Norwegian Woods (OT)

Varangian/Væring

Varangian/Væring (Norse væringi m., plural væringjar — Ukrainian: Варяги - Varjahy; White-Russian: Варагі - Varahi; Russian: Варяги - Varjagi; Middle age Greek: οἱ Βαριάγοι - hoi Variágoi, undertiden: οἱ Βαράγγοι - hoi Varángoi, eller οἱ Βάραγγοι - hoi Várangoi), perhaps derived from the noun várar [fem. plur.] = promise, ed) is a common Norse term for the men who served in the guard force of the emperor at Miklagard (Konstantinopel). Væringer are a form of mercenaries in years 900-1100.

Væringer as a concept is related to or overlapping with the term varjager, "the sworn". They were men who traded east and south on the Russian rivers, or were looting as Vikings.

Archaeological discoveries on Gotland in the form of foreign coins indicate a western center for this trade, and that the trade was significant. Today, you can see traces of varangians in Istanbul, by seeing runes in Hagia Sophia.

The concept varangian usually included men from the Nordic countries, but could just as easily include anyone from western Europe, for example, Anglo-Saxons who fled from the Norwegians' conquest of England. Slaves and Byzantines did not distinguish between Northern Europeans.

The Russian Nestor Chronicle even included Danes and Englishmen as væringer or varangians. One of the most famous varangians was Harald Sigurdsson from Norway, the later King Harald Hardraade.

Væringer had driven trade in the Baltic Sea as far back as the 6th century. "He was killed in the East" or "he went in the eastern direction of the Gardarik" stands on runes in Sweden. Already when Helgö was a thriving trading place in Mälaren in Sweden in the 6th century there were contacts on the other side of the Baltic Sea.

Outlaws, violent men, adventurers, merchants and settlers from Sweden in particular and the other Nordic countries went to the east in the same way as they also went west. The mighty country in the east meant opportunities. The Russian rivers were the connection between buyer and seller of the expensive products of the Orient. Along the rivers, Norse men reached the Black Sea and in the year 839 and arrived in the city they called Miklagard - the capital of the great Eastern Roman Empire Constantinople.

Or the journey could alternatively go along the river Volga even further east to the Caspian Sea and carry on until they got in touch with Baghdad and the Arab world. A man who equipped a large-scale journey eastward was the Swedish “Ingvar den vidfarne” who has his own separate story.

In the wake of the adventurers and traders, settlers who formed Swedish "colonies" followed from the 700's. These Swedish settlers joined the native Slavic population and became the Russian Empire and later the Kiev Empire, which reached its peak in the 11th century. It was a kingdom that covered an area larger than Norway, Sweden and Denmark and the British Isles together and stretched from the Gulf of Finland in the north and almost to the Black Sea in the south.

Varangian and Rus

Norse settlers were probably an element of the early ethnic beginnings of society Rus and played a significant role in the formation of the Khaganaat Rus, a Slavic-Norse-century society in the 8th century that existed before the Kiev Empire. Varangians are first mentioned in the Russian Nestor chronicle, which was probably written down in the early 12th century, and these Varangians are told to have demanded tax from Slavic and Finnish tribes in 859. In 862 these tribes rebelled against the Varangians, but ended up with fighting against each other:

"(They) drove the varangians back over the sea, refused to pay taxes to them, and reckoned to rule themselves. But there was no law between them, and tribes stood up against tribes. The disagreement followed among them, and they began to fight one tribe against the other. They said to each other, "Let us search for a prince who can rule over us and judge according to our ways of living." Then they crossed the sea to the varangians, to Rus. These varangians were called Rus, just as some are called Swedes, and other Norwegians and Anglish, and others for Goths (from Gotland), because they were so called. The Chudas, the slaves, the kriviches and the vesens, they said to the Rus: "Our country is vast and rich, but there is no order in it. Come and reign and rule us. ”Three brothers, with their offspring, volunteered. They took with them all the Rus and came."

According to legend, these varangians or Rus came from "over the sea", a Rurik or Rørik and his two brothers Truvor and Sineus with other varangians and settled in the city of Novgorod. Rurik remained the ruler until he died in 879.

Although many historians look at the varangians of the 8th century as a legend, the historic settlement around the city the Norse called "Aldeigja", Aldeigjuborg (from Finnish Alode-joki = lowland river), was the current Staraya Ladoga, associated with the name Rurik ( Hrørīkr, Rurik, Riurik), the varangian who took control of the area in 862 and built Holmgard (Ryurikovo Gorodischtsje) in Novgorod around Lake Ladoga. Aldeigjuborg was the first major trading place on the road to the east and an important road junction between the trading roads of the time.

In the 8th century, it had as many as 1,000 inhabitants. Western historians believe that this Norse settlement merged with the Slavic settlement and formed the Kiev Empire, the Russian kingdom of Kiev, and thus renamed Russia. Although many Slavic scientists have objected to national considerations and denied that it was a Norse influence.

In contrast to the great Norse influence in Normandy and especially the British Isles, the culture that the varangians brought with them to the east left very few traces. The ruling classes in the two powerful cities of Novgorod and Kiev seem to have been slavified very quickly, probably because the hosts were a small minority and their language was displaced by Slavic. Nevertheless, Norse language was spoken in Novgorod right up to the 13th century, and hosts in the sense of mercenaries continued to serve the Eastern Roman emperor.

The Varangian Guard

The Varangian Guard was established in 930 and consisted of warriors from the Nordic countries who served as mercenaries for the Eastern Roman emperor. Those who returned home affected the surroundings with foreign impressions. The five-year-old church in the Danish city of Kalundborg bears influence from the east that was brought home by varangians.

In 839, Emperor Theophilus employed Norse men, orphans or warriors, as mercenaries in the guard force of Constantinople. Teofilos negotiated with the hostages he called "Rhos" to get mercenaries to his army. In the year 860, the varangians in Kiev had attacked Constantinople for the first time. The first attack was unsuccessful, but it did not prevent them from making new attacks, while other varangians were busy with peaceful trade. The varangians returned with new attacks in 860, 907, 911, 941, 945, 971, and the last time in 1043. Despite the constant attacks, the varangians were always defeated by the Emperor's army, especially by Greek fire.

Varangians were hired by the Kingdom of Novgorod and Kiev as mercenaries from the 8th century until the 11th century. The last time a varangian is mentioned as a mercenary in Russia is in 1043. If the reason was that they were no longer needed, or if the mercenaries had been assimilated into the community of the place and were no longer regarded as varangians, is open to speculation.

Translated by Marlow from the Norwegian Wikipedia

Eyes pulled towards the holy peak
Clearly defined on the horizon
Each wind from there
Carries a memory of you

Certainty of your wit and nearness
Cures my lonely sorrow
Doubly sting the wounds
That nobody else can see

Guest in Dáinn's hall
Until you were reborn
To song of Norns, in weave of Norns
The thread strengthened by fortune
From former fathers, former mothers
You continue the lineage

Guest in Dáinn's hall
Until Norns spin you a new thread
From wind you were brought forth
By wind you will be brought back

From wind you were brought forth
By wind you will be brought back

The wilderness is here. To me the wilderness is not a place. It is the indefinable essence or spirit that lives in a place, as shadowy as the archetype of a dream, but real, and recognisable. It lives where it can find refuge, fugitive, fearful as a deer. It is rare now.

Lost in the forest, I broke off a dark twig
and lifted its whisper to my thirsty lips:
maybe it was the voice of the rain crying,
a cracked bell, or a torn heart.

Something from far off it seemed
deep and secret to me, hidden by the earth,
a shout muffled by huge autumns,
by the moist half-open darkness of the leaves.

Wakening from the dreaming forest there, the hazel-sprig
sang under my tongue, its drifting fragrance
climbed up through my conscious mind

as if suddenly the roots I had left behind
cried out to me, the land I had lost with my childhood
and I stopped, wounded by the wandering scent.

Pablo Neruda