[Caramelgal]

This is not news. As a direct decendent of a true Viking, I'm probably related to half the peope on the planet.

Hey what can I say, they got around.

Where do you think the Irish got their red hair, the Scott's their frugalness and bad tempers, the English their common laws, the Russians an end to complete political anarchy, who opened trade routes with China and the Middle East before that guy Marco somebody and who first discovered "the New World"?

It wasn't the French. (and even the Normans were not French but the decendents of Vikings.)

[muawiyah]

Other way around on the red hair ~ Vikings picked that up from their trusty slave women brought direct from Ireland.

Of course when it came to Scotland, the Vikings acquired the redhair from their trusty Irish masters who were busy reducing the Picts to a fine nothingness.

I'm not sure there were any Picts around in 1000 AD.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

The Vikings removed political anarchy? Somehow that doesn't go with the traditional Viking stereotype. The Vikings did travel far and wide though. They were sort of the Polynesians of the north.

[CobaltBlue]

Where do you think the English [got] their common laws

Excuse me, but Saxons are NOT Vikings! They're Germanic.

Also, North America was "discovered" thousands of years before a few Johnny-come-lately biker-types in longboats.