Varangians facts for kids
The Varangians or Varyags was the name given by Greeks and East Slavs to Vikings. Between the 9th and the 11th centuries they ruled the medieval state of Rus'. They were the personal bodyguards of the Byzantine Emperors, and formed the Byzantine Varangian Guard.
A group of Varangians known as the Rus' settled in Novgorod in 864, under the leadership of Rurik. Rurik's relative Oleg conquered Kiev in 882. He made the state of Kievan Rus', which was later ruled by Ruriks descendants. The name of the Rus' is the origin of the name Russia.
Varangians did trade, piracy and mercenary activities. They move around using the river systems and portages of Gardariki. The Gardariki was the areas north of the Black Sea. They had trade routes that connected Dark Age Europe with rich Arab Caliphates and the Byzantine Empire. Wanting the riches of Constantinople, Rus' Varangians started a number of Rus'-Byzantine Wars. Most of them, both in Byzantium and in Eastern Europe, were converted from paganism into Orthodox Christianity. The Varangians were slowly taken over by East Slavs by the late 11th century.
Images for kids
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Piraeus Lion drawing of curved lindworm. The runes on the lion tell of Swedish warriors, most likely Varangians, mercenaries in the service of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Emperor.
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Nicholas Roerich: Guests from Overseas (1899)
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Viktor Vasnetsov, The Invitation of the Varangians: Rurik and his brothers arrive in Staraya Ladoga.
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Ship burial of a Rus chieftain as described by the Arab traveler Ahmad ibn Fadlan who visited Kievan Rus in the 10th century, painted by Henryk Siemiradzki (1883)
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Varangian Guardsmen, an illumination from the 11th-century chronicle of John Skylitzes.
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Map of geographic distribution of Varangian Runestones. (Almost all of which are found in present-day Sweden)
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One of the runic inscriptions in Hagia Sophia, probably carved by members of the Varangian Guard
See also
In Spanish: Varego para niños
