Literally EVERYONE I feel is now commenting about how "aw vikings isnt an ethnicity its a profession" which I understand but think its pointless mentioning it considering everyones talking about the norsemen when they say that anyways and I didnt think there was a large enough not norse viking community for it to be relevant bringing up am I wrong about this or was there actually arabic and black vikings or any non norse ethnicity for that matter operating in large numbers out of scandinavia? I'm pretty sure the vikings sequel just cast a black actor to play a viking warrior so are there any actual chances that that couldve happened or is it just something for the show? I understand slavs were probably far more likely to be vikings compared to the other ethnicities i've mentioned but was there even a large enough group of them for it to be relevant?
The thing to realise about Vikings is that they went everywhere they reasonably could, and quite a few places that were a bit unreasonable as well. Along the way they picked up locals in the form of opportunistic bandits and sailors who wanted to get in on the viking life, and captives taken to be slaves who had no choice in the matter. This meant that Vikings, though predominantly Scandinavian in geographic origin, contained significant numbers of people from outside that area as well.
u/Kelpie-Cat has a recent answer on the question of black or mixed race Vikings that goes into their activities in North Africa, and the people they brought back north with them.