Vikings attacked Seville (844), an Arab writer calls them Rūs, using probably a name for the Vikings which was already well known in the East. The descriptions of the life of the ancient Rus, which we find in Greek and Arabic writers, tally in remarkable fashion with those of the Vikings in the West, and archaeological and philological evidence tends to strengthen the belief that their original home was in Scandinavia. Certain types of fibulae found in Western Russia are derived from Scandinavia, and the hoards of Anglo-Saxon pennies and sceatts found there are probably our Danegeld. One runic inscription, belonging to the eleventh century and shewing evidence of connexion with Gothland, has been found in a burial mound in Berezan, an island at the mouth of the Dnieper. Professor Braun says that no others have been found because of the rarity of suitable stone. The names of the Dnieper rapids as given in their Russian form (side by side with the Slavonic) by Constantine Porphyrogenitus (c. 950) are undoubtedly Scandinavian in origin. Exactly how the term Rus came to be applied to the Swedish nation (or a part of it) has been much disputed[1]. Still more difficult is the question of the origin of the term Varangian or Variag, to use the Russian form. We have seen that it is applied to the whole of the nation of whom the Rus formed part. It is also given to the guard of the Byzantine emperors. It is probable that the term Varangians was first applied to the whole of the Scandinavian peoples, but more especially to the Swedes with whom the Slavs had chiefly to deal, and later to the Emperor's guard recruited from these hardy Northerners. Most famous of such Varangians was the great Harold Hardrada, who after a career of adventure in the East ultimately fell at Stamford Bridge in 1066.
Of the later history of the Scandinavians in Russia we know little, but it is probable that by the year 1000 they were largely Slavised and by the end of the eleventh century they were entirely absorbed by the native element.
We have now traced the main outlines of Viking activity in eastern and western Europe: it remains to say something of their civilisation and its influence on the development of the various countries in which they formed settlements.
During the years of Viking activity the Scandinavian peoples stood at a critical period in the history of their civilisation: side by side with a large element of primitive barbarism we find certain well-developed forms of civilisation, while throughout their activity the Vikings shewed an eager understanding and appreciation of the culture of the older civilisations then prevailing in western Europe. This strange blend of barbarism and culture finds its clearest illustration in their daily life and in the slow and halting passage from heathendom to Christianity.
- ↑ The form Rus is probably the Slavonic version of the Finnish Ruotsi, the name given by the Finns to the Swedes generally, aud taken from the district of Uppland, known as Roþr, with which they were most familiar.
