

Meanwhile, Henry continued his campaign for the English throne. In 1153 he forced King Stephen into a settlement recognising him as heir. When Stephen died the following year, Henry and Eleanor were crowned King and Queen of England.

Their accession marked the birth of the Angevin Empire, a realm stretching from the Scottish border to the Pyrenees and encompassing some of the wealthiest territories in Europe.

Ambition behind the crown

The documentary also challenges romanticised portrayals of Eleanor and Henry’s early relationship. While later generations often imagined a great medieval love story, the evidence suggests a partnership driven as much by political necessity as personal attraction. 

Both were fiercely ambitious rulers determined to expand and defend their power. Their marriage united vast territories, strengthened dynastic claims, and transformed the political landscape of western Europe.

Yet the same qualities that made them such an effective team would later drive them into bitter conflict. During their rise, however, they proved formidable partners. In a fascinating discovery, Professor Nicholas Vincent examines a newly deciphered 12th-century manuscript containing the writings of the hostile chronicler Ralph the Black. Following this lead, Matt Lewis uncovers evidence that sheds new light on the realities behind the royal marriage – a relationship shaped not simply by romance, but by dynastic duty, political ambition, and a shared determination to wield power.

Professor Nicholas Vincent and Matt Lewis study Ralph the Black’s hostile 12th-century manuscript at The British Library.

Image Credit: History Hit / The British Library

The beginning of a dynasty

The story of Eleanor and Henry is ultimately one of resilience, ambition, and statecraft. Eleanor survived royal divorce and retained control of her inheritance in a world dominated by men. Henry emerged from civil war to become one of England’s most formidable monarchs.

Together they laid the foundations of the Plantagenet dynasty and created an empire that would shape the history of England and France for generations.

The Ascent to Power: Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II reveals how two extraordinary individuals transformed their fortunes – and medieval Europe itself – through a partnership that was as powerful as it was volatile.

Watch The Ascent to Power: Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II on History Hit and discover the origins of one of history’s most influential royal dynasties.

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In the latest episode of History Hit’s Rebels series, conflict analyst Professor Michael Livingston investigates the enigma of Simon de Montfort. Was he a noble visionary or a power-hungry aristocrat who plunged the realm into a merciless civil war? By exploring towering fortresses like Kenilworth Castle and analysing rare medieval manuscripts, Rebels: Simon de Montfort reveals a complex narrative. It is a story driven by personal charisma and bitter grudges, ultimately exposing the violent, high-stakes origins of England’s political reform.

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The rise of an unlikely favourite

The story of Simon de Montfort is an improbable one. A French noble with a tenuous claim to the Earldom of Leicester, he arrived in England in 1229 as a political nobody. Yet, through sheer “silver-tongued” charm and a pious nature that mirrored the King’s own religious devotion, he became an immediate royal favourite. 

Henry III was so taken with this charismatic newcomer that he allowed Simon to marry his sister, Eleanor, in a secret ceremony. It was a match that scandalised the established English barons, who watched with mounting resentment as this foreign “upstart” was welcomed into the very heart of the royal family.

Prof Livingston talks to Professor David Carpenter at Kenilworth Castle

Image Credit: History Hit

Friction and financial feuds

The “bosom of the royal family”, however, proved to be a nest of thorns. The relationship between the two men eventually soured, fuelled by de Montfort’s growing contempt for Henry’s perceived “simplicity.” While Simon was an intelligent and calculating strategist, he viewed the King as naive and emotional. This personal friction was exacerbated by massive financial grievances; Simon believed the King owed him and Eleanor a staggering sum – equivalent to the revenue of the entire kingdom. By the 1250s, the underlying tension was ready to ignite.

The spark was Henry’s disastrous and “imbecilic” rule. From a failed attempt to place his son on the throne of Sicily to the favouritism shown to his foreign relatives, the King had alienated his nobility. When the barons burst into Westminster in 1258, they forced Henry to agree to the ‘Provisions of Oxford’. This revolutionary document created a council of barons to oversee the King’s decisions, effectively attempting to install the machinery required to ensure a monarch obeyed the law. It was a direct challenge to the status quo, and it set England on a collision course with destiny.

Prof Livingston at Westminster Hall

Image Credit: History Hit

The machinery of war

The documentary vividly recreates the atmosphere of a kingdom sliding into all-out conflict. Professor Livingston explores the material culture of the era, from the heavy maille hauberks worn by 13th-century knights to the lethal daggers that served as the “ultimate killing weapon” in the close-quarters brutality of the Second Barons’ War. We see how Simon used both religious fervour and cold political strategy to bolster his cause, including the dark and mercenary targeting of England’s Jewish population – “effectively sort of economic resources for the king” explains historian Rory MacLellan – to drain the King’s resources and win over indebted nobles.

The birth of representative government

The climax of de Montfort’s rebellion came in 1264 at the Battle of Lewes, where he defeated the royalist forces and took both King Henry and Prince Edward prisoner. For a brief, extraordinary moment, Simon was the de facto ruler of England. During this time, de Montfort summoned the famous Parliament of 1265.

Professor Livingston visits the National Archives and talks to Dr Jessica Nelson, Head of Collections at the National Archives, who shows him the original record of the writs of summons, which had been sent out summoning people to the parliament which took place in January and February 1265.

Dr Jessica Nelson, Head of Collections at the National Archives in Kew, shows Prof Michael Livingston the record of the writs of summons sent out for the parliament of January and February 1265.

Image Credit: History Hit

While the document is framed as an official summons from King Henry III, we know Henry was a captive of Simon de Montfort, making his, in effect, a summons to de Montfort’s own parliament with the King serving as a mere puppet. The list of noble elites invited reveals the extent of this control: at the top sits the Earl of Leicester. “Of course, that’s Simon himself”, notes Dr Nelson, “so he’s top of the guest list for his own parliament.”

While parliaments were common for raising taxes, Simon’s version was revolutionary. For the first time in history, writs were sent out not just to the elites, but to “ordinary” representatives – two knights from each county and two citizens from each town. As Professor Livingston notes, while this was far from modern democracy, it was the embryonic beginning of what we now recognise as the House of Commons.

The escape of the Prince

Yet, holding power proved far more difficult than seizing it. The documentary explores the “cancer at the heart of the regime” – the captive royal family. De Montfort could not bring himself to depose or execute a King as pious as Henry, but his grip began to slip as powerful allies like the Earl of Gloucester deserted him. 

The turning point was the dramatic escape of Prince Edward, who outwitted his guards during a horse race and gathered a royalist army that outnumbered the rebels three to one.

Drawing of a stained glass window of Chartres Cathedral, depicting Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester

Image Credit: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The murder of Evesham

The final act played out in the loop of the River Avon at Evesham. Trapped by the geography of the landscape and bottled up by Edward’s forces, Simon de Montfort faced a choice: flee or fight. He chose the battlefield, famously remarking that a “knight’s place is on the battlefield, the chaplain’s in the church.” The resulting slaughter was so one-sided and vicious that chroniclers refused to call it a battle, labelling it instead “the murder of Evesham.”

In a chilling look at the end of a rebel, the episode examines the gruesome fate of de Montfort. The royalist death squad did not merely want him dead; they stripped him of his dignity and dismembered his body on the field. It was a brutal end for a man who had sought to bind the crown to the will of the people.

Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, in rebellion against Henry III, dies at the Battle of Evesham

Image Credit: James William Edmund Doyle, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A lasting constitutional legacy

Though Simon fell at Evesham, his ghost continued to haunt the halls of power. Just two years later, the ‘Statute of Marlborough’ echoed many of the reforms he had championed, serving as a permanent reminder that the King’s power was not limitless. 

Professor Livingston concludes that while de Montfort’s revolution brought suffering and ultimately failed in its time, it represented the essential first steps toward the representative democracy we enjoy today. As Livingston notes, to understand the roots of our modern world, one must understand the man who dared to tell a King, “Enough.” 

Watch Rebels: Simon de Montfort on History Hit to witness the birth of a legend and the bloody dawn of Parliament.

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Yet how much of this is historical fact, and how much is a brilliant exercise in 19th-century branding? The truth is far more complex, and infinitely more fascinating, than the legend.

The British Museum has recently unveiled an extraordinary new exhibition, bringing together 280 objects spanning six centuries of Japanese history. History Hit was granted exclusive, behind-the-scenes access to this incredible collection as it was readied for display. In our latest documentary, Samurai: Fighting the Myth, historian Matt Lewis goes beyond the glass cases to uncover the complex, adaptable, and often surprising reality of Japan’s elite warrior class.

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From mercenaries to masters: rise of the gentry

To understand the samurai, one must first dismantle the idea that they were always a landed aristocracy. Talking to British Museum curator and Japan specialist Dr Rosina Buckland, Matt Lewis explores the humble, often brutal origins of these warriors.

“The earliest appearance of these warriors as we think of them now is the 900s,” Dr Buckland explains. “You get this emergence of a class of mercenaries, and they are proxy warriors for these factions within the Imperial Court that are fighting against each other.”

Over time, these ‘swords for hire’ gained land and influence in rural regions, evolving into a landed gentry. By the late 12th century, following a series of brutal rebellions, the samurai wrested political control away from the Imperial Court in Kyoto. Establishing a military government in Kamakura in the east, they began a reign that would endure for nearly 700 years.

Japanese woodblock prints depicting samurai warriors, specifically portraying the historical figures Morimoto Gidayū Hidetora and Horimoto Gidayū Takatoshi.

Image Credit: History Hit

The three phases of the samurai

The long history of the samurai can be broken into three distinct eras:

Warfare (1185 – 1603): An age of constant internal strife, culminating in the Sengoku (Warring States) period, where rival clans battled for total dominance.

Peace (1603 – 1868): Following unification, the Edo period transformed the samurai. This “long peace” saw them transition from frontline soldiers to the nation’s administrators, government ministers, and ceremonial guardians.

Myth (1868 – present): Following the collapse of the Shogunate, the samurai passed into legend, and the modern misconceptions we hold today began to take root.

Engineering armour

Together with Dr Buckland, Matt takes a close-up look at a full suit of samurai armour. Far from being merely decorative, every lace and plate was a masterpiece of protective engineering.

“The helmet in a suit of armour is often the oldest part” explains Rosina. The striking star helmet (kabuto) featured in the documentary dates back to 1519, an era of intense combat. Designed for a high-ranking samurai, it was meant to be distinctive on the battlefield while directing the fighting. 

Matt and Dr Buckland discuss the intricate lacing of multiple overlapping iron plates, designed to absorb the impact of a blow while remaining flexible, as well as the articulated neck guards (shikoro) that offered protection without sacrificing mobility. The helmet features a dragon – a symbol of strength in East Asia – and a face mask (men po) with a fierce battle expression, designed to intimidate the enemy.

Interestingly, the armour also reveals early ‘globalisation’. Following the arrival of Portuguese traders in the 1500s, Japanese armourers began incorporating European styles – such as the rounded breastplate – into their designs to better defend against the new technology of musket fire.

Matt Lewis and Dr Rosina Buckland discuss a suit of samurai armour at The British Museum’s Samurai exhibition

Image Credit: History Hit

Mounted archers and “The Way of the Warrior”

Contrary to the ‘lone swordsman’ trope, the early samurai were primarily mounted archers. Combat usually took place in small, chaotic skirmishes in densely vegetated uplands. It was only in later centuries, as armies grew and battlefields widened, that infantry and the iconic curved blade (katana) became the central focus of warfare.

Underpinning this martial skill was Bushido, or ‘the way of the warrior’. This principle of honour and loyalty was the strategic glue that held clan alliances together in a world where betrayal could mean the total annihilation of a family line.

Beyond the battlefield

After decades of civil war, Tokegawa Ieyasu emerged victorious in 1603, establishing the Tokegawa Shogunate. This unified Japan under a central military rule that presided over two centuries of relative peace. 

Perhaps the most surprising revelation in the exhibition is what the samurai did when they weren’t fighting. During the Edo period, warfare became an identity rather than a daily reality, leading to a deep involvement in the arts. High-ranking samurai became masters of elaborate theatrical performances (Noh Drama), formal and highly ritualised tea preparation (Chanoyu), calligraphy and painting, and interestingly the connoisseurship of Chinese antiques.

Samurai women

The documentary also challenges the male-centric view of samurai society. While men held the public roles, women were the formidable ‘heads of the household’, managing complex operations involving dozens of staff and the vital education of heirs. In times of crisis, the wife of a regional lord was often left in charge of the defence of the castle, wielding significant tactical and political power.

Reproduction of 1867 ukiyo-e woodblock print created by the artist Utagawa Yoshiiku.

Image Credit: History Hit

The birth of a legend

Why did the myth of the ‘lone swordsman’ samurai persist so strongly in the West?  Dr Buckland explains that the samurai were meticulous “image-makers” themselves – “they’re very concerned with projecting the correct image” she says.

When the West encountered Japan extensively in the late 19th century, it lapped up this visual material. There was a fashion in Europe at the time for medieval imagery, and Japan offered an ‘ideal warrior’ that was wholeheartedly imported. To the Western imagination, the myth was simply more attractive than the administrative reality.

The end of an era, the start of a legacy

By 1868, the samurai had become an expensive relic. Reorganised under a new constitutional monarchy, they were stripped of their status and stipends, forced to find work in a rapidly modernising world. For a generation, they were seen as remnants of an obsolete past.

It was only when they were safely distant in history that nostalgia bloomed. This sentiment, combined with international fascination, rehabilitated the samurai into the global icon we recognise today.

The British Museum’s exhibition is a rare opportunity to see the artefacts that survived this transition – from the mud of the warring states to the refined tea rooms of Edo.

Watch Samurai: Fighting the Myth on History Hit and discover why the truth is far more legendary than the myth.

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In History Hit’s new documentary, Beijing Central Axis: China’s Medieval Wonder, Dan Snow explores this perfectly straight meridian – a World Heritage site that still dictates the architectural symmetry and urban flow of the capital today. From its Yuan Dynasty foundations to the monumental projects of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the axis connects icons like the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven, revealing a city whose modern footprint still honours a centuries-old imperial plan.

Cycling the length of this historic line, Dan follows in the footsteps of the emperors and labourers who built this vast capital, uncovering clues to China’s past hidden in plain sight. Featuring special access to some of Beijing’s most exclusive locations, the film offers a fascinating look at the ancient soul surviving within a modern giant – one of the most organised and awe-inspiring cities on Earth.

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The Mongol blueprint: from Dadu to Beijing

Dan begins his journey by bicycle in northern Beijing, tracing the city’s origins back to the 13th century. While the area has been settled for 3,000 years – a full millennium longer than London – it was Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, who truly transformed the landscape.

In 1272, he established the Yuan Dynasty and renamed the city Dadu, the ‘Great Capital’. It was a staggering feat of urban planning, home to nearly a million people and enclosed by massive earthen walls that remain visible today. This was the Mongol city that mesmerised the Venetian explorer Marco Polo, whose accounts of its wealth and grid-like precision in his book ‘The Travels’ seemed like pure fantasy to medieval European ears.

The Kaogong ji: architecture as cosmology

Less than a century after Dadu’s completion, the Yuan Dynasty was overthrown by the Ming Dynasty, and Dadu was raised to the ground. However, in 1402, a new Ming Emperor seized the throne: the Yongle Emperor. Seeking a capital that reflected his absolute power, he ordered Beijing (the “Northern Capital”) to be reborn on Dadu’s foundations in 1403. 

Scale model of Beijing at the Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall

Image Credit: Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall / History Hit

At the Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall, Dan examines a scale model that reveals the city’s true “spinal cord”: the Central Axis. Unlike London or Paris, which evolved organically along meandering rivers, Beijing was built to a strict manual. The Kaogong ji (‘Records of Trades’), a Zhou Dynasty text over 2,000 years old, served as a technical and cosmological guide for the “correct” design of almost anything. 

Historian Jeremiah Jenne explains to Dan that the city’s layout was designed to mirror the heavens. Just as Polaris, the North Star, remains fixed in the sky, the Emperor was the fixed point on Earth – seated at the exact centre of a universal order.

The Drum and Bell

After gaining a bird’s-eye perspective of the city, Dan heads to the axis’s northern terminus: the historic Drum and Bell Towers. During the Ming Dynasty, these structures were the city’s official timekeepers. Their thunderous beats and chiming bells could be heard over 20km away, marking the vital pulses of daily life and dictating the rhythm of the imperial capital.

Dan at the Drum and Bell Towers, Beijing

Image Credit: History Hit

The heart of the Axis: The Forbidden City

Travelling south, Dan reaches Jingshan Park. This hill provides the ultimate vantage point, but is entirely man-made – constructed from the rubble of the demolished Mongol palace. According to the principles of feng shui, it was placed to protect the new Imperial headquarters from “evil spirits” drifting in from the north. 

From this height, the Forbidden City reveals its true scale. Constructed between 1406 and 1420 to be the most opulent palace on Earth, it housed 24 emperors over five centuries. Today, it is now the most visited historical site on the planet, welcoming 15 million people annually.

View of The Forbidden City from Jingshan Park

Image Credit: History Hit

Inside the Hall of Supreme Harmony, Dan views the Dragon Throne – the seat of the ‘Imperial Dragon’. He explains how the palace, while a masterpiece of joinery, was a nightmare for fire safety. Built largely of wood, the main halls were tragically burned by a lightning strike within a year of completion, leaving the Ming emperors in a constant state of vigilance.

Life in the shadows: The Hutongs

Beijing was never just a palace; it was a living, breathing community. To find the pulse of “Old Beijing,” Dan explores the Hutongs – tightly packed alleyways where the craftsmen, artists, and servants of the palace once lived.

The word Hutong comes from the Mongolian word for “water,” as these neighbourhoods were built around communal wells. Meeting with cultural heritage expert Matthew Hu, Dan learns more about the Courtyard Institute. These homes were built with the same feng shui rigour as the palace. Designed to foster communal life, Matthew Hu describes them as “like villages in cities.”

The Temple of Heaven

On the Winter Solstice, the Central Axis became the stage for China’s most important religious ritual. The Emperor would make a solemn procession to the Temple of Heaven. Located slightly southeast of the axis – the direction of the rising sun and “positive” energy – this temple was where the “Son of Heaven” prayed for good harvests and for the empire.

Historian Zhang Huawei explains that during this procession, the city went into lockdown. Commoners were forced to shutter their windows; to look upon the Emperor as he moved toward the temple was strictly forbidden.

Dan talks to historian Zhang Huawei

Image Credit: History Hit

Modern harmony: the Axis extends

Dan finishes his journey along the axis at the Yongdingmen Gate, the southern gateway of Beijing. Though demolished in the 1950s to make way for roads, it was meticulously reconstructed in the early 2000s.

Dan then concludes his visit at the Bird’s Nest Stadium, the centrepiece of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Strategically placed as a modern northern extension of the Central Axis, the stadium proves that Beijing’s 600-year-old “spine” is still growing. In Beijing, the ancient and the avant-garde sit in perfect harmony, balanced on a line drawn by emperors centuries ago.

Watch Beijing Central Axis: China’s Medieval Wonder now to see Dan Snow uncover the heartbeat of this magnificent city.

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By 930 AD, the initial “Age of Settlement” had ended, and the true test began: the “Age of Survival“, a period defined by the need for order, domestic ingenuity, and the power of the spoken word.

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Law on the edge of the world

As Iceland’s population swelled, the need for order became paramount. Dan’s journey begins at Þingvellir, the breathtaking Mid-Atlantic rift where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates pull apart at a rate of 2.5cm every year. 

It was atop this literal scar in the earth that the Vikings established the Althing, the world’s oldest surviving national parliament. In 930AD, in a land of extremes without a king, these pioneers chose to “thrash out” a legal code peacefully, proving that survival was as much about communal structure as it was about physical grit.  While much of Europe was governed by the whim of monarchs, the Icelanders were practicing a raw, tectonic form of democracy.

Production shot at at Þingvellir, the site of the Viking Althing.

Image Credit: History Hit

The Sagas: storytelling as a survival strategy

Yet, law alone couldn’t get a family through a brutal Arctic winter. Survival required a social fabric to match the stockpiled grain: stories. From supernatural tales of witches and ghosts to the legendary Icelandic Sagas, these narratives – later collated by figures like the 13th-century scholar Snorri Sturluson – became the island’s cultural glue. 

These epic tales cover everything from bloody revenge to the crushing weight of loneliness, providing hope, entertainment, and a moral and historical anchor for a people on the fringe of the known world. Today, these sagas remain the blueprint for modern fantasy, inspiring everything from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Original book making up part of the Icelandic Sagas

Image Credit: History Hit

Viking “vanity”?

Whilst we often imagine the Vikings as “stinky, uncontrolled louts,” the archaeological record tells a different story. In reality, the Norse were far more meticulous about their appearance than the Christian chroniclers they despoiled gave them credit for.

Dan explores one of the most commonly found Viking-age artefacts: the bone comb. Far from being dishevelled, Viking men were famously well-groomed. The 12th-century English chronicler John of Wallingford noted that the Vikings caused “much trouble to the natives” of England because they combed their hair daily, bathed every Saturday, and changed their garments often. 

Dan Snow with a replica of a Viking bone comb (replica made from plastic)

Image Credit: History Hit

“The reputation for being filthy likely comes from their enemies – Christian priests,” Dan explains, whose monasteries the Vikings despoiled. “They painted the Vikings as dishevelled on the outside to reflect an ‘evil, pagan soul’ within.” 

In Iceland, this cleanliness was bolstered by the island’s geology; the Vikings harnessed natural hot springs for bathing and cleaning clothes – a tradition Dan experiences firsthand with a dip in a remote volcanic spring.

Production shot of Dan Snow at an Icelandic thermal stream

Image Credit: History Hit

The reality of violence

While the Sagas are filled with blood feuds, Dan investigates whether the Icelandic Vikings were actually more peaceful than their European neighbours. Speaking with Dr Joe Wallace Walser III at the Museum of Iceland, Dan handles a genuine Viking skull and notes a surprising lack of swords.

“We see more axe heads and spears,” Joe explains. “Axes were multi-functional tools for farmers and fishermen.” The evidence suggests that most settlers were looking for opportunity rather than a constant battle.

Large-scale warfare is rare in the early Icelandic record; instead, we see a life of hard work and interpersonal disputes settled at the Althing. The Sagas’ massive battles were likely “colourful” exaggerations or memories of a more violent life left behind in Scandinavia.

Dan Snow speaks to Dr Joe Wallace Walser III at the Museum of Iceland and sees a real Viking skull

Image Credit: History Hit

The invisible backbone: the role of women

Dan speaks to historian Dr Kate Lister to uncover the vital, often overlooked role of women. “Without the women, there is no Viking Age at all,” Kate notes. As men spent long periods away, women were the primary keepers of the homestead, with the Sagas even describing powerful matriarchs leading settlement charges from the Hebrides to Iceland. 

While their roles were primarily domestic – weaving, sewing, cooking and managing the homestead – they were the ultimate managers of the Viking economy and the educators of the next generation.

A genetic mystery

Research into early Icelandic DNA has revealed a surprising truth: up to half of the female (mitochondrial) DNA in the earliest settlements came from the British Isles. This suggests that as the Norse travelled toward Iceland, they “picked up” women from the UK. Whether these unions were consensual or the result of Viking slavery or their use of a system of concubinage remains one of history’s “unknowable questions,” says Kate, though evidence suggests a complex mix of both.

Dan has a go at combing wool as the Viking women would have done, with Viking expert expert Bjarnheidur Jóhannsdóttir

Image Credit: History Hit

The endless labour of survival

To understand the sheer scale of the work performed by women, Dan visits a replica longhouse 90km from Reykjavik. He speaks to expert Bjarnheidur Jóhannsdóttir, who explains how survival in the harsh environment meant no one was ever idle. A staggering amount of work was required, which also helped them to stay warm. Even during the dark winters, often while reciting the Sagas, hands were busy whittling or braiding in the low light.

Combing wool was a massive, time-consuming process. Bjarnheidur explains that a single 80-square-metre sail for a longship could take up to three years to weave, making it as expensive as the ship itself. The sail – the very symbol of Viking expansion – was a testament to the patient, persistent labour of the women left behind.

Dr Kate Lister and Dan Snow in Iceland with Laura and Annie from History Hit’s production team

As women combed wool and men braved the North Atlantic, they shared the stories that would eventually include the Saga of Erik the Red and the Vinland Sagas. At the Árni Magnússon Institute, Dan and curator Gisli Sigurðsson discuss this adventurous dynasty, including Leif Erikson, the first European to set foot in North America.

The recording of these stories was the beginning of our global fascination with Viking culture. From sophisticated grooming to the indomitable strength of the women who ran their world, the story of Icelandic survival is a testament to human resilience.

Watch Icelandic Vikings: Survival now, or catch-up with Episode 1, Icelandic Vikings: Arrival

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In History Hit’s new two-part documentary, Icelandic Vikings, Dan Snow journeys across this mythical terrain to uncover the secrets of the first settlers. From visiting a replica turf home to the ingenious use of geothermal springs to bake ‘volcano bread’, in episode 1, Icelandic Vikings: Arrival, Dan uncovers how a band of defiant explorers tamed one of the most remote islands on Earth.

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When did the Vikings truly arrive?

The term ‘Viking’ stems from the Old Norse víkingr (Vigh-king) – meaning pirate, raider. They came from Scandinavia and quickly spread across the world. During the 9th and 10th centuries, an estimated 60,000 vikings made Iceland their home. 

For decades, historians relied on traditional sagas to date the settlement of Iceland to the late 9th century. However, at the Settlement Exhibition museum in Reykjavík, Dan Snow talks to guide Vala Gardarsdóttir and sees evidence that is rewriting history. By analysing tephra (layers of volcanic ash from known eruptions that act as a ‘geological clock’) archaeologists have identified Norse structures dating back as far as 800 or 830 AD.

This discovery, including a boundary wall unearthed during the construction of an underground parking lot in 2001, suggests that permanent Norse settlements were established nearly 70 years earlier than previously thought, revealing that the roots of Icelandic culture run far deeper than the sagas suggest.

Dan Snow visits the Settlement Exhibition museum in Reykjavík where he talks to guide Vala Gardarsdóttir

Image Credit: History Hit

Life inside a turf house

In the documentary, Dan travels to the Dalasýsla region to explore a meticulously reconstructed Viking home, where he meets Bjarnheidur Jóhannsdóttir to uncover the realities of Norse domestic life in this landscape.

These weren’t drafty wooden huts; they were sophisticated turf houses. With walls over a metre thick, constructed from tightly packed roots and turf, these homes were marvels of thermal insulation. Inside, around 15 people lived together in a single longhouse, centred around a communal hearth that served as a primary sources of heat, light, and social connection.

Bjarnheidur explains how while the ‘Master of the House’ was often absent for months on raiding or trading expeditions, the women ruled the domestic sphere. The ‘lady of the house’ held the keys to the locked pantry – the most vital room in the home, where winter provisions were guarded to ensure the family’s survival in winter.

Before the Vikings, 40% of Iceland was covered in birch forests. Within a century, the voracious need for fuel and grazing land decimated these woodlands, forcing the settlers to adapt by using turf as their primary building material.

Dan Snow and Bjarnheidur Jóhannsdóttir in a replica Viking turf house, in the Dalasýsla region of Iceland.

Image Credit: History Hit

Mastering the North Atlantic

The Vikings were, first and foremost, the greatest mariners of their age. Viking ships were clinker-built, featuring overlapping hull planks that made them light, flexible, yet incredibly strong. Vikings relied on ingenious natural markers for navigation, including solar navigation and by observing the flight of birds, specifically ravens; if the bird flew high and returned to the ship, land was far away. If it disappeared toward the horizon, the crew knew they were nearing an island and followed its lead.

To understand how they navigated the treacherous waters of the North Atlantic, Dan takes to the sea off the coast of Reykjavík for some fishing.

Dan has some success at fishing in the North Atlantic!

Image Credit: History Hit

The Book of Settlements

For Icelanders, history is far more than a chronology of dates – it is a living record of ancestral rights. Dan visits the Árni Magnússon Institute to see a copy of one of the most sacred documents in Icelandic culture: the Landnámabók, or ‘Book of Settlements’.

This extraordinary document serves as a bridge between the medieval and modern worlds. It places Iceland within the wider context of early European history, referencing the Venerable Bede (the ‘father of English history’) and noting with seafaring precision that Iceland lay exactly six days’ sailing north of Britain.

More than just a chronicle, this was a massive folklore project designed to codify the nation’s origin story. It meticulously records the names of the original pioneers and the precise boundaries of their claims. As expert Gísli Sigurðsson explains, the text is so geographically accurate that it still defines the borders of many modern-day farms. It is truly a ‘map of a nation’s soul’, securing the land through the epic stories of those who first stepped onto its black sand beaches.

Dan speaks to Gísli Sigurðsson at the Árni Magnússon Institute to see the Landnámabók – the ‘Book of Settlements’ – with production crew.

Image Credit: History Hit

A taste of the settlement age

Life in the North Atlantic wasn’t just about survival; it was also about flavour. In the wild Westfjords, Dan forages for crowberries and helps bake traditional geothermal rye bread. By burying the dough in a pipe in the bubbling hot springs of a volcanic area, the Vikings learnt to harness the island’s subterranean energy to create a delicious, dense cake-like loaf of bread – a culinary tradition that continues in Iceland to this day.

Dan also encounters the Icelandic horse. Brought over on longships by the original 9th century settlers, this unique breed has remained genetically isolate for over a thousand years. Its legendary strength and steady ‘fifth gait’ provided the only reliable way for the first Vikings to traverse the treacherous, rugged, roadless interior.

Dan rides an Icelandic horse

Image Credit: History Hit

Paradise or Valhalla?

With its abundance of walrus ivory, rivers teeming with salmon, and the miraculous gift of geothermal heat, Iceland must have seemed like a paradise to the first settlers. Yet did this ‘Land of Fire and Ice’ truly become an earthly Valhalla, or did the human hunger for power and resources lead to its eventual ruin?

While the first episode of Icelandic Vikings: Arrival celebrates the triumph of human spirit and exploration, the story doesn’t end there. Join Dan Snow for Episode Two (releasing 8 January 2026), as he ventures into the ‘Age of Survival’. From the breathtaking plains of Þingvellir – home to the world’s oldest parliament – to the jagged lava fields of the interior, Dan uncovers the bloody, complex truths hidden within the legendary Icelandic Sagas.

Watch Icelandic Vikings: Arrival now on History Hit (with thanks to Visit Iceland).

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In History Hit’s new documentary, The Dead of Winter: Medieval Ghost Stories, Eleanor draws on medieval chronicles, religious monuments, and Icelandic sagas to uncover why the dead were believed to walk again. By investigating the supernatural potency of the winter solstice, she reveals how these haunting tales reflect deep-seated anxieties over sin, salvation, and the bonds of medieval community that still echo across the centuries.

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Purgatory and the returning dead

As the days shorten and the nights stretch toward the winter solstice, the shadowed weeks of Advent transform into a journey into the heart of darkness. In the medieval world, it was believed that the veil between the living and the dead reached its thinnest, allowing spirits to walk openly among the living. As families huddled around the hearth to stave off the biting cold and the darkness, ghost stories shared in the flickering firelight reached the height of their haunting potential.

Countless ghost stories survive from this era because, for the medieval mind, death was a transition rather than an end.  “For medieval people, there wasn’t much of a line between the living and the dead,” explains Eleanor. Spirits returned for many reasons, with purpose: to frighten, to warn, or to plead for mercy.

The emergence of Purgatory – a realm of post-mortem purification – radically transformed the ghost story. Spirits were increasingly seen as souls returning to beg for help, urging the living to shorten their suffering through prayer and religious intercession. These were more than just tales of terror; they were profound expressions of faith and hope in a world where death was a constant companion.

Dr Eleanor Janega on location in Norfolk

Image Credit: History Hit

The Dark Hunt of Peterborough

One of the most chilling accounts comes from Peterborough Abbey, 900 years ago – at the time one of England’s most important strongholds of Christianity. In 1127, the community was paralysed by the arrival of “The Wild Hunt.” Recorded in two separate contemporary chronicles, eyewitnesses described a terrifying procession of “black, huge, and loathsome” hunters riding black horses and billy goats, accompanied by wide-eyed hounds. The horns of the hunt reportedly rang through the woods for 50 nights – the entire end of winter.

However, Eleanor uncovers a fascinating political layer to this haunting. The apparition began the night after the arrival of a new abbot, Henry of Poitou. A relative of King Henry I, Poitou was viewed by the local monks as a “drone in the hive” – a foreign interference interested only in wealth and power, and a means through which the king could assert his authority over the monasteries – bypassing the traditional custom of the monks electing their leader.

“The Peterborough hunt is an incredibly convenient haunting,” Eleanor points out. The monks used the story to suggest that God Himself was displeased with the appointment. The Wild Hunt was a tangible sign of divine wrath, showing how ghost stories allowed the Church to resist royal control and assert its own authority on how things should be done.

Dr Eleanor Janega and Bill Locke (Head of Programming and Executive Producer) on location

Revenants: the physical dead

Beyond the spectral warnings from Purgatory lay a much more visceral fear: the revenant. Unlike the ghosts of modern cinema, medieval revenants were often believed to be physical corpses that refused to stay in the ground.

Eleanor explores these “living dead” in the documentary through several chilling examples:

• The Chained Monk: A spirit so restless and troubled that his corpse had to be buried in iron chains to prevent it from rising.
• The Icelandic Sagas: Tales of drowned men returning to their villages, dripping with seawater, to sit by the hearths of the living.
• The Warning from Purgatory: A young choir girl sent back to the world of the living with a chilling message regarding the state of her soul.

Protecting against these physical threats required constant vigilance, turning rituals and prayers into essential tools for survival. The Church became the ultimate shield, using these stories to teach moral behaviour and enforce social order.

Some of the History Hit production team filming in Norfolk

Image Credit: History Hit

A legacy that lingers

Eleanor concludes that medieval ghost stories were never intended just to frighten. They were a way to explain the world, to enforce duty and honour, and to build community around the shared hearth during the long, cold winter.

“We still do it today,” Eleanor says. “We use ghost stories to bring us together and explain the world around us.” Whether it is a warning from Purgatory or a black hound in the night, these stories still echo across the centuries, reminding us that even in our modern world, we still have a fascination with what lingers in the dark.

Step into the shadows this solstice and join Dr Eleanor Janega for The Dead of Winter: Medieval Ghost Stories, available now on History Hit.

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In History Hit’s new documentary, The Trials of Joan of Arc, Dr Eleanor Janega investigates the evidence from the extraordinary trials that framed Joan’s short yet impactful life. Eleanor follows in Joan’s footsteps, from the royal court at Chinon to her military triumph in Orléans, tracing a journey of faith, warfare, and profound betrayal.

Join Eleanor as she unravels one of history’s most powerful “what ifs” and ask why a teenage girl remains the ultimate symbol of French national pride.

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The Dauphin’s desperation

In 1429, with France fractured by the Hundred Years’ War (now in its 91st year), the monarchy faced collapse. After the crushing defeat at Agincourt in 1415, and deep divisions caused by the civil war between the Armagnacs and the powerful Burgundians, the French were dispossessed. The claimant to the French throne, Charles the Dauphin, was trapped in his castle at Chinon, desperate for a miracle as the English laid siege to Orléans, the last loyal stronghold.

Into this crisis stepped Joan, a young woman born in 1412, who claimed to receive holy visions telling her of a divine mission: she was sent by God to break the siege at Orléans and deliver the Dauphin to be crowned King of France.

Joan’s first trial was convincing the desperate Dauphin to listen to a poor peasant girl. Dressed in men’s clothing for credibility, she proved her mandate by immediately identifying Charles in the crowd at court despite his attempts to conceal himself.

The Dauphin was facing a political nightmare – following his father’s death, the French had been forced to disinherit their own royal line in favour of the English infant, Henry VI. Joan promised to fix everything, but the stakes were impossibly high. As Eleanor explains, in the Middle Ages, her visions could just as easily be attributed to the devil as to God. 

Joan of Arc’s visions – by Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848–1884)

Image Credit: Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848–1884) / Public Domain

Trials of plausibility and piety

Having gained the nickname ‘La Pucelle’ (the maiden) Joan faced intense theological and physical scrutiny to confirm she was not a heretic. Joan was rigorously questioned by clergy – a test few uneducated young women could have passed – to ensure her faith was sound. She also underwent a physical examination to ensure she was still a virgin (as the devil could not claim a virgin).  Her extraordinary conviction and quick wit – once telling a cleric her heavenly voices spoke in a better dialect than his own – made her plausible.

Joan passed every test. Convinced of her divine mission, the desperate Dauphin equipped her for war with special armour, a sword, and a white banner.

The battle came at Orléans, where six months of French efforts to break the siege had failed. Arriving in April 1429, Joan was not merely a figurehead; her presence and vision – that victory would come if her banner touched the English fortress of Tourelles – reinvigorated the demoralised French troops. 

Joan and her forces pressed forward successfully. As historian Matt Lewis asserts to Eleanor, “it’s hard to believe this would have happened if Joan was not here.” Joan had injected belief into the people – the crucial conviction that “not just that they could win, but that God wanted them to win”.

Historians Matt Lewis and Dr Eleanor Janega in Orléans, France

Image Credit: History Hit

Triumph and the turning point

With Orléans relieved, Joan’s mission was half complete. She smashed through English territory to reach Reims, the highly symbolic, traditional site for the coronation of French kings. Along the way, Joan had letters sent to French towns urging support and war supplies. Eleanor points out that while Joan likely couldn’t write, her ability to dictate and mark official documents with her signature was remarkable for a young girl of her time.

These letters also show a contrast in her character: one letter pleads with the Duke of Burgundy to call off his forces due to the sadness and pain the war was causing, demonstrating her conscience, while another urges the sending of gunpowder, revealing her fierce warrior spirit.

On 17 July 1429, the Dauphin Charles was crowned King Charles VII with Joan by his side. Despite having achieved everything she had promised, Joan wanted more. Her zeal to drive the English entirely from France quickly caused divisions with King Charles, who preferred diplomacy and treaties over the total warfare Joan felt was God’s command. The cracks widened when Charles called off the fighting at Paris, an action that enraged Joan, while the King grew weary of being commanded by a teenage girl. 

The campaign against Joan

By September 1429, Charles had disbanded the army, leaving Joan to set out on her own with a large volunteer force. Joan became the target of a campaign by English-aligned scholars to discredit her as a fraud: if she had divine favour, how could she lose a battle? The end came on 23 May 1430, when she was captured by the Burgundians and swiftly sold to the English. Shockingly, King Charles VII, whom she had saved, made no attempt to rescue her.

The English immediately initiated a political show trial for heresy in January 1431, led by Bishop Cauchon (a loyal Burgundian), intending to invalidate Charles’s kingship by proving Joan was sent by the devil. 

In the documentary, Eleanor meets Professor Anne Curry, who details how although treated formally, Joan’s independent religious conviction and insistence on wearing men’s clothes violated Canon Law and became pivotal evidence against her. 

After initially confessing her heresy to avoid death, 4 days later, knowing the likely outcome and perhaps intending on martyrdom, Joan relapsed, choosing to wear men’s clothing again and claiming she had heard her voices. This was deemed final proof of heresy, leading to her being burned at the stake on 30 May 1431, in Rouen. Her remains were destroyed to prevent the creation of martyr relics. 

Dr Eleanor Janega with Professor Anne Curry

Enduring icon

Though Joan was dead her cause endured. 22 years later, after the English had been expelled from almost all of France, Joan’s family successfully initiated a second trial to annul the conviction. Eyewitnesses were called, the archives were opened, and on 7 July 1456, Joan was officially pardoned, transforming her into a martyr. Eleanor notes that in death Joan became more important as a rallying point for an idea of Frenchness – “a symbol of a cause who hadn’t been worth enough alive to be protected by the people she died in service to”.

As Eleanor concludes, Joan’s immense legacy endures in art and popular culture, with Corentin Dury, Curator at the Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Orléans, explaining how Joan has “inspired so many people in so many different ways.” Her story reveals the surprising knowledge ordinary medieval women possessed regarding complex legal and church doctrine, military tactics, and politics.

Dr Eleanor Janega with Corentin Dury, Curator at the Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Orléans

Joan was made a saint in 1920, serving as an icon of resilience for post-World War One France. Interestingly, Eleanor notes that modern admiration for Joan often focuses on the traditionally “masculine” traits for which she was killed: her courage, leadership, and her willingness to fight, suggesting we still prefer to see female power expressed through warrior tropes. 

Nonetheless, despite her youth, Joan single-handedly changed the course of French and European history, offering thousands of reasons for her story to be reconsidered today.

Join Dr Eleanor Janega on a journey into one of history’s most captivating stories in The Trials of Joan of Arc.

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In The Ashmolean Up Close: King Alfred’s Jewel, historian Dan Snow explores what he calls “one of the greatest treasures of the Ashmolean Museum.” Guided by the museum’s Director, Dr Xa Sturgis, Dan gets exclusive access to the meticulous craftsmanship and revolutionary clues contained within the jewel and other spectacular finds that are rewriting the history of Anglo-Saxon England.

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The enigma of the Alfred Jewel

The Alfred Jewel is renowned for its intricate beauty, but also for its mystery. The original Alfred Jewel is too precious to be removed from its case, but Dan is allowed to handle a replica of the jewel, which features a tear-shaped rock crystal and a stylised enamelled figure set beneath it. Crucially, around the edge, a gold inscription mentions “Alfred” by name – an extraordinary link, as it makes the jewel one of the only objects besides coins that can be directly attributed to the King, even though the writing doesn’t specifically state the word ‘king’.

However, the identity of the figure remains debated: Is it Christ? Is it Alfred himself? Dr Sturgis explains that the lack of a crown or halo suggests it could be a personification of the sense of sight. Even the jewel’s purpose is a puzzle. Given a creature carved at the base has a hole for a rivet, the most accepted theory is that the jewel functioned as an “aestel” – a valuable pointer used by priests to keep their place while reading or copying precious manuscripts and to prevent damage to pages.

This theory aligns perfectly with a statement Alfred wrote in a book he sent to all his bishops, commanding that “in each book there is an aestel of gold, and I command in God’s name that no man take the pointer from the book.”

The Alfred Jewel

Image Credit: History Hit / Ashmolean Museum

Athelney and the turning point

The location where the jewel was found – near the Somerset bogs of Athelney – is “very suggestive indeed,” according to Dr Sturgis. Athelney is famously associated with the nadir of Alfred’s reign: the low point when he was driven out by the Vikings and forced to hold out on the marshy isle (giving rise to the legend of the burnt cakes). Ten years later, following his spectacular victory at the Battle of Edington in 878 AD, Alfred founded an Abbey near Athelney.

It makes historical sense that if Alfred were to send an aestel to the Abbey, it would be a particularly magnificent one, linking the grand object directly to the most critical turning point of his life and reign.

Anglo-Saxon broken sword handle and coins found in the Watlington Hoard

The secret life of a kingdom

Dan also examines other objects from the Ashmolean that reveal the complex power politics of Alfred’s time, a period when England was divided between Alfred’s Kingdom of Wessex, the Danes, and the independent Duchy of Mercia.

The key to rewriting this history lies in the Watlington Hoard, a recent discovery of coins and silver found by a metal detectorist in 2015. The hoard, believed to have been buried by a Viking around 880 AD due to the hack-silver (used as currency by weight), contained Anglo-Saxon coins that are a unique record of the shifting political balance. Dr Sturgis points out that most coins in the hoard are a combination of King Alfred’s coinage and coins of Ceolwulf of Mercia.

The coins feature images of Alfred and Ceolwulf side-by-side, strongly suggesting that at some point they were co-equals, cooperating on coinage and perhaps even military payments. This detail shatters the long-held historical view that Mercia was simply a powerless “zombie kingdom” controlled by the Vikings, which Alfred simply absorbed. Instead, the coin evidence suggests Alfred was happy, at least briefly, to accept another great English ruler as almost co-equal.

As Dr Sturgis points out, “this idea that a metal detectorist in a field near Watlington can rewrite a period of Anglo-Saxon history just from 200 things found in the ground is extraordinary and gives a sense of the fragility of our knowledge of this period”. 

Producer Fiona Turnock and Bill Locke (Head of Programming) film some of the objects featured in the programme with Dr Xa Sturgis.

Image Credit: History Hit / Ashmolean Museum

The legacy of conflict

The tumultuous era is also revealed as Dan examines a broken sword handle found in a river – a common way Anglo-Saxons decommissioned weapons after a warrior’s death. The intricate silver decorations prove it belonged to a high-status individual, likely dating from the same critical period of the late 870s.

The handle is not only Anglo-Saxon in style, but a Christian object, bearing the symbols of the Four Evangelists. This powerful artefact could have been present at the pivotal Battle of Edington, connecting the ultimate victory to faith and elite warfare.

The objects in the Ashmolean Museum clearly show that the late 9th century was a period of intense conflict and change. From the artistry of the Alfred Jewel to the political secrets held in a handful of coins, these treasures are not just relics of the past. They are a bridge to understanding the minds and motivations of the people who lived, fought, and died while England was born.

Join Dan Snow and Dr Xa Sturgis to uncover the historical secrets of this turbulent era in The Ashmolean Up Close: King Alfred’s Jewel.

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In a new documentary, Witchmen: Witch Trials in the Land of Fire & Ice, historian Dr Kate Lister is on a mission to find out why. Her investigation takes her across the breathtaking landscape of the Westfjords in northwest Iceland, through dramatic jagged coastlines, high mountains, and roaring waterfalls, delving into a culture where a belief in magic still prevails today.

Kate uncovers the truth around some of the most unique and remote witch trials of the 17th century, revealing a story that is less about magic and more about human nature, conspiracy, and local power games.

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Iceland’s male witches

The gender of those persecuted for witchcraft varied across Europe: while women were the typical targets in Mediterranean and Germanic countries, based on the ancient idea that women possessed innate magical abilities, the role of the witch or magician was stereotypically male in several northern and eastern regions, including Iceland, Normandy, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Austrian countries, and Russia.

As Kate explores, the supernatural has been part of Icelandic culture ever since the first Viking settlers arrived in the late 9th century. They brought with them the old Norse gods and folklore – Loki, Odin, and Thor – and a strong tradition of Rune and Stave magic. This ancient heritage was closely linked to men. Because Icelanders believed that men were much more capable of magic than women, the focus of the witch hunts shifted almost entirely to them.

For centuries, magic was an important everyday tool used to feel they had some control over a hostile landscape; many people would cast runes, spells and good luck charms. These ancient beliefs were practiced widely on the island for centuries alongside Christianity and never seemed to cause a problem. But when the witch craze spread from Europe, these ancient magical traditions suddenly looked like sorcery. 

Example of a rune

Image Credit: History Hit

The conspiracy and the confessions

In 17th century Iceland, a witch came to be defined as ‘somebody who used supernatural powers to cause others harm’. The trials began in earnest with the burning of the first alleged witch in 1625, accused of summoning a zombie to attack his neighbour’s horse. But it was the arrival of European zeal that truly amplified the terror.

Kate speaks with world-renowned witch expert Professor Ronald Hutton, who explains that the witch craze escalated across Europe during the turbulent years of the Reformation (1560–1640), becoming “the ultimate conspiracy theory.” In Iceland, this fervour was imported directly by local sheriffs and well-educated priests who had studied the witch hunts in countries like Denmark and Germany.

The local geography played a role: the most severe cases occurred in the remote Westfjords, where a few powerful, educated individuals had the influence to press accusations. Kate details the story of an early major case where a strange sickness affecting two young women was attributed to three men thought to be witches. Despite the likely cause being simple illness (or even bad corn), the three men were burned alive in 1654.

The documentary provides a fascinating look into the sources of this unique form of magic. Kate visits the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft in Hólmavík, where she speaks to curator, Anna Pórarinsdóttir and is shown a replica of the infamous ‘necropants’ – trousers made from human skin and used in a grotesque ritual to magically acquire money. She also sees examples of Staves, ritual symbols often used in conjunction with Runes – the magical writing that was considered essential to kickstart any spell.

Kate Lister filming at the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft in Hólmavík, where she speaks to curator, Anna Pórarinsdóttir and is shown a replica of the infamous ‘necropants’.

Image Credit: History Hit

Anna also shows Kate a replica of a 17th century turf house in the remote area of Klúka – an area famed for its mountain ranges, beautiful hiking trails and epic waterfalls. Such houses would have been adorned with Staves even for simple tasks, such as to help keep knives sharp while cutting grass, highlighting the commonality of such symbols in Icelandic history. 

Iceland is often seen as a magical place even today due to its association with the aurora borealis – the northern lights. The northern lights appear throughout Icelandic folklore and were often mythologised, as souls, waiting to pass to the other side, or even hidden people like the elves. In Norse mythology, the lights were a bridge that took fallen warriors to the world of the gods.

Replica of a 17th century Icelandic turf house

Image Credit: History Hit

The witch-hunter’s agenda

The rise of the witch hunts in Iceland was often driven by religious zealots with a clear agenda.

Kate examines the story of Paul Biörnson, a wealthy, well-connected priest in the village of Selárdalur. When his wife, Helga, fell ill, Biörnson embarked on a quest to “expel the devil” from the area, recognising that a reputation as a witch hunter would certainly grow his loyal congregation. Helga’s repeated accusations led to the death of seven people – one-third of all confirmed burnings in Iceland.

Crucially, Kate and curator Anna Pórarinsdóttir explore the one fact that protected Icelandic women: they could not own property or land. As Anna suggests, because the motive for many accusations across Europe was to seize the possessions of the accused, the women’s subordinate financial status ironically shielded them from prosecution.

The consequences for those accused were horrific. Alleged Icelandic witches were burned to death – a rare punishment in Europe, where the condemned were usually strangled or beheaded first. Professor Hutton explains that burning was reserved for those deemed “utterly evil,” as it was believed to remove the body, which was “impregnated with bad magic,” preventing the evil from poisoning the soil.

Dr Kate Lister at the Burning Ravine, Þingvellir National Park, Iceland

Image Credit: History Hit

The legacy of magic

Kate travels to Þingvellir National Park, the site of Iceland’s first parliament and a location where several accused witches were burned in the “Burning Ravine.” She explores the process of prosecution and even writes down a defensive Stave, demonstrating how these beliefs persist today.

The programme reveals one of the worst curses imaginable: the Fart Rune, a magical affliction with symptoms similar to dysentery, a real killer in the 17th century. The fact that people confessed to using this – even knowing they faced death by fire – underscores how real magic was to them.

Kate’s investigation suggests the witch trials were less about the supernatural and more about human nature and the terrifying ease with which hate and suspicion allowed neighbour to turn on neighbour. In a world still consumed by conspiracy theories and mass condemnation, how far have we truly progressed from the anxieties of the 17th century?

Join Dr Kate Lister as she uncovers the ultimate true crime conspiracy in Witchmen: Witch Trials in the Land of Fire & Ice.

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