What is the differance really between Norse people and Germanic people?
You sound like you know a lot already but I will try and give you some info. (I’ve written some stuff about genetics at the bottom) “Germanic” refers mainly to the people who speak that branch of the Indo-European language family. In the iron age they lived in Scandinavia and the coastal plains of what is now Germany. From there some of them spread south into modern Germany and Germanised the indigenous Celtic people (La Tene and Hallstatt). These continental Germanic people became the West Germanic branch of the Germanic family. Those remaining in Scandinavia became the Northern branch of the Germanic family as the West and North differentiated. Much later, during the Middle Ages West Germanic people colonised Slavic lands east of the Elbe river, which is why many towns (including Berlin) have Slavic names. There is therefore quite a big slavic element in the Eastern part of Germany. “Norse” is an informal name for the North Germanic or Scandinavian people. Apart from some Scandinavia
