🥪 History and Fantasy - Youtube Channels and Videos 🥪
Modern History TV
A channel hosted by Jason Kingsley OBE, who explores what it was like to live in the medieval world. Topics often feature the micro details of history, including what the food was like, how people lit their homes, and how they maintained personal hygiene. Jason also owns and trains horses, which allows him to explore how knights would’ve fought from horseback.
Recommended videos:
- Did medieval peasants travel?
- Soap and washing: Did they have soap in medieval times?
- Medieval hygiene: Did people have bad teeth in medieval times?
- Medieval living: What did medieval peasants use instead of Plastic wrap?
- Medieval living: How Did Medieval Peasants Light Their Homes?
- What did people eat in medieval times? (playlist)
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Lindybeige
A channel featuring a wide variety of historical topics, from medieval warfare and technology to human psychology to WW2 infantry and tank battles.
Recommended videos:
- Spears are better than swords: scientific proof
- Forests in the olden days
- Sieges and Siege-craft
- A point about siege ladders
- Why soldiers so often do nothing in battle
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Tod's Workshop
A channel run by film prop designer Tod Cutler. The channel focuses on medieval weaponry and the strengths and weaknesses of certain weapons. There are a number of videos featuring lesser-known details around longbows, crossbows, and other forms of ranged medieval combat, as well as debunking misconceptions through archery experiments.
Recommended videos:
- Six Medieval Arrow Types - What are they for?
- How to remove medieval arrows (and more about crescent heads)
- ARROWS vs ARMOUR - Medieval Myth Busting
- Plumbata - Roman war darts
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Shadiversity
Shad M. Brooks runs a youtube channel that is heavily focused on medieval warfare and HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts). He covers the strengths and weaknesses of a wide range of weaponry and armour. There are also a large number of videos regarding castles and siege warfare. He is a published writer, and talks from the perspective of an experienced fantasy author.
Recommended videos:
- Underappreciated Historical Weapons: The Spear
- When medieval armor fails - a complex discussion
- The truth about medieval catapults
- Medieval castle sieges in depth
- What rooms are inside real medieval castles?
- Medieval Misconceptions: Torches and candles
- How to write a novel
- Magic in fantasy, soft magic vs hard magic: Fantasy Re-armed
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Metatron
Covers a wide range of topics, including but not limited to Roman society and warfare, Japanese feudal history, samurai culture, and the European medieval era.
Recommended videos:
- Brigandine: Armour of The Medieval Soldier
- Chinese Amour VS Japanese Armour
- The Evolution Of Knightly Armour - 1066 - 1485
- The Mongols - Battle Strategy
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Skallagrim
Videos often feature the use of historical arms and armor, tools, firearms, and archery. He also has a lot of videos debunking misconceptions around the aforementioned topics.
Recommended videos:
- Leather and Bone Armor - Not Just Fantasy!
- Why Bronze is Fascinating
- Some Points About the Shape of Spears
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Living Anachronism
A channel headed by a medieval enthusiast and actor named Kramer, who seeks to explore medieval realism in fantasy worlds through experimental archaeology and asking questions regarding practicality.
Recommended videos:
- How to tell a story | Not like this!
- Backstories don't make good characters | Character motivation explained
- Shadiversity Response! | Should Rangers shoot from trees?
- Throwing Knives...| Adventurer's Arsenal
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Knyght Errant
A small channel that features videos covering medieval armour, particularity those around the 14th and early 15th century. Special care is taken to address historical accuracy.
Recommended videos:
- Fantasy Armor Design Grounded in History
- Helmets for the Common Soldier + the complimentary videos:
- Simple Bascinet, Shingled Helmet, Turtle Helmet, Faceplate Helmet
- Helmets: The Kettle Helmet
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Will Lord - Prehistoric Survival
A channel explorating how humans survived in prehistory. Topics include: making tools using flint, stone, plant and animal products, bow-making, bronze casting, and other experimental archaeology.
Recommended videos:
- Mining Malachite from an ancient copper mine
- Enter The Bronze Age starting right from the ore itself
- Making a Stone Age Arrow with Memma the cave woman
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Neil Burridge - Bronze Age Swords
You can find a bunch of interesting facts about historical bronze age blades here, including methods of forging.
Recommended videos:
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toldinstone
The channel is run by Garrett Ryan, who has a PhD in Greek and Roman history. Videos answer frequently asked questions about ancient Greek and Roman culture and everyday living.
Recommended videos:
- How deadly was gladiatorial combat?
- Bad Neighborhoods in Ancient Rome
- The Best-Paying Jobs in Ancient Rome
- Were the wealthiest Romans as rich as modern billionaires?
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TREY the Explainer
Trey covers a wide variety of topics, usually centered around biology, zoology, paleontology, and sometimes cryptozoology. There are also videos covering prehistoric humans and ancient history through the lens of anthropology.
Recommended videos:
- What is the Leviathan? and What can it tell us about Ancient Religions?
- Why are some animals considered "taboo" to eat?
- The Fabulous Fashion of the Minoan Civilization
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The Welsh Viking
Jimmy’s videos cover a wide range of topics, usually centered around medieval viking culture. Sometimes he reviews historical TV, movies, and video games.
Recommended videos:
- Here's Why Historical Combat is NEVER Authentic
- Are Flintlock Muskets Better Than Medieval Longbows?
- Forgotten Histories: Intersex People
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From Nothing
This channel focuses on Sub-Saharan African history and culture. Videos shine light on various African nations throughout history, as well as debunking misconceptions about Africa that are still perpetuated today.
Recommended videos:
- Did African Warriors Wear Armor?
- Misconceptions series (playlist)
- How People Sent Messages Without Writing or Speaking
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Kings and Generals
A channel focusing on historical documentaries from every era, from historical battles and events, to the rise and fall of empires.
Recommended videos:
- Armies and Tactics: Ancient Greek Navies
- Armies and Tactics: Philip II's Cavalry and Siegecraft
- Alexander the Great: Logistics
- Mongol Army - Tactics, Logistics, Siegecraft, Recruitment DOCUMENTARY
- Japanese Warrior Women - Female Samurai
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Invicta
A channel that covers a wide range of historical topics, with most focusing on the classical age or the Roman empire. There are a number of videos covering the ebb and flow of ancient battles in great detail.
Recommended videos:
- How Did Rome Maintain Peace in the Provinces?
- How to Raise a Medieval Army
- Warfare of Classical Antiquity: Republican Fleet Tactics (Roman Navy)
- Who are you? Proving your identity in antiquity
- Roman Army Supply Lines and Logistics (Overview)
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SandRoman History
A channel that covers a range of historical topics.
Recommended videos:
- 5 Misconceptions about Medieval Sieges in Movies
- How to Lay Siege to a Medieval Fortress in 9 Easy Steps
- How Medieval Artillery Revolutionized Siege Warfare
- The Rise of Gunpowder in Europe
- Why Did Soldiers Fight? | Soldiers' Lives
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Crecganford
This channel focuses on Indo-European mythology, history, and culture. Many videos center on ancient stories, beliefs, and religions.
Recommended videos:
- One of the Oldest stories in the world - The Cosmic Hunt
- The Origin of the Flood Myth and finding an ancient Creation Myth
- Are these the Oldest Words we know?
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The History Squad
A channel headed by storyteller and presenter Kevin Hicks, who covers a range of historical topics usually centering around warfare. He typically talks about the medieval period, as well as eras up to and including the world wars.
Recommended videos:
- How did Medieval Armies Move? | Baggage Train
- How do you feed a medieval army? | Medieval logistics
- How were arrows supplied for battles? | Medieval Logistics
- Horses on Campaign in Medieval Times | Logistics & Transport
- What other weapons did a medieval archer carry?
- Helmets & headgear, what a medieval archer wore
- Henry V arrowhead removal | Medieval Surgery
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Townsends
This channel centers around living in the 18th century colonial period, including the American frontier. There is a large focus on what the people of that era ate, and how they prepared and cooked it.
Recommended videos:
- Ship's Bisket - Hard Tack: 18th Century Breads
- Soup, Stew and Hash - 18th CenturySecrets of the Castle - Episode 1 Soldier Cooking
- Historic Food Preservation - Potted Salmon
- Stale Bread, A Block of Cheese...It's Suppertime! - Cheese Soup
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Tasting History with Max Miller
A cooking and baking channel in which Max attempts to recreate a historical dish while explaining the history surrounding it.
Recommended videos:
- Feeding a Roman Legion | Posca & Laridum
- Feeding A Medieval Knight
- Spartan Black Broth | Melas Zomos
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Miscellaneous video links
Here I will put links to miscellaneous videos that I’ve found helpful, regarding the topics around history and fantasy.
- Secrets of the Castle - Building a Castle with Medieval Tools (playlist) – [Mirror Link]
- How to Build the Perfect Castle
- World Building - Creating Place Names Realistically and Artistically
- Boob Armor: 4 Things You Need to Know
- Ultimate Fashion History – From Prehistory to Today (playlist)
- What was life like after the Bronze Age collapse
- Medieval Poleaxe Combat Demonstration
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I have also compiled the above resources into a single Google document, if you would prefer to browse through the lists that way. The link can be found here: Sandwich's Writing Resources Compilation Link