Everything about Norsemen totally explained
Norsemen is 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
Norwegian,
Icelandic,
Swedish and
Danish in their earlier forms.)
The meaning of Norseman was "people from the North" and was applied primarily to
Nordic people originating from southern and central
Scandinavia. They established states and settlements in areas which today are part of the
Faroe Islands,
England,
Scotland,
Wales,
Iceland,
Finland,
Ireland,
Russia,
Italy,
Canada,
Greenland,
France,
Ukraine,
Estonia,
Latvia, and
Germany.
Norse,
Norsemen, and
Normans are all applied to the Scandinavian population of the period from the late 8th century to the 11th century. The term "Normans" was later primarily associated with the people of Norse origin in
Normandie,
France, assimilated into French culture and language. The term
Norse-Gaels (
Gall Goidel, lit:
foreign Gaelic) was used concerning the people of Norse descent in
Ireland and
Scotland, who assimilated into the
Gaelic culture.
Vikings has been a common term for Norsemen in the early medieval period, especially in connection with raids and monastic plundering made by Norsemen in
Great Britain and
Ireland.
Northmen was 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.
Other names
The Northmen were also known as
Ascomanni, "ashmen", by the Germans,
Lochlanach by the Irish and
Dene (Danes) by the Anglo-Saxons.
The
Slavs, the
Arabs and the
Byzantines knew them as the
Rus' or
Rhōs, probably derived from various uses of
rōþs-, for example "related to rowing", or derived from the area of
Roslagen in east-central
Sweden, where most of the Norsemen who visited the Slavic lands came from. It is by archaeologists and historians of today believed that these Scandinavian settlements in the slavic lands formed the names of the countries
Russia and Belarus).
The Slavs and the Byzantines also called them
Varangians (
ON:
Væringjar, meaning "sworn men"), and the Scandinavian bodyguards of the
Byzantine emperors were known as the
Varangian Guard.
Modern Scandinavian usage
In the moderne Scandinavian languages, the word corresponding to "Northmen" is: (
No.:
nordmenn,
Da.:
nordmænd,
Sw.:
nordmän ("Norsemen") and
norrmän ("Norwegians"),
Ic.:
norðmenn).
While the word
nordbo (
Sw.:
nordborna,
Da.:
nordboerne,
No.:
nordboerne or
nordbuane in the
definite plural) is used for both ancient and modern people living in the
Nordic countries (
Sw.,
Da.,
No.:
Norden) and speaking one of the North Germanic languages (
Sw.:
de nordiska språken,
Da.:
de nordiske sprog,
No.:
de nordiske språkene/sprogene/språka,
dei nordiske språka/språki).
Notes and references
Further Information
Get more info on 'Norsemen'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://norsemen.totallyexplained.com">Norsemen Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
