Serkland

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
srklant on the Tillinge Runestone raised in memory of a Varangian who did not return from Serkland, at the church of Tillinge in Uppland, Sweden.

In

Saracens
.

The exact etymology is disputed. Serk- may derive from "Saracen"; from sericum, Latin for "silk", implying a connection with the

Muslim Sicily).[1][2]

Notably one of the Ingvar runestones, the Sö 179, raised circa 1040 at Gripsholm Castle, commemorates a Varangian loss during an ill-fated raid in Serkland. The other remaining runestones that talk of Serkland are Sö 131, Sö 279, Sö 281, the Tillinge Runestone and probably the lost runestone U 439. For a detailed account of such raids, see Caspian expeditions of the Rus'.

Several sagas mention Serkland:

Saga Sigurðar Jórsalafara, Jökulsþáttur Búasonar[3] and Hjálmþés saga ok Ölvis. It is also mentioned by the 11th century skald Þórgils Fiskimaðr,[4] and the 12th century skald Þórarinn Stuttfeldr.[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ Judith Jesch, Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse (Boydell, 2001), p. 104ff.
  2. ^ Stefan Brink, "People and land in Early Scandinavia", in Ildar H. Garipzanov, Patrick Geary and Przemyslaw Urbanczyk (eds.), Franks, Northmen, and Slavs: Identities and State Formation in Early Medieval Europe (Brepols, 2008) p. 98.
  3. ^ "Kennsluleiðbeiningar".
  4. ^ Þórgils fiskimaðr, Nordmand, 11 årh. (AI, 400-1, BI, 369).
  5. ^ Þórarinn stuttfeldr, Islandsk skjald, 12. årh. (AI, 489-92, BI, 461-4).

Literature

This article contains content from the Owl Edition of Nordisk familjebok, a Swedish encyclopedia published between 1904 and 1926, now in the public domain.

External links