The Vikings have always been a source of curiosity for me. But they appear to be both obscure, because of the time period; and storied because of their sagas and perhaps the modern mythology that we have built around them in today's world.
It seems that they are often presented as bloodthirsty savages (probably true) but also as refined and perceptive i.e. chivalry, honor codes, art, role of women, child rearing and society in general.
They are reported to have not only settled in Western Europe but all over the Continent.
Given the history that we have on them including their cultural mores and the knowledge that they settled widely, shouldn't they be given (excuse the proverbial) more time of day? Or at least, be considered more than mere savages?
EDIT: source(ish) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikings
(forgive me)
If anything, the Vikings are almost overstudied in contemporary historiography, although much of this is pop-history designed to cash in on the current pop culture for Vikings trending from tv shows such as Vikings and The Last Kingdom. The Vikings are still kind of obscured from us for two main reasons: they haven't left us any contemporary written sources so all of our sources are either outside polemic or restrospective mythologised histories written after conversion, and because the Norse themselves are very adept at assimilating themselves into other cultures. Within a generation of Danish settlement in Danelaw England, for example, we find attempts to replicate popular English material culture and coinage, and the propagation of a new English martyr cult in St Edmund.
Probably the most successful are the Normans, and they are largely successful because they integrate so fully into contemporary Francia, adopting mounted warfare, castles and fervent Christianity. The Norman Kingdom of Sicily is famed for its adoption of Islamic Arabic and Orthodox Byzantine art, design, fashion and culture alongside its own Catholic Franco-Norse elements.
The Scandinavians do have lasting impact - Norse is a significant impact on Northern English dialects for example - but often we focus on them as agents of change, instead of looking at them as the impetus for other nations to change. The unification of England, for example, is catalysed as a response to external Norse aggression.