North Germanic peoples

[6] With the end of the Viking Age in the 11th century, the North Germanic peoples were converted from their native Norse paganism to Christianity, while their previously tribal societies were centralized into the modern kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

[15] In the early medieval period, as today, Vikings was a common term for North Germanic raiders, especially in connection with raids and monastic plundering in continental Europe and the British Isles.

In modern times, the term is often applied to all North Germanic peoples of the Middle Ages, including raiders and non-raiders,[15] although such use is controversial.

[16] From the Old Norse language, the term norrœnir menn (northern men), has given rise to the English name Norsemen, which is sometimes used for the pre-Christian North Germanic peoples.

[15][20][17][21] The Old Frankish word Nortmann 'Northman' was Latinised as Normanni and then entered Old French as Normands, whence the name of the Normans and of Normandy, which was conquered from the Franks by Vikings in the 10th century.

[15] The Slavs, Finns, Muslims, Byzantines and other peoples of the east knew them as the Rus' or Rhōs, probably derived from various uses of rōþs-, i.e. "related to rowing", or from the area of Roslagen in east-central Sweden, where most of the Vikings who visited the Slavic lands originated.

[44] During the Iron Age the peoples of Scandinavia were engaged in the export of slaves and amber to the Roman Empire, receiving prestige goods in return.

North Germanic tribes, chiefly Swedes, were probably engaged as middlemen in the slave trade along the Baltic coast between Balts and Slavs and the Roman Empire.

[42][45] In his book Germania, the Roman historian Tacitus mentions the Swedes (Suiones) as being governed by powerful rulers and excelling at seafaring.

[45] From a very early time, Germanic tribes are thought to have interacted with and possibly settled in the Baltic states, in which they would leave a profound influence, particularly on the ancient Estonians.

[41] Another East Germanic tribe were the Herules, who according to 6th century historian Jordanes were driven from modern-day Denmark by the Danes, who were an offshoot of the Swedes.

Men of prominence were generally buried along with their most prized possessions, including horses, chariots, ships, slaves and weapons, which were supposed to follow them into the afterlife.

[42] The Gutes of Gotland are in later Old Norse literature considered indistinguishable from the Goths, who in the 3rd and 4th centuries wrested control of the Pontic Steppe from the Iranian nomads.

The Goths were the only non-nomadic people to ever acquire a dominant position on the Eurasian steppe, and their influence on the early Slavs must have been considerable.

[62] When the Huns invaded these territories, the North Germanic legends recall that the Gizur of the Geats came to the aid of the Goths in an epic conflict.

[42] Archaeological evidence suggest that a warrior elite continued to dominate North Germanic society into the Early Middle Ages.

In his book Getica, the 6th century Gothic historian Jordanes presents a detailed description of the various peoples inhabiting Scandinavia (Scandza), a land "not only inhospitable to men but cruel even to wild beasts.

Another North Germanic tribe were the Ranii, whose king Rodulf left Scandinavia for Ostrogothic Italy and became a companion of Theoderic the Great.

[63] Each of these countries was like a mighty hive, which, by the vigour of propagation and health of climate, growing too full of people, threw out some new swarm at certain periods of time, that took wing, and sought out some new abode, expelling or subduing the old inhabitants, and seating themselves in their rooms.

Between 512 and 520, Frankish annals and the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf claim that a certain Hygelac or Hugleik, King of the Geats, made a raid in the Rhineland somewhere between 512 and 520.

In this period the entire eastern Baltic Sea came to be dominated by a homogenous warrior culture derived from Sweden, in which Old Norse served as the lingua franca.

[80][70] Other explanations include political tensions, disruption of trade with the Abbasid Caliphate, or vengeance against massacres committed against the pagan Saxons by the Carolingian Empire.

The descendants of these Vikings, known as the Normans, would in the 11th century conquer England, Southern Italy, and North Africa, and play a leading role in launching the Crusades.

[70][22] They were engaged in extensive trade with the Byzantine Empire and the Abbasid Caliphate, launching raids on Constantinople and expeditions in the Caspian Sea.

In the 10th century, the Rus', in cooperation with surviving Crimean Goths, destroyed the Khazar Khaganate and emerged as the dominant power in Eastern Europe.

[89] By the 11th century, the Rus' had converted to Eastern Orthodoxy and were gradually merging with the local East Slavic population, becoming known as the Russians.

[7] The most important Norse colony was the settlement in Iceland, which became a haven for Scandinavians who sought to preserve their traditional way of life and independence of central authority.

[85] His son Leif later made the first documented trans-oceanic voyage in history and thereafter supervised the attempted Norse colonization of North America.

[109][110][111] With the rise of romantic nationalism in the 19th century, many prominent figures throughout Scandinavia became adherents of Scandinavism, which called for the unification of all North Germanic lands.

Pan-Germanism lost currency in Norway in 1943, when the Axis Powers were being pushed back on Eastern Front in the midst of World War II.