Following Varangian routes. More on the quest to find links between Russia and Scandinavia.

Thought I post this entry from wikipedia on Staraya Ladoga. If you have not visited this town in North West Russia, do so if you get a chance and interested in Scandinavian culture. It is considered to be originally a Scandinavian town, since it was inhabited by Scandinavians first, and only then Russians. They used to call the place Rus’ that some believe influenced the name ‘Russia’ later. It is on the top of this Varangian routes' map, next to Ladoga. The plan is to go and visit all these places this summer (2013) so if anyone would like to join in, you are most welcome. And ideas for the future to organise Varangian/Viking routes' trips in the future :)

So, according to wikipedia (I just copied the information, thought of this post more as of a compilation of found material and inspiration for future adventure possibly) Staraya Ladoga (Russian: Ста́рая Ла́дога), Finnish: Vanha Laatokka or the Aldeigjuborg of Norse sagas, is a village (selo) 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. A multi-ethnic settlement, it was dominated by Scandinavians who were called by the name of Rus and for that reason is sometimes called the first capital of Russia.

Dendrochronology suggests that Ladoga was founded in 753. Until 950, it was one of the most important trading ports of Eastern Europe. Merchant vessels sailed from the Baltic Sea through Ladoga to Novgorod and then to Constantinople or the Caspian Sea. This route is known as the Trade Route from the Varangians to the Greeks. An alternative way led down the Volga River along the Volga trade route to the Khazar capital of Atil, and then to the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, all the way to Baghdad. Tellingly, the oldest Arabian Middle Age coin in Europe was unearthed in Ladoga. Old (staraya means "old") Ladoga's inhabitants were Norsemen, Finns, and Slavs, hence different names for the city. The original Finnish name, Alode-joki (i.e., "lowland river"), was rendered as "Aldeigja" in Norse language and as "Ladoga" (Ладога) in Old East Slavic.

Staraya Ladoga, currently a selo located in the district, was mentioned in 862, as one of five original Russian towns (the other being Belozersk, Novgorod, Polotsk, and Rostov). According to the Primary Chronicle, Rurik established his residence in Ladoga before moving to Novgorod, and thus Staraya Ladoga is sometimes considered as the first historical capital of Russia. The Volkhov River served as a part of the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks.

Ladoga under Rurik and Rurikids

According to the Hypatian Codex, the legendary Varangian leader Rurik arrived at Ladoga in 862 and made it his capital. Rurik's successors later moved to Novgorod and then to Kiev, thus laying foundations for the powerful state of Kievan Rus. There are several huge kurgans, or royal funerary barrows, at the outskirts of Ladoga. One of them is said to be Rurik's grave, and another one—that of his successor Oleg. The Heimskringla and other Norse sources mention that in the late 990s Eiríkr Hákonarson of Norway raided the coast and set the town ablaze. Ladoga was the most important trading center in Eastern Europe from about 800 to 900 CE, and it is estimated that between 90 to 95% of all Arab dirhams found in Sweden passed through Ladoga.

Ladoga's next mention in chronicles is dated to 1019, when Ingigerd of Sweden married Yaroslav of Novgorod. Under the terms of their marriage settlement, Yaroslav ceded Ladoga to his wife, who appointed her father's cousin, the Swedish earl Ragnvald Ulfsson, to rule the town. This information is confirmed by sagas and archaeological evidence, which suggests that Ladoga gradually evolved into a primarily Varangian settlement. At least two Swedish kings spent their youths in Ladoga, king Stenkil and Inge I, and possibly also king Anund Gårdske.

In the 12th and 13th centuries, Ladoga functioned as a trade outpost of the powerful Novgorod Republic. Later its trade significance declined and most of the population engaged in fishing in 15th century. After new fortresses such as Oreshek and Korela were constructed in the 14th century further to the west of Ladoga the town's military significance also decreased. Ladoga belonged to theVodskaya pyatina of the republic and contained 84 homesteads in the 15th century; most of the land belonged to the church. The Novgorodians built there a citadel with five towers and several churches. The fortress was rebuilt at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, while the mid-12th-century churches of St. George and of Mary's Assumption stand in all their original glory. Inside St. George's. some magnificent 12th-century frescoes are still visible.

Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.

'Portrait' exhibition at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen

New Nordic Exhibition at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen

Snow

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

Robert Frost

New Hampshire

1923

Tracing links between Scandinavia, Russia, and Bysantium through early arts

Vladimir’s (first Russian ruler*) choice of Greek-Orthodoxy in preference to Roman Catholicism may indeed have been in part determined, as the earlier Russian chronicles imply, by aesthetic considerations, for the Russian have from the earliest times shown themselves quick in the appreciation of beauty. Happening when it did, his choice resulted in the establishment of an almost exclusive link with Byzantium, not only in the religious sphere, but also with regard to cultural and artistic life. Kiev’s extensive commercial contacts with Europe, which at times extended as far west as Regensburg, might well have enabled the newly converted Principality to become integrated with Western Europe had not the animosity which separated the Orthodox faith of Constantinople from the Catholic Church of Rome inevitably forced the newly Christianised State to become firmly associated with Byzantium. Rome seems tacitly to have recognised the situation, for although a number of divines visited Kiev, and although commercial cities such as Novgorod took every opportunity to expand their western trade, no papal legate was ever appointed to Kiev. Yaroslav (1019-54), Vladimir’s younger son and successor, attempted to bring his country into European affairs, but he was never able to weave the Kievan State into the European framework, even though he himself married the Swedish princess Ingigerd, and three of his sons married the daughters of German princes and only the fourth a Byzantine princess, while one of his daughters became the wife of the King of France, another of the king of Hungary, and a third of the King of Norway […]

[…]The fact that so much was taken over from Byzantium was not due to Russian indolence, not to indifference, nor even was it for the sake of expediency; it was an entirely conscious process inspired by a sincere admiration for the Byzantine achievement, which evoked a profound and spontaneous response from the innermost depths of the Russian nature, thereby releasing to the full the spring of Russian creativeness.

That it should have done so is hardly to be wondered at, since, from the earliest times of which we have any knowledge, the inhabitants of the South Russian plain, and especially those in the vicinity of Kiev – the area which has in consequence often been described as the cradle of Russian civilisation – had come into contact with various alien cultures and had thereby acquired both the ability to select from these foreign cultures the elements which were most advantageous, and the skill to adapt them to their own need. Thus the Slav artists of both the late pagan and the Early Christian periods had remained unaffected by Scandinavian, or rather Varangian art, in spite of the fact that many of the Kievan princes including Rurik, the founder of the ruling horse, were of Norse extraction, and although a constant stream of Scandinavian merchants travelled along Russian’s great waterways, and numerous Varangian mercenaries continued over the years to enlist in the defence forces of the major Russian towns. Only occasionally do Norse elements appear, as for instance in the interlace patterns on the jewellery, especially on bracelets.

Illustration 1

This silver bangle (ill.1) was found on the site of Kiev’s Mikhailov-Zlatoverkh Monastery. It dates from the twelfth century and its decorations include birds of Byzantine origin, heraldic-looking beasts of oriental character, and interlace designs of Scandinavian inspiration.

And buckles (ill.2), on an infrequent stone capital or, more important, in the decoration of manuscripts.

Illustration 2

A capital letter from a Gospel dated to 1346 in which a bird of oriental character in intertwined in a Norse interlace, the extremities of which terminate in birds’ heads bearing a distinct resemblance to those which appear in Scythian art.

In exactly the same way the Scythians, some thirteen hundred years before, had made wide use in their decorative arts of both Achaemenid and Greek motifs, but had not reacted to the beauty of Persian or Greek architecture.

* Personal notes

From the Book: A concise history of Russian Art by Tamara Talbot Rice (London: Thames and Hudson)

Bergen, Norway