Ships on the Dnieper, by Nicholas Roerich.

The route began in Scandinavian trading centres such as Birka, Hedeby, and Gotland, crossed the Baltic Sea entered the Gulf of Finland, followed the Neva River into the Lake Ladoga. Then it followed the Volkhov River, upstream past the towns of Staraya Ladoga and Velikiy Novgorod, crossed Lake Ilmen, and up the Lovat River. From there, ships had to be portaged to the Dnieper River near Gnezdovo. A second route from the Baltic to the Dnieper was along the Western Dvina (Daugava) between the Lovat and the Dnieper in the Smolensk region, and along the Kasplya River to Gnezdovo. Along the Dnieper, the route crossed several major rapids and passed through Kiev, and after entering the Black Sea followed its west coast to Constantinople.

History

Map showing the major Varangian trade routes: the Volga trade route (in red) and the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks (in purple). Other trade routes of the 8th-11th centuries shown in orange.

The route was probably established in the late eighth and early ninth centuries, when Varangian explorers searched for plunder but also for slaves and lucrative goods. The route gained significant importance from the tenth until the first third of the eleventh century, concurrently with the Volga trade route and the trade route from the Khazars to the Germans.

According to Constantine VII, the Kriviches and other tribes dependent on Kiev transported hollowed-out sailboats, or monoxyla, which could accommodate thirty to forty people, to places along the rivers. Places named include Smolensk (?????????), Liubech (?????????), Chernihiv (??????????), Vyshhorod (??????????), Vitechev (?????????), and Kiev (???(?)??). Some of these cities had alternate names in Old Norse, and Constantine quotes some of them: Novgorod = ????????? = Hólmgarðr = ?Island Enclosure?, and Nýgarðr = ?New Enclosure?; Kiev = K?nugarðr = ?Boatyard? and ???????? = Sandbakki-áss = ?Sandbank Ridge?.^[1] (The runestone N 62 preserves the name Vitaholmr ("demarcation islet") for Vitichev.) Then, these sailboats were transported along the Dnieper to Kiev. There, they were sold to the Varangians who re-equipped them and loaded them with merchandise.^[2]

On the Dnieper the Varangians had to portage their ships round seven rapids, where they had to be on guard for Pecheneg nomads. The rapids began below Dnipropetrovsk where the river turns south and fell 50 meters in 66 kilometers.

A coloured copy of runestone G 280 which talks of death in the Dniepr rapids.

The Trade Route from the Varangians to the Greeks was connected to other waterways of Eastern Europe, such as the Pripyat-Bug waterway leading to Western Europe, and the Volga trade route, which went down the Volga waterway to the Caspian Sea. Another offshoot was along the Dnieper and the Usyazh-Buk River towards Lukoml and Polotsk. The Trade Route from the Varangians to the Greeks was used to transport different kinds of merchandise. Wine, spices, jewelry, glass, expensive fabrics, icons, and books came from the Byzantine Empire. Kiev used to trade bread, handmade goods, silver coins, etc. Volhyn traded spinning wheels and other items. Certain kinds of weapon and handicrafts came from Scandinavia. Northern Rus' offered timber, fur, honey and wax, while the Baltic tribes traded amber.

In the second half of the eleventh century, the Crusades opened more lucrative routes from Europe to the Orient through the Crusader states of the Middle East. By that time, Rus' had strengthened its commercial ties with Western Europe, and the route from the Varangians to the Greeks gradually lost its significance. For a related military route, see Muravsky Trail.

In Fiction

• A large part of the best-selling Swedish historical novel The Long Ships ("Red Orm") describes the adventures of a Danish ship crew (with a pilot from Gotland) taking this route in the late 10th Century.
• Two music albums coincidentally released in 2007 deal with fictional journeys down the trade route, heavy metal band Rebellion's Miklagard ? The History of the Vikings Volume 2 and folk metal band Turisas' The Varangian Way.
• In Stephen R. Lawhead's novel Byzantium, the main character, a 9th-century Irish monk, is taken by Viking raiders from Scandia to Constantinople via this route.
• In the comic strip Prince Valiant, pages 932 (19 Dec 1954) to 988 (15 Jan 1956), the eponymous main character and company travel on two Viking longships from Constantinople to Scandia via this route, during which they encounter Patzinaks and Polotjans.

See also

• Caspian expeditions of the Rus'
• Rus' Khaganate

References

1. ↑ Constantine Zuckerman suggests a more obvious etymology, from the Turkic (Khazar) roots "sam"+"bat" (literally, "upper fortress"). See: Sorlin I. Voies commerciales, villes et peuplement de la Rusia au Xe siècle d'après le De administrando imperio de Constantin Porphyrogénète. // Les centres proto-urbains russes entre Scandinavie, Byzance et Orient / ed. M. Kazanski, D. Nercessian, C. Zuckerman (Réalités byzantines 7). - Paris, 2000. -P. 337-355
2. ↑ An English translation of De Administrando Imperio.
3. ↑ pp 172-174, "Russian and the Slavonic Languages", by W.J.Entwistle and A.Morison, publ. Faber & Faber, 1949 & 1969.