Normans played a major political, military, and cultural role in medieval Europe and even the Near East. They were famed for their martial spirit. Foreign invaders adopted the Romance language of the land they settled, their dialect Norman or Norman-French, an important literary language. The Duchy of Normandy, which they formed by treaty with the French crown, was one of the great fiefs of medieval France. The Normans are famed both for their culture, such as their unique Romanesque architecture, and their musical traditions, as well as for their military accomplishments and innovations. Norman adventurers established a kingdom in Sicily and southern Italy by conquest, and a Norman expedition on behalf of their illegitimate Duke "Bastard of Normandy" William the Conqueror, led to the Norman Conquest of England. Norman influence spread from these new centres to the Crusader States in the Near East, to Scotland and Wales in Great Britain, and to Ireland.
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Hello Rollon.
I've passed 1 month this summer in cyclades Islands with my wife, and i was very surprising that a lot of greeks are blond with blue yes..
An old greek explained me that the Normands were in Grecia long time ago for commercial relations and they mixed with the local mediteranean population ;)
Same story about the Tuaregs, who live in the Sahara desert: a lot of them have blue eyes, even they are arabians: The normands were also there long time ago, along the African coast, and mixed with them also..
Vikings and Normands history interrest me because my grand father was born in Normandie ;)
There is maybe another reason or an additional reason for that. Greece was essentially a population of Indo-European origin. The conquest of the Hellenic cities by Rome (2nd and 1st century BC) resulted in numerous massacres. The reduction of the Greek population to its bare minimum, which was unlikely to make the new colony prosperous, forced the Romans to repopulate the conquered country with nationals from its zone of influence, mainly newly conquered Coele-Syria (especially from a part of it, the ancient Phoenicia, that is to say, the current Lebanon).
As is often the case, the islands, because of their isolation, often escape invasions, and their consequences.
Cheers.