Norsemen, or Norse, refers to the group of people who speak what is now called the Old Norse language between the 8th and 11th centuries.

The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages; it is the earlier form of the languages most commonly spoken in Scandinavia.Norseman means "people from the North" and applies primarily to Old Norse-speaking tribes who settle in southern and central Scandinavia.

They establishe states and settlements in England, Scotland, Iceland, Wales, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Ireland, Russia, Greenland, France, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, and Poland, as well as outposts in Sicily and North America.The Old Frankish word Nortmann "Northman" is Latinized as Normanni and then enters Old French as Normands, whence the name of the Normans and of Normandy, which is settled by Norsemen in the 10th century