“A lot of the Vikings are mixed individuals” with ancestry from both Southern Europe and Scandinavia, for example, or even a mix of Sami (Indigenous Scandinavian) and European ancestry. A mass grave of around 50 headless Vikings from a site in Dorset, UK.
If we are speaking ethnically, the closest people to a Viking in modern-day terms would be the Danish, Norwegians, Swedish, and Icelandic people. Interestingly though, it was common for their male Viking ancestors to intermarry with other nationalities, and so there is a lot of mixed heritage.
'Viking' is a catch-all term for the people who came from Scandinavia, what is now Norway, Denmark and Sweden, between the eighth and 11th centuries, more properly known as the Norse, or Norsemen.
The genetic legacy of the Viking Age lives on today with 6% of people of the UK population predicted to have Viking DNA in their genes compared to 10% in Sweden. “The results change the perception of who a Viking actually was. The history books will need to be updated,” Professor Willerslev concluded.
It turns out most Vikings weren't as fair-haired and blue-eyed as legend and pop culture have led people to believe. According to a new study on the DNA of over 400 Viking remains, most Vikings had dark hair and dark eyes. (Sorry, Chris Hemsworth and Travis Fimmel.)
The genetic legacy of the Viking Age lives on today with six per cent of people of the UK population predicted to have Viking DNA in their genes compared to 10 per cent in Sweden.
The Vikings had various eye colors, although the predominant eye color was blue or gray. However, Irish Vikings had predominantly brown or hazel eyes, and some Viking settlements were much more diverse than others.
1. Norway. As one of the countries where Vikings originated, there's tons of Viking heritage in Norway.
During the ninth and tenth centuries, a massive state grew to dominate much of Eastern Europe. Ancestors to Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians, the Kievan Rus were a combination of Slavic and Viking influences.
The DNA test shows that there is a strong Viking heritage on few countries in Europe from England, Ireland, and Iceland to Greenland.
No, Vikings aren't a Germanic tribe. The fact of the matter is that Germanic tribes consisted of an umbrella of various tribes that speak different languages commonly grouped together. Moreover, Vikings were only a subgroup of different peoples that included the Germans.
Red- or blonde-haired Vikings? Genetic research has shown that the Vikings in West Scandinavia, and therefore in Denmark, were mostly red-haired. However, in North Scandinavia, in the area around Stockholm, blonde hair was dominant.
Modern descendants of Norsemen include the Danes, Icelanders, Faroe Islanders, Norwegians, and Swedes, who are now generally referred to as "Scandinavians" rather than Norsemen.
The first sign is geographical location; those who live in Scandinavian countries, such as Norway and Denmark, are more likely to be related to Vikings due to their proximity. Another indicator is surnames; common Scandinavian last names like Anderson and Johnson can usually be traced back to Norse traditions.
And experts say surnames can give you an indication of a possible Viking heritage in your family, with anything ending in 'son' or 'sen' likely to be a sign. Other surnames which could signal a Viking family history include 'Roger/s' and 'Rogerson' and 'Rendall'.
Hjor and Ljufvina had two sons: the twins Hamund (Håmund) and Geirmund. They, too, had dark skin and were therefore nicknamed Heljarskinn; the “Black-Skinned”. Geirmund the Black-Skinned – the black Viking – never became king at Avaldsnes.
While both Ukrainians and Russians consider themselves Orthodox Slavs, Rurik, the founding father of the Kievan Rus' dynasty, which goes back to the 9th Century, was a pagan Viking.
Ukraine and Russia go back to Kievan Rus, a medieval Viking federation that ruled first from Novgorod to the north, and then from Kyiv. Its territory included what is now Ukraine, Belarus and part of Russia. Kievan Rus meant “the land of the Rus”. The word “Russia” derives from Rus.
The Russians were formed from East Slavic tribes, and their cultural ancestry is based in Kievan Rus'. Genetically, the majority of Russians are identical to their East and West Slavic counterparts, unlike Northern Russians, who belong to the Northern European Baltic gene pool.
Extensive research into the genetic spread across Ireland and Britain has found that we have massively underestimated Irish Viking heritage. 'How Viking are you?
The highest concentration of people with green eyes is found in Ireland, Scotland, and northern Europe. In fact, in Ireland and Scotland, more than three-fourths of the population has blue or green eyes – 86 percent!
The ethnic Miao people of Guizhou province from China, a subgroup of Hmong people, have been described as having blue eyes and blonde hair.