History sees the Vikings as a band of blood-thirsty pirates raiding peaceful Christian monasteries, but their prowess in battle is only part of the story. This series goes beyond their bloody reputation, from Iceland to Istanbul, to reveal an extraordinary story of a people who built an empire reaching around a quarter of the globe. Where did they come from? How did they really live? And what drove them to embark on such extraordinary voyages of discovery? In part two, Neil Oliver explores how the Vikings built an east-west trade network from Scandinavia to Constantinople via Dublin and Russia, exchanging Irish slaves for luxury Silk Road goods. He also examines their 9th century conquest of England and discusses Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon cultural and lingual integration in Danelaw. A BBC Production.

Originally released by BBC, 2012. Streaming video file encoded with permission for digital streaming by Infobase on May 02, 2015.

Reemerging Fortress (2:05); --Baltic Viking Trading Empire (3:28); -- Russia's Viking Heritage (3:03); -- Staraya Ladoga (3:33); -- Scandinavian Newcomers (1:57); -- Access to Eastern Commodities (3:01); -- Varangian Guard (2:07); -- Birka Archaeological Site (3:00); -- Viking Slave Trade (3:53); -- Norwegian Viking Empire (3:27); -- Alfred Jewel (3:16); -- Viking Conquest Campaign (1:49); -- Repton Warrior Artifacts (5:40); -- Danelaw (2:02); -- Medieval Urban Conditions (1:44); -- Norse Language Influence (1:24); -- Helgo Treasure (4:04); -- Credits: Vikings: Part 2 (0:43); .