[Marius]

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I see this statement, and variations of it far too often “Viking was an occupation, not a people”.

This really isn’t correct. During the Viking Age (the time/Age has obviously gotten its name i modern times) lots of people identified as, and/or were recognized as a Vikingr. This comes from them taking part in the activity going a’viking, ie. going raiding in foreign lands.

To my knowledge, based on my research so far, this seems to be exlusively reserved for travelling by ship across the ocean to somewhere, but that might not be an actual requirement.

So, raiding in foreign lands, usually attacking foreign Christian lands, at least Norwegians and Icelandic people would call that activity taking part in viking, as a verb. Then men who were especially good at this, ie. basically good warriors, or very succesful raiders, might later be recognized as a great vikingr.

One thing viking certainly wasn’t was an occupation. Men at the time were typically farmers, fishermen, and tradesmen. A select few were professional soldiers working for a chieftain/king, but most were men called out to participate in viking raids.

As examples, there is a Swedish runestone hailing the man it was raised for as “a great vikingr”. Also, when reading through the history of the Icelanders in the ‘Book of Icelanders’, listing all people and families settling the island from early on in the Viking Age. In it, many men (a dozen or so) are said to have been ‘great vikingr’ in the manner of recognizing a great warrior. As the book is based on the contemporary oral history, this is a real link straight back to the people of the Viking Age, calling themselves and others vikings, not as an occupation (most were farmers) but as having excelled at taking part in the viking raids.

This is somewhat ‘triggering’ for some people, but would love to hear your thoughts!

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