What Was the Difference Between Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish Vikings?

"Simply put, the most considerable difference between Viking Age Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes is how much we know about them."

Today, we broadly refer to Viking Age Scandinavians as the Vikings as if they were one people. Linguistic nuances over the modern use of the word Viking aside, the fact is that the historical group known as the Vikings were not entirely homogenous. We know from various sources that beginning as early as the late 8th Century, large geographically related forms of identity, such as Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian, took shape (these are not to be confused with the modern notion of national identity — there were no unified forms of government that we would consider a nation-state quite yet). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions Danes and Northmen as separate; the Annals of Ulster from Ireland clearly distinguishes between the Danes and Norwegians, and in the East, the Swedes are referred to wholly separately as the Rus. If the Vikings can be broadly split into three distinct groups, the question becomes: what was the difference between the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish Vikings?

A quick preci…