giggdy
Glen ,Quagmire
Giggdy!!(:
The Vikings have had a huge impact on the Western World. Obviously their culture and language is stamped indelibly into their native Scandinavia, but also somewhat in places that they colonised. The United Kingdom has many words and place-names of Viking origin, and they ruled large parts of it at various times, including the Scottish Isles, England and Normandy (at the time part of the Kingdom). They were great seafarers, and are purported to have journeyed to North America long before Christopher Columbus, being possibly the first westerners there. They colonised Greenland and Iceland, burned Paris and founded the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, and worked as mercenaries in the employ of the Byzantine Empire in Africa and the Middle East. They were a trading civilization too, with links as far as Baghdad. A map can be seen in the links section. Their mythology lives on in the days of our week, with Odin/Woden giving 'Woden'sday', Thor giving 'Thor'sday', Frigg giving 'Frigg'sday' etc.