Oblivion is easily one of my top 10 games of all time, skyrim was a major letdown. I've been tempted for sometime to get a xbox copy of morrowind, I've never heard anything but good things about it
@@bidenhasdementia8657 well I personally love all three games and Morrowind was the one that started my journey. The only really good way to play it these days though, is on a PC using OpenMW. It's amazingly smooth and I played for dozens of hours with zero crashes, which is a rare thing for a TES game.
@@bidenhasdementia8657 Better though to learn history and scientific subjects than just playing games. Some gameplay now and then is of course OK, but such things mislead people too much away from more important things in life.
@@bidenhasdementia8657 There was quite the jump from Morrowind to Oblivion, so it might be a bit of a culture shock. I remember being disappointed by Oblivion because the world seemed so empty, but the trade off is the voice acting, where there is very little in Morrowind. But(!) there are mods in development that might voice all of Morrowind in the near future.
The Buddha statuette from Helgö is a famous object of Viking age archaeology in Sweden, and one of the most striking instances of how far the trade networks of the Dark Ages were actually spun.
@@mik823 You just sound like someone who's been hanging out at 4chan all the time and have adopted their tone and mode of discussion - sorry, I'm through with you...
Something I noticed that this rather condensed video glossed over was why Sweden had even more water travel back in that time, it's because the Scandinavian peninsula is rising due to having been released from the weight of the ice from the Ice Age. It's still rising today and ruins of old forts that used to be located at a beach are now found pretty high up on hills.
Easy, easy: it was way back many thousands of years that the peninsula raised that fast after the ice was gone. You don't find any forts from then. The ruins of old forts you'll find up on hills were built up on the hills, and not down on a beach (Forts were normally built high up so you could keep an eye on the surroundings and to make the fort difficult to attack). The peninsula only raises a FEW MILLIMETERS a year. :)
@@whitlaw1395 A few millimeter a year still makes a few meters each 1000 years. Most ancient forts in Sweden are found in the area around Lake Mälaren and many would have been by the shore back a few thousand years.
@@znail4675 But then again: Mälaren is an inland lake. Wouldn't it rise along with the surrounding topography and keep the same water level throughout the ages?
@@whitlaw1395 Mälaren is classified as a Lake, but it's directly connected to Baltic Sea by the city of Stockholm that is built on 13 islands. And even just a 1000 years ago so would it actually be a bay of the Sea rather then a lake.
Well he does mention the fact that Sweden had much more and bigger lakes in the past and that those were used as ancient highways. How did you manage to miss that part? Also, what you say is most certainly true in the entire Baltic sea coastline. Lots and lots of forts were built on the coast that now are kilometers inland. Few millimeters a year makes a huge difference on the landscape over many centuries. It's a pretty level ground overall, even a small change in the altitude can change a huge area from the sea bed into a sheep pasture.
What an amazing video! I saw the Premiere and wanted such more to support it. I love Gold and Gunpowder, and this Baltic Empire channel is a real hidden gem. The Silk Road has always kind of taken away from the History of other trade routes - the amber, gold, hemp, tar and all kinds of things from the Baltic was absolutely an important part of medieval trade. I wish the Baltic States got more attention, they are fascinating little countries who punch very far above their weight. Thanks for the video!
I already knew there were Vikings sailing on the Volga river during the Viking age, but its completely shocking that people made that journey in the Neolithic era.
@@goldentoaster9302 People forget that many civilizations like Greeks/Hebrews/Egyptians had massive castles and fortresses while Europe was still living in mud huts.
Yes the Austerveg/Österled was probably a part of the silk road. During the early moslem conquests of Persia and the eastern mediterrane area the traditional ways of the silkroad was closed. In the 600 and 700 centuries Björkö, Birka, Hedeby and Gotland stood up as trading centers, while the Byzantine empire declined. From the northern trading centers thd proucts from the far east spread westward. One thesis of the declind of the northern trade routes and the vikings themselves was the first crusade who reopened the southern part of the silk road. Wich lead the northern tradesmen to become plunderers like their earlier western brethren. Tackar för denns intressanta video.
Don't see how it could be called crusade if the Vikings were mainly pagan and the Pope in Rome did not order it. Also the Khazars were mainly pagans and Jews while the Vikings were mainly pagan with some Christians.
@@mrbaab5932 The Crusade he referred to was the Christian Crusade which did indeed reopen the Southern trade routes to China. He didn't claim or imply that it was a Scandinavian crusade! The idea that the resulting economic depression from the loss of the trade routes resulted in the Scandinavians to go "Viking" is not something I have read about, but as a contributing factor, it makes sense! As does the better climatic conditions resulting in a population boom that encouraged restless young men to seek their fortune!
My father who worked in the printing industry in Dublin coincidentally had a hard back book written in seems for pure academic from what i read many years ago still in family home dad 93 years of age the title being " The Viking Achievement " again very scholastic analysis cannot remember authors but seemed to be in depth work on this particular era.
Im really glad I found your channel, it's been a great resource to me. I'm American, but ethnically Swedish, and I have a deep desire to learn as much as I can about my ancestors, and your channel has taught me the most, so thanks you, and keep up the good work brother!
The "j" in Slavic languages is most commonly transcribed into English as "y", as the sound is closer. So no "staraja", but "staraya", and (arguably) not "Varjags" but "Varyags" or even "Variaghs" - and in Old Church Slavonic "varyazhe"/"varyagi" - which is, probably not accidentally, much closer to the Greek "Βάραγγοι" -"Varangoi" (it is even possible, that digamma was sometimes read as double g by non-native speakers, but it is very hard to pronounce it with Greek phonetics) and possible Scandinavian etymology. In modern Russian it is "Varyaghi", in Ukrainian "Varyahy" and in Polish "Varegovie". But mostly: "staraya": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staraya_Ladoga
Yes. And: 1) The "ch" in 'Pechenegs' is really an English "ch" like in 'church', not a Slavic/German "ch" (English "kh"). 2) "Rus" has to be pronounced "Ruce" (Chaucer wrote it this way) like in "Bruce". But anyway, the film was very interesting, especially the parts about the different ways how the portage was actually done and that the Austrveg went directly from the Neva and Ladoga to the Volga and that it was so old. That was news to me.
@@jornstache2793 Since Ro and ru usually came from Rao/rau, it became logical that in russian they say a middlething of "ra" and "ro" in Rossiya/Rassiya (Russia) (that vowel does exist in american english like in how they say "rock")
In norwegian we say "væring" to a dweller of a small town along the coast, but only if farther north than Bergen city (roughly). The æ is a broad a. "Vær"= coastal village. A humorous rhyme from traditional songs is "Det dærre været i værre' fra Vårherre kan'kje bli verre enn det hærre". = "That weather (været) in the village (værre') from Our Lord can't get worse (verre) than this one here".
Vikings that sailed to Miklagard served as guards to the East Roman Emperors, called Væringr. Even the later norwegian king Harald Hardråde (hard ruler) Served in the Væring gard. Supposed origin...
What a beautiful presentation. Granted I'm only 6mins in and I've noticed your pinned comment so it might change, but as it stands now it's brilliant. The visuals matched with historical locations and time periods, condensed into perfectly digestible pieces of information and if anyone wants to dive deeper it's all there for them to do so too while still remaining simple. It reminds me of older UA-cam before every channel dropped into their comfort zone and almost robotic format. Great job!
I really appreciate and enjoy your presentations. I always learn new and valuable information. Very well researched with great illustrations used. Thank you!
The beautiful very shallow draft vessel in the Norwegian Skepps museum. Clearly meant for shallow draft of rivers. Also good for portages. Not at all the same boats built for North Sea. A case of small shallow models and larger for war parties. Case of all of the above.
Incredibly well explained! Lovely to have someone break it down into great detail with all relevant information along with no over the top editing. Please keep this concept when making future videos (maps, low profile music etc.) Looking forward to more. Greetings from a Swede in Malta!
Hey great video. One small detail I want to mention. Roden would originally have been called Rothen, before sweden got rid of the th-sound. Th is similar to S. Hence Rosen, Roslagen, Ros. There is actually an old medieval song that mentions Rosen. You can find it here on youtube it is called Vänner och Fränder performed by Garmarna.
TH from the elder futhark (norse runic alphabet) and a middlething between TH and D both exists in icelandic, but with separate letters not used in swedish or english. The two forms of it came to be in the newer futhark. AU was originally pronounced like a short ao, the sound still used in Malmö of Sweden and in Bryne of Norway (they say yaou for ya, which means yes, in Norway spelled "ja"). Later in some cases it became "øu"/öu", the ö + think about a narrow u like in pool in english said with an aristocratic Cockney accent, where the ø/ö = like in english bird or curve, as well as in german, turkish, hungarian, norwegian, finnish, icelandic where there are many words with the sound there usually spelled as ö or ø. In some cases it also turned into just ö and into just å (like in english aw or o in fork)
(æ on the other hand as a broad a, came from æou and æy, a sound widely used in old Greece for example.. The gothic/guta version of Eirik, later Eric/Eric/Aymeric, was Æymeriks).. In a few cases the æ became instead ö in sound, like in some icelandic dialects, like in french boeuf where o and e are handwritten as intervowen/as one letter almost resembling the æ symbol)
When one studies a selection of local or national histories, it is like a jig saw manifesting itself as pieces join together. After 1500 years, it becomes clear how European society and culture became such a fascinating mix.
The light ships or boats they used are almost identical to kirkkovene or kyrkbåt that are used even today. Here in Finland we have yearly kyrkbåt race called "sulkavan soutu". Its a really big sports event!
What? I had no idea about most of it! Super interesting and well organized so it was easy to follow along. Yet my memory isn't what it used to be so I'll watch and listen again hehe. Grymt jobbat! Sådana historielärare skulle man haft. Då hade jag haft andra betyg!!! :D
I am so glad having found your channel. You prove the giant difference between videos made by Scandinavians and non-Scandinavians. Your explanations reach far deeper into the roots and the sound of names, persons, runes, landscapes... Wow ! Thank you so much for your work !
You have no idea how much your music choice improved this watching experience for me. You chose Soule's absolute best for this. His Solstheim tracks for Dragonborn hold a special place in my heart. It was so pleasant to learn something new with music that lovely playing in the background.
A lot of viewers notice the Morrowind tracks but I think youre the first to notice that its actually Solstheim, which includes old MW tracks. It invokes the right sense of adventure and mystery which I want in these videos
@@styrman1337 i honestly wish he composed more original tracks for solstheim. his morrowind work is great too but he was absolutely at the top of his game when the dragonborn dlc came around. it's a really unique blend of the style of his skyrim tracks and the style of his morrowind tracks. just his absolute best compositions. shit's so beautiful it could bring a tear to my eye. it's great music choice on your part, i can imagine sailing the rivers of the east with that music playing in my head, experiencing all the sights and sounds and smells.
@madman6962 - can you gove a time stamp for this Solstheim track? I would be very pleased to hear that track. I never got to start on the Dragonborn expansion but do have it installed.
@@styrman1337 - "Adventure and mystery" is exactly what I feel when listening to many of those Morrowind tracks. 7:40 was on eof my favorites. Playing the game I sometimes ventured to wander in open areas where the game would typically chose these tracks, just to listen to and enjoy them. They fit your video very well. (I was about to mention this in the top pinned post, but then read the toxic nationalism, you were attacked by. I believe you chose the right time to disengage. Thank you for interesting, informative videos. You have a new subscriber.
@@larsrons7937 The only one i bothered to note was the very first track in the video. I forget its name but it's the eighth exploration track in the dragonborn soundtrack and the first of the original exploration tracks we get from that OST. It's been a while since I've seen this video so I can't remember if my favorite is included in it, but "Morning Star", the ninth exploration track, is my absolute favorite out of the Dragonborn tracks. I without a hint of irony think it's Jeremy Soule's magnum opus.
When you were discussing portage either in summer or in winter it made me think about Christmas. Like how Santa clause has a lot of Scandinavian tropes. Like sleds and little expensive gifts acquired in the winter that could have been acquired from annual travels. Maybe they even wore red clothes for safer travel in the snow.
I am Kurdish, born and raised in Sweden and I always found the language at school (Swedish) very familiar to my language at home (Sorani Kurdish) and I always wondered why that was. A few months ago I made a document where I write down words which are similar in kurdish and swedish as well as other germanic languges such as German and english, and interestingly found a single word in Welsh which is similar in Kurdish which is Gawra (meaning Big in Kurdish) and Gawr in welsh which means giant like "Idris the Giant/Idris Gawr". so far I've found as much as 50 words which are similar in kurdish and Germanic langauges. I kept asking chatGPT why there was such a similarity between the two languages and it kept giving me the same answer, that it is due to the Indo-European connection and that they are two different branches of Indo-europeans, Swedish which is Germanic and Kurdish which is Aryan (Also called Indo-Iranian for no reason...). Anyways, watching this video I may be inclined to believe it could be due to this trade route however I spoke to an ethnic swedish guy online and he said that it's because the Germanic people (mostly swedes) are the true descendants of the Scythians who are supposedly an extinct race of the Aryans (apart from Ossetians supposedly), who were close cousins of the Persians and the Medes, which is the same people as the Kurds and that's why the languages are familiar. Or it could've been that these medieval swedes who travelled down this route you speak of who stayed among the Kurds or perhaps it could be the case that these medieval swedes/vikings that brought some kurdish girls back to sweden lol. Eitherway it's an interesting thought and certainly an interesting video.
Kurds, Iranians, Indians and Europeans ultimately come from the same ancestors. Proto-Indo-Europeans. Indo-Europeans migrated to Europe, and Anatolia, some went to western China (Tocharians) and the ones that went east into Central Asia, Iran, and India were called Indo-Iranians (Aryans). That’s why you’ll find linguistic, genetic, and mythological similarities everywhere from Ancient Ireland to India. The Scythians were Indo-Iranians who lived on the steppes of southern Russia/Ukraine.
The algorithm autoplayed this video, and thus introduced this channel to me, and thereby immediately earning you a new sub. Truly excellent and all-encompassing presentation!
fantastic video I'm not even half way through and I'm very impressed by the way you've explained viking age Sweden it's something that was always glossed over in other things I've seen
I am shocked to see that the Vikings traded with the Middle East region crossing the big rivers of Euro-Asia. Your video content added value to the History of the Nordic-Middle East Trade routes. Great work! Greetings from Europe BE
damn, too early - thought it's been already uploaded interesting thumbnail, showing the horribly long road to the Caspian Sea or in other words several months of traveling across mosquito habitats
@@smonline631 I doubt it don't know about every part of Russia but I know that in the almost arctic region, which is bitter cold during the winter season, you'll literally breath mosquitos in the summer if you don't cover your mouth .......and there you often don't find large slow flowing river systems and extensive swamp areas bet on the Don or Volga the little vampires will try to suck you dry as soon as it gets warmer
There is also another meaning for 'Austrveg'. In the poetic edda it is used as a kenning for going raiding (vikingr). "Þórr kom eigi, þvi at hann var í austrvegi". Thor didn't come because he was on the way east (ie: he was away raiding). Quote from Lokasenna.
I like the name and can relate to it. Since a I speak danish and understand mostly nordic languages. Austrveg (Old Nordic) - Austurvegur (Icelandic) - Øst vej (Danish) - The road to east or East road. Veg - Vej - Road (Veg or vej used as the name of the road or on the sail route at sea or on land).
This is very interesting.. the way you said "Vaeringi" (as the self-pronounced version of Varingians), is exactly the way that the word "Vergi" is pronounced in Latvian. "Vergi" literal meaning is "slaves" (singular: "vergs"). This could be a hint towards an old slave trade association that took place around that route.
@@jailedtwice735 During the Russian raids during the 18-century thousands of Swedes were enslaved when Sweden had officially banned slavery 13 century and never enslaved Russians during the early modern era. While the barbaric rule of the Tsar never abolished slavery until the 19 century.
@@jailedtwice735Baltic pirates enslaved Olof Tryggvason. So yes baltic peoples frequently enslaved Scandinavians. The raids on Sweden and Denmark was the official reason for the Nordic crusades.
trade between different populations in history was often much more common than conflicts and international trade has been playing a huge rule in the rise of various civilisations since the bronze age
In my opinion it's one of the biggest underestimations by historians and anthropologists, especially when it comes to sailing. Now they're finding evidence of sailing in the Mediterranean almost one hundred thousand years ago, according to current dating techniques, which I don't necessarily trust. But it's obvious that sailing is a very ancient art.
@@chrisnewbury3793 Some think that the Neanderthals may have used water craft to reach some islands. There brain cases were often bigger than those many modern humans, especially if we go by their shorter heights.
@@loquat44-40 yes I've read that. Though they still refuse to acknowledge it happened all over The Atlantic Coast as well...until Colombus sailed the ocean blue :/
Thanks for this great informative video, I'd like to add something 22:50 Actually, Atil was probably destroyed not by Rus's, but Oghuzs, Svyatsolav instead attacked Sarkel, Rus's and Oguzes acted in coordination, probably because they were allies.
Great video! The reason why I am so interested in maritime history, explorers, pirates, vikings etc, is the way these stories show how different groups of humans interact in strange circumstances in new strange environments and how cultures meet, sometimes clash and at times also cooperate. Anyway, Cheers!
You only mentioned it in passing, but was the organisation structure the Kievan Rus evolved from really a Khaganate? I think this is the first time I'm hearing it be referred to as such, so it would be great to hear more about that
The boat-like silhouette of of a drawn vagina was not only noted in Sweden, in Finnish the crudely drawn picture of a vagina is colloquially known as "kirkkovene" (long boat that was used for trips to church).
The Volga-route was probably established by the Rus in late 700 AD, but for a long time the Rus did not trade directly with Bagdad, Volgabulgars and Khazars handled that. The first mentioning of Rus in Bagdad is from around 870 AD. According to my readings, the Rus Khaganate existed only between 820 - 860 AD, it was destroyed by Finish and Slavic tribes. After that the Rurikids established a new realm, Gardarike, and resumed the trade on the Volga and Dnepr. The oath ('vár') sworn by the Varjags was to the Byzantine emperor. They were not employed there before around 850, so calling Rus in the period before 850 for Varjags is not correct.
The idea is hard to comprehend and written are barely nonexistent. The only source that describes early Russia is Saint Barnes which mentions the Frankish emperor asking what type of nationality the rhos are and the said Swedes. Then the Norse sagas mention that Erik Anundsson conquered vast swaths of territory in the east and that the Swedes in 1015 considered the East their tributary countries. Or that Finns and Slavs should pay tribute to the Swedes.
@@jailedtwice735 The first Western European source to mention the Rus' are the Annals of St. Bertin (Annales Bertiniani).[82] These relate that Emperor Louis the Pious' court at Ingelheim, in 839, was visited by a delegation from the Byzantine emperor. In this delegation there were men who called themselves Rhos (in the Latin text, ... qui se, id est gentem suam, Rhos vocari dicebant, ...; translated by Aleksandr Nazarenko as ... who stated that they, i.e. their nation, were called Rhos, ...). Once Louis enquired the reason of their arrival (in the Latin text, ... Quorum adventus causam imperator diligentius investigans, ...), he learnt that they were Swedes (eos gentis esse Sueonum; verbatim, their nation is Sveoni) This is not some pretending they clearly claimed they belonged to the Swedish nation. Another source comes from Liutprand of Cremona, a 10th-century Lombard bishop whose Antapodosis, a report from Constantinople to Holy Roman Emperor Otto I, says that Constantinople 'stands in territory surrounded by warlike peoples. On the north it has the ... Rusii sometimes called by another name Nordmanni, and the Bulgarii who live too close for harmony'.[91][92][93] The Frankish sources clearly identifies the Rus as a Scandinavian people.
@@Kalletheswede And its still pretty accurate (referring to the last paragraph). If you look on the map of northen part of Russia, there's a city called Murmansk (or Nordmansk).
@@m.l.6685 The danish-norwegian claim of land in the late medievals was stretching eastwards to the Murmansk bay. At this time most of the dwellers of the Kola peninsula and north Karelia were säämi and finns. Before the early Renaissance epoch, there were no formal borders in north Europe worth mentioning. A lot of hunter-gatherers and small-scale farmers and fishing villages across large parts of north Europe were occasionally taxed multiple times every year by chieftains, kings, and the Birkarl groups.
@@Kalletheswede But there was probably no ethnic group called the Rus. If true that Rus is a simplification of roth, which in turn naturally will be a simplication of rauthi, rautha, raouth or similar, it may have become used as a way to describe a profession or a lifestyle of rowing and building (so a typical riverboat culture). Once the south europeans encountered them they might have heard Rus/rautha or similar as one of the names used by northern and north-eastern cultures, and used that on them.
In Ukraine we study "The way from Vikings to Greeks" kind of thing, which is a trading route from the Baltics/Scandinavia to the Black sea and the Mediterranean sea and is considered a beginning point of the Rus state, when Rurik came to Kyiv and was invited to reign. At first I thought the Austerveg is that exact same thing but apparently I'm wrong
Nice little dive into this important route of commerce. I mostly only here about Vikings jsut going down to Constantinople and not what ever else they’re doing
"The Oera Linda" is very pertinent to the subject. One very interesting passage in the book explains that a natural straight used to exist from the Mediterranean into the Red Sea. This would have opened the trade route up to all of Southern Asia. According to the text, it collapsed with the earthquake of 1600bc that accompanied the eruption of Thera. Once that straight was closed, trade colonies in the East were cut off from their Mediterranean route, which would have been a major catastrophe for a maritime trading culture.
I've been watching a lot of your videos and from the start I was thinking, "wow he sounds like that other guy". But I just thought that you are both Swedish so thats why. Then I noticed you made jokes from the same memes. Finally now it has dawned on me that both of you being Swedish wouldnt explain this level of vocal similarity. Hopefully UA-cam is kinder to you on this channel, my glorious true friend.
"Kievan Rus" is a historical term coined by the historian Solovyov in the 19th century. The state never called itself "Kievan Rus" It always called itself simply - Rus'.
I am an operator of a spring pole lathe. The question among my group has been, who invented this device. A further question is, how did it come to Western Europe. My theory involves the acquiring of technology as well as trade goods in the East. One of the difficulties I have had is that the Vikings must have originally brought it back except that to go viking was not about trade and technology but rather about acquiring goods/wealth. This video has given a clear picture of how the Varjags could have brought back the reciprocating lathe technology and adapted it to making bowls rather than kabob handles. This same adaptation would have been familiar in the British Isles. When the English went to Jerusalem in the first Crusade, they likely saw the origins of the Varjag lathe, a small bow lathe, in the market places on the way. Or, traders had seen the making of small turned spindles. To the English, it could have been a moment when they realized that the way to make bowls could be adapted to making chair legs. Thank you for broadening my perspective.
Thank you so much...im not familiar with my Slavic heritage. Its unfortunate because of ww2. I know my grandmother was Dvorak.I Will be subscribing to ur channel. I LOVE UR INFROMATION. ❤
There is no point in erroneously attempting to equate the Varangians to the Rus', for the Normanist theory is just that, a theory, the only reason why it is regarded as “fact-based” is because of its sociopolitical potency against the West’s longstanding enemy - Russia. The Varangians have only played a minor part in the founding of Russia, and they shouldn't be confused with the Rus', for even the Primary Chronicle (the Laurentian Codex) treats them as two separate, unrelated entities (the Primary Chronicle states that their homeland is between the Poles and the Baltic Prussians). Their impact in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia is negligible at best, for the Varangians who originally arrived in Russia were diffuse, and furthermore, there are none of their towns, forts, or temples found in the aforementioned states - the sole exception to that rule being the Varangian district in Novgorod. If the Varangians had left a "great impact", then why is there next-to-no evidence of Norse colonization of Eastern Europe? Neither have they formed the nobility of the Rus', for the native, tribal nobility was already present and fully integrated into the Rus’ state, and were, and still are, predominately the bearers of the haplogroups that are of the West-Eurasian Slavic origin. Not even the Rurikids were Varangian, for Rurik and his family were of the Rus'. The Primary Chronicle, the leading source on Early Russian and Rurikid history states that the Varangians and the Rus' weren't the same, but separate people, that the Slavs and the Rus’ are one people, and that the Rus’ were originally Slavs (page 63). Not even the Germanic Sagas denote the Rus’ as Germanic. Even DNA studies state that the historical Rurikids, those who were direct paternal descendants of Rurik, weren't Norsemen, for they were bearers of the following haplogroups - of which the first two are the primary paternal lineages among Slavs: the haplogroup I2a1b - the clan of the princes Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskikh (who would later assume the position of one of the thirteen magnates houses of the PLC), ascending to the Turovopin Rurikovich-Izyaslavichi, and the lineage of Gleb Sviatoslavich - the historical I2a1b-Din specimen, and the oldest confirmed and tested historical Rurikid (paternal grandson of Yaroslav the Wise), his father Sviatoslav II and his brother Iziaslav (modern, paternal relatives tested for I2a1b-Din), through their father Yaroslav, who was the son of Vladimir, who was the son of Sviatoslav, who was the son of Igor - the sole surviving son of Rurik, and the bearers of the haplogroup R1a-M458 - the clan of the Verkhov princes with the historical specimen Izyaslav Ingvarevich. There are even entire Rurikid houses that bear N1c1, but all N1c1 findings are modern, are not present among historical Rurikids - suggesting a non-paternity event, and are derived from Vsevolod - who is therefore presumed to have been fathered not by Yaroslav, but by Saint Olaf, which correlates with the period of Vsevolod’s conception. Furthermore, Oleg of Novgorod was the prince of the Rus', not the Varangians. The adjective "Varangian" was a purported demonym added to the men of the Rurikid dynasty by 18th-19th-century Russian, Swedish, and German Normanists. The Primary Chronicle relates that in the year 6415 (907 AD) the Rus prince Oleg made a peace treaty with the Byzantine Empire by taking his men to the shrines and swearing by their weapons and by their god Perun, and by Veles, they confirmed the treaty. We find the same form of confirmation of a peace treaty by Prince Igor in 945 and by Prince Sviatoslav in 971. In 980, when Prince Vladimir the Great came to the throne of Kyiv, he erected statues of five pagan gods in front of his palace which he soon thereafter discarded after his Christianization in 988. Perun was chief among these, represented with a silver head and a golden mustache. Vladimir's uncle Dobrinja also had a shrine of Perun established in his city of Novgorod. After the Christianization of the Rus’, this site became a monastery, which, quite remarkably, continued to bear the name of Perun. There is not a single temple found in Russia dedicated to any Norse god, let alone toponyms. The Normanists rationalize that by claiming that the Russes/Slavs, the Varangians, and the Greeks didn’t distinguish Thor from Perun, but that is refuted by the findings of the Black Grave - remains of two Varangian men, their equipment, and a religious, dark-bronze idol of Thor, which doesn’t just refute the aforementioned thesis, but also proves that Thor was worshiped as a separate deity, and only by the Norse Varangians. Not just that, but propagating the idea that the Rus' was the result of the involvement of foreign, Norse-like people is both erroneous and opposing to the fundamental rules of the founding of organized nations. In 1914, the Swedish archaeologist T. J. Arne argued for a mass Viking-age Scandinavian colonization of Eastern Europe. Arne's theories remained largely unchallenged until the 1940s, when anti-Normanism, in part a reaction to the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, was proclaimed official Soviet state dogma. The Postwar USSR witnessed a golden age for Soviet archaeology, with the state sponsorship of thousands of archaeological excavations. Key to the anti-Normanist position were the excavations at Gnezdovo and Staraya Ladoga, near Smolensk and Novgorod respectively. Normanists considered both to be Scandinavian settlements, but Soviet archaeologists (Artsikhovsky, Avdusin, Ravdonikas) have proven that there is minimal evidence of Northern Germanic colonization at these sites. Based on the aforementioned and further empirical proof gathered by veritable historians and archaeologists, it is morally and intellectually necessary to abandon dogmatic “conventions”, for they’ve proven to be categorically, or at least largely false, thus why the "aforementioned conventions" made by those who ignore opposing proof for the sake of the furthering of their people’ agenda and interests, like the Swedes and Germans, are of arbitrary worth to history. History is an ever-expanding and ever-growing science - one that actively revisions the parts that were proven to be inaccurate or outdated. Empirical proof trumps "conventions", it is a shame that the Normanists have traditionally refused to understand that. A detail of utmost value that everyone either omits or dismisses is that the earliest Muslim sources, such as Ibn-Khurradadhbih, explicitly denote the Rus to be 'one of the Slavic peoples. The whole mantra that Rurikids are Norsemen (as opposed to the preceding, original theories that denoted them as Slavs) starts with the Normanist theories in the 18th century, furthered by the Holstein-Gottorp Romanovs and Gerhard Friedrich Muller, and was opposed by most sane-minded members of Russian intelligentsia), even by paternal Rurikids themselves (like Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev). This is the reason why Normanists rely on abstract authority like "consensus" and "accordance", and adhere to "conventions” and “established authorities” rather than conclusive proof, for they're aware of the fact that their theory is not substantiated by the latter. It’s also paramount to note that proof should not be confused with evidence, for the former is conclusive, while the latter isn’t. Normanist historiography traditionally prefers the ambiguity of liberal interpretations supported by argumentum ad Popularum, and by consensus by antonomasia to the conclusiveness of proof, due to its openness to favorable interpretation. That isn’t just a sign of an exhausted school of thought, but of one that cannot defend its assessments, due to how profoundly they’re being refuted by archaeological excavations, recent results of Rurikid paternal lineages uncovered by molecular biology, and even contemporary proof from that era, like the aforementioned treaties. While we're on the issue of the treaties, Oleg was Rurik's immediate successor (since he was immediate, the argument of “Slavicization” is moot), so why was he, as an alleged Norseman, swearing to Slavic gods like Perun and Veles instead of the Norse Gods? Matter of fact, why were all Rurikids swearing by Perun and Veles, if they were, according to Normanists, not Slavs? Furthermore, "Rus Khaganate"? The sole evidence of this state ever existing is but one paragraph, the Rurikids in their treaties, and not even in the Primary Chronicle, have never mentioned it, and neither have the Romans in Russian-related matters. If you're banking your premise on the "Legend of the Invitation" being the tale of the "end of the Rus Khaganate", therefore evidence of the state's existence, then I must disappoint you, for again, the Legend of the Invitation/Arrival is but a legend, and Russian adoption of the Flight of Aeneas - an ahistorical event.
Den här kanalen är så himla bra beskrivande om hur det var på vikingatiden man tycker du gör ett riktigt bra jobb med dom bra bilderna och hur du förklar dom här historiska sakerna man tycker att vikingatiden är nåt som är intressant.
Wow this is an 11/10 vid. 21:15 Also, the attacks happened the Anarchy of Samarra (after which they didn't have to worry so much about the once powerful Abbasids)
your content is just too high quality to only watch it once I'm halfthrough now and already know that I have to watch it again while listening very closely and paying full attention to every single image always learning something from you that I didn't know before .......which is otherwise rarely the case with "history" content on this platform.....
That is the same experience I had. I watched the "Amber Road" some months ago. The present video is my second encounter with the channel, and Baltic Empire found a new subscriber in me. In my opinion this channel is high quality content and well worth the time.
It is not necessary to move/drag boats over land between unconnected waterways. The solution is simple and straightforward. Establishing trading posts/ports with their own vessels on both sides of a land gap would necessitate transport of goods/equipment only, very likely on horses or oaxes' backs. Sweds are smart people ... even today 😉. Challenges they have had faced in the ancient brutal past could made them even smarter... so indeed, they ... doted the route with such trading/military settlements. Very good, informative presentation!
Yes , I share your opinion . It certainly seems a more sensible way of doing the job . And if archaeologists could find the remains of the sort of trading post you mention this would add considerable weight to the argument .
16:21 is written so easy to read you could probably read it wiith Google Translate. I think left page line 2 says "Abu Hamed the Andalusian said that when he went from the Mount Katisa he ran across a large Qaba, a sacred site." Thats my guess without Google Translate.
Lmao, I love the Morrowind background music. Think I'm going to make a Nord merchant/berserker that'll be a fun build
Oblivion is easily one of my top 10 games of all time, skyrim was a major letdown. I've been tempted for sometime to get a xbox copy of morrowind, I've never heard anything but good things about it
@@bidenhasdementia8657 well I personally love all three games and Morrowind was the one that started my journey. The only really good way to play it these days though, is on a PC using OpenMW. It's amazingly smooth and I played for dozens of hours with zero crashes, which is a rare thing for a TES game.
Ooooh you’re so right
@@bidenhasdementia8657 Better though to learn history and scientific subjects than just playing games. Some gameplay now and then is of course OK, but such things mislead people too much away from more important things in life.
@@bidenhasdementia8657 There was quite the jump from Morrowind to Oblivion, so it might be a bit of a culture shock. I remember being disappointed by Oblivion because the world seemed so empty, but the trade off is the voice acting, where there is very little in Morrowind. But(!) there are mods in development that might voice all of Morrowind in the near future.
This is unbelievably great on every level. My goodness UA-cam content is becoming a hell of an art form.
Great content like this has been coming out for years on UA-cam, I don't even watch regular TV at all anymore
The Buddha statuette from Helgö is a famous object of Viking age archaeology in Sweden, and one of the most striking instances of how far the trade networks of the Dark Ages were actually spun.
@@mik823 Well, not from India, rather it's from Central Asia and this has been known for half a century
@@mik823 500 years, eh? I wrote "known for half a century", do you understand what that means? 😃 I have even visited Helgö and Birka.
@@mik823 You just sound like someone who's been hanging out at 4chan all the time and have adopted their tone and mode of discussion - sorry, I'm through with you...
Something I noticed that this rather condensed video glossed over was why Sweden had even more water travel back in that time, it's because the Scandinavian peninsula is rising due to having been released from the weight of the ice from the Ice Age. It's still rising today and ruins of old forts that used to be located at a beach are now found pretty high up on hills.
Easy, easy: it was way back many thousands of years that the peninsula raised that fast after the ice was gone.
You don't find any forts from then.
The ruins of old forts you'll find up on hills were built up on the hills, and not down on a beach (Forts were normally built high up so you could keep an eye on the surroundings and to make the fort difficult to attack). The peninsula only raises a FEW MILLIMETERS a year. :)
@@whitlaw1395 A few millimeter a year still makes a few meters each 1000 years. Most ancient forts in Sweden are found in the area around Lake Mälaren and many would have been by the shore back a few thousand years.
@@znail4675 But then again: Mälaren is an inland lake. Wouldn't it rise along with the surrounding topography and keep the same water level throughout the ages?
@@whitlaw1395 Mälaren is classified as a Lake, but it's directly connected to Baltic Sea by the city of Stockholm that is built on 13 islands. And even just a 1000 years ago so would it actually be a bay of the Sea rather then a lake.
Well he does mention the fact that Sweden had much more and bigger lakes in the past and that those were used as ancient highways. How did you manage to miss that part?
Also, what you say is most certainly true in the entire Baltic sea coastline. Lots and lots of forts were built on the coast that now are kilometers inland. Few millimeters a year makes a huge difference on the landscape over many centuries. It's a pretty level ground overall, even a small change in the altitude can change a huge area from the sea bed into a sheep pasture.
Väldigt bra sammanfattat. Gillar de tydliga kartorna och lågmälda musiken.
bilderna var alla fantastiska konstverk också
@@xorebro the ones in colour - russian art, mostly
What an amazing video! I saw the Premiere and wanted such more to support it.
I love Gold and Gunpowder, and this Baltic Empire channel is a real hidden gem.
The Silk Road has always kind of taken away from the History of other trade routes - the amber, gold, hemp, tar and all kinds of things from the Baltic was absolutely an important part of medieval trade. I wish the Baltic States got more attention, they are fascinating little countries who punch very far above their weight.
Thanks for the video!
What he said ^
If they taught it all together they would have to admit civilization was technically interconnected long before they teach in school
well said
I already knew there were Vikings sailing on the Volga river during the Viking age, but its completely shocking that people made that journey in the Neolithic era.
Religious Journey i would think, crazy to think about
Why not?
Nothing shocking about that unless you are stuck in the christian /moslim worldviews based only on a very young world.
@@KibyNykraft I'm not religious, that's also kinda rude.
@@goldentoaster9302 People forget that many civilizations like Greeks/Hebrews/Egyptians had massive castles and fortresses while Europe was still living in mud huts.
Yes the Austerveg/Österled was probably a part of the silk road. During the early moslem conquests of Persia and the eastern mediterrane area the traditional ways of the silkroad was closed. In the 600 and 700 centuries Björkö, Birka, Hedeby and Gotland stood up as trading centers, while the Byzantine empire declined. From the northern trading centers thd proucts from the far east spread westward. One thesis of the declind of the northern trade routes and the vikings themselves was the first crusade who reopened the southern part of the silk road. Wich lead the northern tradesmen to become plunderers like their earlier western brethren. Tackar för denns intressanta video.
Don't see how it could be called crusade if the Vikings were mainly pagan and the Pope in Rome did not order it. Also the Khazars were mainly pagans and Jews while the Vikings were mainly pagan with some Christians.
"Which" = som, vilka. "Witch" = shamankvinna, trollkärring.
@@mrbaab5932What are you on about exactly?
@@mrbaab5932
The Crusade he referred to was the Christian Crusade which did indeed reopen the Southern trade routes to China. He didn't claim or imply that it was a Scandinavian crusade!
The idea that the resulting economic depression from the loss of the trade routes resulted in the Scandinavians to go "Viking" is not something I have read about, but as a contributing factor, it makes sense! As does the better climatic conditions resulting in a population boom that encouraged restless young men to seek their fortune!
i am pretty sure our Vikings was the "Northern" route and the Italian´s was the southern route of the Silkroad.
My father who worked in the printing industry in Dublin coincidentally had a hard back book written in seems for pure academic from what i read many years ago still in family home dad 93 years of age the title being " The Viking Achievement " again very scholastic analysis cannot remember authors but seemed to be in depth work on this particular era.
I haven't seen much content on YT focusing on vikings eastern explorations, so this channel really fills a void. Subscribed!
Love the music. I spent so many hours exploring to that soundtrack.
I'm certainly looking forward to further adventures in Miklagard!
Yes please do, so much history that needs be highlighted more from this period of majestic sea lovers
This channel needs to blow up!
I just subscribed.
Im really glad I found your channel, it's been a great resource to me. I'm American, but ethnically Swedish, and I have a deep desire to learn as much as I can about my ancestors, and your channel has taught me the most, so thanks you, and keep up the good work brother!
The "j" in Slavic languages is most commonly transcribed into English as "y", as the sound is closer. So no "staraja", but "staraya", and (arguably) not "Varjags" but "Varyags" or even "Variaghs" - and in Old Church Slavonic "varyazhe"/"varyagi" - which is, probably not accidentally, much closer to the Greek "Βάραγγοι" -"Varangoi" (it is even possible, that digamma was sometimes read as double g by non-native speakers, but it is very hard to pronounce it with Greek phonetics) and possible Scandinavian etymology. In modern Russian it is "Varyaghi", in Ukrainian "Varyahy" and in Polish "Varegovie".
But mostly: "staraya": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staraya_Ladoga
Yes. And:
1) The "ch" in 'Pechenegs' is really an English "ch" like in 'church', not a Slavic/German "ch" (English "kh").
2) "Rus" has to be pronounced "Ruce" (Chaucer wrote it this way) like in "Bruce".
But anyway, the film was very interesting, especially the parts about the different ways how the portage was actually done and that the Austrveg went directly from the Neva and Ladoga to the Volga and that it was so old. That was news to me.
@@jornstache2793 I fully agree, only concentrated on the most important wards for me :) Cheers!
@@jornstache2793 Since Ro and ru usually came from Rao/rau, it became logical that in russian they say a middlething of "ra" and "ro" in Rossiya/Rassiya (Russia) (that vowel does exist in american english like in how they say "rock")
In norwegian we say "væring" to a dweller of a small town along the coast, but only if farther north than Bergen city (roughly). The æ is a broad a. "Vær"= coastal village. A humorous rhyme from traditional songs is "Det dærre været i værre' fra Vårherre kan'kje bli verre enn det hærre". = "That weather (været) in the village (værre') from Our Lord can't get worse (verre) than this one here".
Vikings that sailed to Miklagard served as guards to the East Roman Emperors, called Væringr. Even the later norwegian king Harald Hardråde (hard ruler) Served in the Væring gard.
Supposed origin...
What a beautiful presentation. Granted I'm only 6mins in and I've noticed your pinned comment so it might change, but as it stands now it's brilliant. The visuals matched with historical locations and time periods, condensed into perfectly digestible pieces of information and if anyone wants to dive deeper it's all there for them to do so too while still remaining simple.
It reminds me of older UA-cam before every channel dropped into their comfort zone and almost robotic format. Great job!
I really appreciate and enjoy your presentations. I always learn new and valuable information. Very well researched with great illustrations used. Thank you!
Great video, loads of information in a short time 🔥
The beautiful very shallow draft vessel in the Norwegian Skepps museum. Clearly meant for shallow draft of rivers. Also good for portages. Not at all the same boats built for North Sea.
A case of small shallow models and larger for war parties. Case of all of the above.
Studied this in my third year at uni. Fascinating stuff. Love the Channel keep up the good work!
Love the relaxing tone, delivery and charming accent!
Incredibly well explained! Lovely to have someone break it down into great detail with all relevant information along with no over the top editing. Please keep this concept when making future videos (maps, low profile music etc.) Looking forward to more. Greetings from a Swede in Malta!
Hey great video. One small detail I want to mention. Roden would originally have been called Rothen, before sweden got rid of the th-sound. Th is similar to S. Hence Rosen, Roslagen, Ros.
There is actually an old medieval song that mentions Rosen. You can find it here on youtube it is called Vänner och Fränder performed by Garmarna.
In German it is "rudern" = to row
TH from the elder futhark (norse runic alphabet) and a middlething between TH and D both exists in icelandic, but with separate letters not used in swedish or english. The two forms of it came to be in the newer futhark. AU was originally pronounced like a short ao, the sound still used in Malmö of Sweden and in Bryne of Norway (they say yaou for ya, which means yes, in Norway spelled "ja").
Later in some cases it became "øu"/öu", the ö + think about a narrow u like in pool in english said with an aristocratic Cockney accent, where the ø/ö = like in english bird or curve, as well as in german, turkish, hungarian, norwegian, finnish, icelandic where there are many words with the sound there usually spelled as ö or ø. In some cases it also turned into just ö and into just å (like in english aw or o in fork)
(æ on the other hand as a broad a, came from æou and æy, a sound widely used in old Greece for example.. The gothic/guta version of Eirik, later Eric/Eric/Aymeric, was Æymeriks).. In a few cases the æ became instead ö in sound, like in some icelandic dialects, like in french boeuf where o and e are handwritten as intervowen/as one letter almost resembling the æ symbol)
Love your videos as always! 
Fantastic video!👍. 👋 from Norway
Excellent documentary. A lot of information i did not know about.
Excellent video, very informative. Subscribed.
When one studies a selection of local or national histories, it is like a jig saw manifesting itself as pieces join together. After 1500 years, it becomes clear how European society and culture became such a fascinating mix.
The light ships or boats they used are almost identical to kirkkovene or kyrkbåt that are used even today. Here in Finland we have yearly kyrkbåt race called "sulkavan soutu". Its a really big sports event!
What? I had no idea about most of it! Super interesting and well organized so it was easy to follow along. Yet my memory isn't what it used to be so I'll watch and listen again hehe.
Grymt jobbat! Sådana historielärare skulle man haft. Då hade jag haft andra betyg!!! :D
Utterly fascinating. Subscribed, and looking forward to more!
This was very entertaining and interesting. Thanks!
This was a great video. Thank you!
This channel does not disappoint. It's amazing how far these people would go.
Extremely informative content. Keep it up. 👍
Just found the channel and this was a superb introduction to it!
I am so glad having found your channel. You prove the giant difference between videos made by Scandinavians and non-Scandinavians. Your explanations reach far deeper into the roots and the sound of names, persons, runes, landscapes... Wow !
Thank you so much for your work !
They were also in Croatia - 13 swords have been found around Vrlika , as well as an inscription in Bribirska Glavica
You have no idea how much your music choice improved this watching experience for me. You chose Soule's absolute best for this. His Solstheim tracks for Dragonborn hold a special place in my heart. It was so pleasant to learn something new with music that lovely playing in the background.
A lot of viewers notice the Morrowind tracks but I think youre the first to notice that its actually Solstheim, which includes old MW tracks. It invokes the right sense of adventure and mystery which I want in these videos
@@styrman1337 i honestly wish he composed more original tracks for solstheim. his morrowind work is great too but he was absolutely at the top of his game when the dragonborn dlc came around. it's a really unique blend of the style of his skyrim tracks and the style of his morrowind tracks. just his absolute best compositions. shit's so beautiful it could bring a tear to my eye.
it's great music choice on your part, i can imagine sailing the rivers of the east with that music playing in my head, experiencing all the sights and sounds and smells.
@madman6962 - can you gove a time stamp for this Solstheim track? I would be very pleased to hear that track. I never got to start on the Dragonborn expansion but do have it installed.
@@styrman1337 - "Adventure and mystery" is exactly what I feel when listening to many of those Morrowind tracks. 7:40 was on eof my favorites. Playing the game I sometimes ventured to wander in open areas where the game would typically chose these tracks, just to listen to and enjoy them. They fit your video very well. (I was about to mention this in the top pinned post, but then read the toxic nationalism, you were attacked by. I believe you chose the right time to disengage. Thank you for interesting, informative videos. You have a new subscriber.
@@larsrons7937 The only one i bothered to note was the very first track in the video.
I forget its name but it's the eighth exploration track in the dragonborn soundtrack and the first of the original exploration tracks we get from that OST.
It's been a while since I've seen this video so I can't remember if my favorite is included in it, but "Morning Star", the ninth exploration track, is my absolute favorite out of the Dragonborn tracks. I without a hint of irony think it's Jeremy Soule's magnum opus.
Impressive research and ability to present it so succinctly. Great work!
This is incredible content I'm so happy I stumbled on this page
Quality video. Subscribed.
Nice video bro. Im so excited for the Miklagard video! Hope you bring up the Varangian Guard. If not please do another video about that :)
I came across this by hasard. Looking forward to exploring this channel further.
Thanks!
When you were discussing portage either in summer or in winter it made me think about Christmas. Like how Santa clause has a lot of Scandinavian tropes. Like sleds and little expensive gifts acquired in the winter that could have been acquired from annual travels. Maybe they even wore red clothes for safer travel in the snow.
Volga is a later Slavic name for the river. The real name of the river is Atil or Raha.
I am Kurdish, born and raised in Sweden and I always found the language at school (Swedish) very familiar to my language at home (Sorani Kurdish) and I always wondered why that was. A few months ago I made a document where I write down words which are similar in kurdish and swedish as well as other germanic languges such as German and english, and interestingly found a single word in Welsh which is similar in Kurdish which is Gawra (meaning Big in Kurdish) and Gawr in welsh which means giant like "Idris the Giant/Idris Gawr". so far I've found as much as 50 words which are similar in kurdish and Germanic langauges. I kept asking chatGPT why there was such a similarity between the two languages and it kept giving me the same answer, that it is due to the Indo-European connection and that they are two different branches of Indo-europeans, Swedish which is Germanic and Kurdish which is Aryan (Also called Indo-Iranian for no reason...). Anyways, watching this video I may be inclined to believe it could be due to this trade route however I spoke to an ethnic swedish guy online and he said that it's because the Germanic people (mostly swedes) are the true descendants of the Scythians who are supposedly an extinct race of the Aryans (apart from Ossetians supposedly), who were close cousins of the Persians and the Medes, which is the same people as the Kurds and that's why the languages are familiar. Or it could've been that these medieval swedes who travelled down this route you speak of who stayed among the Kurds or perhaps it could be the case that these medieval swedes/vikings that brought some kurdish girls back to sweden lol. Eitherway it's an interesting thought and certainly an interesting video.
Kurds, Iranians, Indians and Europeans ultimately come from the same ancestors. Proto-Indo-Europeans. Indo-Europeans migrated to Europe, and Anatolia, some went to western China (Tocharians) and the ones that went east into Central Asia, Iran, and India were called Indo-Iranians (Aryans). That’s why you’ll find linguistic, genetic, and mythological similarities everywhere from Ancient Ireland to India. The Scythians were Indo-Iranians who lived on the steppes of southern Russia/Ukraine.
@@monkeymoment6478 *_Thank you for telling me that, I appreciate it. Of course I didn't know any of this before writing my comment._*
The algorithm autoplayed this video, and thus introduced this channel to me, and thereby immediately earning you a new sub. Truly excellent and all-encompassing presentation!
praise be the algorithm 🙏
My grandmothers family is Lithuanian/Polish/Swedish/Danish so I found this so interesting, thank you.
Wonderful work!
fantastic video I'm not even half way through and I'm very impressed by the way you've explained viking age Sweden it's something that was always glossed over in other things I've seen
Russian Primary Chronicle explicitly states that the Rus tribe was neither Normans nor Swedes. It was another varangian tribe altogether.
Tak-sa-Mooka fra midt Jylland!!!! 😉 Wonderful presentation!
mycka
Very good sir. Keep it up!
Good narated history during one of the most fascinating but least explored time period with Morrowind music. The perfect cocktail
Wow, what a fantastic history, so detailed .. It's the best out there.. Thank you mucho..
Thank you for your research & presentation on relatively opaque history!
Dude what the heck man how have I never seen this channel! I’ve been watching Gunpoweder for years!!!
Great channel! I'm happy that I have found it, I can tell that you have put in some great work on your interesting videos.
I am shocked to see that the Vikings traded with the Middle East region crossing the big rivers of Euro-Asia. Your video content added value to the History of the Nordic-Middle East Trade routes. Great work! Greetings from Europe BE
damn, too early - thought it's been already uploaded
interesting thumbnail, showing the horribly long road to the Caspian Sea or in other words several months of traveling across mosquito habitats
it might have been too cold for moskitos. in caspian sea you would need lots of fresh water.. not easy to get
@@smonline631 I doubt it
don't know about every part of Russia but I know that in the almost arctic region, which is bitter cold during the winter season, you'll literally breath mosquitos in the summer if you don't cover your mouth .......and there you often don't find large slow flowing river systems and extensive swamp areas
bet on the Don or Volga the little vampires will try to suck you dry as soon as it gets warmer
There is also another meaning for 'Austrveg'. In the poetic edda it is used as a kenning for going raiding (vikingr).
"Þórr kom eigi, þvi at hann var í austrvegi". Thor didn't come because he was on the way east (ie: he was away raiding). Quote from Lokasenna.
I like the name and can relate to it. Since a I speak danish and understand mostly nordic languages. Austrveg (Old Nordic) -
Austurvegur (Icelandic) - Øst vej (Danish) - The road to east or East road. Veg - Vej - Road (Veg or vej used as the name of the road or on the sail route at sea or on land).
This is very interesting.. the way you said "Vaeringi" (as the self-pronounced version of Varingians), is exactly the way that the word "Vergi" is pronounced in Latvian. "Vergi" literal meaning is "slaves" (singular: "vergs"). This could be a hint towards an old slave trade association that took place around that route.
Vergi means tax in Turkish. I wonder if these could be related.
Slavers maybe? Varjags meant slavers?
Varg means lawless in Old Norse.
@@jailedtwice735 During the Russian raids during the 18-century thousands of Swedes were enslaved when Sweden had officially banned slavery 13 century and never enslaved Russians during the early modern era. While the barbaric rule of the Tsar never abolished slavery until the 19 century.
@@jailedtwice735Baltic pirates enslaved Olof Tryggvason. So yes baltic peoples frequently enslaved Scandinavians. The raids on Sweden and Denmark was the official reason for the Nordic crusades.
trade between different populations in history was often much more common than conflicts and international trade has been playing a huge rule in the rise of various civilisations since the bronze age
In my opinion it's one of the biggest underestimations by historians and anthropologists, especially when it comes to sailing. Now they're finding evidence of sailing in the Mediterranean almost one hundred thousand years ago, according to current dating techniques, which I don't necessarily trust. But it's obvious that sailing is a very ancient art.
@@chrisnewbury3793 Some think that the Neanderthals may have used water craft to reach some islands. There brain cases were often bigger than those many modern humans, especially if we go by their shorter heights.
@@chrisnewbury3793 It is now accepted the americas must have been population by people sailing the western coasts of the americas.
@@loquat44-40 yes I've read that. Though they still refuse to acknowledge it happened all over The Atlantic Coast as well...until Colombus sailed the ocean blue :/
If goods don't cross borders, soldiers will.
It is probably easier to get funding if you research war instead of trade.
Thanks for this great informative video, I'd like to add something 22:50 Actually, Atil was probably destroyed not by Rus's, but Oghuzs, Svyatsolav instead attacked Sarkel, Rus's and Oguzes acted in coordination, probably because they were allies.
Great video! The reason why I am so interested in maritime history, explorers, pirates, vikings etc, is the way these stories show how different groups of humans interact in strange circumstances in new strange environments and how cultures meet, sometimes clash and at times also cooperate. Anyway, Cheers!
tacksåmycket. really good renditione of a history
90% of the older churches contain remnants of Norse temples under them, and a lot of them have runestones in their walls.
Thanks for sharing, very interesting vid 👍
Very detailed, thanks
Very good exposition. Loved living in Stockholm in Lidingor. Swedes good people.
You only mentioned it in passing, but was the organisation structure the Kievan Rus evolved from really a Khaganate? I think this is the first time I'm hearing it be referred to as such, so it would be great to hear more about that
The boat-like silhouette of of a drawn vagina was not only noted in Sweden, in Finnish the crudely drawn picture of a vagina is colloquially known as "kirkkovene" (long boat that was used for trips to church).
Arguments highly unusual to hear on Southern Europe.
Thanks for Sharing
Awesome video!
The Volga-route was probably established by the Rus in late 700 AD, but for a long time the Rus did not trade directly with Bagdad, Volgabulgars and Khazars handled that. The first mentioning of Rus in Bagdad is from around 870 AD.
According to my readings, the Rus Khaganate existed only between 820 - 860 AD, it was destroyed by Finish and Slavic tribes. After that the Rurikids established a new realm, Gardarike, and resumed the trade on the Volga and Dnepr.
The oath ('vár') sworn by the Varjags was to the Byzantine emperor. They were not employed there before around 850, so calling Rus in the period before 850 for Varjags is not correct.
The idea is hard to comprehend and written are barely nonexistent. The only source that describes early Russia is Saint Barnes which mentions the Frankish emperor asking what type of nationality the rhos are and the said Swedes. Then the Norse sagas mention that Erik Anundsson conquered vast swaths of territory in the east and that the Swedes in 1015 considered the East their tributary countries. Or that Finns and Slavs should pay tribute to the Swedes.
@@jailedtwice735 The first Western European source to mention the Rus' are the Annals of St. Bertin (Annales Bertiniani).[82] These relate that Emperor Louis the Pious' court at Ingelheim, in 839, was visited by a delegation from the Byzantine emperor. In this delegation there were men who called themselves Rhos (in the Latin text, ... qui se, id est gentem suam, Rhos vocari dicebant, ...; translated by Aleksandr Nazarenko as ... who stated that they, i.e. their nation, were called Rhos, ...). Once Louis enquired the reason of their arrival (in the Latin text, ... Quorum adventus causam imperator diligentius investigans, ...), he learnt that they were Swedes (eos gentis esse Sueonum; verbatim, their nation is Sveoni)
This is not some pretending they clearly claimed they belonged to the Swedish nation.
Another source comes from Liutprand of Cremona, a 10th-century Lombard bishop whose Antapodosis, a report from Constantinople to Holy Roman Emperor Otto I, says that Constantinople 'stands in territory surrounded by warlike peoples. On the north it has the ... Rusii sometimes called by another name Nordmanni, and the Bulgarii who live too close for harmony'.[91][92][93]
The Frankish sources clearly identifies the Rus as a Scandinavian people.
@@Kalletheswede And its still pretty accurate (referring to the last paragraph). If you look on the map of northen part of Russia, there's a city called Murmansk (or Nordmansk).
@@m.l.6685 The danish-norwegian claim of land in the late medievals was stretching eastwards to the Murmansk bay. At this time most of the dwellers of the Kola peninsula and north Karelia were säämi and finns. Before the early Renaissance epoch, there were no formal borders in north Europe worth mentioning. A lot of hunter-gatherers and small-scale farmers and fishing villages across large parts of north Europe were occasionally taxed multiple times every year by chieftains, kings, and the Birkarl groups.
@@Kalletheswede But there was probably no ethnic group called the Rus. If true that Rus is a simplification of roth, which in turn naturally will be a simplication of rauthi, rautha, raouth or similar, it may have become used as a way to describe a profession or a lifestyle of rowing and building (so a typical riverboat culture). Once the south europeans encountered them they might have heard Rus/rautha or similar as one of the names used by northern and north-eastern cultures, and used that on them.
Right before the mention of "wheels" 11:25 I taught to my self:
--What if the shields on the sides actually was wheels⁉️
You may have invented the tank
@@johndough1703 Sounds about right for me, I "invented" the accordion gun for a tabletop RPG, 250 years after Colt Sr did it IRL. 😅
we studied in history class that boats had detachable wheels indeed. (for the 'road from variags to greeks')
There is a similar traderoute from the frisians. There might be an overlap
Using Morrowind music in video about nordic people. Ballsy! I approve!
Excellent video.
In Ukraine we study "The way from Vikings to Greeks" kind of thing, which is a trading route from the Baltics/Scandinavia to the Black sea and the Mediterranean sea and is considered a beginning point of the Rus state, when Rurik came to Kyiv and was invited to reign. At first I thought the Austerveg is that exact same thing but apparently I'm wrong
> Rurik came to Kyiv and was invited to reign
LMAO
@@gachimane literally happened, just read about him
Nice little dive into this important route of commerce.
I mostly only here about Vikings jsut going down to Constantinople and not what ever else they’re doing
Impressive work!
Very interesting and much appreciated talk and video!
Thank you from a Viking descendant living in Melbourne Australia!
"The Oera Linda" is very pertinent to the subject. One very interesting passage in the book explains that a natural straight used to exist from the Mediterranean into the Red Sea. This would have opened the trade route up to all of Southern Asia. According to the text, it collapsed with the earthquake of 1600bc that accompanied the eruption of Thera. Once that straight was closed, trade colonies in the East were cut off from their Mediterranean route, which would have been a major catastrophe for a maritime trading culture.
I've been watching a lot of your videos and from the start I was thinking, "wow he sounds like that other guy". But I just thought that you are both Swedish so thats why. Then I noticed you made jokes from the same memes. Finally now it has dawned on me that both of you being Swedish wouldnt explain this level of vocal similarity. Hopefully UA-cam is kinder to you on this channel, my glorious true friend.
"Kievan Rus" is a historical term coined by the historian Solovyov in the 19th century.
The state never called itself "Kievan Rus"
It always called itself simply - Rus'.
I am an operator of a spring pole lathe. The question among my group has been, who invented this device. A further question is, how did it come to Western Europe. My theory involves the acquiring of technology as well as trade goods in the East. One of the difficulties I have had is that the Vikings must have originally brought it back except that to go viking was not about trade and technology but rather about acquiring goods/wealth. This video has given a clear picture of how the Varjags could have brought back the reciprocating lathe technology and adapted it to making bowls rather than kabob handles. This same adaptation would have been familiar in the British Isles. When the English went to Jerusalem in the first Crusade, they likely saw the origins of the Varjag lathe, a small bow lathe, in the market places on the way. Or, traders had seen the making of small turned spindles. To the English, it could have been a moment when they realized that the way to make bowls could be adapted to making chair legs. Thank you for broadening my perspective.
Thank you so much...im not familiar with my Slavic heritage. Its unfortunate because of ww2. I know my grandmother was Dvorak.I Will be subscribing to ur channel. I LOVE UR INFROMATION. ❤
Dvorak is Czech surname.
@@titanscerw
No doubt... 🤺
Dvorak wrote 'Die Slaviches tanz'. The Slavic dance 🌬️💙🌀
@@SkyeSage17 the famous composer was born not far from where I live, in fact.
There is no point in erroneously attempting to equate the Varangians to the Rus', for the Normanist theory is just that, a theory, the only reason why it is regarded as “fact-based” is because of its sociopolitical potency against the West’s longstanding enemy - Russia. The Varangians have only played a minor part in the founding of Russia, and they shouldn't be confused with the Rus', for even the Primary Chronicle (the Laurentian Codex) treats them as two separate, unrelated entities (the Primary Chronicle states that their homeland is between the Poles and the Baltic Prussians). Their impact in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia is negligible at best, for the Varangians who originally arrived in Russia were diffuse, and furthermore, there are none of their towns, forts, or temples found in the aforementioned states - the sole exception to that rule being the Varangian district in Novgorod. If the Varangians had left a "great impact", then why is there next-to-no evidence of Norse colonization of Eastern Europe? Neither have they formed the nobility of the Rus', for the native, tribal nobility was already present and fully integrated into the Rus’ state, and were, and still are, predominately the bearers of the haplogroups that are of the West-Eurasian Slavic origin. Not even the Rurikids were Varangian, for Rurik and his family were of the Rus'. The Primary Chronicle, the leading source on Early Russian and Rurikid history states that the Varangians and the Rus' weren't the same, but separate people, that the Slavs and the Rus’ are one people, and that the Rus’ were originally Slavs (page 63). Not even the Germanic Sagas denote the Rus’ as Germanic. Even DNA studies state that the historical Rurikids, those who were direct paternal descendants of Rurik, weren't Norsemen, for they were bearers of the following haplogroups - of which the first two are the primary paternal lineages among Slavs: the haplogroup I2a1b - the clan of the princes Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskikh (who would later assume the position of one of the thirteen magnates houses of the PLC), ascending to the Turovopin Rurikovich-Izyaslavichi, and the lineage of Gleb Sviatoslavich - the historical I2a1b-Din specimen, and the oldest confirmed and tested historical Rurikid (paternal grandson of Yaroslav the Wise), his father Sviatoslav II and his brother Iziaslav (modern, paternal relatives tested for I2a1b-Din), through their father Yaroslav, who was the son of Vladimir, who was the son of Sviatoslav, who was the son of Igor - the sole surviving son of Rurik, and the bearers of the haplogroup R1a-M458 - the clan of the Verkhov princes with the historical specimen Izyaslav Ingvarevich. There are even entire Rurikid houses that bear N1c1, but all N1c1 findings are modern, are not present among historical Rurikids - suggesting a non-paternity event, and are derived from Vsevolod - who is therefore presumed to have been fathered not by Yaroslav, but by Saint Olaf, which correlates with the period of Vsevolod’s conception.
Furthermore, Oleg of Novgorod was the prince of the Rus', not the Varangians. The adjective "Varangian" was a purported demonym added to the men of the Rurikid dynasty by 18th-19th-century Russian, Swedish, and German Normanists. The Primary Chronicle relates that in the year 6415 (907 AD) the Rus prince Oleg made a peace treaty with the Byzantine Empire by taking his men to the shrines and swearing by their weapons and by their god Perun, and by Veles, they confirmed the treaty. We find the same form of confirmation of a peace treaty by Prince Igor in 945 and by Prince Sviatoslav in 971. In 980, when Prince Vladimir the Great came to the throne of Kyiv, he erected statues of five pagan gods in front of his palace which he soon thereafter discarded after his Christianization in 988. Perun was chief among these, represented with a silver head and a golden mustache. Vladimir's uncle Dobrinja also had a shrine of Perun established in his city of Novgorod. After the Christianization of the Rus’, this site became a monastery, which, quite remarkably, continued to bear the name of Perun. There is not a single temple found in Russia dedicated to any Norse god, let alone toponyms. The Normanists rationalize that by claiming that the Russes/Slavs, the Varangians, and the Greeks didn’t distinguish Thor from Perun, but that is refuted by the findings of the Black Grave - remains of two Varangian men, their equipment, and a religious, dark-bronze idol of Thor, which doesn’t just refute the aforementioned thesis, but also proves that Thor was worshiped as a separate deity, and only by the Norse Varangians. Not just that, but propagating the idea that the Rus' was the result of the involvement of foreign, Norse-like people is both erroneous and opposing to the fundamental rules of the founding of organized nations. In 1914, the Swedish archaeologist T. J. Arne argued for a mass Viking-age Scandinavian colonization of Eastern Europe. Arne's theories remained largely unchallenged until the 1940s, when anti-Normanism, in part a reaction to the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, was proclaimed official Soviet state dogma. The Postwar USSR witnessed a golden age for Soviet archaeology, with the state sponsorship of thousands of archaeological excavations. Key to the anti-Normanist position were the excavations at Gnezdovo and Staraya Ladoga, near Smolensk and Novgorod respectively. Normanists considered both to be Scandinavian settlements, but Soviet archaeologists (Artsikhovsky, Avdusin, Ravdonikas) have proven that there is minimal evidence of Northern Germanic colonization at these sites. Based on the aforementioned and further empirical proof gathered by veritable historians and archaeologists, it is morally and intellectually necessary to abandon dogmatic “conventions”, for they’ve proven to be categorically, or at least largely false, thus why the "aforementioned conventions" made by those who ignore opposing proof for the sake of the furthering of their people’ agenda and interests, like the Swedes and Germans, are of arbitrary worth to history. History is an ever-expanding and ever-growing science - one that actively revisions the parts that were proven to be inaccurate or outdated. Empirical proof trumps "conventions", it is a shame that the Normanists have traditionally refused to understand that.
A detail of utmost value that everyone either omits or dismisses is that the earliest Muslim sources, such as Ibn-Khurradadhbih, explicitly denote the Rus to be 'one of the Slavic peoples. The whole mantra that Rurikids are Norsemen (as opposed to the preceding, original theories that denoted them as Slavs) starts with the Normanist theories in the 18th century, furthered by the Holstein-Gottorp Romanovs and Gerhard Friedrich Muller, and was opposed by most sane-minded members of Russian intelligentsia), even by paternal Rurikids themselves (like Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev). This is the reason why Normanists rely on abstract authority like "consensus" and "accordance", and adhere to "conventions” and “established authorities” rather than conclusive proof, for they're aware of the fact that their theory is not substantiated by the latter. It’s also paramount to note that proof should not be confused with evidence, for the former is conclusive, while the latter isn’t. Normanist historiography traditionally prefers the ambiguity of liberal interpretations supported by argumentum ad Popularum, and by consensus by antonomasia to the conclusiveness of proof, due to its openness to favorable interpretation. That isn’t just a sign of an exhausted school of thought, but of one that cannot defend its assessments, due to how profoundly they’re being refuted by archaeological excavations, recent results of Rurikid paternal lineages uncovered by molecular biology, and even contemporary proof from that era, like the aforementioned treaties. While we're on the issue of the treaties, Oleg was Rurik's immediate successor (since he was immediate, the argument of “Slavicization” is moot), so why was he, as an alleged Norseman, swearing to Slavic gods like Perun and Veles instead of the Norse Gods? Matter of fact, why were all Rurikids swearing by Perun and Veles, if they were, according to Normanists, not Slavs?
Furthermore, "Rus Khaganate"? The sole evidence of this state ever existing is but one paragraph, the Rurikids in their treaties, and not even in the Primary Chronicle, have never mentioned it, and neither have the Romans in Russian-related matters. If you're banking your premise on the "Legend of the Invitation" being the tale of the "end of the Rus Khaganate", therefore evidence of the state's existence, then I must disappoint you, for again, the Legend of the Invitation/Arrival is but a legend, and Russian adoption of the Flight of Aeneas - an ahistorical event.
Den här kanalen är så himla bra beskrivande om hur det var på vikingatiden man tycker du gör ett riktigt bra jobb med dom bra bilderna och hur du förklar dom här historiska sakerna man tycker att vikingatiden är nåt som är intressant.
3:33 interesting that. there is archeological finding beside the Tisza and Szamos rivers but not to many beside the Danube
Wow this is an 11/10 vid. 21:15 Also, the attacks happened the Anarchy of Samarra (after which they didn't have to worry so much about the once powerful Abbasids)
your content is just too high quality to only watch it once
I'm halfthrough now and already know that I have to watch it again while listening very closely and paying full attention to every single image
always learning something from you that I didn't know before .......which is otherwise rarely the case with "history" content on this platform.....
That is the same experience I had. I watched the "Amber Road" some months ago. The present video is my second encounter with the channel, and Baltic Empire found a new subscriber in me. In my opinion this channel is high quality content and well worth the time.
It is not necessary to move/drag boats over land between unconnected waterways.
The solution is simple and straightforward. Establishing trading posts/ports with their own vessels on both sides of a land gap would necessitate transport of goods/equipment only, very likely on horses or oaxes' backs.
Sweds are smart people ... even today 😉. Challenges they have had faced in the ancient brutal past could made them even smarter... so indeed, they ... doted the route with such trading/military settlements.
Very good, informative presentation!
Yes , I share your opinion . It certainly seems a more sensible way of doing the job . And if archaeologists could find the remains of the sort of trading post you mention this would add considerable weight to the argument .
Very well written and presented videos ! 👍🏻
15:00 The khazars might be huns that was driven east by the germans. Atil might be named after Attila the Hun?
they are surely some kind of Hunnic people
16:21 is written so easy to read you could probably read it wiith Google Translate. I think left page line 2 says "Abu Hamed the Andalusian said that when he went from the Mount Katisa he ran across a large Qaba, a sacred site." Thats my guess without Google Translate.
Fascinating . Thank you !
I'm guessing "Austrveg" means "eastern-way" or "österväg"
Edit: I wrote this before watching the video >.>