Trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks

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

Trade route

A trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a single trade route contains long distance arteries which may further be connected to several smaller networks of commercial...

that connected Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

, Kievan Rus'

Kievan Rus'

Kievan Rus was a medieval polity in Eastern Europe, from the late 9th to the mid 13th century, when it disintegrated under the pressure of the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240....

and the Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

. The route allowed traders along the route to establish a direct prosperous trade with Byzantium, and prompted some of them to settle in the territories of present-day Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. That was a long-distance waterway

Waterway

A waterway is any navigable body of water. Waterways can include rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, and canals. In order for a waterway to be navigable, it must meet several criteria:...

including the Baltic Sea

Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...

, several rivers, flowing into the Baltic Sea

Baltic Sea

, rivers of the Dnieper river system with portage

Portage

Portage or portaging refers to the practice of carrying watercraft or cargo over land to avoid river obstacles, or between two bodies of water. A place where this carrying occurs is also called a portage; a person doing the carrying is called a porter.The English word portage is derived from the...

s on the drainage divides.

The route began in Scandinavian trading centres such as Birka

Birka

During the Viking Age, Birka , on the island of Björkö in Sweden, was an important trading center which handled goods from Scandinavia as well as Central and Eastern Europe and the Orient. Björkö is located in Lake Mälaren, 30 kilometers west of contemporary Stockholm, in the municipality of Ekerö...

, Hedeby

Hedeby

Hedeby |heath]]land, and býr = yard, thus "heath yard"), mentioned by Alfred the Great as aet Haethe , in German Haddeby and Haithabu, a modern spelling of the runic Heiðabý was an important trading settlement in the Danish-northern German borderland during the Viking Age...

, and Gotland

Gotland

Gotland is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden; it is Sweden's largest island and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, the region makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area...

, crossed the Baltic Sea

Baltic Sea

, entered the Gulf of Finland

Gulf of Finland

The Gulf of Finland is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland and Estonia all the way to Saint Petersburg in Russia, where the river Neva drains into it. Other major cities around the gulf include Helsinki and Tallinn...

, followed the Neva River

Neva River

The Neva is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length , it is the third largest river in Europe in terms of average discharge .The Neva is the only river flowing from Lake...

into the Lake Ladoga

Lake Ladoga

Lake Ladoga is a freshwater lake located in the Republic of Karelia and Leningrad Oblast in northwestern Russia, not far from Saint Petersburg. It is the largest lake in Europe, and the 14th largest lake by area in the world.-Geography:...

. Then it followed the Volkhov River

Volkhov River

Volkhov is a river in Novgorod Oblast and Leningrad Oblast in northwestern Russia.-Geography:The Volkhov flows out of Lake Ilmen north into Lake Ladoga, the largest lake of Europe. It is the second largest tributary of Lake Ladoga. It is navigable over its whole length. Discharge is highly...

, upstream past the towns of Staraya Ladoga

Staraya Ladoga

Staraya Ladoga , or the Aldeigjuborg of Norse sagas, is a village in the Volkhovsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the Volkhov River near Lake Ladoga, 8 km north of the town of Volkhov. The village used to be a prosperous trading outpost in the 8th and 9th centuries...

and Velikiy Novgorod, crossed Lake Ilmen

Lake Ilmen

Ilmen is a historically important lake in the Novgorod Oblast of Russia, formerly a vital part of the Trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks. The city of Novgorod lies six kilometers below the lake's outflow....

, and up the Lovat River. From there, ships had to be portage

Portage

d to the Dnieper River

Dnieper River

The Dnieper River is one of the major rivers of Europe that flows from Russia, through Belarus and Ukraine, to the Black Sea.The total length is and has a drainage basin of .The river is noted for its dams and hydroelectric stations...

near Gnezdovo

Gnezdovo

Gnezdovo or Gnyozdovo is an archeological site located near the village of Gnyozdovo in Smolensk Oblast, Russia. The site contains extensive remains of a Slavic-Varangian settlement that flourished in the 10th century as a major trade station on the trade route from the Varangians to the...

. A second route from the Baltic to the Dnieper was along the Western Dvina (Daugava) between the Lovat and the Dnieper in the Smolensk region, and along the Kasplya River

Kasplya River

Kasplya is a river in Russia and Belarus, a left tributary of the Daugava River. Its length is 224 km, the first 157 km in Russia , and the rest in Belarus . It starts from Lake Kasplya at , and joins the Daugava in the town of Surazh...

to Gnezdovo

Gnezdovo

. Along the Dnieper, the route crossed several major rapids and passed through Kiev, and after entering the Black Sea

Black Sea

The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...

followed its west coast to Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

History

The route from the Varangians

Varangians

The Varangians or Varyags , sometimes referred to as Variagians, were people from the Baltic region, most often associated with Vikings, who from the 9th to 11th centuries ventured eastwards and southwards along the rivers of Eastern Europe, through what is now Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.According...

to the Greeks was first mentioned in the Primary Chronicle

Primary Chronicle

The Primary Chronicle , Ruthenian Primary Chronicle or Russian Primary Chronicle, is a history of Kievan Rus' from about 850 to 1110, originally compiled in Kiev about 1113.- Three editions :...

, but its effects were reported much earlier, in the early ninth century when the Byzantines

Byzantine Empire

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 eighth and early ninth centuries, when Varangian explorers searched for plunder but also for slave

Slavery

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

s and lucrative goods. The route gained significant importance from the tenth until the first third of the eleventh century, concurrently with the Volga trade route

Volga trade route

In 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 the trade route from the Khazars to the Germans.

According to Constantine VII

Constantine VII

Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos or Porphyrogenitus, "the Purple-born" was the fourth Emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, reigning from 913 to 959...

, the Krivich

Krivich

The Krivichi was one of the tribal unions of Early East Slavs between the 6th and the 12th centuries. They migrated to the mostly Finnic areas in the upper reaches of the Volga, Dnieper, Western Dvina, areas south of the lower reaches of river Velikaya and parts of the Neman basin.-Etymology:Many...

es and other tribes dependent on Kiev

Kiev

Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

transported hollowed-out sailboats, or 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.

Places named include Smolensk

Smolensk

Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River. Situated west-southwest of Moscow, this walled city was destroyed several times throughout its long history since it was on the invasion routes of both Napoleon and Hitler. Today, Smolensk...

(Μιλινισκα), Liubech

Liubech

Liubech or Lyubech is a small ancient town connected with many important events since the times of the Kievan Rus'. It is currently a small settlement located in Ripky Raion, in the Chernihiv Oblast of northern Ukraine...

(Τελιουτζα), Chernihiv

Chernihiv

Chernihiv or Chernigov is a historic city in northern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Chernihiv Oblast , as well as of the surrounding Chernihivskyi Raion within the oblast...

(Τζερνιγωγα), Vyshhorod

Vyshhorod

Vyshhorod is a city in the Kiev Oblast , in central Ukraine. It is the administrative centre of the Vyshhorodskyi Raion , and is located along the Dnieper River upstream from the national capital, Kiev...

(Βουσεγραδε), Vitechev (Βιτετζεβη), and Kiev

Kiev

(Κια(ο)βα). Some of these cities had alternate names in Old Norse

Old Norse

Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....

, and Constantine quotes some of them: Novgorod = Νεμογαρδα = Hólmgarðr = ‘Island Enclosure’, and Nýgarðr = ‘New Enclosure’; Kiev

Kiev

= Kœnugarðr = ‘Boatyard’ and Σαμβατας = Sandbakki-áss = ‘Sandbank Ridge’. Constantine Zuckerman

Constantine Zuckerman

Constantine Zuckerman is a French-Jewish historian and Professor of Byzantine studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris.-Biography:...

suggests a more obvious etymology, from the Turkic (Khazar) roots "sam"+"bat" (literally, "upper fortress"). (The runestone N 62 preserves the name Vitaholmr ("demarcation islet") for Vitichev.)

On the Dnieper the Varangians had to portage

Portage

their ships round seven rapid

Rapid

A rapid is a section of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. A rapid is a hydrological feature between a run and a cascade. A rapid is characterised by the river becoming shallower and having some rocks exposed above the...

s (they don't exist anymore as a chain of basins was established in 1950-70s), where they had to be on guard for Pecheneg nomads. The rapids began below Dnipropetrovsk

Dnipropetrovsk

Dnipropetrovsk or Dnepropetrovsk formerly Yekaterinoslav is Ukraine's third largest city with one million inhabitants. It is located southeast of Ukraine's capital Kiev on the Dnieper River, in the south-central region of the country...

where the river turns south and fell 50 meters in 66 kilometers.

Names of the Dnieper rapids, with translations, and Constantine’s Greek spelling:
Modern	Slavonic	Norse
	Ne sǔpi, ‘Don't Sleep’, Εσσουπη	Sof eigi, ‘Don't Sleep’
Surskij, ‘Severe One’; Lochanskij	Ostrovǐnyj pragǔ, ‘Island-waterfall’, Οστροβουνιπραχ	Holmfors, ‘Island-Waterfall’, Ουλβορσι
Zvonets(kij), ‘Clanger’		Gellandi, ‘Roaring’, Γελανδρι
Nenasytets(kij), ‘Insatiable’	Nejasytǐ, ‘pelican Pelican A pelican, derived from the Greek word πελεκυς pelekys is a large water bird with a large throat pouch, belonging to the bird family Pelecanidae.... ’ (which nested there), Νεασητ	Eyforr, ‘ever violent’, Αειφορ
Volnyj, Volninskij, ‘[place] of waves’	Vlǔnǐnyj pragǔ, ‘wave-waterfall’, Βουλνηπραχ	Bárufors, ‘wave-waterfall’, Βαρουφορος
Tavolzhanskij	Vǐruchi, ‘laughing’, Βερουτζη	Hlæjandi, ‘laughing (ref. noise of water)’, Λεαντι
Lishnij, ‘superfluous’	Naprjazi?, ‘bend, strain?’, Ναπρεζη; Na bǔrzǔ?, ‘quick?’	Strukum, ‘[at the] rapids’, Στρουκουν

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 Pechenegs. The Varangians stopped at St. George Island. Then they equipped their ships with sails in the Dnieper estuary

Berezan Island

Berezan is an island in the Black Sea at the entrance of the Dnieper-Bug estuary, Mykolaiv Oblast, Ukraine. The island measures approximately 900 metres in length by 320 metres in width...

and continued to navigate along the western shore of the Black Sea

Black Sea

all the way to Constantinople

Constantinople

(Slavic

Slavic languages

The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...

: Tsargrad

Tsargrad

Tsargrad is a historic Slavic name for the...

, Old Norse: Mikligarðr).

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

Pripyat River

The Pripyat River or Prypiat River is a river in Eastern Europe, approximately long. It flows east through Ukraine, Belarus, and Ukraine again, draining into the Dnieper....

-Bug

Bug River

The Bug River is a left tributary of the Narew river flows from central Ukraine to the west, passing along the Ukraine-Polish and Polish-Belarusian border and into Poland, where it empties into the Narew river near Serock. The part between the lake and the Vistula River is sometimes referred to as...

waterway leading to Western Europe

Western Europe

Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...

, and the Volga trade route

Volga trade route

, which went down the Volga waterway to the Caspian Sea

Caspian Sea

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...

. Another offshoot was along the Dnieper and the Usyazh-Buk River towards Lukoml

Lukoml

Lukoml is a village in Lukoml selsoviet, Chashniki district, Vitsebsk Voblast, Belarus, by the Lukoml Lake.-History:Early references to Lukoml in Russian chronicles are dated by 1078, when in was burned by Vladimir Monomakh. In 15-16th centuries it constituted a separate principality. In 1563 it...

and Polotsk.

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

Wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

, spices, jewelry, glass

Glass

Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...

, expensive fabrics, icon

Icon

An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...

s, and books came from the Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire

. Kiev used to trade bread, handmade goods, silver coins, etc. Volhyn traded spinning wheel

Spinning wheel

A spinning wheel is a device for spinning thread or yarn from natural or synthetic fibers. Spinning wheels appeared in Asia, probably in the 11th century, and very gradually replaced hand spinning with spindle and distaff...

s and other items. Certain kinds of weapon

Weapon

A weapon, arm, or armament is a tool or instrument used with the aim of causing damage or harm to living beings or artificial structures or systems...

and handicraft

Handicraft

Handicraft, more precisely expressed as artisanic handicraft, sometimes also called artisanry, is a type of work where useful and decorative devices are made completely by hand or by using only simple tools. It is a traditional main sector of craft. Usually the term is applied to traditional means...

s came from Scandinavia

Scandinavia

. Northern Rus' offered timber, fur, honey and wax, while the Baltic tribes traded amber

Amber

Amber is fossilized tree resin , which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Amber is used as an ingredient in perfumes, as a healing agent in folk medicine, and as jewelry. There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents...

.

In the second half of the eleventh century, the Crusades

Crusades

The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...

opened more lucrative routes from Europe to the Orient through the Crusader states of the Middle East. By that time, Rus'

Kievan Rus'

Kievan Rus was a medieval polity in Eastern Europe, from the late 9th to the mid 13th century, when it disintegrated under the pressure of the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240....

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

Muravsky Trail

Muravsky Trail or Murava Route was an important trade route and according to the Russian historiography a favourite invasion route of the Crimean Tatars during the Russo-Crimean Wars of the 16th and early 17th centuries. It was also used somewhat for peaceful trade...

In fiction

A large part of the best-selling Swedish historical novel The Long Ships
The Long Ships
The Long Ships or Red Orm is a best-selling Swedish novel written by Frans Gunnar Bengtsson . The novel is divided into two parts, published in 1941 and 1945, with two books each....

(original Swedish Röde Orm) by Frans Gunnar Bengtsson
Frans Gunnar Bengtsson
Frans Gunnar Bengtsson was a Swedish novelist, essayist, poet and biographer. He was born in Tossjö in Skåne and died at Ribbingsfors Manor in northern Västergötland.-Literary career:...

describes the adventures of a Danish ship crew (with a pilot from Gotland
Gotland
Gotland is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden; it is Sweden's largest island and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, the region makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area...

) taking this route in the late 10th Century.
Rosemary Sutcliff
Rosemary Sutcliff
Rosemary Sutcliff CBE was a British novelist, and writer for children, best known as a writer of historical fiction and children's literature. Although she was primarily a children's author, the quality and depth of her writing also appeals to adults; Sutcliff herself once commented that she wrote...

's 1976 novel Blood Feud
Blood Feud (novel)
Blood Feud is a historical novel for children written by Rosemary Sutcliff and published in 1976.It begins in 10th Century England, and tells the tale of an orphaned child of a Celtic father and Saxon mother, who is caught up with the Vikings and ultimately journeys all the way to Constantinople...

takes place during the 10th-century, and depicts a half-Saxon orphan who joins a Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...

crew and takes this route, joining the Varangian Guards and ultimately settling in Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

.
In Stephen R. Lawhead
Stephen R. Lawhead
Stephen R. Lawhead, born , is a best-selling American writer known for his works of fantasy, science fiction, and more recently, historical fiction, particularly Celtic historical fiction...

's novel Byzantium, the main character, a 9th-century Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...

, is taken by Viking raiders from Scandia
Scandia
Scandia was a name used for various uncharted islands in Northern Europe by the first Greek and Roman geographers. The name originated in Greek sources, where it had been used for a long time for different islands in the Mediterranean region...

to Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

via this route.
In the comic strip Prince Valiant
Prince Valiant
Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur, or simply Prince Valiant, is a long-run comic strip created by Hal Foster in 1937. It is an epic adventure that has told a continuous story during its entire history, and the full stretch of that story now totals more than 3700 Sunday strips...

, pages 932 (19 Dec 1954) to 988 (15 Jan 1956), the eponymous main character and company travel on two Viking longships
Longship
Longships were sea vessels made and used by the Vikings from the Nordic countries for trade, commerce, exploration, and warfare during the Viking Age. The longship’s design evolved over many years, beginning in the Stone Age with the invention of the umiak and continuing up to the 9th century with...

from Constantinople to Scandia via this route, during which they encounter Patzinaks and Polotjans
Cumans
The Cumans were Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman-Kipchak confederation. After Mongol invasion , they decided to seek asylum in Hungary, and subsequently to Bulgaria...

.
Two music albums coincidentally released in 2007 deal with fictional journeys down the trade route, heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

band Rebellion
Rebellion (band)
Rebellion is a German power-metal band. It was formed in 2001 when guitarist Uwe Lulis left Grave Digger in 2000, taking ex-Grave Digger bassist Tomi Göttlich with him...

's Miklagard — The History of the Vikings Volume 2
Miklagard — The History of the Vikings Volume 2
Rebellion's second part in their Viking-trilogy. First album with female guitarist Simone Wenzel. Vocals on "Vi Seglar Mot Miklagard" sung by Charles Rytkönen -Track listing:...

and folk metal
Folk metal
Folk metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. As the name suggests, the genre is a fusion of heavy metal with traditional folk music...

band Turisas
Turisas
Turisas is a Finnish folk metal band from Hämeenlinna. It was founded in 1997 by Mathias Nygård and Jussi Wickström and named after an ancient Finnish God of war....

' The Varangian Way
The Varangian Way
The Varangian Way is the second full-length album from Finnish folk metal band, Turisas and was released in 2007. It is a concept album that tells the story of a group of Scandinavians traveling the river routes of medieval Russia, through Ladoga, Novgorod and Kiev, down to the Byzantine Empire.A...

.

External links

P.M.Zolin

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