Back in August 2013, there were two threads "Re: Democrats attempt to gut Electoral College" and "Salic Law (was Re: Democrats attempt to gut Electoral College)", where the claim was made that:
"The word Viking means an overseas expedition. Hollywood created the modern image of 'the Vikings.' "
In October 2013, I visited Sweden (where I have an old friend) and Iceland (to see Viking historical artifacts).
First, Viking does not mean any kind of expedition. The name is older than Hollywood, and means "bay people" - in Swedish and Norse, a "vik" is a bay, and Norway and Sweden were dense forests at the time, with millions of bays along the shoreline. A fjord is a kind of bay.
Cross-check: enter the following into Google (without the quotes): "translate vik from swedish".
Also
The word "vik" (unchanged since the days of Old Norse) well predates the discovery of North America, never mind Hollywood, so it seems unlikely that Hollywood had anything to do with it.
In response to my questions, my Swedish host brought out a book in Swedish titled "Vikingar" (The Vikings). I know enough Swedish to puzzle the picture captions out, and become quite interested. Turns out that the book is available in English, having been translated by the original authors, who are Scandinavian academics.
Joe Gwinn