The Varangians (); ; , or "Varangian ," Online Etymology Dictionary were VikingIldar Kh. Garipzanov, The Annals of St. Bertin (839) and Chacanus of the Rhos . Ruthenica 5 (2006) 3–8 sides with the old theory. warriors, traders and settlers, mostly from present-day Sweden, who settled in the territories of present-day Belarus, Russia and Ukraine from the 8th and 9th centuries and established the state of Kievan Rus' as well as the principalities of Polotsk and Turov. They also formed the Byzantine Varangian Guard.
According to the 12th-century Primary Chronicle, a group of Varangians known as the Rus' settled in Novgorod in 862 under the leadership of Rurik. Before Rurik, the Rus' might have ruled an earlier hypothetical polity known as the Rus' Khaganate. Rurik's relative Oleg conquered Kiev in 882 and established the state of Kievan Rus', which was later ruled by Rurik's descendants.
Engaging in trade, piracy, and mercenary service, Varangians roamed the river systems and portages of Gardariki, as the areas north of the Black Sea were known in the Norse sagas. They controlled the Volga trade route (between the Varangians and the Muslims), connecting the Baltic to the Caspian Sea and the Dnieper and Dniester trade route (between Varangians and the Greeks) leading to the Black Sea and Constantinople.Stephen Turnbull, The Walls of Constantinople, AD 324–1453, Osprey Publishing, . Those were the main important trade links at that time, connecting Medieval Europe with the Abbasid Caliphate and the Byzantine Empire.Schofield, Tracey Ann Vikings , Lorenz Educational Press, p. 7, Most of the silver coinage in the West came from the East via those routes.
Attracted by the riches of Constantinople, the Varangian Rus' began the Rus'-Byzantine Wars, some of which resulted in advantageous trade treaties. At least from the early 10th century, many Varangians served as mercenaries in the Byzantine Army, constituting the elite Varangian Guard (the bodyguards of Byzantine emperors). Eventually most of them, in Byzantium and in Eastern Europe, were converted from Norse paganism to Orthodox Christianity, culminating in the Christianization of Kievan Rus' in 988. Coinciding with the general decline of the Viking Age, the influx of Scandinavians to Rus' stopped and Varangians gradually assimilated into Slavic culture by the late 11th century.
Etymology Medieval Greek Βάραγγος Várangos and Old East Slavic варягъ varjagŭ (Old Church Slavonic варѧгъ varęgŭ) are derived from Old Norse væringi, originally a compound of vár 'pledge' or 'faith', and gengi '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'.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 Some scholars seem to assume a derivation from vár with the common suffix -ing.Hellquist 1922:1096 , 1172; M. Vasmer, Russisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 1953, vol. 1, p. 171. 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 include Old English wærgenga, Old Frankish wargengus and Langobardic waregang.Blöndal & Benedikz, p. 4; D. Parducci, "Gli stranieri nell’alto medioevo", Mirator 1 (2007)in Italian , English abstract The reduction of the second part of the word could be parallel to that seen in Old Norse foringi 'leader', correspondent to Old English foregenga and Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌰𐌲𐌰𐌲𐌲𐌾𐌰 fauragaggja 'steward'.Falk & Torp, p. 1403; other words with the same second part are: Old Norse erfingi 'heir', armingi or aumingi 'beggar", bandingi 'captive', hamingja 'luck', heiðingi 'wolf', lausingi or leysingi 'homeless'; cf. Falk & Torp, p. 34; Vries, p. 163.Bugge, Sophus, Arkiv för nordisk filologi 2 (1885), p. 225
Runestones
There are raised stone memorials called runestones throughout Scandinavia of which almost all are found in Sweden. Many date to the Viking Age, and there are many associated with the Varangian Guards. These Varangian runestones commemorate various fallen warriors through carved runes, and mention voyages to the East (Austr) or the Eastern route (Austrvegr), or to more specific eastern locations such as Garðaríki (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 the Greece Runestones.Larsson, Mats G (2002). Götarnas Riken : Upptäcktsfärder Till Sveriges Enande. Bokförlaget Atlantis AB p. 143–144. These were raised by former members of the Varangian Guard, or in their memory. A smaller group consists of the four Italy Runestones which commemorate members of the Varangian Guard who died in southern Italy.
The oldest of the Greece runestones are six stones in the RAK style, which dates to the period before 1015 AD.Runriket Täby-Vallentuna – en handledning, by Rune Edberg gives the start date 985, but the Rundata project includes also Iron Age and earlier Viking Age runestones in the RAK style. The group consists of Skepptuna runestone U 358, Västra Ledinge runestone U 518, Nälberga runestone Sö 170 and Eriksstad runestone Sm 46.The dating is provided by the Rundata project in a freely downloadable database.
One of the later runestones in the Pr4 style is Ed 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.
The youngest runestones, in the Pr5 style, such as Ed runestone U 104 (presently in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford), are dated to the period 1080–1130, after which runestones became unfashionable.
The Varangians returned home with some influence from Byzantine culture, as exemplified by the Byzantine cross carved on the early eleventh-century Risbyle runestone U 161, and which today is the coat-of-arms of Täby, a trimunicipal locality and the seat of Täby Municipality in Stockholm County, Sweden.The article 5. Runriket – Risbyle on the website of the Stockholm County Museum, retrieved 7 July 2007. The runes were made by the runemaster Viking Ulf of Borresta, see Orkesta runestone U 344, in memory of another Ulf, in Skålhamra, and at the request of the latter's father.
Kievan Rus'
In the 9th century, the Rus' operated the Volga trade route, which connected Northern Rus (Garðaríki) with the Middle East (Serkland). The Volga route declined by the end of the century, and the Dnieper and Dniester routes rapidly overtook it in importance. Apart from Ladoga and Novgorod, Gnyozdovo and Gotland were major centers for Varangian trade.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:See also:
Having settled Aldeigja (Ladoga) in the 750s, Norse colonists played an important role in the early ethnogenesis of the Rus' people and in the formation of the Rus' Khaganate. The Varangians (Varyags, in Old East Slavic) are first mentioned by the Primary 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 pay Danegeld in 859, and the Curonians of Grobin faced an invasion by the Swedes at about the same date.
It has been argued that the word Varangian, 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 term Rus 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 term Varangian was increasingly preferred to name Scandinavians, probably mostly from what is now Sweden, plying the river routes between the Baltic and the Black and Caspian Seas.Marika Mägi, In Austrvegr: 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.
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.
Islamic world
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. These goods were mostly exchanged for Arabic silver coins, called dirhams. Hoards of 9th-century Baghdad-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.
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.
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 by Ahmad ibn Fadlan about his 921–922 travels from Baghdad to Bulghar 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.
"I saw the Rūs, who had come for trade and had camped by the river Itil. I have never seen bodies more perfect than theirs. They were like palm trees. They are fair and ruddy. They wear neither coats [qurtāq] nor caftans, but a garment which covers one side of the body and leaves one hand free. Each of them carries an axe, a sword and a knife and is never parted from any of the arms we have mentioned. Their swords are broad bladed and grooved like the Frankish ones. From the tips of his toes to his neck, each man is tattooed in dark green with designs, and so forth. All their women wear on their bosoms a circular brooch made of iron, silver, copper or gold, depending on their husband’s wealth and social position. Each brooch has a ring in which is a knife, also attached to the bosom."