Those who did became so vital to the Varangians that the Guard was commonly called the Englinbarrangoi ( Anglo-Varangians ) from that point.

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.

In the 860s, the warring Finnic and Slavic tribes rebelled under Vadim the Bold, but later asked the Varangians under Rurik to return and to put an end to the recurring conflicts between them.

This privilege enabled many Varangians to return home as wealthy men, which encouraged even more Scandinavians to enlist in the Guard in Miklagarðr ( Swedish

Michael Psellus writes that all Varangians without exception used the weapon called rhomphaia, but this is a product of Atticism in Byzantine literature.

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

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.

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 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.

Basil's distrust of the native Byzantine guardsmen, whose loyalties often shifted with fatal consequences, as well as the proven loyalty of the Varangians, many of whom served in Byzantium even before, led the Emperor to employ them as his personal guardsmen.

About 700 Varangians served along with Dalmatians as marines in Byzantine naval expeditions against the Emirate of Crete in 902 and a force of 629 returned to Crete under Constantine Porphyrogenitus in 949.

When the Byzantine Emperor died, the Varangians had the unique right of running to the imperial treasury and taking as much gold and as many gems as they could carry, a procedure known in Old Norse as polutasvarf (" palace pillaging ").

The loyalty of the Varangians became a trope of Byzantine writers.

While the Varangians are represented in Walter Scott's novel Count Robert of Paris as being the fiercest and most loyal element of the Byzantine forces, this is probably exaggerated.

However, the exaggeration was begun by Byzantine writers themselves, who applied a " noble savage " identity to the Varangians.

Many Byzantine writers referred to them as " axe-bearing barbarians ", pelekyphoroi barbaroi, rather than Varangians.

Varangians of Byzantium: An Aspect of Byzantine Military History.

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

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.

An important trade route called the Road from Varangians to Greeks passed through the land of the Polans and connected Northern Europe with the Black Sea and the Byzantine Empire.

In the 860s, the Varangians ( Vikings ) arrived and organized a few successful military campaigns against the Byzantine Empire, who eventually defeated them and made peace with them, the Pechenegs and the Polochans.

The trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks (,, ) was a trade route that connected Scandinavia, Kievan Rus ' and the Byzantine Empire.

It commemorates Assur, one of the first Varangians who is known to have died in the service of the Byzantine Emperor, and he is estimated to have died c. 1010, or in the late 10th century.

Nielloed items were mass produced using molds that still survive today and were traded with Greeks, the Byzantine Empire, and other peoples that traded along the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks.

In the later Byzantine era, under the Komnenian emperors, primmikērioi appear as commanders in the palace regiments of the Manglabitai, Vardariōtai, Vestiaritai and the Varangians.

A number of ancient civilizations, most notably the Thracians, Ancient Greeks, Romans, Ostrogoths, Slavs, Varangians and especially Bulgars, have left their mark on the culture, history and heritage of Bulgaria.

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

The only information about him is contained in the 12th-century Russian Primary Chronicle, which states that Chuds, Slavs, Merias, Veses and Krivichs "… drove the Varangians back beyond the sea, refused to pay them tribute, and set out to govern themselves ".

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.

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.

Most scholars identify them with the Rus ' or Varangians, which would make Ibn Fadlan's account one of the earliest portrayals of Vikings.

It lay on the historical trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks, which followed the Volkhov upstream to Lake Ilmen and thence followed the course of the Lovat before eventually reaching the Dnieper River.

The purpose of the Swedish invasion was probably to gain control over the mouth of the Neva and the city of Ladoga and, hence, seize the most important part of the Trade Route from the Varangians to the Greeks, which had been under Novgorod's control for more than a hundred years.

In the chronicles which narrate about the founding of Russia, the Chudes are mentioned as one of the founder races, with the Slav and the Varyags ( Varangians ).

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

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

The Tale of Bygone Years ( dated to 1113 ) writes about how the tribe Varangians arrived in Constantinople, and of piratical expeditions on the Black Sea and on the Caspian Sea.

But the most appropriate explanation about etymological roots of the city according to М. П. Янко in his Топонімічний словник України is that the word is a Turkish word meaning the place of Khan. 2 In the Middle Ages it was located on the Road from Varangians to Greeks.

The Varangians relied on a long axe as their main weapon, although they were often skilled swordsmen or archers as well.

The Normans immediately set the church on fire, and all Varangians perished in the blaze.

Set in the 10th century, these novel focuses on a felag of oathsworn Varangians searching for the treasure of Attila the Hun in the Pontic steppe.

On the Dnieper the Varangians had to portage their ships round seven rapids ( they don't exist anymore as a chain of basins was established in 1950-70s ), where they had to be on guard for Pecheneg nomads.