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How do the Vikings differ from the Vikings & nbsp. Who are the Vikings and Varangians? Why Greenland is empty

A. ALEKSEEV, historian.

Science and Life // Illustrations

More than a thousand years ago, kings ruled throughout Europe. Their kingdoms were small (England, France, Germany, Spain as states were not yet formed at that time). But the king had the right to judge any inhabitant, and noble people swore allegiance to him. It was believed that all the land in the kingdom belongs to the king, and he only allows the rest to use it. All kingdoms professed one faith - the Catholic, led by the Pope.

Only the inhabitants of Denmark and Scandinavia - Normans("Northern people") lived freely on their land, honored, as in the old days, their ancient gods. At general congresses, all issues were resolved, laws were established there and court cases were examined.

The Normans also had kings - they were called kings... They were respected, but did not have much power. When the king rode around the country, the Normans fed not only himself, but also his squad and horses. The people had no other duties to the king.

In addition to the economy, the Normans were engaged in trade and military campaigns. In Europe they were considered the best warriors, and their weapons were the best. Year after year, Norman squads in their long ships attacked coastal towns and settlements, plundered, burned and killed the inhabitants. V Western Europe the participants in these robber campaigns began to be called the Vikings.

In 789, a squad of Vikings, pretending to be merchants, sailed on their boats to the British city of Dorset. When the local ruler came out to them, they killed him. From that moment on, the Normans ravaged Britain and Ireland for two centuries. To the best of my ability locals resisted. So, in the middle of the 9th century, a king named Torgsil in Ireland was drowned in a lake, and in the kingdom of Northumbria, in the north of England, king Ragnar Lothbrok was thrown into a pit with snakes.

And nevertheless, the Normans took root in England so much - they got families, households, that they went to their homeland only occasionally.

It got from the Normans and people who lived in France, Holland, Germany. Almost every year, their lands were plundered. In 845, the Danish king Rurik ravaged the Elbe coast and raided northern France,

other Vikings burned Hamburg. Paris was also robbed many times. So, in 911, he was attacked by King Khrolf, nicknamed the Pedestrian (according to legend, he was so long that he could not ride a horse - his legs dragged along the ground). After several battles, the pagan Chrolf agreed to be baptized, and King Charles the Prostac gave him his daughter and allocated him land along the banks of the Lower Seine, which became the Duchy of Normandy. Under the rule of the economic Normans, it soon became the richest and most populous province of the French kingdom. In 1066, Duke of Normandy William (he was the great-great-great-grandson of Chrolf) defeated the British at the Battle of Hastings and, having conquered England, became the English king. After this victory he was nicknamed William the Conqueror.

The Swedes "grazed" mainly in the vicinity of the Baltic Sea. In northwestern Russia, they settled with whole families (archaeologists have found much more Scandinavian items here than in Western Europe). The local Finns called the Norman bandits "Ruotsi"(a Finnish word with a Swedish root, meaning rowers), and the Slavs - "Rus", "rusy". Later, the name "Varangians" (from the word "Waring"- the so-called Norman warrior in the service of some ruler).

The strongest (in the present - steep) of the Varangian squads, who hunted between the lakes of Chudskoe, Ladoga, Ilmen, Onega and the upper reaches of the Volga, imposed tribute not only on the local Slavic and Finnish tribes - Slovenes, Krivichi, Chud, all and measure - but also robber bands ... Another "bandit formation" controlled the middle part of the route "from the Varangians to the Greeks" - the main trade route between the Baltic and Black Seas.

The Varangians-Rus, capturing the Slavs, brought them for sale to the Khazars who roamed the Caspian and Black Seas. Over the long years of a wandering life in the forests, the Rus themselves have become like the Khazars. They made themselves a Khazar hairstyle (a shaved head with a forelock hanging on their forehead), and their leader, following the example of the Khazar king, called himself kagan.

The ambassadors of this Swedish kagan later visited Byzantium, and from there went to Germany. And everywhere they said that their people were called "grew." “After thoroughly investigating the reason for their arrival, the emperor learned that they belonged to the Swedish people,” wrote the German monk Prudentius. The aliens were considered Norman spies and were sent back to Byzantium.

Around 862, the inhabitants of the vicinity of Lake Ilmen, having conspired, refused to pay tribute to the Varangian "mafia". They got rid of the "roof", but immediately fought among themselves. It turned out that free life is not so easy and fun.

Tired of constant war, the Slavs, Finns and Rus decided to invite the prince from outside so that he would judge and protect them. We stopped at Rurik. Whether it was Rurik, who, as already mentioned, raided Northern France, or another, is not known for sure. One way or another, but some Rurik with a Varangian squad came to Priilmenye and built a new town not far from Ladoga. It was from him that Novgorod grew later.

“And from those Varangians,” says our chronicle, “the Russian land and Novgorodians, who are from the Varangian clan, and used to be Slovenes, began to be called”. That is, when the chronicle was written (in the XII century), the Novgorodians still remembered that their ancestors - both local Slovenes and newcomers - were Varangians-Rus.

When Rurik died, his relative Oleg subdued the southern Slavic tribes - the Polyans, Vyatichs, Radimichs, Northerners, who had previously paid tribute to the Khazars. So, between the Baltic and Black Seas, the Russian state appeared with its capital in Kiev.

The last two centuries of the first millennium have become an extremely turbulent time for the Christian states that were forming in Europe. The main reason for this was the countless raids of the Vikings - fierce and warlike pagans who came from the Scandinavian Peninsula, where the ancestors of modern Danes, Norwegians and Swedes then lived. The level of danger was so great that, starting in May 888, in many Catholic churches in Europe, during each prayer service, priests, turning to God, asked for "release from the fury of the Normans." Describing the people known in the Middle Ages as Vikings, Wikipedia indicates that their name comes from the word vi'k ("bay"). But were they just sea robbers, whether they came from the "wiki", that is, the bay, or hiding in it, or is it a larger-scale phenomenon?

Reasons for the appearance of the Vikings

Answering the question of who the Vikings were, who they were and where they came from, it should be noted that we are not talking about representatives of some people alien to the inhabitants of the rest of Europe. These were the same heirs of the ancient Germanic tribes, like the Franks or Burgundians. The Angles, Saxons and Jutes also had a common origin with the Vikings, who conquered almost all of the British Isles in the 5th-6th centuries. Probably, they, in any case, could easily understand each other's oral speech. Studying what language the Vikings spoke, scientists came to the conclusion that it was common to all the tribes that lived in Scandinavia. This follows, in particular, from the fact that the surviving samples of the ancient runic writing used by the Vikings are equally understandable for modern Danes, Norwegians and Swedes.

The difference between the inhabitants of the Scandinavian Peninsula and those who lived in the territory of modern France or England was determined by the following two factors:

Religion. Franks and Saxons by the 9th century AD (that is, by the beginning of the "Viking Age") managed to become Christians, while the ancestors of the Swedes, Norwegians and Danes preserved the pagan religion with all its features;
The level of development of feudalism. Europe was already going through the Middle Ages, while in early medieval Scandinavia many elements of the tribal system were still preserved.

Of course, this was still not enough for the Vikings to appear. Historians even today argue about the reasons why people, who had not left the borders of Scandinavia until recently, began to more and more often go on long hikes. One of the possible versions is overpopulation and the associated economic crisis. Archeology, however, indicates that on the eve of the Viking Age, Scandinavian settlements were not poorer, but richer.

It is possible that overpopulation did take place, but not "general", but "elite" - rich people had many sons, of whom (in accordance with the ancient law) only one had the right of inheritance, while others had to look for some then other ways to "improve welfare." One of these methods could be trade - but not any, but only the most profitable, and the other - outright robbery.

Attempts to redistribute wealth at first led to constant civil strife, and then spilled out in the form of raids on neighboring lands. This happened almost immediately after the Scandinavians learned to manage sailing ships.

An additional factor that made the appearance of the Vikings possible was the Arab expansion in Europe, which culminated in the capture of part of the Iberian Peninsula in the 8th century. As a result of this event, the trade routes passing through the Mediterranean were lost, and there was a shortage of silver, which could become a kind of "last straw" that prompted the Scandinavian warriors to go to foreign shores.

Viking ships and their art of navigation

Despite the fact that sails, as is known from history, were widely used already in ancient times, Scandinavian ships for a long time moved exclusively on oars. One of the reasons for this was that early boats, built, for example, in the second and third centuries AD, did not have a keel. The absence of this important element makes the sailboat extremely unstable - the first strong gust of wind will simply overturn it.

The first ship with a "rudimentary" keel, according to historians, was the "Kvalsunnes ship", created in Scandinavia around 700. In particular, on the island of Gotland, archaeologists managed to find several images of a boat sailing on the stones. These monuments were made at the beginning of the 8th century.

Further development of shipbuilding technologies led in the 9th century to the emergence of the famous drakkars - the main warships of the Vikings. These were sailing and rowing ships, sometimes reaching almost 20 meters in length. Their speed in the open sea, while sailing, sometimes reached 15 and even 20 knots. Each side had the same number of special ports - holes for oars.

The number of rowers on the largest known drakkars was 32, 16 on each side. The hull of the ship was symmetrical, which made it possible to move in any direction without turning. The bow from the stern was distinguished by a wooden sculpture installed in the front - an image of a dragon, thanks to which the ship got its name.

Despite the fact that the sail of the drakkar was an ordinary rectangle, it was possible, by tucking its edges, to sail not only in the wind, but almost against it, lying in a steep sidewind. At the same time, the ship heeled, and it could be flooded with water through the oar ports, so over time special "plugs" began to be made for them. At the same time, there was no pump on the ship, although devices of this kind already existed. Therefore, the water, if it nevertheless spilled over the side, had to be simply bled out.

Snekkars, drakkars and knarrs used for the transportation of goods turned out to be seaworthy enough for the Vikings to subsequently successfully reach not only the British Isles, but also Iceland, and then to the territory of the future Canada, thereby outstripping the famous Columbus by several centuries.

The first expeditions of the Vikings

Historians generally consider 793 to be the beginning of the Viking Age, when the Lindisfarne Monastery, located on a small tidal island off the northeastern coast of the largest of the British Isles, was attacked. Aliens from Scandinavia plundered the monastery and killed many priests, shocking the few surviving monks with their cruelty.

Later, churches, cathedrals and monasteries became one of the main targets of the predatory raids of Scandinavian sailors. This is explained quite simply - all these places were the concentration of a variety of valuable items, from silver and gold to various fabrics. Of course, the Scandinavians, who then remained "godless pagans," did not feel any reverence for the churches.

It was subsequently revealed that even four years before the attack on Lindisfarne, the Vikings were landing in Southwest England, near Dorset. In this case, they killed the local feudal lord, along with his small retinue. Most likely, this attack was not the first. Due to the fact that the Vikings sought to destroy everyone they could meet, there were often no witnesses left and the event did not get into the chronicle.

In subsequent years, several more monasteries were plundered in what is now England. In addition, the Vikings visited Ireland, and a year before the end of the VIII century, they first "paid a visit" to France, more precisely, to the Empire of Charlemagne. In all these cases, the raids were carried out according to the "classical" scheme - landing on the ground, a swift and brutal attack, plunder and a hasty retreat with booty on ships.

Nevertheless, already in these early years there are some signs that the Vikings are not just ordinary sea robbers. In particular, having landed on the Orkney and Shetland Islands, the Scandinavian warriors created settlements there. For some time it was believed that all the local residents were killed in this case, but archaeologists were able to prove that this was not the case.

In 810, the islands near the coast of Friesland were attacked by the Vikings. In scale, this attack no longer resembled a predatory raid, but a large and well-thought-out military operation. It is known that the Danish king Gottfried led the invaders, and the number of ships that he brought with him, as the chroniclers assure, reached two hundred. Of course, this was not without multiple exaggeration.

One way or another, until 830 or even somewhat later, the attacks of the "northern barbarians" were relatively limited. In areas remote from the coast, these attacks were often not even known.

Period of large-scale expansion

Starting from about 830, the activity of the Vikings began to increase - at first, relatively smoothly, and then like an avalanche. In 845, Hamburg and Paris were captured almost simultaneously. King of the Franks Charles the Bald had to pay the Vikings seven thousand pounds of silver to save his capital from total destruction. Other cities were less fortunate - Rouen, Tours, Angers and Nantes were plundered and burned, a significant part of their inhabitants died.

The brutal invaders, passing along the bed of the Loire, Garona, Seine, Meuse, Ems, Weser and other rivers, devastated everything in their path. In particular, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Angoulême, Limoges have suffered - the list goes on for a long time. In terms of its scale, this disaster was comparable to that experienced by those countries through which the Mongol invasion swept four hundred years later.

Amazingly, the Vikings had enough resources to organize a separate "expedition" to the Iberian Peninsula with a passing visit to North Africa at the same time as plundering the territory of the former Empire of Charlemagne - not to mention the ongoing attacks on the British Isles.

In the same years, the Vikings again showed themselves not only as robbers, but also as colonizers. In particular, in 841 it was they who became the founders of Dublin, the modern capital of Ireland. In addition, in the second half of the century, the "area of Danish law" appeared on the map of present-day England - another direct result of the constant expansion of the Vikings. True, London was outside this area, but this city was also seized and plundered several times.

In 885, the Vikings re-laid siege to Paris. Their troops appeared in the most different places northern and eastern France, as well as in today's countries such as Germany, Holland and Belgium. It seemed that the catastrophe would not end, but already in 890 and 891, the invaders inflicted two major defeats - first in England, and then on the continent. From that moment on, the number of raids and robberies began to decline - up to 90% of all warriors who went on campaigns died.

Of course, the world was not restored immediately, over time the attacks of the Vikings resumed, but they no longer reached the same significant scale. Nevertheless, in the new millennium, they still managed to conquer England again and capture London. This happened in 1013, that is, in the XI century.

The end of the Viking Age is considered to be 1066, when King Harald the Severe, a native of Norway, who aspired to become king of England, was killed in another battle.

Just weeks after his death, Britain was captured by William the Conqueror. Although he was a duke from Normandy, he is not usually considered a Viking.

One of the many " side effects Expansion of the Scandinavians was the discovery and subsequent settlement of Iceland. At first, this land, apparently, was considered as a transit point on a long journey to the shores of North America, where the Vikings occupied a special territory called Vinland, but after the "Christianization" of Norway and Denmark, the cold islands turned into a refuge for those who did not want to change your religion. Of course, the "evacuation" ultimately only delayed the inevitable.

Reasons for the success and subsequent extinction of the Vikings' activity

No matter how strong and fierce the Scandinavian warriors were, they were much inferior in number to the troops that the European kings had at their disposal by the 18th and 9th centuries. Therefore, the numerous victories of the Vikings in the eyes of modern people look like some kind of miracle. Nevertheless, it is relatively easy to explain the reasons for these successes.

The first forays were truly pin-pricks. Their danger was not appreciated either in England or on the continent. Therefore, almost no measures were taken to protect the coast. On the other hand, the attacks were extremely unpredictable - most often a jarl or a rich bond, who led a squad of Vikings who set out on a voyage, did not even know exactly where he would rob and what would become his target.

In those days, none of the European rulers had such a number of troops to cover the coast along its entire length for any length of time, which made it possible to strike at unprotected places.

Image of Rörik of Jutland, Danish king, one of the first Vikings to serve the Frankish kings. According to one version, it was he who was Rurik from the Russian chronicles.

The success of the large-scale expansion of the Vikings in the middle and second half of the 9th century AD was largely facilitated by the crisis and subsequent collapse of Charlemagne's empire. The defining moment here was the death of Louis I the Pious in 840. Immediately after it, a civil war broke out in the country, as a result of which, three years later, on the site of a single state, several kingdoms hostile to each other arose, which the "guests from Scandinavia" took advantage of.

It is also necessary to take into account the "technical reasons" - the medieval feudal army took quite a long time to form, arm and march. While the "organizational measures" were taking place, the Vikings managed not only to plunder several cities, but also to return with the booty to their native lands.

It was possible to extinguish the predatory and predatory activity of the Vikings with the help of political, not military, measures. Territorial concessions became the basis of this policy. For example, the Vikings received Normandy at their disposal - they could live there and run their own household. This was not a simple "ransom" - in response, the kings and yarls actually went into the service of the French kings and then acted as defenders of the coast from their yesterday's compatriots.

In some cases, the territories received by the Vikings became the base for raids on Scandinavia itself. In particular, Denmark and Norway were attacked. Such raids were not considered a betrayal - after all, the Vikings never constituted any common nation, only relatives were their own for them, and even then not always.

The Church played a decisive role in the weakening and disappearance of the Vikings. Her servants first went to Sweden, but then expanded their activities to wider territories. Despite the fact that the Scandinavians resisted attempts at Christianization for a long time, in the end the missionaries managed to achieve their goal - the new religion no longer made it possible to treat robberies and murders as a feat for the glory of the gods.

The main features of the military art of the Vikings

The Vikings would never have achieved any kind of victory on the battlefield if they were just bands of armed robbers. Perhaps the chroniclers are not quite right, calling the numerous northern warriors who terrorized Europe for almost two hundred years, a "great army", but still we have to admit that it was a fairly organized force, even if it never had a single command.

Formation of the squad

Most of the Vikings were so-called "bonds". So in Scandinavia they designated free landowners, as well as, importantly, their children, who, perhaps, did not get their own allotment. All of them had the right to bear arms and participate in tings - special meetings, the closest analogue of which can be considered, in particular, the well-known Novgorod veche.

The very first forays into England were apparently carried out exclusively by bonds that had turned into seafarers; the Yarls, and even more so the kings, joined this "movement" later. When this happened, on some ships, along with voluntary participants in the campaigns, mercenaries began to appear, receiving salaries for their help.

Berserkers were hired separately - rather strange people who, even from the point of view of an ordinary Viking, accustomed to all kinds of cruelty, were extremely dangerous and semi-insane marginals. They fought not for money and loot, but only in order to get to Valhalla as soon as possible and meet Odin there.

Combat tactics

In most cases, the Vikings fought on foot, similar to the ancient Greek phalanx. This construction was called a "wall of shields". Berserkers, who played the role of the assault squad, fought most often outside the formation. They attacked first and, apparently, were often successful. However, the systematic advance of the "wall of shields" made it possible to sweep away any enemy.

The worst enemy of the Vikings was the heavy cavalry. Sometimes she managed to break through the formation, and then it became very difficult to avoid defeat. The Vikings themselves rarely fought on horseback. Such episodes took place most often in the 10th century, both in England and in France. Horses were captured from the enemy, since there were no ways of transporting them on drakkars - at best, only one or two horses could be transported.

The Vikings fought at sea by boarding - the ships united and a single battlefield emerged. Maneuvering was carried out with the help of oars - the sails were lowered so that accidental gusts of wind did not interfere. At the same time, the ships, going for a rapprochement, lined up in lines and carried out intensive shelling of the enemy from bows. At short distances, throwing spears and stones were used, the supply of which was specially created before the battle.

To protect the rowers from all this, round shields were installed along the sides of the drakkar. It was impossible to use them in hand-to-hand combat due to their large weight and size, but they performed their main function well.

Main types of weapons

The armament of the Vikings as a whole differed little from the "all-European" one. True, today it is already difficult to judge its quality. The usual "set" consisted of the following elements:

Spears. Most likely, this was the main weapon. The spears of the Vikings that have survived to this day have a rather long tip with well-developed side blades. This means that they could have been used for chopping blows;
Swords. The most versatile weapon. The average length of the blade is from 90 cm to one meter. There is also information about the use of swords with one-sided sharpening (ie actually broadswords);
Axes. It is this type of weapon that is usually in the hands of a Viking in modern depictions. There are grounds for this - archaeologists have found the most of axes. Compared to swords, axes are cheap and also allow for a more concentrated blow.

Bows and shortened spears were used as throwing weapons. There is little information about them, despite the fact that in the retinue of some kings there were real "snipers" who confidently hit targets at great distances.

Protective equipment could be leather armor of various types, somewhat less often - chain mail, which became longer and longer over the years. In addition, every Viking certainly had a wooden shield. At first, its shape was round, and closer to the beginning of the second millennium, the shields became almond-shaped.

Vikings out of the battlefield

Many of the actions of the Vikings today look like wild and insane antics. Nevertheless, it would hardly be correct to describe these people in an exclusively negative way, as their contemporaries did.

Viking religion and moral principles

As you know, the Vikings were pagans. Their peculiar religion basically coincided with the "all-German" one. In particular, Odin stood at the head of the pantheon of gods (some Germanic tribes called him Wotan). It should be noted that many details concerning both individual characters and whole concepts that figure in Scandinavian myths could have been "thought out" several centuries after the end of the Viking Age, the poet should treat them with certain caution.

Odin, in accordance with the ideas of the Vikings, belongs to Valhalla - a banquet hall in the "upper world", Asgard. Only warriors who died on the battlefield can get there. The inhabitants of Valhalla feast every day - they eat boar meat and drink drunken honey, and then they take up swords and fight to the death - in order to then rise again and continue the feast. Such ideas about paradise life to some extent reflect the everyday ancient German reality, when everyone waged an endless war with each other generation after generation.

The "selection" in Valhalla is carried out by the Valkyries - warrior maidens who soar in the sky on winged horses and control the course of battles. They are the ones who decide who will live and who will die. At the same time, the feast in Valhalla is not at all eternal - in the future, Ragnarok will inevitably come, the end of the world, during which all the gods, including Odin, will perish. He will be killed by the monstrous wolf Fenrir, who is sometimes considered identical to Garmr, the four-eyed guardian of the kingdom of the dead.

Ragnarok, the death of the gods. In the center of the picture - Odin, galloping towards Fenrir, in the background - Thor, grappling in a deadly duel with the world serpent Ermungand

The most unusual thing in this common German religious mythology was that at the head of the pantheon of gods is not the thunderer Thor, whose analogs are, of course, the Greek Zeus and the Slavic Perun, but Odin. The Romans believed that this character in their own religion corresponds to Mercury (that is, the Greek Hermes). An indirect confirmation of this version can be considered the significant success that the Vikings managed to achieve in trade.

Thor's "pushing back" into the background entailed whole line consequences, one of which was complete absence among the Vikings of any caste of priests or clerics. In fact, each bond performed the worship itself and did not need any intermediaries.

It is in religion that one should, apparently, look for the sources of not only courage, but also the inhuman cruelty of the Vikings. For example, when they strung captive small children on spears, it was seen as a sacrifice to Odin. At the same time, the spear itself was perceived as a kind of model of the "world tree" connecting different worlds.

The Vikings also did not value their own life very much, considering, in particular, that going to certain death in battle is an enviable fate, since then getting into Valhalla becomes simply inevitable. Of course, such beliefs were not typical for everyone, but not only for semi-insane berserkers.

Quite often, the Vikings attacked each other. The reason for this was usually the desire to get rich. Thus, ships that came with booty from England or France were sometimes plundered when returning to their own harbor.

Blood feud could be another motive for the attack. This old custom was very common in Scandinavia. A classic case of such a massacre is described in the legends about the Danish prince Amled, the prototype of Shakespeare's Hamlet - oddly enough, this man was also a real Viking.

Social structure

Along with bonds, kings and jarls, a considerable number of slaves lived in Scandinavia. Their position was, of course, unenviable. Only in isolated cases did they manage to occupy a more or less privileged position. Slaves were sold and bought like ordinary things, and the fate of the girls at times became simply terrible. There were no ways to get out of slavery, and the children of slaves were also considered private property.

At the same time, it should be noted that free women in Scandinavia had the same rights as men. Often they occupied leading positions, and if desired, they could go on a campaign of conquest. Nothing of the kind was observed in the Christian states of Europe in those years.

Any of the bonds could theoretically be elected a jarl or even a king on the ting, having risen to a higher level in the general hierarchy. For this, however, it was required that the previous leader be seriously guilty of something. This primitive form of democracy persisted for a long time even after the completion of the "Christianization" of Scandinavia.

The names of the Vikings had a very definite semantic content. Many of them are directly related to weapons and battles. These are, for example, the names Egil (in Danish - blade), Einar - a warrior who fights alone, Björn - a bear - a symbol of rage in battle. According to the common German tradition, the names were supplemented by nicknames. But if among the Franks they were given mainly to kings (for example, Karl the Bald or Pepin the Short), then among the Scandinavians this "middle name" was assigned to almost every bond.

One more interesting feature the Vikings can be considered their entrepreneurial spirit. They understood well the importance of trade. Apparently, this explains the fact that the "Varangians" were able to establish quite normal interaction with the Slavic tribes. In the territory where it subsequently arose Ancient Russia, the Vikings behaved surprisingly quietly, avoiding any conflicts for a long time. On the other hand, the Scandinavians sometimes used their trade trips to conduct "long-range reconnaissance", gathering information about unprotected areas along the coast and selecting targets for subsequent attacks.

If you have any questions - leave them in the comments below the article. We or our visitors will be happy to answer them.

The mystery of the disappearance of the Vikings

The history of the campaigns of these early medieval sailors fits into the period from the 8th to the 11th century. The Vikings were nomadic tribes that settled in the lands that are today Sweden, Denmark and Norway.

There is a version that these sea robbers, who were called not only Vikings, but also Normans, and in Russia - Varangians, tried to inhabit the largest island on Earth - Greenland. Although, after several centuries, almost nothing remained of the Viking civilization.

"People from the Fjord"

Historians believe that the warlike tribes of the Normans were distinguished not only by the fact that they annoyed the population of medieval Europe with their countless attacks. The Vikings are among the pioneers who explored the North Atlantic and founded Normandy. It was they, according to some sources, who first set foot on the lands of modern America.

Nevertheless, always and everywhere these nomadic invaders were perceived as pirates or "people from the fjords." Robber - this is how the word "vikingar" is translated from Old Norse.

Captivated by the Green Land

At the beginning of the first millennium of the new era, the most advanced of the Scandinavians, Erik the Red (Eirik Thorvaldsson), discovered new uninhabited lands to the west of Iceland. The tough Norwegian guys at first did not perceive Greenland as a territory where you could create an independent state. Nevertheless, their separate civilization existed there for several centuries, until the 16th century. And then there was practically no trace of the Scandinavian colony. The Europeans, who arrived on this island at the end of the 16th century, found only dilapidated buildings.

Why Greenland is empty

There is a version that the Vikings mixed with the Eskimos, and therefore disappeared as entos. However, the Icelandic geneticist Gisli Palsson, who compared the DNA of the Inuit of Greenland and Canada, claims that there are no European haplogroups there. Other scientists have not found a similar relationship.

Historian Jared Diamond believes that mixing races through inter-ethnic marriages is most likely not the reason for the disappearance of the Vikings in Greenland, since neither they nor the Eskimos felt a special need to find spouses "on the side". No evidence of mass extermination of the Scandinavians as a result of clashes with the Eskimos in Greenland was also found. This is also confirmed by modern archaeologists.

Historian Thomas McGovern is sure that the Greenlanders at some point simply could not withstand the harsh climatic conditions prevailing on the island. But the American biologist and anthropologist Jared Diamond is convinced that the Viking civilization disappeared due to the fact that they were deprived of many benefits of life (for example, iron and other resources) and were not able to establish water communications with other countries, since the sea routes due to heaps of icebergs were impassable.

The Vikings did not develop either cattle breeding or arable farming in Greenland; this fact was also clarified during archaeological excavations.

Scientists believe that the Vikings and their descendants simply gradually left the island, as the habitat there for permanent residence became unacceptable to them. They settled throughout Scandinavia, thus forming entire states. Some modern historians are of the opinion that today's Russia would not have existed if the Varangians had not taken part in the fate of Russia in due time. But this is nothing more than a version. http://russian7.ru/post/zagadka-ischeznoveniya-vikingov/

The vocation of the Vikings. V.M. Vasnetsov

How the Varangians differ from the Vikings

Some believe that the Varangians are just a Russian designation for the Vikings. In fact, there are many significant differences between the Vikings and the Vikings.

Origin of names

The concepts "Viking" and "Varangian" have completely different origins. Most historians believe that "viking" originates from the word "vík", which is translated from Old Norse as "bay" or "fjord". However, there are other versions as well. So doctor historical sciences T. Jackson claims that the name "Viking" comes from the Latin "vicus" - a small settlement of artisans and merchants. This word was used even in the Roman Empire. Such settlements were often located on the territory of military camps. The Swedish scientist F. Askerberg stated that the verb “vikja” - to leave, to turn, served as the basis for the noun “viking”. According to his hypothesis, the Vikings are people who left their native places in order to find a livelihood. Askerberg's compatriot researcher B. Daggfeldt suggested that the word "viking" has much in common with the Old Norse phrase "vika sjóvar", which meant "the interval between the change of rowers." Therefore, in the original version, the term "víking" was most likely referred to as a long journey across the sea, involving frequent changes of rowers.

The version of the origin of the term "Varangian" was one of the first to be expressed by Sigismund von Herberstein, the Austrian ambassador, historian and writer. He suggested that the name "Varangians" is associated with the city of Vagriya, where the Vandals lived. From the name of the inhabitants of this city "Vagrov" the expression "Varangians" originated. Much later the Russian historian S. Gedeonov considered that the word "warang", meaning a sword and discovered by him in the Baltic-Slavic dictionary of Potocki, is the best fit for the role of the primary source of the term. Many historians associate "Varangian" with the ancient Germanic "wara" - an oath, vow, oath. And the linguist M. Fasmer considered the Scandinavian concept of “váringr” - loyalty, responsibility - to be the progenitor of the “Varangian”.

Various activities

The concepts of "Viking" and "Norman", according to historians, should not be identified, since the Normans are a nationality, while the Vikings are rather just a way of life. Irish researchers F. Byrne and T. Powell, in particular, speak about this. Byrne, in his book "A New Look at the History of Viking Age Ireland," argues that only the term "pirate" can be equated with the term "Viking". Because it was robberies that were the main source of income for the Vikings. The Vikings were not very settled and did not follow the laws.

The Varangians were a kind of social stratum of society. A sort of soldier for hire who guarded the borders of Byzantium from the raids of the same Vikings. The eldest daughter of the Byzantine emperor Alexei Komnenos, Anna wrote about the Varangians in her work entitled "Aleksiada". The princess argued that the Vikings understand their service to protect the state and its head as an inherited honorable duty.

Peaceful merchants were also called Varangians, who transported goods along the route called at that time "from the Varangians to the Greeks." This route ran by water from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea and Mediterranean sea... Moreover, the Baltic Sea then bore a different name - Varangian. And, according to the Soviet historian A. Kuzmin, absolutely all inhabitants of the sea coast were called Varangians before.

Different religions

The Vikings, who no doubt considered themselves warriors, but not pirates, worshiped the god Odin, like all Scandinavians. Odin's eternal companions were ravens - birds, which were not favored in Russia because of their tendency to devouring, they fell. In addition, since ancient times, Russians have considered ravens to be symbols of all kinds of dark forces. But it was the raven that was depicted on the flag that adorned the ship of the famous Viking leader Ragnar Lothbrok.

A sacred bird for the Varangians was a falcon, which honestly hunted for live prey. The falcon was a bird of Perun himself - a pagan slavic god, in which the Vikings believed. Since ancient times, the falcon has been revered as an image of courage, dignity and honor.

An entire era in the history of Europe is named after the Vikings. These merchants, navigators and robbers were known in every medieval state. The Vikings are considered to be the inhabitants of the Scandinavian countries who made sea trips to other lands. They founded settlements in Greenland, North America, they settled Iceland.

Why the Vikings were called differently

The Vikings were known to most European states. They served local rulers, conquered new lands, founded dynasties, and traded. At the same time, the Vikings were called differently. To understand why they were called differently among different peoples, one should point to the following names:

the word vikings itself is of Scandinavian origin. So these navigators called themselves. This word means "inhabitant of the gulf". After all, Scandinavia is known for its narrow bays - fjords, from where the Viking ships sailed;
the Slavs called them Varangians. Even the Baltic Sea was called Varangian in the 9th - 11th centuries. However, this word applies to all pirates of the Baltic. At that time, not only immigrants from Scandinavia were engaged in piracy, but also the Slavs. Their settlements on the island of Rügen and the southern coast of the Baltic Sea are well known. Therefore, the word "Varangian" meant everyone who arrives from the Baltic Sea;
the Europeans called the Vikings Normans, that is, the northern people. After all, they sailed from the North. This name gave the name to the Duchy of Normandy, founded by the Vikings;
in Byzantium they were called varangs. It is believed that this word is a distortion of the Slavic "Varangian". The Vikings were well known to the Byzantines. The personal guard of the emperor consisted of them.

Thus, the peoples called the Vikings differently. This is due to territorial specifics. After all, the designations "northern people" and "Varangians" are strongly associated with geographic specifics.

What did the Vikings do

Vikings became famous as warriors and robbers. But they were fearless seafarers. Only they sailed in the northern seas. Therefore, the Vikings were able to get to Svalbard, settle on the Shetland and Orkney Islands. They were not afraid of difficulties and dangers.

The concepts "Viking" and "Varangian" have completely different origins. Most historians believe that "viking" originates from the word "vík", which is translated from Old Norse as "bay" or "fjord". However, there are other versions as well. So Doctor of Historical Sciences T. Jackson claims that the name "Viking" comes from the Latin "vicus" - a small settlement of artisans and merchants. This word was used even in the Roman Empire. Such settlements were often located on the territory of military camps. The Swedish scientist F. Askerberg stated that the verb “vikja” - to leave, to turn, served as the basis for the noun “viking”. According to his hypothesis, the Vikings are people who left their native places in order to find a livelihood. Askerberg's compatriot researcher B. Daggfeldt suggested that the word "viking" has much in common with the Old Norse phrase "vika sjóvar", which meant "the interval between the change of rowers." Therefore, in the original version, the term "víking" was most likely referred to as a long journey across the sea, involving frequent changes of rowers.