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Today we're going over the most epic comeback stories in history.
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Alfred the Great.
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It's April 871, and the island of Britain has been transformed into a war zone.
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Though small Viking parties had raided the coast of Britain for decades, this time it was much different.
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Six years ago, hundreds of Viking ships made landfall in East Anglia,
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and the great heathen army with numbers in the thousands set foot on British soil with their wives, children, and toolmakers.
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This army had no interest in simple looting.
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This time, they were here as conquerors.
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The Vikings were ruthless warriors, and within two years, the once mighty English kingdoms of Northumbria and East Anglia had fallen into their control.
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In 871, the heathen army finally turns its attention to the Kingdom of Wessex,
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and King Æthelred and his brother Alfred lead their army into battle against the Viking invaders.
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The two forces engage in nine brutal battles over the span of a year, and momentum swings back and forth like a championship fight.
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But soon, more
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Viking reinforcements arrive in Britain, and their numbers are simply too much for Ethelred's army of conscripted farmers and merchants.
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In the Battle of Merton, the king is wounded and he soon dies of his injuries.
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The 22 -year -old Alfred mourns the loss of his fourth and final brother.
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He never wanted to be king.
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He had plans for a quiet life filled with reading and learning about the wonders of the world.
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But now, he was the only one left,
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and the grim responsibility for leading his people against the greatest threat his kingdom had ever faced was thrust onto his shoulders.
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As Alfred was preparing for his brother's funeral, the Vikings attacked again, destroying what was left of his already battered army.
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With no other options, Alfred pays the Vikings to leave.
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The great heathen army takes the treasure and goes on to attack the neighboring kingdom of Mercia.
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They are unstoppable, and by 875, Alfred's kingdom of Wessex is the last remaining English kingdom free of Viking rule.
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With the complete conquest of the island looking like an inevitability, more Danes pour into Britain, and the Viking army in the south,
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led by a monstrous man named Gutrum, sees an opportunity to snuff out the last pocket of English independence.
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He assembles his men and marches towards Wessex.
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Now, Alfred was in a really bad situation when he paid off the Vikings the last time,
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but he didn't waste the time he had bought and had fully rebuilt his army.
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He was ready for them, and while the Vikings are looting the town of Wareham, he traps them in the city.
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As hard as Alfred tries to force them out, the Vikings prove to be pretty good at withstanding sieges, and eventually Alfred turns to diplomacy instead.
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Okay, now I want you guys to pinky swear on that ring you got there that you said was for your god, uh, Thor, right?
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Okay, swear on that ring that you'll give back the hostages and leave us alone.
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Great, alright, I'll be right back to get those hostages.
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See guys, I told you, just a little bit of charm goes a long way.
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But they pinky swore to Thor.
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Guttram had no issues breaking oaths and treaties he made, even one sworn to one of his Norse gods.
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And as soon as Alfred left, he killed all of their hostages and ran off to Exeter to wait for reinforcements.
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Alfred moved to the coast and blocked said reinforcements from landing, and soon the Viking ships were all wrecked offshore in a storm.
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With no backup, Guttram and his warriors retreated back to Mercia.
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Though Alfred is on high alert, there are no sightings of the Vikings in Wessex for an entire year,
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and eventually he comes to believe he had won the war.
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He had defended his kingdom from the invaders and brought peace to his land.
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So in January of 878, to celebrate the victory against the heathen invaders, Alfred hosts a Christmas feast in Chippenham, away from his fortified capital,
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and invites lords and nobles, his best soldiers, and clergymen to come and celebrate the birth of their savior and the newfound peace in Wessex.
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Little did they know, this was exactly what Gutrum was waiting for.
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As Alfred and his men are toasting, a loud rumbling begins to swell outside the hall.
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The king and his guests try to see what the commotion is when suddenly,
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large Viking warriors burst through the doorways and begin slaughtering everyone within reach.
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They had learned that Christmas was a religious day for the Saxons, and realized that this would be the perfect time to strike.
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Alfred and his soldiers are unarmed for the holy celebration, and the Vikings mercilessly tear through the dinner guests.
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In the chaos, the king and a small band of bodyguards flee into the marsh,
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while the remaining dinner guests scream in agony as they are massacred.
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Alfred runs until he reaches Somerset.
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Exhausted and dirty, he is taken in by an old peasant woman who feels sorry for this desperate man.
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She has no idea he is her king, and she asks him to watch some of her cakes she had put near the fire to bake.
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Alfred agrees, but as he stares into the fire, his mind races between thoughts of self -pity and desperation to save his kingdom.
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Seven years I held them.
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Bought them with gold when I had to.
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Fought the best I could.
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One bloody night, that's all it took!
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One night and the seven years were all for nothing!
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I could still hear them screaming.
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My people, my household guard, they died so I could run!
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Loyal men, good men, died defending a king who abandoned them!
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What kind of king runs while his warriors die?
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What kind of king watches cakes by a fire?
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Oh no. I told you not to burn the cakes!
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As the king sat there being chewed out by that old peasant woman, it's hard to imagine why he didn't just give up then and there.
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Most would.
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Heck, the King of Mercia fled to Rome when the Vikings came for him.
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But Alfred was different.
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He apologizes to the woman for her cakes and leaves with a calm intensity.
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Maybe it was because he was deeply religious and he believed God was testing him like many great kings in the past.
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Or maybe it was just because he wanted revenge for Gut Rum ruining his Christmas dinner.
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Whatever the reason, after months spent reviewing all of his options,
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Alfred decides to lay it all on the line and to try to fight back one last time against the Vikings.
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He sends out a call to every able -bodied man to take up their sword
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and join him to fight against these invaders.
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He calls on them to rally at Egbert's Stone on the seventh week after Easter, and together they will fight, not as kings, nobles, farmers,
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or merchants, but instead they will fight together as English.
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But was there anyone left to hear his call to arms?
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The Vikings had killed his best soldiers at the Christmas attack.
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Many nobles expecting the fall of Wessex had turned on their king or fled the island altogether.
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Well aware that he may be marching to not just his own death, but the death of his kingdom,
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Alfred prepares what's left of his decimated army and rides for Egbert Stone.
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As he approaches the rendezvous point, his worst fears begin to race through his mind.
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What if no one is there?
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What if his message never reached his people?
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Or even worse, what if they had lost faith in their king?
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But as Alfred crests the final hill that overlooks Egbert Stone, he is welcomed with the roar of 4 ,000 men.
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Their swords raised, they cheer their king as he rides towards them.
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They had all heard his call and were all prepared to fight to defend their homeland.
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Alfred leads this army to confront Gutram at the Battle of Eddington.
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Leading from the front lines, Alfred
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and his men engage the Vikings in brutal melee combat for hours until finally
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they break the will of the great heathen army.
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Gutram and his remaining men flee the battle, with Alfred and his men cutting down anyone they could catch.
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The Vikings eventually make it to Chippenheim, the same town that they had attacked Alfred during his Christmas feast.
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Alfred sieges the town for weeks, starving the Vikings, until Gutram finally surrenders.
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The warlord expects the king to execute his entire army, but instead, Alfred does something no one could have ever imagined in a thousand years.
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He tells the Vikings that if they wish to surrender, he will allow it.
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But first, Gutram must be baptized and convert to Christianity.
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Then all Vikings must leave Wessex and never return.
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Gutram, thinking that this option is much better than being turned into a blood eagle, agrees and is baptized.
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Alfred actually becomes his godfather, and after being treated like family for a few weeks,
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the reformed warlord takes his Viking army and goes back to East Anglia.
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Now, Alfred had already been fooled by Gutram multiple times, who had shown no respect for any religion,
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including his own Norse one so to most people, it probably seemed like he would just do the same thing again.
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But perhaps the most surprising thing about this story is that, for some reason, it seems like the Viking warlord actually takes his religious conversion seriously.
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He begins using his Christian name and never attacks Alfred or Wessex again.
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He ruled his kingdom known as the Danelaw until his death as a peaceful king.
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As for Alfred, his comeback story against the Vikings alone would have made him a legend in itself,
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But he goes on to do so much more.
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He completely reforms his kingdom's military, making it more powerful than ever.
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He creates the first English navy and finally led a cultural renaissance translating texts from Latin to English.
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He spends his days dreaming of a day when there were no borders separating the kingdoms of the land,
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a day when all the English are united as one.
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And when he retakes London from the Vikings in 886, he does so not as the king of Wessex,
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but as the king of the Anglo -Saxons.
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His son would inherit the now powerful kingdom that he had saved from the brink of annihilation, and eventually his grandson would conquer the last
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Viking kingdom on the island and become the first king of England.
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For all the things he accomplished in his relatively short life, Alfred is the only English king to ever be given the title The Great.
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Sunjata Keita It's the turn of the 13th century,
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and in a small corner of the once great empire of Ghana lies a tiny kingdom called Kangaba
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which is ruled by a king named Magan.
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Though his kingdom is small, his people love him, and he is a fair and just ruler.
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The citizens of Kangaba feel fortunate to live here, as they have heard horror stories from other lands throughout the now fallen empire.
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Most notably, stories of a tyrant king named Sumaro, who has seized control of the Sasso region where he rules through fear and violence.
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But Kangaba is far from Sasso, and the king and his people live a peaceful life.
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But little did they know
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that their tiny kingdom was destined to give birth to one of the greatest kings in the history of Africa.
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One day, Magan is sitting under a tree with his advisors when a hunter from a foreign land approaches with a gift,
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a thank you for allowing him to hunt in his peaceful lands.
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The king accepts the gift and learns the hunter is from the land of Sangaran.
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The hunters of Sangaran are said to be soothsayers,
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powerful mystics who can see the future and he asks this hunter to tell him what god has in store for him.
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The hunter agrees and produces shells from his satchel that he will use to peer into the king's future.
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Staring intensely at the shells, the hunter moves them around.
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He looks up at the king and says, your successor is not yet born.
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What do you mean?
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Asks the king.
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He has a fine son birthed from a beautiful woman name Sasuma.
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But the hunter shakes his head and continues.
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Two hunters will one day bring a woman from far away to you.
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She will be hideous, the ugliest woman you have ever seen,
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with eyes that look to be laid on her face and a huge hump on her back.
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Right.
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I think I'll stick with Sasuma.
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She will be so ugly, people will call her the Buffalo Woman.
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But you must marry her, for she will be the mother of him,
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the mightiest king, who will be a lion so great that this land will be known forever.
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Alright.
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A few days later, two hunters do arrive
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and bring with them a woman that they offer to the king as a gift.
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She is by far the ugliest woman he has ever seen.
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And so he marries her because, you know, prophecy and stuff.
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The woman is named Sogolon, and soon she becomes pregnant and gives birth to a boy.
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He is given the name Sunjata, and the king is excited.
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The Lion King, his true successor, has been born!
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But the excitement soon turns into disappointment, as the child grows and it becomes obvious he is disabled.
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He never learns to walk, and at the age of three is still crawling around, dragging his legs behind him.
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The king's previous wife, Sasuma, sees this and laughs.
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She brings her son near Sogolon and says, Come, my son, walk, jump, leap about!
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And as her son pranced in front of Sunjata,
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she says, I prefer a son who walks on his two legs to a lion that crawls on the ground,
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and walks away cackling with her son jumping after her.
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Sogolon tries everything to heal her son's legs.
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She researches and tries every herb she can find, but nothing works, and the king is growing more and more disappointed by the day.
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Maybe Sunjata was not to be the future king.
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So he tried to make more children with Sogolon.
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She becomes pregnant again, but the king is disappointed when she gives birth to a daughter, one who is just as ugly as she is.
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She gets pregnant again and gives birth to another boy, but when he checks with his spiritual guides,
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they tell him this child will be the right hand of the king of prophecy, not the king himself.
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The king doesn't know what to do.
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He trusts the prophecy, but it seems so wrong.
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When Sunjata turns seven, he is still not walking, and the king is nearing death.
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Still believing in the prophecy given to him by the hunter, his last words are to hand his kingdom to Sunjata, but his advisors refuse.
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A disabled child as their king?
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They would appear weak and would surely be conquered by a neighboring kingdom.
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So they give the throne to the son of Susuma instead.
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The next day, Sogolon stares at her son, lying on his stomach, eating from a bowl on the ground like an animal.
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She had done everything she could for him, but the prophecy was wrong.
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She can no longer hold back her tears and breaks down and cries.
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Sunjata finishes his meal and looks to his mother.
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Do not cry, he says.
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I will show you.
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I will show you today that I can walk.
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He crawls to the village blacksmith and asks him to give him an iron rod.
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In front of a crowd, Sunjata grabs the rod and while laying on the ground, stands it up vertically.
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He then slowly uses the bar to pull himself up.
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He strains every muscle in his body, but slowly he rises to a knee.
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The bar bends, and with sweat streaming down his face, Sunjata pushes himself up off the ground.
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He releases the iron rod from his grasp and stands for the first time on his own two feet.
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The crowd erupts into cheers.
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The lion walks, they shout.
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From here, Sunjata quickly grows stronger and stronger, and soon the people in the kingdom begin to believe in the prophecy again.
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Maybe he actually is the Lion King.
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And all of this enrages Susuma, and she begins to plot to have Sunjata assassinated to protect her son's place as king.
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Fearing for her child's life, Sogolon takes Sunjata, and together they flee the village in the still of the night.
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They wander for seven years, bouncing from kingdom to kingdom.
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The hardships make Sunjata stronger, and he eventually finds his way to the kingdom of Maema.
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By this time, Sunjata had grown to be a powerful man.
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He joins their army, and when he fights in a war with the Maima king, his bravery on the battlefield is noticed,
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and he deems Sunjata worthy of the Maima throne.
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But Sogolon, now sick and on her deathbed, reminds her son that his destiny is not here in Maima, but back in their home village.
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One day, merchants from Sunjata's homeland arrive.
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They are brought to Sunjata, and when they see him, they fall to their knees and begin to cry.
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We have left our home two months ago, disguised as merchants, but in reality we have been searching for you.
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The tyrant Sumaro has invaded our home.
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Our king and his mother have fled and left us all alone.
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We continue to fight, but we have no leader.
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The soothsayers have told us that only the son of Sogolon can save us, and we are now saved because we have finally found you.
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Sunjata, our Lion King, your father's throne awaits you.
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Upon hearing this, Sunjata thinks of his mother.
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She had died hoping the prophecy would one day come true.
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He gathers the army in Maima and visits all of the small kingdoms he had visited after leaving his home.
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He tells these kings of Sumaro and how if they desire their freedom, they must unite to defeat him once and for all.
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His army becomes larger and larger with each stop, and he leads this unified force in the Battle of Karina,
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where Sumaro and his forces are defeated.
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Following the battle, the kings who had joined Sunjata kneel down before him and give him the title of Mansa, the King of Kings.
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This new land he will rule will come to be known as Mali, a glorious empire with vast gold mines and salt beds
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that becomes one of the richest empires in the history of the world.
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One that would become so wealthy that
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Sun Jata's descendant Mansa Musa is still regarded today as the richest person to have ever walked the earth.
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Vocabolario e note di pronuncia per questa lezione
Questa lezione di conversazione si basa sul video “Most Epic Comebacks in History”. Le parole che ritornano più spesso: king, Alfred, Viking, kingdom, Sunjata. Questo video contiene 225 frasi e 3198 parole da ripetere con lo shadowing. Il parlato dura 17:26. Chi parla va veloce, circa 183 parole al minuto: aspettati suoni legati e ridotti. Solo il 79% delle parole rientra nelle 3.000 più comuni dell’inglese, quindi il lessico è impegnativo.
Vocaboli chiave di questo video
15 parole del video che vale la pena imparare, con pronuncia e significato:
| Parola | Pronuncia | Significato |
|---|---|---|
| hunter sostantivo | /ˈhʌntɚ/ | cane da caccia |
| prophecy sostantivo | /ˈpɹɑfɪsi/ | profezia |
| lion sostantivo | /ˈlaɪən/ | leone |
| flee verbo | /ˈfliː/ | fuggire |
| ugly aggettivo | /ˈʌɡli/ | brutto, laido |
| warrior sostantivo | /ˈwɔɹi.ɚ/ | guerriero, guerriera |
| merchant sostantivo | /ˈmɝt͡ʃənt/ | mercante, mercantessa |
| defend verbo | /dɪˈfɪnd/ | difendere, proteggere |
| arrive verbo | /əˈɹaɪv/ | arrivare, giungere |
| noble aggettivo | /ˈnoʊbəl/ | nobile |
| throne sostantivo | /θɹəʊ̯n/ | trono |
| stare verbo | /stɛɚ/ | fissare |
| hostage sostantivo | /ˈhɑs.tɪd͡ʒ/ | ostaggio |
| disappointed aggettivo | /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnɪd/ | deluso |
| shell sostantivo | /ʃɛl/ | conchiglia |
I phrasal verb che sentirai
| Parola | Pronuncia | Significato |
|---|---|---|
| fight back verbo | /faɪt bæk/ | difendersi, contrastare |
| give back verbo | rendere | |
| give up verbo | arrendersi | |
| hold back verbo | fare complimenti | |
| pay off verbo | corrompere | |
| send out verbo | inviare | |
| take up verbo | sollevare, prendere |
La grammatica di questo video
Le strutture che chi parla usa di più, con le parole esatte del video:
| Struttura | Nel video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + participio passato — un’azione passata che conta ancora adesso | has been transformed · have heard · has seized |
| Forma passiva be + participio passato — conta ciò che accade, non chi lo fa | has been transformed · is wounded · was left |
| Frasi relative who / which + frase — un’informazione in più su una persona o una cosa | woman who feels · one who is |
Pronuncia a cui fare attenzione
Chi parla usa 7 contrazioni e forme ridotte, come didn't, I'll, doesn't. Pronunciale nella forma breve, così come le senti.
- I suoni “th”: throne /θɹəʊ̯n/, worthy /ˈwɝ.ði/, seventh /ˈsɛvənθ/, wealthy /ˈwɛl.θi/, altogether /ɔl.tuˈɡɛð.ɚ/
- I suoni “sh” e “zh”: shell /ʃɛl/, celebration /ˌsɛl.ɪˈbɹeɪ.ʃən/, conversion /kənˈvɝʒən/, treasure /ˈtɹɛʒəɹ/, shout /ʃaʊt/
- Parole lunghe — attenzione all’accento: disappointed /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnɪd/, celebration /ˌsɛl.ɪˈbɹeɪ.ʃən/, intensity /ɪnˈtɛnsɪti/, altogether /ɔl.tuˈɡɛð.ɚ/, momentum /ˌmə(ʊ)ˈmɛntəm/
I suoni difficili per chi parla italiano:
- /h/ — va soffiata, non è muta: hunter /ˈhʌntɚ/, hostage /ˈhɑs.tɪd͡ʒ/, homeland /ˈhoʊmˌlænd/, household /ˈhaʊshoʊld/, horror /ˈhɒɹ.ə/
- Consonante finale — senza aggiungere una vocale dopo: merchant /ˈmɝt͡ʃənt/, defend /dɪˈfɪnd/, arrive /əˈɹaɪv/, hostage /ˈhɑs.tɪd͡ʒ/, disappointed /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnɪd/
- /æ/ — più aperta della “e”: advisor /ædˈvaɪ.zə(ɹ)/, homeland /ˈhoʊmˌlænd/, vast /væst/, marry /ˈmæɹi/, rally /ˈɹæli/
Come esercitarsi con questo video
- Ascolta tutto il video una volta senza parlare e annota le parole che non conosci.
- Inizia a velocità 0,75×, fai shadowing frase per frase e torna alla velocità normale quando diventa facile.
- Registrati e confronta con l’originale, facendo attenzione a parole come hunter, prophecy, lion.
Cos'è la tecnica dello Shadowing?
Shadowing è una tecnica di apprendimento delle lingue supportata da studi scientifici, originariamente sviluppata per la formazione dei traduttori professionisti e resa popolare dal poliglotta Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Il metodo è semplice ma potente: ascolti un audio in inglese di madrelingua e lo ripeti immediatamente ad alta voce — come un'ombra che segue il parlante con un ritardo di solo 1–2 secondi. A differenza dell'ascolto passivo o degli esercizi di grammatica, lo shadowing costringe il tuo cervello e i muscoli della bocca a elaborare e riprodurre simultaneamente i modelli di discorso reale. La ricerca dimostra che migliora significativamente la precisione della pronuncia, l'intonazione, il ritmo, il discorso connesso, la comprensione dell'ascolto e la fluidità del parlato — rendendolo uno dei metodi più efficaci per la preparazione alla prova di speaking dell'IELTS e per la comunicazione reale in inglese.