Vikings only from Scandinavia?

A common misconception that has irked me for a while now and is a bit of a shame. Is that when people think of Norse myths and culture, Vikings, and gods like Odin, Thor, Freya, etc, they usually think these are isolated only to Scandinavia and Iceland.

This great map below shows how limited that view really is. What we think of as Norse culture actually goes waaaay beyond Scandinavia, which is only one small slice of a much older and much larger culture and spiritual tradition that influenced Europe 1000 years before the Scandinavian Vikings even showed up.

All of these tribal cultures are better grouped under the broader term “Germanic.” (Just to be clear, “Germanic” has nothing to do with modern Germany 🇩🇪. It is simply a linguistic and cultural term.) The word “Norse” technically really only applies to Scandinavia.

These tribes mostly shared the same culture we would recognise as “Viking.” They lived in similar great halls and longhouses, worshipped many of the same gods and goddesses, and spoke closely related languages like Old English, Old Saxon, Old High German and more. These languages all came from the same origins as the Old Norse language the Vikings spoke, and were even similar enough that with some practice, they mostly would have been able to understand each other!

And even this map does not show the full picture. It is only a snapshot in time. In the next couple of centuries these peoples and cultures would go on to cover all of France, Italy (which was ruled by the Ostrogoths and Lombards), as well as large parts of Eastern Europe. Russia was even named after the Germanic Rus people.

So whether your roots are in Scandinavia, the British Isles, or as far away as Spain, Italy, or Eastern Europe, you also likely had ancestors who carved runes, fought in shield walls, and prayed to Odin, Thor, and Freya!

Picture 1: Map of early Germanic Tribes circa 476 ad

Picture 2: Eagle Brooches from Visigothic Spain, 6th Century ad

Picture 3 Carving of Thor from Lombardic Italy, Piedmont, 7th Century ad

Picture 4: Helmet of King Raedwald, Anglo-Saxon England, 7th Centurry ad