. The earth and its inhabitants ... Geography. THE VAEANGIANS. 197 the Novgorod Slavs sent an embassy to the Varangians (Yartigi) "beyond the sea," inviting them to come and reign over them. The invitation was accepted by Eurik and his two brothers, Sineous and Truvor, who either in 852 or 862 settled with " all their Russian tribe " at Novgorod, about Lake Pskov, and on the shores of the White Lake (Bielo-Ozero). The somewhat mythical Oleg, successor of Rurik, transferred the seat of empire and the Russian name to Kiev. But who were these Russian Varagi ? Li the sixteenth
. The earth and its inhabitants ... Geography. THE VAEANGIANS. 197 the Novgorod Slavs sent an embassy to the Varangians (Yartigi) "beyond the sea," inviting them to come and reign over them. The invitation was accepted by Eurik and his two brothers, Sineous and Truvor, who either in 852 or 862 settled with " all their Russian tribe " at Novgorod, about Lake Pskov, and on the shores of the White Lake (Bielo-Ozero). The somewhat mythical Oleg, successor of Rurik, transferred the seat of empire and the Russian name to Kiev. But who were these Russian Varagi ? Li the sixteenth century their home was traced to the Letto- Prussians, on the south of the Baltic, who were at that time supposed to represent the imperial race of Rome, in consequence of their national name Latvinr, easily changed into Latini, anl the sacred city Romove, identified with Rome. But more recently their origin has been sought in Sweden, and this view is supported P'ig. 96.—KuRGANS OF Chernigov. Scale 1 : 600, Kur|a n ® Gorodisfitshe 5 Miles. by numerous evidences showing that the national name of the eastern Slavs is due to the Norse rovers, at that time going up and down the world in quest of glory or plunder. According to Kunik, Ross, or Russ, was the name given by the Baltic Finns to the Svear, or Swedes, of the west coast of the Baltic, and, notwith- standing their Slavonic orthography, nearly all the names of Rurik's followers occurring in the Russian chronicles are easily traced to a Scandinavian origin. All the men " of the Russian nation," says Nestor, "were ; But these Scandinavian adventurers were a mere handful in the midst of the indigenous peoples amongst whom they went in search of fortune, and in a few generations their Norse origin was forgotten. Rurik's grandson, Svatoslav, already bears a Slav Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - co
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade18, booksubjectgeography, bookyear1883
