Vikings were basically pirates with a skin, amirite?

Pirates rebelled against power, vikings were the power

by johnstonbruce 1 week ago

Not necessarily, there's a fuzzy line between a pirate and a privateer

by Anonymous 1 week ago

That's what "Viking" came to mean by association, but the "vik" part just refers to a bay, inlet, harbor or port, and the "ing" just means someone from there. As earthlings are people from Earth, Vikings are people from harbors and ports. In old English, "vik" became "vic", which became "wich", giving us ports like Ipswich, Harwich, Norwich, Greenwich, Droitwich, Woolwich and Sandwich.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Hmm sandwich..

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Yumwich...

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Vikings were also prolific traders and mercenary armies. To the point that they basically fought on battlefields as far from their homeland as Asia and Africa.

by briana97 1 week ago

It always amazes me that people would fight in battle for money, with a less than 50% survival rate. Do you even get paid if you lose?

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Mercenaries always get paid even if the state they fought for lost. People who try to stiff them usually end up beseiged and conquered by them. Ancient battles weren't usually fights till one side got wiped out, and battles where one side suffered mass casualties usually went down in the history books because of the unusual amount of deaths.

by briana97 1 week ago

Now I want to watch vikings.

by ziemewinfield 1 week ago

I feel like that's gotta a majorly reductive comparison but also you're not wrong

by Cory53 1 week ago

On the most basic level I don't think this works because I see vikings as boat based raiders of land settlements, not attacking ships as you say, and pirates primarily attacking and boarding other ships and not land settlements.

by Anonymous 1 week ago