Map showing the major Varangian trade routes: theVolga trade route (in red) and theDnieper and Dniester routes (in purple). Other trade routes of the 8th–11th centuries shown in orange.
According to the 12th-centuryPrimary Chronicle, a group of Varangians known as theRus'[9] settled inNovgorod in 862 under the leadership ofRurik. Before Rurik, the Rus' might have ruled an earlier hypothetical polity known as theRus' Khaganate. Rurik's relativeOleg conquered Kiev in 882 and established the state of Kievan Rus', which was later ruled byRurik's descendants.[10][11]
Attracted by the riches of Constantinople, the Varangian Rus' began theRus'-Byzantine Wars, some of which resulted in advantageous trade treaties. At least from the early 10th century, many Varangians served as mercenaries in theByzantine Army, constituting the eliteVarangian Guard (thebodyguards ofByzantine emperors). Eventually most of them, in Byzantium and in Eastern Europe, were converted fromNorse paganism toOrthodox Christianity, culminating in theChristianization of Kievan Rus' in 988. Coinciding with the general decline of theViking Age, the influx ofScandinavians to Rus' stopped and Varangians were gradually assimilated by East Slavs by the late 11th century.
Medieval Greek ΒάραγγοςVárangos andOld East Slavic варягъvarjagŭ (Old Church Slavonic варѧгъvaręgŭ) are derived fromOld Norseværingi, originally a compound ofvár 'pledge' or 'faith', andgengi 'companion', thus meaning 'sworn companion', 'confederate', extended to mean 'a foreigner who has taken service with a new lord by a treaty of fealty to him', or 'protégé'.[1][14] Some scholars seem to assume a derivation fromvár with the common suffix-ing.[15] However, this suffix is inflected differently in Old Norse. Furthermore, the word is attested with-gangia and cognates in other Germanic languages in the Early Middle Ages; examples includeOld Englishwærgenga,Old Frankishwargengus andLangobardicwaregang.[16] The reduction of the second part of the word could be parallel to that seen in Old Norseforingi 'leader', correspondent to Old Englishforegenga andGothic 𐍆𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌰𐌲𐌰𐌲𐌲𐌾𐌰fauragaggja 'steward'.[17][18]
Map of geographic distribution of Varangian Runestones (almost all of which are found in present-daySweden)TheByzantine cross, onU 161, a cross which is today the coat of arms of the municipality ofTäby, SwedenOne of therunic inscriptions in Hagia Sophia, probably carved by members of the Varangian Guard
There are raised stone memorials calledrunestones throughout Scandinavia of which almost all are found inSweden. Many date to theViking Age, and there are many associated with the Varangian Guards. TheseVarangian runestones commemorate various fallen warriors through carvedrunes, and mention voyages to the East (Austr) or the Eastern route (Austrvegr), or to more specific eastern locations such asGarðaríki (what is today Russia and Ukraine). The losses that the Varangian Guard suffered are reflected by the largest group of runestones that talk of foreign voyages, such as those known as theGreece Runestones.[19] These were raised by former members of the Varangian Guard, or in their memory. A smaller group consists of the fourItaly Runestones which commemorate members of the Varangian Guard who died in southern Italy.
One of the later runestones in thePr4 style isEd runestone U 112, a large boulder at the western shore of the lake of Ed. It tells that Ragnvaldr, the captain of the Varangian Guard, had returned home where he had the inscriptions made in memory of his dead mother.[21]
Piraeus Lion drawing of curvedlindworm. The runes on the lion tell ofSwedish warriors, most likely Varangians, mercenaries in the service of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Emperor.
The Varangians returned home with some influence from Byzantine culture, as exemplified by theByzantine cross carved on the early eleventh-centuryRisbyle runestone U 161, and which today is thecoat-of-arms ofTäby, a trimunicipal locality and the seat of Täby Municipality in Stockholm County, Sweden.[22] The runes were made by the runemasterVikingUlf of Borresta, seeOrkesta runestone U 344, in memory of another Ulf, in Skålhamra, and at the request of the latter's father.[22]
Having settledAldeigja (Ladoga) in the 750s,Norse colonists played an important role in the early ethnogenesis of the Rus' people and in the formation of theRus' Khaganate. The Varangians (Varyags, inOld East Slavic) are first mentioned by thePrimary Chronicle as having exacted tribute from the Slavic and Finnic tribes in 859. It was the time of rapid expansion of the Vikings in Northern Europe; England began to payDanegeld in 859, and theCuronians ofGrobin faced an invasion by the Swedes at about the same date.
It has been argued that the wordVarangian, in its many forms, does not appear in primary sources until the eleventh century (though it does appear frequently in later sources describing earlier periods). This suggests that the termRus' was used broadly to denote Scandinavians until it became too firmly associated with the subsequent elite of Kievan Rus who assimilated Slavic culture. At that point, the new termVarangian was increasingly preferred to name Scandinavians, probably mostly from what is now Sweden,[24] plying the river routes between the Baltic and the Black and Caspian Seas.[25]
Due largely to geographic considerations, it is often argued that most of the Varangians who traveled and settled in the lands of eastern Baltic, modern Russia and lands to the south came from the area of modern Sweden.
The Varangians left rune stones in their native Sweden that tell of their journeys to what is today Russia, Ukraine, Greece, and Belarus. Most of these rune stones can be seen today, and are a telling piece of historical evidence. The Varangian runestones tell of many notable Varangian expeditions, and even account for the fates of individual warriors and travelers.[26]
The Rus' initially appeared in Serkland in the 9th century, traveling as merchants along the Volga trade route, selling furs, honey, and slaves, as well as luxury goods such as amber, Frankish swords, and walrus ivory.[27] These goods were mostly exchanged for Arabic silver coins, called dirhams. Hoards of 9th-centuryBaghdad-minted silver coins have been found in Sweden, particularly in Gotland. Variations in the size of the coin hoards show that there were phases of increased importation of coins and sometime decades during which very few coins were imported.[28]
The economic relationship between the Rus and the Islamic world developed quickly into a network of trading routes. Initially the Rus founded Staraya Ladoga as the first node from the Baltic to the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. By the end of the 9th century, Staraya Ladoga was replaced as the most important center by Novgorod. From these centers the Rus were able to send their goods as far as Baghdad. Baghdad was the political and cultural center of the Islamic world in the 9th and 10th centuries and the Rus merchants who went there to trade their goods for silver interacted with cultures and goods from the Islamic World, and also from China, India, and North Africa.[29]
The trade between the Rus and the lands south of the Black and Caspian seas made it possible for cultural interactions to take place between the Rus and the Islamic World. The account written byAhmad ibn Fadlan about his 921–922 travels from Baghdad to the capital of theFirst Bulgarian Empire gives details which can reveal the cultural interaction between the two groups. Ibn Fadlan gives a vivid description of the Rus and their daily habits. He describes them as perfect physical specimens........ having bodies tall as (date) palm trees, with blond hair and ruddy skin. Each is tattooed from "the tips of his toes to his neck" with dark blue or dark green "designs" (they were known to make an inky-blue dye from wood ash) and all men are armed with an axe, sword, and long knife. He wrote the only known first-person account of the complicated ship-burning funeral ceremony. Certain details in his account, especially the dialogue of the ceremonies and his personal conversations with Rus individuals, show that the Rus and the Muslims were interested in and fairly knowledgeable about each other's cultures.[30]
The geography of the Volga region and the relative lack of physical wealth available for stealing (compared to targets of Viking raids in the west) made raiding a less important aspect of the Rus/Varangian activities in the East. Some raiding was necessary to gain initial control of the towns and regions that they developed into centers of economic activities.[31] The first small-scale raids took place in the late 9th and early 10th centuries. The Rus' undertook the first large-scale expedition in 913; having arrived on 500 ships, they pillagedGorgan, in the territory of present-dayIran, and the adjacent areas, taking slaves and goods. On their return, the northern raiders were attacked and defeated byKhazar Muslims in theVolga Delta, and those who escaped were killed by the local tribes on the middleVolga.
During their next expedition in 943, the Rus' capturedBarda, the capital ofArran, in the modern-day Republic ofAzerbaijan. The Rus' stayed there for several months, killing many inhabitants of the city and amassing substantial plunder. It was only an outbreak ofdysentery among the Rus' that forced them to depart with their spoils.Sviatoslav, prince of Kiev, commanded the next attack, which destroyed the Khazar state in 965. Sviatoslav's campaign established Rus' control over the north–south trade routes, helping to alter the demographics of the region. Raids continued through the time period with the last Scandinavian attempt to reestablish the route to the Caspian Sea led byIngvar the Far-Travelled in 1041. While there, Varangians took part in the Georgian-ByzantineBattle of Sasireti inGeorgia (1042).
Varangian Guardsmen, an illumination from the 11th-century chronicle ofJohn Skylitzes
The earliestByzantine record of the Rus' may have been written prior to 842. It is preserved in the GreekLife of St. George of Amastris, which speaks of a raid that had extended intoPaphlagonia. Contemporary Byzantine presence of the Rus' is mentioned in theFrankishAnnals of St. Bertin. These relate that a delegation from the court of theByzantine emperor visited FrankishEmperorLouis the Pious at his court inIngelheim in 839. In this delegation were two men who called themselvesRhos (Rhos vocari dicebant). Louis enquired about their origins and learnt that they were Swedes. Fearing that they were spies for their brothers, theDanes, he incarcerated them.
In 860, the Rus' underAskold and Dir launched theirfirst attack on Constantinople from Kiev. The result of this attack is disputed, but the Varangians continued their efforts as they regularly sailed on theirmonoxyla down the Dnieper into theBlack Sea. The Rus'raids into the Caspian Sea were recorded by Muslim authors in the 870s and in 910, 912, 913, 943, and later. Although the Rus' had predominantly peaceful trading relations with the Byzantines, the rulers of Kiev launched the relatively successfulnaval expedition of 907 and theabortive campaign of 941 against Constantinople, as well as the large-scale invasion of theBalkans bySviatoslav I in 968–971.
In 1043, Yaroslav sent his son Vladimir to attack Constantinople. The Byzantines destroyed the attacking vessels and defeated Vladimir[32]
These raids were successful in forcing the Byzantines to re-arrange their trading arrangements; militarily, the Varangians were usually defeated by the superior Byzantine forces, especially in the sea due to Byzantine use ofGreek fire.
Another illumination of a scene from theSkylitzes Chronicle, depicting aThracesian woman killing a Varangian who tried to rape her, whereupon his comrades praised her and gave her his possessions.[33]
The Varangian Guard (Greek: Τάγμα των Βαράγγων,Tágma tōn Varángōn) were a part ofByzantine Army and personal bodyguards of theByzantine emperors from the 10th to the 14th centuries. Initially the guard was composed of Varangians who came from Kievan Rus'.
Immigrants fromScandinavia (predominantly immigrants from Sweden[24] but also elements fromDenmark andNorway)[25] kept an almost entirely Norse cast to the organization until the late 11th century. According to the late Swedish historianAlf Henrikson in his bookSvensk Historia (History of Sweden), the Norse Varangian guardsmen were recognised by long hair, a red ruby set in the left ear and ornamented dragons sewn on their chainmail shirts.
In these years,Swedish men left to enlist in the Byzantine Varangian Guard in such numbers that a medieval Swedish law,Västgötalagen, fromVästergötland declared no one could inherit while staying in "Greece"—the then Scandinavian term for theByzantine Empire—to stop the emigration,[34] especially as two other European courts simultaneously also recruited Scandinavians:[35]Kievan Rus' c. 980–1060 andLondon 1018–1066 (theÞingalið).[35]
Composed primarily of Scandinavians for the first hundred years, the guard increasingly includedAnglo-Saxons after the successfulNorman Conquest of England. By the time of EmperorAlexios Komnenos in the late 11th century, the Varangian Guard was largely recruited from Anglo-Saxons and "others who had suffered at the hands of the Vikings and their cousins the Normans".[citation needed] The Anglo-Saxons and other Germanic peoples shared with the Vikings a tradition of faithful, oath-bound service (to death if necessary), and after the Norman Conquest of England there were many fighting men, who had lost their lands and former masters, looking for a living elsewhere.
The Varangian Guard not only provided security for Byzantine emperors but participated in many wars involving Byzantium and often played a crucial role, since it was usually employed at critical moments of battle. By the late 13th century, Varangians were mostly ethnically assimilated by Byzantines, though the guard operated until at least the mid-14th century, and in 1400 there were still some people identifying themselves as "Varangians" in Constantinople.
Rosemary Sutcliff's 1976 historical novelBlood Feud depicts Basil II's formation of the Varangian Guard from the point of view of a half-Saxon orphan who journeyed to Constantinople via the Dnieper trade route.
Henry Treece'sViking Trilogy recounts the adventures of Harald Sigurdson, including service in the Varangian Guard.
AlsoPoul Anderson'sThe Last Viking, another version ofHarald Hardrada's life, features his time in the Varangian Guard and his tragic love for a Greek woman of Constantinople.
Swedish writerFrans G. Bengtsson's Viking sagaThe Long Ships (orRed Orm) includes a section in which the main character's brother serves in the Varangians and gets involved in Byzantine court intrigues, with highly unpleasant results.
InThe Bulpington of Blup (1933) byH. G. Wells, the father of the protagonist maintains for years the fiction that he is at work on "a History of the Varangians that was to outshineDoughty".
Turisas' second studio albumThe Varangian Way is a concept album that tells the story of a group of Scandinavians traveling the river routes of medieval Russia, through Ladoga, Novgorod and Kiev to the Byzantine Empire. Their third album,Stand Up and Fight, describes the history of the Varangian Guard's service to the Byzantine Empire.
In the PC game seriesMount & Blade, the name and location of the Vaegirs echos the Varangians. Their faction have a unique unit called a "Vaegir Guard".
A class of units in the multiplayer mode of the video gameMount & Blade II: Bannerlord belonging to the Rus inspired Sturgian faction, is called 'Varyag'.
Russian writerDmitry Bykov's novelLiving Souls (ЖД) involved a civil war between Varangians andKhazars over the control of Russia
^H.S. Falk & A. Torp,Norwegisch-Dänisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 1911, pp. 1403–04; J. de Vries,Altnordisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 1962, pp. 671–72; S. Blöndal & B. Benedikz,The Varangians of Byzantium, 1978, p. 4
^Falk & Torp, p. 1403; other words with the same second part are: Old Norseerfingi 'heir',armingi oraumingi 'beggar",bandingi 'captive',hamingja 'luck',heiðingi 'wolf',lausingi orleysingi 'homeless'; cf. Falk & Torp, p. 34; Vries, p. 163.
^A massive majority (40,000) of all Viking-Age Arabic coins found in Scandinavia come from Gotland. In Skåne, Öland and Uppland together, about 12,000 coins were found. Other Scandinavian areas have only scattered finds: 1,000 in Denmark and 500 in Norway.Byzantine coins have been found almost exclusively in Gotland, some 400 of them. See: Burenhult, Göran (1999).Arkeologi i Norden 2 [Archeology in the Nordic countries, part 2] (in Swedish). Stockholm:Natur & Kultur.ISBN9789127134782. See also: Gardell, Carl Johan (1987).Gotlands historia i fickformat [The pocket history of Gotland] (in Swedish).ISBN91-7810-885-3.
^abMarika Mägi,InAustrvegr: The Role of the Eastern Baltic in Viking Age Communication Across the Baltic Sea, The Northern World, 84 (Leiden: Brill, 2018), p. 195, citing Alf Thulin, 'The Rus' of Nestor's Chronicle',Mediaeval Scandinavia, 13 (2000), 70–96.
Raffaele D'Amato; Rava, Giuseppe (illustrator).The Varangian Guard 988–1453. "Men-at-Arms" series, Osprey, 2010.ISBN978-1849081795. Illustrated reconstruction of arms and armor of Varangians.
Ermolovich M.I., Ancient Belarus – Polotsk and Novogrudskii period, 1990 (Ермаловіч М. І. Старажытная Беларусь. Полацкі і Навагародскі перыяд. Мн., 1990.) (in Belarusian)
Saganovich G., Outline of the History of Belarus from antiquity to the end of 18th century (Сагановіч Г. Нарыс гісторыі Беларусі ад старажытнасці да канца XVIII ст. Мн., 2001.) (in Belarusian)
Hrushevsky, M. "History of Ukraine-Rus". Vol.2 Ch.4 (page 5) (in Ukrainian)
