[OfSanguineFire]

Snorri Sturulson definitely used the word viking if, as most scholars hold, he was the author of Egil’s Saga. That text is replete with the term, and it isn’t used in a derogatory sense at all. It is an activity performed by the characters considered heroic. It’s even right there in the first paragraph:

“Úlfr hét maðr, sonr Bjálfa ok Hallberu, dóttur Úlfs ins óarga. Hon var systir Hallbjarnar hálftrǫlls í Hrafnistu, fǫður Ketils hængs. Úlfr var maðr svá mikill ok sterkr, at eigi váru hans jafningjar. En er hann var á unga aldri, lá hann í víkingu ok herjaði.”