Varangians

Rurik (also spelled Rorik, Riurik or Ryurik; ; ; died 879) was a Varangian chieftain of the Rus' who, according to tradition, was invited to reign in Novgorod in the year 862. The Primary Chronicle states that Rurik was succeeded by his kinsman Oleg who was regent for his infant son Igor.

Prince of Rus de Kiev'

princess of Kiev, Orthodox saint (c. 890–925)

thumb|upright=1.5|Map showing the major Varangian trade routes: the Volga trade route (in red) and the Dnieper and Dniester routes (in purple). Other trade routes of the 8th–11th centuries shown in orange.

prince of Kiev (877–945)

human settlement in Volkhovsky District, Leningrad Oblast, Russia

European ethnic group of Rucia

medieval trade route between Scandinavia and the Byzantine Empire

hypothetical 8th–9th century polity in Eastern Europe

thumb|350px|Towns of mentioned in Old Scandinavian sources, according to T. Jackson, E. Melnikova, K. Müllenhoff, V. Thomsen, and A. Bugge.

trade route linking Varangians with Muslims

Byzantine Empress consort (c. 840 – c. 882)

Rogvolod (; ; 920978) was the first chronicled prince of Polotsk. He reigned until 978, when he and his two sons were killed by Vladimir the Great, then the prince of Novgorod, who took his daughter Rogneda as a wife.

thumb|right|Grand Prince of Kiev|Grand Prince [[Vladimir Monomakh of the Rurikid dynasty resting with his druzhina after a hunt, by Viktor Vasnetsov.]]

thumb|300px|Folklands in [[Svitjod (Uppland and Gästrikland)

Caspian Sea expeditions carried out by the Rus between the 9th and 11th centuries

Viking chief who traveled to Persia

runestone discovered in 1905 in Berezan, Ukraine

rapids on the Dnieper River in Ukraine

thumb|Archaeological artefacts from Gnezdovo kurgans thumb|Amphora with Cyrillic inscription thumb|Byzantine coins and Scandinavian jewellery from Gnezdovo Gnezdovo or Gnyozdovo () is an archeological site located near the village of Gnyozdovo in Smolensky District, Smolensk Oblast, Russia. The site contains extensive remains of a Slavic-Varangian settlement that flourished in the 10th century as a major trade station on the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks.

Sveneld (also called Svenald or Sveinald; ; or ), is a semi-legendary 10th-century Varangian warlord in the service of Sviatoslav I and his family. Most of the information about Sveneld is scarce. He is described as a rich man and a voevoda ("troop commander") of Kievan Rus', but his relation to the reigning Rurikid princes, if it existed, has not been positively established.

brothers of Rurik, a Varangian chieftain of the Rus'

reputed Byzantine colony on the Black Sea

group of Norse runestones

thumb|250px|Ethnic groups in Eastern Europe in the late 9th-century and early 10th-century. Green represents Slavic tribes, orange represents Baltic tribes, and yellow represents Finno-Ugric tribes.

10th century martyrs

thumb|300px|Nicholas Roerich. Longships Built in the Land of the Slavs (1903)

Timerevo (, ) is an archaeological site near the village of Bolshoe Timeryovo, seven kilometers southwest of Yaroslavl, Russia, which yielded the largest deposits of early medieval Arabic coins in Northern Europe.

historical legend about the origins of Rus

Viking mentioned in the Patericon