Vikings?

[DecimusCaesar]

I don't know much about the Vikings, yet I have heard a few documentaries (which are hardly a good place to start) say that the word Viking is a swear word (from some language) for Pirate. How did this idea come about? Anyone else heard this been cited before? It is probably not true.

[Julius Ratus]

Mr. Nagelfar lists Stockholm as his native city and so I assume he speaks Sweedish. If someone can find a rock with runes on it that says "Viking" in refernce to themselves, than I would say that without doubt that they called themselves Vikings. Otherwise, are there any existing Old English manuscripts, contemporary of course, that call the Norsemen Vikings? If not, then the opinion of a modern Sweedish speaker is the most authoritative.

[Kosmo]

If we could agree that by ancestors of the vikings we understand people of german descent living in Scandinavia, Jutland an nearby areas then we could say that they had a lot of contact with romans.

First we have goths and other East germans that left the areas Scandinavia and areas around the Baltic sea and ended deep in roman teritorries. Some of the goths still remained, maybe, in Sweden as many place names show.

Saxons raided roman Britain and Gaul and, despite being in areas more to the South then later vikings, resamble vikings very well and could be considered as a first stage.

Others people that attacked post roman Britain were angli and juti from the same areas were later the great dane raids will start.

Maybe people of Danemark and Norway were parts of saxon raids from the beggining and romans labeled all with the most familliar name.

Maybe saxon pirates run away from the francs and stated to use bases more to the North.

I do not see any pause between the attacks against romans, the invasions of Britain and the viking raids. There is only one big movement for maybe 800 years.

[caldrail]

Quite by chance I saw a replica saxon ship on tv yesterday being rowed on the solent. It looked a bit like the longship without the 'dragon' prow. The presenter on board was very impressed with its sea-worthiness (although the solent was calm and flat!)

[brotus maximus]

Unless you've ever watched "Xena" where you can have Vikings, Julius Caesar and Dark Age greeks all at once. ;-)

and that is the best line i have ever read in my life

[Tobias]

did the romans ever have any contact wtih people of nordic decent? vikings or anything of the like? or were the saxons the closest they ever really came?

 

During the Later Eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantines had considerable contact with the Rus, a Norse people who inhabited Russia. After some time of raiding the Empire, Emperor Basil II took the chance to make peace with the Rus, in particular a fellow called Vladimir of Kiev. In this alliance, Vladimir ceded the former Roman naval port of Chersonesos to the Romans again, sent something like 6000 of his warriors to become Basil's personal guard (the famed Varangians), converted to Christianity and married Basil's sister. Undoubtedly, the Norsemen had traded with the Later Roman Empire and raided them, but it was this alliance which would open the doors to full on contact.

The Rus and other Norsemen came to Constantinople, lured by opportunities for money and battle and adventure. Byzantine culture also would leave a great imprint on the Rus, and much of Russian culture, architecture and art that can be still seen today is based on that of the Byzantine Romans.

 

Skipping backwards a few centuries, could any of the "Vikings" be descended from the Cimbri and Teutones that Marius defeated?

[caldrail]

Skipping backwards a few centuries, could any of the "Vikings" be descended from the Cimbri and Teutones that Marius defeated?

 

Seems unlikely. The trend of human migration in the ancient world is westward, although they probably have common ancestry.