`  Having read through the talk and related articles I'm bold but trepidatious.   I think I have a perspective that may help bring some order to this article. I wandered in because I saw a note that said it needs some cleanup. From the Talk I can understand why few would want to touch it.  I'm going to make some notes here because I need to put some ideas down to put my own mind in order. Given the debates I choose to place these notes here so that those who might edit my edits will have some idea of my reasoning.  I have read and studied the subject of Northern European History for many years both academically and personally. I do not hold a degree in it, except if you count a minor in History.  I note with interest that in the debate there are many who weigh in who are from Scandinavian countries and see that there is a different perspective on the subject, which I hadn't considered.  Those cultural perspectives are of interest.  My cultural perspective is that of a US citizen from the middle North of the United States. I am presently writing in Minnesota which means I live amongst many ethnic Swedes, Norwegians, a few Danes and some Finns. ``Viking`` in the English usages where I live (and the following statements have only my experience as witness) has the following definitions.  1) ``The Vikings``  noun, plural  A) professional football team which gets to the Super Bowl periodically but never wins and wants to increase my taxes so they can have a new place to play, and B) the cultural group from which came the ``real first discoverer`` of America, that was the ``Dark Ages`` so there weren't really ``real`` countries back then so although they were from places like Sweden, Norway and Danemark, because things were kind of mixed up and folks were moving around some, they kind of got all over, and since they aren't from any *place* in particular, but had some things in common, we lump them together into ``Vikings`` which means ``ethinic Scandinavians from before about 1200 before the current maps were drawn and countries established``.  2) ``The Viking``  singular   which would be Lief Erickson, who ``discovered America``, but doesn't get a holiday like Christopher Columbus for reasons no one quite understands (except that ``Liefia`` and ``Erika`` just don't seem as catchy as names for a land mass as ``America``: so Lief gets the credit, Columbus gets the holiday and Amerigo Vespucci gets to name it and no one remembers who he was).  Welcome to the midwest of the US where we *did* grow up laying Vikings and Indians as much as Cowboys and Indians.  Now, more seriously.  ``Viking`` is a term in Modern English that has a meaning distinct from the various Norse words of similar spelling. That term is related to 1)B) above.   `