Latest / Vikings / 08 - Vikings by Allen Mawer

Transcript

08 - Vikings by Allen Mawer · Vikings

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Chapter seven of the Vikings by Ellen Mauer. This LIBRYVANX
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain recording by Kevin Johnson,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Chapter seven The Vikings in Baltic Lands and Russia. The
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: activities of the north Men during the Viking Age were
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: not confined to the lands west and south of their
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: original homes. The Baltic was as familiar to them as
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the North Sea. To go east, Viking was almost as
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: common as to go west. Viking and Scandinavian settlements were
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: founded on the shores of the Baltic and far Inland
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: along the great waterways leading into the heart of Russia.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: As was to be expected from their geographical position, it
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: was the Danes and Swedes, rather than Norwegians, who were
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: active in Baltic Lands, the Danes settling chiefly on the
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Pomeranian coast among the Wends, while the Swedes occupied lands
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: further east and founded the Scandinavian Kingdom of Russia. Already
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: in the early years of the ninth century we find
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: the Danish king Gudrod now making war against his Slavonic
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: neighbors in Mecklenburg Schwerin, now intriguing with them against the
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Emperor Mention is made of more than one town on
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: the southern coast of the Baltic bearing an essentially Scandinavian name,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: pointing to the existence of extensive settlements. Interesting evidence of
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: this eastward movement is also to be found in the
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: life of Saint Anscar. There we learn how soon after
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: eight thirty a Danish fleet captured a city in the
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: land of the Slavs with great riches, and we hear
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: in eight fifty three how the Swedes were endeavoring to
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: reconquer Kurland, which had been under their rule, but had
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: now thrown off the yoke and fallen a prey to
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: a fleet of Danish vikings, possibly the one just mentioned.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Saint Anscar himself undertook the education of many Wendish youths
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: who had been entrusted to him. This and other evidence
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: prepare us for the establishment in the tenth century of
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: the most characteristic of all Viking settlements, that of Yamsborg
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: on the island of Wollen at the mouth of the Older.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: According to tradition, King Gorm the Old conquered a great
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: kingdom in Wendland, but it was to his son Harold
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Bluetooth that the definite foundation of Yamsborg was ascribed. For
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: many years there had been an important trading center at
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Julen on the island of Wollen, where traders from Scandinavia, Saxony,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Russia and many other lands met together to take part
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: in the rich trade between north and south, east and
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: west which passed through Julein, standing as it did on
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: one of the great waterways of Central Europe. Large finds
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: of Byzantine and Arabic coins bear witness to the extensive
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: trade with Greece and the Orient which passed through Juelen.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: While the silverburg on which Yumsborg once stood is so
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: called from the number of silver coins from Priscia, Lorraine,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Bavaria and England which have been found there, it was
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: no doubt, in the hope of securing some fuller share
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: in this trade, that Harold established the great fortress of
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Yumsborg and entrusted his defense to a warrior community on
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: whom he imposed the strictest rules of organization. The story
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: of the founding of Yumsborg is told in the late
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: and untrustworthy joms Viking Gasaga. But while we must reject
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: many of the details there set forth, it is probable
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: that the rules of the settlement as given there are
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: based on a genuine tradition, and they give us a
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: vivid picture of life. Life in a Viking warrior community.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: No one under eighteen or over fifty years of age
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: was admitted to their fellowship, and neither birth nor friendship,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: only personal bravery could qualify a man for admission. No
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: one was allowed to continue a member who uttered words
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: of fear or who fled before one who was his
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: equal in arms and strength. Every member was bound to
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: avenge a fallen companion as if he were his brother.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: No woman were allowed within the community, and no one
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: was to be absent for more than three days without permission.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: All news was to be told in the first instance
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: to their leader, and all plunder was to be shared
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: at a common stake. The harbor of Yolmsburg could shelter
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: a fleet of three hundred vessels, and was protected by
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: a mole with twelve iron gates. The joms Vikings played
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: an important, if stormy part in the affairs of the
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: three Scandinavian kingsingdoms in the later years of the tenth
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: and the early eleventh century. Many of them came to
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: England in the train of King Spain, while yarl Thorkel
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: was for a time in the service of Ethelred the Unready.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: The decline of Jumsburg as a Viking stronghold dates from
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: its devastation by Magnus the Good in ten forty three,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: but the importance of Julen as a trading center continued
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: unimpaired for many years to come. From Yumsborg. Harold Bluetooth's
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: son Hakon made an attack on Samland in the extreme
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: east of Prussia, but the real exploitation of the eastern
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Baltic fell as was natural to the Swedes rather than
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: to the Danes. We have already mentioned their presence in
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Kurland on the Gulf of Riga, and we learned from
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Swedish Runic inscriptions of expeditions to Samland to the Semgali
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: brackets in Kurland and a brachet, and to the river
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: of Dunah. The important fortified port of Seeburg was probably
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: near Tariga, while the chief trade route from the island
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: of Gothland lay round Cape Domesnais bracket note the Scandinavian
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: name and a brachet to the mouth of the Duna.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: The chief work of the Swedes was, however, to be
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: done in lands yet further south, in the heart of
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: the modern Empire of Russia in Europe. The story of
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: the founding of the Russian Kingdom is preserved to us
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: in the late tenth century chronicle of the Monk Nestor,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: who tells us that in the year eight fifty nine
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Varangians came over the sea and took tribute from various Finnish, Tatar,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: and Slavonic peoples inhabiting the forest regions round Lake Ilmen,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: between Lake Ladoga and the upper waters of the Naiper. Again,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: he tells us that in eight sixty two the Varangians
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: were driven over seas and tribute was refused. But soon
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: the tribes quarreled among them themselves, and some suggested that
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: they should find a prince who might rule over them
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: and keep the peace. So they sent across the sea
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: to the Vrangians, to the Ras, for such is the
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: name of these Vragians, just as others are called Swedes, Northmen, Anglians, Goths,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: saying that their land was great and powerful, but there
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: was no order within it, and asking them to come
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: and rule over them. Three brothers with their followers were
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: chosen the eldest Rurik Brachet Old Norse Roiker and a
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Brachet settled in Novgorod, the second in Bielo Zero, the
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: third in truvor in Isborsk. Three years later, two of
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: the brothers died, and Rurik took control of the whole
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: of the settlements, dividing the land among his men. In
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: the same year, two of Rurik's followers, Askold Brachet Old
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Norse Hosgolder and a Brachet and Der Bracket Oldnos Deity
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: and a Brachet, setting out for Constantinople, halted at Kiev
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: and there founded a kingdom, which in eight eighty two
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: was conquered by rurik successor Oleg Brachet Old Norse Helgi
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: and a Brachet, and as the mother of all Russian cities,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: became the capital of the Russian Kingdom. There is a
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: certain naivete about this story which is characteristic of the
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Monkish chronicler generally, and it is clear that after the
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: usual manner of the analyst who is compiling his record
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: long after the events described, Nestor has grouped together under
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: one or two dates, events which were spread over several
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: years but the substantial truth of the narrative cannot be
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: impugned and receives abundant confirmation from various sources. The earliest
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: evidence for the presence of these Rus in Eastern Europe
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: is found in the story of the Byzantine embassy to
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: the Emperor Lewis the Pious in eight thirty nine, when
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: certain people called Ros, who had been on a visit
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: to Constantinople, came in the train of the embassy and
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: asked leave to return home through the Empire. Enquiries were made,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: and it was found that these Ros were Swedes. This
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: would point to the presence of Rus in Russia at
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: a date earlier than that given by Nestor, and indeed
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: the rapid extension of their influence indicates a period of
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: activity considerably longer than that allowed by him. These Rus
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: or Ros soon came into relations both of trade and
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: war with the Byzantine Empire. We have preserved to us
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: from the years nine eleven and nine forty four commercial
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: treaties made between the Rus and the Greeks, showing that
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: they brought all kinds of furs and also slaves to Constantinople,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: receiving in exchange various articles of luxury, including gold and silver, ornaments, silks,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: and other rich stuffs. The names of the signatories of
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: these treaties are on the side of the russ almost
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: entirely of Scandinavian origin, and may to some extent be
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: shown to be of definitely Swedish provenance. About the year
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: nine fifty, the Emperor Constantine Porphryogenitus, writing a tractate on
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: the administration of the Empire, describes how traders from various
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: parts of Russia assemble at Kiev and sail down the
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Dnepur on their way to Constantinople. Their course down the
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Dnepur was impeded by a series of rapids, and Constantine
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: gives their names both in Russian and in Slavonic form,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: and though the names are extremely corrupt in their Greek transcription,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: there is no mistaking that the Russian names are really
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: forms belonging to some Scandinavian dialect. The russ were all
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: so well known as warriors and raiders. In eight sixty five,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: they sailed down the Deneper across the Black Sea and
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: made their way into the Sea of Marmora. Their fleet
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: was dispersed by a storm, but they were more successful
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: in nine o seven, when Oleg with some two thousand
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: ships harried the environs of Constantinople and was bought off
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: by a heavy tribute. These attacks were continued at intervals
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: during the next century. We also find a good deal
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: of interesting information about these Russ as they are called
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: in various Arab historians. We hear how they sailed their
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: vessels down the chief waterways, and had such a firm
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: hold on the Black Sea that by the year nine
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: hundred it was already known as the Russian Sea. Often
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: they dragged their vessels over land from one stream to another,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: and thus they made their way from the upper waters
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: of the Dawn down the Volga to the Caspian Sea.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: But not only do we have a description of their journeyings,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: we also learn a good deal of their customs and habits.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: And though at times the information given is open to suspicion,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: archaeological research tends to confirm the statements of these historians
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: and to show that the civilization of the russ closely
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: resembled that of the Scandinavian peoples generally in the Viking Age.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: The identification of the ancient Russ with the Swedes was
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: long and hotly contested by Slavonic patriots, but there is
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: now a general consensus of opinion that the evidence for
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: it is too strong to be overthrown. Not only have
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: we the evidence given above, but also the very names
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Russ and Varangian can be satisfactorily explained only on this theory.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: The name Rus is the Slavonic Ros, the Greek, and
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Russ the Arabic form of the Finnish name for Sweden,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: viz Ruatsi. His name was originally derived from Rother or
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: rothen the name of certain districts of Upland and Ostergotland
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: whose inhabitants were known as Rodskarlar or Rod's mine. The
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Finns had early come into relation with the Swedes, and
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: they used the name of those people with whom they
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: were in earliest and most intimate contact for the whole
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Swedish nationality. When these Swedes settled in Russia, the Finns
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: applied the same term to the new colonists, and the
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: term came to be adopted later into the various Slavonic dialects.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: We are most familiar with the term Varangian or Verag
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: to use the Slavonic form, as applied to the Famous
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Guard of the Byzantine Emperors, which seems to have been
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: formed in the latter half of the tenth century and
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: was largely composed of Norwegian, Icelandic and Swedish recruits. In
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: Russian and Arabic historians, on the other hand, the term
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: is us used rather in an ethnographic or geographic sense.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: We have seen that it was thus used by Nestor,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: and similarly we find the Baltic commonly spoken of as
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: the Varangian Sea, both in Russian and in Arabic records.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: All the evidence tends to show that this was the
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: earlier sense of the term, and we find it gradually
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: displacing the term ros even in Byzantine historians. The word
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: itself is of Scandinavian origin and means those who are
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: bound together by a pledge. The theory which best explains
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: its various uses is that put forward by doctor Wilhelm
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Thompson viz. That it originated among the Northmen who settled
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: in Russia, i e. Among the ancient Rus, and that
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: under that term they denoted those people west of the
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Baltic who were related to them by nationality. From the russ.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: The The word passed into the Slavonic language as veriag,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: into the Greek as Barangoi, where it was often used
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: in the restricted sense of members of the imperial guard
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: largely recruited from this nation, and into the Arabic as varank.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Doctor Thompson adduces two happy parallels for the somewhat remarkable
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: history of the terms Russian and Varangian. The term Russian
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: came to be used as their own name by the
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Slavonic peoples, who were once ruled over by the Rus
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: in much the same way the term Frankish or French
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: was adopted by the Gaulish population of France from its
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Germanic conquerors. The term Varrangian, ultimately the name for a
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: nation or group of nations, came to be used of
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: a military force once largely recruited from those nations, much
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: in the same way as the term Swiss was applied
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: to the papal Guard long after that guard had ceased
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: to be recruited from the Swiss nation exclusively. The belief
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: in the Scandinavian origin of the russ is amply supported
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: by archaeological evidence. The large number of Arabic coins found
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: in Sweden, Bracket, more especially in Gothland and of Bracket
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: and in Russia itself, points to an extensive trade with
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: the Orient, whose route lay chiefly to the east of
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: the Caspian Sea and then along the valley of the Volga.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: The dates of the coins point to the years between
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: eight fifty and one thousand as those of most active
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: intercourse with the East. Equally interesting is the large number
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: of Western coins, more especially Anglo Saxon pennies and skiats,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: which have been found in Russia. They probably represent portions
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: of our Danegeld, which had come into the hands of
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: the Swedes, either in trade or war. Viking brooches of
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: the characteristic oval shape with the familiar zumor ornamentation have
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: been found in western Russia, and one stone with a
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Runic inscription belonging to the eleventh century and showing evidence
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: of connection with Gothland, has been found in a burial
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: mound in Verazan, an island at the mouth of the Denepur.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Professor Braun says that no others have been found because
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: of the rarity of suitable stone. How long the russ
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: maintained their distinctively Scandinavian nationality. It is difficult to determine.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: Oleg's grandson, Sfiatoslav, bore a distinctively Slavonic name, and henceforward
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: the names of the members of the royal house are
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: uniformly Slavonic. But the connection with Sweden was by no
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: means forgotten. Siatoslav's son, Vladimir the Great, secured himself in
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: the rulership of Novgorod in nine eighty by the aid
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: of Veriags from over the sea, and established a band
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: of Veriag warriors in the chief city of kievv But
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: the Viking age was drawing to a close. Very eg
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: auxiliaries are mentioned for the last time in ten forty three,
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: and it is probable that by the middle of the
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: eleventh century the Scandinavian settlers had been almost completely slavonicized.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: Of their permanent influence on the Russian people and on
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Russian institutions, it is in the present state of our
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: knowledge almost impossible to speak. Attempts have been made to
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: distinguish Scandinavian elements in the old Russian law and language,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: but with no very definite results, and we must content
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: ourselves with the knowledge that the Vikings were all powerful
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: in western and southern Russia during the greater part of
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: two centuries, carrying on an extensive trade with the east,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: establishing Novgorod, the new town on the Volga under the
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: name Holmgarthur, and founding a dynasty which ruled in Kiev
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: and became a considerable power in Eastern Europe, negotiating on
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: terms of equality with the Byzantine emperors. Mention has already
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: been made more than once of the way in which
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: the Northmen entered the service of the emperors of Constantinople
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: or Mikligarth, the great city as they called it. From
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: here they visited all parts of the Mediterranean. When Harald
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: Hardrada was in the service of the Emperor, he sailed
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: through the Grecian Archipelago to Sicily and Africa. There he
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: stayed several years, conquering some eighty cities for his master
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: and gaining rich treasures for himself. One interesting memorial of
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: these journeys still remains to us. At the entrance to
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: the Arsenal in Venice stands a marble lion brought from
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: Athens in sixteen eighty seven. Formerly it stood at the
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: harbor of the Piraeus. Known thence as the Porto Leon.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: On the sides of the lion are carved two long
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: runic and scrips arranged in snakelike bands. The ruins are
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: too much worn to be deciphered, but they are unquestionably
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: of Scandinavian origin, and the snake bands closely resemble those
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: that may be seen on certain runic stones in Sweden.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: The carving was probably done by Swedes from Upland about
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: the middle of the tenth century. One can hardly imagine
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: a more striking illustration of the extent and importance of
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: the Viking movement in Europe. End of Chapter seven