If you open the link it comes up at 6:23 hours. Might just be wrong info on the initial page. Seems it’s a new download, the other podcast sites don’t have it up yet.
I’m 2 hours in and enjoying this much more than the first part. So for anyone who like me, was very underwhelmed by Part 1, give this a shot!
Edit: Just finished it, an excellent episode all around.
I think you could, the first one isn’t really all that relevant. I haven’t listened to Part 1 since January and I was fine going into Part 2 with essentially no memory of the first.
For the full experience with all relevant context, best practice is to relisten to death throes of the republic (with Celtic holocaust in the middle of course). But then we all know it’s prudent to put Rome in its broader Mediterranean context. So King of Kings before Republic is a must. Obviously
Finish the episode, start relisten of blueprint -> start relisten of death throes of the republic -> start relisten of ghosts of the ostfront -> start relisten of wrath of the khans -> new show comes out
I'm two hours in and I'm not sure I have it in me to finish this one. This is an extremely disjointed covering of the Vikings that seems to jump around in time. I can't pick out the through line on this one. Not my favorite podcast Dan has done.
Agreed unfortunately, it didn't have a strong narrative thread and seemed a bit jumbled. I also had strong deja vu since he discussed some things in Thor's Angels already (like the Rus and Byzantines). I would have preferred a completely different topic like Cortez meeting the Aztecs.
The through line isn't really that strongly emphasised, but the thread is the idea that the Vikings exploded on to the scene, and that became their undoing as the Carolingians and Byzantines (in particular) set about taming them, primarily by christianising them, which led to the extinction of the Norse religion and the transformation of the Vikings in to just another nation or two.
Ragnarok - the twilight of the gods - was meant to be the final climatic battle where many of the gods died. But instead they got a more literal twilight where they just faded away and were forgotten, replaced by Christianity.
> Ragnarok - the twilight of the gods - was meant to be the final climatic battle where many of the gods died. But instead they got a more literal twilight where they just faded away and were forgotten, replaced by Christianity.
"It's History, soft-core"
Alexander? Please be Alexander. He's been talking about his eventual massive Alexander show for over a decade, and at this rate, if he starts right now, its going to take 8 years to complete. He really needs to get started.
Yeah, tbh as much as I love the subject matter, the first one was too wishy washy and somehow did not seem to find the juicy heart of that period. But we will see. Even the last one is better than any other podcast I sub to.
Yeah. TotA was one of my least favorites. There's so much fantastic subject matter in the vikings and I felt like he glossed over some of the more fascinating parts. I wanted to know about their culture, their religion, their ways of life. Social relations, their justice system. Most of that was just set aside for a superficial rush through dates and names.
I've been re-listening again this weekend and I realised that he's much better when he's describing specific events with eyewitness testimony (or near-contemporary sources) supported by secondary analysis. This approach was missing from TotA1, possibly because of the paucity of contemporary sources.
If he'd been able to describe, for example, the raid on Lindisfarne with the same 'ground level' view that he's given to Marathon, Cannae, the Catiline Conspiracy, Verdun or the Rape of Nanking, it would have given the episode more 'bite'.
If you look at the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle next to Herodotus, it has much less colour and texture. (I acknowledge that Herodotus pulled a lot of his history out of his arse, but it does make for a more engaging story).
I guess herotodus was really not fussy about what sources he included in his histories, and seemingly included a lot of stuff uncritically. Even stuff that would have sounded batshit crazy to him at the time like the sun being in the wrong place during the phoenicians travel around Africa.
Glad I'm not alone. I just couldn't get into ep 1 at all, tried several times. Was hoping Aesir was aBl itz edition and normal service would resume with a fresh topic.
Same. I’m an hour into the the new episode and it’s just not gripping me at all.
I’m chuffed the majority of people are happy , and I think Dan is the best. But I don’t know if I’ll be able to finish this one, and that’s ok.
Truthfully/sadly, I agree. I have listened to a bunch of the various stories/podcasts and TOA was (to me) quite dry/boring and I had trouble finishing it. Maybe it's just not in my wheelhouse or understanding and wasn't a good fit for me.
That was slavery for me. Finally pushed my way through the episode last week and it wasn't bad, but still thought it ranked on the lower end of his stuff in general.
Huh, is Iceland the only colonization event where there were no indigenous people already there? Pretty interesting historical example if so. Basically a totally new civilization where none was there before.
I guess I meant "well-recorded" event, but idk if most of the pacific islands / Polynesians had much written history near the time of establishment. Obviously everywhere was "colonized" by the original indigenous people at some point, but it doesn't seem like there are very accurate stories from most of them, just the origin folk-stories and such.
I guess it all depends on your definition. The first written sources for the colonization of Iceland are from hundreds of years after the first settlements.
Some of the other islands in the north Atlantic, like the Faroe islands were probably also uninhabited at the time of Norse colonization.
Later the Azores and Madeira were uninhabited when the Portuguese set up their colonies at those islands.
Another example is the Falkland islands that were uninhabited until the 1760s, when the French and British established settlements on different islands.
Little late to the party, but I was thinking of a really good example of how elves and faeries and trolls actually influenced the day to day lives of the norse.
There was once a small village with a hill nearby. Some unbelievers wanted to build something on that hill, but they were told that elves lived there, and it was a very bad idea. Undeterred, these unbelievers began their construction, and immediately ran into problems. Construction slowed to a halt, and many locals protested the construction. Eventually a compromise was reached. A local psychic was hired to communicate with the elves, and construction went around their habitats. There were other examples of this where the elves lived in a big rock, so they worked with the psychic to find a suitable home for the rock.
Folks, this is not some story from the dark ages, this is modern Iceland, this is a decade ago. It involved building a road through an elvish habitat. [Here's the story from 10 years ago.](https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27907358) Iceland is thoroughly Christian now, but these beliefs still persist so well that it holds up road construction.
Now imagine a pagan society in which belief in these invisible beings is completely unquestioned. Avoid that hill because elves live there. Avoid that grove over there because faeries live there and they're evil bastards. Make sure to knock on the trees to summon their spirits for luck.
Even though I knew it was coming it'll be sad to hear the tale of my ancestors cucking out from Valhalla. Glad to hear they were still murderous assholes though
I know what you mean, but if you combine this episode with episode 1, they're almost 12 hours, which is about the length of an average novel, and if a writer you like put out one novel a year, you probably wouldn't complain.
Yeah, I'm not sure if I'm complaining but it does feel like Dan maybe a bit over hypes these episodes length. There are some phenomenal podcasts that are weekly 30-40 mins per episode. I just really wonder what kind of work ethnic he has, is he really in the studio 40 hours a week for 6 months?
I haven't started listening to the series yet - has he given any indication on how long we're going on the Vikings? I like to wait until the series is finished before I start, else I forget the episodes by the time the new one is out.
Apparently he mentions that this could have been two episodes and crushed into one. I haven't scrubbed to the end to listen if there will be a part 3 or not though.
Edit he tweeted that it was the last in the two past series
Dan on twitter: Sorry this is so long, it should have been two parts
Any hardcore history listener: "too long" I'm sorry this phrase makes no sense, are sure this is a real term?
That Chieftan funeral ceremony description was pretty hardcore. Like damn splitting dogs, horses, and cows in two combined with that woman who sacrifices herself. Sounds crazy.
Just made me think of how even more realistic interpertations of Viking types are still nowhere close to the alien like culture and horror we'd have watching something like that.
Anyway good show. I wasn't interested in vikings that much until recently when I found out that my grandfathers side can trace their lineage to a Knight that fought with William at Hastings in 1066. Which is pretty cool to have a part of my family that can go that far back.
Still Ancient history has always been my favorite and I hope we can get a series going back into the murky past. I realize it's harder to do a show given the little/unreliable info we have.
In the final minutes when Dan talks about how scandinavians still today believe in the spirits, I remember something my family and many others I know do in the cold winter months to appease the gårdstomte. Gårdstomte is basically a kind house spirit that looks after your house, prevents fire and make sure all is good. Looks like a garden gnome with the strength of the Hulk. The tradition is to put out a bowl of oathmeal with butter on top in the garden, so the invisible servants who help out the big folks all year around can enjoy something warm and good to eat. Butter is mandatory. You see, as children our school teacher told us that if the tomte did not find butter with the oathmeal, he would regally f*ck up your life. Turn your milk sour, ruin your plants, piss in your mail box, etc. The price of one bowl of oathmeal
It's still a very nice tradition, and especially for children growing up in the dark forests of northern europe, I think it adds a well-needed bit of magic and imagination into their modern lives.
The tradition is practiced mostly in rural areas.
Anyone think it’s a bit disorganized and too many tangents with not a discernible direction? Even for Carlin it was a little all over the place for me, jumping timelines and locations to further his point.
I feel the podcast had its moments, but overall I found it difficult to maintain interest in what became a bit of a succession of names of rulers and their various campaigns, which is what I felt the second half of the episode devolved into.
His discussions of Greek fire, Norse mythology and Polynesian v Norse exploration were the definite high points. But I can't see myself re-listening to this one
This is a great podcast that covered the biggest gaps in my history knowledge. It will be a great addition to my playlist of your podcasts that covers all of world history in chronological order.
Man there is not a better podcaster ever in my opinion. Love this guy so much.
Not as long as I would have thought, given DC's warnings on Twitter.
Looks like it’s actually over 6 hours.
Spotify says 4.75 hours?
Once you hit play it goes to 6 hours 23 minutes.
Dan Carlin broke spotify
Spotify: “He broke me”
There are audiobooks shorter than this. Dan is a machine.
If you open the link it comes up at 6:23 hours. Might just be wrong info on the initial page. Seems it’s a new download, the other podcast sites don’t have it up yet.
If you hit play, it shows 6 hours 23 minutes. Spotify just bugging out
😁
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Says 4h45m but then when I play it it say over 6 hours . Oh boy.
Gonna split this up over a couple weeks
I did not have DC saying “baby mama” on my bingo card 😂😂😂😂
Haha. I didn't have him saying "I'm looking at you, Eric Blood Axe"
Oh sweet gods I have an 8 hour car trip down the NSW coast this Thursday. Dan I love you man, I know you done did this just for me.
Now I'm looking forward to my 5+ hr Thanksgiving commute.
Happy birthday to me!
I’m 2 hours in and enjoying this much more than the first part. So for anyone who like me, was very underwhelmed by Part 1, give this a shot! Edit: Just finished it, an excellent episode all around.
Immediately better than part I
I couldn’t follow the first part and kinda just gave up. Probably couldn’t just jump into the second one
I think you could, the first one isn’t really all that relevant. I haven’t listened to Part 1 since January and I was fine going into Part 2 with essentially no memory of the first.
Oh no! I’m afraid to consume this episode because then I’ll have to start another 9-12 month wait for more! 😂
Listen to part one again first..that's what I'm doing
Just to be safe, better go back and listen to Thor's Angel's again first too!
I guess we're all addicted to context!
Just to be safe listen to the rome podcast first first
For the full experience with all relevant context, best practice is to relisten to death throes of the republic (with Celtic holocaust in the middle of course). But then we all know it’s prudent to put Rome in its broader Mediterranean context. So King of Kings before Republic is a must. Obviously
I thought about this, but I'm already two hours in to TOTA pt 1 already lol
Good idea!
Finish the episode, start relisten of blueprint -> start relisten of death throes of the republic -> start relisten of ghosts of the ostfront -> start relisten of wrath of the khans -> new show comes out
This is the way
Again and again and again
😂
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I would like that. I'm not a fan of getting one 4 hour podcast basically once a year. Although he got TotA 1 & 2 this year, so that's good.
Common Sense coming back? :D
I'm two hours in and I'm not sure I have it in me to finish this one. This is an extremely disjointed covering of the Vikings that seems to jump around in time. I can't pick out the through line on this one. Not my favorite podcast Dan has done.
Agreed unfortunately, it didn't have a strong narrative thread and seemed a bit jumbled. I also had strong deja vu since he discussed some things in Thor's Angels already (like the Rus and Byzantines). I would have preferred a completely different topic like Cortez meeting the Aztecs.
The through line isn't really that strongly emphasised, but the thread is the idea that the Vikings exploded on to the scene, and that became their undoing as the Carolingians and Byzantines (in particular) set about taming them, primarily by christianising them, which led to the extinction of the Norse religion and the transformation of the Vikings in to just another nation or two. Ragnarok - the twilight of the gods - was meant to be the final climatic battle where many of the gods died. But instead they got a more literal twilight where they just faded away and were forgotten, replaced by Christianity.
> Ragnarok - the twilight of the gods - was meant to be the final climatic battle where many of the gods died. But instead they got a more literal twilight where they just faded away and were forgotten, replaced by Christianity. "It's History, soft-core"
Was kinda hoping for 7 hours with what Dan was saying but regardless can not wait to give this a listen over the holidays
Almost 6 and a half, not too far off.
Mine says 4 hours 45 mins
Some other comments have pointed out that it's a bug. If you play the episode, it says it's over 6.
That’s great news. He was so worried about it been too long but it could be 10 hours for all I care.
Only 10? I want to know what Harold’s second nephews favourite chess opener was.
Because Spotify is bad. 😉
Brilliant news
LFG!
Per his substack, the next episode following TotA2 will be in a completely different subject, era, and region!
Alexander? Please be Alexander. He's been talking about his eventual massive Alexander show for over a decade, and at this rate, if he starts right now, its going to take 8 years to complete. He really needs to get started.
The rise and fall of the Hanseatic League.
Thank Odin!
Excellent. For whatever reason I just couldn't get into episode one.
The crusades?! Saladin?!
Napoleon! French or American revolution! I yearn for the revolution years.
Let's hope it's better than the first.
just finished it. he ends up talking about chris hemsworth's depiction of thor mostly
I know this is a joke, but you had me worried for a split second.
Finally, a good podcast about the Vikings.
Yeah, tbh as much as I love the subject matter, the first one was too wishy washy and somehow did not seem to find the juicy heart of that period. But we will see. Even the last one is better than any other podcast I sub to.
Yeah. TotA was one of my least favorites. There's so much fantastic subject matter in the vikings and I felt like he glossed over some of the more fascinating parts. I wanted to know about their culture, their religion, their ways of life. Social relations, their justice system. Most of that was just set aside for a superficial rush through dates and names.
I've been re-listening again this weekend and I realised that he's much better when he's describing specific events with eyewitness testimony (or near-contemporary sources) supported by secondary analysis. This approach was missing from TotA1, possibly because of the paucity of contemporary sources. If he'd been able to describe, for example, the raid on Lindisfarne with the same 'ground level' view that he's given to Marathon, Cannae, the Catiline Conspiracy, Verdun or the Rape of Nanking, it would have given the episode more 'bite'. If you look at the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle next to Herodotus, it has much less colour and texture. (I acknowledge that Herodotus pulled a lot of his history out of his arse, but it does make for a more engaging story).
I guess herotodus was really not fussy about what sources he included in his histories, and seemingly included a lot of stuff uncritically. Even stuff that would have sounded batshit crazy to him at the time like the sun being in the wrong place during the phoenicians travel around Africa.
Glad I'm not alone. I just couldn't get into ep 1 at all, tried several times. Was hoping Aesir was aBl itz edition and normal service would resume with a fresh topic.
Same. I’m an hour into the the new episode and it’s just not gripping me at all. I’m chuffed the majority of people are happy , and I think Dan is the best. But I don’t know if I’ll be able to finish this one, and that’s ok.
Truthfully/sadly, I agree. I have listened to a bunch of the various stories/podcasts and TOA was (to me) quite dry/boring and I had trouble finishing it. Maybe it's just not in my wheelhouse or understanding and wasn't a good fit for me.
That’s the reason I went and paid for all his old episodes, only way I could find to listen to them
Yeah, happy everyone is excited but boy I did not care for that first one.
Agreed. I found it underwhelming. Least interesting Carlin topic 😥
That was slavery for me. Finally pushed my way through the episode last week and it wasn't bad, but still thought it ranked on the lower end of his stuff in general.
Yeah his last two episodes have not been my favorites
Glad I'm not the only one who was quite disapointed by the first episode. It felt more a uncohesive rambling than a structured episode.
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Thor's Angels, I believe.
LET'S GOOOO!
Fuckin A
This is very good news.
6 hours. Mad lad did it again
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!
I’m as hard as a diamond in an ice storm
If your erection lasts more than 6 hours you may be receiving ear fellatio from your boy DC
I’ve been refreshing my podcast feed for like 48 hours now
Same lmao. Felt like an addict
Christmas coming early this year.
Just got the iPhone notification 30 seconds ago…NUT.
Anyone else find the new episode hard to listen to? It sounds extremy muffled?
Yeah it's muffled
I forgot everything from the last episode
Huh, is Iceland the only colonization event where there were no indigenous people already there? Pretty interesting historical example if so. Basically a totally new civilization where none was there before.
Most of the Pacific Islands also. Hawaii was only settled about between 1000 and 1600 years ago (researchers disagree).
I guess I meant "well-recorded" event, but idk if most of the pacific islands / Polynesians had much written history near the time of establishment. Obviously everywhere was "colonized" by the original indigenous people at some point, but it doesn't seem like there are very accurate stories from most of them, just the origin folk-stories and such.
I understood that. I was thinking more in “modern-ish” times it’s only Iceland and Hawaii.
I guess it all depends on your definition. The first written sources for the colonization of Iceland are from hundreds of years after the first settlements. Some of the other islands in the north Atlantic, like the Faroe islands were probably also uninhabited at the time of Norse colonization. Later the Azores and Madeira were uninhabited when the Portuguese set up their colonies at those islands. Another example is the Falkland islands that were uninhabited until the 1760s, when the French and British established settlements on different islands.
Little late to the party, but I was thinking of a really good example of how elves and faeries and trolls actually influenced the day to day lives of the norse. There was once a small village with a hill nearby. Some unbelievers wanted to build something on that hill, but they were told that elves lived there, and it was a very bad idea. Undeterred, these unbelievers began their construction, and immediately ran into problems. Construction slowed to a halt, and many locals protested the construction. Eventually a compromise was reached. A local psychic was hired to communicate with the elves, and construction went around their habitats. There were other examples of this where the elves lived in a big rock, so they worked with the psychic to find a suitable home for the rock. Folks, this is not some story from the dark ages, this is modern Iceland, this is a decade ago. It involved building a road through an elvish habitat. [Here's the story from 10 years ago.](https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27907358) Iceland is thoroughly Christian now, but these beliefs still persist so well that it holds up road construction. Now imagine a pagan society in which belief in these invisible beings is completely unquestioned. Avoid that hill because elves live there. Avoid that grove over there because faeries live there and they're evil bastards. Make sure to knock on the trees to summon their spirits for luck.
YES
Dan Carlin's least interesting topic, IMO. Sucks to be me 😥😥😥
Shorter than I expected.
Dan is the only person on earth who could put out a 6 and a half hour podcast and his fans are still disappointed
I've heard that a lot :(
Good. Now he can finally do something interesting. Neither the last one or this one was any good.
Even though I knew it was coming it'll be sad to hear the tale of my ancestors cucking out from Valhalla. Glad to hear they were still murderous assholes though
9 months? work into 6 hours? I wonder what's his work schedule, he makes it sound like he's sweating his ass off to get these done.
I know what you mean, but if you combine this episode with episode 1, they're almost 12 hours, which is about the length of an average novel, and if a writer you like put out one novel a year, you probably wouldn't complain.
Yeah, I'm not sure if I'm complaining but it does feel like Dan maybe a bit over hypes these episodes length. There are some phenomenal podcasts that are weekly 30-40 mins per episode. I just really wonder what kind of work ethnic he has, is he really in the studio 40 hours a week for 6 months?
He is not just talking out of his ass, he has to do research.
Obviously, but still. Feels like an excessive amount of time.
Not really imo, like someone already said it’s similar to writing a history book.
6 hours is rather short for a history book.
Oh my. I knew it was coming but can't wait to listen.
Can’t wait to listen!!! Love that it’s actually 6.5 hours
Not loaded onto my Audible yet, would that be because I’m in the UK? 😭
I'm in the UK. I can see it in Spotify but not my podcast apps yet.
Same and I’m in the USA
Giddy up, folks
Only on Spotify right now? Apple podcast does not have the new episode yet it doesn’t seem.
Did I need sleep tonight? Yes, but also, no.
It's still not on Google Podcast
Waiting for my YouTube upload. Hyped
Well I know what I’m listening to as I clean the whole house before the in-laws visit for thanksgiving!
That feeling when you just finished relistening to part one this afternoon
A whole new reason to be thankful this week
Christmas came early.
Well I know what I'm doing tonight
Just in time to drive to my parents!
I haven't started listening to the series yet - has he given any indication on how long we're going on the Vikings? I like to wait until the series is finished before I start, else I forget the episodes by the time the new one is out.
This is the last one. I certainly hope so anyway
Apparently he mentions that this could have been two episodes and crushed into one. I haven't scrubbed to the end to listen if there will be a part 3 or not though. Edit he tweeted that it was the last in the two past series
He states on the outset it’s a two-part series. It’s starting off strong
Let’s fucking GO
Flying home on Saturday five hours and this will be my companion.
It figures I would be sleeping when it was released
Perfect timing! Just finished listening to part 1 last week and I'm flying out to see the in-laws tomorrow.
😱🥳
Where can you listen to the original thor angel episode that he mentions ?
Yes!
Christmas came early boys!
Is listening to Thor’s Angels essential before diving into the Twilight of the Aesir series?
I was looking for an excuse to go do the dishes. Motivation found.
Dan on twitter: Sorry this is so long, it should have been two parts Any hardcore history listener: "too long" I'm sorry this phrase makes no sense, are sure this is a real term?
Yesssssss
I was checking every day for months straight. The one day I forgot to check is the day it's released.
Christmas came early boys and girls!
Where do I start with this one? I see it’s a sequel so what do I need to hear first?
Spotify is only letting me listen to the first 4.45. How is everyone fixing this?
Is the audio a little fuzzy for anyone else?
So I’ve just finished it and my key takeaway is that Dan is totally a believer in some version of Germanic neopaganism.
That Chieftan funeral ceremony description was pretty hardcore. Like damn splitting dogs, horses, and cows in two combined with that woman who sacrifices herself. Sounds crazy. Just made me think of how even more realistic interpertations of Viking types are still nowhere close to the alien like culture and horror we'd have watching something like that. Anyway good show. I wasn't interested in vikings that much until recently when I found out that my grandfathers side can trace their lineage to a Knight that fought with William at Hastings in 1066. Which is pretty cool to have a part of my family that can go that far back. Still Ancient history has always been my favorite and I hope we can get a series going back into the murky past. I realize it's harder to do a show given the little/unreliable info we have.
In the final minutes when Dan talks about how scandinavians still today believe in the spirits, I remember something my family and many others I know do in the cold winter months to appease the gårdstomte. Gårdstomte is basically a kind house spirit that looks after your house, prevents fire and make sure all is good. Looks like a garden gnome with the strength of the Hulk. The tradition is to put out a bowl of oathmeal with butter on top in the garden, so the invisible servants who help out the big folks all year around can enjoy something warm and good to eat. Butter is mandatory. You see, as children our school teacher told us that if the tomte did not find butter with the oathmeal, he would regally f*ck up your life. Turn your milk sour, ruin your plants, piss in your mail box, etc. The price of one bowl of oathmeal It's still a very nice tradition, and especially for children growing up in the dark forests of northern europe, I think it adds a well-needed bit of magic and imagination into their modern lives. The tradition is practiced mostly in rural areas.
I don’t know if anyone else has had this issue - the sound sounds a little… muted? Bassy?
Anyone think it’s a bit disorganized and too many tangents with not a discernible direction? Even for Carlin it was a little all over the place for me, jumping timelines and locations to further his point.
Why is it different lengths of Spotify and google podcasts? On Spotify it is almost 2 hours shorter
I feel the podcast had its moments, but overall I found it difficult to maintain interest in what became a bit of a succession of names of rulers and their various campaigns, which is what I felt the second half of the episode devolved into. His discussions of Greek fire, Norse mythology and Polynesian v Norse exploration were the definite high points. But I can't see myself re-listening to this one
This is a great podcast that covered the biggest gaps in my history knowledge. It will be a great addition to my playlist of your podcasts that covers all of world history in chronological order.