Contemporary English publications also use the name " Viking " for early Varangians in some contexts.

While some of the Varangians helped guard the emperor, Harald became the leader of the Varangians who supported the revolt.

The Slavic Veche similarly developed from a general assembly into a legislature, and by some theories might have been directly inspired by the Scandinavian institution brought to Rus by the Varangians.

By the late 13th century Varangians were mostly ethnically assimilated by Byzantines, though the guard operated until at least mid-14th century and in 1400 there were still some people identifying themselves as " Varangians " in Constantinople.

The Varangians served as the personal bodyguard of the emperor, swearing an oath of loyalty to him ; they had ceremonial duties as retainers and acclaimers and performed some police duties, especially in cases of treason and conspiracy.

The Varangians stood their ground while the Byzantine left, including some of Alexius ' elite troops, attacked the Normans.

Vasily Tatischev, Boris Rybakov and some other Russian and Ukrainian historians interpreted the 882 coup d ' état in Kiev as the reaction of the pagan Varangians to Askold's baptism.

According to another legend, some Varangians wanted to hide stolen treasure in the lake.

The first phase Migration Period displacement from between CE 300 and 500 included relocation of the Goths ( Ostrogoths and Visigoths ), Vandals, Franks, various other Germanic people ( Burgundians, Lombards, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Suebi, Alemanni, Varangians and Normans ), Alans and numerous Slavic tribes.

Others trace the word to Varangians and derive it from the Swedish knutpiska, a kind of whip with knots.

In the Middle Ages, the lake formed a vital part of the Trade Route from the Varangians to the Greeks, with the Norse emporium at Staraya Ladoga defending the mouth of the Volkhov since the 8th century.

The name Rus itself comes from Rus people, a group of Varangians ( possibly Swedish Vikings ) who founded the state of Rus ( Русь ).

The establishment of the first East Slavic states in the 9th century coincided with the arrival of Varangians, the traders, warriors and settlers from the Baltic Sea region.

From the 8th to the 11th century, the Vikings and Varangians traded as they sailed from and to Scandinavia.

The Eastern connections of these " Varangians " brought Byzantine silk, coins from Samarkand, even a cowrie shell from the Red Sea, to Viking York.

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 ).

The Varangians ( Varyags, in Old East Slavic ) are first mentioned by the Primary Chronicle as having exacted tribute from the Slavic and Finnic tribes in 859.

As the Volga route declined by the end of the century, the Trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks rapidly overtook it in popularity.

Another group of East Slavs moved from Pomerania to the northeast, where they encountered the Varangians of the Rus ' Khaganate and established an important regional centre of Novgorod.

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 ).

Since the 6th century, another group of Slavs moved from Pomerania to northeast of the Baltic Sea, where they encountered the Varangians of the Rus ' Khaganate and established the important regional center of Novgorod.

The sagas note that aside from the significant spoils of battle he had retained, he had participated three times in polutasvarf, a term which implies either the pillaging of the palace exchequer on the death of the emperor, or perhaps the disbursement of funds to the Varangians by the new emperor in order to ensure their loyalty.

If the name Ruthenia has any connection to the name Rus, a theory generally held in the West connects it the Varangians whom the early Slavic and Finnic tribes called Rus, taking this name from the Old Norse root roðs-or roths-referring to the domain of " rowing " and still existing in the Finnish and Estonian names for Sweden, Ruotsi and Rootsi.

In De Administrando Imperio ( c. 950 ) he described Smolensk as a key station on the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks.

The Slavs and the Byzantines also called them Varangians ( ON: Væringjar, meaning sworn men or from Slavic варяги supposedly deriving from the root " вар "—" profit " as coming from North they would profit by trading goods and not producing them, which had a negative connotation in Slavic culture of that time ), and the Scandinavian bodyguards of the Byzantine emperors were known as the Varangian Guard.

Oleg set forth, taking with him many warriors from among the Varangians, the Chuds, the Slavs, the Merians and all the Krivichians.

The news of this triple murder reached Sviatopolk's younger brother Yaroslav, Prince of Novgorod, who decided to go to war against Sviatopolk with the support from the citizens of Novgorod and the Varangians.

This route is known as the Trade Route from the Varangians to the Greeks.

The route from the Varangians to the Greeks was first mentioned in the Primary Chronicle, but its effects were reported much earlier, in the early ninth century when the Byzantines noted newcomers in their regions, the Varangians.

It contained formidable guards units such as the Varangians, the Athanatoi, a unit of heavy cavalry stationed in Constantinople, the Vardariotai and the Archontopouloi, recruited by Alexios from the sons of dead Byzantine officers, foreign mercenary regiments, and also units of professional soldiers recruited from the provinces.

Scandinavian Norsemen, called " Vikings " in Western Europe and " Varangians " in the East, combined piracy and trade in their roamings over much of Northern Europe.

Perhaps among them were the Varangians, which is indicated by archaeological findings in the vicinity of Poznań.

There is another theory that Rurik, on account of common intermarriages between Varangians and Slavic women, was of mixed Slavic-Varangian descent.

It is not known what languages Rurik and his fellow Varangians spoke.

Vikings sailed to Western Europe, while Varangians to Russia.

However, those items could also have been Byzantine imports, and there is no reason to assume that the Varangians travelled significantly beyond Byzantium and the Caspian Sea.

The Varangians or Varyags ( Russian,, Varyagi ) sometimes referred to as Variagians were Scandinavians, often Swedes, who migrated eastwards and southwards through what is now Russia and Ukraine mainly in the 9th and 10th centuries.

The Primary Chronicle accused Svyatopolk of planning those murders, while the Saga of Eymund is often interpreted as recounting the story of Boris's assassination by the Varangians in the service of Yaroslav.

Roughly in the same period, the Ilmen Slavs and Krivichs were dominated by the Varangians of the Rus ' Khaganate, who controlled the trade route between the Baltic Sea and the Byzantine Empire.

The reign of Oleg of Novgorod in the early tenth century witnessed the return of the Varangians to Novgorod and relocation of their capital to Kiev on the Dnieper.

The Scandinavian Vikings, or Varangians, also took part in the forming of Russian identity and state in the early Kievan Rus ' period of the late 1st millennium AD.

Although not holding independent command of an army which the sagas imply, it is not unlikely that Harald and the Varangians at times could have been sent off to capture a castle or town.

Harald and the Varangians were thereafter called to action in Bulgaria, were they arrived not before early 1041.