Map showing area of Viking settlements during the 8th to 11th centuries. Also the trade and raid routes, often inseparable, are marked.
is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who speak one of the
North Germanic languages as their native language. ("Norse", in particular, refers to the
Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of
Indo-European languages, especially
Norwegian,
Icelandic,
Swedish and
Danish in their earlier forms.)
The meaning of Norseman was "people from the North" and was applied primarily to
Nordic people originating from southern and central
Scandinavia. They established states and settlements in areas which today are part of the
Faroe Islands,
England,
Scotland,
Wales,
Iceland,
Finland,
Ireland,
Russia,
Italy,
Canada,
Greenland,
France,
Ukraine,
Estonia,
Latvia,
Lithuania and
Germany.
Norse and
Norsemen are applied to the Scandinavian population of the period from the late 8th century to the 11th century. The term "Normans" was later primarily associated with the people of Norse origin in
Normandy,
France, assimilated into French culture and language. The term
Norse-Gaels (
Gall Goidel, lit:
foreign Gaelic) was used concerning the people of Norse descent in
Ireland and
Scotland, who assimilated into the
Gaelic culture.
Vikings has been a common term for Norsemen in the early medieval period, especially in connection with raids and monastic plundering made by Norsemen in
Great Britain and
Ireland.
Northmen was famously used in the prayer
A furore normannorum libera nos domine ("From the fury of the Northmen deliver us, O Lord!"), doubtfully attributed to
monks of the English
monasteries plundered by Viking raids in the 8th and 9th centuries.
Other names
The Northmen were also known as
Ascomanni, "ashmen", by the Germans,
Lochlanach by the Irish and
Dene (Danes) by the Anglo-Saxons.
The
Slavs, the
Arabs and the
Byzantines knew them as the
Rus' or
Rhōs, probably derived from various uses of
rōþs-, i.e. "related to rowing", or derived from the area of
Roslagen in east-central
Sweden, where most of the Norsemen who visited the Slavic lands came from. Archaeologists and historians of today believe that these Scandinavian settlements in the slavic lands formed the names of the countries
Russia and Belarus).
The Slavs and the Byzantines also called them
Varangians (
ON:
Væringjar, meaning "sworn men"), and the Scandinavian bodyguards of the
Byzantine emperors were known as the
Varangian Guard.
Modern Scandinavian usage
In the Old Norse language, the term
norrœnir menn ("
northern men"), was used to refer to the North Germanic population of Scandinavia (Swedes, Danes, Norwegians and Icelanders), thus corresponding to the modern English name
Norsemen.
In the modern Scandinavian languages, no common word for Norsemen exists. In Swedish, the term
nordmän is used, which corresponds to "Northmen". The Norwegians and Danish lack a word for the ancient North Germanic peoples. Usually they are simply (but incorrectly) called
Vikings in both Denmark, Norway, as well as Sweden. In Norway,
nordmann is the common demonym for a Norwegian. In Icelandic,
Norðmaður means a man from Norway, but
Norræn maður is the term for a "North Germanic man" (or "woman"/"people").
The word
nordbo however, (
Sw.:
nordborna,
Da.:
nordboerne,
No.:
nordboerne or
nordbuane in the
definite plural) is used for both ancient and modern people living in the
Nordic countries (
Sw.,
Da.,
No.:
Norden) and speaking one of the North Germanic languages (
Sw.:
de nordiska språken,
Da.:
de nordiske sprog,
No.:
de nordiske språkene/språka,
dei nordiske språka/språki,
Is.:
Norrænt mál,
Norrænt tungumál, or
Norræn tunga).
Notes and references
See also
