Varangians
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23
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Search complete. 71 mentions across 23 episodes found for "Varangians".
Sep 20, 2026
Theo WrenfieldNARRATOR
The great waterways of this region connected to river systems that flowed both toward the Baltic Sea and through ambitious portages toward the distant waterways leading south and east.
Theo WrenfieldNARRATOR
The Swedes, who would later become known as Varangians, learned to navigate these complex water routes, developing skills that would eventually carry them all the way to Constantinople.
Theo WrenfieldNARRATOR
Denmark presented yet another face of Scandinavia.
Theo WrenfieldNARRATOR
Its lower-lying lands, peninsulas, and islands offered more farmable soil than much of Norway or Sweden.
2 HRS 48 MINS LATER
Theo WrenfieldNARRATOR
While their Norwegian and Danish kinsmen sailed westward to the British Isles and beyond, the Swedish Vikings turned their dragon-proud ships in a different direction entirely.
Theo WrenfieldNARRATOR
To the east lay vast forests, mighty rivers, and opportunities that would lead these Norse adventurers on journeys as remarkable as any undertaken by their seafaring cousins.
Theo WrenfieldNARRATOR
These eastern travelers became known as the Varangians, a name derived from an Old Norse word meaning sworn companions or pledge men, and their story would shape the destiny of nations that exist to this day.
Theo WrenfieldNARRATOR
The journey eastward began not across open ocean, but through the intricate waterways of the Baltic Sea.
Stephen SeidelNARRATOR
For the first time since the disappearance of the Phoenicians, a great naval power came into existence in Norway, and within a couple of centuries it had influenced almost the whole seacoast of Europe.
Stephen SeidelNARRATOR
the vikings or sea-rovers who kept their long ship in the vikes or fiords of norway made vigorous attacks all along the coast of europe and in several cases formed stable governments and so made in a way a sort of crust for europe preventing any further shaking of its human contents In Iceland, in England, in Ireland, in Normandy, in Sicily, and at Constantinople, where they formed the Varangian or bodyguard of the emperor, as well as in Russia and for a time in the Holy Land, Vikings or Normans founded kingdoms between which there was a lively interchange of visits and knowledge.
Stephen SeidelNARRATOR
They certainly extended their voyages to Greenland, and there is a good deal of evidence for believing that they traveled from Greenland to Labrador and Newfoundland, In the year 1001, an Icelander named Bjorn, sailing to Greenland to visit his father, was driven to the southwest and came to a country which they called Vinland, inhabited by dwarfs and having the shortest day of eight hours, which would correspond roughly to 50 degrees north latitude.
Stephen SeidelNARRATOR
The Norsemen settled there, and as late as 1121, the Bishop of Greenland visited them in order to convert them to Christianity.
speaker_5HOST
They were some of the most prolific, aggressive traders and explorers in history, particularly their eastward expansion.
speaker_4HOST
The Varangians, right? The Swedish Vikings who went east instead of west.
speaker_5HOST
Exactly.
speaker_5HOST
The Swedish Vikings, known as Varangians or the Rus, pushed deep into the interior of Eastern Europe and modern day Russia.
speaker_5HOST
They didn't have paved roads, so they navigated the massive, sprawling river systems, the Volga and the Dnieper rivers.
speaker_4HOST
I read they actually carried their boats.
speaker_4HOST
But how do we know a Viking didn't just buy this Buddha directly from an Indian merchant in a market in Constantinople?
speaker_5HOST
It's possible Constantinople was a huge melting pot, but it's equally likely this Buddha traveled through those massive overland trade networks in Central Asia.
Thomas777GUEST
You know, they viewed it as just a sort of newfangled iteration of the Russian Empire, this sort of mass of Central Asian and poor Slavic people with a European overcast managing it.
Thomas777GUEST
And we were these people being, you know, Varangians or Baltic or Germanic aristocrats.
Thomas777GUEST
You know, they were...
Thomas777GUEST
They were Belarusian and Ukrainian party functionaries.
ThomasGUEST
You know, they viewed it as just a sort of newfangled iteration of the Russian Empire, this sort of mass of Central Asian and poor Slavic people with a European overcast managing it.
ThomasGUEST
And we were these people being, you know, Varangians or Baltic or Germanic aristocrats.
ThomasGUEST
You know, they were... were belarusian and uh ukrainian um party functionaries you know um and that's something that's kind of under emphasized even in serious treatments of uh of the cold war um after 1972 or so i hope to do some more writing on that in the future and um a more specifically dedicated capacity.
ThomasGUEST
That's the truly significant racial aspect of the Cold War and the Viet-Tan phase and beyond, or rather the post-Vietnam phase and beyond, I believe.
Luke HamiltonNARRATOR
The people of Kiev were accustomed to make expeditions for levying tribute and thus made new commercial roads.
Luke HamiltonNARRATOR
From the first part of the 9th century, the military power of the kingdom was augmented by a fighting contingent of the wandering Scandinavian tribes, the Varangians.
Luke HamiltonNARRATOR
Without keeping altogether to the Povitsky account of the Varangian origins of the Kiev state, that is, the Ukraine, great importance, says Professor Rusevsky, may nevertheless be attached to the part played by these troops in the building up process of the kingdom during the 9th and 10th centuries.
Luke HamiltonNARRATOR
varangians were often chosen as stadtholders of subject provinces and varangian troops were employed down to the time of king yaroslav died ten fifty four at this time the varangians went further south and entered the service of the byzantine emperors
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Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
Hitherto, another fugitive had come, Harald Hardrada, the half-brother of St. Olaf, who, though only a boy of 15, had fought in the Battle of Stiklastad.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
Since the beginning of the 10th century, the emperors of the East, anxious to secure the assistance of these stalwart warriors of the North, had enticed some of them south and formed them into a bodyguard under the name of the Varangians.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
Var, oath.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
Varinyar, Greek, Varangoi.
JP BristowHOST
The knyaz's retinue, the traditional druzhina, and the patrimonial basis of government all came from Kyiv, as did the Orthodox Church as the most important cultural institution.
JP BristowHOST
But Kyiv was already established when the Varangians arrived.
JP BristowHOST
Recall Vladimir's attempt to create a religion, including Iranic and Finnic gods as well as Slavic, or the issues with the Vyatichi.
JP BristowHOST
The many references in the chronicles to the people of Kyiv or another city rejecting one knyaz or another.
7 MINS LATER
JP BristowHOST
End quote.
JP BristowHOST
In the 14th century, the Grand Knyaz would appoint an official who would periodically travel around a circuit, collecting tax for the Knyaz and tribute for the Mongols, and deciding criminal cases that the locals could not handle.
JP BristowHOST
That was pretty much the extent of state administration, barely different from the roving bands of Varangians gathering tribute 400 years earlier.
JP BristowHOST
There were a few tax monopolies available as special prerogatives, such as horse trading, fur trapping and brewing.
AskeladdHOST
So TLDR of Macedonians right now is you can play a fairly strong feudal.
AskeladdHOST
There are some sort of cheese strats that you can play with early Varangian guards that are like insane and people don't know how to counter them and they just make melee units and die.
AskeladdHOST
But in general...
AskeladdHOST
They're kind of one-dimensional, right? Right, yeah.
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