Viking Raids in Russia

Danish Viking Raids and Settlements: A Lasting Impact on Medieval Europe

The Danish Vikings play a pivotal role in the raiding, conquest, and settlement of various regions across Western Europe between the 9th and 11th centuries. Their impact extends beyond plundering, as they establish lasting settlements, integrate into local societies, and contribute to the cultural and political transformation of medieval Europe.

Key Viking Settlements

• The Danelaw (Eastern and Northern England) → Established after Alfred the Great cedes half his kingdomto Viking forces following the Treaty of Wedmore in 878 CE.
• Ireland → Viking bases such as Dublin, Waterford, Limerick, Wexford, and Cork evolve into major trading hubs and political centers.
• Normandy (France) → In 911 CE, the Viking leader Rollo is granted lands in northern France by King Charles the Simple, forming the Duchy of Normandy, which becomes a dominant force in medieval Europe.

The Danelaw and the Danegeld: Viking Influence in England

The Danelaw emerges as a Viking-controlled region in England, where Danish settlers introduce Scandinavian customs, laws, and language. Despite a temporary period of peace, Viking attacks resume, forcing English kings to pay Danegeld, a tribute used to bribe Viking armies to prevent further invasions. However, this protection moneyoften fails to stop the Norse incursions, and Viking raids continue into the 11th century.

The Broader Impact of Danish Viking Settlements

These Viking settlements and interactions with European kingdoms foster:

• Cultural Exchange → Norse settlers assimilate into local societies, influencing language, trade, and governance (e.g., Norman culture blending Norse and Frankish elements).
• Economic Integration → Viking trade networks connect Scandinavia to the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and the British Isles, fostering commerce and urban growth.
• Military and Political Conflicts → Viking conquests reshape medieval power structures, leading to Anglo-Saxon resistance, the Norman Conquest of England (1066), and Scandinavian involvement in continental politics.

By the 11th century, Danish Viking influence wanes as Christianization and state formation integrate the Norse world into the medieval European order. However, their legacy remains in place names, legal traditions, and cultural identities, particularly in regions they once ruled.

The prehistoric period in Denmark ends with the beginning of the Viking Age in the ninth century.

The Danish people are among those known as Vikings during the eighth to the eleventh centuries.

Viking explorers first discover and settle in Iceland in the ninth century, on their way from the Faroe Islands.

From there, Greenland and Vinland (probably Newfoundland) are also settled.

Utilizing their great skills in shipbuilding and navigation they raid and conquer parts of France and the British Isles and Ireland.

The wider Scandinavian region is the source of Vikings from the eighth to the tenth century.

The looting of the monastery at Lindisfarne in Northeast England in 793 by Norse people has long been regarded as the event that marked the beginning of the Viking Age.

This age is characterized by expansion and emigration by Viking seafarers.

They colonize, raid, and trade in all parts of Europe.

Norwegian Viking explorers first discover Iceland by accident in the ninth century when heading for the Faroe Islands, and eventually come across Vinland, known today as Newfoundland, in Canada.

The Vikings from Norway are most active in the northern and western British Isles and eastern North America isles.

According to tradition, Harald Fairhair unified them into one in 872 after the Battle of Hafrsfjord in Stavanger, thus becoming the first king of a united Norway.

Harald's realm is mainly a South Norwegian coastal state.

Fairhair rules with a strong hand and according to the sagas, many Norwegians left the country to live in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and parts of Britain and Ireland.

The modern-day Irish cities of Dublin, Limerick and Waterford are founded by Norwegian settlers.

The Swedish Viking Age lasts roughly from the eighth century to the eleventh century.

It is believed that Swedish Vikings and Gutar mainly traveled east and south, going to Finland, the Baltic countries, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, the Black Sea and even as far as Baghdad.

Their routes pass through the Dnieper south to Constantinople, on which they carry out numerous raids.

The Emperor Theophilos notices their great skills in war, and invites them to serve as his personal bodyguard, known as the Varangian Guard.

The Swedish Vikings, called Rus, are believed to be the founding fathers of Kievan Rus'.

The Arab traveler Ibn Fadlan described these Vikings as follows:

    I have seen the Rus as they came on their merchant journeys and encamped by the Itil. I have never seen more perfect physical specimens, tall as date palms, blond and ruddy; they wear neither tunics nor caftans, but the men wear a garment which covers one side of the body and leaves a hand free. Each man has an axe, a sword, and a knife, and keeps each by him at all times. The swords are broad and grooved, of Frankish sort.

Swedish Vikings, or Varangians, trader-warriors who call themselves the Rus' or Ros, launch raids along the eastern Baltic coast from the mid-820s on.

The Rus of Novgorod seize Kiev in 882, uniting the northern and southern Rus'.

According to the Primary Chronicle, Oleg, who was a relative (likely brother-in-law) of the first ruler, Rurik, and was entrusted by Rurik to take care of both his kingdom and his young son Ingvar, or Igor, gradually took control of the Dnieper cities, captured Kiev (previously held by the Varangian warlords, Askold and Dir) and finally moved his capital from Novgorod there.

The new capital would be a convenient place to launch a raid against Tsargrad (Constantinople) in 911.

According to the chronicle, the imperial Greeks attempted to poison Oleg, but the Rus' leader demonstrated his oracular powers by refusing to drink the cup of poisoned wine.

Having fixed his shield to the gate of the imperial capital, Oleg won a favorable trade treaty, which eventually was of great benefit to both nations.

Although Byzantine sources did not record these hostilities, the text of the treaty survives in the Primary Chronicle.

The Primary Chronicle's brief account of Oleg's life contrasts with other early sources, specifically the Novgorod First Chronicle, which states that Oleg was not related to Rurik, and was rather a Scandinavian client-prince who served as Igor's army commander.

The Novgorod First Chronicle does not give the date of the commencement of Oleg's reign, but dates his death to 922 rather than 912.

Scholars have contrasted this dating scheme with the "epic" reigns of roughly thirty-three years for both Oleg and Igor in the Primary Chronicle.

The Primary Chronicle and other Kievan sources place Oleg's grave in Kiev, while Novgorodian sources identify a funerary barrow in Ladoga as Oleg's final resting place.

In the Primary Chronicle, Oleg is known as the Prophet, an epithet alluding to the sacred meaning of his Norse name ("priest"), but also ironically referring to the circumstances of his death.

According to this legend, romanticized by Alexander Pushkin in his celebrated ballad "The Song of the Wise Oleg," it was prophesied by the pagan priests that Oleg would take death from his stallion.

Proud of his own foretelling abilities, he sent the horse away.

Many years later he asked where his horse was, and was told it had died.

He asked to see the remains and was taken to the place where the bones lay.

When he touched the horse's skull with his boot a snake slithered from the skull and bit him.

Oleg died, thus fulfilling the prophecy.

In Scandinavian traditions, this legend lived on in the saga of Orvar-Odd.

According to the Primary Chronicle, Oleg died in 912 and his successor, Igor of Kiev, ruled from then until his assassination in 945.

The Schechter Letter, a document written by a Jewish Khazar, a contemporary of Romanus I Lecapenus, describes the activities of a Rus' warlord named HLGW (Hebrew: הלגו), usually transcribed as "Helgu".

For years, many scholars disregarded or discounted the Schechter Letter account, which referred to Helgu (often interpreted as Oleg) as late as the 940s.

Recently, however, scholars such as David Christian and Constantine Zuckerman have suggested that the Schechter Letter's account is corroborated by various other Russian chronicles, and suggests a struggle within the early Rus' polity between factions loyal to Oleg and to the Rurikid Igor, a struggle that Oleg ultimately lost.

Zuckerman posited that the early chronology of the Rus' had to be re-determined in light of these sources.

Among Zuckerman's beliefs and those of others who have analyzed these sources are that the Khazars did not lose Kiev until the early tenth century (rather than 882, the traditional date, that Igor was not Rurik's son but rather a more distant descendant, and that Oleg did not immediately follow Rurik, but rather that there is a lost generation between the legendary Varangian lord and his documented successors.

Varangian (Scandinavian) military leaders and merchants had during the 860s established outposts in Northern Russia at Novgorod and in Ukraine at Kiev.

Prince Oleg, kinsman of Rurik of Jutland, the semilegendary founder of the Rurik dynasty of Kievan Rus’, expands control of the territory along the Dnieper River, joining Novgorod via Smolensk with Kiev, which henceforth will serve as the political and cultural center of the Kievan Rus’.

(In the early chronicles the Varangians are also called Rus’, and this corporate name becomes as well a territorial designation for the Kievan region—the basic territory of the Rus’; later, by extension, it will be applied to the entire territory ruled by members of the Kievan dynasty.)