North Germanic peoples, Nordic peoples and in a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

context

Norsemen The Norsemen (or Northmen) were a cultural group in the Early Middle Ages, originating among speakers of Old Norse in Scandinavia. During the late eighth century, Scandinavians embarked on a Viking expansion, large-scale expansion in all direc ...

, were a Germanic linguistic group originating from the

Scandinavian Peninsula The Scandinavian Peninsula is located in Northern Europe, and roughly comprises the mainlands of Sweden, Norway and the northwestern area of Finland. The name of the peninsula is derived from the term Scandinavia, the cultural region of Denm ...

. They are identified by their cultural similarities, common ancestry and common use of the

Proto-Norse language Proto-Norse (also called Ancient Nordic; Danish and ; ; ; ) was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved as a northern dialect of Proto-Germanic in the first centuries CE. It is the earliest stage of a c ...

from around 200 AD, a language that around 800 AD became the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

language, which in turn later became the

North Germanic languages The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is also r ...

of today. The North Germanic peoples are thought to have emerged as a distinct people in what is now southern

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

in the early centuries AD. Several North Germanic tribes are mentioned by classical writers in antiquity, in particular the

Swedes Swedes (), or Swedish people, are an ethnic group native to Sweden, who share a common ancestry, Culture of Sweden, culture, History of Sweden, history, and Swedish language, language. They mostly inhabit Sweden and the other Nordic countries, ...

Danes Danes (, ), or Danish people, are an ethnic group and nationality native to Denmark and a modern nation identified with the country of Denmark. This connection may be ancestral, legal, historical, or cultural. History Early history Denmark ...

Geats The Geats ( ; ; ; ), sometimes called ''Geats#Goths, Goths'', were a large North Germanic peoples, North Germanic tribe who inhabited ("land of the Geats") in modern southern Sweden from antiquity until the Late Middle Ages. They are one of ...

Gutes The Gutes ( Old West Norse: ''Gotar'', Old Gutnish: ''Gutar'') were a North Germanic tribe inhabiting the island of Gotland. The ethnonym is related to that of the ''Goths'' (''Gutans''), and both names were originally Proto-Germanic *''Gutan ...

and

Rugii The Rugii, Rogi or Rugians (), were one of the smaller Germanic peoples of Late Antiquity who are best known for their short-lived 5th-century kingdom upon the Roman frontier, near present-day Krems an der Donau in Austria. This kingdom, like t ...

. During the subsequent

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

, seafaring North Germanic adventurers, commonly referred to as

Vikings Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

, raided and settled territories throughout Europe and beyond, founding several important political entities and exploring the North Atlantic as far as

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. Groups that arose from this expansion include the

Normans The Normans (Norman language, Norman: ''Normaunds''; ; ) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norsemen, Norse Viking settlers and locals of West Francia. The Norse settlements in West Franc ...

, the Norse–Gaels and the

Rus' people The Rus, also known as Russes, were a people in early medieval Eastern Europe. The scholarly consensus holds that they were originally Norsemen, mainly originating from present-day Sweden, who settled and ruled along the river-routes between t ...

. The North Germanic peoples of the Viking Age went by various names among the cultures they encountered, but are generally referred to as ''

''. With the end of the Viking Age in the 11th century, the North Germanic peoples were converted from their native

Norse paganism Old Norse religion, also known as Norse paganism, is a branch of Germanic paganism, Germanic religion which developed during the Proto-Norse language, Proto-Norse period, when the North Germanic peoples separated into Germanic peoples, distinc ...

to Christianity, while their previously tribal societies were centralized into the modern kingdoms of

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

and

. Modern linguistic groups that descended from the North Germanic peoples are the

Icelanders Icelanders () are an ethnic group and nation who are native to the island country of Iceland. They speak Icelandic, a North Germanic language. Icelanders established the country of Iceland in mid 930 CE when the (parliament) met for th ...

Norwegians Norwegians () are an ethnic group and nation native to Norway, where they form the vast majority of the population. They share a common culture and speak the Norwegian language. Norwegians are descended from the Norsemen, Norse of the Early ...

, and Faroese. " e pages of history have been filled with accounts of various Germanic peoples that made excursions in search of better homes; the Goths went into the Danube valley and thence into Italy and southern France ; and thence into Italy and southern France; the Franks seized what was later called France; the Vandals went down into Spain, and via Africa they "vandalized" Rome; the Angles, part of the Saxons, and the Jutes moved over into England; and the Burgundians and the Lombards worked south into France and Italy. Probably very early during these centuries of migration the three outstanding groups of the Germanic peoples — the North Germanic people of Scandinavia, the East Germanic branch, comprising the Goths chiefly, and the West Germanic group, comprising the remaining Germanic tribes — developed their notable group traits. Then, while the East Germanic tribes (that is, the Goths) passed gradually out of the pages of history and disappeared completely, the North Germanic, or Scandinavian, or Norse, peoples, as they are variously called, became a distinctive people, more and more unlike the West Germanic folk who inhabited Germany itself and, ultimately, Holland and Belgium and England. While that great migration of nations which the Germans have named the Volkerwanderung was going on, the Scandinavian division of the Germanic peoples had kept their habitation well to the north of the others and had been splitting up into the four subdivisions now known as the Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, and Icelanders. Long after the West Germanic and East Germanic peoples had made history farther south in Europe, the North Germanic tribes of Scandinavia began a series of expeditions which, during the eighth and ninth centuries, in the so-called Viking Age especially, led them to settle Iceland, to overrun England and even annex it to Denmark temporarily, and, most important of all, to settle in northern France and merge with the French to such an extent that Northmen became Normans, and later these Normans became the conquerors of England." These groups are often collectively referred to as ''Scandinavians'', although Icelanders and the Faroese are sometimes excluded from that definition.

Names

Ethnonyms

Although the early North Germanic peoples definitely had a common identity, it is uncertain if they had a common

ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...

. "The same can be said of Viking Age Scandinavians who did not have a common ethnonym but expressed their common identity through the geographical and linguistic terms... There is absolutely no doubt about a common Northern identity during the Viking Age and afterwards... it even survives today. Their common identity was rather expressed through the geographical and linguistic

terms ''Norðrlǫnd'' 'northern lands' and ''dǫnsk tunga'' 'Danish tongue'. Most early Scandinavians would however primarily identify themselves with their region of origin. However, the Old Norse term ''Nordmenn'', usually applied for Norwegians, was sometimes applied to all Old Norse speakers. "Nor were the Viking raiders as a whole referred to by that name by their contemporaries. The

Anglo-Saxons The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

called them all ‘Danes’, whichever land they came from; the Franks called them Normanni, ‘Northmen’; the Germans called them ‘Ashmen’, perhaps in allusion to their ships, though these were in fact made of oak; the Irish called them either Gaill, ‘Foreigners’, or Loch- lannaighy ‘Northerners’, though they also sometimes distinguished between Danes and Norwegians as ‘Black Northerners’ and ‘White Northerners’; Spanish Arabs called them Majus, ‘Heathens’; in the east, the Slavs, Arabs and Byzantine Greeks called them Rus or Ros9 which probably was originally a Finnish name for the Swedes. As for the Scandinavians themselves, they usually thought of themselves as inhabitants of a particular region—‘Men of Vestfold’, ‘Men of Hordaland’, ‘Men of the Uplands’, and so forth—but as the sense of national identity grew so too did the use of national names. They also used the term Nordmenn, sometimes in the limited sense ‘Norwegians’ but more often in the general sense ‘Scandinavians’; the latter usage has given rise to the general terms ‘Northmen’, ‘Norsemen’ and ‘Norse’ in modem English."

Exonyms

In the early

medieval period In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

, as today, ''

'' was a common term for North Germanic raiders, especially in connection with raids and

monastic Monasticism (; ), also called monachism or monkhood, is a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual activities. Monastic life plays an important role in many Christian churches, especially ...

plundering in continental Europe and the

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

. In modern times, the term is often applied to all North Germanic peoples of the Middle Ages, including raiders and non-raiders, although such use is controversial. From the Old Norse language, the term ''norrœnir menn'' (''northern men''), has given rise to the English name ''

'', which is sometimes used for the pre-Christian North Germanic peoples. In scholarship, however, the term Norsemen generally refers only to early Norwegians. The North Germanic peoples were known by many names by those they encountered. They were known as ''Ascomanni'' (Ashmen) by the

Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

, and ''Dene'' (Danes) or heathens by the Anglo-Saxons. "The peoples these Scandinavians encountered gave them a variety of names: the Franks normally called them Northmen or Danes, while for the English they were generally Danes or heathens. The Irish described the early raiders as pagans or gentiles, but by the middle of the ninth century they began to call them foreigners, the Norwegians and Danes being distinguished as 'white' and 'black' foreigners, Finngalland DubgalL In eastern Europe the Slavs called the Scandinavian invaders Rus, a word derived trom the Finnish name for the Svear, which itself came from a word meaning 'rowers' or 'crew of oarsmen'. It was 'Rus', variants of which were used in Arabic and Byzantine Greek texts, which eventually gave Russia its name. In the ninth century it was only the English who, occasionally, called the invaders Vikings, a Scandinavian word that now has a wider meaning, and is used to describe many aspects of Scandinavian society in what is commonly called the Age of the Vikings." "The people these Scandinavians encountered described them in various ways. In western Europe they were often identified as Danes or Northmen, and were sometimes called heathens or gentiles." The

Old Frankish Frankish ( reconstructed endonym: *), also known as Old Franconian or Old Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 10th centuries. Franks under king Chlodio settled in Roman Gaul in the 5th century. O ...

word ''Nortmann'' 'Northman' was Latinised as ''Normanni'' and then entered

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th [2-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...

as ''Normands'', whence the name of the

and of Normandy, which was conquered from the

Franks file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...

by Vikings in the 10th century. The Old Irish terms ''Finngall'' 'white foreigner' and ''Dubgall'' 'black foreigner' were used by the Irish for Norwegian and Danish Vikings, respectively.

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

ers called them ''Ostmen'' (East-people), and the name ''Oxmanstown'' (an area in central Dublin; the name is still current) comes from one of their settlements; they were also known as ''Lochlannaig'' 'lake-people'. The

Slavs The Slavs or Slavic people are groups of people who speak Slavic languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout the northern parts of Eurasia; they predominantly inhabit Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, and ...

Finns Finns or Finnish people (, ) are a Baltic Finns, Baltic Finnic ethnic group native to Finland. Finns are traditionally divided into smaller regional groups that span several countries adjacent to Finland, both those who are native to these cou ...

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

, Byzantines and other peoples of the east knew them as the '' Rus''' or ''Rhōs'', probably derived from various uses of ''rōþs-'', i.e. "related to rowing", or from the area of

Roslagen Roslagen is the name of the coastal areas of Uppland province in Sweden, which also constitutes the northern part of the Stockholm archipelago. Historically, it was the name for all the coastal areas of the Baltic Sea, including the eastern par ...

in east-central

, where most of the Vikings who visited the Slavic lands originated. The Arabs of Spain also knew them as ''al-Majus'' (fire-worshippers), although they used this term rather for the

Basques The Basques ( or ; ; ; ) are a Southwestern European ethnic group, characterised by the Basque language, a Basque culture, common culture and shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Basques are indigenous peoples, ...

. After the Rus' established

Kievan Rus' Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavs, East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical At ...

and gradually merged with the Slavic population, the North Germanic people in the east become known as ''

Varangians The Varangians ( ; ; ; , or )Varangian
," Online Etymology Dictionary were

ON: ''Væringjar'', meaning "sworn men"), after the bodyguards of the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

known as the

Varangian Guard The Varangian Guard () was an elite unit of the Byzantine army from the tenth to the fourteenth century who served as personal bodyguards to the Byzantine emperors. The Varangian Guard was known for being primarily composed of recruits from Nort ...

. In modern scholarship, the terms ''Scandinavians'' "One of the reasons for this is doubtless to be found in the close racial affinity of the Scandinavians, as North Germanics, with the Anglo-Saxons, and in the consciousness of this affinity existing in all modern nationality groups of North Germanic ethnic stock" "Northern Germanic peoples, i.e. the Scandinavians..." "North Germanic (Scandinavian) peoples" and ''Norsemen'' are common synonyms for North Germanic peoples. As such, ''Scandinavians'' is generally applied to modern North Germanic peoples, while ''Norsemen'' is sometimes applied to pagan pre-modern North Germanic peoples.

History

Prehistory

The

Battle Axe culture The Battle Axe culture, also called Boat Axe culture, is a Chalcolithic culture that flourished in the coastal areas of the south of the Scandinavian Peninsula and southwest Finland, from . It was an offshoot of the Corded Ware culture, and repl ...

, a local variant of the

Corded Ware culture The Corded Ware culture comprises a broad archaeological horizon of Europe between – 2350 BC, thus from the Late Neolithic, through the Copper Age, and ending in the early Bronze Age. Corded Ware culture encompassed a vast area, from t ...

, which was itself an offshoot of the

Yamnaya culture The Yamnaya ( ) or Yamna culture ( ), also known as the Pit Grave culture or Ochre Grave culture, is a late Copper Age to early Bronze Age archaeological culture of the region between the Southern Bug, Dniester, and Ural rivers (the Pontic–C ...

, emerged in southern

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

in the early 3rd millennium BC. Modern-day Scandinavians have been found to carry more ancestry from the Yamnaya culture than any other population in Europe. While previous inhabitants of Scandinavia have been found to be mostly carriers of haplogroup I, the emergence of the Battle Axe culture in Scandinavia is characterized by the appearance of new lineages such as haplogroup R1a and haplogroup R1b. The

Proto-Germanic language Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic bran ...

is ultimately thought to have emerged from the Battle Axe culture, possibly through its superimposition upon the earlier megalithic cultures of the area. The Germanic tribal societies of Scandinavia were thereafter surprisingly stable for thousands of years. Scandinavia is considered the only area in Europe where the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

was significantly delayed for a whole region. The period was nevertheless characterized by the independent development of new technologies, with the peoples of southern Scandinavia developing a culture with its own characteristics, indicating the emergence of a common cultural heritage. When bronze was finally introduced, its importance was rapidly established, leading to the emergence of the

Nordic Bronze Age The Nordic Bronze Age (also Northern Bronze Age, or Scandinavian Bronze Age) is a period of Scandinavian prehistory from . The Nordic Bronze Age culture emerged about 1750 BC as a continuation of the Late Neolithic Dagger period, which is root ...

. The Nordic Bronze Age is closely genetically related to the Beaker and Unetice cultures of

Continental Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by som ...

, and even the

Sintashta Sintashta is an archaeological site in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. It is the remains of a fortified settlement dating to the Bronze Age, –1800 BC, and is the type site of the Sintashta culture. The site has been characterised as a "fortified met ...

and

Andronovo culture The Andronovo culture is a collection of similar local Late Bronze Age cultures that flourished 2000–1150 BC,Grigoriev, Stanislav, (2021)"Andronovo Problem: Studies of Cultural Genesis in the Eurasian Bronze Age" in Open Archaeology 202 ...

s of the

Eurasian Steppe The Eurasian Steppe, also called the Great Steppe or The Steppes, is the vast steppe ecoregion of Eurasia in the temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands biome. It stretches through Manchuria, Mongolia, Xinjiang, Kazakhstan, Siberia, Europea ...

, with whom it also shares numerous cultural characteristics. Kiviksgraven slab 1

Ancient history

During the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

the peoples of Scandinavia were engaged in the export of slaves and amber to the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

, receiving prestige goods in return. This is attested by artifacts of gold and silver that have been found at rich burials from the period. North Germanic tribes, chiefly

, were probably engaged as middlemen in the

slave trade Slave trade may refer to: * History of slavery - overview of slavery It may also refer to slave trades in specific countries, areas: * Al-Andalus slave trade * Atlantic slave trade ** Brazilian slave trade ** Bristol slave trade ** Danish sl ...

along the

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages *Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...

coast between

Balts The Balts or Baltic peoples (, ) are a group of peoples inhabiting the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea who speak Baltic languages. Among the Baltic peoples are modern-day Lithuanians (including Samogitians) and Latvians (including Latgalians ...

and

and the Roman Empire. The North Germanic tribes at the time were skilled metal and leather workers, which supplemented their trade in iron and

amber Amber is fossilized tree resin. Examples of it have been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since the Neolithic times, and worked as a gemstone since antiquity."Amber" (2004). In Maxine N. Lurie and Marc Mappen (eds.) ''Encyclopedia ...

. In his book

Germania Germania ( ; ), also more specifically called Magna Germania (English: ''Great Germania''), Germania Libera (English: ''Free Germania''), or Germanic Barbaricum to distinguish it from the Roman provinces of Germania Inferior and Germania Superio ...

, the Roman historian

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. Tacitus’ two major historical works, ''Annals'' ( ...

mentions the Swedes (Suiones) as being governed by powerful rulers and excelling at seafaring. From a very early time, Germanic tribes are thought to have interacted with and possibly settled in the

Baltic states The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, and the OECD. The three sovereign states on the eastern co ...

, in which they would leave a profound influence, particularly on the

ancient Estonia Ancient Estonia refers to a period covering History of Estonia from the middle of the 8th millennium BC until the conquest and subjugation of the local Finnic tribes in the first quarter of the 13th century during the Teutonic and Danish Nort ...

ns. "Contacts with the Germanic tribes occurred repeatedly in different periods up to historical times. It is thought that the Estonians, or more properly the inhabitants of the Proto-Balto-Finnic settlements in the Estonian area, had contacts with Germanic peoples as early as the Bronze Age. It is not impossible that at that time there were even temporary Germanic settlements on the Estonian shore, although we do not have any definite proof. On the basis of linguistic chronology, the older contacts with the Germanic tribes occur about the beginning of the Christian era or the first centuries A.D. The linguistic data also indicate that these first contacts must have occurred with some Eastern Germanic people, perhaps the Goths who, according to the older school of archeologists, were the original inhabitants of Estonia prior to the Balto-Finns. Contacts are not impossible also with the Northern Germanic peoples, i.e., with the Scandinavians directly across the sea... The Germanic influence is noticeable also in Estonian culture, although it has fused with local traditions. Among the Estonian folklorists, O. Loorits especially has emphasized the influence exercised by the Germanic peoples on the formation of the Estonians' ancient religious concept of the world and their spiritual world, and he feels that there must have been Germanic settlements on Estonian shores to cause such deep influences. Some other phenomena which can be linked with the Eastern Germanic peoples also suggest that Germanic settlements existed on Estonian shores at that time. First of all, a great number of Germanic words came into the Estonian language at that time. This word stock of foreign origin reflects in a characteristic way not only commercial relationships, seafaring, etc., but also closer connections between the Estonians and the Germanic peoples.... is in its turn makes the existence of the Germanic agricultural settlements in Estonia evident." Germanic dialects ca

During the Iron Age various Germanic tribes migrated from Scandinavia to

East East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that ea ...

Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...

. This included the

Goths The Goths were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe. They were first reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the 3rd century AD, living north of the Danube in what is ...

Gepids The Gepids (; ) were an East Germanic tribes, East Germanic tribe who lived in the area of modern Romania, Hungary, and Serbia, roughly between the Tisza, Sava, and Carpathian Mountains. They were said to share the religion and language of the G ...

Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic people who were first reported in the written records as inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the fifth century, a group of Vandals led by kings established Vand ...

Burgundians The Burgundians were an early Germanic peoples, Germanic tribe or group of tribes. They appeared east in the middle Rhine region in the third century AD, and were later moved west into the Roman Empire, in Roman Gaul, Gaul. In the first and seco ...

and others. "From the beginning of history energetic warlike tribes issued from Sweden and passed to a career of conquest in the south; in the phrase of the Gothic historian Jordanes, Sweden was a 'factory of nations' (officina gentium). The migrations of the Burgundians, Goths, and Gepids (preceded perhaps by the Vandals) are the earliest that are known; archaeology dates the coming of the Burgundians to the south shore of the Baltic about 200 B.C.," and the Goths may have begun their southward movement about the same time..." The Rugii might have originated in

Western Norway Western Norway (; ) is the Regions of Norway, region along the Atlantic coast of southern Norway. It consists of the Counties of Norway, counties Rogaland, Vestland, and Møre og Romsdal. The region has no official or political-administrative fu ...

(

Rogaland Rogaland () is a Counties of Norway, county in Western Norway, bordering the North Sea to the west and the counties of Vestland to the north, Telemark to the east and Agder to the east and southeast. As of 1 January 2024, it had a population of 49 ...

). The migrations of most of these tribes is thought to have occurred around 200 BC, though the Vandals might have migrated earlier. According to the historian

Procopius Procopius of Caesarea (; ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; ; – 565) was a prominent Late antiquity, late antique Byzantine Greeks, Greek scholar and historian from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman general Belisarius in Justinian I, Empe ...

, these tribes were distinguished by their height, fair complexion,

physical attractiveness Physical attractiveness is the degree to which a person's physical features are considered aesthetics, aesthetically pleasing or beauty, beautiful. The term often implies sexual attraction, sexual attractiveness or desirability, but can also be d ...

and common cultural characteristics, suggesting a common origin. "For they all have white bodies and fair hair, and are tall and handsome to look upon, and they use the same laws and practise a common religion. For they are all of the Arian faith, and have one language called Gothic; and, as it seems to me, they all came originally from one tribe, and were distinguished later by the names of those who led each group." Because of the large number of Germanic tribes that traced their origin to Scandinavia, the region became known by

Early Medieval The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Middle Ages of Europ ...

historians as the ''Factory of Nations'' () or ''Womb of Nations'' (). The early Germanic tribes that migrated from Scandinavia became speakers of

East Germanic East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that eas ...

dialects. Though these tribes were probably indistinguishable from later North Germanic tribes at the time of their migration, the culture and language of North and East Germanic tribes would thereafter take divergent lines of development. "The later expansion of the Scandinavian nations in the viking age may be regarded as the final wave of North Germanic migration; but the process was probably not the same, and the results were essentially different. When the Goths and Burgundians migrated from Scandinavia, the North Germanic peoples spoke a language nearly identical with that of other Germanic nations. After their departure came a period of great linguistic change, when Germanic broke up into distinct groups of dialects; the language of the Goths then became rapidly differentiated from Norse, and their national traditions and culture also took divergent lines of development." It is likely that

Proto-Norse Proto-Norse (also called Ancient Nordic; Danish and ; ; ; ) was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved as a northern dialect of Proto-Germanic in the first centuries CE. It is the earliest stage of a c ...

emerged as a separate Germanic dialect around the 1st century. The

ethnogenesis Ethnogenesis (; ) is the formation and development of an ethnic group. This can originate by group self-identification or by outside identification. The term ''ethnogenesis'' was originally a mid-19th-century neologism that was later introduce ...

of the North Germanic peoples is thought to have occurred in

. "Sweden was the mother of the Scandinavian peoples: from Sweden came both the Danes and the Norwegians. In the early days of Scandinavian expansion Norway was called the noróvegr, just as in later viking times the norðrvegr, just as in later viking times the Baltic lands were the austrvegr. The home of the oldest Norse culture and the oldest Norse traditions was Sweden, though these traditions had to be carried to distant Iceland before they were given an enduring form. Snorri made no mistake when he began his history of the northern nations,

Heimskringla () is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland. While authorship of ''Heimskringla'' is nowhere attributed, some scholars assume it is written by the Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson (117 ...

, with the legends of ancient Sweden." Sweden was the home of the earliest attestations of North Germanic culture, and the later North Germanic tribes of

and

originated in Sweden. Archaeological evidence suggests that the North Germanic tribes at the time constituted one of five main tribal groups among the Germanic peoples, the others being

North Sea Germanic North Sea Germanic, also known as Ingvaeonic ( ), is a subgrouping of West Germanic languages that consists of Old Frisian, Old English language, Old English, and Old Saxon, and their descendants. These languages share a number of commonalitie ...

tribes (

Frisians The Frisians () are an ethnic group indigenous to the German Bight, coastal regions of the Netherlands, north-western Germany and southern Denmark. They inhabit an area known as Frisia and are concentrated in the Dutch provinces of Friesland an ...

Saxons The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

and Angles), Weser–Rhine Germanic tribes ( Hessians,

Elbe Germanic Elbe Germanic, also called Irminonic or Erminonic, is a proposed subgrouping of West Germanic languages introduced by the German linguist Friedrich Maurer (1898–1984) in his book, ''Nordgermanen und Alemanen'', to describe the West Germanic d ...

tribes (

Lombards The Lombards () or Longobards () were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who conquered most of the Italian Peninsula between 568 and 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written betwee ...

Alemanni The Alemanni or Alamanni were a confederation of Germanic peoples, Germanic tribes * * * on the Upper Rhine River during the first millennium. First mentioned by Cassius Dio in the context of the campaign of Roman emperor Caracalla of 213 CE ...

Bavarians Bavarians are a Germans, German ethnographic group native to Bavaria, a state in Germany. The group's dialect or speech is known as Bavarian language, Bavarian, native to Altbayern ("Old Bavaria"), roughly the territory of the historic Electo ...

) and Oder-Vistula Germanic tribes (

). "For the period when the existence of the Germanic tribes is first clearly recorded by Roman writers, archaeological evidence suggests five tribal groups, with perhaps five incipient distinct Germanic languages, as follows: (1) North Germanic tribes (Scandinavians)..." The southward expansion of the East Germanic tribes pushed many other Germanic and

Iranian Iranian () may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Iran ** Iranian diaspora, Iranians living outside Iran ** Iranian architecture, architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia ** Iranian cuisine, cooking traditions and practic ...

peoples towards the Roman Empire, spawning the

Marcomannic Wars The Marcomannic Wars () were a series of wars lasting from about AD 166 until 180. These wars pitted the Roman Empire against principally the Germanic peoples, Germanic Marcomanni and Quadi and the Sarmatian Iazyges; there were related conflicts ...

in the 2nd century AD. Another East Germanic tribe were the

Herules The Heruli (also Eluri, Eruli, Herules, Herulians) were one of the smaller Germanic peoples of Late Antiquity, known from records in the third to sixth centuries AD. The best recorded group of Heruli established a kingdom north of the Middle Danu ...

, who according to 6th century historian

Jordanes Jordanes (; Greek language, Greek: Ιορδάνης), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat, claimed to be of Goths, Gothic descent, who became a historian later in life. He wrote two works, one on R ...

were driven from modern-day

by the

, who were an offshoot of the Swedes. "Somewhat later was the migration of the Heruli, who were driven out by the southward advance of the Danes in Sweden. After centuries of wandering, The Heruli were overwhelmed by the Lombards, and the remnant of them returned to their old home in south Sweden, about a.d. 510. " The migration of the Herules is thought to have occurred around 250 AD. The Danes would eventually settle all of Denmark, with many its former inhabitants, including the

Jutes The Jutes ( ) were one of the Germanic people, Germanic tribes who settled in Great Britain after the end of Roman rule in Britain, departure of the Roman Britain, Romans. According to Bede, they were one of the three most powerful Germanic na ...

and Angles, settling

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

, becoming known as the Anglo-Saxons. "North Germanic speakers, originally at home in southern Sweden and Norway, moved into Denmark very late in the prehistoric period and repopulated an area that was largely depopulated by the movement of the original West Germanic speakers to the British Isles." The

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

story

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poetry, Old English poem, an Epic poetry, epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 Alliterative verse, alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and List of translat ...

is a testimony to this connection. "THE NORTH GERMANIC TRIBES" Meanwhile,

was inhabited by a large number of North Germanic tribes and divided into a score of petty kingdoms. Guldhornene

Among the early North Germanic peoples, kinship ties played an important role in social organization. Society was divided into three classes, chieftains, free men and slaves (

thrall A thrall was a slave or Serfdom, serf in Scandinavia, Scandinavian lands during the Viking Age. The status of slave (, ) contrasts with that of the Franklin (class), freeman (, ) and the nobleman (, ). Etymology Thrall is from the Old Norse ...

s). Free men were those who owned and farmed the land. Religious leaders, merchants, craftsmen and armed retainers of chieftains (

housecarls A housecarl (; ) was a non-Slavery in medieval Europe, servile manservant or household bodyguard in medieval Northern Europe. The institution originated amongst the Norsemen of Scandinavia, and was brought to Anglo-Saxon England by the Anglo-Sa ...

) were not confined to any specific class. Women had considerable independence compared to other parts of

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. Legislative and judicial power lay in the hands of the free men at a popular assembly known as the Thing. Their

legal system A legal system is a set of legal norms and institutions and processes by which those norms are applied, often within a particular jurisdiction or community. It may also be referred to as a legal order. The comparative study of legal systems is th ...

was closely related to those of other Germanic peoples. Dwellings were built according to methods that had changed little since the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

. A chieftain typically had his seat of power in a

mead hall Among the early Germanic peoples, a mead hall or feasting hall was a large building with a single room intended to receive guests and serve as a center of community social life. From the fifth century to the Early Middle Ages such a building was t ...

, where lavish feasts for his followers were held. Merchants frequently operated through joint financial ventures, and some legal disputes were solved through single combat. Men of prominence were generally buried along with their most prized possessions, including

horses The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 milli ...

, chariots,

ships A ship is a large vessel that travels the world's oceans and other navigable waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished from boats, ...

slaves Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

and weapons, which were supposed to follow them into the

afterlife The afterlife or life after death is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's Stream of consciousness (psychology), stream of consciousness or Personal identity, identity continues to exist after the death of their ...

. Though the economy was primarily based on farming and trade, the North Germanic tribes practiced a

warrior A warrior is a guardian specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal society, tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracy, social class, class, or caste. History ...

culture similar to related Germanic peoples and the ancient

Celts The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

. Warfare was generally carried out in small war bands, whose cohesiveness generally relied upon the loyalty between warriors and their chiefs. Loyalty was considered a virtue of utmost importance in early North Germanic society. A fabled elite group of ferocious North Germanic warriors were the

berserker In the Old Norse written corpus, berserkers () were Scandinavian warriors who were said to have fought in a trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the modern English adjective ''wikt:berserk#Adjective, berserk'' . Berserkers ...

s. The North Germanic tribes of these period also excelled at shipbuilding and maritime warfare. The North Germanic tribes practiced

, a branch of

Germanic paganism Germanic paganism or Germanic religion refers to the traditional, culturally significant religion of the Germanic peoples. With a chronological dating, chronological range of at least one thousand years in an area covering Scandinavia, the Bri ...

, which ultimately stems from

Proto-Indo-European religion Proto-Indo-European mythology is the body of myths and deities associated with the Proto-Indo-Europeans, speakers of the hypothesized Proto-Indo-European language. Although the mythological motifs are not directly attested – since Proto-In ...

. Religion was typically practiced at hallowed outdoor sites, but there is also reference to

temples A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

, where

sacrifices Sacrifice is an act or offering made to a deity. A sacrifice can serve as propitiation, or a sacrifice can be an offering of praise and thanksgiving. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks ...

were held. The best known of these was the

Temple at Uppsala A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

. Their art was intimately intertwined with their religion. Their stories and myths were typically inscribed on

runestone A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic alphabet, runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition of erecting runestones as a memorial to dead men began in the 4th centur ...

s or transmitted orally by

skald A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry in alliterative verse, the other being Eddic poetry. Skaldic poems were traditionally compo ...

s. According to North Germanic belief, those who died in battle gained admittance to Folkvang, Freya's Hall, and above all to

Valhalla In Norse mythology, Valhalla ( , ; , )Orchard (1997:171–172) is described as a majestic hall located in Asgard and presided over by the god Odin. There were five possible realms the soul could travel to after death. The first was Fólkvang ...

, a majestic hall presided over by

Odin Odin (; from ) is a widely revered god in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. Most surviving information on Odin comes from Norse mythology, but he figures prominently in the recorded history of Northern Europe. This includes the Roman Em ...

, ruler of

Asgard In Nordic mythology, Asgard (Old Norse: ''Ásgarðr''; "Garden of the Æsir") is a location associated with the gods. It appears in several Old Norse sagas and mythological texts, including the Eddas, however it has also been suggested to be refe ...

according to their cosmology and the chief god in the North Germanic pantheon.

Runes Runes are the Letter (alphabet), letters in a set of related alphabets, known as runic rows, runic alphabets or futharks (also, see ''#Futharks, futhark'' vs ''#Runic alphabets, runic alphabet''), native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were ...

, the Germanic form of writing, was associated with Odin and magic. "Runes, the early form of writing among the North Germanic tribes, were often involved in magic and were associated with the great god Woden." The thunder god

Thor Thor (from ) is a prominent list of thunder gods, god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred g ...

was popular with the North Germanic common people. Osebergskipet 2016

By the 3rd century there seems to have been a disruption of trade, possibly due to attacks from tribes in periphery. In the 4th and 5th centuries, larger settlements were established in southern Scandinavia, indicating a centralization of power. Numerous strongholds were also being built, indicating a need to defend against attacks. Deposits of weapons in bogs from this period suggest the presence of a warrior aristocracy. The

Gotland Gotland (; ; ''Gutland'' in Gutnish), also historically spelled Gottland or Gothland (), is Sweden's largest island. It is also a Provinces of Sweden, province/Counties of Sweden, county (Swedish län), Municipalities of Sweden, municipality, a ...

are in later

Old Norse literature Old Norse literature refers to the vernacular literature of the Scandinavian people up to c. 1350. It mainly consists of Icelandic writings. In Britain From the 8th to the 15th centuries, Vikings and Norse settlers and their descendants colon ...

considered indistinguishable from the Goths, who in the 3rd and 4th centuries wrested control of the

Pontic Steppe Pontic, from the Greek ''pontos'' (, ), or "sea", may refer to: The Black Sea Places * The Pontic colonies, on its northern shores * Pontus (region), a region on its southern shores * The Pontic–Caspian steppe, steppelands stretching from n ...

from the Iranian

nomads Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, Nomadic pastoralism, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and Merchant, trader nomads. In the twentieth century, ...

. The Goths were the only non-nomadic people to ever acquire a dominant position on the

Eurasian steppe The Eurasian Steppe, also called the Great Steppe or The Steppes, is the vast steppe ecoregion of Eurasia in the temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands biome. It stretches through Manchuria, Mongolia, Xinjiang, Kazakhstan, Siberia, Europea ...

, and their influence on the early

must have been considerable. "During the second or third century A.D. the Sarmatian hordes were driven out by the German Goths and Heruli. The Gothic dominion lasted over two centuries, and is the only non- nomadic episode in the history of the steppe. The Goths were the most magnificent German people, and their influence on the Slavs must have been enormous. When the

Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was par ...

invaded these territories, the North Germanic legends recall that the Gizur of the

came to the aid of the Goths in an epic conflict. Rich Eastern Roman finds made in Gotland and southern Sweden from this period are a testimony to this connection. Archaeological evidence suggest that a warrior elite continued to dominate North Germanic society into the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages (historiography), Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th to the 10th century. They marked the start o ...

. The royal dynasty of the Swedes, the

Yngling The Ynglings were a dynasty of kings, first in Sweden and later in Norway, primarily attested through the poem ''Ynglingatal''. The dynasty also appears as Scylfings (, ) in ''Beowulf''. When ''Beowulf'' and ''Ynglingatal'' were composed sometime ...

, was founded in the 5th century. Based at

Gamla Uppsala Gamla Uppsala (, ''Old Uppsala'') is a parish and a village outside Uppsala in Sweden. It had 17,973 inhabitants in 2016. As early as the 3rd century AD and the 4th century AD and onwards, it was an important religious, economic and political c ...

, the Ynglings would come to dominate much of Scandinavia. The importance of this dynasty for the North Germanic peoples is attested by the fact that the later Icelandic historian

Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of th ...

begins his history of the Norse peoples, the , with the legends of ancient Sweden.

Early Middle Ages

Around 510, the Herules returned to their home in southern Sweden following centuries of migrations throughout Europe, after their kingdom had been overwhelmed by the Lombards. Their name has been connected to the word '' erilaz'' attested in

Elder Futhark The Elder Futhark (or Fuþark, ), also known as the Older Futhark, Old Futhark, or Germanic Futhark, is the oldest form of the runic alphabets. It was a writing system used by Germanic peoples for Northwest Germanic dialects in the Migration Per ...

inscriptions and the title ''

Earl Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the Peerages in the United Kingdom, peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. A feminine form of ''earl'' never developed; instead, ...

''. In his book

Getica ''De origine actibusque Getarum'' (''The Origin and Deeds of the Getae''), commonly abbreviated ''Getica'' (), written in Late Latin by Jordanes in or shortly after 551 AD, claims to be a summary of a voluminous account by Cassiodorus of the ori ...

, the 6th century Gothic historian

presents a detailed description of the various peoples inhabiting Scandinavia ( Scandza), a land "not only inhospitable to men but cruel even to wild beasts." Jordanes wrote that the Scandinavians were distinguished from other Germanic peoples by being of larger physical stature and more warlike. The most numerous of these tribes were the Swedes and the Danes, who were an offshoot of the Swedes. Another North Germanic tribe were the Ranii, whose king Rodulf left Scandinavia for Ostrogothic Italy and became a companion of

Theoderic the Great Theodoric (or Theoderic) the Great (454 – 30 August 526), also called Theodoric the Amal, was king of the Ostrogoths (475–526), and ruler of the independent Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy between 493 and 526, regent of the Visigoths (511–526 ...

. North Germanic vikings might have been engaged in naval raids in Western Europe as early as the 6th century. Between 512 and 520, Frankish annals and the Anglo-Saxon poem ''

'' claim that a certain

Hygelac Hygelac (; ; ; or ''Hugilaicus''; died 516 or 521) was a king of the Geats according to the poem ''Beowulf''. It is Hygelac's presence in the poem which has allowed scholars to tentatively date the setting of the poem as well as to infer tha ...

or Hugleik, King of the

, made a raid in the

Rhineland The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...

somewhere between 512 and 520. Carrying off great booty, Hygelac was allegedly defeated and killed before he could return to Scandinavia. Before the 7th century AD, Norwegian seafarers had settled

Shetland Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and Norway, marking the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...

. "There is evidence of early viking activity among the Scandinavian peoples, as among the other seafaring Germans: it is known from Frankish annals and the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, for example, that between 512 and 520 Hugleik, King of the Gautar in the south of Sweden, made a raid on the Rhineland, where he took great booty, but was defeated and killed before he could carry it off. And Norwegian vikings had made settlements in the Shetlands before 700." During this time the

were the foremost rivals of the Scandinavians for naval supremacy in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

. "The destruction by Charlemagne of the naval power of the Frisians, once the rivals of the Norsemen on the sea, coincided with the rise of Scandinavian power, and probably played an important part in facilitating the Scandinavian advance." By the 8th century, the Swedes, by far the most advanced of the North Germanic peoples, had established colonial settlements in modern

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

and the southern shores of

Lake Ladoga Lake Ladoga is a freshwater lake located in the Republic of Karelia and Leningrad Oblast in northwestern Russia, in the vicinity of Saint Petersburg. It is the largest lake located entirely in Europe, the second largest lake in Russia after Lake ...

and

Lake Onega Lake Onega (; also known as Onego; , ; ; Livvi-Karelian language, Livvi: ''Oniegujärvi''; ) is a lake in northwestern Russia, on the territory of the Republic of Karelia, Leningrad Oblast and Vologda Oblast. It belongs to the basin of the Baltic ...

in present-day

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. "In the eighth century the difference between Denmark and Norway on the one hand and Sweden on the other was that Sweden was already an organized and ancient kingdom (based on Uppland), strong enough to engage in colonial expansion beyond its frontiers. These extensions of its territory were partly into Latvia and Estonia, and partly farther eastwards towards the southern shores of Lakes Ladoga and Onega." "Around 750, a small settlement was established at Staraia Ladoga... Traders and raiders from Scandinavia had visited the shores of the south-eastern Baltic and Lake Ladoga for some time before this, and some had even established settlements in what are today Estonia and Latvia." The settlement of Grobiņa in Latvia and the

Salme ships The Salme ships are two clinker-built ships of Scandinavian origin discovered in 2008 and 2010 near the village of Salme on the island of Saaremaa, Estonia. Both ships were used for ship burials around AD 700–750 in the Nordic Iron Age and ...

Saaremaa Saaremaa (; ) is the largest and most populous island in Estonia. Measuring , its population is 31,435 (as of January 2020). The main island of the West Estonian archipelago (Moonsund archipelago), it is located in the Baltic Sea, south of Hi ...

, Estonia, are testimony to this expansion. In this period the entire eastern

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

came to be dominated by a homogenous warrior culture derived from Sweden, in which

served as the

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...

. "Coastal Estonia and the western and south-western coasts of Finland (including the Åland archipelago), as well as Livic areas in present-day Latvia, Karelia, and certain areas on the coast of the eastern end of the Finnish Gulf and Lake Ladoga, as well as Gotland and central Sweden, on the other hand, demonstrated an archaeologically very homogenous warrior culture, which can be observed as early as the 7th–8th centuries... Originally Scandinavian artefact types, ornament styles, grave forms, but presumably also attitude, stories, and legends, were taken over in these neighbouring coastal zones, adapted in local culture, and developed further locally... This was a multi-ethnic, mainly Eastern Scandinavian – Baltic-Finnic-based milieu, where however, the means of expression were borrowed from Sweden, and where self-identity probably relied greatly on Scandinavian values. The latter suggests that the lingua franca used in this milieu was presumably the eastern dialect of Old Norse, or perhaps a kind of pidgin Scandinavia based on Old Norse and Baltic Finnic."

Viking Age

In the late 8th century North Germanic tribes embarked on a massive expansion in all the directions. This was the start of the

, which lasted until 1066 AD. This expansion is considered the last of the great North Germanic migrations. These seafaring traders, settlers and warriors are commonly referred to as ''

''. "For reasons of convenience, modern scholarship calls both sorts of Scandinavians 'Vikings', thereby blurring the distinction. Furthermore, there is another mistaken tendency to identify the 'Northmen' or 'Norsemen' with modern Norway, and the 'Danes' with modern Denmark. This is not appropriate for the simple reason that in the period in question the separate Scandinavian nations of Norwegians, Danes, and Swedes had not yet come into existence. The Viking appellation, therefore, needs to be glossed. It refers to an activity, not to an ethnic group... Ottar belonged to a group of peoples who were beginning to have a huge impact on European history. They are now called 'Scandinavians', though historically they were called 'Northmen." "“Viking” is a term used to describe a certain class of marauding Scandinavian warrior from the 8th through the 11th century. However, when discussing the entire culture of the northern Germanic peoples of the early Middle Ages, and especially in terms of the languages and literatures of these peoples, it would be more accurate to use the term “Norse.” Therefore during the Middle Ages and beyond, it therefore might be useful to speak of “German” peoples in middle Europe and of “Norse” peoples in Scandinavia and the North Atlantic." "The Northern Germanic pirates known as Vikings mostly spoke varieties of Old Norse; for reasons that are still unclear, in the late eighth century these Norsemen began a series of raids that soon grew into a scourge as they ravaged and terrified any part of Europe that was reachable by boat." "Vikings (who were Northern Germanic tribes, i.e., "Teutons" in the old nomenclature)..." The North Germanic peoples of the Viking Age as a whole are sometimes referred to as

. "The Northmen, Norsemen, or Norse were North Germanic peoples who settled in the Scandinavian countries of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark" "Here we are concerned exclusively with the Northern Germanic peoples..." "North Germanic peoples, or the Northmen as we can more fitly describe them "Towards the end of the Anglo-Saxon period, large numbers of North Germanic (Norse) peoples settled in northern England. "Who were the Norse people? The term Norse is commonly applied to pre-Christian northern Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the so-called Viking Age. Old Norse gradually developed into the North Germanic languages, including Icelandic, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. Bronze Age rock carvings in Scandinavia suggest a Bronze Age origin for the Norse people." "Europeans called the Scandinavians Norsemen, Northmen, or Danes" "Old Norse' defines the culture of Norway and Iceland during the Middle Ages. It is a somewhat illogical concept as it is largely synonymous with 'Norse'... The term 'Norse' is often used as a translation of norroenn. As such it applies to all the Germanic peoples of Scandinavia and their colonies in the British Isles and the North Atlantic." "Contemporaries distinguished four main groups of Scandinavians: Danes, Götar, Svear and Norwegians or Northmen (a name that foreigners sometimes used to describe all Scandinavians" "The term "Norse" will be used as a catchall term for all North Germanic peoples in the sagas who are placed in opposition to the Finnar by the authors" However, the term ''Norsemen'' is often used only for early Norwegians, "Norse is a linguistic term which is sometimes applied to Norwegians and their colonies, but not to Danes or Swedes. Ditto for Norsemen. Northmen was used at the time, and covers the lot, but may seem to exclude women." "In 875 Danes and Norsemen were competing..." or as a synonym for Vikings. Though the early Scandinavians did not have an ethnonym for themselves, they certainly had a common identity, which has survived among their descendants up to the present day. The cause of this expansion is often thought to have been

overpopulation Overpopulation or overabundance is a state in which the population of a species is larger than the carrying capacity of its environment. This may be caused by increased birth rates, lowered mortality rates, reduced predation or large scale migr ...

. "Parts of Scandinavia must have been over-populated, to judge from the never-ending stream of men that came forth from those lands; in viking life mortality was high, but there was never any lack of men to replace those killed. The hypothesis of over-population is strengthened by such legends as that told in selection xxi, according to which the island of Gotland became crowded, and one man of every three was selected by lot and sent away from the island ; and Saxo Grammaticus has a similar story of the origin of the Danish settlements on Baltic lands in the tenth century. Over-population, moreover, is the explanation of viking activity given by the early Norman his- torians, Dudo and William of Jumieges." Other explanations include political tensions, disruption of trade with the

Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 CE), from whom the dynasty takes ...

, or vengeance against

massacres A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians en masse by an armed group or person. The word is a loan of a French term for "b ...

committed against the pagan Saxons by the

Carolingian Empire The Carolingian Empire (800–887) was a Franks, Frankish-dominated empire in Western and Central Europe during the Early Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty, which had ruled as List of Frankish kings, kings of the Franks since ...

. The prospect of a Carolingian invasion of Denmark itself created much fear and resentment among the Scandinavians. "An immediate cause of many of the early raids was the fear and resentment roused in the Scandinavians by Charlemagne's military operations in the north of Germany, especially as he threatened to invade Denmark." The

destruction Destruction may refer to: Concepts * Destruktion, a term from the philosophy of Martin Heidegger * Destructive narcissism, a pathological form of narcissism * Self-destructive behaviour, a widely used phrase that ''conceptualises'' certain kin ...

of the naval powers of the Frisians by Charlemagne in the 8th century also probably played a key role in facilitating the naval dominance of the Scandinvians. The centralization of power that was carried out by

Harald Fairhair Harald Fairhair (; – ) was a Norwegian king. According to traditions current in Norway and Iceland in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, he reigned from 872 to 930 and was the first Monarchy of Norway, King of Norway. Supposedly, two ...

and other powerful Scandinavian rulers drove many warlike men into exile abroad. "Great political changes, too, in the ninth century drove many Norsemen into exile, who then took up a viking career. Harald Fairhair exiled many great fighting men in the process of consolidating the realm of Norway; and the struggles of rival princes for the throne of Denmark drove bands of followers abroad, as one or other of the claimants got the upper hand." By this time North Germanic military units were typically larger than in previous centuries. "The true Scandinavian expansion, when distinctively Norse traditions and speech were carried to other lands, belongs to the viking period, which may be roughly dated from 750 to 1050. During this period bands of Scandinavian adventurers , sometimes in forces large enough to be called armies, sailed overseas in search of plunder, or to win land for settlement; these piratical adventurers were called vikings." During this time the North Germanic peoples spoke Old Norse. "Norse was the language spoken by the North Germanic peoples (Scandinavians) from the time when Norse first became differentiated from the speech of the other Germanic peoples, that is, roughly, from about 100, until about 1500." ""Old Norse" was spoken by the North Germanic or Scandinavian peoples" "The North Germanic tribes spoke a language we now call Old Norse, the ancestor of the modern Scandinavian languages" Pireuslejonet

The Vikings raided and settled various parts in the

, in particular the area around the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...

and

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, where they became known as the Norse–Gaels. The

Uí Ímair The Uí Ímair (; meaning ‘''scions of Ivar’''), also known as the Ivar dynasty or Ivarids, was a Norse-Gael dynasty which ruled much of the Irish Sea region, the Kingdom of Dublin, the western coast of Scotland, including the Hebrides and ...

dynasty acquired a prominent position among these Scandinavians, establishing the

Kingdom of the Isles The Kingdom of the Isles, also known as Sodor, was a Norse–Gaelic kingdom comprising the Isle of Man, the Hebrides and the islands of the Clyde from the 9th to the 13th centuries. The islands were known in Old Norse as the , or "Southern I ...

. These Vikings, mostly Norwegians, came close to completely conquering Ireland until they were defeated by the Irish at the

Battle of Clontarf The Battle of Clontarf () took place on 23 April 1014 at Clontarf, near Dublin, on the east coast of Ireland. It pitted an army led by Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, against a Norse- Irish alliance comprising the forces of Sigtrygg Silkbea ...

. They would nevertheless remain firmly established in Ireland for generations afterwards, in particular the cities of

Waterford Waterford ( ) is a City status in Ireland, city in County Waterford in the South-East Region, Ireland, south-east of Ireland. It is located within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster. The city is situated at the head of Waterford H ...

and

Limerick Limerick ( ; ) is a city in western Ireland, in County Limerick. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. W ...

. In the 9th century, Danish Vikings gained control of a part of eastern

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, which became known as the

Danelaw The Danelaw (, ; ; ) was the part of History of Anglo-Saxon England, England between the late ninth century and the Norman Conquest under Anglo-Saxon rule in which Danes (tribe), Danish laws applied. The Danelaw originated in the conquest and oc ...

. England was the part of Europe most heavily subjected to Viking attacks, and it is likely that the Scandinavians would have gained control of all of England if not for the successful resistance of

Alfred the Great Alfred the Great ( ; – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who both died when Alfr ...

. In the early 11th century, England temporarily became part of the

North Sea Empire The North Sea Empire, also known as the Anglo-Scandinavian Empire, was the personal union of the kingdoms of England, Denmark and Norway for most of the period between 1013 and 1042 towards the end of the Viking Age. This ephemeral Norse-ruled ...

of Danish king

Cnut the Great Cnut ( ; ; – 12 November 1035), also known as Canute and with the epithet the Great, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norway from 1028 until his death in 1035. The three kingdoms united under Cnut's rul ...

from 1016 to 1042. Vikings were also active in both east and west

Francia The Kingdom of the Franks (), also known as the Frankish Kingdom, or just Francia, was the largest History of the Roman Empire, post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Franks, Frankish Merovingian dynasty, Merovingi ...

. There were extensive raids in the Rhineland, and Hamburg was burned in 845. In the early 10th century, a group of Vikings under the leadership of

Rollo Rollo (, ''Rolloun''; ; ; – 933), also known with his epithet, Rollo "the Walker", was a Viking who, as Count of Rouen, became the first ruler of Normandy, a region in today's northern France. He was prominent among the Vikings who Siege o ...

settled in

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, and established the

Duchy of Normandy The Duchy of Normandy grew out of the 911 Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between Charles the Simple, King Charles III of West Francia and the Viking leader Rollo. The duchy was named for its inhabitants, the Normans. From 1066 until 1204, as a r ...

. The descendants of these Vikings, known as the ''

'', would in the 11th century conquer

Southern Italy Southern Italy (, , or , ; ; ), also known as () or (; ; ; ), is a macroregion of Italy consisting of its southern Regions of Italy, regions. The term "" today mostly refers to the regions that are associated with the people, lands or cultu ...

, and

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

, and play a leading role in launching the

Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...

. Sub-groups of the Normans include

Anglo-Normans The Anglo-Normans (, ) were the medieval ruling class in the Kingdom of England following the Norman Conquest. They were primarily a combination of Normans, Bretons, Flemings, French people, Frenchmen, Anglo-Saxons and Celtic Britons. Afte ...

Scoto-Norman The term Scoto-Norman (also Franco-Scottish or Franco-Gaelic) is used to describe people, families, institutions and archaeological artifacts that are partly Scottish (in some sense) and partly Anglo-Norman (in some sense), after the Norman Conq ...

Cambro-Normans Cambro-Normans (; "Wales", ; ) were Normans who settled in southern Wales and the Welsh Marches after the Norman invasion of Wales. Cambro-Norman knights were also the leading force in the Cambro-Norman invasion of Ireland, led by Richard de ...

Hiberno-Normans Norman Irish or Hiberno-Normans (; ) is a modern term for the descendants of Norman settlers who arrived during the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century. Most came from England and Wales. They are distinguished from the nativ ...

and Italo-Normans. Some Vikings raided in Spain, and sailed through the

Strait of Gibraltar The Strait of Gibraltar is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Europe from Africa. The two continents are separated by 7.7 nautical miles (14.2 kilometers, 8.9 miles) at its narrowest point. Fe ...

and pillaged the coasts of the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

. In the east the Danish Viking were active in raiding the

Wends Wends is a historical name for Slavs who inhabited present-day northeast Germany. It refers not to a homogeneous people, but to various people, tribes or groups depending on where and when it was used. In the modern day, communities identifying ...

. The most famous colonies created by these Vikings was Jomsborg in modern

Pomerania Pomerania ( ; ; ; ) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The central and eastern part belongs to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, West Pomeranian, Pomeranian Voivod ...

, which became the base of the

Jomsvikings The Jomsvikings were a legendary order of Viking mercenaries or conquerors of the 10th and 11th centuries. Though reputed to be staunchly dedicated to the worship of the Old Norse gods, they would allegedly fight for any lord who could pay t ...

The Swedes were particularly active in Eastern Europe, where they were known as the '' Rus'''. They were engaged in extensive trade with the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

and the

, launching raids on

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

and expeditions in the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

. The Rus' are described in detail by the

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

traveller Ahmad ibn Fadlan, who described them as tall,

blond Blond () or blonde (), also referred to as fair hair, is a human hair color characterized by low levels of eumelanin, the dark pigment. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some yellowish color. The color can be ...

and the most "perfect physical specimens" he had ever seen. "I have seen the Rus as they came on their merchant journeys and encamped by the Atil (Itil, Volga). I have never seen more perfect physical specimens, tall as date palms, blond and ruddy..." In the 9th century, the Viking

Rurik Rurik (also spelled Rorik, Riurik or Ryurik; ; ; died 879) was a Varangians, Varangian chieftain of the Rus' people, Rus' who, according to tradition, was invited to reign in Veliky Novgorod, Novgorod in the year 862. The ''Primary Chronicle' ...

is believed to have founded the

Rurik dynasty The Rurik dynasty, also known as the Rurikid or Riurikid dynasty, as well as simply Rurikids or Riurikids, was a noble lineage allegedly founded by the Varangian prince Rurik, who, according to tradition, established himself at Novgorod in the ...

, which eventually developed into

. The North Germanic elite of this state were known as the Rus'. In the 10th century, the Rus', in cooperation with surviving

Crimean Goths The Crimean Goths were either a Greuthungi- Gothic tribe or a Western Germanic tribe that bore the name '' Gothi'', a title applied to various Germanic tribes that remained in the lands around the Black Sea, especially in Crimea. They were the ...

, destroyed the

Khazar Khaganate The Khazars ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a Nomadic empire, nomadic Turkic people who, in the late 6th century CE, established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukra ...

and emerged as the dominant power in Eastern Europe. By the 11th century, the Rus' had converted to

Eastern Orthodoxy Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...

and were gradually merging with the local East Slavs, East Slavic population, becoming known as the Russians. The North Germanic diaspora in the area were thereafter called

Varangians The Varangians ( ; ; ; , or )Varangian
," Online Etymology Dictionary were

Many of them served in the

, the personal bodyguard of the List of Byzantine emperors, Byzantine emperors. Among the prominent Scandinavians who served in the Varangian Guard were Norwegian king Harald Hardrada. While the Danes and Swedes were active in Francia and Russia respectively, North Germanic tribes from Norway were actively exploring the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. These Vikings were the first sailors in naval history to venture out into the open sea. "The final stage of Norse expansion in the west, the colonization of Greenland (which led to the discovery of America) was accomplished by notable feats of seamanship. These feats, moreover, afford striking illustration of the Norsemen’s great contribution to navigation: they were the first people who ventured to sail out to open sea. Before viking seafarers appear in history, voyagers were careful to follow courses that were never far from land; but the Norsemen struck boldly across the North Sea to the Orkneys and Shetlands, and they voyaged regularly across the open Atlantic to Iceland. These voyages were made in open boats; some ships had a small cabin at either end, but many had no deck or shelter of any kind. The hardships of voyages across the open sea in such ships must have been intense, but the Norsemen endured them habitually." This initially resulted in the colonization of the Shetland Islands, Orkney, Orkney Islands, the Norse settlement in the Faroe Islands, Faroese Islands and Settlement of Iceland, Iceland. The most important Norse colony was the settlement in Iceland, which became a haven for Scandinavians who sought to preserve their traditional way of life and independence of central authority. "The first settler in Iceland was the Norwegian Ingolf, who came in 874. 1 He was soon followed by many of the exiled chiefs whom Harald had driven from Norway and the Scottish isles-; they were indeed the larger part of the settlement. They were men who were determined to keep their old freedom at all costs, and preferred to give up their possessions and live in a wild and barren land rather than yield to the new monarchy. They came to Iceland to save the old order of heroic society, and they preserved it there much as it had existed in early Germanic times before the great kings made their power absolute by destroying the free fellowship of the small lord and his men. The settlers of Iceland were men of more than usual force of will and love of liberty, the best of the Norwegian aristocracy The proportion of well-born men there was greater than in any other Scandinavian land, and it was in the gentleman's household that the literary arts were practised most. Half or more than half of the literary power of Norway was thus concentrated in Iceland, and it throve the more for its concentration." The literary heritage of the Icelanders is indispensable for the modern understanding of early North Germanic history and culture. "In the eyes of the literary historian the most important of the Norse colonies is Iceland ; for in Iceland was written the greater part of Old Norse literature that survives today, and almost all that is of merit." In the late 10th century, the Icelandic explorer Erik the Red discovered Greenland and supervised the Norse History of Greenland#Norse settlement, settlement of the island. His son Leif Erikson, Leif later made the first documented Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact theories, trans-oceanic voyage in history and thereafter supervised the attempted Norse Norse colonization of North America, colonization of North America. "The Greenland settlers and their descendants were intrepid voyagers and explorers. Eirlk’s son Leif sailed across the Atlan- tic to Scotland on his way to Norway, making the first trans- oceanic voyage known in history. And the Greenlanders also reached America ; no one who is acquainted with the historical value of Norse tradition can doubt it."

Later history

While Vikings were raiding the rest of

, their own Scandinavian homeland was undergoing increasing centralization. This is evidenced by the number of larger settlements being built. Some of these settlements became seats for royal mints and bishoprics. By the mid-11th century, the North Germanic tribes had been converted from paganism to Christianity and were under the rule of centralized states. These states were the kingdoms of

and

. "These Lombards, Langobards thus lived south of the Angles and east of the Saxons, and were somewhat removed from the North Germanic people of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway" The Scandinavian settlements in Greenland disappeared in the 15th century.

Legacy

Modern groups descended from the North Germanic peoples are the

, Faroese people,

, "[Icelanders] dwell chiefly by the shores of the ocean, and in the river valleys which open towards the sea. They belong for the greater part to the North Germanic race (Norsemen)

and

. "Similarly homogenous are the countries of China (with 92% Han Chinese) and Korea, as well as Scandinavia, in particular Sweden (where more than 95% belong to the North Germanic people of the Swedes. Iceland, which is even more homogeneous, was settled by the Vikings almost a thousand years ago, has remained unspoilt by outsiders ever since, and is now comprised almost exclusively of Icelanders in the ethnic sense.)" "The word Nordic is used to suggest the racial origin of the peoples of Northern and Northwestern Europe. The word Germanic denotes their linguistic and cultural unity. The main divisions of Germanic are: 1. East Germanic, including the Goths, both Ostrogoths and Visigoths. 2. North Germanic, including the Scandinavians, Danes, Icelanders, Swedes, "Norsemen." 3. West Germanic. The Old English (Anglo-Saxons) belong to this division, of which the continental representatives are the Teutonic peoples, High and Low Franks and Saxons, Alemanni, etc. English and German are both West Germanic languages. Care should be taken not to confuse Germanic and German. Germcm (Deutsch) is the literary language of the High German division of the Teutonic dialects. "Germanic" (Germanisch) is a generic term covering all that is included in East, North and West Germanic." "The Germanic peoples were of course in no way particularly identified with the territory covered by modern Germany; they stretched from southern Russia, where the Goths were settled in the fourth century, when they first came to grips with Roman power, to Iceland, which was settled mainly by Norwegians in the ninth century. The usual subdivisions are: North-Germanic, comprising the Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, and Icelanders; West- Germanic, mainly English (Anglo-Saxon), Dutch, and German; East-Germanic, Goths, Vandals, and Burgundians. These subdivisions have been established rather on the basis of language than of geographical location, yet, roughly speaking, the results of the two classifications coincide." "The North Germanic, or Scandinavian group, consists of the Norwegians, Danes, Swedes, and Icelanders. It is particularly interesting to follow the literary activity of three of these Germanic peoples, the Anglo-Saxons, the Scandinavians, and the Germans." "The Scandinavians, or the Danes, Norwegians and Swedes, Teutonic peoples, are so intimately related in race and history, that, except with frequent repetition, it would be impossible to discuss them separately." "With the Swedes, Danes, and Icelanders, the Norwegians constitute the Scandinavian or Norse branch of the Teutonic stock." "Teutonic, ( Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, Icelanders, English..." "SCANDINAVIANS. People of the Scandinavian group of the Teutonic stock, consisting of the Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, and Icelanders." "Scandinavians (Swedes, Danes, Norwegians) are Germanic peoples, specifically the northern branch, and descendants of Vikings. Their languages and histories are closely related." "Germanic peoples (3A). A broadly defined group of peoples from northern Europe who began to move south into Germany and other areas of Europe around 500 B.C. Modern Germans, Austrians, Dutch, and the Scandinavians (Danes, Norwegians, Swedes) are the most numerous of today's Germanic peoples." "The Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes represent the Scandinavian branch of the Teutonic family." "European branches are thus divided... Germanic... Scandinavians ..Danes and Norwegians. Swedes. Icelanders." "Danes, Icelanders, Norwegians, and Swedes are Germanic, descendants of peoples who first moved northward from the North European Plain some 10,000 years ago, when the ice sheets of the last glacial period retreated." ""TEU'I'ONIC PEOPLES, a term now applied: (1) to the High Germans, including the German inhabitants of Upper and Middle Germany and those of Smtzerland and Austria. (2) The Low Germans, including the Frisians, the Plattdeutsch, the Dutch, the Flemings, and the English descended from the Saxons, Angles, etc., who settled in Britain. (3) The Scandinavians, including the NorWegians, Swedes, Danes and Icelanders." "The Teutonic peoples, as they exist at the present day, are divided into two principal branches: (1) Scandinavian, embracing Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, Icelanders; and (2) West Germanic, which includes, besides the German-speaking inhabitants of Germany proper (see Germany) and Switzerland (q. v.), also the population of the Netherlands (the Dutch), the Flemings of Belgium, and the descendants of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes in Great Britain, together with their offspring in North America, Australia, and other British colonies— the English- speaking peoples of the world." "Under the Indo-Europeans, the chief groups are the Celts (Irish, Manx, Welsh); the Teutons, consisting of Scandinavians (Danes, Swedes, Norwegians), Low Germans (English, Netherlands, Low Germans), and High Germans..." These groups are often referred to as ''Scandinavians'', "The north Germanic peoples occupied the southern part of the Scandinavian Peninsula. They subsequently spread westward across the Danish islands and Jutland, and their linguistic descendants today are the Scandinavians and the Icelanders." "The Vikings, known by a number of different names, the most prevalent alternate name Norse or Norsemen, were related to GERMANICS, that is, other Germanic-speaking peoples. Grouped together as SCANDINAVIANS they are also described as Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians, depending on the part of Scandinavia in which they originated..." "Not all the Germanic peoples left the Baltic region in the period concerned and consequently those that stayed behind were to become the ancestors of the present-day North Germanic peoples, the Scandinavians" "The Norse (people of the north) are known today as the Scandinavians— the people of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands" although Icelanders and the Faroese, and even the Danes, "The Viking Period of history-books, as is everywhere understood, does not extend backwards to include such early exploits but begins only at the end of the eighth century when the Scandinavian peoples and the Danes show unwonted activity and more than usual daring and persistency in their robberies across the seas." are sometimes not included as ''Scandinavians''. North Germanic peoples are sometimes called ''Nordic peoples'' by historians. "Ethnically they were of Germanic origin. They spoke a North Germanic tongue, best described as Scandinavian or Old Norse. That is to say, all Vikings spoke the same language, and this must have been conducive to a feeling of solidarity among the Nordic peoples." "Throughout the Viking period the Nordic peoples continued to speak a mutually intelligible language." "The primitive Nordic language (donsk tunga, vox danica) was still in use among these Nordic peoples at the beginnings of the Viking Age." Along with the

, the English people, English and the Dutch people, Dutch, they constitute one of the main branches of the Germanic peoples. ""Dutch quite often refers to German (because of the similarity in sound between Dutch and Deutsch) and sometimes even Scandinavians and other Germanic people." "The Scandinavians are a North Germanic people closely related to the Anglo-Saxons, the Frisians, the Germans, and the Dutch." With the rise of romantic nationalism in the 19th century, many prominent figures throughout Scandinavia became adherents of Scandinavism, which called for the unification of all North Germanic lands. Both during the First Schleswig War and the Second Schleswig War between Denmark and German Confederation, Germany in the 19th century, large numbers of Swedes fought for Denmark to counter a perceived German threat against the North Germanic peoples. "In 1848-9 Sweden sent troops to Funen with the intention of fighting Germany, and in 1864 Swedes streamed into Denmark in order to prevent the danger threatening the North Germanic peoples." In Norway, many prominent public figures favoured pan-Germanism from the mid-19th century, seeking to create a Greater Germanic Reich, pan-Germanic state in unity with other "Germanic tribes". Pan-Germanism lost currency in Norway in 1943, when the Axis Powers were being pushed back on Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front in the midst of World War II.

Notes and references

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

*{{Commons category-inline North Germanic peoples, Early Germanic peoples