评论
打印
In the year 1066, 7000 Norman infantry and knights sailed in warships across the English Channel.
公元1066年，7000名诺曼步兵及骑兵驾驶战船横渡英吉利海峡。
Their target: England, home to more than a million people. Theirs was a short voyage with massive consequences.
他们的目标是英格兰，一个拥有上百万人口的国家。他们的航行距离不长却带来巨大的影响。
And around the same period of time, other groups of Normans were setting forth all across Europe,
与此同时，更多的诺曼人正远渡整个欧洲，
going on adventures that would reverberate throughout that continent's history.
进行着将会为这片大陆带来长久深刻影响的冒险之旅。
So who were these warriors and how did they leave their mark so far and wide?
那么，这些战士究竟是谁，他们又是如何在如此广阔的范围内留下自己的印记的呢？
Our story begins over 200 years earlier, when Vikings began to settle on the shores of northern France
我们的故事开始于此前两百多年，届时维京人开始在法国北部海岸上定居，
as part of a great Scandinavian exodus across northern Europe.
组成了一次横跨北部欧洲的斯堪的纳维亚大迁移。
The French locals called these invaders Normans, named for the direction they came from.
法国当地人将这些侵入者称为诺曼人，这个称呼源自于他们到来的方向。
Eventually, Charles, the king of the Franks, negotiated peace with the Viking leader Rollo in 911,
最终，西法兰克国王查理三世与维京首领于公元911年达成和平协议，
granting him a stretch of land along France's northern coast that came to be known as Normandy.
授予他法国北海岸一片土地的所有权，这片土地就是诺曼底。
The Normans proved adaptable to their newly settled life.
事实证明诺曼人适应了他们的新生活。
They married Frankish women, adopted the French language, and soon started converting from Norse paganism to Christianity.
他们与法兰克女人结婚，学习了法语，并且很快从北欧异教转而信仰基督教。
But though they adapted, they maintained the warrior tradition and conquering spirit of their Viking forebears.
但是虽然他们做出了适应新生活的改变，他们仍然保留了源于维京祖先的战士传统和征服精神。
Before long, ambitious Norman knights were looking for new challenges.
不久之后，雄心壮志的诺曼骑士们开始寻求新的挑战。
The Normans' best-known achievement was their conquest of England.
诺曼人最知名的成就是对英格兰的征服。
In 1066, William, the Duke of Normandy, disputed the claim of the new English king, Harold Godwinson.
公元1066年，诺曼底公爵威廉一世对英格兰新国王哈罗德·戈德温森的继承发出挑战。
Soon after landing in England, William and his knights met Harold's army near the town of Hastings.
在登陆英格兰后不久，威廉和他的骑士们就与哈罗德的军队在黑斯廷斯镇附近兵戎相见。
The climactic moment in the battle is immortalized in the 70-meter-long Bayeux Tapestry,
这场战役的高潮时刻被永远地记录在一条70米长的贝叶挂毯中。
where an arrow striking Harold in the eye seals the Norman victory.
画面中，一支插入哈罗德眼睛的箭封存了诺曼人的胜利。
William consolidated his gains with a huge castle-building campaign and a reorganization of English society.
威廉通过组织一次巨大城堡的修建和对英国社会的重塑巩固他的所得。
He lived up to his nickname "William the Conqueror" through a massive survey known as the Domesday Book,
他的别称“征服者威廉”实至名归，他命令完成的大型调查记录《末日审判书》证明了这一点，
which recorded the population and ownership of every piece of land in England.
那其中记录了英格兰每一块土地的人口及归属。
Norman French became the language of the new royal court, while commoners continued to speak Anglo-Saxon.
诺曼法语成为了新英国朝廷的语言，同时平民仍然使用盎格鲁-撒克逊语。
Over time, the two merged to give us the English we know today,
久而久之，这两种语言相互融合成为了我们今天所熟知的英语，
though the divide between lords and peasants can still be felt in synonym pairs such as cow and beef.
即便如此我们仍然可以感受到贵族与佃农之间的差距，例如同义词对中的牛和牛肉。
By the end of the 12th century, the Normans had further expanded into Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.
在十二世纪末期，诺曼人扩张到了威尔士，苏格兰以及爱尔兰。
Meanwhile, independent groups of Norman knights traveled to the Mediterranean, inspired by tales of pilgrims returning from Jerusalem.
同时，独立的诺曼骑士团体游历到了地中海地区，受到了由耶路撒冷返回的朝圣者们的故事的启迪。
There, they threw themselves into a tangled mass of conflicts among the established powers all over that region.
在那里，他们投身于大量的所有该地区政权之间的纠缠不清的冲突当中。
They became highly prized mercenaries, and during one of these battles,
他们成为了极有价值的雇佣兵，在其中一次战役中，
they made the first recorded heavy cavalry charge with couched lances, a devastating tactic that soon became standard in medieval warfare.
他们使用了历史上首次记载的长矛重骑兵，这种强大的战术很快成为了中古战争中的标配。
The Normans were also central to the First Crusade of 1095-99,,
诺曼人同样是公元1095至1099年第一次十字军东征的核心力量，
a bloody conflict that re-established Christian control in certain parts of the Middle East.
这是一次重新建立了中东部分地区基督教掌权的一次血腥冲突。
But the Normans did more than just fight.
但是诺曼人做的不仅仅是打斗。
As a result of their victories, leaders like William Iron-Arm and Robert the Crafty secured lands throughout Southern Italy,
作为他们胜利的结果，像铁臂威廉和狡诈者罗伯特一样的首领保护了意大利南部的土地，
eventually merging them to form the Kingdom of Sicily in 1130.
最终在1130年将它们合并建立了西西里王国。
Under Roger II, the kingdom became a beacon of multicultural tolerance in a world torn apart by religious and civil wars.
在鲁杰罗二世的统治下，王国在当时因宗教战争及内战分崩离析的世界中成为了多文化包容的指路明灯。
Muslim Arab poets and scholars served in the royal court alongside Byzantine Greek sailors and architects.
阿拉伯穆斯林诗人和学者在朝廷中效力的同时，希腊拜占庭航海家及建筑师也在王国工作。
Arabic remained an official language along with Latin, Greek, and Norman French.
阿拉伯语和拉丁语、希腊语、诺曼法语一道成为官方语言。
The world's geographical knowledge was compiled in The Book of Roger,
世界上的地理学知识都被收集在了《鲁杰罗之书》中，
whose maps of the known world would remain the most accurate available for 300 years.
其中的已知世界的地图在之后的三百年中仍然保持最为精确。
And the churches built in Palermo combined Latin-style architecture, Arab ceilings, and Byzantine domes, all decorated with exquisite golden mosaics.
在巴勒莫修建的教堂结合了拉丁风格建筑，阿拉伯屋顶和拜占庭拱顶，并全部装饰以精美的黄金马赛克。
So if the Normans were so successful, why aren't they still around?
那么，如果诺曼人如此成功，为什么如今他们却消失不见？
In fact, this was a key part of their success: not just ruling the societies they conquered, but becoming part of them.
实际上，这其实是他们成功的一大关键：不仅仅统治他们征服的社会，而是融入他们。
Although the Normans eventually disappeared as a distinct group, their contributions remained.
虽然诺曼人最终作为独立的民族消失了，他们的贡献仍然留存。
And today, from the castles and cathedrals that dot Europe's landscape to wherever the English language is spoken, the Norman legacy lives on.
今天，从那些散布于欧洲的城堡及大教堂一直到使用英语的地方，诺曼人的遗赠永存。
