I rewatched the Vikings recently (highly recommended, perhaps not historically accurate, but no horn helmets). It was a bit ... don't know, eye opening or strange or hard to believe to learn that the Vikings played a crucial role in that part of the continent and Constantinople. I know that the term "Viking" is not an ethnic identification, more like a profession/warrior, but I don't have another word in my vocabulary.

Ivar the Boneless, Varangians. When I was growing up in Ukraine, this was never ever mentioned in any literature, school, college. That the names like Oleg or Igor were not native threw a twist too, but they are very common names over there in UA/RU, on par with Ivan and Dmitry.

Estonian "Venemaa" for Russia sort of points at a common origin there ("venemaa" would be "boat land" in Finnish). So rowing land, boat land.