Hello historians, on the topic of Marvel's Thor movies having a black Heimdall and a black Valkyrie, I wondered if, back when the nordic mythology was at its best (Which if I'm not terribly mistaken was around 700-1000 AD), was there any black people in Scandinavia. If there were, either in Scandinavia or just known to the vikings, were they slaves? Were they treated equally?
Thanks!
99% that no, there were very likely none in Scandinavia. There are mentions of bluemen in some sagas but never in Scandinavia.
The norsemen got most of their slaves from Ireland so black slaves are unlikely. Some vikings might of met people of darker complexions on raids in the middle east, and some even served as in the Varangian Guard for Byzantines emperor, so their travels would of made sure they saw many different peoples and conducted trade with them. Muslim merchants even came to Hedeby and Birka to conduct trade- wether they were dark skinned or not no one knows. Icelandic sagas such as Njals saga and Laxardal saga confirm the nordic involvement in Byzantine as well as Byzantian sources such as Skylitzes manuscript. But again, the vikings unlike the norsemen were not in Scandinavia all the time which is why they would of seen people of other races.
Some vikings did however bring home native americans according to the sagas, whom they themselves considered at least to be darker than them. The sagas write that they
found five Skrælingar; (natives) one was a bearded man, two were women, two children. Karlsefni's people caught the children, but the others escaped and sunk down into the earth. And they took the children with them, and taught them their speech, and they were baptized
If these children existed, they integrated into viking society and likely got married and had children, so they would be they would be a rare case of another race becoming 'norsemen'. But in general a lot of Norsemen had no concept of race and had probably never seen someone that wasn't of their race.