Slavs in the Viking World Series: Introduction – Who Were the Vikings?
Source Marek Kalisinski
Were the Vikings One People? – The Difference Between Danish, Swedish and Norwegian Vikings
Well you must be wondering why I’m writing about Vikings this time. The reason is actually simple. Everyone knows that the Slavs were not united, and on the other hand, most of people believe that the Vikings were all united, even though they were just like Slavs – a bunch of tribes, and each tribe was doing whatever they wanted. Not even all the tribes were Norse. Our organization’s main focus is Slavic history, but that doesn’t mean that we must stay away from the history of other European ethnicities, especially those whose histories have been intertwined with ours. I also believe that Panslavism corresponds to and complements Europism.
In the upcoming series of articles, I will try to cover the Slavo-Norman relationship in early medieval times. But before I start, I would like to introduce you with the Viking society of the early medieval period. People usually tend to ignore that Viking history is full of wars between Viking tribes. So let me start.
Linguistic nuances over the modern use of the word ‘Viking’ aside, the fact is that the historical group known as “Vikings” were not a homogeneous people. The original meaning of the word Viking wasn’t a nationality. The runic inscriptions suggest that a viking was a man who left his homeland for adventure and profit abroad, with the implication that he planned to return home with his newly-won fortune and fame. The word existed in both a noun form (víkingr, the person traveling for adventure) and a verb form (víking, to travel or participate in one of these adventures). Even the origin of the word is debated. In the old Norse language, víkingr means a man from vík, where vík may have the sense of a bay, or the specific bay called Víkin in the south of Norway. Perhaps the name was applied because the first Viking raiders were from Víkin, or perhaps because the raiders waited in sheltered bays for their victims.
By the time the Sagas of Icelanders came to be written after the end of the Viking age, the word víkingr still had the sense of a raider, or an adventurer, who traveled overseas looking for fame and fortune. Many saga-age Icelanders and saga heroes are said to have gone on Viking adventures, notably Egill Skalla-Grímsson and his brother Þórólfr (Egils saga chapter 49).
Some of the “Viking” tribes were not Norse at all. Some Scandinavian tribes were Germanic, some Slavic, other Finnic. The Rugii tribe (Viking name) were actually a Slavic tribe from Pomerania called Runi, who had conquered parts of Norway. It is an interesting fact that Norway has the highest percentage of the R1a haplogroup (the haplogroup that is the most common in Poland, and especially in Pomerania). The genetic similarity between nations as distant as the Serbs and Norwegians is quite big: around 42% (for comparison, Polo-German similarity is 44.7%). The Rugii are probably the best example of a “Viking” tribe that was not Germanic at all and of the diversity of the Scandinavian people.
We know from various sources that from as early as the late 8th century, broad geographically-related forms of identity, such as Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian existed. These are not to be confused with the notion of national identity of the modern era — there were no unified forms of government that we would consider a nation-state quite yet, although they would develop closely thereafter through the late middle ages. Since Christian historians basically did not care that much about the differences between Scandinavian people, they called all of them Vikings (since they were from the North and were pagans). Similarly, Greek and Roman historians called all the people that lived on the territory of Germania – Germans, meaning ‘people;’ even though they were diverse and had plenty of tribes such as Saxons, Marcomanii etc.
Source Marek Kalisinski
We can actually find out more from Muslim chroniclers. The historian al-Yaqubi, in his geographical study of the Mediterranean, linked the Scandinavians from Sweden known as the Rus to those from Denmark who sacked Seville in Spain. He wrote that the attack on Seville in 844 AD was carried out by “the Magus, who are called the Rus.” Back then, the monotheistic religions of Christianity and Islam sought to unite the peoples of the world under one God. Their convictions about their own faith created a perceptual lens about the world that today we would call “us against them.” The differences between those outside groups were of little to no importance because, ultimately, it was believed that they would eventually be converted and brought into the fold. Therefore, an extremely two-dimensional view of Viking-age Scandinavians was created, one which broadly described them all as “pagans.”
Most of what we know about the Vikings, both politically and culturally, is derived from analyses of the Danes. Chroniclers such as Dudo, Alcuin, Saxo Grammaticus, Rimbert, and Notker among others, all focus nearly exclusively on the Danish people to form their conclusions. Therefore, we know much, much more about Viking-age Danes and their exploits than any other group. This is not surprising since the Danes were far more involved with the politics of the continent than the Norwegians and the Swedes.
In contrast to their cousins in Norway and Sweden, the Danes consistently appear to have been a regional, cultural, and military power from the mid-8th century onward. Even the Franks admitted in the Annals of Fulda that the Danes were the most powerful among the Northmen. As a political power, the Danes also had the closest thing to a monarchy of any of the the three regions.
Finally, the Danes developed far more ambitious plans for territorial conquest than any of the others. Their invasion of Britain, the establishment of the Danelaw, and the settlement of Normandy are a testament to their ambitions. Militarily, they are thought to have been more organized and disciplined, and probably better equipped, than their Swedish and Norwegian cousins.
It is against this body of knowledge about the Danes that we tend to compare the other Vikings. Unfortunately, we do not know all that much about the early political formations of Norway or Sweden. We do know that the Norwegians were poised to conduct raids before their Danish cousins – they were the first to attack Ireland and Western France, and are thought to have carried out the raid on Lindisfarne – but ultimately did not exert the same influence as the Danes across Europe. An example of this is the invasion Brittany in the late 9th Century where Norwegian Vikings took control of the regional center of Nantes. They held it for years until the Bretons expelled them, only to find a derelict city and no concerted effort to colonize the land as had been done in Britain and Normandy by the Danes.
Source Marek Kalisinski
Similarly, the Swedes, then known as Varangians, or Rus, were poised to discover and pillage new lands in the east along the Volga and Dniepper rivers. Their expeditions, however, were of a different sort than those of the Danes and Norwegians in the west. The goal of the Rus was primarily to trade (or so it is thought). According to the Russian Primary Chronicle, the brothers Rurik, Askold, and Dir were “invited” by the Slavs to be their rulers. Why this event occurred is unclear to this day, but most historians believe this was a capitulation by the Slavs to years of raids.
We are lucky insofar as we know that the Swedes were likely the most different among the three groups. The account of Ibn Fadlan during his embassy to the land of the Khazars demonstrates a few stark differences between the Rus (that is how he called Swedes) and the Danes. For one, the Rus (Swedes) were allegedly covered in blue tattoos, which is not something that was commonly reported by Frankish scholars. The method of burial for their king and their grooming habits, among other things, stand in contrast to their western cousins. This is evidence that from a cultural and religious standpoint, the Swedes were, for a time, very different from their Danish and Norwegian cousins.
In the upcoming series of articles we will focus on Slavo-Norman relationships. One part will be about western Slavs and ancestors of Danes and Norwegians, and the second part will be about the ancestors of Swedes and their role in creating Kievan Rus. Stay tuned.
We would like to thank Marek Kalisiński who has contributed to Slavic Chronicles by sharing his photos. Please check out his other work here.
“Similarly, the Swedes, then known as Varangians, or Rus, were poised to discover and pillage new lands in the east along the Volga and Dniepper rivers” (c)
Why do you think Swedes were Rus?
May be Swedes were Varangians but Rex Wagirorum (Wairensium) was Slavic Niklot.
The Rus from Denmark could be Rani or Rujani (Slavic tribe) from the island of Rugia (Rügen) which were defeated by Danish. The Pope Benedict XI called both princes of Rügen “principibus Russianorum”. At those times Swedes were under Danish control too.
So, may be not Swedes but Rani were Rus? “In the 11th and 12th centuries, they (Rani) also raided their neighbors in a Viking manner” (с) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rani_(Slavic_tribe)
The territory was firstly unified by Goths (Swedes) broken by the Huns, just thereafter, there’s a dispute who was the first ruler dynasty of Kievan Rus (Slavs or Vikings).
Of course, along with other ethnics, in Kievan Rus were living also Swedes (even nowadays, you find there not only Swedes, even Japanese tourists). How should they be called if were the settlers? If I’m once Chinese, Hungarian, or whatsoever else and everyone knows that I’m from Russia, so while they don’t know anything else except Russia (which is very well known abroad as a country) then they will call me Russian.
Even if we accept the idea that the first dynasty started as Slavic, this is totally pointless, all kings and aristocracy had been inter-marrying with foreign aristocracy (Slavic aristocracy always married family of Germanic tribes and vice versa).
Rather not, looking on the names of those people: Ivar, Rurik, Helga… typically nordmen…
you cannot simply go by the names. Boleslaw the Griffin of Pomerania was the King of Denmark Norway and Sweden. He changed his name to Eric of Pomerania so that the people of Scandinavia could at least pronounce his name. He was Slavic and was also known as the last Viking of the Baltic. Knut the great son of Forkbeard, was at least half polish and possibly 3/4 if his grandmother was Tofa. You can’t just go by names and assume they were not Slavic. Western Slavic peoples did not have a written language and most references about the slavs during the Viking ages were not written by the slavs so they get very little acknowledgement.
Important to note here that slavic raiders raided southern Sweden, northern Denmark and Gotland, by boat no less, during the viking age. Nordic writers even label them as “vikings”.
Great point – thank you.
Very important and still not discovered by historians is fact, that present Polish territory was sized by north tribes from the beginnings of our age, and maybe even before. II century, Gots, a bit later Vandals, who in my opinion not all migrated to southern Europe (invading Rome). Vandals stayed at Pomarania and Odra river bands until Slavs came around VI century and later. Very likely they ruled those lands even later, and the name of land from X century confirms it: Vandland, so land of Vandals… Slavic people run away from Huns/Scyths to the West and assimilated with local people. It took about 500-600 years! (let’s look on present history, where 1 million of Poles migrated to British islands just during last 20 years). Slavs naturally are brown eyes, dark hair, nord people blue eyes, blond hair… And what is probably the most important: Viking was a “profession” not nationality 🙂 Possibly many warriors from present Poland supported Knut the Great during his invasion of England, as Knut was nephew of Boleslav, Polish king (son of Boleslav’s sister, Sigurd). A lot of informations from local chronicles and a lot of archeological present exploitation says, that there was “very significant” influence of northmen. And as chronicle says: “Miesko (Boleslav’s father) was using other language talking with his warriors and previously was named by other name” 🙂
You need to read more history books and learn just the facts! And don’t make them up as you go along becuase then it starts to be fiction.
Are you kidding? 😄😄 slavs have “naturaly “ light eyes and light hairs you moron ,only slavs when majority have brown eyes and dark hair is on balkan -south serbia ,montenegro and bulgaria because they are prety will mixed….
Slavs are nordic and alpinese people only in Balkan is dinaric type major
Slavs are light eyed and light haired folk, mr.clever…🤦♂️
Many sources show Rurik as the leader of the Slavic Abodrites and Ruggians, from the island of Rugen.
First of all, the Slavs who settled the region of lake Ilmen (Novgorod) were related to the Slavs who inhabited an area to the southeast of Denmark, in northern present-day Germany. That tribe was called the Abodrites (Obodrichi), and they inhabited this area during the 8th and 9th centuries. The Abodrites and the Slovenes, Slavs of Novgorod, had many similarities in the area of religion, tradition, certain customs, geographic names, language, settlement layout and civilian and defensive construction, similarities that the Slavs around Kiev did not share with the Slavs of Novgorod.
This theory started attracting attention in the 18th cent. The scholar and founder of the first Russian university, M. V. Lomonosov once wrote that Rurik with his family/tribe was Slavic and spoke the Slavonic language; he came from the area between the rivers Vistula and West Dvina, near the river Rusa (Neman).
Russian historian V. N. Tatishchev wrote that Rurik came from Vandalia. Vandals were Slavs, and the Baltic Sea (Varangian/Vagrian Sea) was named so after the Vandal city of Vagria near Lubeck.
Kromer and Bernh(g)ard were quoted by Tatishchev as saying that Venedi (Wends) or Vandals were also called Pomeranians, Varini, Abodrites, Polyabi, Vagri, Rani, etc.
Helmold said that Vendi (Wends) lived between the Elbe and the Oder rivers.
Strykovsky quotes from the Nikon Chronicle as saying that those who invited the Varyazi-Rus to Novgorod were also called Rus themselves. The Chronicle also says: “…Slavonic tongue and Russian are one…” There were two Rus’s: one in Novgorod and one in southwest Baltic. Rurik and his tribe spoke the same language as the Slavs of Novgorod.
Gerard (George) Mercator (16th cent.) explains: “On that island, a pagan people lived by the name of Rani(ans) or Ruteni(ans), they were fierce and cruel in battle, fought violently against the Christians, to defend their idols… Their language was Slavonic or Vandalic. …”
This island is Rügen [off Germany’s Baltic coast, just south of Sweden]. It is known as Arkona, the last stronghold of northern paganism. Also on the island was the port of Ralsvik, identified with Veneti.
Princess Olga was called by the Germans “Regina Rugorum” and not “Regina Rusorum,” however Olga was the princess of Rusichi. Therefore Rugi and Rusi is the same name but different transcription.
Rugi were also called Rusini (or Rutheni), and their country was called Rusinia (Ruthenia), as stated in the Life of Otto of Bamberg. Otto places these Ruteni in Pomerania [northwestern Poland], … calls the leader Odoacer “genere Rogus.” In Salzburg, Austria, there is a stone tablet with the inscription: “Year of our Lord 477. Odoacer, leader of the rusini (rutheni), gepids, goths, ungarians and geruls…” Thus, Rugi-Ruyani-Rane-Rutheni from the island of Rugen and the delta of the river Vistula [Oder?] are the first in line to be identified as Varyazi-Rus. This is the only Rus “beyond the sea,” and this Rus was also called Vandals-Venedi. There is no tribe by the name of Rus in Scandinavia.
“Slavyania is ten times bigger than Saxony, if you include the Czechs and the Poles, who do not differ in either dress or tongue from the inhabitants of Slavyania. … The westernmost of the Slavs are Vagri, who border with the Transalbingians. Their city by the sea is Aldinburg (Stargrad). After them there are the Abodrites [to the East], their city is called Magnopolis (Velegrad)…” – Adam of Bremen, 1066.
A comparison is drawn between the names Rurik-Rorik, the tribe of Reregi, Rarogi, their city Rerik, with the western Slavic god of fire, Rarog. Rarogi are described by historians as a Slavic tribe living in the first millennium A.D. in the south of Jutland [Denmark], in the land that later became Mecklenburg.
A similarity is evident in the Runik Venedi inscriptions of the Slavic tribe Lyutichi (found in Mecklenburg) and that of Lyakhi (found in Poznan, Poland). The same similarity is seen in the Runes found on a cow’s rib in Novgorod as is in the images from Mecklenburg.
In “Les Letteres Sur le Nord,” by Xavier Marmier/Chivilikhin, the Legend of the Calling of Rurik of the Abodrites states that the leader of the Abodrites was King Godlav, he had three sons, equally strong, brave and yearning for glory. The first was Rurik, the second, Sivar, the third, Truvar… They went in search of adventure …. They went East. … Then they came to Russia [Roos-sia]. People of this land were suffering under a tyranny and could not raise up against it. The brothers were touched by their suffering and gathered an army with which they overthrew the oppressors. After restoring peace the brothers wanted to return home to their father but the grateful people begged them to stay and rule over them in place of the old rulers. Thus Rurik received Novgorod, Sivar – Pleskov [Pskov] and Truvar – Belo-ozero.
“The Genealogy of the Dukes of Mecklenburg” by Frederik of Mecklenburg, 1717, says Rurik and his brothers were sons of the Venedi-Abodrite Prince Gotleib or Godlaib, who was imprisoned and killed by Gotofreid, king of Jutland. Because the brothers were too young the throne passed to their uncles Slavomir and Trasik. Their heirs were Godomysl and Tabemysl… Later the throne passed to Mechislav III.
Various sources state that Burivoi, prince of Novgorod, was at war with foreign Varyagi for a long time. He was beaten near the Finnish border and retreated. The people of Novgorod came under the rule of Varyagi [Vikings], and they sent for Gostomysl, Burivoi’s son. Prince Burivoi (descendant of Vladimir the Ancient) was the son of Abodrite Prince Vitislav and Rurik’s great grandfather. Burivoi’s son Gostomysl had a daughter, Umila (born ~ 815), who married Abodrite prince Godlav/Godoslav/Godelaib.
Gostomysl was the elected prince of the Sloveni, who came from Vandalia, he ruled from Staraya Ladoga and died in 861. After his death, the people wanted to find a ruler for themselves. So they called for Rurik of the Rus.
It is highly unlikely that Slavs could have invited a foreigner of a different faith to rule over them. The Danes were never called Rus. There is only one Rus on the Baltic: Rugii, who are Slavs, according to the Germans themselves. Both the Baltic and the Novgorod Rus spoke the same language and worshipped the same gods (less than ten words of Scandinavian origin can be found in old Russian).
Tatishchev asks: if Novgorod is the New City, then where is the Old City? And he answers: It is Aldenburg (Oldenburg), Stargrad in Russian. In the Slavic Chronicle, Helmold writes: “Oldenburg, what the Slavs call Starigard, meaning Old City, is located in the land of Vagri on the western side of the Baltic Sea, and it is the frontier of Slavia… This city… is inhabited by the bravest men, since being located at the forefront of all Slavia their neighbors were the Danes and Saxons, and all military clashes they either started first or, if attacked, they would take the blow upon themselves.”
Rurik’s wife was Yefanda, sister of the Viking Odr. It is said that a Viking prince was already in Novgorod with his warriors when Rurik was called in.
As you can see, there is some convincing proof in this article to support the concept that Prince Rurik was a Slav and not a Viking. However, the big question is why do the Russian authorities never challenge the “official” Viking version of Russian history.
The genetic similarity between Pomeranians and Scandinavians comes from the fact that there first settled the goths and the vandals who came from Scandza (Sacandinavia) in the now-a-days Sweden. The Prussian language was the evolution of the Gothic. The Slavic bulk came later to highly mix their blood.