''Blood of the Vikings'' was a five-part 2001 BBC Television

documentary series Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. *Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

that traced the legacy of the

Vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and ...

in the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

through a genetics survey.Vikings lead BBC Two autumn attack
BBC News, 20 August 2001. Retrieved 30 July 2008.

Production

The series was presented by Julian Richards who has a long-held fascination with the Vikings. Geneticist Professor David Goldstein, from

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, lead the 15-month study that compared mouth swabs from 2,500 male volunteers from 25 different locations across the country with DNA samples from Scandinavian locals to find out how much Viking heritage remains in the UK. The study traced the past movements of peoples to discover how many Vikings stayed after the raids. The study of history and archaeology alone could not answer this question. BBC Two Controller Jane Root described the station's work with UCL as a unique, nationwide project. The research confirmed that the Vikings did not just raid and retreat to Scandinavia, but settled in Britain for years. They left their genetic pattern in some parts of the UK population. Concentrations of Norwegian genetic heritage were found in part of

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...

in northwest England, the area around Penrith, the Shetland and Orkney Islands and the far north of the Scottish mainland. In addition the research revealed surprising new information about Celtic and Anglo-Saxon heritage on the British mainland. Men who were tested in mainland Scotland had a percentage of Celtic genetic heritage similar to the population of southern England. This showed 1) that Celtic heritage persisted among men in southern England after Anglo-Saxon settlement; and 2) that the Scots were not predominantly Celtic. The series included clips from Richard Fleischer's 1958 film '' The Vikings'' starring Kirk Douglas to illustrate common modern attitudes towards the Vikings.

Episodes

Companion book

* *

External links

Blood of the Vikings Video Clips
at

BBC Online BBC Online, formerly known as BBCi, is the BBC's online service. It is a large network of websites including such high-profile sites as BBC News and BBC Sport, Sport, the on-demand video and radio services branded BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blood of the Vikings 2001 British television series debuts 2001 British television series endings 2000s British documentary television series BBC television documentaries about history 2000s British television miniseries Documentary television series about science English-language television shows Genetics in the United Kingdom Works about genetics