DVD & Book Special--Norway: Quest for the Viking Spirit
Special offer for Norway DVD & book about Richard
Bangs' first Adventure with Purpose in Egypt
Adventures with
Purpose—Norway: Quest for the Viking Spirit
DVD: A thousand years ago Vikings set out
from the fjords of Norway striking fear across Europe. Yet today this ruggedly
beautiful country is the home of the Nobel Peace Center, of explorers and
adventure travelers and one of the most eco-friendly countries on earth. Bangs'
quest is to discover how such a progressive nation grew from such a violent
past-if modern Norway is a result of its Viking heritage or a reaction to it.
This time Richard's adventures take him the length of Norway on a Quest for the
Viking Spirit.
Richard's Quest for the Viking Spirit begins in Oslo and
travels to the extreme northern tip of Norway with stops in Alta, Kirkenes and
Lofotr. Like early Vikings he sails from Tromsø down the western cost and
experiences the beauty and majesty of the mountains and fjords with stops in
Trondheim, Bergen, Flam and Sognefjord before returning to Oslo.
In 793
AD long ships with dragon-headed bows and square sails crossed the North Sea and
landed on England's shore. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, "The ravages
of heathen men miserably destroyed God's church on Lindesfarne." Since that time
the name "Viking" has been synonymous with pirates, violence and
terror.
But today modern Norwegians are active in peace and conflict
resolution on a global scale. Norwegian women have one of the highest political
participation rates and are active in gender equality issues worldwide. Norway
is proud of its successful ecology efforts at home and actively supports ecology
solutions in developing countries.
So why is there such a discrepancy
between the ancient stereotype of marauding pirates and modern, civilized
Norway? The Viking age ended over a thousand years ago. So why does it still
resonate today? Could it be a romantic revision of a grisly past or cynical
pandering to a growing tourist trade? In this documentary special Bangs explores
the Viking Spirit and how it survives today in modern Norway.
Ultimately
Bangs concludes that in many ways the Vikings are an abstraction bloodied. But
whatever their violent deeds they were acutely in touch with nature. As few
others they understood and respected the sea, and its currents, its moods, its
elegance and they used that intimate knowledge to explore where none had gone
before.
DVD Extras:
- Bonus adventure travel tales from Richard
Bangs
- Exclusive never-before-seen footage
- Extended clips of sites
- Behind-the-scenes glimpses
- High-resolution photo gallery
DVD
Specifications:
- More than two hours of features and
extras
- Shot and mastered in HDCam 1080i broadcast
format
- Anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1 ratio)
- English sound track with English
subtitles
- Plays in all countries and regions
- Dolby® digital stereo audio
Book--Richard
Bangs' Adventures with Purpose:
Dispatches from the Front Lines of Earth
(Paperback)
This book was written in 2007 after Richard Bangs' first quest in Egypt
for Adventures with Purpose. Its lead essay is titled The
Quest for the Lord of the Nile. The book also includes 15 additional
essays written by Richard about some of his adventures prior to
filming Adventures with Purpose.
Running such wild rivers
as the crocodile-infested Tekaze in Ethiopia, Richard Bangs used to live for the
adrenalin, for the rush of reveling in the misery of hardship and sidestepping
death around every bend. Now a respected conservationist, he still travels to
demanding exotic environments, but with a new, more sober objective: he wants to
save these special places. Bangs' personal experiences of "witnessing many
special places preserved and lost" led him to write Adventures with Purpose, and
the book follows the author to Bosnia, Libya, Panama, the American West, Rwanda,
Thailand, and more as he seeks out disappearing cultures, peoples, habitats, and
ecosystems - particularly rivers - so that he can show readers that the loss of
these special places will be a catastrophe. Written in the vivid, intimate style
that made his earlier books both critical and commercial successes, Richard
Bangs' Adventures with Purpose is an unforgettable composite portrait of a world
in peril and an inspiring guide to rescuing it.
The lead essay is 7500
words on Egypt: Quest for the Lord of the Nile, and the book contains
additional essays on other Richard Bangs adventures.
350 pages. more info on Adventures with Purpose
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