THE TALE OF VIKINGS IN THE EAST is dominated by the Swedes, who took to their sails with a slightly difference tune than their brethren in the West. Before we saw plunder, settlement, and breaths of conquest in the West with the Danes and the Norwegians, but here we shall see ‘Vikings’ primarily trading and providing mercenary services. Although it seems true that the Swedish ‘campaigns’ were far more peaceful in nature as a result, it must not be assumed that it was free from violence and wrong-doings. They may have not set out to conquer the kingdoms they came across, as some Viking leaders sought in the West, but this was largely because the ‘kingdoms’ of the East were either too poor to raid, or too strong to even pose as a threat.
0. A MAP OF THE VIKING AGE EAST:
REGIONALLY, this lesson focuses on the areas surrounding the Baltic Sea. In the next lesson, that focus will shift to Novgorod and Kiev, followed by the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) in the final portion of this segment.
I. SPECIAL TERMS:
THOSE WHO WENT EAST were often called by slightly different names than those who went west; there are two terms for them: Rúsand Væringjar (both being in the plural). The first term, Rús, is thought to be derived from Ruosti, which was the name that the Finns used for Swedes, “which itself probably derives from the Scandinavian róðr, meaning a crew of oarsmen.”1 This term is attested in a detailed account written by an Arab diplomat named Ibn Fadlan in the tenth century, who was “on a diplomatic mission to the Turkic-speaking Khazars and Bulagrs” when he stumbled across these ‘Rús’.2 At least according to the sources we have available, this term has only been used to refer to Scandinavians who were living in the East, specifically in the area now called Russia (which gets its very name from the term Rús).3 Therefore, the term did not apply to those who still called Scandinavia their home.
The second term, Væringjar, comes into play slightly after the term Rús, from the mid-tenth century onward. It is believed to have derived from the Old Norse word várar, which means ‘oath’ or ‘pledge’, with the term Væringjar itself then meaning “Men of the Pledge.”4 It is also interesting to note that there was a goddess of oath-keeping in the Norse pantheon, whose name was Vár. A clear linguistic connection is present in the Norse word várar, which itself means ‘oath’. She is attested in Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda, but references to her can be found elsewhere as well.5 Regardless, this term likely came into use as a way to distinguish the Scandinavians who arrived later from those who had come earlier and were now lived in the region as Rús. Thus, to clarify, the Rús were Slavicized Scandinavians living in the East, primarily in Russia, whereas the Væringjar were Scandinavians who came shortly after in search for economic and mercenary opportunities, but not necessarily permanent settlement.6
II. THE REASONS FOR FURTHER EXPANSION INTO THE EAST:
‘VIKING’ PRESENCE IN THE EAST actually predates “the outbreak of Viking raiding in the west by more than a century.”7 This should not come across as very surprising, though, given the proximity of this region to Scandinavia. The graves of Scandinavian merchants in Elbing and Grobin (see map above) “show that the earliest phase of this expansion began around 650.”8 In the early stages, their primary motive remained fixated on trade route and centers, which arguably reached a peak in the 830s when the Rús “had established direct trade contacts with the Arab traders on the Volga and with the Byzantines at Constantinople.”9 It was this introduction to the fine quality silver coins that drove them further east. This economic push continued until the silver mines of the Islamic world were exhausted between 965 and 1015. After this, only warriors seeking to join the ranks of the Varangian guard at Constantinople as mercenaries passed through. And after 1066, even those men were less in number as the Varangian ranks were filled with exiled Anglo-Saxons.10
III. THE SLAVS OF THE WEST AND OF THE EAST:
The Baltic Sea could very well have been regarded as a “Viking lake” during the ninth and tenth centuries.11 Yet, this does not mean that it was a friendly place to be. They violently competed over economic resources, such as trading centers, and were themselves subject to Viking raids. Our sources are thin on the matter, but there is little doubt that the West Slavs (Balts) faced a great deal of pressure from their increasingly active neighbors to the north. Great legends even arose from their interactions, such as that of the Jomsvikings. They were “a sworn fellowship of elite vikings who swore their services to the highest bidder.”12 Although legendary in nature, their stories stem from a hint of truth, as archaeological digs have begun to suggest. These excavations have shown that “there was a fortified trading settlement and Slavic cult center” at Wolin in the tenth century.13 This site would have been populated by both Scandinavians and Slavs, and it could be the inspiration behind the legendary fortress of Jomsburg. Aside from violence and legend, though, there was a fair amount of cultural exchange between the Norsemen and the West Slavs. It is possible that the Slavs learned shipbuilding from the Scandinavians, who in return picked up bridge-building techniques from the Slavs. Having the better part of the bargain, the Slavs used these new shipbuilding skills to give the Scandinavians a “dose of their own medicine” in the eleventh century.14
Although the Scandinavians were very active in the east, they did not play a large role in the cultural development of the Slavs there. The Slavs living in eastern Europe were “at a very similar level of social and technological development as the Vikings.”15 The only benefit the Rús truly seemed to introduced was a source for strong leadership. Culturally and stately speaking, though, the Slavs of the east were swayed far more by the southern neighbors; the Eastern Roman Empire in the south was a tremendously more powerful influence on them than the Scandinavians were.16 Besides, the Rús had been assimilated into the Slavic population by the eleventh century, although the process had definitely begun before that time.17 In the end, the Slavs of the east were more strongly defined and molded by their neighbors to the south, who gave them their “alphabet, literature, architecture, music, art, law, education system, and political ideologies.”18 The Rús, however, only provided them a catalyst for the formation of a more centralized state that would inevitably be forged in the image of their more powerful southern neighbors.
WITH THIS BACKGROUND, the lessons to come should be much more fruitful. ‘Viking’ activity in the east was not centered around raids, but rather on trade routes and state-building, which was directly connected to the trade routes they wished to control. Scandinavians, mostly from the region of Sweden, came to settle among the eastern Slavs as Rús, or travelled further south in search of fame as Væringjar, becoming mercenaries who protected to Emperor in Constantinople. Both of these subjects will be discussed in more detail in the following lessons to come. The Slavs, whom the Scandinavians encountered the most while in the east, were very similar to the Scandinavians, and thus they did not have as much to offer them in terms of development as the Eastern Romans did, who had a strong, centralized state. The story of Vikings in the east is then one that is filled with economic competition, trade routes, and state-building. It is quite a different story from what is told about the Vikings who sailed across the unknown to raid and conquer parts of the British Isles.
Footnotes
- John Haywood, The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings(London: Penguin Books, 1995), 100. (Hereafter more simply listed as ‘Atlas’.) ↩︎
- Jesse L. Byock, “Introduction,” in Viking Language 1: Learn Old Norse, Runes, and Icelandic Sagas (Pacific Palisades, CA: Jules William Press, 2013), 32. The more exact date for this is 922. ↩︎
- Atlas, 100. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- The Prose Edda just happens to be the most convenient place to find a mentioning of her, in that it is considered to be easily accessible and dedicated to the subject of mythology, although the details are vague even there. The description of her from the Prose Edda goes as such: “…she listens to people’s oaths and private agreements that women and men make between each other. Thus these contracts are called várar. She also punishes those who break them.” Snorri Sturluson, Edda, translated by Anthony Faulkes (Everyman, 1995), 30. [Online Edition] ↩︎
- Atlas, 100. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Ibid., 104. Recall the Norman conquest of England. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Ibid., 105. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Ibid., 103. ↩︎
- Ibid., 104. We will be discussing this subject in more detail in the next lesson. In short, though, it is not surprising to see the massive empire of the Eastern Romans out-beat the Vikings of the north in being more influential in state development. The Eastern Romans had a far impressive and imposing state, after all. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
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