No. Yes.
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Snorri Bjarnsson was born in 769, near the Vik in OTL Norway. He was an illegitimate son of a minor warlord called Bjarni. Um, lets skip a few years... two decades, in fact, and three years.
By 792, Scandinavia was clearly facing something of a crisis. New technology spread, thus population grew... and thus, new land had to be found for the Norse. At first, however, the Norse preffered to raid for subsistance, mostly against each other but sometimes against coastal German cities and Slavic and Baltic villages. But those small-scale raids were only the first steps of an awakening giant.
Yet all the potential strenght of the Norse could possibly have gone to waste in petty raids if not for Snorri Bjarnsson. In spite of the raiding, the same problem - overpopulation - remained, and starvation begun to strike. By then, Bjarni already distinguished himself in a raid against the Danes, and was very popular with the warriors. His tribe's warlord died from an illness, two of his sons died in a hunting incident (strangled by a polar bear commando) and the other candidates were outrageously pathetic, so Snorri had not much problems in taking over the tribe. He led it in daring raids against neighbhours, utilizing his tactical genius and skill at improvisation to defeat them one by one... and to persuade them to join him. Gradually, he united most tribes of Skaggerak Coast - and led them into plundering raids against the Danes, assisting them in surviving the hard times. By the time they were over, Snorri had great ambitions and a vision. He assembled his most trusted warriors at the village of his original tribe, and adressed them, saying that he heard of many faraway rich lands, but that the gold of these lands is nothing when compared to the true gold - that being strong, brave warriors like they! They deserve a much greater place in the world - and, Snorri swore, that they would get. From the land of golden wariors, they would go into lands of the shiny metals.
Due to a series of coincidences, most European chroniclers and geographers since then referred to Snorri's state as the "Golden Norde". Well, since they heard of it anyway. Also, OTL Scandinavia was often reffered to as "Geldland" afterwards, while the post-Snorri Viking states were sometimes called the "Outer Geldland".
Another name was the "Northern Kingdom", though - the one Snorri himself acknowledged. But back then he was only the konung of the Vik bay. He still had to conquer his kingdom, and the title of North King. And... conquer he did. On his mighty fleet of longboats, his berserk warriors, led by him personally at first but later by him, two trusted generals and, as they grew up, his three sons, subdued the coasts of western Norway, southeastern Sweden and all of Denmark, facing great resistance in the latter especially but emerging triumphant and battle-hardened. By 802, he beat some tribes into submission and enslaved them, whilst others, awed and bribed by offers of glory and loot, joined him voluntarily. Charlemagne heard some half-baked rumors of "northern heathens", but had better things to do then try and invade Denmark. He came to regret this as in 806 Viking raids devastated the Saxon and northeastern Frankish coasts, and even more when in 809 he died in a skirmish with raiders at Bremen. His Empire was partitioned between his sons into West Francia, East France and Italy, but soon enough wars over succession begun, especially after Pepin (of Italy) suddenly died.
Raids aside, Snorri also seeked to expand his direct control and to consolidate his empire. Hence, the construction of Viksborg, his great stronghold and capital, on the place of his first village (OTL Fredrikstad, Norway), and hence the subjugation of the Baltic - a medium-sized force, led by Snorri personally, invaded Prussia and made the Prussian chieftains accept his supreme authority; said force later subjugated the Eesti, the northern Slavs (OTL Principality of Pskov and parts of Republic of Novgorod; here, this region is known as Holmland - for Holmgard (Novgorod)) and the Suomis (the southwesternmost Finns). In the four new realms, four strongholds were built and governors from amongst Snorri's relatives were put to defend those lands. In 811, Snorri turned west, having ensured submission and trade in the Baltic - this time, he went for the British Isles. Scotland was suffering from the raids of his son Sven for some time now, but only in 811 did it feel the full brunt of a Viking INVASION. Scotts and Picts fought bravely and defiantly, but as the strategic initiative lie with North King, the Golden Norde triumphed and the Scottish and Pictish cities were destroyed, to be replaced by Thurso and Glenheim (Glasgow), the local centers of Viking authority. The Irish and the Anglo-Saxons proved more resistant, but gradually the Irish were crushed (the fortress of Dublin dominated the island), as were the Welsh and the Northumbrians. But as Snorri seemed about to conquer Mercia, suddenly, abruptly, something has gone wrong. An arrow has pierced his thigh, and from this grievous wound the North King died after two days of a desperate struggle for life, during which his son Sven and a few trusted warriors tried to save him by raising his spirit in a game of never-ending sagas [1]. His last will was to give his three sons, Sven, Olaf and Rurik, three realms each - Sven received Norway, Scotland and Northumbria, Olaf received Sweden, Fennland and Holmland and Rurik received Denmark, Estland and Prussland. As for Ireland, it went to his trusted general, Thormand Halverssen - a wise choice as history would soon prove.
Needless to say, soon enough the divided Golden Norde became even more divided...
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[1] It is widely believed that North King was the one who invented the only peaceful (sorta) Viking national sport, "never-ending sagas", or NESes as they are sometimes called. In the coldest of winters, when there isn't much to do (so say the legends), the Vikings sat around fireplaces and told each other war stories and sagas. North King reformed the proccess by making it something of a saga-making competition, in which the players told the stories of their imaginary tribes, under moderation of a "mod". It is commonly believed that the famed never-ending sagas "Ruins of Empires" and "Worlds and Empires" were moderated by North King. It is believed that he modded many other sagas, but most of them were lost, apart from miniscule fragments. One early unfinished never-ending saga called "Years of Rice and Salt" was recently uncovered and attributed to North King as well.
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The three Snorrissons quarelled since 814, less then a year after the death of North King. It all begun with a drunken feast in which Sven was offended by Olaf and Rurik, who thought it to be a mere joke, and so when in mid-814 Olaf went off to campaign on Holmland whilst Rurik went to Prussia, Sven suddenly gathered his forces and succesfully occupied Sweden and Denmark, proclaiming himself "Second King of the North"; this was the second ever unification of Geldland, but this time it was an unification for unification's sake. Olaf and Rurik struck back, but failed to do much apart from devastating Sven's Baltic commerce, whilst an ambitious "Svenist" general, Erik Ganger, declared himself the "King of Northumbria and Scotland". Thormand Halverssen refused to join either side, concentrating on developing his own kingdom.
Sven was too distracted to respond efficiently to Erik's rebellion, but in Geldland he managed to fend back attack after attack, eventually killing Olaf whose domains fell into disorder. Rurik never acknowledged the loss of Denmark, but stopped attacking Sven, choosing to try and hold on to Estland and Prussland, by then united into "Prussia", which greatly expanded in the Pribaltic. Holmland and Fennland by 820 emerged under the rule of Heleg and Rollo respectively, and the two also fought several inconclusive "wars" in between expanding against Slavs/Finns. By 820, Sven completely lost all chances of regaining Northumbria and Scotland, but he did retain, in spite of rebellions, "all" of Geldland (that is to say, all of Geldland that was once held by Snorri - which menas that the north and parts of the interior are yet-unclaimed). Erik Ganger was utterly defeated by King Egbert the Great of Wessex. Egbert used the still-weak state of Mercia to conquer the nation that once was his acknowledged superior (admittedly, as soon as he rose to power in 802 he declared himself independant, but never-the-less...) and procceeded to crush Erik at Lincoln and to capture Yorvick; in four years of war, the Wessexian king conquered lands as far north as the Orkneys, and consolidated his power well, defeating Welsh and Viking raiders. And finally, Thormand Halverssen's superior administrative skill allowed him to found a mixed Viking-Irish kingdom, which greatly flourished from trade opportunities with Geldland, Wessex and the Carolingian Holy Roman Empire.
And speaking of the Holy Roman Empire, it was devastated by the wars, but in 823 Louis the Pious succesfully unified West Francia, East Francia and Italy. This state was war-ravaged and unstable, however, and such it lost some land in South Italy to Byzantium whilst also retreating in easternmost East Francia, where it came under severe pressure of the Slavic tribes, most notably Polabians, Bohemians and Moravians.
The weakening of HRE strenghtened Bulgaria, which consolidated its hold on non-Byzantine parts of the Balkans. The Byzantines themselves, though, weren't faring much worse - the survival of Leo V allowed them to expand in South Italy and to generally strenghthen the empire. Byzantine allies, the Khazars, also notably prospered during the period - Holmland increasingly traded with them through the East Slavic tribes, and as Khazar merchants increasingly frequented Holmgard as well, their cultural influence on the said East Slavic tribes grew as they went as well. To solidify the trade, the Khazars also entered a serious war with the Magyars, gradually pushing them westwards - after Dnieper, Magyar resistance stiffened, and besides they were hardly able to threaten the Khazar trade from there, and so things stabilized.
So, life went on. Thormand's Eireland prospered and conquered Wales, Wessex in 843 conquered Wales from Eireland and put down Scottish rebellions, the Holy Roman Empire degenerated into a loosely-united feudal state, Ummayad Andalusia stagnated, facing growing taxes and numerous rebellions, especially by Mozarabs in the north - something exploited well by the expanding Asturians and Catalan dukes, both of whom also beat up the Basques. Geldland suffered from rebellions, but gained much from trade, Polabia, Bohemia and Moravia emerged as states (the latter suffered from an ongoing civil war), Bulgarian Empire crumbled from internal strife and Byzantines reclaimed the Balkans, Prussland collapsed into two states - Prussia and Estia, with a border on the Daugava, Helmland and Fennland expanded eastwards and quarreled, a Kaganate of Ryazan and several lesser Russian states emerged under Khazar influence between Helmland and Khazaria. It seemed, in the overall, that Europe stabilized, that peace ensued.
And then in 849, Rostislav, a Moravian pretender, faced defeat at Nitra. Panicked, he sent ambassadors to the Magyar tribes to the east from Moravia, promising them an alliance, his entire treasury and the right to participate in the looting of Praha, the center of resistance to his rule if they save him now. They soon received even more promises - of a status as his feudals, of many lands, etc, etc. And so they agreed.
Little did Rostislav know as to what evil genie he has unleashed upon Moravia... and much of Europe, to boot.
Albeit it could be interpreted as political as well.
