North Germanic peoples

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North Germanic peoples, Nordic peoples[1] and in a medieval context Norsemen,[2] were a Germanic linguistic group originating from the Scandinavian Peninsula.[3] They are identified by their cultural similarities, common ancestry and common use of the Proto-Norse language from around 200 AD, a language that around 800 AD became the Old Norse language, which in turn later became the North Germanic languages of today.[4]

The North Germanic peoples are thought to have emerged as a distinct people in what is now southern Sweden in the early centuries AD.[5] Several North Germanic tribes are mentioned by classical writers in antiquity, in particular the Swedes, Danes, Geats, Gutes and Rugii. During the subsequent Viking Age, seafaring North Germanic adventurers, commonly referred to as Vikings, raided and settled territories throughout Europe and beyond, founding several important political entities and exploring the North Atlantic as far as North America. Groups that arose from this expansion include the Normans, the Norse–Gaels and the Rus' people. The North Germanic peoples of the Viking Age went by various names among the cultures they encountered, but are generally referred to as Norsemen.[6]

With the end of the Viking Age in the 11th century, the North Germanic peoples were converted from their native Norse paganism to Christianity, while their previously tribal societies were centralized into the modern kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.[7][8][6]

Modern linguistic groups that descended from the North Germanic peoples are the Danes, Icelanders, Norwegians, Swedes, and Faroese.[2][9][10][11] These groups are often collectively referred to as Scandinavians,[9][11] although Icelanders and the Faroese[12] are sometimes excluded from that definition.[13][3]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Moberg was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Kennedy 1963, p. 50 "[T]he pages of history have been filled with accounts of various Germanic peoples that made excursions in search of better homes; the Goths went into the Danube valley and thence into Italy and southern France ; and thence into Italy and southern France; the Franks seized what was later called France; the Vandals went down into Spain, and via Africa they "vandalized" Rome; the Angles, part of the Saxons, and the Jutes moved over into England; and the Burgundians and the Lombards worked south into France and Italy. Probably very early during these centuries of migration the three outstanding groups of the Germanic peoples — the North Germanic people of Scandinavia, the East Germanic branch, comprising the Goths chiefly, and the West Germanic group, comprising the remaining Germanic tribes — developed their notable group traits. Then, while the East Germanic tribes (that is, the Goths) passed gradually out of the pages of history and disappeared completely, the North Germanic, or Scandinavian, or Norse, peoples, as they are variously called, became a distinctive people, more and more unlike the West Germanic folk who inhabited Germany itself and, ultimately, Holland and Belgium and England. While that great migration of nations which the Germans have named the Volkerwanderung was going on, the Scandinavian division of the Germanic peoples had kept their habitation well to the north of the others and had been splitting up into the four subdivisions now known as the Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, and Icelanders. Long after the West Germanic and East Germanic peoples had made history farther south in Europe, the North Germanic tribes of Scandinavia began a series of expeditions which, during the eighth and ninth centuries, in the so-called Viking Age especially, led them to settle Iceland, to overrun England and even annex it to Denmark temporarily, and, most important of all, to settle in northern France and merge with the French to such an extent that Northmen became Normans, and later these Normans became the conquerors of England."
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Europeans was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "What is Old Norse?". oldnorse.org. 13 May 2022. Archived from the original on 22 August 2022. Retrieved 22 August 2022.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference GT_Motherland was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference D'Epiro was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference WM_831 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Bruce was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Spaeth was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Lawrence was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Thompson was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kendrick_3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference WM_830 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).