Viking just meant raider/pirate.

> both pagan, both had runes and somesuch, built similar ships, so as to say they had more in common than the raiding.

No, they did not have runes. The runes were only used by various Germanic peoples. As far as I know the Baltic and Finnic pagans lacked a written language.

▲

dmos62 6 days ago | parent | next [-]

By the way, Viking is a historian term, as far as I know. It was not used in the period or at least not as it is used now. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Also, surely you wouldn't call (now or then) Mediterranean-born pirates Vikings.

	▲	jeltz 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		Not an expert on the matter, just a Swede but it was used about pirates in general from any country in medieval Swedish and I think Icelandic. And it was used in period English and Frisian sources too, though there it might not have been about all pirates. It is also on a couple of rune stones but on the one I know of it is used to refer to the activity of going raiding.

▲

dmos62 6 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I've seen archaelogical artefacts from East Baltic graves with runes. The commentary in the exhibition stated that runes and rune-related shamanic practices were imported across the Baltic sea. I'm not a historian, I'm only conveying what I've been told by enthusiasts or casually ran into.

	▲	jeltz 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		I suspect it might be neopagan wishful thinking. There is no knowledge of any such practices among the Norse at least. There is some weak connection between runes and magic through Odin but from what we know runes were used for every day stuff like accounting, who owns an object, contracts and personal letters. And of course the mostly Swedish practice of praising the exploits of your relatives on rune stones.