Bjarmaland (also spelled
Bjarmland or
Bjarmia) was a territory mentioned in
Norse sagaThe sagas , are stories about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, about early Viking voyages, about migration to Iceland, and of feuds between Icelandic families...
s up to the
Viking AgeViking Age is the term for the period in European history, especially Northern European and Scandinavian history, spanning the eighth to eleventh centuries. Scandinavian Vikings explored Europe by its oceans and rivers through trade and warfare. The Vikings also reached Iceland, Greenland,...
— and beyond. Most scholars believe that the term refers to the south shores of the
White SeaThe White Sea is an inlet of the Barents Sea on the northwest coast of Russia. It is surrounded by Karelia to the west, the Kola peninsula to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the northeast....
and the basin of the
Northern DvinaThe Northern Dvina is a river in Northern Russia flowing through the Vologda Oblast and Arkhangelsk Oblast into the Dvina Bay of the White Sea. The length is . It should not be confused with Western Dvina.- Navigation and canals :...
River. Today, these areas comprise the
Arkhangelsk OblastArkhangelsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It includes Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya islands, and also has administrative jurisdiction over Nenets Autonomous Okrug...
of
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.
It is often assumed that the name is derived from a
Fenno-UgricFinno-Ugric is a group of languages in the Uralic language family, comprising Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian and related languages.It comprises the Finno-Permic and Ugric language families.-Status:...
word
permGreat Perm or Permia was a medieval Komi state in the modern-day Perm Krai of Russia. Cherdyn is said to have been its capital.The relationship of Permia to Bjarmaland of Norse sagas is often speculated, but remains uncertain...
which meant "travelling merchants". However, some linguists consider this theory to be speculative. Bjarmian trade reached south-east to
BulgarBolghar was the capital of Volga Bulgaria from the 8th to the 15th centuries. It was situated on the bank of the Volga River, about 30 km downstream from its confluence with the Kama River and some 130 km from modern Kazan...
at the Volga where they also interacted with Scandinavians, who came from the Baltic Sea.
Identification
The name Bjarmaland appears in old
NorseNorsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who speak one of the North Germanic languages as their native language. The meaning of Norseman was "people from the North"...
literature, possible for the area where
ArkhangelskArkhangelsk , formerly called Archangel in English, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina river near its exit into the White Sea in the far north of European Russia. City districts spread for over along the banks of the...
is presently situated, and where it was preceded by a Bjarmian settlement. The first appearance of the name is in the
Voyage of Ohthere, which was undertaken ca 890. According to Ohthere, it was the first Scandinavian voyage to the Bjarmians, but this information is not reliable.
The name
PermianKomi peoples live in the Komi Republic, Perm Krai, Murmansk Oblast, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug of Russia. Their northernmost subgroup is also known as the Komi-Izhemtsy or Iz'vataz...
is found in the oldest Rus', Nestor's Chronicle (1000-1100). The names of other
Finno-UgricThe Finno-Ugric peoples is a historic linguistic group of peoples in Europe who speak Finno-Ugric languages, such as the Finnic and the Ugric peoples...
tribes are also listed including Veps,
CheremisThe Mari are a Volga-Finnic people who have traditionally lived along the Volga and Kama rivers in Russia. The majority of Maris today live in the Mari El Republic, with significant populations in the Tatarstan and Bashkortostan republics...
, Mordvin and Chudes.
The place-name was also used later both by the German historian
Adam of BremenAdam of Bremen was a German medieval chronicler. He lived and worked in the second half of the eleventh century. He is most famous for his chronicle Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum .-Background:Little is known of his life other than hints from his own chronicles...
(11th century) and the Icelander
Snorri SturlusonSnorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing...
(1179-1241) in
Bósa saga ok Herrauðs, reporting about its rivers flowing out to
GandvikIn Norse mythology, Gandvik is a dangerous sea, known as 'Bay of Serpents' because of its tortuous shape. Saxo Grammaticus stated that Gandvik was an old name for the Baltic Sea . The legend presumably refers to Gulf of Bothnia...
. It's not clear if they reference the same Bjarmaland as was mentioned in the
Voyage of Ohthere, however. Bjarmian god
Jomali is
FinnicFinnic languages may refer to:*Baltic-Finnic languages*Volga-Finnic languages*Finno-Volgaic languages, comprising the previous two groups and the Sami languages*Finno-Permic languages, comprising Finno-Volgaic and the Permic languages...
but the description of the god is more Siberian, especially the crown adorned with twelve stars in gold, characteristic to Siberian shaman caps.
Olaus MagnusOlaus Magnus was a Swedish ecclesiastic and writer, who did pioneering work for the interest of Nordic people. He was reported as born in October 1490 in Östergötland, and died on August 1, 1557. Magnus, Latin for the Swedish Stor “great”, is a Latin family name taken personally, and not a...
put Bjarmaland in the
Kola PeninsulaThe Kola Peninsula is a peninsula in the far north of Russia, part of the Murmansk Oblast. It borders upon the Barents Sea on the North and the White Sea on the East and South...
, while
Johannes SchefferusJohannes Schefferus was one of the most important Swedish humanists of his time.Schefferus was born in Strasbourg, then part of the Holy Roman Empire...
(1621 - 1679) argued it was equal to
LapplandLappmarken was an earlier Swedish name for the northern part of the old Kingdom of Sweden specifically inhabited by the Sami people. In addition to the present-day Swedish Lapland, it also covered Västerbotten, Jämtland and Härjedalen, as well as the Finnish Lapland. As a name, it is related to...
.
Early contacts
According to the saga about the
Voyage of Ohthere, the Norwegian merchant
OttarOhthere of Hålogaland was a Viking adventurer from Hålogaland. Around 890 AD he travelled to England, where Alfred the Great, king of Wessex, had his tales written down....
(Ohthere) reported to king
Alfred the GreatAlfred the Great , was king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex from 871 to 899. Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English king to be given the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to...
that he had sailed for several days along the northern coast and then southwards, finally arriving at a great river, probably the
Northern DvinaThe Northern Dvina is a river in Northern Russia flowing through the Vologda Oblast and Arkhangelsk Oblast into the Dvina Bay of the White Sea. The length is . It should not be confused with Western Dvina.- Navigation and canals :...
. At the estuary of the river dwelt the
Beormas, who unlike the nomadic
Sami peopleThe Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are one of the indigenous people of northern Europe inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia but also in the border area between south and middle Sweden...
s were sedentary, and their land was rich and populous. Ohthere did not know their language but he said that it resembled the language of the
Sami peopleThe Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are one of the indigenous people of northern Europe inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia but also in the border area between south and middle Sweden...
. The Bjarmians told Ohthere about their country and other countries that bordered it.
Later several expeditions were undertaken from Norway to Bjarmaland. In 920, Eirik Bloodaxe made a Viking expedition, as well as
Harald II of NorwayHarald II Greycloak , was the son of Eirik Bloodaxe and a grandson of Harald Fairhair. After his father's death, he and his brothers allied with King Harald Gormson of Denmark against King Haakon...
and
Haakon Magnusson of NorwayHaakon Magnusson was king of Norway from 1093 until 1094. He was the grandson of King Harald Hardråde, son of King Magnus and nephew of King Olav Kyrre. He was raised by chief Tore på Steig of Gudbrandsdalen. After the death of Olav Kyrre he was hailed as King of Norway in Trondheim, while his...
, in 1090.
The best known expedition was that of
Tore HundThorir Hund , , one of the leaders of the so-called peasant faction opposing the Norwegian king Olaf Haraldsson, also an important character in Snorre Sturlason's saga chronicling the king.Thorir was an influential man in the area of Hålogaland, his home being the island of Bjarkøy...
(Tore Dog) who together with some friends, arrived in Bjarmaland in 1026. They started to trade with the inhabitants and bought a great many pelts, whereupon they pretended to leave. Later, they made shore in secret, and plundered the burial site, where the Bjarmians had erected an idol of their god
Jomali. This god had a bowl containing silver on his knees, and a valuable chain around his neck. Tore and his men managed to escape from the pursuing Bjarmians with their rich booty.
Background
Modern historians suppose that the wealth of the
BjarmiansThe Permians are a branch of Finno-Ugric peoples including Komis and Udmurts, speakers of Permic languages. Formerly also the name Bjarmians was used of them...
was due to their profitable trade along the
DvinaDvina may refer to:* The Western Dvina is a river in Russia, Belarus, and Latvia.* The Northern Dvina is a river in northern Russia....
, the
Kama RiverKama is a major river in Russia, the longest left tributary of the Volga and the largest one in discharge; in fact, it is larger than the Volga before junction....
and the Volga to
BolgharBolghar was the capital of Volga Bulgaria from the 8th to the 15th centuries. It was situated on the bank of the Volga River, about 30 km downstream from its confluence with the Kama River and some 130 km from modern Kazan...
and other trading settlements in the south. Along this route, silver coins and other merchandise were exchanged for pelts and walrus tusks brought by the Bjarmians. Further north, the Bjarmians traded with the Sami who are said to have been tributaries to the Bjarmians.
It seems that the Scandinavians made some use of the Dvina trade route, in addition to the
Volga trade routeIn the Middle Ages, the Volga trade route connected Northern Europe and Northwestern Russia with the Caspian Sea, via the Volga River. The Rus used this route to trade with Muslim countries on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, sometimes penetrating as far as Baghdad...
and Dnieper trade route. In 1217, two Norwegian traders arrived in Bjarmaland to buy pelts; one of the traders continued further south to pass to Russia in order to arrive in the
Holy LandThe Holy Land , generally refers to the geographical region of the Levant called Land of Canaan or Land of Israel in the Bible, and constitutes the Promised land...
, where he intended to take part in the
CrusadesThe Crusades were a series of religiously-sanctioned military campaigns waged by much of Latin Christian Europe, particularly the Franks of France and the Holy Roman Empire. The specific crusades to restore Christian control of the Holy Land were fought over a period of nearly 200 years, between...
. The second trader who remained was, however, killed by the Bjarmians. This caused Norwegian officials to undertake a campaign of retribution into Bjarmaland which they pillaged in 1222.
The 13th century seems to have seen the decline of the Bjarmians, who became tributaries of the
Novgorod RepublicThe Novgorod Republic was a large mediæval Russian state which stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Ural Mountains between the 12th and 15th centuries, centred on the city of Novgorod...
. While many Slavs fled the Mongol invasion northward, to Beloozero and Bjarmaland, the displaced Bjarmians sought refuge in
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
, where they were given land in
MalangenMalangen is a fjord, landscape and former municipality in the county of Troms, Norway.The area is today divided between the municipalities of Balsfjord, Lenvik and Målselv....
, by
Haakon IV of NorwayHaakon Haakonsson , also called Haakon the Old, was king of Norway from 1217 to 1263. Under his rule, medieval Norway reached its peak....
, in 1240. More important for the decline was probably that, with the onset of the
CrusadesThe Crusades were a series of religiously-sanctioned military campaigns waged by much of Latin Christian Europe, particularly the Franks of France and the Holy Roman Empire. The specific crusades to restore Christian control of the Holy Land were fought over a period of nearly 200 years, between...
, the trade routes had found a more westerly orientation or shifted considerably to the south.
When the Novgorodians founded Velikiy Ustiug, in the beginning of the 13th century, the Bjarmians had a serious competitor for the trade. More and more
PomorsPomors or Pomory are Russian settlers and their descendants on the White Sea coast. It is also term of self-identification for the descendants of Russian, primarily Novgorod, settlers of Pomorje , living on the White Sea coasts and the territory whose southern border lies on a watershed which...
arrived in the area during the 14th and 15th centuries, which led to the final subjugation and assimilation of the Bjarmians by the Slavs.