Vikings went to Mediterranean for ‘summer jobs’ as mercenaries, left graffiti
As a Norwegian I might be biased, but the viking era contains so many weird and interesting facts and happenings. I would strongly recommend checking out more on one of the following things I remember from the top of my head:<p>The works of Icelandic historian/poet Snorre Sturlason, he is most famous for what in English would be called 'Snorre's sagas of kings', which is widely regarded to be one of the most important books for Norway.<p>The Danelaw is also pretty interesting, but what I personally find even more interesting is the colonization and settlements in Ireland by vikings. Dublin, Cork, the Isle of Man and much more was settled by vikings. The Danelaw and settlements caused words from Old Norse to become fairly influential on English.<p>Someone else has mentioned Ibn Fadlan, who met vikings which came from the river Dnipro, which runs through modern day Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Vikings traveled from Sweden towards Russia, giving the country it's name. The name Rus was first used about the Scandinavians in Eastern Europe, but later referred to the Kievan Rus.<p>The region of Normandie in France has it's name from the vikings, as Rollo the Walker was made ruler of the region by the king of France. This was allegedly after the vikings had tried to sack Paris for the n-th time. This deal was made on the premise that the people of Normandie would defend the rest of France from vikings and other raiders. Rollo the Walker is a direct ancestor of William the Conqueror, and by extension the British royal family.<p>The title jarl is often translated into English as earl, but the correct translation would be duke. Jarl is simply just etymologically related to earl.<p>Hope this random list wasn't too confusing, if anyone is interested in this I would gladly help with finding good English language sources!