To Miklagarðr: Viking trade with Byzantium

Join our Discord: Support me on Patreon: Scandinavians have travelled eastward since ancient times. The trade route of Eastern Europe flourished during the Viking Age, when nordic merchants called travelled as far as Baghdad. It was ineviteble that the Varjags would encounter the third major player in the middle east: the eastern remnant of the Roman Empire, posthumously called: Byzantium. To any brave soul who dared to cross the Varjag Sea, the wild rapids and frozen plains, great adventures - and greater riches - beckoned in the greatest city on earth... Sources and further reading: In Austrvegr - Marika Mägi Viking Rus - Wladyslaw Duczko Ett ödesdigert vikingatåg - Mats G. Larsson Väringar - Mats G. Larsson Rusernas rike - Mats G. Larsson La Suède et l’Orient - T.J. Arne The Annals of St. Bertin (839) and Chacanus of the Rhos - Ildar Garipzanov Viking Rus and Byzantium - Jonathan Shepard Arabic sources on the Vikings - J.E. Montgomery Svear i Österviking - Holger Arbman Viking Age Textiles - Annika Larsson The Vikings in the East - Fjodor Androshchuk The early Slavs - Pavel Markovich Dolukhanov Byzantine Armies 886-1118 - Ian Heath Gutasagan - accessed via De Administrando Imperio - Constantine Porphyrogenitus, accessed via: The Primary Chronicle - Unknown(Translated into swedish by A. Norrback) Timestamps 0:00 Introduction 1:26 First contact 4:16 Striking a deal 6:21 A new road 8:18 The Daugava Route 11:31 The Lovat Route 13:29 The Dniepr 16:15 The Vistula Route 16:57 In Constantinople 19:45 War and peace 22:11 The Varangian Guard 23:29 Initial decline 25:20 A final Swedish huzzah 26:42 End of the road #vikings #history #byzantium #byzantine