Norse

This is a people/cultural grouping, not a state

The "Norse" of the pre-Viking centuries were the Germanic-speaking peoples of Scandinavia (proto-Norse speakers) in the Roman Iron Age and Migration Period (roughly 2nd–6th centuries AD). They lived in chiefdom and petty-kingdom societies organised around kin, the war-band, and the local assembly (thing). Archaeology reveals a stratified warrior society: rich weapon-graves, hall complexes (e.g. Gudme in Denmark, later Old Uppsala in Sweden), and spectacular bog deposits of sacrificed weaponry. The excavations at Illerup Ådal (Denmark, 1950–1985) recovered approximately 15,000 Iron Age artefacts (weapons and equipment, c. AD 200–500), now held at the Moesgaard Museum; the archaeologist Jørgen Ilkjær estimated that the largest single deposit (Illerup A, c. AD 200) represented a defeated invading army of about 1,000 men — vivid evidence of organised warfare and ritual weapon-sacrifice. The Nydam boat deposits are comparable.

Material culture shows extensive contact with Rome: imported glass, bronze vessels, and gold. The period saw the flourishing of runic writing in the Elder Futhark: the oldest datable Elder Futhark inscription is the Vimose Comb from Funen, Denmark (c. AD 160), inscribed harja. Gold bracteates proliferated. Religion was Germanic/Norse paganism, worship of deities ancestral to the later Æsir and Vanir (Odin/Woden, Thor/Thunor, Frey). Trade in furs, amber, and iron connected Scandinavia to the wider Germanic and Roman worlds. This society was the direct ancestor of the Viking Age that began in the late 8th century.