Viking
Norse seafarers, traders, and warriors from Scandinavia who ranged across Europe by ship from the late 8th to the 11th century. Beyond raiding, they engaged in trade, settlement, and North Atlantic exploration.
Greenland is mostly ice, yet its name means 'green land.' Around 982 the Viking Erik the Red, exiled from Iceland for murder, founded a colony and chose an appealing name to lure settlers. The fjords he settled did green in summer. Around 985, 25 ships set out; 14 arrived.
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Bluetooth is named after Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson, the 10th-century Viking king who united Denmark and Norway—as the tech would unite PCs and phones. Its logo merges his initials in runes ᚼ and ᛒ. A placeholder name, it stuck. The nickname likely came from a dead, bluish tooth.
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The image of Vikings in horned helmets is a myth—no excavated Viking helmet has horns. It spread from the 1876 premiere of Richard Wagner's opera the Ring cycle, when designer Carl Emil Doepler added horns to the male helmets.
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