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As
soon as in the second half of the 4th century some sources
spoke about the tribe of the Rosomans, who lived in the basin
of the Ros (tributary river of the Dnieper, below nowadays
Kiev), and since then the name "Rus" had been found
more frequently. Therefore there is a firm basis to accept,
that the name "Rus" is not of Scandinavian, but East
Slavic origin, and the Varangians coming to the south could
only borrow it, but even then since the end of the 9th century;
there is evidence that allows to make such conclusions. As to
the name Ruotsi, it cannot be excluded that the Finnish
vocabulary borrowed it from the Slavic environment.
Nevertheless,
one can encounter completely unclear questions, which in view
of fragmentary character of the sources is inevitable. As an
example, one can invoke a well-known fragment of the Annales
Bertiniani (the chronicles of the Abbey of St.Bertin, nowadays
St.Omer in the department Pas-de-Calais) - a note made there
in 839 tells about the embassy that came to the court of
emperor Louis the Pious from the Byzantine emperor Theophilus
(829 - 842):
Venerunt etiam
legati Graecorum a Theophilo imperatore directi (...) quos
imperator quinto decimo Kalendas Iunii honorifice suscepit.
Quorum legatio super confirmatione pacti et pacis atque
perpetuae inter utrumque imperatorem eique subditos amicitae
et caritatis agebat. (...) Misit etiam cum eis quosdam, qui
se, id est gentem suam Rhos vocari dicebant, quos rex
illorum chacanus vocabulo ad se amicitiae, sicut asserebant
causa direxerat, petens (...) quatenus benignitate
imperatoris redeundi facultatem atque auxilium per
imperatorium suum toto habere possent, quoniam itinera, per
quae ad illum Constantinopolim venerant, inter barbaras et
nimiae feritatisgentes inmanisimas habuerant, quibus eos, ne
forte periculum inciderent, redire noluit. Quorum adventus
causam imperator diligentius investigans, comprit, eos
gentas esse Sueonum.
(Source:
Annales Bertiniani, recensuit G. Weitz. Scriptores rerum
Germanicarum in usum scholarum ex Monumentis Germaniae
Historicus recusi, Hannover, 1883)
In English
translation it means:
There came
envoys sent from the Byzantine Emperor Theophilus (...), and
the Emperor received them with full honors on fifteenth day
before June Kalendas. They came to conclude peace and
alliance between both Emperors, and love and charity between
their people. (...) Also came people calling themselves Rhos,
whose ruler had the title Chacanus, and sent them, they said,
in friendship, and asked (...) that on Emperor's favor, and
with his help, they be able to go across his Empire back
home safely, as the way, they came to Constantinople, was
through the lands of people barbaric and extremely furious
in their wild ferocity, and he did not wish that they went
back the same way, so they have not accidentally undergone
any danger. The Emperor, having thoroughly investigated
reasons of their embassy, learned that they were from the
nation of Swedens.
(Source: O.
Pritsak, The Origin of "Rus", The Russian Review,
New York, July 1977)
So, there were
individuals in the Byzantine embassy, who called themselves
Rhos (qui se Rhos vocari dicebant), and who came to Byzantium
as envoys of their ruler, whom the author of the note calls
chacanus. Since not everything there was clear, emperor Louis
had ordered to have an investigation sui generis; as a result
it was said that the subjects of the "chacanus" (rex
illorum chacanus vocabulo) were Swedens (eos gentas esse
Sueonum). This note, otherwise very valuable, is also very
unclear. In the mentioned "chacanus" one tried to
see either the Scandinavian name Haakon, or a Khazar khagan.
The latter version could eventually bear a certain probability;
one can assert, for example, that a Khazar khagan sent Slavic
Russians with an embassy to Constantinople. More sources of
the 9th and 10th centuries include similar notes, but they all
are equally unclear and do not provide enough grounds to
identify the Russians with the Normans.
M.
Arushev
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