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Scandinavians have travelled eastward since ancient times. The trade route of Eastern Europe flourished during the Viking Age, when nordic merchants called travelled as far as Baghdad. It was ineviteble that the Varjags would encounter the third major player in the middle east: the eastern remnant of the Roman Empire, posthumously called: Byzantium. To any brave soul who dared to cross the Varjag Sea, the wild rapids and frozen plains, great adventures and greater riches beckoned in the greatest city on earth...

Sources and further reading:
In Austrvegr Marika Mägi
Viking Rus Wladyslaw Duczko
Ett ödesdigert vikingatåg Mats G. Larsson
Väringar Mats G. Larsson
Rusernas rike Mats G. Larsson
La Suède et l'Orient T.J. Arne
The Annals of St. Bertin (839) and Chacanus of the Rhos Ildar Garipzanov
Viking Rus and Byzantium Jonathan Shepard
Arabic sources on the Vikings J.E. Montgomery
Svear i Österviking Holger Arbman
Viking Age Textiles Annika Larsson
The Vikings in the East Fjodor Androshchuk
The early Slavs Pavel Markovich Dolukhanov
Byzantine Armies 8861118 Ian Heath
Gutasagan accessed via https://www.guteinfo.com/?id=103
De Administrando Imperio Constantine Porphyrogenitus, accessed via: http://faculty.washington.edu/dwaugh/...
http://gnezdovo.com/
The Primary Chronicle Unknown(Translated into swedish by A. Norrback)

Timestamps
0:00 Introduction
1:26 First contact
4:16 Striking a deal
6:21 A new road
8:18 The Daugava Route
11:31 The Lovat Route
13:29 The Dniepr
16:15 The Vistula Route
16:57 In Constantinople
19:45 War and peace
22:11 The Varangian Guard
23:29 Initial decline
25:20 A final Swedish huzzah
26:42 End of the road


#vikings #history #byzantium #byzantine