Route from the Varangians to the Greeks

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The Trade Route from the Varangians to the Greeks
)
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.
The trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks, according to Marika Mägi (In Austrvegr: The Role of the Eastern Baltic in Viking Age Communication across the Baltic Sea, 2018)

The trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks was a medieval

river system, with portages on the drainage divides. An alternative route was along the Dniester river with stops on the western shore of Black Sea
. These more specific sub-routes are sometimes referred to as the Dnieper trade route and Dniester trade route, respectively.

The route began in Scandinavian trading centers such as

Kiev. After entering the Black Sea, it followed its west coast to Constantinople.[1]

History

runestone G 280 which talks of death in the Dnieper Rapids
.

The route from the Varangians to the Greeks was first mentioned in the early 12th century Primary Chronicle, but its effects were reported much earlier, in the early ninth century when the Byzantines noted newcomers in their regions, the Varangians. Though this has come to mean "Vikings" to many, the term for the Byzantines meant all Scandinavians and their kindred living in what is now Russia.

The route was probably established in the late 8th and early 9th centuries, when Varangian explorers searched for plunder but also for

trade route from the Khazars to the Germans
.

According to

monoxyla, which could accommodate thirty to forty people, to places along the rivers. These sailboats were then transported along the Dnieper to Kiev. There they were sold to the Varangians who re-equipped them and loaded them with merchandise.[2]

Routes and places

Places named include

runestone N 62 preserves the name Vitaholmr (‘demarcation islet’), which could refer to Vitichev, according to Boris Kleiber.[4] Judith Jesch, however, suggests Vitaholmr may refer either to Witland, a historical region on the east side of the River Vistula,[5] or to Vindau on the coast of Courland.[6]

Dnieper route

See also: Dnieper Rapids

On the

Pecheneg nomads. The rapids began below the modern city of Dnipro, where the river turns south, and fell 50 meters in 66 kilometers. Today, the rapids are underwater, due to the construction of the dam of DniproHES
, a hydroelectric power station, in 1932.

Below the rapids, they had to pass a narrow rocky spot called the Ford of Vrar (Russian: Krariyskaya crossing), where the Varangians were often attacked by the

Miklagarðr
).

Western Black Sea shores

The Varangian boats were used along the rivers and along the Black Sea shores. According to Constantine VII, the navigation near the western shore of Black Sea contained stops at Sulina (Danube Delta), Conopa, Constantia (localities today in Romania). There are some remains of the Varangian presence in this area at Murfatlar Cave Complex near Constantia (today Constanţa, Romania).[7] Numerous runic inscriptions, symbols and even a graffiti of a Viking navy are visible on the walls of the rock church from Murfatlar.[8][9] A rune stone from the Sjonhem cemetery in Gotland dating from the 11th century commemorates a merchant Rodfos who was traveling to Constantinople and was killed north of the Danube by the Blakumenn (Vlachs).[10]

Trade activities

The Trade Route from the Varangians to the Greeks was connected to other waterways of Eastern Europe, such as the

Bug waterway leading to Western Europe, and the Volga trade route, which went down the Volga waterway to the Caspian Sea. Another offshoot was along the Dnieper and the Usyazh-Buk River towards Lukoml and Polotsk
.

The Trade Route from the Varangians to the Greeks was used to transport different kinds of merchandise.

Baltic tribes traded amber
.

In the second half of the eleventh century, the Crusades opened more lucrative routes from Europe to the Orient through the Crusader states of the Middle East. By that time, Rus' had strengthened its commercial ties with Western Europe, and the route from the Varangians to the Greeks gradually lost its significance. For a related military route, see Muravsky Trail.

In popular culture

"Holmgard and beyond
That's where the winds will us guide
For fame and for gold
Set sail for those lands unknown"

– Turisas, "To Holmgard and Beyond", The Varangian Way (2007)

See also

Citations

  1. ^ Cybriwsky 2018, p. 45.
  2. ^ Waugh 2000.
  3. ^ Zuckerman 2000, p. 117: "C'est alors que débutent des tentatives pour ressusciter le trafic commercial sur le Dniepr, interrompu depuis un demi-siècle, et que commence le développement urbain de Kiev qui aurait aussi porté, selon le De administrando imperio de Constantin Porphyrogénète (952), le nom de Sambatas, sans doute d'origine turco-khazare (sam + bat, fortresse supérieure)."
  4. ^ Pritsak 1981, p. 372: "Kleiber connects viti with the name Vitičev (xolm), for which there is no Slavic etymology, and identifies the first Vitaholm with Vitičev xolm."
  5. ^ Jesch 2001, p. 90: "The secondary inscription on the Alstad stone (N 62) records the death of a man i uitahol(m)(i) ‘in Vitaholmr’, on his way to Russia (see also below). It has been conjectured that this otherwise unidentified place-name has some connection with the Witland, on the east side of the mouth of the River Vistula (NlyR I, 155-7), that is mentioned by Wulfstan in the late ninth century (Lund 1984, 23)."
  6. ^ Jesch 2001, p. 90: "There may or may not be some connection between this and the place called Vindau, on the coast of Kúrland, directly opostite Gotland (SR XI, 271), which is probably mentioned in G 135, in which it is said of the commemorated that he --rþ tauþr a ui(t)au ‘died in Vindau’."
  7. ^ Mihăescu & Ştefan 1970, p. 661.
  8. ^ Spinei 2009, p. 54.
  9. ^ Agrigoroaei 2009.
  10. ^ Curta 2006, p. 303.
  11. ^ DiGioia 2020, p. 85.
  12. ^ Velasco Laguna 2012, p. 168.

References

  • Cybriwsky, Roman Adrian (2018-03-20). Along Ukraine's River: A Social and Environmental History of the Dnipro. Central European University Press.
    ISBN 978-963-386-205-6
    .

Further reading

External links
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