The Rus and How Russia Got Its Name

The Vikings, sailing in their strong and narrow ships, built so tough that were able to withstand rough seas, reached amazing parts of the world such as Newfoundland via Iceland and Greenland, and may have discovered America before Christopher Columbus. Their raids reached around today’s France, Spain, Italy, the southern part of the Mediterranean, England, Ireland, Germany, the Nordic countries, all the way to Kiev and the Caspian Sea.

They were searching for land more fertile than the soil in Scandinavia. They used Europe’s rivers such as the Rhine and the Volga and their tributaries to reach unsuspected communities which they raided with the intent to carry the loot and trade with other Vikings.

The red haired and bearded Viking raiders started plundering Europe’s villages at the end of the eighth century and by the tenth century the raids ended, and the Vikings became colonists.

Normandy was granted to them in 911 A.D. and they adopted the French language and their religion. The Duke of Normandy became a powerful ruler of Europe and his Christian soldiers conquered all of England in 1066, then southern Italy and Sicily.

Norwegians, without maps and compasses and with 50-70 feet long boats, founded in the deserted Iceland a land of farmers and fishermen in which all free men could speak and vote, the first democracy since Greece.

Erik the Red found Greenland. His son Leif found a land which he called Vinland, Newfoundland. He tried to colonize it but failed.

A grave of a Viking raider/trader found in eastern Sweden in a town called Fittja, was evidence to the reach of the Viking explorations; it contained silver pieces from Cordoba, Spain, Egypt and Syria, Baghdad, and the city of Tashkent in Central Asia, today’s capital of Uzbekistan.

The Viking raids’ destinations were churches and monasteries where they knew that Christians kept incredible valuables made of gold, silver, and precious gems. In the process of raiding, the Vikings destroyed and burned to the ground many churches and monasteries.

The plundering Dane named Rorik, after sacking the port of Dorestad, at the mouth of the River Rhine, decided to settle there and became a prosperous merchant. Others formed trading posts far away which grew into cities like Dublin and Kiev. There was already a flourishing Scandinavian trade in furs, cattle, dairy, and Baltic amber during the Roman times.

The Vikings were vigorous warriors, aggressive, enterprising, willing to take risks, and did not fear death. Valhalla was heaven and final destination.

Ibn Faldan, the Arab ambassador from the Caliphate of Baghdad, wrote on a mission to the “Rus,” the Vikings of the East, in 922 A.D.:

“Never have I seen people of more perfect physique; they are tall as date palms and reddish in color. They are the filthiest of God’s creatures. They do not wash after discharging their natural functions, neither do they wash their hands after meals. They are as stray donkeys. . . . Ten or twenty of them may live together in one house, and each man has a couch of his own . . ..”

Ibn Faldan described how a slave girl brings her master a huge bowl of water in which he washed his face, hands, and hair, blew his nose and spit into the water. Then the bowl was carried to his neighbor who followed the same ritual until the same bowl was carried around to the entire household.

Faldan wrote about the Viking chief’s burial ritual in an ornate boat decorated with silk brocades; how an old woman named the Angel of Death stabbed a young slave-woman who “volunteered” to die with her master; the Viking men banged on their shields to drown out the cries of the slave while the ship, the dead chief, and his young and unwilling slave were set on fire for his fleeting trip to Valhalla.

The geographer Ibn Rusteh, another Arab traveler, wrote about thirty years later that the Vikings wore “exquisite clothes, respect their guests, are hospitable and friendly to strangers.” They stick together in battle as one until victory but are very quarrelsome, wrote Rusteh. Both writers agreed that the Vikings demanded too much tribute from Slav villages.

The Vikings were called the Rus by their Finnish neighbors. According to the twelfth century Russian Chronicle, the Rus were invited by the Slavs in the ninth century to rule their land because “Our land is rich, but there is no order in it. Come rule over us.”

Rurik, his brothers, and their descendants accepted the Slavs’ offer and established Novgorod, Smolesnk, and Kiev, which they stated to be the “mother of Russian cities.” Kiev became the “early capital of this Slavic land now ruled by the Rus and soon to be known as Rus or in English, Russia.” (Quest for the Past)

The Viking savages, as the Arabs wrote, were civilized by contact with the Byzantine world (today’s Istanbul). Prince Vladimir converted in 987 to Eastern Christianity and married the Byzantine Emperor’s sister. She was not too happy about the marriage and tried everything in her power to prevent it but was unsuccessful. Vladimir is said to have had hundreds of paramours.

Scholars believe that, by the end of the tenth century, the Viking blood in Russian society had diluted, which explained the Slavic name Vladimir. Historians agree that the mixture of Vikings and Slavs resulted in the first Russian state.

In 907 A.D., a Viking fleet commanded by the Swedish ruler of Kiev, Oleg, attacked the Byzantine Empire, according to the Russian Chronicle, by bringing his boats on land with wheels fitted on them. The ships, with spread sails pushed by the wind, rolled onto the city and the overwhelmed Byzantines had to beg for peace because the Byzantine Emperor and his army were away. Oleg’s son, Igor, tried the same trick in 942 A.D. but failed miserably when his fleet was destroyed.

 The Vikings maneuvered their slender boats swiftly up rivers, estuaries, “sailing around headlands, bringing fire, rape, and pillage inland.” In 793 A.D. they sacked the monastery of Lindisfarne (northeastern coast of England), the monks were slaughtered, and the holy treasures stolen.

St. Bertin Abbey’s annals in Rouen, France, describe “Danish pirates” in 841 A.D. “carrying everywhere a fury of rapine, fire, and sword.”

In 885 A.D. the Danes destroyed Paris. On horse and on foot, running through fields and hills, killing babies, children, young men, old men, fathers, sons, and mothers . . .. They ravage, they despoil, they destroy, they burn. . ..” They took no prisoners.

Records are scant and they come from third parties such as Arab travelers and religious people some of whom had been robbed. The Vikings do not have written accounts, but they do have Icelandic Sagas.

Archeologists depend heavily on findings from Viking tombs and unearthed homes and villages. Full armors for the head and torso have not survived but a famous warrior’s helmet dated from the seventh century was found in Sweden. Five other partial helmets survive from the Viking Age. Thick leather protected other parts of the body and the warriors carried a shield, an ax, or a heavy sword.