The Vikings in the East: the Varangian Guard

Although they had been trading in the eastern Baltic since at least the 7th century, the first eastward Viking raid on record took place at the relatively late date of 852, when a Swedish host descended on the city of Novgorod and exacted a huge 'Danegeld' from its citizens. Even thereafter Vikings in the East—always mainly Swedes— tended to be settlers and traders rather than pirates; they were nevertheless quick to establish themselves as rulers over the native Slavic population, who called them Rus (whence 'Russia'). By 858 they had established themselves in Kiev, from where, just two years later, they launched a daring—albeit unsuccessful—attack on Constantinople (Miklagard, 'The Great Town', as they called it) by sailing their ships down the Dnieper and across the Black Sea. Further major campaigns against the Byzantine Empire were to follow in 907, 941 and 944, by which time the Rus had already begun to be assimilated by their Slavic subjects and can no longer truly be regarded as Vikings; indeed, even in the mid-9th century the Arabic geographer Ibn Khordadbah described the Rus as a 'kind of Slav'.

Real Vikings, referred to by the Rus, Arabs and Byzantines alike as 'Varangians', nevertheless continued to feature in Russian history, sizeable bands of them being hired as mercenaries by successive Kievan and Novgorodian princes—a practice that continued well into the 11th century, the last reference to Viking mercenaries in Russia dating to 1043. Many such Vikings, after a spell in Russia, went on to Constantinople and joined the Byzantine army, in which 700 of them are recorded as early as 911. Thereafter, references to Vikings in Byzantine employ are frequent: seven ships crewed by 415 Vikings from Russia accompanied a Byzantine expedition to Italy in 935; six ships and 629 men sailed on a similar expedition to Crete in 949; Rus or Viking troops are recorded fighting the Arabs in 955, and taking part in a campaign in Sicily in 968. Twenty years later, in 988, Vladimir of Kiev sent as many as 6,000 Vikings to the assistance of Emperor Basil II, and it was from among these that the celebrated Varangian Guard was subsequently established.

The foundation of the Varangian Guard—or the 'Axe-bearing Guard' as it was often termed in Byzantine sources—resulted from Basil II's distrust of his native Byzantine guardsmen. His contrasting confidence in Vladimir's Russian Vikings probably resulted from familiarity with the descriptions of Arab travellers, who recorded how the loyalty of these Rus to their own king was such that they were prepared to 'die with him and let themselves be killed for him'. This confidence was not misplaced, since Anna Comnena would later write of 11th century Varangian Guardsmen that 'they regard loyalty to the Emperors and the protection of their persons as a family tradition, a kind of sacred trust and inheritance handed down from generation to generation; this allegiance they preserve inviolate and will never brook the slightest hint of betrayal.' Scandinavians—whether from Sweden, Norway, Denmark or Iceland—were therefore always welcome at the Byzantine court, and the Icelandic sagas and surviving runic inscriptions alike contain innumerable references to men who at one time or another served in the Varangian Guard. Even Harald Hardrada, future king of Norway, became an officer in the Guard.

The Varangian Guard continued to be com­posed principally of Scandinavians for about a century and a half after its foundation; but after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 a great many Anglo-Saxon émigrés also began to be incorporated into its ranks. First recorded in Byzantine employ in the 1070s and 1080s, when they were seemingly brigaded separately from the Scandinavians, these English guardsmen steadily increased in numbers during the 12th century until, by c.1180, the Byzantine chronicler Cinnamus was able to state quite specifically that the Varangian Guard was composed of men 'of British race'. Even so, Sverrir's Saga records that as late as 1195 the Emperor despatched envoys to the kings of Norway, Sweden and Denmark requesting 1,200 men for service in the Guard; while Villehardouin's chronicle of the Fourth Crusade of 1202—1204 repeatedly refers to Danish as well as English guardsmen. By this late date, however, they were undoubtedly in the minority, and later 13th century sources invariably refer to the Varangians as being Englinoi ('Eng­lishmen'). The Viking adventure in the East was over.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 686