Note 4 — INTRODUCTION.
Reading edition
Laing defines a Viking and a Sea-king thus:—a sea-king, one connected with a royal race—either of the small kings of the country or of the Haarfager family, and who by right received the title of king as soon as he took command of men, although only a ship’s crew, without having any land or kingdom. The Viking is a term not connected with the word kóngr, or king: the vikings were merely pirates—alternately peasants and pirates—deriving the name Viking from viks, wicks or inlets on the coast, where they harboured their long ships or rowing-galleys. Laing says every sea-king was a viking, but every viking was not a sea-king.