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Comment by staticautomatic | Hacker News Reader

Most Norse in the 8th to 12th centuries were not Vikings. The word Viking comes from the word “wicing”, meaning “pirate”. It was obviously not an entire civilization of pirates.

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From what I’ve read the word viking derivates from the word vik which basically means ’bay’ - viking is hence one that travels by the bay.

The best answer anyone seems to have about that is "maybe." Yes, there was an Old Norse word "vic" meaning "bay". There was also an Old Norse word "vig" meaning "battle". Is that why they're called "vikings"? Nobody seems to know. Did vikings call themselves "vikings" at all prior to the emergence of the Anglo-Saxon word "wicing"? No one seems to know that either.

The Swedish Academy Word Book gives the "wicing" etymology from old Frisian and old English, but also says that the etymology has "disputed origin".

Funny you should say that, because some Vikings became Normans and occupied England which later became the British Empire.

Sure. It's true that some Vikings settled, including in Normandy (in exchange for guarding the Seine against other Vikings, just like in the TV show). And yeah, they also settled pretty large swaths of England, beginning with York, and founded Dublin, among other cities. The whole of England very nearly became run by the Norse but for a single battle at the end of a very long war of attrition.

The TV show was actually extremely historically accurate in terms of specific events (like jumping out of the coffin and murdering the priest). It was just also extremely inaccurate in terms of the characters, time periods, and geographic locations in which those events occurred.

England did get conquered by people of Viking descent much later: the Normans.

To be fair, only some of them were of Viking descent. Although the Viking settlers were granted control over Normandy, the people who previously lived there weren't all expelled. It would be more accurate to say that England was later conquered by people who were a mix of Norse and Frankish descent.

Of whom Queen Elizabeth is a descendant

And, by now, the rest of the population as well: https://youtu.be/Fm0hOex4psA

They also founded the Kingdom of Sicily.

"Road trip" a labspring break

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