Vikings

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search
For other uses, see Viking (disambiguation).

This article is part of a series on

Scandinavia
Contemporary countries

 Denmark
 Finland
 Norway
 Sweden
 Iceland

History

 Prehistory
o Stone Age
o Bronze Age
o Iron Age
 Norsemen
o Old Norse
o Migration Period
o Viking Age
o Viking art
 o Mythology
o Christianization
o History of Denmark
o History of Norway
o History of Sweden
 Sweden–Finland
 Kalmar Union
 Great Northern War
 Denmark–Norway
 Sweden–Norway
 Monetary Union
 Defence Union
 Nordic Council

Geography

 Mountains
 Peninsula
 Baltic Sea
 North Sea

Other topics

 Languages
 Scandinavism
 Nordic countries
 Monetary Union
 Defence Union
 Scandinavian Airlines

 v
 t
 e

Vikings[a] were Scandinavians,[2] who from the late 8th to late 11th centuries, raided and traded from
their Northern European homelands across wide areas of Europe, and explored westwards
to Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland.[3][4][5] The term is also commonly extended in modern English and
other vernaculars to include the inhabitants of Norse home communities during what has become
known as the Viking Age, 798–1066 AD. This period of Nordic military, mercantile and demographic
expansion constitutes an important element in the early medieval history of Scandinavia, Estonia,
the British Isles, France, Kievan Rus' and Sicily.[6]
Facilitated by advanced sailing and navigational skills, and characterised by the longship, Viking
activities at times also extended into the Mediterranean littoral, North Africa, and the Middle East.
 Following extended phases of (primarily sea- or river-borne) exploration, expansion and settlement,
Viking (Norse) communities and governments were established in diverse areas of north-western
Europe, Belarus,[7] Ukraine[8] and European Russia, the North Atlantic islands and as far as the north-
eastern coast of North America. This period of expansion witnessed the wider dissemination of
Norse culture, while simultaneously introducing strong foreign cultural influences
into Scandinavia itself, with profound developmental implications in both directions.
Popular, modern conceptions of the Vikings—the term frequently applied casually to their modern
descendants and the inhabitants of modern Scandinavia—often strongly differ from the complex
picture that emerges from archaeology and historical sources. A romanticised picture of Vikings
as noble savages began to emerge in the 18th century; this developed and became widely
propagated during the 19th-century Viking revival.[9][10] Perceived views of the Vikings as alternatively
violent, piratical heathens or as intrepid adventurers owe much to conflicting varieties of the modern
Viking myth that had taken shape by the early 20th century. Current popular representations of the
Vikings are typically based on cultural clichés and stereotypes, complicating modern appreciation of
the Viking legacy. These representations are not always accurate—for example, there is no
evidence that they wore horned helmets, a costuming element that first appeared in Wagnerian
opera.

Contents

 1Etymology
o 1.1Other names
 2History
o 2.1Viking Age
o 2.2Expansion
 2.2.1Motives
 2.2.2Jomsborg
o 2.3End of the Viking Age
 2.3.1Assimilation into Christendom
 3Culture
o 3.1Literature and language
 3.1.1Runestones
o 3.2Burial sites
o 3.3Ships
o 3.4Everyday life
 3.4.1Social structure
 3.4.2Women
 3.4.3Appearances
 3.4.4Farming and cuisine
 3.4.5Sports
 3.4.6Games and entertainment
 3.4.7Experimental archaeology
 3.4.8Cultural assimilation
 4Weapons and warfare
 5Trade
o 5.1Goods
 6Legacy
o 6.1Medieval perceptions
o 6.2Post-medieval perceptions
  6.2.1In 20th-century politics
 6.2.2In modern popular culture
o 6.3Common misconceptions
 6.3.1Horned helmets
 6.3.2Barbarity
 6.3.3Use of skulls as drinking vessels
 7Genetic legacy
 8See also
 9Notes
 10References
 11Bibliography
 12Further reading
 13External links

Etymology

A Norwegian fjord

One etymology derives víking from the feminine vík, meaning "creek, inlet, small bay".[11] Various
theories have been offered that the word viking may be derived from the name of the
historical Norwegian district of Víkin, meaning "a person from Víkin". According to this theory, the
word originally referred to persons from this area, and it is only in the last few centuries that it has
taken on the broader sense of early medieval Scandinavians in general. However, there are a few
major problems with this theory. People from the Viken area were not called "Viking" in Old Norse
manuscripts, but are referred to as víkverir, ('Vík dwellers'). In addition, that explanation could
explain only the masculine (víkingr) and not the feminine (víking), which is a serious problem
because the masculine is easily derived from the feminine but hardly the other way around.[12][13][14]
The form also occurs as a personal name on some Swedish runestones. The stone of Tóki víking
(Sm 10) was raised in memory of a local man named Tóki who got the name Tóki víking (Toki the
Viking), presumably because of his activities as a Viking.[15] The Gårdstånga Stone (DR 330) uses
the phrase "ÞeR drængaR waRu wiða unesiR i wikingu" (These men where well known i
Viking),[16] referring to the stone's dedicatees as Vikings. The Västra Strö 1 Runestone has an
inscription in memory of a Björn, who was killed when "i viking".[17] In Sweden there is a locality
known since the Middle Ages as Vikingstad. The Bro Stone (U 617) was raised in memory of Assur
who is said to have protected the land from Vikings (SaR vaR vikinga vorðr með Gæiti).[18][19] There is
little indication of any negative connotation in the term before the end of the Viking Age.
Another etymology that gained support in the early twenty-first century, derives Viking from the same
root as Old Norse vika, f. 'sea mile', originally 'the distance between two shifts of rowers', from the
root *weik or *wîk, as in the Proto-Germanic verb *wîkan, 'to recede'.[20][21][22][23] This is found in the
Proto-Nordic verb *wikan, 'to turn', similar to Old Icelandic víkja (ýkva, víkva) 'to move, to turn', with
well-attested nautical usages.[24] Linguistically, this theory is better attested,[24] and the term most
likely predates the use of the sail by the Germanic peoples of North-Western Europe, because
the Old Frisian spelling shows that the word was pronounced with a palatal k and thus in all
probability existed in North-Western Germanic before that palatalisation happened, that is, in the 5th
century or before (in the western branch).[23][22]
In that case, the idea behind it seems to be that the tired rower moves aside for the rested rower on
the thwart when he relieves him. The Old Norse feminine víking (as in the phrase fara í víking) may
originally have been a sea journey characterised by the shifting of rowers, i.e. a long-distance sea
journey, because in the pre-sail era, the shifting of rowers would distinguish long-distance sea
journeys. A víkingr (the masculine) would then originally have been a participant on a sea journey
characterised by the shifting of rowers. In that case, the word Viking was not originally connected to
Scandinavian seafarers but assumed this meaning when the Scandinavians begun to dominate the
seas.[20]
In Old English, the word wicing appears first in the Anglo-Saxon poem, Widsith, which probably
dates from the 9th century. In Old English, and in the history of the archbishops of Hamburg-
Bremen written by Adam of Bremen in about 1070, the term generally referred to Scandinavian
pirates or raiders. As in the Old Norse usages, the term is not employed as a name for any people or
culture in general. The word does not occur in any preserved Middle English texts. One theory made
by the Icelander Örnolfur Kristjansson is that the key to the origins of the word is "wicinga cynn" in
Widsith, referring to the people or the race living in Jórvík (York, in the ninth century under control by
Norsemen), Jór-Wicings (note, however, that this is not the origin of Jórvík).[25]
The word Viking was introduced into Modern English during the 18th-century Viking revival, at which
point it acquired romanticised heroic overtones of "barbarian warrior" or noble savage. During the
20th century, the meaning of the term was expanded to refer to not only seaborne raiders from
Scandinavia and other places settled by them (like Iceland and the Faroe Islands), but also any
member of the culture that produced said raiders during the period from the late 8th to the mid-11th
centuries, or more loosely from about 700 to as late as about 1100. As an adjective, the word is
used to refer to ideas, phenomena, or artefacts connected with those people and their cultural life,
producing expressions like Viking age, Viking culture, Viking art, Viking religion, Viking ship and so
on.[25]
Other names

Europe in 814. Roslagen is located along the coast of the northern tip of the pink area marked "Swedes and
Goths".

The Vikings were known as Ascomanni ("ashmen") by the Germans for the ash wood of their
boats,[26] Dubgail and Finngail ( "dark and fair foreigners") by the Irish,[27] Lochlannach ("lake person")
by the Gaels[28] and Dene (Dane) by the Anglo-Saxons.[29]
The Slavs, the Arabs and the Byzantines knew them as the Rus' or Rhōs,[30] probably derived from
various uses of rōþs-, "related to rowing", or derived from the area of Roslagen in east-
central Sweden, where most of the Vikings who visited the Slavic lands came from. Some
archaeologists and historians of today believe that these Scandinavian settlements in the Slavic
lands played a significant role in the formation of the Kievan Rus' federation, and hence the names
and early states of Russia and Belarus.[31][32][33] The modern day name for Sweden in several
neighbouring countries is possibly derived from rōþs-, Rootsi in Estonian and Ruotsi in Finnish.
The Slavs and the Byzantines also called them Varangians (Russian: варяги, from Old
Norse Væringjar, meaning 'sworn men', from vàr- "confidence, vow of fealty", related to Old
English wær "agreement, treaty, promise", Old High German wara "faithfulness"[30]). Scandinavian
bodyguards of the Byzantine emperors were known as the Varangian Guard.
The Franks normally called them Northmen or Danes, while for the English they were generally
known as Danes or heathen and the Irish knew them as pagans or gentiles.[34]
Anglo-Scandinavian is an academic term referring to the people,
and archaeological and historical periods during the 8th to 13th centuries in which there was
migration to—and occupation of—the British Isles by Scandinavian peoples generally known in
English as Vikings. It is used in distinction from Anglo-Saxon. Similar terms exist for other areas,
such as Hiberno-Norse for Ireland and Scotland.