Tag: Norse

The Norse are the people who, between the 8th and 11th centuries, spoke the Old Norse language, an ancestor of the languages most commonly spoken in modern Scandinavia, where the Norse people primarily lived. While the Norse never constituted a single country, as they were ruled mainly by hierarchies of tribal chiefs, it is possible to say they constituted a single nation from a cultural standpoint. The Norse seamen, more commonly known as the vikings, sailed from their homelands to leave a deep mark in Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe, with settlements all the way from Britain to Russia as well as outposts in Sicily and North America. Additionally, a sizable portion of Norse mythology survives to this day, in the form of the tales covering themes such as the lives of deities such as Thor and Odin; a cosmos consisting of nine worlds unified by the tree Yggdrasil; and a series of future events, Ragnarök, including a great battle that will be the fall of many gods who will later return, natural disasters, and the eventual repopulation of the world.