Y'know what archaeology shows ?
That the Vikings mostly ended up in the poorest, swampiest bits of land.
They came from really poor land that they'd overcrowded since they'd managed to master the production of iron. Iron meant iron ploughs so they'd opened up as much arable land as they could, and within two generations so many extra children lived because there was food enough that they had an overpopulation problem. That's what drove the Viking diaspora.
Thing is though, they raided, but when they landed and settled they had to either fit in or be killed off. Hard working folks usually married in and settled down, but their farmsteads are in what are now sub marginal lands, which weren't the best lands back then either, even if they were productive, and apparently better than Scandinavia.
Scotland is rich farmland for Northern climes, but note how the Vikings ended up in the fringes, or even in Yorkshire (York regularly floods, even now York floods) their towns were a push to trade. In the Lake District (now considered 'picturesque', back then it was just tough land) their farms are high, on the very edges of dales where it's a hard scrabble life.
So, raiders, slavers, traders, and not as successful in any of that as some believe. Too many folks just struggling to make a living.
Opportunistic and within two generations no longer either pagan or foreign either.
In truth Europe's a melting pot with too many wars and too much human suffering. Seems to drive development, invention, creativity, etc., though.
M