THE VIKINGS IN BALTIC LANDS AND RUSSIA
The activities of the Northmen during the Viking age were not confined
to the lands west and south of their original homes: the Baltic was as
familiar to them as the North Sea, to go 'east-viking' was almost as
common as to go 'west-viking' and Scandinavian settlements were founded
on the shores of the Baltic and far inland along the great waterways
leading into the heart of Russia. As was to be expected from their
geographical position it was Danes and Swedes rather than Norwegians
who were active in Baltic lands, the Danes settling chiefly on the
Pomeranian coast among the Wends, while the Swedes occupied lands
further east and founded the Scandinavian kingdom of Russia.
Already in the early years of the 9th century we find the Danish
king Guðröðr now making war against his Slavonic neighbours in
Mecklenburg-Schwerin, now intriguing with them against the emperor.
Mention is made of more than one town on the southern coast of the
Baltic bearing an essentially Scandinavian name, pointing to the
existence of extensive settlements. Interesting evidence of this
eastward movement is also to be found in the _Life of St Anskar_. There
we learn how, soon after 830, a Danish fleet captured a city in the
land of the Slavs, with great riches, and we hear in 853 how the Swedes
were endeavouring to reconquer Kurland which had been under their rule,
but had now thrown off the yoke and fallen a prey to a fleet of Danish
Vikings--possibly the one just mentioned. St Anskar himself undertook
the education of many Wendish youths who had been entrusted to him.
This and other evidence prepare us for the establishment, in the
tenth century, of the most characteristic of all Viking settlements,
that of Jómsborg on the Island of Wollin at the mouth of the Oder.
According to tradition King Gorm the Old conquered a great kingdom in
Wendland, but it was to his son Harold Bluetooth that the definite
foundation of Jómsborg was ascribed. For many years there had been
an important trading centre at Julin on the Island of Wollin, where
traders from Scandinavia, Saxony, Russia and many other lands met
together to take part in the rich trade between north and south, east
and west, which passed through Julin, standing as it did on one of the
great waterways of central Europe. Large finds of Byzantine and Arabic
coins bear witness to the extensive trade with Greece and the Orient
which passed through Julin, while the Silberberg, on which Jómsborg
once stood, is so called from the number of silver coins from Frisia,
Lorraine, Bavaria and England which have been found there. It was no
doubt in the hope of securing some fuller share in this trade that
Harold established the great fortress of Jómsborg and entrusted its
defence to a warrior-community on whom he imposed the strictest rules
of organisation. The story of the founding of Jómsborg is told in the
late and untrustworthy _Jómsvikingasaga_, but, while we must reject
many of the details there set forth, it is probable that the rules of
the settlement as given there are based on a genuine tradition, and
they give us a vivid picture of life in a Viking warrior-community. No
one under eighteen or over fifty years of age was admitted to their
fellowship, and neither birth nor friendship, only personal bravery,
could qualify a man for admission. No one was allowed to continue a
member who uttered words of fear, or who fled before one who was his
equal in arms and strength. Every member was bound to avenge a fallen
companion as if he were his brother. No women were allowed within the
community, and no one was to be absent for more than three days without
permission. All news was to be told in the first instance to their
leader and all plunder was to be shared at a common stake. The harbour
of Jómsborg could shelter a fleet of 300 vessels and was protected by
a mole with twelve iron gates.
The Jómsvikings played an important if stormy part in the affairs of
the three Scandinavian kingdoms in the later years of the 10th and the
early 11th century. Many of them came to England in the train of king
Svein, while Jarl Thorkell was for a time in the service of Ethelred
the Unready. The decline of Jómsborg as a Viking stronghold dates from
its devastation by Magnus the Good in 1043, but the importance of Julin
as a trading centre continued unimpaired for many years to come.
From Jómsborg Harold Bluetooth's son Hákon made an attack on Samland in
the extreme east of Prussia, but the real exploitation of the Eastern
Baltic fell as was natural to the Swedes rather than to the Danes. We
have already mentioned their presence in Kurland on the Gulf of Riga,
and we learn from Swedish runic inscriptions of expeditions to Samland,
to the Semgalli (in Kurland) and to the river Duna. The important
fortified port of Seeburg was probably near to Riga, while the chief
trade route from the island of Gothland lay round cape Domesnæes (note
the Scandinavian name) to the mouth of the Duna.
The chief work of the Swedes was however to be done in lands yet
further south, in the heart of the modern empire of Russia in Europe.
The story of the founding of the Russian kingdom is preserved to us
in the late 10th century chronicle of the monk Nestor, who tells us
that in the year 859 'Varangians' came over the sea and took tribute
from various Finnish, Tatar and Slavonic peoples inhabiting the forest
regions round Lake Ilmen, between Lake Ladoga and the upper waters of
the Dnieper. Again he tells us that in 862 the Varangians were driven
over seas and tribute was refused, but soon the tribes quarrelled among
themselves and some suggested that they should find a prince who might
rule over them and keep the peace. So they sent across the sea to the
Varangians, to the 'Rus,' for such is the name of these Varangians,
just as others are called Swedes, Northmen, Anglians, Goths, saying
that their land was great and powerful but there was no order within it
and asking them to come and rule over them. Three brothers with their
followers were chosen: the eldest, Rurik (O.N. Hroerekr), settled in
Novgorod, the second in Bieloözero, the third in Truvor in Izborsk.
Three years later two of the brothers died and Rurik took control of
the whole of the settlements, dividing the land among his men. In the
same year two of Rurik's followers, Askold (O.N. Höskuldr) and Dir
(O.N. Dýri), setting out for Constantinople, halted at Kiev and there
founded a kingdom, which in 882 was conquered by Rurik's successor
Oleg (O.N. Helgi) and, as the mother of all Russian cities, became the
capital of the Russian kingdom.
There is a certain _naiveté_ about this story which is characteristic
of the monkish chronicler generally, and it is clear that, after the
usual manner of the annalist who is compiling his record long after the
events described, Nestor has grouped together under one or two dates
events which were spread over several years, but the substantial truth
of the narrative cannot be impugned and receives abundant confirmation
from various sources.
The earliest evidence for the presence of these 'Rus' in Eastern Europe
is found in the story of the Byzantine embassy to the emperor Lewis the
Pious in 839 (_v. supra_, p. 19), when certain people called 'Rhôs,'
who had been on a visit to Constantinople, came in the train of the
embassy and asked leave to return home through the empire. Enquiries
were made and it was found that these 'Rhôs' were Swedes. This would
point to the presence of 'Rus' in Russia at a date earlier than that
given by Nestor, and indeed the rapid extension of their influence
indicates a period of activity considerably longer than that allowed
by him. These 'Rus' or 'Rhôs' soon came into relations, both of trade
and war, with the Byzantine empire. We have preserved to us from the
years 911 and 944 commercial treaties made between the 'Rus' and the
Greeks showing that they brought all kinds of furs and also slaves
to Constantinople, receiving in exchange various articles of luxury
including gold and silver ornaments, silks and other rich stuffs. The
names of the signatories to these treaties are, on the side of the
'Rus,' almost entirely of Scandinavian origin and may to some extent
be shown to be of definitely Swedish provenance. About the year 950,
the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, writing a tractate on the
administration of the empire, describes how traders from various parts
of Russia assemble at Kiev and sail down the Dnieper on their way to
Constantinople. Their course down the Dnieper was impeded by a series
of rapids, and Constantine gives their names both in 'Russian' and in
Slavonic form, and though the names are extremely corrupt in their
Greek transcription there is no mistaking that the 'Russian' names are
really forms belonging to some Scandinavian dialect.
The Rus were also well known as warriors and raiders. In 865 they
sailed down the Dnieper, across the Black Sea and made their way into
the Sea of Marmora. Their fleet was dispersed by a storm, but they
were more successful in 907 when Oleg with some 2000 ships harried the
environs of Constantinople and was bought off by a heavy tribute. These
attacks were continued at intervals during the next century.
We also find a good deal of interesting information about these 'Rûs,'
as they are called, in various Arab historians. We hear how they sailed
their vessels down the chief waterways and had such a firm hold on the
Black Sea that by the year 900 it was already known as the Russian Sea.
Often they dragged their vessels overland from one stream to another,
and thus they made their way from the upper waters of the Don down
the Volga to the Caspian Sea. But not only do we have a description
of their journeyings we also learn a good deal of their customs
and habits, and, though at times the information given is open to
suspicion, archaeological research tends to confirm the statements of
these historians and to show that the civilisation of the 'Rûs' closely
resembled that of the Scandinavian peoples generally in the Viking age.
The identification of the ancient 'Rus' with the Swedes was long
and hotly contested by Slavonic patriots but there is now a general
consensus of opinion that the evidence for it is too strong to be
overthrown. Not only have we the evidence given above but also the
very names 'Rus' and 'Varangian' can be satisfactorily explained only
on this theory. The name 'Rus' is the Slavonic, 'Rhôs' the Greek, and
'Rûs' the Arabic form of the Finnish name for Sweden, viz. Ruotsi. This
name was originally derived from _Roþr_ or _Roþin_, the name of certain
districts of Upland and Östergötland, whose inhabitants were known as
_Rods-karlar_ or _Rods-mæn_. The Finns had early come into relation
with the Swedes and they used the name of those people with whom they
were in earliest and most intimate contact for the whole Swedish
nationality. When these Swedes settled in Russia the Finns applied the
same term to the new colonists and the term came to be adopted later
into the various Slavonic dialects.
We are most familiar with the term 'Varangian' or 'Variag,' to use
the Slavonic form, as applied to the famous guard of the Byzantine
emperors, which seems to have been formed in the latter half of the
10th century and was largely composed of Norwegian, Icelandic and
Swedish recruits. In Russian and Arabic historians on the other hand
the term is used rather in an ethnographic or geographic sense. We
have seen that it was thus used by Nestor, and similarly we find the
Baltic commonly spoken of as the 'Varangian' Sea both in Russian and
in Arabic records. All the evidence tends to show that this was the
earlier sense of the term and we find it gradually displacing the term
'Rhôs' even in Byzantine historians. The word itself is of Scandinavian
origin and means 'those who are bound together by a pledge.' The theory
which best explains its various uses is that put forward by Dr Vilhelm
Thomsen, viz. that it originated among the Northmen who settled in
Russia, i.e. among the ancient Russ, and that under that term they
denoted those peoples west of the Baltic who were related to them by
nationality.
From the Russ the word passed into the Slavonic language as
_variag_[12], into the Greek as _barangoi_--where it was often used in
the restricted sense of members of the imperial guard largely recruited
from this nation,--and into the Arabic as _varank_. Dr Thomsen adduces
two happy parallels for the somewhat remarkable history of the terms
'Russian' and 'Varangian.' The term 'Russian' came to be used as their
own name by the Slavonic peoples, who were once ruled over by the Russ,
in much the same way that the term 'Frankish' or 'French' was adopted
by the Gaulish population of France from its Germanic conquerors. The
term 'Varangian,' ultimately the name for a nation or group of nations,
came to be used of a military force once largely recruited from those
nations, much in the same way as the term 'Swiss' was applied to the
Papal guard long after that guard had ceased to be recruited from the
Swiss nation exclusively.
The belief in the Scandinavian origin of the Russ is amply supported
by archaeological evidence. The large number of Arabic coins found
in Sweden (more especially in Gothland) and in Russia itself points
to an extensive trade with the Orient whose route lay chiefly to the
east of the Caspian Sea and then along the valley of the Volga. The
dates of the coins point to the years between 850 and 1000 as those
of most active intercourse with the East. Equally interesting is the
large number of western coins, more especially Anglo-Saxon pennies
and sceatts, which have been found in Russia. They probably represent
portions of our Danegeld which had come into the hands of the Swedes
either in trade or war. Viking brooches of the characteristic oval
shape with the familiar zoomorphic ornamentation have been found in
Western Russia, and one stone with a runic inscription, belonging to
the 11th century and showing evidence of connexion with Gothland, has
been found in a burial mound in Berezan, an island at the mouth of the
Dnieper. Professor Braun says that no others have been found because
of the rarity of suitable stone.
How long the Russ maintained their distinctively Scandinavian
nationality it is difficult to determine. Oleg's grandson Svjatoslav
bore a distinctively Slavonic name, and henceforward the names of the
members of the royal house are uniformly Slavonic, but the connexion
with Sweden was by no means forgotten. Svjatoslav's son Vladimir the
Great secured himself in the rulership of Novgorod in 980 by the aid of
_variags_ from over the sea and established a band of variag warriors
in his chief city of Kiev. But the Viking age was drawing to a close.
Variag auxiliaries are mentioned for the last time in 1043 and it
is probable that by the middle of the 11th century the Scandinavian
settlers had been almost completely Slavonicised. Of their permanent
influence on the Russian people and on Russian institutions it is,
in the present state of our knowledge, almost impossible to speak.
Attempts have been made to distinguish Scandinavian elements in the
old Russian law and language but with no very definite results, and we
must content ourselves with the knowledge that the Vikings were all
powerful in Western and Southern Russia during the greater part of two
centuries, carrying on an extensive trade with the East, establishing
Novgorod, 'the new town,' on the Volga under the name _Holmgarðr_ and
founding a dynasty which ruled in Kiev and became a considerable power
in eastern Europe negotiating on terms of equality with the Byzantine
emperors.
Mention has already been made more than once of the way in which the
Northmen entered the service of the emperors at Constantinople or
_Miklagarðr_, 'the great city,' as they called it. From here they
visited all parts of the Mediterranean. When Harold Hardrada was in
the service of the emperor he sailed through the Grecian archipelago
to Sicily and Africa. There he stayed several years, conquering some
eighty cities for his master and gaining rich treasures for himself.
One interesting memorial of these journeys still remains to us. At the
entrance to the arsenal in Venice stands a marble lion brought from
Athens in 1687. Formerly it stood at the harbour of the Piraeus, known
thence as the Porto Leone. On the sides of the lion are carved two long
runic inscriptions arranged in snake-like bands. The runes are too
much worn to be deciphered but they are unquestionably of Scandinavian
origin and the snake-bands closely resemble those that may be seen on
certain runic stones in Sweden. The carving was probably done by Swedes
from Uppland about the middle of the 10th century. One can hardly
imagine a more striking illustration of the extent and importance of
the Viking movement in Europe.
FOOTNOTE:
[12] The word variag in Modern Russian means a pedlar and bears witness
to the strong commercial instincts of the Viking.