Víking just means pirate. Apart from the few specifically named heroes (saga-characters like Egill Skallagrímsson, Gunnar Hámundarson, etc.) there's no suggestion that they were in any way or form part of an elite. Some may have been very wealthy (the ones in charge of expeditions, ships, and the like) but on the whole, they were just dudes who showed up when people weren't expecting it, killed some folk, stole a lot of things, burned some stuff, and took off again.

When you get into armies of Scandinavians invading and settling in places, then you have elite retinues around petty-kings or princes (like the húskarlar of the Loðbroksýnir during the Danish invasion of Britain) but they were, of course, less common than your standard land- and plunder-hungry soldier.

When Scandinavians went to settle places, they went as, well, settlers; generally after an army had already secured the area. Iceland and Greenland were exceptions, as they were very sparsely populated, so explorers just set up shop where they landed and went from there.