‘The Vampire Diaries’: Alaric deciphers the cave-art, plus hiatus details

The typical mythological viking is a violent warrior… so it should come as no surprise to “Vampire Diaries” fans that the Original vampire family were vikings, who settled in the U.S. about a thousand years ago. Where in the U.S., exactly?

Mystic Falls, of course. This town is ground zero for supernatural mayhem.

In this new clip from Thursday’s episode, Alaric (Matt Davis) deciphers the viking hieroglyphics he found inside the Lockwood cave… and discovers some very familiar names.

“The Vampire Diaries” just keeps getting more intense — which, unfortunately, means that the mid-season finale is upon us. The final episode of “TVD” for the year will air Nov. 10. After that, the show will go on a holiday break and return just after the new year on Jan. 5, 2012.

Photo/Video credit: The CW