Shadowing Practice: Most Epic Comebacks in History - Learn English Speaking with Video
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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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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Most Epic Comebacks in History”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: king, Alfred, Viking, kingdom, Sunjata. This video has 225 sentences and 3198 words to shadow. The speech runs for 17:26. The speaker talks fast, about 183 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 79% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| hunter noun | /ˈhʌntɚ/ | One who hunts game for sport or for food; a huntsman or huntswoman. |
| prophecy noun | /ˈpɹɑfɪsi/ | A prediction, especially one made by a prophet or under divine inspiration. |
| lion noun | /ˈlaɪən/ | A big cat, Panthera leo, native to Africa, India and formerly much of Europe. |
| flee verb | /ˈfliː/ | To run away; to escape. |
| ugly adjective | /ˈʌɡli/ | Displeasing to the eye; aesthetically unpleasing. |
| warrior noun | /ˈwɔɹi.ɚ/ | A person who is actively engaged in battle, conflict or warfare; a soldier or combatant. |
| merchant noun | /ˈmɝt͡ʃənt/ | A person who traffics in commodities for profit. |
| defend verb | /dɪˈfɪnd/ | To ward off attacks against (something or someone). |
| arrive verb | /əˈɹaɪv/ | To reach; to get to a certain place. |
| noble adjective | /ˈnoʊbəl/ | Having honorable qualities; having moral eminence and freedom from anything petty, mean or dubious in conduct and character. |
| throne noun | /θɹəʊ̯n/ | An impressive seat used by a monarch, often on a raised dais in a throne room and reserved for formal occasions. |
| stare verb | /stɛɚ/ | To look fixedly (at something). |
| hostage noun | /ˈhɑs.tɪd͡ʒ/ | A person given as a pledge or security for the performance of the conditions of a treaty or similar agreement, such as to ensure the status of a vassal. |
| disappointed adjective | /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnɪd/ | Defeated of expectations or hope; experiencing disappointment; let down. |
| shell noun | /ʃɛl/ | The calcareous or chitinous external covering of mollusks, crustaceans, and some other invertebrates. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| break down verb | To stop functioning. | |
| cut down verb | To cut downward. | |
| fight back verb | /faɪt bæk/ | To defend oneself by fighting. |
| give back verb | To return, restore (a thing to its original owner or location etc.). | |
| give up verb | To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone). | |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. | |
| going over noun | An inspection, examination, review, or investigation. | |
| hold back verb | To act with reserve; to contain one's full measure or power. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has been transformed · have heard · has seized |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | has been transformed · is wounded · was left |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | woman who feels · one who is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 7 contractions and reduced forms, such as didn't, I'll, doesn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: throne /θɹəʊ̯n/, worthy /ˈwɝ.ði/, seventh /ˈsɛvənθ/, wealthy /ˈwɛl.θi/, altogether /ɔl.tuˈɡɛð.ɚ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shell /ʃɛl/, celebration /ˌsɛl.ɪˈbɹeɪ.ʃən/, conversion /kənˈvɝʒən/, treasure /ˈtɹɛʒəɹ/, shout /ʃaʊt/
- Long words — get the stress right: disappointed /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnɪd/, celebration /ˌsɛl.ɪˈbɹeɪ.ʃən/, intensity /ɪnˈtɛnsɪti/, altogether /ɔl.tuˈɡɛð.ɚ/, momentum /ˌmə(ʊ)ˈmɛntəm/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like hunter, prophecy, lion.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.