Ancient Scandinavians Never Spoke Of Themselves As Vikings – Here Is Why

Ellen Lloyd – AncientPages.com – If Vikings were alive today, they would be surprised, and perhaps even a little flattered to see how the world has taken interest in their history. The Vikings are more popular than ever, and people are fascinated with everything these Norse warriors accomplished, and even failures in some cases.

Being a Viking was a profession. Credit: Nejron Photo – Adobe Stock

When we talk about the Vikings, we say they originally from came Scandinavia, which of course is true. However, did you know that very few people in ancient Scandinavia spoke of themselves as Vikings?

The origin of the word Viking is still uncertain, and it would seem the “word is a historians’ revival; it was not used in Middle English, but it was reintroduced from Old Norse vikingr “freebooter, sea-rover, pirate, viking,” which usually is explained as meaning properly “one who came from the fjords,” from vik “creek, inlet, small bay.” ¹

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