Viking [E19th] The Vikings were seafaring pirates and traders from Scandinavia who raided and settled in many parts of north-western Europe from the 8th to the 11th century. Scholars formerly assumed that the name came from Scandinavian vík ‘creek, inlet’, and referred to their setting out from the inlets of the sea, but it may well derive from Old English wīc ‘camp’, since formation of temporary encampments was a prominent feature of Viking raids. The situation is complicated by the fact that it is not an old word in English, but borrowed from Icelandic in the early 19th century, although there was an equivalent Old English word wicing.