Norsemen

Norsemen refers to the group of people who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language between the 8th and 11th centuries. The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages, and is the earlier form of modern Scandinavian languages.

Norseman means "man from the North" and applied primarily to Old Norse-speaking tribes living in southern and central Scandinavia. In history, "Norse" or "Norseman" could be any person from Scandinavia, even though Norway, Denmark and Sweden were different sets of people by the Middle Ages. "The Norse" refers to the West Norse, meaning mainly Norwegians when reading about settlements in and colonization of America, Normandy, Iceland, Greenland, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Shetland, Orkney, the Hebrides, the Faroe Islands and Mann. Other historical mentionings of "The Norse" refer to the East Norse, meaning mainly Danes and Swedes, for instance, Cnut's Empire and Swedes adventures East. The Norse Scandinavians established states and settlements in England, Scotland, Iceland, Wales, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Ireland, Russia, Greenland, France, Belgium, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Poland, and America as well as southern Italy.