Viking

Vikings

Vikings were a seafaring people originally from Scandinavia, who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe. They voyaged as far as the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Middle East, Greenland, and Vinland. In their countries of origin, and in some of the countries they raided and settled, this period of activity is popularly known as the Viking Age, and the term "Viking" also commonly includes the inhabitants of the Scandinavian homelands as a whole during the late 8th to the mid-11th centuries. The Vikings had a profound impact on the early medieval history of northern and Eastern Europe, including the political and social development of England and parts of France, and the establishment of Kievan Rus', the ancestor of the later states of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.

Viking

Noun

1. Scandinavian/Northern European seafarers, most familiarly raiders and pirates during the Viking age.
2. A stock character common in the fantasy genre, namely a barbarian, generally equipped with an axe or sword and a helmet adorned with horns.

Proper noun

1. A sea area between Scotland and Norway
2. A town in Alberta, Canada.