- Also called:
- Norseman or Northman
- Related Topics:
- Norman
- blood eagle
- housecarl
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Viking settlement was never achieved in the well-defended Carolingian empire on the scale evidenced in the British Isles, and Scandinavian influence on continental languages and institutions is, outside Normandy, very slight. Sporadic raiding did occur, however, until the end of the Viking period; and, in the 10th century, settlements on the Seine River became the germ of the duchy of Normandy, the only permanent Viking achievement in what had been the empire of Charlemagne (see Norman).
Farther south than France—in the Iberian Peninsula and on the Mediterranean coasts—the Vikings raided from time to time but accomplished little of permanence.
Eastern Europe
The eastern Viking expansion was probably a less violent process than that on the Atlantic coasts. Although there was, no doubt, plenty of sporadic raiding in the Baltic and although “to go on the east-Viking” was an expression meaning to indulge in such activity, no Viking kingdom was founded with the sword in that area.
The greatest eastern movement of the Scandinavians was that which carried them into the heart of Russia. The extent of this penetration is difficult to assess, for, although the Scandinavians were at one time dominant at Novgorod, Kiev, and other centres, they were rapidly absorbed by the Slavonic population, to which, however, they gave their name Rus, “Russians.”
The Rus were clearly in the main traders, and two of their commercial treaties with the Greeks are preserved in the Primary Chronicle under 912 and 945; the Rus signatories have indubitably Scandinavian names. Occasionally, however, the Rus attempted voyages of plunder like their kinsmen in the west. Their existence as a separate people did not continue past 1050 at the latest.
The first half of the 11th century appears to have seen a new Viking movement toward the east. A number of Swedish runic stones record the names of men who went with Yngvarr on his journeys. These journeys were to the east, but only legendary accounts of their precise direction and intention survive. A further activity of the Scandinavians in the east was service as mercenaries in Constantinople (Istanbul), where they formed the Varangian Guard of the Byzantine emperor.
After the 11th century the Viking chief became a figure of the past. Norway and Sweden had no more force for external adventure, and Denmark became a conquering power, able to absorb the more unruly elements of its population into its own royal armies. Olaf II Haraldsson of Norway, before he became king in 1015, was practically the last Viking chief in the old independent tradition.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica