During the Viking Age, a vikingur was a hit-and-run raider, and "going viking" meant sailing off to ransack and rob. Often the victims were horrified monks, whose manuscripts immortalized the Northmen as vicious plunderers. Yet for most Scandinavians, going viking was not an everyday occupation. Farmers or craftsmen turned part-time pirates to answer a call to arms from a chieftain but then returned to their livelihoods, eventually to become traders and settlers.