TheKylfings (Old NorseKylfingar;EstonianKalevid;HungarianKölpények;Old East Slavic Колбяги,Kolbiagi;Byzantine Greek Κουλπίγγοι,Koulpingoi;Arabical-Kilabiyya) were a people of uncertain origin active in Northern Europe during theViking Age, roughly from the late ninth century to the early twelfth century. They could be found in areas ofLapland,Russia, and theByzantine Empire that were frequented byScandinavian traders, raiders and mercenaries. Scholars differ on whether the Kylfings were ethnicallyFinnic orNorse.[1] Also disputed is their geographic origin, withDenmark,Sweden and the EasternBaltic all put forward as candidates.[2] Whether the name Kylfing denotes a particular tribal, socio-political, or economic grouping is also much debated.[3]
They are mentioned on theViking runestones, thesagas of Icelanders (most notably inEgil's Saga), andOld Norse poetry such asÞorbjǫrn hornklofi'sHrafnsmál, as well asByzantine records andRus' lawcodes. According to the sagas, the Kylfings opposed the consolidation ofNorway underHarald Fairhair and participated in the pivotal late ninth centuryBattle of Hafrsfjord. After Harald's victory in that battle, they are described in the sagas as having raided inFinnmark and elsewhere innorthern Norway and having fought against Harald's lieutenants such asThorolf Kveldulfsson.
The exact etymology of the wordkylfing is disputed and many different theories have been put forward as to its ultimate origin. The general trend has been to tracekylfing to theOld Norse wordskylfa andkolfr, but scholars disagree as to the meaning of these words as well. Cleasby notes that in Old Norse,kylfa can mean aclub or cudgel.[4] Thus the national Icelandic antiquarian Barði Guðmundsson translatedKylfing to mean "club-wielders".[5] As Foote points out, it can also mean a smaller stick, such as a tally-stick or wooden token used by merchants,[6] and, according to Jesch, it can also mean the "highest and narrowest part" of aship's stem.[7] Holm discussed the termkylfa in connection with the wordhjúkolfr which means "meeting" or "guild"; according to Holm, the second elementkolfr could refer to asymbolic arrow traditionally used as a device to summon people for a meeting.[8]
These varied derivations have led to a number of interpretations. Holm offers two meanings: "archer" and "man armed with acudgel".[8] A number of historians have asserted thatKylfing referred to a member of a "club in the social or Anglo-American sense", a "brotherhood" or a member of a Norsefélag.[8][9][10] In a number of minor Icelandic manuscripts on mathematics and geography,Kylfingaland is identified asGarðaríki,i.e.Kievan Rus', but the sources are unclear as to whether Kylfingaland is named for the Kylfings or vice versa, or whether, indeed, there is any connection at all.[8]
TheRussiancognate ofKylfing isKolbjag, following the pattern of development*kolƀing (*kulƀing) > *kolƀęg >kolbjag. TheKolbiagi were a group of foreign merchant-venturers and mercenaries mentioned in a number ofOld Russian sources. They are often mentioned together with theVarangians, a term used inEastern Europe to describe traders and pirates of the Baltic sea. In Byzantine Greek, they were namedkoulpingoi and they served as a unit of the Byzantine army listed alongside theVarangian Guard, which was of Scandinavian origin.[11]
A very different derivation was put forward by the Russian scholar B. Briems. He hypothesised thatKylfingr was a direct Norse translation of theVotic self-designationVadja used by theVotes, a Finnic people living inIngria,Russia. The Votic wordvadja (cognate with Finnishvaaja) means 'club', which corresponds to the Old Norse wordkylfa.[12][13][8] A non-Norse origin was also proposed byJulius Brutzkus, who argued that bothVarangian andKylfing derived from theTurkic languages, particularly theBulgar andKhazar languages. Brutzkus asserted thatVarangian came from the Turkic rootvarmak ("to walk, travel") whileKylfing was a Norse pronunciation of theSlavickolbiagi, itself deriving from the Turkic phraseköl-beg ("sea-king"); under this interpretation the wordKylfing would be more or less synonymous with "Viking".[14]
According toEgil's Saga, the Kylfings were trading and plundering inFinnmark around the year 900. Thorolf Kveldulfsson, King Harald's tax agent in northern Norway, engagedSaami scouts to monitor the Kylfings' movements and report back to him. Countering their raids, he is reported to have killed over a hundred Kylfing marauders.[15]
Some scholars see them as Scandinavians while others consider them to have been aFinnic tribe, and assert a connection between the word Kylfing and theFinnish, Saami, and Karelian myths ofKaleva.[16] Elsewhere they are described as a mixture ofNorse andFinnish people who were employed asmercenaries and tax-agents by Scandinavian rulers; in this context Ravndal interpreted thekylfa element to refer to a "club" in the sense of organization.[9] Arbman argues that the Kolbiagi were a separatefur-trading guild.[10] Postanet al., on the other hand, hypothesize that Kolbiag denoted a junior participant in a Varangian trade guild, rather than a separate group.[17]
Holm (1992) considers Egil's saga to equate the Kylfings with theFinnicKarelians.[18] In the 14th century, when the Swedish kings began to direct their attention northwards and encourage Swedish colonization inNorrbotten, there were regulations that theBirkarls and theSaami peoples were not to be interrupted in their traditional activities.[19] A large part of the Karelians were under Novgorod which was included in what Icelandic sources calledKylfingaland, and thus the Kylfings could have been Baltic Finnish tribes under Novgorod.[11]
BothEast Slavs andByzantines consistently made a clear distinction between Varangians and Kylfings, and Byzantines distinguished between them in the same manner as they separatedFranks fromSaracens. According to Holm such separations are indicative of clear ethnic differences between the two groups. Additionally, both East Slavic and Byzantine sources explicitly associate the Varangians with Baltic region, which they calledVarangia, and in Arabic, theBaltic Sea was calledBahr Varank,i.e. the "Varangian Sea". There are no comparable connections when they mention the Kylfings. Another difference is the fact that the Byzantine sources connect the wordvarangoi withrhōs in order to make it clear that therhōs-varangoi and thevarangoi originate in Baltic just like therhōs, but do not establish the same associations for thekoulpingoi.[20]
The Kylfings have also been identified with theVotic people.Carl Christian Rafn,Edgar V. Saks, B. Briem andSigurður Nordal have proposed Kylfings to have been the Norse name for the Votes. The reason is that theethnonymVadja(laiset) can be associated with the wordvadja (modern Estonianvai') which means "stake", "wedge" or "staff", which corresponds to Old Norsekolfr.Vadjalaiset would consequently be translated into Old East Norse askolfingar, which in Old West Norse (Old Icelandic) would beumlauted askylfingar. Whereas some native names were Scandinavized, asRostov intoRáðstofa, the Norse learned of the meaning of other names and translated them, which they did atVolkhov, and in the case of some of the Dniepr rapids. The theory that the Kylfings were Votes has been opposed by Max Vasmer and Stender-Petersen,[21] whereas Holm finds it likely. Holm considers it apparent that the Varangians and the Finnic tribes were able to cooperate well, and he points to the relative ease and stability with which Finland was later integrated as a part of the Swedish kingdom.[22] Finnish linguistJorma Koivulehto disagrees with the Vote theory and maintains that the Votic name or any other Finnic ethnonym is not etymologically connected with the nameKylfingar.[23]
Barði Guðmundsson identified the Kylfings as an East Scandinavian, possiblySwedish, tribe that infiltrated northernNorway during the late ninth century.[24] Guðmundsson connects the Kylfings with the GermanicHeruli who were active throughout northern Europe and inItaly during the fifth and sixth centuries. According to Guðmundsson, many of these Kylfings may ultimately have emigrated toIceland during the ninth and tenth centuries.[5] Other scholars have assigned aDanish origin to this tribe.[5]
Some scholars have considered the Kylfings ofEgil's Saga to be a "conquering Germanic people", or the Swedish king's tax collectors.[25] Holm (1992) considers such suggestions to be anachronistic because the Swedish kings lacked any interest in northernFenno-Scandia during the ninth and tenth centuries, and not even the laterlaw of Hälsingland mentions any Swedish settlement north ofBygdeå in southernVästerbotten.[26]
Pritsak identified the Kylfings as a "professional trading and mercenary organization" that organized expeditions northward, into the Saami lands, as distinct from otherVarangian andviking groups whose expeditions focussed on lands to the west and east of Scandinavia.[27] This interpretation is supported by such historians as Stender-Petersen.[28]
A number of runestones inSweden contain thepersonal nameKylfingr, which may or may not be connected to the Kylfings as a group.[29][30]
A few historians have hypothesized that the Kylfings were aWest Slavic people related to thePomeranians. Under this interpretation, the Slavic termKolbiag may share common origins with such place-names asKołobrzeg (formerly Kolberg), a town on thePomeranian Baltic coast, andKolpino, a settlement near modernSt. Petersburg.[31]
Eleventh-centuryByzantine sources refer to Kylfings (Κουλπίγγοι,Koulpingoi; often attested in thegenitive pluralΚουλπίγγων,Koulpingon) as being among the foreigners serving as mercenaries inConstantinople, but appear to distinguish between them and the Varangians.[32][33] For instance, an imperialchrysobull, an edict bearing a golden seal, issued in 1073 exempts certainmonasteries from being forced tobillet soldiers of specificethne: Varangians,Rus',Saracens,Franks andKoulpingoi. In previous edicts issued in 1060 and 1068 the Koulpingoi had not been separately delineated.[34] Similar edicts were issued in 1082, 1086, and 1088.[34] The edict issued byAlexios I Komnenos 1088, for instance, reads:
The whole of the above-mentioned island [ofPatmos], as well as the monastery with all its properties, is grantedexkousseia [exemption] from the billetting [mitata] of all commanders, bothRhomaioi and foreign allies, that is the Rus, Varangians, Koulpingoi,Inglinoi,Frangoi,Nemitsoi,Bulgarians, Saracens,Alans,Abasgoi, theImmortals, and all other Romans and foreigners.[35]
The Kylfings were also active in the eastern Baltic and northern Russia.Kylfingaland may have been used to refer toKarelia; on some runestones it has been interpreted as a synonym forGarðariki, the Old Norse name forRussia.[5][36] The eleventh-centuryRuskaya Pravda, thelaw code of theKievan Rus', grants certain privileges to Kylfings (Колбяги or "Kolbiagi") in addition to Varangians ("Varyagi").[37] For instance, Varangians and Kylfings were entitled to press charges with an oath without relying on any witnesses. In addition, in order to swear innocence, they needed only two witnesses, whereas a native Slav needed as many as seven. Moreover, the Varangians and the Kylfings were entitled to give shelter to a fugitive for as many as three days, whereas Slavs and others had to hand him over directly.[22]
A military organization calledKölpények is reported to have existed inMedieval Hungary during the tenth, eleventh and twelfth centuries. Hungarian scholars have proposed that theKölpények were identical with the Kylfings/Kolbiagi.[38][39] Hungarian sources regard theKölpények as being of Scandinavian origin. They were hired by the early rulers of theHouse of Arpad, particularlyTaksony of Hungary in the 950s, to serve as frontier guards. They fought with theirMagyar employers alongsideSviatoslav I of Kiev againstBulgaria and the Byzantine Empire. Alternatively, theKölpények may have been ofPecheneg origin, as there was a Pecheneg tribal group calledKülbej during roughly the same period.[40]
Theskaldic poetThorbjorn Hornklofi wrote aboutAustkylfur, or "East-Kylfings", in his epic poemHaraldskvæði. In some manuscripts the name was, probably erroneously, renderedauðkylfur or "rich men".[41] Somephilologists, using the nautical meaning of the wordkylfa, interpret the phrase as "eastern ships".[42] Others, such as F. Jonsson, interpretedAustkylfur to mean "eastern logs", while Vigfusson believed that the phrase properly meant simply "men of the east".[41] Another interpretation of the term used inHaraldskvæði is the derogatory "eastern oafs".[43]
Guðmundsson specifically identified theAustkylfur of Hornklofi's poem with the Kylfings mentioned elsewhere in Scandinavian and Eastern European sources, and interpreted the phraseAustkylfur to mean "eastern club-wielding men".[44]
InHaraldskvæði as recorded bySnorri Sturluson in theHeimskringla, the Austrkylfur were described as being opponents of Harald Fairhair at the Battle of Hafrsfjord. As such they formed part of the force, led byKjotve the Rich ofAgder and the kings andjarls ofHordaland,Rogaland, andTelemark, that came to Hafrsfjord to fight Harald's encroachinghegemony. The exact relationship between theAustkylfur and the anti-Harald coalition is unknown. Nora Chadwick identifies theAustkylfur as the part of the force opposing Harald that came from Agder and Telemark. These districts lie further east than the other kingdoms opposing Harald's rule.[41] After their defeat by Harald and his army, the Kylfings' property was plundered and their womenfolk, described as "eastern maidens", were distributed by the victorious king among his warriors.
| Date | Work mentioned | Details |
|---|---|---|
| c. 880s | Thorbjorn Hornklofi'sHaraldskvæði, composed c. 900 (as preserved in the 13th-centuryHeimskringla) | The "Austkylfur" participate in theBattle of Hafrsfjord betweenHarald Fairhair, King of Norway, and a coalition led by KingKjotve of Agder; their women are divided as spoils of war among Harald's warriors.[41][45] |
| c. 900 | Egil's Saga (13th century) | Thorolf Kveldulfsson defeated a large force of Kylfing marauders in northern Norway around this time.[15] |
| c. 950 | Gesta Hungarorum, written 1100-1200 | PrinceTaksony of Hungary hires mercenaries calledKölpények, probably identical with the Kylfings.[38][39] |
| 970–972 | Gesta Hungarorum | Kölpények mercenaries serve in the Magyar army in support ofSviatoslav I of Kiev's Bulgar campaign.[39] |
| c. 1000 | Runestones Sö 318, U 320, U 419, U 445 | Swedish runestones are erected bearing the personal name "Kylfingr".[46] |
| 1010s | Russkaya Pravda, law code of the Kievan Rus' | Start of codification ofRusskaya Pravda, which grants special rights and privileges to theKolbiagi.[47] |
| 1070s–1080s | Byzantine chrysobulls | Koulpingoi are mentioned among other nations with contingents in theByzantine army.[48] |
| c.1100 | Gesta Hungarorum | Kölpények mercenaries still active in Hungary.[39] |
| c.1150 | Landfræði, a geographical text by IcelanderNikolas Bergsson | Russia is referred to asKylfingaland.[46] |
| c.1400 | Bjarkarimur, a poem based in part on the lostSkjoldunga Saga | Mention is made of a berserkr from the "Land of the Kylfings."[49] |
Names initalics are settlements whoseNorse names are not recorded | ||
| Volkhov-Volga trade route |  | |
| Dvina-Dnieper trade route | ||
| Other locations | ||