Vikings (Old English: wicing—"pirate",[1] Danish and Bokmål: vikinger; Swedish and Nynorsk:
vikingar; Icelandic: víkingar, from Old Norse) were Norse seafarers, mainly speaking the Old Norse
language, who raided and traded from their Northern European homelands across wide areas of
northern, central, eastern and western Europe, during the late 8th to late 11th centuries.[2][3] The term
is also commonly extended in modern English and other vernaculars to the inhabitants of Viking home
communities during what has become known as the Viking Age. This period of Nordic military,
mercantile and demographic expansion constitutes an important element in the early medieval history
of Scandinavia, Estonia, the British Isles, France, Kievan Rus' and Sicily.
Facilitated by advanced sailing and navigational skills, and characterised by the longship, Viking activities
at times also extended into the Mediterranean littoral, North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.
Following extended phases of (primarily sea- or river-borne) exploration, expansion and settlement,
Viking (Norse) communities and polities were established in diverse areas of north-western Europe,
European Russia, the North Atlantic islands and as far as the north-eastern coast of North America. This
period of expansion witnessed the wider dissemination of Norse culture, while simultaneously
introducing strong foreign cultural influences into Scandinavia itself, with profound developmental
implications in both directions.