Actually, the standard derivation of rus is from the name Rurik, one of the early Varangian (aka Viking) leaders who traded with Kiev. One of his near descendants was Igor, the Prince who is the hero of the Russian national epic (The Lay of the Host of Igor) and of Borodin's opera.

Best,
Bill


Jamie Fessenden wrote:
This is correct.  The Arabic traveller Ibn Fadlan's account of a Viking funeral, which was borrowed almost word-for-word by Michael Crichton for his novel "Eaters of the Dead" (made into the movie "The 13th Warrior"), was a Rus funeral.  According to a Nova documentary I have, they settled what would later become one of the major Russian cities (Kiev?) and travelled along the Dnieper (sp?) river.  The details are a little fuzzy for me, because I haven't watched the documentary recently.
 
Jamie
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2004 9:20 PM
Subject: Re: [norse_course] Re: Help with one phrase? - Old Norse and runestones (myths)

I think they actually were Vikings, not just descendants.   I remember hearing somewhere that the word "Rus" was from the Finnish "Ruotsi", their term for Swedes.



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