Modern day Viking culture?

This is actually tangentially related to a project I'm working on, but today I got this idea from a discussion about Roma and how in the U.S. "gypsies" are often used as mascots or in names of things, basically assuming their culture is gone, sort of like the treatment of Native Americans. This made me think about Irish Travelers and other marginalized minorities with radically different ways of living from modern sedentary culture, and what if there was a white Nordic equivalent.

So, what if there were a modern day equivalent to Vikings? How would they have developed, what would they be like? I guess right now I'm picturing a North Sea version of Somali pirates, which is probably off-base.
 
The thing is, you're thinking about not only a stereotype of the marauding Viking which was not entirely accurate but also about the survival of such a culture in an area where secure commerce protected by large modern navies has been a major facet of life for a long time.

Might I suggest, instead, that you have a look at the Sami People? They live in the Nordic countries, have a semi-nomadic cultural background [although like the other groups you mentioned this is now only the regular practice of a minority], and were in fact marginalized by the Vikings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_people

tumblr_n6pq7srD181svx5guo1_500.jpg
 
Like why do people call them Vikings? I thought Viking was a verb like "the norse men went viking" aka raiding or noun as a man who did said raid?
 
Like why do people call them Vikings? I thought Viking was a verb like "the norse men went viking" aka raiding or noun as a man who did said raid?

We're not sure of the precise origin of the word, some believe it comes from one of the Norse/Scandinavian words for bay "Vik/Vig" other think it comes the Norwegian region "Viken" (means The Bay so the same name just indirect instead), but we don't know. We know what the word meant "pirate" or "sea raider". We don't usual see the name for Nordic armies of conquest. But it's important to get that Viking wasn't a culture, it was just something you did. The word fell out of use, as Norse culture changed and developed in different ways, where sea raiding no longer was a major source of income or really viable. As for the Norse who was the vikings, they became the Danes, Swedes and Norwegian of today. So if people want to know the vikings today, visit a country populated by those people.
 
We're not sure of the precise origin of the word, some believe it comes from one of the Norse/Scandinavian words for bay "Vik/Vig" other think it comes the Norwegian region "Viken" (means The Bay so the same name just indirect instead), but we don't know. We know what the word meant "pirate" or "sea raider". We don't usual see the name for Nordic armies of conquest. But it's important to get that Viking wasn't a culture, it was just something you did. The word fell out of use, as Norse culture changed and developed in different ways, where sea raiding no longer was a major source of income or really viable. As for the Norse who was the vikings, they became the Danes, Swedes and Norwegian of today. So if people want to know the vikings today, visit a country populated by those people.

This is what I think but then I feel like a lot of people what that TV show series that shows a heavily romanticized and fictional portrayal of Norse and like don't want to accept these people and nations are the modern expressions of Norse culture.
 
We're not sure of the precise origin of the word, some believe it comes from one of the Norse/Scandinavian words for bay "Vik/Vig" other think it comes the Norwegian region "Viken" (means The Bay so the same name just indirect instead), but we don't know. We know what the word meant "pirate" or "sea raider". We don't usual see the name for Nordic armies of conquest. But it's important to get that Viking wasn't a culture, it was just something you did. The word fell out of use, as Norse culture changed and developed in different ways, where sea raiding no longer was a major source of income or really viable. As for the Norse who was the vikings, they became the Danes, Swedes and Norwegian of today. So if people want to know the vikings today, visit a country populated by those people.
The closest you can nowadays get to the original Norse is in Iceland, with a very conservative language, that unlike Danish, Norwegian or Swedish hasn't pick up a plethora of foreign loanwords and is thus still pretty close to ancient Norse, where patronymics are the only form of surnames and traditions, customs and folklore that are still deeply rooted in Norse history.
 
The closest you can nowadays get to the original Norse is in Iceland, with a very conservative language, that unlike Danish, Norwegian or Swedish hasn't pick up a plethora of foreign loanwords and is thus still pretty close to ancient Norse, where patronymics are the only form of surnames and traditions, customs and folklore that are still deeply rooted in Norse history.

Danish is the Scandinavian language (together with Swedish) with the most borrowing from outside. If we look at the 500 most used words around 400 have a Norse origin of the 100 words borrowed almost all come from Saxon/Low German (the use of Saxon are because most of the borrowing happened in medieval times). If we look at a general text in Danish linguists calculate that on average 16-17% comes from Saxon/Low German, 4-8% from Latin, 2-4% from French and 1% from English. The core vocabulary of Danish are of Norse origin with significant borrowing from Saxon/Low German. In general most borrowed word are about object (computer as example) or specialised concepts (democracy as example). Danish (plus Swedish and Norwegian) folklore build almost entirely on traditional regional Norse folklore, which are even different from other Nordic folklore. A good example is the troll, among Swedes and Norwegians the troll are the same as among the English, while in traditional Danish folklore the Troll is mostly a beautiful person, whose distinctive non-human traits is a tail. It have powerful magic and you can make deal with it, usual the deal are giving it your child, or in case of a man making a deal with a female Troll sleep with it. Another aspect is the Nisse, a powerful house spirit, which started as ancestor worship. The Danish Troll, the Nisse, the Icelandic Elf, the Havmand, the Mermaid, the Nixie and many other of the Underjordiske are the remnant of the worship of the Vanir, the Norse fertility gods. The Swedish and Norwegian troll, the Huldre and the Danish Elf and Giant on the other hand are remnant of the Jotun. While the Hanged Servant likely are a remnant of a Odin myth. Even today some people make the traditional sacrifice to the Nisse (a food sacrifice). Some Christian aspect have entered Scandinavian folklore, like the Eternal Jew and the supernatural creatures dislike of Christian symbols and rituals, but the Scandinavian didn't even change the traditional Nixie deal to a deal with the Devil like the English did. The move away from patronymics happened in the 19th century and was a necessary development because of the increased urbanisation, the Icelanders didn't do it, because Iceland was thinly populated, and even in Reykjavik most people knew each other.
 
This made me think about Irish Travelers and other marginalized minorities with radically different ways of living from modern sedentary culture, and what if there was a white Nordic equivalent.
There is. They used to be called Tattare and are now, in Swedish, called Resande. Just like the Irish ones used to be Tinkers and are now Travellers.
Of course, there is disagreement regarding whether they count as Nordic or just another group of Romani.

And as Reydan said, there are the Sami, although blaming the Vikings/Old Norse for marginalising them
seems a bit excessive - I've been lead to believe that attempts by the Swedes and Norwegians to Control
the region didn't really start until Scandinavia had officially entered the Middle Ages.

A good example is the troll, among Swedes and Norwegians the troll are the same as among the English, while in traditional Danish folklore the Troll is mostly a beautiful person, whose distinctive non-human traits is a tail. It have powerful magic and you can make deal with it, usual the deal are giving it your child, or in case of a man making a deal with a female Troll sleep with it.
The Swedish Troll are beautiful people at least as often as they are the stereotypical troll-y Trolls - enough that ethnographers and folklorists
roll their eyes and grit their teeth when the latter are brought up.
People also get into fights over whether they have tails or not.
 
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From my extremely minimal knowledge of the subject, "Viking" was back-formed in English from "vikinganger," meaning "one who goes viking," meaning raiding by sea. I have no knowledge of its etymology in other languages, and I don't claim to.
 
That would have us back at a Norse version of Somali pirates. Not very viable in European waters. And probably offensive to the modern Norse... :)
 
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