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{{cite web |url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/viking |title=Viking |last=[[Collins English Dictionary]] |website=[[Collins English Dictionary|Collins Online Dictionary]] |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |quote=Viking... [A]ny of the Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes who raided by sea most of N and W Europe from the 8th to the 11th centuries, later often settling, as in parts of Britain. |access-date=12 December 2019 |archive-date=7 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191007130318/https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/viking |url-status=live }}
{{cite web |url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/viking |title=Viking |last=[[Webster's New World Dictionary|Webster's New World Dictionary, 4th Edition]] |year=2010 |website=[[Collins English Dictionary|Collins Online Dictionary]] |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]] |quote=Viking... [A]ny of the Scandinavian sea rovers and pirates who ravaged the coasts of Europe from the 8th to the 10th cent. |access-date=12 December 2019 |archive-date=7 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191007130318/https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/viking |url-status=live }}
{{cite web |url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/viking |title=Viking |last=[[Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary|Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus]] |website=Cambridge Dictionary |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |quote=Viking... [A] person belonging to a race of Scandinavian people who travelled by sea and attacked parts of northern and southern Europe between the 8th and 11th centuries, often staying to live.|access-date=12 December 2019 |archive-date=6 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190506202907/https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/viking |url-status=live }}</ref> who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.<ref name="EB_Viking">{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Viking-people |title=Viking |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]] |access-date=30 September 2018 |quote=Viking, also called Norseman or Northman, member of the Scandinavian seafaring warriors who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the 9th to the 11th century and whose disruptive influence profoundly affected European history. These pagan Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish warriors were... |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190505074136/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Viking-people |archive-date=5 May 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="EB_Denmark">{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Denmark/The-Viking-era |title=Denmark: The Viking Era |last1=Linton |first1=Michael I. A. |last2=Nokkentved |first2=Christian |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]] |access-date=30 September 2018 |quote=Viking society, which had developed by the 9th century, included the peoples that lived in what are now Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and, from the 10th century, Iceland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180930232214/https://www.britannica.com/place/Denmark/The-Viking-era |archive-date=30 September 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Roesdahl, pp. 9–22">Roesdahl, pp. 9–22.</ref> They also voyaged as far as the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]], [[North Africa]], the [[Middle East]], [[Greenland]], and [[Vinland]] (present-day [[Newfoundland]] in [[Canada]], [[North America]]). In their countries of origin, and some of the countries they raided and settled in, this period is popularly known as the [[Viking Age]], and the term "Viking" also commonly includes the inhabitants of the Scandinavian homelands as a whole. The Vikings had a profound impact on the [[Early Middle Ages|early medieval]] [[history of Scandinavia]], the [[History of the British Isles|British Isles]], [[France in the Middle Ages|France]], [[Viking Age in Estonia|Estonia]], and [[Kievan Rus']].<ref>Brink 2008</ref>
Expert sailors and navigators of their characteristic [[longship]]s, Vikings established Norse settlements and governments in the [[Viking activity in the British Isles|British Isles]], the [[Faroe Islands]], [[Settlement of Iceland|Iceland]], [[History of Greenland#Norse settlement|Greenland]], [[History of Normandy|Normandy]], and the [[Baltic Sea|Baltic coast]], as well as along the [[Trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks|Dnieper]] and [[Volga trade route]]s across modern-day Russia, [[Belarus]],<ref>[http://lepel.vitebsk-region.gov.by/en/region2/view/archaeologists-find-evidence-of-vikings-presence-in-belarus-5923/ Archaeologists find evidence of Vikings' presence in Belarus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180715210859/http://lepel.vitebsk-region.gov.by/en/region2/view/archaeologists-find-evidence-of-vikings-presence-in-belarus-5923/ |date=15 July 2018 }}. Lepel Regional Executive Committee.</ref> and [[Ukraine]],<ref>[http://bunews.com.ua/society/item/ancient-ukraine-did-swedish-vikings-really-found-kyiv-rus Ancient Ukraine: Did Swedish Vikings really found Kyiv Rus?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180715213153/http://bunews.com.ua/society/item/ancient-ukraine-did-swedish-vikings-really-found-kyiv-rus |date=15 July 2018 }} Business Ukraine.</ref> where they were also known as [[Varangians]]. The [[Normans]], [[Norse-Gaels]], [[Rus' people]], [[Faroe Islanders|Faroese]], and [[Icelanders]] emerged from these Norse colonies. At one point, a group of Rus Vikings went so far south that, after briefly being bodyguards for the Byzantine emperor, they attacked the Byzantine city of [[Constantinople]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Klein |first=Christopher |title=Globetrotting Vikings: The Quest for Constantinople |url=https://www.history.com/news/globetrotting-vikings-the-quest-for-constantinople |access-date=20 October 2022 |website=HISTORY |date=19 October 2018 |language=en |archive-date=21 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221021052525/https://www.history.com/news/globetrotting-vikings-the-quest-for-constantinople |url-status=live }}</ref> Vikings also voyaged to [[Caspian expeditions of the Rus'|Iran]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Logan |first=Donald F. |date=1992 |title=''The Vikings in History''|publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-415-08396-6}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=September 2023}} and [[Arab world|Arabia]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Batey|first1=Colleen E.|last2=Graham-Campbell|first2=James |author-link2=James Graham-Campbell|title=Cultural Atlas of the Viking World|url=https://archive.org/details/culturalatlasofv00bate|url-access=registration|date=1994|publisher=Facts on File|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/culturalatlasofv00bate/page/184 184]|isbn=9780816030040}}</ref> They were the first Europeans to reach North America, briefly [[Norse colonization of North America|settling in Newfoundland]] ([[Vinland]]). While spreading Norse culture to foreign lands, they simultaneously brought home slaves, concubines, and foreign cultural influences to Scandinavia, influencing the genetic<ref name="Margaryan2" /> and historical development of both. During the Viking Age, the Norse homelands were gradually consolidated from smaller kingdoms into three larger kingdoms: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.
The Vikings spoke [[Old Norse]] and made inscriptions in [[runes]]. For most of the period, they followed the [[Old Norse religion]], but later [[Christianization of Scandinavia|became Christians]]. The Vikings had their own [[Medieval Scandinavian law|laws]], [[Viking art|art]], and architecture. Most Vikings were also farmers, fishermen, craftsmen, and traders. Popular conceptions of the Vikings often strongly differ from the complex, advanced civilisation of the [[Norsemen]] that emerges from [[archaeology]] and historical sources. A romanticised picture of Vikings as [[noble savage]]s began to emerge in the 18th century; this developed and became widely propagated during the 19th-century [[Viking revival]].<ref>Wawn 2000</ref><ref name="langer">Johnni Langer, "The origins of the imaginary viking", ''Viking Heritage Magazine'', Gotland University/Centre for Baltic Studies. Visby (Sweden), n. 4, 2002.</ref> Perceived views of the Vikings as violent, piratical heathens or as intrepid adventurers owe much to conflicting varieties of the modern Viking myth that had taken shape by the early 20th century. Current popular representations of the Vikings are typically based on cultural clichés and stereotypes, complicating modern appreciation of the Viking legacy. These representations are rarely accurate—for example, there is no evidence that they wore [[horned helmet]]s, a costume element that first appeared in the 19th century.
==Etymology==
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