The REAL Erik Bloodaxe: The Viking Behind the New Prime Series

Erik Bloodaxe died twice — on parchment, at least. One account kills him in battle before 946; another has him ruling York in 954, with his name on the coins. As Prime Video's new series promises "the true story", we put every witness on the stand: an English monk, the Norse sagas, and the silver itself. This is an illustrated history. Scenes are editorial reconstructions; each one is labelled with the kind of source it rests on (contemporary coin, English chronicle, late chronicle, saga, poem, saint's life, modern historians). No source is treated as simply true or false, and the video does not decide whether the saga Erik and the King Eric of York were one man or two. Not affiliated with Prime Video, MGM or the series "Bloodaxe". CHAPTERS 00:00 Erik Bloodaxe died twice 00:35 Two witnesses: the monk and the sagas 01:22 The brother-slayer 02:33 The brother who won 03:35 Jorvik: Viking York 04:50 First reign (948) 06:06 "Son of Harald" (952) 07:03 Silver: King Eric's coins 08:38 Egil and the Head-Ransom 09:39 The wife nobody names 10:15 Expelled (954) 10:56 Stainmore: the first death 12:09 The second death 13:24 The case file: one man or two? 14:23 The true story SOURCES CONSULTED Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, entries for 944–954 (Avalon Project translation): https://avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/... Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla — Saga of Harald Fairhair and Saga of Haakon the Good, trans. S. Laing (1844): https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/... Egil's Saga, trans. W. C. Green (1893): https://www.sagadb.org/egils_saga.en Roger of Wendover, Flowers of History, trans. J. A. Giles (1849), vol. 1, s.a. 950: https://archive.org/details/rogerofwe... Clare Downham, "Eric Bloodaxe – axed? The mystery of the last Viking king of York", Mediaeval Scandinavia 14 (2004), 51–77 (abstract): https://abdn.elsevierpure.com/en/publ... British Museum, silver penny of Eric, York, moneyer Ingelgar (1915,0507.770): https://www.britishmuseum.org/collect... Numista, coins of Eric of York: https://en.numista.com/102742 · https://en.numista.com/102743 University of Reading Special Collections, "Bloodaxe, Vikings and other early coins" (2015): https://blogs.reading.ac.uk/special-c... Eric Bloodaxe (overview of the sources and the historical debate): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Bl... Series announcement details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodax...) LIMITS The Historia Norwegie, Ágrip, the Life of St Cathróe and the Historia regum are cited through modern summaries, not read in the original. Dates and places of the sagas are often unreliable; the late accounts of Erik's death (13th century) disagree with the Chronicle on the year. Maps are schematic. MUSIC “Wicker Hearth” by RenilsonB — Pixabay (Pixabay Content License): https://pixabay.com/music/celtic-wick...