Lex Fridman: evaluation

Transcript context

…Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like speaking of pragmatic, they just integrate into everything. Now eventually, the Varangian Guard became less and less Viking over time. But this whole… You fast-forwarded the story, we should mention that Staraya Ladoga in 753 AD is when it was established, opening the connection to the two rivers, and they began trading on the rivers and establishing more stable states along the rivers, including the Kievan Rus in 862, 882, where the Varangians, so it’s the Swedish Vikings, they took Novgorod, they took Kiev, and they established the Kievan Rus there. And that is what led to the connection to the Byzantine Empire, where they started to… Again, the Vikings went from being Vikings. They go through this process of trading and then establishing a state, now they’re doing treaties of different kinds, and they’re also waging or trying to wage war. And going all the way to Constantinople, and having a deep admiration for Constantinople enough to then begin to dream of sacking Constantinople. Yeah. I mean, once they’re alerted to the wealth that’s there, you know, Vikings being Vikings, they show up.…

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