'Vikings weren't a race, it was an occupation, to 'go viking'. | Imperium Press

"Vikings weren't a race, it was an occupation, to 'go viking'. Anyone could be a viking."

Anglo-Saxons would disagree.

"Hrōþwulf and Hrōðgār hēoldon lengest
sibbe ætsomne suhtorfædran,
siþþan hȳ forwræcon wicinga cynn
ond Ingeldes ord forbigdan,
forheowan æt Heorote Heaðobeardna þrym."

"Hrothwulf and Hrothgar held longest
peace together, uncle and nephew,
since they forwroke the Vikings' kin
and Ingeld's ord they forbayed,
forhewed at Heorot the Hathobards' thrum."

Cynn derives from the same root as nation, meaning to give birth or beget and literally means race or kind.

Additionally Víkingr did not mean an occupation. It is a masculine noun, not a verbal gerund, which was feminine (in the form of -ung), nor a present participle (originally -ende). This ending means descent or belonging, like king (cyning, belonging to kin), atheling (æþeling, descent from nobility), thus wīcing was one belonging to a wīc (camp) or vík (inlet), interchangeable with Norðmenn or Dene, referring to Norwegians or Danes.