Vikings and the path of the Vikings to the East through Ancient Russia

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

For several centuries, before and after the year 1000, Western Europe was constantly attacked by "Vikings" - warriors who sailed on ships from Scandinavia. Therefore, the period from about 800 to 1100. AD in the history of Northern Europe is called the "Viking Age". Those who were attacked by the Vikings perceived their campaigns as purely predatory, but they pursued other goals.

At the head of the Viking detachments were usually representatives of the ruling elite of the Scandinavian society - kings and Hövdings. By robbery, they acquired wealth, which they then shared among themselves and with their people. Victories in foreign countries brought them fame and position. Already in the early stages, the leaders also began to pursue political goals and take control of territories in the conquered countries. There is little in the chronicles to suggest that trade increased significantly during the Viking Age, but archaeological finds bear witness to this. In Western Europe, cities flourished, the first urban formations appeared in Scandinavia. The first city in Sweden was Birka, located on an island in Lake Mälaren, about 30 kilometers west of Stockholm. This city existed from the end of the VIII to the end of the X century; his successor in the Mälaren area was the town of Sigtuna, which today is an idyllic small town about 40 kilometers northwest of Stockholm.

The Viking era is also characterized by the fact that many inhabitants of Scandinavia forever left their native places and settled in foreign countries, mainly as farmers. Many Scandinavians, primarily from Denmark, settled in the eastern part of England, undoubtedly with the support of the Scandinavian kings and Hövdings who ruled there. The Scottish Islands were undergoing large-scale Norwegian colonization; Norwegians also sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to previously unknown, uninhabited places: the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland. pagan faith and the way of thinking of the people of that time.

Contacts during the Viking Age with the outside world radically changed the Scandinavian society. Missionaries from Western Europe arrived in Scandinavia as early as the first century of the Viking Age. The most famous of these is Ansgari, the "Scandinavian apostle" who was sent by the Frankish king Louis the Pious to Birka around 830 and returned there again around 850. In the later period of the Viking Age, an intensive process of Christianization began. The Danish, Norwegian and Swedish kings realized the power that Christian civilization and organization could give their states, and they carried out a change of religions. The most difficult process of Christianization was in Sweden, where at the end of the 11th century there was a fierce struggle between Christians and pagans.

The era of the Vikings in the East

Not only did the Scandinavians go west, they also made long voyages east during the same centuries. For natural reasons, residents of the places now belonging to Sweden rushed in this direction, first of all. The voyages to the east and the influence of the eastern countries left a special imprint on the Viking Age in Sweden. Voyages to the east were also undertaken, whenever possible, by ships - through the Baltic Sea, along the rivers of Eastern Europe to the Black and Caspian Seas, and, along them, to the great powers south of these seas: Christian Byzantium in the territory of modern Greece and Turkey and the Islamic Caliphate in eastern lands. Here, as well as to the west, ships went by oars and sail, but these ships were smaller than those used for cruises in the western direction. Their usual length was about 10 meters, and the team consisted of approximately 10 people. Larger ships were not needed to navigate the Baltic Sea, and besides, they could not move along the rivers.

This fact, that treks to the east are less well known than treks to the west, is partly due to the fact that there are not many written sources about them. It was not until the later period of the Viking Age that writing began to be used in Eastern Europe. However, from Byzantium and the Caliphate, which were the real great powers of the Viking Age from an economic and cultural point of view, modern descriptions of travel are known to this era, as well as historical and geographical works telling about the peoples of Eastern Europe and describing trade travels and military campaigns from Eastern Europe to countries south of the Black and Caspian Seas. Sometimes we can spot Scandinavians among the characters in these images. As historical sources, these images are often more reliable and more complete than Western European chronicles written by monks and bearing a strong imprint of their Christian zeal and hatred of pagans. A large number of Swedish runestones are also known from the 11th century, almost all from the vicinity of Lake Mälaren; they are installed in memory of relatives who often traveled to the east. As for Eastern Europe, there is a wonderful Tale of Bygone Years dating back to the beginning of the 12th century. and telling about the ancient history of the Russian state - not always reliably, but always alive and with an abundance of details, which greatly distinguishes it from Western European chronicles and gives it a charm comparable to the charm of the Icelandic sagas.

Ros - Rus - Ruotsi (Rhos - Rus - Ruotsi)

In 839, an ambassador from Emperor Theophilus from Constantinople (modern Istanbul) arrived to the Frankish king Louis the Pious, who was at that time in Ingelheim on the Rhine. The ambassador also brought several people from the "ros" people, who traveled to Constantinople by such dangerous routes that they now wanted to return home through the kingdom of Louis. When the king inquired about these people in more detail, it turned out that they were sves. Louis knew the pagan Svei well, since he himself had previously sent Ansgaria as a missionary to their trading city of Birka. The king began to suspect that the people who called themselves "grew" were in fact spies, and decided to detain them until he found out their intentions. Such a story is contained in one Frankish chronicle. Unfortunately, it is not known what later happened to these people.

This story is important for studying the Viking Age in Scandinavia. He and some other manuscripts from Byzantium and the Caliphate more or less clearly show that in the east in the 8th – 9th centuries the Scandinavians were called "ros" / "rus" (rhos / rus). At the same time, this name was used to designate the Old Russian state, or, as it is often called, Kievan Rus (see map). The state grew during these centuries, and modern Russia, Belarus and Ukraine originate from it.

The ancient history of this state is told in the Tale of Bygone Years, which was recorded in its capital, Kiev, shortly after the end of the Viking Age. In the record about 862, one can read that the country was in turmoil, and it was decided to look for a ruler on the other side of the Baltic Sea. Were equipped with ambassadors to the Varangians (that is, the Scandinavians), namely to those who were called "Rus"; Rurik and his two brothers were invited to rule the country. They came "from all over Russia", and Rurik settled in Novgorod. "And from these Varangians the Russian land got its name." After the death of Rurik, the reign passed to his cousin Oleg, who conquered Kiev and made this city the capital of his state, and after the death of Oleg, Rurik's son Igor became prince.

The legend about the vocation of the Varangians, contained in the Tale of Bygone Years, is a story about the origin of the ancient Russian princely family, and as a historical source it is very controversial. They tried to explain the name "rus" in many ways, but now the most widespread opinion is that this name should be compared with the names from the Finnish and Estonian languages - Ruotsi / Rootsi, which today mean "Sweden", and previously indicated the peoples from Sweden or Scandinavia. This name, in turn, comes from the Old Scandinavian word meaning "rowing", "rowing expedition", "members of the rowing expedition." It is obvious that the people who lived on the western coast of the Baltic Sea were famous for their sailing trips with oars. Reliable sources about Rurik do not exist, and it is not known how he and his "Rus" came to Eastern Europe - however, it hardly happened as simply and peacefully as the legend says. When the clan established itself as one of the rulers in Eastern Europe, soon the state itself and its inhabitants began to be called "Rus". The names of the ancient princes indicate that the family was of Scandinavian origin: Rurik is the Scandinavian Rorek, a common name in Sweden even in the late Middle Ages, Oleg - Helge, Igor - Ingvar, Olga (Igor's wife) - Helga.

To speak more definitely about the role of the Scandinavians in the early history of Eastern Europe, it is not enough just to study a few written sources, one must also take into account the archaeological finds. They show a significant number of items of Scandinavian origin dating back to the 9th – 10th centuries in the ancient part of Novgorod (the Rurik settlement outside modern Novgorod), in Kiev and in many other places. We are talking about jewelry for men and women, weapons, horse harness, as well as household items, pectoral crosses and magical and religious amulets, for example, about the hammers of Thor, found at the sites of settlements, in burials and treasures.

Obviously, in the region under consideration there were many Scandinavians who were engaged not only in war and politics, but also in trade, crafts and agriculture - after all, the Scandinavians themselves came from agricultural societies, where urban culture, just like in Eastern Europe, began to develop only during these centuries. In many places, the northerners left clear imprints of Scandinavian elements in culture - in clothing and jewelry making, in weapons and religion. But it is also clear that the Scandinavians lived in societies based on the structure of Eastern European culture. The central part of the early cities was usually a densely populated fortress - Detinets or the Kremlin. Such fortified cores of urban formations are not found in Scandinavia, but for a long time they were characteristic of Eastern Europe. The construction method in the places where the Scandinavians settled was mainly Eastern European, and most of the household items, for example, household ceramics, also bore a local imprint. Foreign influence on culture came not only from Scandinavia, but also from countries in the east, south and southwest.

When Christianity was officially adopted in the Old Russian state in 988, the Scandinavian features soon practically disappeared from its culture. Slavic and Christian Byzantine cultures became the main components in the culture of the state, and Slavic became the language of the state and the church.

Caliphate - Serkland

How and why did the Scandinavians participate in the development of events that ultimately led to the formation of the Russian state? It was probably not only war and adventure, but also, to a large extent, trade. The leading civilization of the world during this period was the Caliphate - an Islamic state that stretched eastward to Afghanistan and Uzbekistan in Central Asia; there, far to the east, were the largest silver mines of that time. A huge amount of Islamic silver in the form of coins with Arabic inscriptions spread throughout Eastern Europe as far as the Baltic Sea and Scandinavia. The largest number of finds of silver objects was made in Gotland. A number of luxury items are also known from the territory of the Russian state and mainland Sweden, primarily from the area around Lake Mälaren, which indicate ties with the East that were of a more social nature, for example, details of clothing or banquet items.

When Islamic written sources mention "rus" - by which, generally speaking, one can mean both the Scandinavians and other peoples from the Old Russian state, interest is manifested primarily in their trading activity, although there are also stories about military campaigns, for example, against the city Berd in Azerbaijan in 943 or 944. In the world geography of Ibn Khordadbeh it is said that Russian merchants sold skins of beavers and silver foxes, as well as swords. They came on ships to the lands of the Khazars, and, having paid their tithe to their prince, went further along the Caspian Sea. They often carried their goods on camels all the way to Baghdad, the capital of the Caliphate. "They pretend to be Christians and pay the tax set for Christians." Ibn Khordadbeh was the minister of security in one of the provinces along the caravan route to Baghdad, and he perfectly understood that these people were not Christians. The reason they called themselves Christians was purely economic - Christians paid a lower tax than pagans who worshiped many gods.

Besides fur, slaves were perhaps the most important commodity coming from the north. In the Caliphate, slaves were used as labor in most public sectors, and the Scandinavians, like other peoples, were able to obtain slaves during their military and predatory campaigns. Ibn Khordadbeh says that slaves from the country of "Saklaba" (roughly means "Eastern Europe") served as translators for the Russians in Baghdad.

The flow of silver from the Caliphate dried up at the end of the 10th century. Perhaps the reason was the fact that the production of silver in mines in the east declined, possibly influenced by the war and turmoil that reigned in the steppes between Eastern Europe and the Caliphate. But another thing is also likely - that in the Caliphate they began to conduct experiments to reduce the content of silver in the coin, and in this regard, interest in coins in Eastern and Northern Europe was lost. The aeonomy in these territories was not monetary; the value of a coin was calculated by its purity and weight. Silver coins and ingots were chopped into pieces and weighed on scales to get the price that a person was willing to pay for the goods. Silver of varying purity has made this type of payment transaction difficult or nearly impossible. Therefore, the views of Northern and Eastern Europe turned towards Germany and England, where in the late period of the Viking Age a large number of full-weight silver coins were minted, which were distributed in Scandinavia, as well as in some regions of the Russian state.

However, even in the XI century it happened that the Scandinavians reached the Caliphate, or Serkland, as they called this state. The most famous expedition of the Swedish Vikings in this century was led by Ingvar, whom the Icelanders called Ingvar the Traveler. An Icelandic saga has been written about him, but it is very unreliable, but about 25 East Swedish runestones tell about the people who accompanied Ingvar. All these stones indicate that the trip ended in disaster. On one of the stones not far from Gripsholm in Södermanland one can read (after I. Melnikova):

So on many other runestones, these proud lines about the campaign are written in verse. "Feed the eagles" is a poetic comparison meaning "to kill enemies in battle." The poetic meter used here is the old epic meter and is characterized by two stressed syllables in each poetic line, and by the fact that the poetic lines are connected in pairs by alliteration, that is, repeating initial consonants and changing vowels.

Khazars and Volga Bulgars

During the Viking Age in Eastern Europe, there were two important states dominated by Turkic peoples: the Khazar state in the steppes north of the Caspian and Black Seas, and the Volga Bulgars state on the Middle Volga. The Khazar Kaganate ceased to exist at the end of the 10th century, but the descendants of the Volga Bulgars live today in Tatarstan, a republic within the Russian Federation. Both of these states played an important role in the transfer of eastern influences to the Old Russian state and the countries of the Baltic region. A detailed analysis of Islamic coins showed that approximately 1/10 of them are imitations and were minted by the Khazars or, even more often, by the Volga Bulgars.

The Khazar Kaganate early adopted Judaism as the state religion, and the state of the Volga Bulgars officially adopted Islam in 922. In this regard, Ibn Fadlan visited the country, who wrote a story about his visit and about a meeting with merchants from Russia. The best known is his description of the burial of the hevding of the Rus in a ship - a funeral custom characteristic of Scandinavia and also found in the Old Russian state. The funeral ceremony included the sacrifice of a slave, who was raped by soldiers from the detachment, before killing her and burning her along with their hevding. This is a story full of brutal details that can hardly be guessed from archaeological excavations of Viking Age burials.

Varangians among the Greeks in Miklagard

The Byzantine Empire, which in Eastern and Northern Europe was called Greece or Greeks, according to the Scandinavian tradition, was perceived as the main goal of the campaigns to the east. In the Russian tradition, ties between Scandinavia and the Byzantine Empire also figure prominently. The Tale of Bygone Years contains a detailed description of the path: "There was a path from the Varangians to the Greeks, and from the Greeks along the Dnieper, and in the upper reaches of the Dnieper there was a portage to Lovoti, and along Lovoti you can enter Ilmen, a great lake; Volkhov and flows into Lake Great Nevo (Ladoga), and the mouth of that lake flows into the Varangian Sea (Baltic Sea) ".

The emphasis on the role of Byzantium is a simplification of reality. The Scandinavians came primarily to the Old Russian state and settled there. And trade with the Caliphate through the states of the Volga Bulgars and Khazars should have been the most important from an economic point of view for Eastern Europe and Scandinavia during the 9th-10th centuries.

However, during the Viking Age, and especially after the Christianization of the Old Russian state, the importance of ties with the Byzantine Empire increased. This is evidenced primarily by written sources. For unknown reasons, the number of finds of coins and other objects from Byzantium is relatively small in both Eastern and Northern Europe.

Around the end of the 10th century, the Emperor of Constantinople established at his court a special Scandinavian detachment - the Varangian Guard. Many believe that the beginning of this guard was laid by those Varangians who were sent to the emperor by the Kiev prince Vladimir in connection with his adoption of Christianity in 988 and his marriage to the emperor's daughter.

The word vringi (vringar) originally meant people bound by an oath, but in the later period of the Viking Age it became a common name for the Scandinavians in the east. Varing in the Slavic language began to be called the Varangian, in Greek - varangos, in Arabic - warank.

Constantinople, or Miklagard, the great city, as the Scandinavians called it, was incredibly attractive to them. Icelandic sagas tell of many Norwegians and Icelanders who served in the Varangian Guard. One of them, Harald the Severe, became king of Norway on his return home (1045-1066). Swedish runestones of the 11th century more often speak of being in Greece than in the Old Russian state.

On the old path that leads to the church at Ede in Uppland, there is a large stone with runic inscriptions on both sides. In them, Ragnwald says that these runes were carved in memory of his mother Fastvi, but above all he is interested in telling about himself:

Soldiers from the Varangian Guard guarded the palace in Constantinople and took part in military campaigns in Asia Minor, the Balkan Peninsula and Italy. The country of the Lombards, mentioned on several runestones, refers to Italy, the southern regions of which were part of the Byzantine Empire. In the port suburb of Athens, Piraeus, there used to be a huge luxurious marble lion, which was transported to Venice in the 17th century. On this lion, one of the Varangians, while resting in Piraeus, carved a serpentine runic inscription, which was typical of Swedish runestones of the 11th century. Unfortunately, already upon discovery, the inscription was so badly damaged that only individual words can be read.

Scandinavians in Gardarik during the late Viking Age

At the end of the 10th century, as already mentioned, the flow of Islamic silver dried up, and instead of it, a flow of German and English coins poured eastward into the Russian state. In 988 the Kiev prince and his people took over the quantities in Gotland, where they were also copied, and in mainland Sweden and Denmark. Several belts have been discovered even in Iceland. Perhaps they belonged to people who served with the Russian princes.

Ties between the rulers of Scandinavia and the Old Russian state during the XI-XII centuries were very lively. Two of the great princes of Kiev took wives in Sweden: Yaroslav the Wise (1019-1054, previously reigned in Novgorod from 1010 to 1019) married Ingegerd, daughter of Olav Shetkonung, and Mstislav (1125-1132, previously reigned in Novgorod from 1095 1125) - on Christina, daughter of King Inge the Old.

Novgorod - Holmgard and trade with the Sami and the Gotland

Eastern, Russian influence also reached the Sami in northern Scandinavia in the 11th-12th centuries. In many places in Swedish Lapland and Norrbotten there are places of sacrifice on the shores of lakes and rivers and near rocks with bizarre shapes; antlers, animal bones, arrowheads, and amulets and jewelry made of bronze and tin. Many of these metal objects come from the Old Russian state, most likely from Novgorod - for example, Old Russian pectoral cross and a binding of Russian belts of the same kind that were found in the southern part of Sweden.

Novgorod, which the Scandinavians called Holmgard, acquired great importance over the centuries as a trading metropolis. The Gotlandians, who continued to play an important role in the Baltic trade in the 11th-12th centuries, created a trading post in Novgorod. At the end of the 12th century, the Germans appeared in the Baltic, and gradually the main role in the Baltic trade passed to the German Hansa.

End of the Viking Age

On a simple mold for cheap jewelry, made from a bar and found at Timans in Rum on Gotland, two Gotlandians at the end of the 11th century carved their names, Urmiga and Ulvat, and, in addition, the names of four distant countries. They let us know that the world for the Scandinavians in the Viking Age had wide borders: Greece, Jerusalem, Iceland, Serkland.

It is impossible to name the exact date when this world shrank and the Viking Age ended. Gradually, during the XI and XII centuries, the ways and connections changed their character, and in the XII century travels deep into the Old Russian state and to Constantinople and Jerusalem ceased. When the number of written sources in Sweden increased in the 13th century, the expeditions to the east became only memories.

In the Older Edition of the Visgotalag, recorded in the first half of the 13th century, in the Chapter on Inheritance, there is, among other things, the following statement regarding someone who is found abroad: He does not inherit to anyone while he is in Greece. Did the Visigoths still serve in the Varangian Guard, or did this paragraph remain from times long past?

In Gutasag, a story about the history of Gotland recorded in the 13th or early 14th century, it is said that the first churches on the island were consecrated by bishops on their way to the Holy Land or back. At that time, the path went east through Russia and Greece to Jerusalem. When the saga was recorded, the pilgrims made a detour through Central or even Western Europe.

Do you know that…

The Scandinavians who served in the Varangian Guard were probably Christians - or they converted to Christianity during their stay in Constantinople. Some of them made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Jerusalem, called Yorsalir in the Scandinavian language. The runestone from Brubu to Tebyu in Uppland commemorates Eystein, who went to Jerusalem and died in Greece.

Another runic inscription from Uppland, from Stacket in Kungsengen, tells of a determined and fearless woman: Ingerun, the daughter of Hord, ordered the runes be carved in memory of herself. She travels east and to Jerusalem.

The largest treasure of silver items dating back to the Viking Age was found in Gotland in 1999. Its total weight is about 65 kilograms, of which 17 kilograms are Islamic silver coins (approximately 14,300).

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