Norsemen

Encyclopedia : N : NO : NOR : Norsemen

"Norseman" redirects here; for the town of the same name see Norseman, Western Australia. For the piston-engined airplane of the same name, see Noorduyn Norseman

Norsemen (the Norse) is the indigenous or ancient name for the people of Scandinavia, including (but not limited to) the Vikings.

The meaning of Norseman was 'people from the North' and was applied primarily to people from southern and central Scandinavia. They established states and settlements in areas which today are part of the Faroe Islands, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland, Finland, Russia, Italy, Canada, Greenland, France, Ukraine, Estonia and Germany.

Norse, Norseman, and Normans were all terms in use during the period from the late 8th century to the 11th century, while Norse invaders and explorers were also (and now, more famously) known as Vikings.

Norsemen can also be 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 Danish, Icelandic, and Norwegian in their earlier forms.)

Norsemen

See also