维京史话（2012）

Nothing went to waste.
没有一丝的浪费
These will be the first testicles I've ever had in my mouth.
这可是我第一次吃动物的睾丸
Really?
真的吗？
As far as I remember.
我记得是的
OK.
好吧
That's a challenging flavour.
这味道很有挑战性
That is a taste sensation.
这会是味觉的冲击
Blood pudding, sheep's brain,
血布丁、羊脑
even the head were all consumed.
甚至羊头都会被吃掉
That is my favourite.
这是我最喜欢的
Let's try that.
我们试试吧
But that is the tongue
这是羊舌头
and that is the best muscle of the whole lamb.
是整个羊身上最好的一块肉
That's come from the meat that they dry in the wind.
这是风干羊肉
You like it?
你喜欢吗？
That's lovely, yes.
是的，很棒！
It's very soft and...
很酥软...
Yes.
是很好吃
I'm always saying to my kids that you've got to try things.
我总是跟孩子们说要去尝试新鲜的事物
And that don't tell me you don't like it till you've tried it,
任何东西不用在尝试之前就说不喜欢
so I felt, on that basis,
正因为如此
I had to really give these things a go.
这些食物我一定要尝一下再做结论
I could easily understand why someone like Johannes,
我很能够理解为什么乔纳森这些人
who's actually got a connection to this stuff,
会这么喜欢这些东西
why you'd become addicted to it.
为什么你会对它上瘾
And every now and again, you would want to remind yourself about the past,
而且你时常能够让自己记起那些过往
and you get it from something as strong,
你会从这些强烈感官刺♥激♥上想起...
you know, the past is strong here.
那时也有过相同的感受
You can smell it and you can taste it,
通过嗅觉或者味觉
and I get that.
我懂了
If unreliable summers and freezing winters weren't bad enough,
如果短暂的夏天和冰封的严冬还不算最糟的话
the Viking settlers had to contend with another even deadlier threat.
维京定居者们还得对付另一个更致命的威胁
Not from the skies...
不是来自天上...
but from deep beneath the earth.
而是来自地底深处
Iceland is a volcanic island,
冰岛是个火山岛
and that carries its own risks.
而这本身就是种威险
Scattered all across here is this material,
这种物质在冰岛到处都是
which is pumice, volcanic rock.
这是浮岩，火山岩
Now, that has come originally from Mount Hekla.
来自赫克拉火山的喷发
You can see the white summit just nosing above the horizon.
就是那边地平线上突起的山峰
Hekla erupted famously in 1104.
公元一一零四年时赫克拉火山有过一次大爆发
It was a catastrophic event.
那是一次大灾难
It scattered ash and debris over half the island.
喷出的岩石和火山灰覆盖了半个冰岛
This farm and many others like it had to be abandoned.
很多这样的农场被无奈废弃
Viking farmers were tough folk, though.
然而性格坚韧的维京农夫
And undaunted by the occasional volcanic eruption,
并没有被不时的火山喷发吓跑
the early Icelandic communities thrived.
早期冰岛人社区发展得欣欣向荣
And amazingly, they decided that even this very challenging land
有趣的是，即使是如此具挑战性的一片土地
wasn't an end to their endeavours.
也没有让他们放弃自己的努力
Not when there was still a whole lot more ocean to be explored.
因为前方还有广阔未知海洋等着他们去探索
And in 1000 AD,
公元一千年
the unforgettably named Erik the Red led a fleet of 25 ships
红发埃里克(挪威冒险家)率领一支二十五艘船的舰队
out into the North Atlantic in hopes of founding a new colony.
驶入北大西洋以图找到一块新的殖民地
They had reliable ships, they were renowned sailors,
他们拥有性能卓越的船只和技术娴熟的水手
but even so, there are references to countless people washed overboard,
即便如此，还是有数不清的水手葬身大海
ships driven onto rocks,
船只撞上礁石
plain old "lost at sea".
就像”Lost at Sea”里唱的一样
Erik the Red's expedition colonised
红发埃里克的远征开拓了新的殖民地
what we now know as Greenland.
就是现在的格陵兰岛
But the Viking explorers still weren't done.
而维京人探索者并未就此止步
Evidence of Viking camps has been found as far west as Newfoundland.
在纽芬兰岛都发现过维京远征者的足迹
And it's thought they even sailed down the eastern seaboard of America.
还有人认为他们甚至曾经沿着美洲的东海岸南下
The distance from Norway to Newfoundland is 4,500 miles,
挪威到纽芬兰岛的距离是四千五百英里
and were talking about a time when that land mass was beyond the knowledge,
这片陆地在当时是超出人们的认知范围的
far less than reach, of any other Europeans.
更别说会有哪个欧洲人达到过
What those Vikings did,
维京人却做到了
then, was simply staggering.
这绝对是令人瞠目结舌的
No permanent colonies were ever established in North America.
维京人没有在北美建立永久的定居点
And eventually, the harsh extremes of Greenland also proved too much.
格陵兰岛的极端气候最终也证明不适合人类生存
But on Iceland, despite all the hazards,
而在冰岛，尽管艰难险阻
the Vikings went on to build a whole new society.
维京人还是坚持下来建立了完整社会
And, without a king in charge,
没有了唯我独尊的国王
they had to find a whole new way to govern.
他们必须找到全新的管理方式
The first settlement of the island was essentially lawless.
第一批在岛上定居的维京人本质上没有法律约束
But after two generations,
而两代人之后
36 of the leading farmers came together
三十六个主要的家族聚在一起
and formed an assembly to govern Iceland.
决议组成一个议事会来管理冰岛
It was called the Althingi.
这个议事会被称作”Althingi”
It was founded in 930 AD,
它成立于九三零年
and it met once a year for two weeks,
议会每年召开一次会议持续两周
to make laws, to judge disputes, and to appoint a law speaker,
用来制定法律、裁决纠纷和任命法律代言人
whose responsibility it was to remember and recite the law.
代言人的职责是牢记和叙述法律条款
But this being Iceland, a special location was chosen for the Assembly.
地处冰岛使得议事会可以选择一个十分特别的地点
And it's here where two of planet Earth's tectonic plates divide.
地壳两个板块的结合处就位于这里
So the Althingi straddled the old world of Europe in the east
因而Althingi横跨着东边欧洲所在的旧世界
and the new world of the west.
和西方的新世界
And it seems strangely apt
最初的冰岛人选择在这样一个地方
that those first Icelanders chose this place to form a new kind of government.
建立一种全新形式的政♥府♥，显得如此恰如其分
That government met on this site for the next 800 years,
接下来的八百年中政♥府♥就在这里举♥行♥会议
well into the modern era.
一直到近代
But what's incredible to me is
难以置信的是
that the 36 men who met here, over 1,000 years ago,
一千多年前在此聚会的这三十六个人
unknowingly gave birth to the oldest extant democracy in the whole world.
无意中孕育了现存于世最古老的民♥主♥国家
Leaving Iceland and its proto-Republicans behind,
离开冰岛和它的“原始共和国”
I'm returning south to Scandinavia,
我回到南边的斯堪的纳维亚
and a Viking site close to Denmark's capital.
来到距丹麦首都不远处的一处维京遗迹
Because while the Norwegians were busy creating colonies in the North Atlantic,
正当挪威人在北大西洋致力于开创殖民地时
back in the old world, things were also changing.
他们的家乡也在经历着变化
In the middle of the 10th century, the Danes were being ruled by a new dynasty,
十世纪中页时，一个新的王朝统治着丹麦
that was forging the beginnings of a nation-state.
这是维京人形成统一民族国家的开端
The new royal house was the Jelling dynasty.
这个新的王朝就是耶灵王朝
And there's is the most visible legacy of the Viking age,
这个王朝留下了维京时代最显而易见的遗迹
because towards the end of the 10th century,
因为在十世纪末期时
they built an enormous amount of infrastructure -
耶灵王朝建造了巨量的基础设施
towns were fortified,
他们强化城市的防卫
a huge earthen rampart was built
在东边建造了巨大的
across the neck of the Jutland peninsula
横贯日德兰半岛中部的城墙
to protect against invaders from Germany.
来抵御日耳曼人的入侵
They also built numerous bridges and roads,
他们还建造了很多的桥梁和道路
as well as these huge fortresses.
还有这个巨大的堡垒
This fortress is at Trelleborg, around 60 miles west of Copenhagen.
这里位于哥本哈根以东六十英里的特雷勒堡
It's an impressive symbol of royal power.
作为王权的象征特雷勒堡会给人留下深刻印象
All of the fortresses are built on the same ground plan.
所有的堡垒都是按照相同的图纸建造的
Perfectly circular earthen bank,
精确的圆形泥土地基
each topped with a timber palisade
在顶部压上原木的格栅
adding an additional eight metres in height.
城墙的高度有八米
There are four entrances,
特雷勒堡有四个入口
and in the interior, there were 16 buildings in there,
堡垒里面则有十六幢房♥子
four in each of the quadrants,
(圆形城墙)的每个象限四幢
and in each case laid out in a square.
四幢房♥子都排列成正方形
But you don't have the try too hard to imagine what those buildings looked like
你不必费力去想象这些房♥子是怎么样的
because there's a perfectly good reconstruction just over there.
因为在那边你就能看到房♥子重建后的样子
It's thought each of these fortresses housed around 500
每个堡垒可以容纳五百名
trained warriors and their families.
训练有素的士兵和他们的家人
This was centralised power,
这是中♥央♥集权
and it represented a watershed in Viking history.
标志了在维京历史的分水岭
These fortresses were much more than just defensive positions -
这些堡垒的作用远不止于军事防卫
they were very visible statements of wealth and power and centralised control.
它们标示着财富、权力和集中控制
The power was Harald Bluetooth, King of Denmark,
大权在握的是丹麦国王—“蓝牙”哈拉尔德
and he exercised total control over the people, the land and its resources.
他完全控制着他的臣民、土地和资源