Re: The 'road from the Varangians to the Greeks' (former etruscan)

--- In cybalist@egroups.com, s.tarasovas@... wrote:

> --- In cybalist@egroups.com, "Torsten Pedersen" <tgpedersen@...>
> wrote:
> > To test this scenario, does anyone of you (Sergei?) know of any
> > sudden political change e.g. in Kievan Rus (new Slavonymic tsar?)
> > taking place in 980?
> >
>
> The decade after the death of grand prince Svyatoslav [Old Russian
> Sve,toslavU] was a period of high political instability in the
> territory of the to-be Kievan Rus', 980 being the peak.
>
> There were no state as an entity on that territory, we rather deal
> with a political mosaic, the subjects of the game being:
>
> - subethnos Rus' [Old Russian RusI], probably of North Germanic
> origin (some Scandinavians named roTHs- 'oarsmen'? Rugi?

Rosomoni?),

> political backbone of the territory. Svyatoslav belonged to that
> subethnos, which had lived in symbiosis with Slavs for centuries by
> then and were on their way to total assimilation by Slavs, but

still

> kept in touch with related Scandinavian ethnoses. Their basic
> occupation was war and trade. First mentioned in the territory

north

> of the Black Sea in the VI c (?, identification unreliable).
>
> - variuos Slavic tribes (Polyane [Old Russian Pol'ane^], Drevlyane
> [Derevl'ane^], Dregovichi [DrIgUvic^i], Ulichi [Ulic^i], Tivertsi
> [TivIrci], Ilmen Slovene [Slove^ne^], Krivichi [Krivic^i],

Severyane

> [Se^ver'ane^], Radimichi [Radimic^i], Vyatichi [Ve,tic^i] as well

as

> nearly assimilated local Baltic (cheifly), Finno-Ugric and East
> Iranian tribes. Their relations with Rus' and among themselves

varied

> from souvereign-homager to alien and enemy. Their main occupation

was

> farming and craft (esp. in towns), later trade; they often

comprised

> the bulk of an army lead by Rus' or Varangians.
>
> - Varangians [Old Russian vare,zi] (branch, or, rather, another

name

> of Vikings), who tried to establish their influence in the

territory

> in the IX-X cc. Being ethnically close to Rus', they sometimes
> cooperated with Rus' and the Slavs, sometimes conflicted with them.
> Anyway, they never controlled all of the territory, only part of it
> (chiefly in the northen part of it, near Novgorod and the east

Baltic

> cost in general) and only for a brief period of time.
>
> - nomadic Pechenegs in the Pontic steppes, who could control the
> mouths of Don and Dniester.
>
> As Adriana noted, after the death of his father Svyatoslav in 972,
> Vladimir [Old Russian Volodime^rI, propably a carbon copy of a
> Germanic name akin to Valdemar], whose party expressed the

interests

> of chiefly Novgorod [Old Russian NovUgorodU] community, influenced

by

> Varangians and propagated militant paganism, come into conflict

with

> his brother Yaropolk [Old Russian JaropUlkU], whose party expressed
> chiefly Kievan [Old Russian KyjIvU] and Polotskian [Old Russian
> PolotIskU] interests, sympathized to the Byzantines and their

branch

> of christianity. Novgorod merchants invested, and a Varangian army
> returned Vladimir to Kiev as the only grand prince (since both his
> brothers were killed). Please refer to Adriana's posting for

romantic

> details :) .
>
> Now the young prince makes an unexpected stroke of policy:

realizing

> the role of Kiev and its sattelite towns, as well as anticipating

the

> growth of highly undesirable Varangian influence, he got rid of the
> Varangians by deceit, eluded the epayment for their service and

drove

> them to the Byzantine Empire, having sent a warning to the
> authorities that they should be dispersed by small troops to avoid
> danger. Now the Kievans were happy and accepted him as a great

prince.

> The relationships with Varangians were consiously make bad, and

their

> role in the territory was completely eliminated by the middle of

the

> XI c.
> The first step in that direction could well be blocking of the

trade

> routs - that's what I would do if I were Vladimir. :)
>
> Then, recognizing the necessity of a uniformed religious system,
> Vladimir (or other political subjects) was not ready to to embrace
> Christianity. An interesting bi-componental form of paganism was
> approved as standard:
> - the cult of some Iranian deities [Old Russian XUrsU, SimarIglU],

a

> curtsey swept to the tribes of the south and east (Kievan party).
> - the cult of PerunU, or, rather, the branch of it developed by
> Krivichy (one of the main tribes of Pskov [PlIskovU] and Novgorod)
> and the Baltic Slavs and highly influenced by the Baltic and
> Germano/Celtic substratum. This is somehow related to the great
> rebellion of the Baltic Slavs in 983, which nearly eliminated
> Christianity in the southern Baltic for a while. It need not
> explanation that relations between, eg, the Danes and the Baltic
> Slavs were far from friendly, and this is another reason why

Vladimir

> could bar trade routes for Vikings.
>
> Last, the Byzantians were apparently not happy of their party

defeat

> and could well order Pechenegs to block mouths of Don and Dniester.
>
> Taking into account all that, the scenario proposed by Torsten

seemes

> very plausible to me.
>
> Sergei

The landscape Roslagen (north of Stockholm) has been suggested as a
cognate of Rus (the Danelaw in England is "Danelagen" in Danish,
probably a late Romantic loan from Old Norse. That would make
Roslagen the area where the law of Ros is the law of the land.)

There were a few more 980 dates I have just checked up.

In 980 silver disappears from the Birka market. Consensus
explanation: the Arabian silver mines were exhausted. But mines are
not exhausted from one season to the next (well, most mines).

The fortresses (called Zwingburge in Eastern Europe, Fort this-and-
that in the American West, alternatively POW camps, that Harald
Bluetooth built for the conquest of eastern and northern Denmark;
Saxo, uncharacteristically, doesn't mention them; nothing to be proud
of?) are dated dendrochronologically to 980.

The recent excavations at Uppåkra (close to Lund in Scania) show that
that large unfortified settlement dissappeared around 980.

Continuation of scenario: The Russian rivers (esp. Dniepr) are
blocked. No silver reaches Birka. No laden ships pass the Danish
islands. The income of the king(s) of the islands (the Hvide clan of
Ringsted? they played an important part later as rival kings and
as "side kicks" (eg. Absalon) to the kings) plummets and they can't
pay protection money to Harald. Harald goes and collects the debt
himself. Now he controls both routes to the Baltic: Haithabu and the
straits. No more unfair competition.

All speculation of course.

Torsten