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beyond the Baltic are denominated. The Ynglingasaga
makes the Swedes renew their acquaintance
with the regions whence Odin came. Svegder,
an Upsala king, is said to have visited his kinsmen
in that part of the world, and to have chosen
himself a wife in the land of the Vaners.
Vaner, like Jotuner, is the mythical appellation
of a foreign race which is opposed to the people of
Manhem, that is, to men; for the northern mythology,
in this resembling every other, sets out by
elevating the people who acknowledged its creed
into the representatives of humanity: and this is
the reason why the indigenous names of so many
nations mean nothing else than folk or men
preeminently [1]. But just as Manhem has a less
extensive sense, and then takes the name of Suithiod,
so both the alien races above-mentioned, although
in the mythology they lie, as it were, without the
domain of humanity, and appear in forms of
phantasy, have yet some historical significancy. We
have seen that Jotun and Finn are to be explained
as one and the same type, and a key to the import
of the term Vaners may be found in the interpretation
which refers the name to the Slavonic stock.
According to this view both these mythical
denominations belong to the two alien races, with whom
our forefathers came oftenest into collision. By
the Finns, the Russians are still called Vaners
(Vänälaiset), and with this an old name of the
Slavons, Venedi, Veneders, corresponds. Vanadis,
as Freya is called, would then mean the Vendish
goddess; and it is worthy of remark, that the
Slavons of Dalmatia worshipped the good Frichia,
and the Morlachers at the present day still sing her
praises in their nuptial ceremonies [2]. The Swedes
again are called by the Finns Russians (Ruotsolaiset),
probably from Roslagen, Rodeslagen, Roden,
as the Swedish coast lying nearest to Southern
Finland was anciently called; and this Finnish
appellative for the Swedish people receives a
remarkable historical confirmation.
Frankish annalists inform us that in the year
839, ambassadors arrived from the emperor
Theophilus of Constantinople to the Frankish emperor
Lodovic the Pious. With these came certain
persons, who, according to their own statement,
belonged to a people called Rhos. They had come as
ambassadors from their king Chacanas (Hakon?)
to the Greek, and wished to return to their country
by the route they had now taken. Lodovic, it is
added, found on closer examination that these men
were Swedes [3]. Nestor, the oldest Russian
annalist, about the year 1100, relates that daring and
gallant conquerors, named Varagians, had come
across the sea, and made the Finns and Slavons
tributary to them. After two years, the natives
drove out their masters, but in the end, weakened
by intestine quarrels, they voluntarily determined
to subject themselves to their sway. They sent
therefore across the sea to the Varangians, who
were called Rus, declaring to them “our land is
broad and good, blessed with every desirable thing,
and wanting order alone; come, be our princes,
and reign over us.” Three brothers, with their
families, were accordingly chosen, who took with
them a numerous train of followers, and went to
the Slavons, the eldest, Ruric, settling in
Novogorod. ‘After these new comers of the Varagians,
and from that time (says Nestor) the land took the
name of Russland, and the inhabitants of Novogorod
are still of Varangian descent; before they were,
and were called, Slavons.’ This is said to have
happened in the year 862.
These Russian Varagians are the Varangians of
the Byzantines, the northern Varingers; according
to the literal meaning of the word, soldiers who
serve by agreement or bargain [4], and the name is thus
synonymous with fœderati, as the Gothic soldiery
in the service of Rome from the time of Constantine
the Great were called. It is by no means
improbable that the inhabitants of the north had early
taken part in this military service, as we have
historical proofs of an intercourse subsisting
between Scandinavia and Southern Europe as early
as the first part of the sixth century. A Scandinavian
king visited the great Theodoric in Italy [5].
Costly furs were brought to Rome through many
nations from the people of Suethans [6] in
Scandinavia. Procopius, the historian of the Gothic war,
had spoken with the natives of this land of the
extreme north. He gives it the name of Thule, an
enormous island, inhabited by several nations,
among whom the Gauts were the most numerous,
but the Scridfinns the most savage [7].
It is certain that the later Byzantine historians,
who first make mention of the imperial body-guard,
under the name of Varangians, a people who are
said to have been from an early period in the service
of the emperors, allege that the Varangians were
natives of the remote north, and had come from
Thule, which in Procopius incontestably denotes
Scandinavia [8]. Assuredly, too, the Varangians of
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