Subsaharan Africans among the Vikings was always feasible, if uncommon. We know the Germannic Vandal tribes made it to at least North Africa (supersaharan?) after the Roman Empire collapsed and Vikings were ruling England by 900 CE, and trade was crossing the Sahara for the wealthy Kingdom of Ghana if nothing else.
You don’t have to tie yourself into knots dragging Vandals and the Rhoynar and the first men into this. The víkings raided muslim lands in Iberia where they freely attest the existence of black people (“Blue men”), and while it is quite likely they would sell any such captured person before getting home, you could have the descendants of captured slaves taken as thralls instead of sold off going viking (Remember viking is a profession not an ethnic or cultural group) along with the descendants of their slave masters.
Which is sad.
Like the idea of a black viking implies sad stuff. Plausible stuff, but sad.
Subsaharan Africans among the Vikings was always feasible, if uncommon. We know the Germannic Vandal tribes made it to at least North Africa (supersaharan?) after the Roman Empire collapsed and Vikings were ruling England by 900 CE, and trade was crossing the Sahara for the wealthy Kingdom of Ghana if nothing else.
You don’t have to tie yourself into knots dragging Vandals and the Rhoynar and the first men into this. The víkings raided muslim lands in Iberia where they freely attest the existence of black people (“Blue men”), and while it is quite likely they would sell any such captured person before getting home, you could have the descendants of captured slaves taken as thralls instead of sold off going viking (Remember viking is a profession not an ethnic or cultural group) along with the descendants of their slave masters.
Which is sad.
Like the idea of a black viking implies sad stuff. Plausible stuff, but sad.