Rediscovering Russian-Scandinavian relations: The role of medieval Russian waterways

Abstract

This article challenges the Scandinavian silence of medieval Russian-Scandinavian relations and presents a field study (2017) of the medieval waterway Put’ iz varjag v greki (the route from the Varangians to the Greeks) as a key to reopen awareness and provide new knowledge of these influential relations. The article more specifically argues that in order to understand the cultural and religious transformations in Scandinavia in the years 800–1200 it is necessary to reimagine Scandinavia with significant relations to Russia, and in light of that reconsider the entire literary evidence. The hypothesis is that field studies according to the oldest sources can substantiate these contacts and thereby allow us to review the literary evidence. As a literary proof of relations, the article outlines and discusses medieval Eastern and Western sources according to the signifiers “Rus’” and “Varangians”. Furthermore, it considers the problems with former field studies and presents the findings of the new study. The findings show that travel to and from Russia and further east along the Russian rivers was within normal medieval travel-time, and at its core there was cooperation and exchange with the local population. Finally, in light of the findings the article gives a preliminary reinterpretation of the textual evidence of exchange in the period of the Danish King Harald Bluethooth and the Russian Prince Vladimir the Great. It proposes that exchanges influenced the religious transformations in both Denmark and Russia.