OT - The forgotten Baltic Vikings

The Estonian archaeologist, Marika Mägi, argues that the Baltic Finns – the people who lived in the territories of modern Finland and Estonia – were Vikings, too, but the world ignores this fact.

https://estonianworld.com/knowledge/the-baltic-finns-were-vi…

It is because she does not speak about the Norsemen, the Scandinavian Vikings, but the ones who lived a bit to the east, along the eastern Baltic Sea shores. And this is often uncomfortable to hear for other scientists and Viking experts, because it forces them to rethink their knowledge. If the world would accept the crucial role of the Baltic region in Viking communication, many stories would have to be retold and many knowledge gaps refilled. And that’s hard work.

The Baltic region, as usual, is seen like an empty void between Scandinavia and Russia.

Vikings could not have reached the modern Russian territory without passing through the Baltic shores. Russia simply did not have any accessible coastline between the 9th and 11th centuries, the golden Viking era.

Then why are Russians taking such a central role in Viking stories? What if some of these events took place in the modern Baltic territory instead?

Mägi thinks this is the case for some of the Russia-based sagas – traditionally carried on tales the popular Netflix series, “Vikings”, brought to life. Events in sagas that depict the Viking eastern activity in the eighth-ninth centuries largely take place on the Eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, Mägi concludes from her sources.

You do need the sea to be able to sail, after all. And the Baltics lived by the sea, not Russians. Estonia’s coastline is 3,794 kilometres (2,400 miles) long and its maritime tradition has been strong throughout centuries. The same goes for other areas once inhabited by the Baltic Finns.

Jaak

Note: In the article there is a 9th century map of Europe at the beginning of the Viking age which shows where the Baltic Finns lived next to Slavs, Balts and Baltic Sea.

3 Likes

The Vikings made settlements outside of Scandinavia-North America, Iceland, Greenland, Normandy in France, Mercia & East Anglia in England & I am sure other places also. They were even served as bodyguards (Varangians) to Byzantine Emperors.

So were the Vikings of Estonia indigenous or resettled Scandinavian Vikings that like what they saw in Estonia as they made passage from the Baltic Sea down Baltic rivers into Russia & Belarus? Unknown. Just as the origin of the title Vikings is unknown.

The link below suggest there were voyaging Estonia pirates similar to Vikings, if not actually Vikings themselves in existence. Were they Viking? They fought with Swedish Vikings. And Vikings fought amongst themselves.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_Age_in_Estonia

…the people who lived in the territories of modern Finland and Estonia – were Vikings, too, but the world ignores this fact.

Not surprisingly, I have a theory about that. Baltic Vikings are ignored because they weren’t the ones that invaded Britain. Getting into British history seems to be the path to immortality. Anyone else notice that Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and Spain all have royal families, with sitting kings or queens? We never hear about them. But we USians are force fed British royals almost daily.

Steve

3 Likes

Baltic Vikings are ignored because they weren’t the ones that invaded Britain. Getting into British history seems to be the path to immortality.

Well the vikings kept no written records except for the epic poems about great warriors. British clergy kept records of the viking raids. I suppose so did the French clergy. Also we have written stories from Middle East travelers, in this case of Ahmad ibn Fadlan writings, that went to visit Viking lands. Some of that material was utilized in the making of the TV series “Vikings”. In episode 2 season 1 a slave girl brought the basin of water to her master, who then washed his face and blew each nostril into the bowl, then to the next man and so on. This scene was taken from an Arab travel journal of the period.

There must have been plenty water available Scandinavia. Methinks this was a ritual to establish a pecking order. The leader, of course, gets first dibs on the bowl. Or maybe Vikings weren’t fastidious in their cleanliness.

1 Like

Unknown. Just as the origin of the title Vikings is unknown.

A little etymology sidebar.

Several years ago, I found Kevin Stroud’s podcast “The History of English Podcast” at https://historyofenglishpodcast.com/

I highly recommend it to anyone interested in how the English language came about from its Germanic origins (Stroud actually starts out with Indo-European history for several episodes). Along with historical information, a great deal of the author’s time is spent on word origins.

At one point, he talks about the origin of the name Viking and indicates that its root word, “vik”, means bay, harbor or port from whence such town names Reykjavik and Keflavik are derived (I believe he also pointed out that the “reyk” part means foggy or cloudy and from which we have English cognates of reek, meaning stinky - he also points out that many, if not most, English cognates derived from the Danish invasions and settlements of England in the 9th and 10th c. have negative connotations.) Interestingly, he also talks about the English cognate to vik as wick or wich. Such English town names as Berwick and Ipswich might be examples.

Back to vik: Viking would therefore mean “the people of harbors”, i.e. seafarers, “ing” also being the word ending, then as now, meaning people (Earthlings, anyone?), which makes a good deal of longboat sense.

Pete

17 Likes

… the English language came about from its Germanic origins

English is a mongrel tongue, because everyone invaded Britain. Always laff when I watch “Ivanhoe”, about the poor downtrodden Saxons, subjugated by the Norman invaders. The Saxons were invaders too.

English cognates derived from the Danish invasions and settlements of England in the 9th and 10th c.

Decades ago, I saw a pretty good movie about the Britains pushing the Danes back, “Alfred The Great”, with David Hemmings. Nice scene where Alfred deploys a Spartan phalanx to break up a Danish charge. No CGI in those days. Hundreds of extras, coordinated to transition from a marching column to a phalanx.

Steve

2 Likes

So were the Vikings of Estonia indigenous or resettled Scandinavian Vikings that like what they saw in Estonia as they made passage from the Baltic Sea down Baltic rivers into Russia & Belarus? Unknown. Just as the origin of the title Vikings is unknown.

The link below suggest there were voyaging Estonia pirates similar to Vikings, if not actually Vikings themselves in existence. Were they Viking? They fought with Swedish Vikings. And Vikings fought amongst themselves.

=======================================================================

In the 9th century Baltic Finns lived in present day territories of Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Russia. They were not resettled Scandinavian Vikings. They were genetically different (different DNA) from Swedish, Danish and Slavic people.

Vikings are not a nationality. Viking was a profession (pirates, mercenaries, traders and settlers) which involved many ethnic groups around the Baltic Sea. Sometimes Baltic Finns joined Swedish, Danish and other Viking groups.

The Baltic Finns who lived by the sea often traded and raided neighboring ethnic groups around the Baltic Sea and they were known as Vikings.

Jaak

1 Like

I have a theory about that. Baltic Vikings are ignored because they weren’t the ones that invaded Britain. Getting into British history seems to be the path to immortality.

================================================================

That is true for the Anglo-English world. In the Eastern Europe world of the Baltic Sea area the Swedes and Russians wrote the histories and did not care about the truth - just the glorification of their own national histories.

Now modern archeology and DNA studies are making major adjustment to the national histories of Europe.

Jaak

2 Likes