Northmen

For the fictional characters created by J. R. R. Tolkien, see Northmen (Middle-earth).

Northmen is one of several historical terms used to denote people from Northern Europe. The use of the term and the exact definition of it varied. It is commonly acnowleged to denote the Viking age and Mediœval peoples of Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

It was a common term for the Vikings, 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.

The word "Norman" is a derivation.

The Northmen were also known as Ascomannii by the Germans (perhaps due to their mythological ancestor Ask).

Lochlanach by the Irish and Dene (Daner) by the Anglo-Saxons.

The Slavs, the Arabs and the Byzantines knew them as the Rus' or Rhos (probably from various uses of roþs-, i.e. "related to rowing", hence Russia).

The Slavs and the Byzantines also called them Varangians (Væringjar, meaning "sworn men"), and the Scandinavian bodyguards of the Byzantine emperors were known as the Varangian Guard.

Northmen (Nordmenn) is also a term by which the ethnic Norwegians are known today.

Northmen

See also