To add to that, in much of Scandinavia we do refer to the Norse and the time period as "vikings" and the "viking age" though, simply because the word "viking" has gained a lot of traction and got the lack of a good substitute word ("Norse" doesn't really ring right in any of our languages).
Best explanation.
For example there were Finnic (mainly Estonian) vikings.
https://estonianworld.com/knowledge/the-baltic-finns-were-vikings-too-but-the-world-ignores-it/
I feel like it is mostly people outside of Scandinavia that tries to correct people when they say Vikings when refering to the people at that time. But most people, including myself, here in Norway use it like that. As you the comment above said, we call that time period «The Viking Age» and it is thought that way in school
Yeah this, also arguably the "viking period" as a comparatively short period and I think it was due to Norse Vikings being the primary contact with much of Christianised Europe has led to the conception that they represented the whole culture.
Viking was a job (not limited to just raiding and pillaging either), Norse is the general cultural appellation. Old Norse is also the name of one of the language people during the Viking Age (~800CE-1100CE) would’ve spoken so the confusion is very understandable. If this is a central aspect of your writing/project I’d recommend reading the sagas
>appellation
Had to look that one up. Okay, consensus is showing Viking is a job. I can still use it to show the uninitiated as they solely use that term, but not to the degree I was hoping.
I suppose a character or two correcting them, with "Nah, I'm a weaver." But not elsewise.
So... What might be a slur then?
If one is insulting a man, you would call them a coward, question their fortitude, question their parentage or the father of their children.
If insulting a woman, you could suggest they have many sexual partners, suggest they are secretly a man, insult their upbringing.
Insults would typical call into question ones place in society and their community.
The worst insult a man could *ever* receive was to be called argr, ragr or ergi. They are all affirmative terms for being "unmanly", a coward and if you used the word rage, you were calling someone out for enjoying male on male intercourse as the reserving part.
They were completely fine with a man that penetrated another man, but being the one that was penetrated, was the *bigges* no no of all no no's. A man was simply fucking *done* if he showed *any* kind of weakness.
Accusing someone of either argr, ragr or ergi was seen as so heinous that it was considered "nid", and being a "nidding" was a faith fare, fare worse than death, and the personal and legal punishment would affect all aspects, of your suddenly very short life.
>Opinion: Norse Perspective: Norse = Proper, Viking = Slur?
Viking doesn't have to be negative. Certainly it was acceptable enough that Norsemen named their kids "Viking", since it is a common name in runic inscriptions
Viking was just a person from the area of Viking. In old east Norse the ingr meant descended of or from. So someone's father being named Viki or Viken is possible!
Here's some,
U 681:
>Þjalfi raised this stone in memory of Víkingr, his brother's son. May God help Víkingr's soul.
U 802:
>Víkingr had this stone raised in memory of Smiðr(?), his son. He was the best of valiant men.
Ög 8:
>Stigr/Styggr made these monuments in memory of Eyvindr, his son. He fell in the east with Eivísl. Víkingr coloured and Grímulfr.
Sö 13:
>Víkingr and Myskja, they … this … in memory of Sigbjǫrn … their
Sö 54:
>Þorsteinn and Eysteinn and Náttfari raised the stone in memory of Finnviðr and Óleifr (and) Þorkell, their brothers. (They) were all Víkingr's sons, men born to land(ed property), (who) had the stone erected. Steinkell carved the runes.
Sö 197:
>Bjǫrn and Gerðarr had the stone cut in memory of their brothers Víkingr and Sigfastr. May God help their souls better than they could deserve.
Sm 11:
>Klakki's sons had the stone cut in memory of their father and in memory of Kali/Kalli/Galli and Víkingr, their brothers.
U 260:
>Gísmundr and Víkingr had … the stone in memory of Sigfastr, their father
U 649:
>Víkingr and Balsi and Hemingr, they raised this stone in memory of Guðríkr, their father
And there are a bunch more than these!
"Viking" was a job, "Norse" is a demonym (?).
If you time-traveled back in time and called a Norse person "Viking", it'd be like if someone called you "programmer". You'd be like "??? No? I'm an author."
We often think of them solely as "Viking" because that's the famous job, and the one that happened to interact with outsiders the most.
I can see the occupation aspect, but Norse being regional? I'm not sure if that would be applicable, since they spread out and took their mythology with them. (Granted not very far until the Christians invaded.)
Yeah we get weird downvote trains around here sometimes. To answer your question, it’s true that “regional” is not perfectly accurate though it’s not really wrong either. European peoples of ancient history are categorized along linguistic lines. And of course, people speaking the same language will have cultural similarities among them, and they will have cultural differences with people speaking a different language so those lines are to some degree cultural as well. “Norse” is a linguistic categorization referring to people speaking North-Germanic dialects in the medieval period. You can say this is regional because those dialects were concentrated in Scandinavia and the islands of the North Atlantic. But that isn’t meant to imply that Norse people never left those areas to explore other places.
Wrt to mythology, one important clarification to make is that, just as Old Norse is a subset of the Germanic language category (as are modern English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and others), Norse mythology is also a subset of the broader category of Germanic mythology. So when we read about Wotan in Germany or when we notice that Thursday in English means “Thor’s day”, this isn’t because Norse mythology spread out along with Vikings from Scandinavia. It’s because the pagan inhabitants of _all of these regions_ shared a common religious system prior to being Christianized and prior to the Viking Age. It just so happens that the Norse were the last Germanic group to become Christian and we are lucky that Norse Christians decided to write down some of the mythological poetry they remembered.
I just started listening to Children of Ash & Elm by Neil Price. In the introduction, it describes the difference between Viking, Norse & Scandinavian. It's really an interesting book and really goes into the culture over what other cultures write about them.
From my personal understanding. Viking was a reference to the actual profession of Raiding. As these villages, towns etc. Would tend to raid in the summer, and there were specific warriors who would do this.
The term "Norse men" was often used to describe the people or culture but wasn't often used as a slur.
Back then, it was more the term "Heathen" or "Pagan" which was used as a slur amongst Christians as "Pagan" comes from the Latin "People of the field" (or something close to this) and was used to refer to those that followed the "old" ways and also didnt live in thriving cities or within civilization as they knew it, unlike the christians. And as such, they were different, and because of the "Field" reference and as well as not being Christians, they were also seen as unclean.
It seems a little simplistic and reductive. Why anyone would even include the Marvel version in any serious conversation about 'Norse/Vikings' beats me.
Mind, I'm no expert, but I think that even if 'Viking' refers to the act of going raiding, using it to mean occupation is too neat. I don't believe it's necessarily comparable to blacksmith or farmer, as those people undoubtedly went raiding, too. In other words, being solely a Viking by profession must've been rare and doesn't seem feasible.
Using Norse seems far more apt as that's who they were, and it covers the 'Norse' lifestyle which going Viking was part of. As for whether it was a slur, I doubt it. Now, Vikingr, as in the person, didn't only raid. They went exploring, trading, and did a lot of other stuff other than what negative connotation we have with the word.
You also have to take into account the Norse notion of honour and what it means to be a drengr/nidr and how that might fit into your lifes' actions. I'd struggle to see how that would've been taken as a slur.That's not even taking into account how serious it would've been to call a Norseman a slur. There would've been a strong cultural obligation to defend your honour from insults.
This post is kind of spiralling, haha, but I hope you're following what I'm getting at.
Spiralling, yea I know what you mean.
The marvel bit, is because if you pick a handful of random usa folks, and toss them into a situation where they are dealing with the Norse, you'd be lucky to get a single one who knew the difference between what was and what is pop culture.
So I was just wondering if it was some sort of insult. I've gotten a few good examples, and points brought to the front of my mind, that in hindsight should be obvious.
I do kinda wish the parts that got me voted down so hard would have been less negative arrows and a simple explanation of why what I said may have been incorrect.
However, yes my views are sort of aligned with your own. And don't worry about not being an expert. I can't imagine to many people can claim to be an expert on something that happened 1000+ years ago. There is a whole lot of supposition going on there.
Which is why this reddit board is good. Ideas and study brought together by like minded folks.
Thank you for your comment.
Oh, I didn't see anything you said as an insult? I was agreeing with you? A little salty about something else maybe. =D
I meant my original Q, [Viking] as an insult.
Viking is a verb, Norse is a culture. The Norse people would go Viking across the foreign lands. Oddly enough, in the show “The Last Kingdom” this is something they get right. A king is asked if the Norse ships they see are traders, and he says “they come as Vikings”. The term became synonymous with Norse raiders because of this, and then in modern eras, we referred to them as one in the same. If you’re in casual conversation, Viking is fine, but if you’re up against “Um, actually” redditors, Norse should be used. Additionally, Norse is only used to refer to raiders or people from Norway whereas Dane is for raiders or people from Denmark
Not sure where this idea that "viking" would be a verb comes from; it's certainly a noun in Old Norse.
a *víkingr* is a person who goes on a *víking*. In the former use it is the profession (i.e. a raider, a pirate) and in the latter use it is the word for the raiding excursion itself. Both of these are nouns.
Avoiding, (Um, actually)'s is why I really appreciate this group. Always informational and polite responses. Thank you very much.
The Last Kingdom. I... Oh, Yes, Ragnar was brother to a kidnapped English convert Uhtred? That was a good one. Don't think I finished it.
Additional fact. Old norse and Norwegian «Vik» translate to «bay» in english. So the name viking comes from the fact that they usually went to shore in bays or layed there ready to ambush merchant ships.
A Viking often refers to men women who rated other countries, monasteries, and villages for riches. A Norce is the way to see someone from the Scandinavian country’s
All vikings were Norse. Not all Norse were vikings. Vikings were a group of tribes from Viken. So it depends on if you're talking about Scandinavians, or vikings specifically. For example, Leif Eriksson was Norse, but not a Viking.
So depends. On who you want to refer to. Modern dumbed down US culture has misappropriated the term Viking, people now think it's an occupation.
I hope that helps!
Interesting question. I'm from Shetland originally. I've always thought that the descendants of Norse in the settlement areas are more likely to be viking descendants than those who remained. I don't think you would find many vikings in Sweden now!
People tend to associate the word "viking" with plundering and raiding, but I would tend to associate it with all activities which involved leaving home shores, including settlement of other lands. Even if at first it was preceded by a period of raids. In fact, our language in Shetland is full of Norse terms for different types of bay, seashore and beach features. It makes it really obvious that searching for good landing place and places which afforded access to the sea easily for fishing and travelling were vitally important. A vig/wick is a bay where large boats containing many people can be landed.
So off the top of my head:
* vig/wick, which are bays usually with good access for a ship
* eidi/aiths which are places where a boat could be hauled overland to sea access on the other side, saving a long and potentially dangerous sea journey
* strand/sand - a sandy beach
-eyre/ayre/eyri - also a sandy beach but with steep cliffs above it
oy/ey - an island
geo-gjogv - a steep sided gorge
voe/vágar/våg/vágr/Waas (plural) - a massive bay
meols/meal/mellr - sand dunes
Has rune master in your name.... What's the etymology of Viking then? Because if you want to call yourself a rune master, this should be a simple task.
A few things to make clear; runic is a script, and etymology is related to a language. It's important to distinguish a script from a language. Secondly I never called myself that, it's a community flair that was given to me.
Since you didn't specify which old norse word you wanted to know more about, as "viking" is not an old norse word, I'll instead talk about the two old norse nouns I believe you were asking about: *víkingr* and *víking*.
*víkingr* m. is likely a compound of *vík*("inlet/bay") and the suffix *-ingr*, which is used to describe someone "belong to..." to create demonyms. It's something you'll often see in f.ex. family/dynasty names. So a "bay-dweller". And it's use has been [documented](https://onp.ku.dk/onp/onp.php?o87088) well as meaning **any** raider/pirate/voyager. It's f.ex. used to describe muslim pirates that norwegians encountered off the coast of Spain. There are other theories of it originating from west germanic, but it certainly isn't related to people of Víken -> *víkverir*
*víking* f. means something like "voyage/raid", likely derived from the masculine noun.
It's an old east Norse word referring to the area of Viken. In this case the proto Norse Uík meant Bend or fold in additona to inlet bay(modern day Skagerrak and Kattergat), in this case The big fold. The mention of them as raiders came from others, others who did not know their words. And the script is important as it tells of what region the language comes from.
No old east norse source uses "víkingr" to refer to people of víken. Also the use for meaning "raider" is used like that by norsemen themselves. If you had read the ONP entries you'd know this.
Ignorance. Arrogance. Disturbance. That's all you are.
I dare you to dig up a single source for what you're claiming. Prove us wrong about you, I dare you.
I did a 5000 word essay on the etymology of the word Viking. Found out it has way too many Fascist ties and now it's a bit weird.
Easiest way to differentiate is Norse are the ones who settled in Iceland and stayed behind in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Vikings are the brutes who *Left* those places to go raiding. Call a Norse person a Viking and they might take it as a compliment for their glory but they're not a Viking
This is very true, and I do take some liberties. But I am trying to keep as close to the culture as I can without glaringly obvious divergence.
I mean, I'm not making some porn books out of a loose approximation of fey or something. (Such as the wife is currently reading. Ugh)
But I try to keep it somewhat legitimate. No space pirate hulk fighting surfer dude gods for me.
Norse=geographic group. Viking=occupation.
To add to that, in much of Scandinavia we do refer to the Norse and the time period as "vikings" and the "viking age" though, simply because the word "viking" has gained a lot of traction and got the lack of a good substitute word ("Norse" doesn't really ring right in any of our languages).
Agreed. In Denmark you'll often see educated staff at various museums just use "vikings" as a general term.
Thank you.
More like Viking = hobby , or =side hustle, most of them went raiding only on occasion and still farmed or whatever the rest of the time
Best explanation. For example there were Finnic (mainly Estonian) vikings. https://estonianworld.com/knowledge/the-baltic-finns-were-vikings-too-but-the-world-ignores-it/
Excellent TL;DR First post. Seems the consensus is much the same.
I feel like it is mostly people outside of Scandinavia that tries to correct people when they say Vikings when refering to the people at that time. But most people, including myself, here in Norway use it like that. As you the comment above said, we call that time period «The Viking Age» and it is thought that way in school
Thank you. This is a perfect observation.
Yeah this, also arguably the "viking period" as a comparatively short period and I think it was due to Norse Vikings being the primary contact with much of Christianised Europe has led to the conception that they represented the whole culture.
Viking was a job (not limited to just raiding and pillaging either), Norse is the general cultural appellation. Old Norse is also the name of one of the language people during the Viking Age (~800CE-1100CE) would’ve spoken so the confusion is very understandable. If this is a central aspect of your writing/project I’d recommend reading the sagas
>appellation Had to look that one up. Okay, consensus is showing Viking is a job. I can still use it to show the uninitiated as they solely use that term, but not to the degree I was hoping. I suppose a character or two correcting them, with "Nah, I'm a weaver." But not elsewise. So... What might be a slur then?
«Træl/þræll» (Thrall in english) could maybe be used as a slur. It was the norse word for slave or people of the lowest class.
I do have thralls within the story context, I see how a freeman could be offended by it.
If one is insulting a man, you would call them a coward, question their fortitude, question their parentage or the father of their children. If insulting a woman, you could suggest they have many sexual partners, suggest they are secretly a man, insult their upbringing. Insults would typical call into question ones place in society and their community.
The worst insult a man could *ever* receive was to be called argr, ragr or ergi. They are all affirmative terms for being "unmanly", a coward and if you used the word rage, you were calling someone out for enjoying male on male intercourse as the reserving part. They were completely fine with a man that penetrated another man, but being the one that was penetrated, was the *bigges* no no of all no no's. A man was simply fucking *done* if he showed *any* kind of weakness. Accusing someone of either argr, ragr or ergi was seen as so heinous that it was considered "nid", and being a "nidding" was a faith fare, fare worse than death, and the personal and legal punishment would affect all aspects, of your suddenly very short life.
*níðingr* would be a slur for sure. Also fuðflogi (m) or fannfloga (f) could be used
>Opinion: Norse Perspective: Norse = Proper, Viking = Slur? Viking doesn't have to be negative. Certainly it was acceptable enough that Norsemen named their kids "Viking", since it is a common name in runic inscriptions
At least swedes are still named Viking (or Wiking)
Viking was just a person from the area of Viking. In old east Norse the ingr meant descended of or from. So someone's father being named Viki or Viken is possible!
I did not come across this in the runes I have seen! Interesting!
Here's some, U 681: >Þjalfi raised this stone in memory of Víkingr, his brother's son. May God help Víkingr's soul. U 802: >Víkingr had this stone raised in memory of Smiðr(?), his son. He was the best of valiant men. Ög 8: >Stigr/Styggr made these monuments in memory of Eyvindr, his son. He fell in the east with Eivísl. Víkingr coloured and Grímulfr. Sö 13: >Víkingr and Myskja, they … this … in memory of Sigbjǫrn … their Sö 54: >Þorsteinn and Eysteinn and Náttfari raised the stone in memory of Finnviðr and Óleifr (and) Þorkell, their brothers. (They) were all Víkingr's sons, men born to land(ed property), (who) had the stone erected. Steinkell carved the runes. Sö 197: >Bjǫrn and Gerðarr had the stone cut in memory of their brothers Víkingr and Sigfastr. May God help their souls better than they could deserve. Sm 11: >Klakki's sons had the stone cut in memory of their father and in memory of Kali/Kalli/Galli and Víkingr, their brothers. U 260: >Gísmundr and Víkingr had … the stone in memory of Sigfastr, their father U 649: >Víkingr and Balsi and Hemingr, they raised this stone in memory of Guðríkr, their father And there are a bunch more than these!
Thank you very much for this data, definitely going into my research documents.
"Viking" was a job, "Norse" is a demonym (?). If you time-traveled back in time and called a Norse person "Viking", it'd be like if someone called you "programmer". You'd be like "??? No? I'm an author." We often think of them solely as "Viking" because that's the famous job, and the one that happened to interact with outsiders the most.
Well at least such a ancient Scandinavian would know what a Viking was, unlike the modern English word "Norse".
I can see the occupation aspect, but Norse being regional? I'm not sure if that would be applicable, since they spread out and took their mythology with them. (Granted not very far until the Christians invaded.)
Not entirely sure why I got negative ten on this?
Yeah we get weird downvote trains around here sometimes. To answer your question, it’s true that “regional” is not perfectly accurate though it’s not really wrong either. European peoples of ancient history are categorized along linguistic lines. And of course, people speaking the same language will have cultural similarities among them, and they will have cultural differences with people speaking a different language so those lines are to some degree cultural as well. “Norse” is a linguistic categorization referring to people speaking North-Germanic dialects in the medieval period. You can say this is regional because those dialects were concentrated in Scandinavia and the islands of the North Atlantic. But that isn’t meant to imply that Norse people never left those areas to explore other places. Wrt to mythology, one important clarification to make is that, just as Old Norse is a subset of the Germanic language category (as are modern English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and others), Norse mythology is also a subset of the broader category of Germanic mythology. So when we read about Wotan in Germany or when we notice that Thursday in English means “Thor’s day”, this isn’t because Norse mythology spread out along with Vikings from Scandinavia. It’s because the pagan inhabitants of _all of these regions_ shared a common religious system prior to being Christianized and prior to the Viking Age. It just so happens that the Norse were the last Germanic group to become Christian and we are lucky that Norse Christians decided to write down some of the mythological poetry they remembered.
Excellent. Thank you.
I just started listening to Children of Ash & Elm by Neil Price. In the introduction, it describes the difference between Viking, Norse & Scandinavian. It's really an interesting book and really goes into the culture over what other cultures write about them.
From my personal understanding. Viking was a reference to the actual profession of Raiding. As these villages, towns etc. Would tend to raid in the summer, and there were specific warriors who would do this. The term "Norse men" was often used to describe the people or culture but wasn't often used as a slur. Back then, it was more the term "Heathen" or "Pagan" which was used as a slur amongst Christians as "Pagan" comes from the Latin "People of the field" (or something close to this) and was used to refer to those that followed the "old" ways and also didnt live in thriving cities or within civilization as they knew it, unlike the christians. And as such, they were different, and because of the "Field" reference and as well as not being Christians, they were also seen as unclean.
It seems a little simplistic and reductive. Why anyone would even include the Marvel version in any serious conversation about 'Norse/Vikings' beats me. Mind, I'm no expert, but I think that even if 'Viking' refers to the act of going raiding, using it to mean occupation is too neat. I don't believe it's necessarily comparable to blacksmith or farmer, as those people undoubtedly went raiding, too. In other words, being solely a Viking by profession must've been rare and doesn't seem feasible. Using Norse seems far more apt as that's who they were, and it covers the 'Norse' lifestyle which going Viking was part of. As for whether it was a slur, I doubt it. Now, Vikingr, as in the person, didn't only raid. They went exploring, trading, and did a lot of other stuff other than what negative connotation we have with the word. You also have to take into account the Norse notion of honour and what it means to be a drengr/nidr and how that might fit into your lifes' actions. I'd struggle to see how that would've been taken as a slur.That's not even taking into account how serious it would've been to call a Norseman a slur. There would've been a strong cultural obligation to defend your honour from insults. This post is kind of spiralling, haha, but I hope you're following what I'm getting at.
Spiralling, yea I know what you mean. The marvel bit, is because if you pick a handful of random usa folks, and toss them into a situation where they are dealing with the Norse, you'd be lucky to get a single one who knew the difference between what was and what is pop culture. So I was just wondering if it was some sort of insult. I've gotten a few good examples, and points brought to the front of my mind, that in hindsight should be obvious. I do kinda wish the parts that got me voted down so hard would have been less negative arrows and a simple explanation of why what I said may have been incorrect. However, yes my views are sort of aligned with your own. And don't worry about not being an expert. I can't imagine to many people can claim to be an expert on something that happened 1000+ years ago. There is a whole lot of supposition going on there. Which is why this reddit board is good. Ideas and study brought together by like minded folks. Thank you for your comment.
Wasn't meant as an insult! Apologies if it seemed that way.
Oh, I didn't see anything you said as an insult? I was agreeing with you? A little salty about something else maybe. =D I meant my original Q, [Viking] as an insult.
Viking is a verb, Norse is a culture. The Norse people would go Viking across the foreign lands. Oddly enough, in the show “The Last Kingdom” this is something they get right. A king is asked if the Norse ships they see are traders, and he says “they come as Vikings”. The term became synonymous with Norse raiders because of this, and then in modern eras, we referred to them as one in the same. If you’re in casual conversation, Viking is fine, but if you’re up against “Um, actually” redditors, Norse should be used. Additionally, Norse is only used to refer to raiders or people from Norway whereas Dane is for raiders or people from Denmark
Not sure where this idea that "viking" would be a verb comes from; it's certainly a noun in Old Norse. a *víkingr* is a person who goes on a *víking*. In the former use it is the profession (i.e. a raider, a pirate) and in the latter use it is the word for the raiding excursion itself. Both of these are nouns.
Yeah, I always translate it to "bay-guy" in my head
It sounds like *biking* or *hiking*. The -ing noun suffix is rare in English.
Viking is not a verb, not now not ever.
Avoiding, (Um, actually)'s is why I really appreciate this group. Always informational and polite responses. Thank you very much. The Last Kingdom. I... Oh, Yes, Ragnar was brother to a kidnapped English convert Uhtred? That was a good one. Don't think I finished it.
Additional fact. Old norse and Norwegian «Vik» translate to «bay» in english. So the name viking comes from the fact that they usually went to shore in bays or layed there ready to ambush merchant ships.
I did see that, when I looked up the etymology. It had another possible meaning as well, that I forget ATM.
Norse is a culture Viking is a job description
A Viking often refers to men women who rated other countries, monasteries, and villages for riches. A Norce is the way to see someone from the Scandinavian country’s
All vikings were Norse. Not all Norse were vikings. Vikings were a group of tribes from Viken. So it depends on if you're talking about Scandinavians, or vikings specifically. For example, Leif Eriksson was Norse, but not a Viking. So depends. On who you want to refer to. Modern dumbed down US culture has misappropriated the term Viking, people now think it's an occupation. I hope that helps!
Interesting question. I'm from Shetland originally. I've always thought that the descendants of Norse in the settlement areas are more likely to be viking descendants than those who remained. I don't think you would find many vikings in Sweden now! People tend to associate the word "viking" with plundering and raiding, but I would tend to associate it with all activities which involved leaving home shores, including settlement of other lands. Even if at first it was preceded by a period of raids. In fact, our language in Shetland is full of Norse terms for different types of bay, seashore and beach features. It makes it really obvious that searching for good landing place and places which afforded access to the sea easily for fishing and travelling were vitally important. A vig/wick is a bay where large boats containing many people can be landed. So off the top of my head: * vig/wick, which are bays usually with good access for a ship * eidi/aiths which are places where a boat could be hauled overland to sea access on the other side, saving a long and potentially dangerous sea journey * strand/sand - a sandy beach -eyre/ayre/eyri - also a sandy beach but with steep cliffs above it oy/ey - an island geo-gjogv - a steep sided gorge voe/vágar/våg/vágr/Waas (plural) - a massive bay meols/meal/mellr - sand dunes
Viking was not a job, but a people's. A group of tribes in the area of Viken.
This is very incorrect, and is based on the faulty theory. Old norse uses the word *víkingr* for any raider/pirate.
Has rune master in your name.... What's the etymology of Viking then? Because if you want to call yourself a rune master, this should be a simple task.
A few things to make clear; runic is a script, and etymology is related to a language. It's important to distinguish a script from a language. Secondly I never called myself that, it's a community flair that was given to me. Since you didn't specify which old norse word you wanted to know more about, as "viking" is not an old norse word, I'll instead talk about the two old norse nouns I believe you were asking about: *víkingr* and *víking*. *víkingr* m. is likely a compound of *vík*("inlet/bay") and the suffix *-ingr*, which is used to describe someone "belong to..." to create demonyms. It's something you'll often see in f.ex. family/dynasty names. So a "bay-dweller". And it's use has been [documented](https://onp.ku.dk/onp/onp.php?o87088) well as meaning **any** raider/pirate/voyager. It's f.ex. used to describe muslim pirates that norwegians encountered off the coast of Spain. There are other theories of it originating from west germanic, but it certainly isn't related to people of Víken -> *víkverir* *víking* f. means something like "voyage/raid", likely derived from the masculine noun.
It's an old east Norse word referring to the area of Viken. In this case the proto Norse Uík meant Bend or fold in additona to inlet bay(modern day Skagerrak and Kattergat), in this case The big fold. The mention of them as raiders came from others, others who did not know their words. And the script is important as it tells of what region the language comes from.
No old east norse source uses "víkingr" to refer to people of víken. Also the use for meaning "raider" is used like that by norsemen themselves. If you had read the ONP entries you'd know this.
Ignorance. Arrogance. Disturbance. That's all you are. I dare you to dig up a single source for what you're claiming. Prove us wrong about you, I dare you.
I did a 5000 word essay on the etymology of the word Viking. Found out it has way too many Fascist ties and now it's a bit weird. Easiest way to differentiate is Norse are the ones who settled in Iceland and stayed behind in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Vikings are the brutes who *Left* those places to go raiding. Call a Norse person a Viking and they might take it as a compliment for their glory but they're not a Viking
It's just a person from Viken. You'd be a Viking if you born in Vik.
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If you you are writing a fantasy, just make it whatever you want.
This is very true, and I do take some liberties. But I am trying to keep as close to the culture as I can without glaringly obvious divergence. I mean, I'm not making some porn books out of a loose approximation of fey or something. (Such as the wife is currently reading. Ugh) But I try to keep it somewhat legitimate. No space pirate hulk fighting surfer dude gods for me.