 John the OFM  | 08 Nov 2009 7:01 p.m. PST |
Well, I just heard it on TV, so it must be true.
No, it wasn't anything on the History(sic) Channel. It was on "The Amazing Race".
That's what I get for leaving the TV on for background noise. |
aecurtis  | 08 Nov 2009 7:15 p.m. PST |
Alternatively, there could be a claim to be made that the Crusaders were the Vikings of the 11th and 12th Centuries. Allen |
| Whatisitgood4atwork | 08 Nov 2009 7:22 p.m. PST |
Interesting. Is this part of the 'Crusaders were not heroes but really, really bad' revisionism? Or the 'Vikings were not so bad, just misunderstood traders who did not get on well with monks' revisionism? So Vikings were not so bad, and Crusaders were baby-eating monsters, but they are pretty much the same thing. Seems pretty clear… PS btw, I have nothing against revisionism per se. Some things need revision. |
| John the OFM | 08 Nov 2009 7:56 p.m. PST |
No, thee was nothing ideological about it. IT was a breezy throwaway line byt the breathless narrator as the contestants collected gnomes. |
| Mike G | 08 Nov 2009 9:01 p.m. PST |
1st time that I have ever watched the amazing race, caught the same statement. I perked up my ears and said to myself, "I don't think so". Mike |
| Whatisitgood4atwork | 08 Nov 2009 9:43 p.m. PST |
I guess there are *some* similarities: foreigners coming in, turning over the locals and taking what they could, and over a long period of time. Viking Kingdoms were set up, just as Crusader Kingdoms were. To the guys at the wrong end of the pointy swords it must have seemed pretty similar. But apart from that, not so much. |
| Wyatt the Odd | 08 Nov 2009 10:22 p.m. PST |
Well, if you consider that the Vikings took over the area of Normandy and the Normans spread out and took over a fair number of areas – and that those duchies, kingdoms and etc. sent forces to the Holy Land during the Crusades… Wyatt |
| GypsyComet | 08 Nov 2009 11:49 p.m. PST |
Is this part of the 'Crusaders were not heroes but really, really bad' revisionism? The Crusades were a human endeavor, and so inevitably somewhere between the extremes, at least on average. Anyone who claims that the extremes are universal cases has an agenda. |
| quidveritas | 09 Nov 2009 12:44 a.m. PST |
I hate to say it, but Medieval Christians were not nice folks for the most part. IMO they used religion to further their personal aims and when religion proved inconvenient, they did what they wanted anyway. That bunch of Italians sent as "reinforcements" were are responsible for the Christians being tossed out of the Holy land as any. The locals are not likely to support 'protectors' that conduct intermittent 'pogroms' in the name of God. mjc |
| Whatisitgood4atwork | 09 Nov 2009 3:30 a.m. PST |
[ … they used religion to further their personal aims and when religion proved inconvenient, they did what they wanted anyway.] Shock. Horror! People really do that? Actually, do we ever do anything else? |
| Gattamalata | 09 Nov 2009 5:55 a.m. PST |
Shock. Horror! People really do that? Actually, do we ever do anything else? Pornography…  When Venetian Stradiotti pillaged Charles VIII's baggage train at Fornovo 1495, they were distracted by his erotic art collection. |
| Last Hussar | 09 Nov 2009 7:12 a.m. PST |
Let's ask Constantinople. Or we could do it Harry Hill style. "Who were the worst? Vikings or Crusaders? There's only one way to find out…" |
| stenicplus | 09 Nov 2009 9:08 a.m. PST |
Harry Hill gets on my whick these days. But my kids love him and I suppose they are his target audience.
Double Saturday of You've Been Framed and TV Burp. |
| lugal hdan | 09 Nov 2009 10:49 a.m. PST |
Alternatively, there could be a claim to be made that the Crusaders were the Vikings of the 11th and 12th Centuries. A very strong claim indeed, considering the ancestry of many of the Crusading nobility. |
| Roderick Robertson | 09 Nov 2009 4:57 p.m. PST |
I notice *no-one* took the Futhark challenge, instead they all went to the amusement park and rode the big drop. I do like the Globetrotters, but they *were* kind of mean to the girl who was afraid of heights *and* water… Oh, yeah, back to the "vikings as crusaders" line – I usually expect better from the Amazing Race, but don't always get it. |
