Why do people always associate Viking and pillaging?

We also wrote really long, in-depth dry stories, attacked the same French monastery repeatedly throughout most of the 9th century, went to more new areas of the world and, uh, well, pillaged them. But we also founded Dublin ... and ....errr ...okay, I guess pillaging is our landmark.
As for having some Norse in you.... there isn't a nationality that existed in Europe around the 9th and 10th centuries that at one point or another didn't share breeding stock (willingly or not) with the Vikings. We were one of the first to realize that if you breed with your tribe-mates too many times without fresh stock you get some REALLY wierd kids.