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Originally Posted by Gothmog
But this does not stay in the nordic countries. The vikings raids through Europe left traces. For example are the scottish clans half irish, half vikings roughly expressed. When traveling in Scotland you recognize a lot of the old place names (for example I heard of a place called Kallwik or something like that and Kallvik=Cold Bay). Of course the myths, stories and language spread with the people.
What's interesting is the extent of the similarities between old English and for example old Swedish. If a swede reads a text in old english nowadays, he would understand a lot of words and probably the context. This is at least according to my father who has studied English and always been fond of both Celtic languages and Old English.
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What I find interesting is to take British maps and look at place names, as they reveal a great deal about the older inhabitants of that place. If you look at maps of Northern England you will see a
lot of Norse/Danish influence in the names. I say Norse/Danish as the Norse Vikings primarily went to Dublin and Scotland (and the Isle of Man, which still has its ancient Viking Tynwald government) and only later came to the North west coast of England; the more widespread Viking influence on England was from the Danes.