The Vikings are best known for their raids and conquests in Western Europe, but their ambitions also took them deep into the East. Marek Meško follows the Varangians as they sought Arab silver and Byzantine gold, travelling through Eastern Europe and helping to shape the emerging world of the Rus’.
By Marek Meško
When the name of the Vikings is mentioned, most history enthusiasts almost instantly think of the fierce raids of these brave, the fierce raids of these brave, and often brutal, warriors into Ireland, England, or France. To others, their daring seafaring feats come to mind—the discovery of Iceland or North America. This is because their deeds in the West are relatively well recorded in contemporary historical sources. However, the Vikings also directed their fierce energy and exploratory spirit toward the East, into the dense forests of European Russia, the grassy steppes around the Black and Caspian Seas, and eventually, many of them reached the fabulously wealthy Byzantium.
The first journeys of the inhabitants of modern-day Scandinavia across the Baltic Sea to the east, or austr, as it sounded in their language, undoubtedly took place as early as the pre-Viking era, meaning during the 6th to 8th centuries. The starting point for these expeditions into the territories of today’s Baltic states and Poland—inhabited by Balts and Slavs and mentioned in Norse sagas (e.g., the Ynglinga saga)—was primarily the region of modern-day central Sweden. The motives for these overseas expeditions, which could be commercial but also predatory, were furs and amber.
The Lure of Arab Silver
10,000 silver Dirhams from the 7th-9th century AD, hidden c. 820 AD – Bode-Museum
From the 8th century onward, a massive amount of silver appeared in the Islamic world, extracted from mines around modern-day Tashkent or modern-day Afghanistan. Silver Arab dirhams became a universal currency throughout the Caliphate and were found far beyond its borders. During the 9th century, Vikings from Sweden and the island of Gotland (and, to a lesser extent, Norwegians and Danes), in addition to traditional trade in furs and slaves (acquired during raids on the territories of Finns, Balts, and Slavs), sought to gain access to Arab silver. The shortest route led directly through the vast territories of modern-day European Russia.
These large and unfamiliar regions, inhabited by numerous Slavic tribes (such as the Ilmen Slavs, Krivichs, Drevlians, Radimichs, and Vyatichs) subordinated to the nomadic Khazars (such as the Polans on the lower Dnieper), posed a great challenge to the Norse merchants. It is no wonder that Viking traders also took weapons on their expeditions and, depending on the situation, either traded or fought. It was also natural that they traveled on commercial expeditions in larger groups, swearing oaths of assistance, support, and mutual protection to one another before setting out. Since the Old Norse term for such an oath is vár, the members of such a group of merchants bound to each other by an oath were called vaeringi, meaning Varangians.
Just as in the European West, the Varangians’ prowess in seamanship and their utilization of the numerous rivers flowing through these regions helped them explore the vast territories of the East. Navigating against the river currents, they penetrated deep into the interior, soon crossing Lake Ladoga, the Svir River, Lake Onega, and Lake Beloye to reach the Sheksna River, which was already a tributary of the Volga River. Following its course, their ships arrived at the capital of the Volga Bulgars, called Bulgar, which was also regularly visited by Arab merchants.
According to Arab historians of the 10th century and later—Ibn Fadlan, Al-Muqaddasi, Al-Masudi, Ibn Rustah, and Ibn Hawqal—the main trade item of the Northmen was furs: sable, squirrel, ermine (stoat), marten, weasel, beaver, rabbit, and fox, with the fur of the black fox considered the most precious.
As previously mentioned, the Vikings acquired these furs primarily through trade with Baltic, Finnish, and Slavic tribes, or, in the case of successful military expeditions, in the form of tribute. During such expeditions, they also acquired slaves—young girls and boys—whom they also sold in Volga Bulgaria. Arab merchants highly valued pale-skinned slaves with light hair and were willing to pay high sums for them.
Additional goods could include honey and wax, or even the weapons of the Varangians themselves, whose quality was also well recognized. The fact that these trade contacts were indeed lively and long-term, and that the Northmen were truly interested in accumulating wealth in the form of precious metals, is documented by archaeologists who have found extensive silver coins and hack-silver hoards from the 9th and 10th centuries throughout Eastern Europe and Scandinavia (the island of Gotland is characterized by a high concentration of these finds).
The Call of Byzantine Gold
Map showing the major Varangian trade routes: the Volga trade route (in red) and the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks (in purple). Other trade routes of the 8th to the 11th centuries are shown in orange. Map by Briangotts / Wikimedia Commons
However, the enterprising Varangians not only found a way to Arab silver, but very early on, as early as the first half of the 9th century, their representatives appeared in Constantinople itself, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. This is reported by the Frankish Annals of St. Bertin which state that in the year 839, certain people who called themselves Rhos (Rus’) arrived at the court of the Frankish Emperor Louis the Pious (814–840) in Ingelheim, along with a group of Byzantine envoys sent by the Emperor Theophilos (829–842). In Ingelheim, they said of themselves that they had been sent to Constantinople by their ruler—chacanus—and that wild tribes (likely the Magyars) prevented them from returning to their homeland. These Rus’ then asked Emperor Louis to allow them to return home through his territory.
However, Louis did not entirely believe their claims, as he reached the correct conclusion that these people were likely of Swedish origin (and given the Viking raids in the western parts of the Frankish Empire, he was naturally not very well-disposed toward them).
This interesting story suggests that by this time, Swedish Vikings had already discovered and begun using another trade route, later referred to as the “Route from the Varangians to the Greeks.” Its starting point, similar to the route to Volga Bulgaria, was Lake Ladoga. It then continued against the current of the Volkhov River into Lake Ilmen, and from there against the current of the Lovat River further south. Subsequently, the monoxyl boats had to be dragged overland to the Western Dvina, and after a short journey downstream, another gruelling overland section followed to the Dnieper River, and from there downstream to the south, all the way to the Black Sea. However, just below the modern city of Dnipro, the flow of the Dnieper was obstructed by seven river rapids, which significantly hindered navigation downstream. Furthermore, since the surrounding area in this location was already controlled by nomadic tribes such as the Khazars, Magyars, and later the Pechenegs, it could happen that hostile nomads completely blocked the journey downstream by ambushing the Vikings as they attempted to carry their ships over the rapids, as described in the work of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porfyrogennetos (944–959), De Administrando Imperio.
This route was therefore much longer and more complicated than the one to the Volga Bulgars, and as a result, strongholds and fortified settlements, often with a small armed garrison, began to appear along it very early on. Archaeological research in modern-day Russia has provided several examples of such settlements that emerged during the 9th century. Their characteristic features were a small area, a strategically advantageous and easily defensible location, and a mixed population (both Norse and Finnish, Baltic, and Slavic cultural elements have been found in the settlements and burial grounds of today’s northwestern Russia).
Examples of such strongholds include the hillforts at Staraya Ladoga on the Volkhov River, which was called Aldeigjuborg in the Viking Age and the fort (and later city) further upstream of Novgorod on the same river, which was named Hólmgarð (island fort) due to its location. In addition to providing protection to groups of merchants during their journey south, these hillforts also served as starting points for expeditions against neighboring Slavic and other tribes to collect tribute in the aforementioned furs.
Varangians or Rus?
The Radzivill Chronicle, which can be found in the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg, contains The Tale of Bygone Years – photo by Shakko / Wikimedia Commons
In the Arab sources mentioned above, the Varangians in the markets of Bulgar are called Rūs, and they are distinct from the Slavs, as can also be seen in this excerpt by Ibn Fadlan: “They fight the Slavs and use ships to attack them; then they capture them, take them to the Khazars, and sell them into slavery there.” The Annals of St. Bertin leave the same impression where, as we have seen, the Rus’ and the Swedes are even directly equated.
According to the classical 19th-century interpretation by the historian Vilhelm Thomsen, the ethnonym Rus originates from Ruotsi, the Finnish name for the Swedes. The Finnish tribes thus named the Swedish raiders after the region of Sweden they came from, once called Roþer or Roþin (today Roslagen on the coast of Uppland). This region, in turn, gained its name from the designation of its inhabitants as róðs-karlar or róðs-men (rowers, sailors), as they were heavily engaged in seafaring. The Slavs then adopted this name from the Finnish tribes, and it gradually entered Byzantine Greek in the form of Rhos, and reached the Arabs as Rūs. In the 9th and 10th centuries, the ethnonym Rus’ therefore likely designated Swedish Vikings—Varangians—who travelled through the inland water network of modern-day Russia, heading either southeast to Volga Bulgaria or south to the Black Sea and further into Byzantium.
As we saw above, the first “attempt” to penetrate the markets of the capital of the Byzantine Empire in 838/839 was not successful, but the Northmen were not discouraged. It appears they decided to grasp control over the entire route more firmly. Independently of each other, two groups of Varangians took control of two key points along the route south. According to the testimony of the 11th-century chronicle The Tale of Bygone Years by the monk Nestor, a certain Rurik (Hrœrekr) became the ruler of the Slavic-Scandinavian Novgorod in 862, while further south in Kyiv, two probably Norwegian chieftains—jarls—Askold and Dir (Höskuldr and Dýri) had settled even earlier (sometime before 860).
Much like Staraya Ladoga, Kyiv at that time was likely only a small Slavic hillfort towering over the Dnieper River. Its location, however, possessed great potential because, in addition to lying on the north-to-south route, it was situated on the path leading west into Poland. This act ended the Khazar dominance over the Polans in the middle Dnieper region, and the tribute in the form of the aforementioned furs, honey, and wax now belonged to the Scandinavians. At the same time, the Northmen could utilize their many new Slavic “subjects” for a second attempt to acquire the wealth accumulated in Constantinople.
Rus’ Expeditions Against Constantinople
Depiction of the use of Greek fire, from the Madrid Skylitzes.
In June 860, a sudden Rus’ attack descended upon the Byzantine capital “like a bolt from the blue,” as written by a witness to the events, Patriarch Photios (858–867, 877–886), catching the Byzantines completely unprepared. The starting point of the attack was the freshly captured Kyiv, where Askold and Dir assembled a fleet of monoxyl boats and penetrated through the mouth of the Dnieper across the Black Sea all the way to a practically defenseless Constantinople. Emperor Michael III (843–867) was currently in Asia Minor campaigning against the Arabs with most of his army, and the Byzantine fleet was also at sea. Only the clever use of a few remaining Byzantine ships equipped with the famous naphtha-based incendiary mixture—Greek or liquid fire (hygron pyr)—saved Constantinople from being plundered.
Furthermore, the Rus’ ships that survived the failed raid were caught by a storm at sea during their return and sank. As stated in one of the later Rus’ chronicles, “there was great weeping in Kyiv.” The failed attack was followed, sometime between 864 and 867, by the first peace embassy of the Rus’ from Kyiv, aiming to establish normal trade relations, which also brought the first mention of the willingness of some Vikings to accept Christianity. It is also possible that from this period onward, the first Northmen began entering the service of the Byzantine army, and from their ranks the famous Varangian Guard later emerged.
Oleg and Igor Turn on Constantinople
Oleg of Novgorod’s campaign against Constantinople, as depicted in the Radzivill Chronicle
In the following years, momentous changes took place in Rus’. Oleg (Helgi), the ruler of Novgorod who ruled in the north on behalf of Rurik’s son Igor (Ingvarr), killed the unsuccessful jarls Askold and Dir and seized Kyiv. He thus gained control over the entire trade route from Scandinavia to Byzantium, securing a solid base for another attack against the city on the Bosphorus and its surroundings.
According to the The Tale of Bygone Years, a military expedition of the Rus, very similar to the previous one, took place in 907, although there is no mention of it in Byzantine sources. The Byzantines were better prepared this time, and the entrance to the Golden Horn was blocked by an iron chain. Oleg reportedly had his ships dragged overland from the Bosphorus into the Golden Horn (similar to the Ottoman Turks in 1453), thereby forcing the Byzantines to pay a tribute (in gold, wine, and fruit). A direct consequence of the expedition was the first trade treaty between the Rus and the Byzantine Empire in 911, under which Rus merchants could come with goods to Constantinople every year and, through trade, acquire silk and Byzantine coins.
The importance of the trade route to Byzantium grew even further when the originally rich sources of Arab silver—which had led many Swedes as far as the city of Bulgar on the middle Volga, and some even further to the Caspian Sea (military expeditions in the 870s and 880s, and then in 912/913)—began to dry up permanently at the beginning of the 10th century.
The new Prince of Kyiv, Igor (912–945), therefore attacked Constantinople with great determination twice, in 941 and 944. Once again, liquid fire used by the Byzantines against the attacking Rus’ ships played a decisive role in saving the Byzantine capital, with destructive effects. The Rus’ suffered heavy losses. A novelty in the case of the 944 attack was the fact that Igor prepared for his second assault not only from a military standpoint but also used diplomatic means, as he managed to win over the nomadic Pechenegs, who had previously been Byzantine allies.
The Last True Viking in Kyiv
16th-century depiction of Sviatoslav
Igor’s son, Sviatoslav (963–972), was the last pagan Viking leader of the Rus’ in the East, and just like the immense successes of the Vikings in the West, the results of his ambitious campaigns of conquest were short-lived. From his accession to the princely throne in 963, he devastated the khanate of the Volga Bulgars and subjugated the remaining East Slavic tribes that were still paying tribute to the Khazars. He allied with the nomadic Oghuz and Pechenegs, and with their help, invaded Khazar territory, destroying Sarkel, a Khazar fortress on the lower Don, around 965. In the following years, probably in 968 or 969, he also conquered the Khazar capital of Itil itself.
On the lower Danube, acting at the request of the Byzantine Emperor Nikeforos II Fokas (963–969) and for 1,500 pounds (nearly 5,000 kg) of gold, he assisted the Byzantines against the Bulgarians. With the help of the Pechenegs, he defeated the Bulgarian Tsar Peter (927–970) at the Battle of Dorostolon (now Silistra in Bulgaria). However, in violation of the agreement, he annexed the northern part of Bulgaria to Kievan Rus’ and intended to move his princely seat from Kyiv to Pereyaslavets, or Little Preslav (now Nufăru in Romania) in the Danube Delta.
According to the The Tale of Bygone Years, he was led to this idea by the advantageous location of the city, where “all wealth flows together: gold, silk, wine, and various fruits from Greece; silver and horses from Hungary and Bohemia; from Rus, furs, wax, honey, and slaves.” As we can see, even during his major campaigns of conquest, Sviatoslav did not lose the mercantile instinct of his Varangian ancestors. When the new Byzantine Emperor John I Tzimiskes (969–976) called upon him to restore the previous status quo, Sviatoslav confidently suggested that the Byzantine emperor cede all of Europe to him and withdraw to Asia himself.
In the end, however, the fierce and untamed Viking stood no chance in the game of high diplomacy and strategy against the intelligent and cunning Greek. John I Tzimiskes managed not only to repeatedly outmaneuver and defeat Sviatoslav and his army on the battlefield between 970 and 971, but he also turned his former allies, the Pechenegs, against him. The Pechenegs lay in wait for Sviatoslav near the Dnieper rapids as he was returning with his retinue from Bulgaria to Kyiv in March 972. They ambushed him and slaughtered him along with many of his men. In accordance with the traditions of the Altaic peoples, Sviatoslav’s skull was subsequently fashioned into a chalice and plated with gold.
After Sviatoslav’s death, no ruler emerged in Kyiv who would continue his conquests in the grandiose style of the Viking raids of previous decades. The Rus’ in Russia became Slavicized. Although they were of Scandinavian origin and maintained lively contacts with Scandinavia until the 11th century, the vast East European lands became their true homeland.
A large number of Scandinavians—still called Varangians—continued to appear at the princely court in Kyiv, but they were now mercenaries bound by an oath (vár) to their princes. Many of them essentially just passed through Kievan Rus’ to travel relatively safely along the “Route from the Varangians to the Greeks” to reach Byzantium, where they could join the ranks of the famous Varangian Guard and contribute to a new era of daring and heroic deeds praised in later Norse sagas. The heroic exploits of the Vikings in the East came to a definitive end with the arrival of Christianity during the reign of Sviatoslav’s youngest son, Prince Vladimir (980–1015), which completed the blending of the Rus’ into the mass of their Slavic subjects and allies.
Marek Meško is a historian and researcher specializing in Byzantine warfare during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. His research has examined Byzantium’s conflicts with Turkic nomadic groups, including the Pechenegs and Cumans, before expanding to the military and naval history of the Komnenian dynasty (1081–1185) and the challenges it faced from external enemies. He is the author of Alexios I Komnenos in the Balkans, 1081–1095 and co-author of a comprehensive study on the evolution of the Byzantine navy during the Crusades. His work focuses on the military institutions, campaigns, and strategic developments that shaped the medieval Byzantine Empire. You can follow Marek on Academia.edu and LinkedIn.
Top Image: The Calling of the Varangians in the Radzivill chronicle
The Vikings are best known for their raids and conquests in Western Europe, but their ambitions also took them deep into the East. Marek Meško follows the Varangians as they sought Arab silver and Byzantine gold, travelling through Eastern Europe and helping to shape the emerging world of the Rus’.
By Marek Meško
When the name of the Vikings is mentioned, most history enthusiasts almost instantly think of the fierce raids of these brave, the fierce raids of these brave, and often brutal, warriors into Ireland, England, or France. To others, their daring seafaring feats come to mind—the discovery of Iceland or North America. This is because their deeds in the West are relatively well recorded in contemporary historical sources. However, the Vikings also directed their fierce energy and exploratory spirit toward the East, into the dense forests of European Russia, the grassy steppes around the Black and Caspian Seas, and eventually, many of them reached the fabulously wealthy Byzantium.
The first journeys of the inhabitants of modern-day Scandinavia across the Baltic Sea to the east, or austr, as it sounded in their language, undoubtedly took place as early as the pre-Viking era, meaning during the 6th to 8th centuries. The starting point for these expeditions into the territories of today’s Baltic states and Poland—inhabited by Balts and Slavs and mentioned in Norse sagas (e.g., the Ynglinga saga)—was primarily the region of modern-day central Sweden. The motives for these overseas expeditions, which could be commercial but also predatory, were furs and amber.
The Lure of Arab Silver
From the 8th century onward, a massive amount of silver appeared in the Islamic world, extracted from mines around modern-day Tashkent or modern-day Afghanistan. Silver Arab dirhams became a universal currency throughout the Caliphate and were found far beyond its borders. During the 9th century, Vikings from Sweden and the island of Gotland (and, to a lesser extent, Norwegians and Danes), in addition to traditional trade in furs and slaves (acquired during raids on the territories of Finns, Balts, and Slavs), sought to gain access to Arab silver. The shortest route led directly through the vast territories of modern-day European Russia.
These large and unfamiliar regions, inhabited by numerous Slavic tribes (such as the Ilmen Slavs, Krivichs, Drevlians, Radimichs, and Vyatichs) subordinated to the nomadic Khazars (such as the Polans on the lower Dnieper), posed a great challenge to the Norse merchants. It is no wonder that Viking traders also took weapons on their expeditions and, depending on the situation, either traded or fought. It was also natural that they traveled on commercial expeditions in larger groups, swearing oaths of assistance, support, and mutual protection to one another before setting out. Since the Old Norse term for such an oath is vár, the members of such a group of merchants bound to each other by an oath were called vaeringi, meaning Varangians.
Just as in the European West, the Varangians’ prowess in seamanship and their utilization of the numerous rivers flowing through these regions helped them explore the vast territories of the East. Navigating against the river currents, they penetrated deep into the interior, soon crossing Lake Ladoga, the Svir River, Lake Onega, and Lake Beloye to reach the Sheksna River, which was already a tributary of the Volga River. Following its course, their ships arrived at the capital of the Volga Bulgars, called Bulgar, which was also regularly visited by Arab merchants.
According to Arab historians of the 10th century and later—Ibn Fadlan, Al-Muqaddasi, Al-Masudi, Ibn Rustah, and Ibn Hawqal—the main trade item of the Northmen was furs: sable, squirrel, ermine (stoat), marten, weasel, beaver, rabbit, and fox, with the fur of the black fox considered the most precious.
As previously mentioned, the Vikings acquired these furs primarily through trade with Baltic, Finnish, and Slavic tribes, or, in the case of successful military expeditions, in the form of tribute. During such expeditions, they also acquired slaves—young girls and boys—whom they also sold in Volga Bulgaria. Arab merchants highly valued pale-skinned slaves with light hair and were willing to pay high sums for them.
Additional goods could include honey and wax, or even the weapons of the Varangians themselves, whose quality was also well recognized. The fact that these trade contacts were indeed lively and long-term, and that the Northmen were truly interested in accumulating wealth in the form of precious metals, is documented by archaeologists who have found extensive silver coins and hack-silver hoards from the 9th and 10th centuries throughout Eastern Europe and Scandinavia (the island of Gotland is characterized by a high concentration of these finds).
The Call of Byzantine Gold
However, the enterprising Varangians not only found a way to Arab silver, but very early on, as early as the first half of the 9th century, their representatives appeared in Constantinople itself, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. This is reported by the Frankish Annals of St. Bertin which state that in the year 839, certain people who called themselves Rhos (Rus’) arrived at the court of the Frankish Emperor Louis the Pious (814–840) in Ingelheim, along with a group of Byzantine envoys sent by the Emperor Theophilos (829–842). In Ingelheim, they said of themselves that they had been sent to Constantinople by their ruler—chacanus—and that wild tribes (likely the Magyars) prevented them from returning to their homeland. These Rus’ then asked Emperor Louis to allow them to return home through his territory.
However, Louis did not entirely believe their claims, as he reached the correct conclusion that these people were likely of Swedish origin (and given the Viking raids in the western parts of the Frankish Empire, he was naturally not very well-disposed toward them).
This interesting story suggests that by this time, Swedish Vikings had already discovered and begun using another trade route, later referred to as the “Route from the Varangians to the Greeks.” Its starting point, similar to the route to Volga Bulgaria, was Lake Ladoga. It then continued against the current of the Volkhov River into Lake Ilmen, and from there against the current of the Lovat River further south. Subsequently, the monoxyl boats had to be dragged overland to the Western Dvina, and after a short journey downstream, another gruelling overland section followed to the Dnieper River, and from there downstream to the south, all the way to the Black Sea. However, just below the modern city of Dnipro, the flow of the Dnieper was obstructed by seven river rapids, which significantly hindered navigation downstream. Furthermore, since the surrounding area in this location was already controlled by nomadic tribes such as the Khazars, Magyars, and later the Pechenegs, it could happen that hostile nomads completely blocked the journey downstream by ambushing the Vikings as they attempted to carry their ships over the rapids, as described in the work of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porfyrogennetos (944–959), De Administrando Imperio.
This route was therefore much longer and more complicated than the one to the Volga Bulgars, and as a result, strongholds and fortified settlements, often with a small armed garrison, began to appear along it very early on. Archaeological research in modern-day Russia has provided several examples of such settlements that emerged during the 9th century. Their characteristic features were a small area, a strategically advantageous and easily defensible location, and a mixed population (both Norse and Finnish, Baltic, and Slavic cultural elements have been found in the settlements and burial grounds of today’s northwestern Russia).
Examples of such strongholds include the hillforts at Staraya Ladoga on the Volkhov River, which was called Aldeigjuborg in the Viking Age and the fort (and later city) further upstream of Novgorod on the same river, which was named Hólmgarð (island fort) due to its location. In addition to providing protection to groups of merchants during their journey south, these hillforts also served as starting points for expeditions against neighboring Slavic and other tribes to collect tribute in the aforementioned furs.
Varangians or Rus?
In the Arab sources mentioned above, the Varangians in the markets of Bulgar are called Rūs, and they are distinct from the Slavs, as can also be seen in this excerpt by Ibn Fadlan: “They fight the Slavs and use ships to attack them; then they capture them, take them to the Khazars, and sell them into slavery there.” The Annals of St. Bertin leave the same impression where, as we have seen, the Rus’ and the Swedes are even directly equated.
According to the classical 19th-century interpretation by the historian Vilhelm Thomsen, the ethnonym Rus originates from Ruotsi, the Finnish name for the Swedes. The Finnish tribes thus named the Swedish raiders after the region of Sweden they came from, once called Roþer or Roþin (today Roslagen on the coast of Uppland). This region, in turn, gained its name from the designation of its inhabitants as róðs-karlar or róðs-men (rowers, sailors), as they were heavily engaged in seafaring. The Slavs then adopted this name from the Finnish tribes, and it gradually entered Byzantine Greek in the form of Rhos, and reached the Arabs as Rūs. In the 9th and 10th centuries, the ethnonym Rus’ therefore likely designated Swedish Vikings—Varangians—who travelled through the inland water network of modern-day Russia, heading either southeast to Volga Bulgaria or south to the Black Sea and further into Byzantium.
As we saw above, the first “attempt” to penetrate the markets of the capital of the Byzantine Empire in 838/839 was not successful, but the Northmen were not discouraged. It appears they decided to grasp control over the entire route more firmly. Independently of each other, two groups of Varangians took control of two key points along the route south. According to the testimony of the 11th-century chronicle The Tale of Bygone Years by the monk Nestor, a certain Rurik (Hrœrekr) became the ruler of the Slavic-Scandinavian Novgorod in 862, while further south in Kyiv, two probably Norwegian chieftains—jarls—Askold and Dir (Höskuldr and Dýri) had settled even earlier (sometime before 860).
Much like Staraya Ladoga, Kyiv at that time was likely only a small Slavic hillfort towering over the Dnieper River. Its location, however, possessed great potential because, in addition to lying on the north-to-south route, it was situated on the path leading west into Poland. This act ended the Khazar dominance over the Polans in the middle Dnieper region, and the tribute in the form of the aforementioned furs, honey, and wax now belonged to the Scandinavians. At the same time, the Northmen could utilize their many new Slavic “subjects” for a second attempt to acquire the wealth accumulated in Constantinople.
Rus’ Expeditions Against Constantinople
In June 860, a sudden Rus’ attack descended upon the Byzantine capital “like a bolt from the blue,” as written by a witness to the events, Patriarch Photios (858–867, 877–886), catching the Byzantines completely unprepared. The starting point of the attack was the freshly captured Kyiv, where Askold and Dir assembled a fleet of monoxyl boats and penetrated through the mouth of the Dnieper across the Black Sea all the way to a practically defenseless Constantinople. Emperor Michael III (843–867) was currently in Asia Minor campaigning against the Arabs with most of his army, and the Byzantine fleet was also at sea. Only the clever use of a few remaining Byzantine ships equipped with the famous naphtha-based incendiary mixture—Greek or liquid fire (hygron pyr)—saved Constantinople from being plundered.
Furthermore, the Rus’ ships that survived the failed raid were caught by a storm at sea during their return and sank. As stated in one of the later Rus’ chronicles, “there was great weeping in Kyiv.” The failed attack was followed, sometime between 864 and 867, by the first peace embassy of the Rus’ from Kyiv, aiming to establish normal trade relations, which also brought the first mention of the willingness of some Vikings to accept Christianity. It is also possible that from this period onward, the first Northmen began entering the service of the Byzantine army, and from their ranks the famous Varangian Guard later emerged.
Oleg and Igor Turn on Constantinople
In the following years, momentous changes took place in Rus’. Oleg (Helgi), the ruler of Novgorod who ruled in the north on behalf of Rurik’s son Igor (Ingvarr), killed the unsuccessful jarls Askold and Dir and seized Kyiv. He thus gained control over the entire trade route from Scandinavia to Byzantium, securing a solid base for another attack against the city on the Bosphorus and its surroundings.
According to the The Tale of Bygone Years, a military expedition of the Rus, very similar to the previous one, took place in 907, although there is no mention of it in Byzantine sources. The Byzantines were better prepared this time, and the entrance to the Golden Horn was blocked by an iron chain. Oleg reportedly had his ships dragged overland from the Bosphorus into the Golden Horn (similar to the Ottoman Turks in 1453), thereby forcing the Byzantines to pay a tribute (in gold, wine, and fruit). A direct consequence of the expedition was the first trade treaty between the Rus and the Byzantine Empire in 911, under which Rus merchants could come with goods to Constantinople every year and, through trade, acquire silk and Byzantine coins.
The importance of the trade route to Byzantium grew even further when the originally rich sources of Arab silver—which had led many Swedes as far as the city of Bulgar on the middle Volga, and some even further to the Caspian Sea (military expeditions in the 870s and 880s, and then in 912/913)—began to dry up permanently at the beginning of the 10th century.
The new Prince of Kyiv, Igor (912–945), therefore attacked Constantinople with great determination twice, in 941 and 944. Once again, liquid fire used by the Byzantines against the attacking Rus’ ships played a decisive role in saving the Byzantine capital, with destructive effects. The Rus’ suffered heavy losses. A novelty in the case of the 944 attack was the fact that Igor prepared for his second assault not only from a military standpoint but also used diplomatic means, as he managed to win over the nomadic Pechenegs, who had previously been Byzantine allies.
The Last True Viking in Kyiv
Igor’s son, Sviatoslav (963–972), was the last pagan Viking leader of the Rus’ in the East, and just like the immense successes of the Vikings in the West, the results of his ambitious campaigns of conquest were short-lived. From his accession to the princely throne in 963, he devastated the khanate of the Volga Bulgars and subjugated the remaining East Slavic tribes that were still paying tribute to the Khazars. He allied with the nomadic Oghuz and Pechenegs, and with their help, invaded Khazar territory, destroying Sarkel, a Khazar fortress on the lower Don, around 965. In the following years, probably in 968 or 969, he also conquered the Khazar capital of Itil itself.
On the lower Danube, acting at the request of the Byzantine Emperor Nikeforos II Fokas (963–969) and for 1,500 pounds (nearly 5,000 kg) of gold, he assisted the Byzantines against the Bulgarians. With the help of the Pechenegs, he defeated the Bulgarian Tsar Peter (927–970) at the Battle of Dorostolon (now Silistra in Bulgaria). However, in violation of the agreement, he annexed the northern part of Bulgaria to Kievan Rus’ and intended to move his princely seat from Kyiv to Pereyaslavets, or Little Preslav (now Nufăru in Romania) in the Danube Delta.
According to the The Tale of Bygone Years, he was led to this idea by the advantageous location of the city, where “all wealth flows together: gold, silk, wine, and various fruits from Greece; silver and horses from Hungary and Bohemia; from Rus, furs, wax, honey, and slaves.” As we can see, even during his major campaigns of conquest, Sviatoslav did not lose the mercantile instinct of his Varangian ancestors. When the new Byzantine Emperor John I Tzimiskes (969–976) called upon him to restore the previous status quo, Sviatoslav confidently suggested that the Byzantine emperor cede all of Europe to him and withdraw to Asia himself.
In the end, however, the fierce and untamed Viking stood no chance in the game of high diplomacy and strategy against the intelligent and cunning Greek. John I Tzimiskes managed not only to repeatedly outmaneuver and defeat Sviatoslav and his army on the battlefield between 970 and 971, but he also turned his former allies, the Pechenegs, against him. The Pechenegs lay in wait for Sviatoslav near the Dnieper rapids as he was returning with his retinue from Bulgaria to Kyiv in March 972. They ambushed him and slaughtered him along with many of his men. In accordance with the traditions of the Altaic peoples, Sviatoslav’s skull was subsequently fashioned into a chalice and plated with gold.
After Sviatoslav’s death, no ruler emerged in Kyiv who would continue his conquests in the grandiose style of the Viking raids of previous decades. The Rus’ in Russia became Slavicized. Although they were of Scandinavian origin and maintained lively contacts with Scandinavia until the 11th century, the vast East European lands became their true homeland.
A large number of Scandinavians—still called Varangians—continued to appear at the princely court in Kyiv, but they were now mercenaries bound by an oath (vár) to their princes. Many of them essentially just passed through Kievan Rus’ to travel relatively safely along the “Route from the Varangians to the Greeks” to reach Byzantium, where they could join the ranks of the famous Varangian Guard and contribute to a new era of daring and heroic deeds praised in later Norse sagas. The heroic exploits of the Vikings in the East came to a definitive end with the arrival of Christianity during the reign of Sviatoslav’s youngest son, Prince Vladimir (980–1015), which completed the blending of the Rus’ into the mass of their Slavic subjects and allies.
Marek Meško is a historian and researcher specializing in Byzantine warfare during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. His research has examined Byzantium’s conflicts with Turkic nomadic groups, including the Pechenegs and Cumans, before expanding to the military and naval history of the Komnenian dynasty (1081–1185) and the challenges it faced from external enemies. He is the author of Alexios I Komnenos in the Balkans, 1081–1095 and co-author of a comprehensive study on the evolution of the Byzantine navy during the Crusades. His work focuses on the military institutions, campaigns, and strategic developments that shaped the medieval Byzantine Empire. You can follow Marek on Academia.edu and LinkedIn.
Top Image: The Calling of the Varangians in the Radzivill chronicle
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