Исследования И.М. Тарасов. Об упоминании «днепровских варягов» в контексте предания о начале Киева даже – вв. В нем готы по Днепру (нижнему) упоминались еще до основания Киева. Создание этого предания могло восходить к древним временам, а записано оно было в раннем Новом времени. Под пером летописца этноним «готы» был заменен на «варяги». Любопытно также отметить, что в сохраненном книжниками в. предании о «разбойнике» Кие с братьями, пришедшими с севера, удивительным образом отразилась миграция групп населения из лесной зоны на юг, в опустошенные гуннами плодородные области Северного Причерноморья. Именно после разорения гуннами и последующего угасания черняховской культуры, пришел в движение огромный этно языковой праславянский (либо балтопраславянский, «венедский») массив племен, занимавший обширные пространства от берегов Припяти и Северского Донца до районов Приильменья. Эти славяне (либо балтопраславяне) должны были встретить на Днепре остатки «черняховцев», группы которых были ассимилированы пришельцами и приняли участие в формировании новых культур (прежде всего, пеньковской). Introduction A number of Russian written sources of the second half of the 17 th century contain curious evidence of some Varangians who allegedly had “sat” along the Dnieper even before Kiev was founded. Without going into a complex dispute about the origin of the Baltic Varangians of the 9th – 10th centuries, let us consider this mention in the context of today’s historical knowledge. The subject of the Varangians who lived on the Dnieper banks long before the founding of Kiev has not been given a wide coverage by historiography. These Varangians were mentioned in historical studies only a few times and were already known to N. Karamzin who mentioned the Varangians without any additional comments on their origin.1 S. Gedeonov associated the Dnieper Varangians with the Slavs.2 According to the historian, their name goes back to the Wendish warang – swordsman (from waro – sword).3 Contemporary historian S. Tsvetkov connects the 1 N.M. Karamzin, History of the Russian State [in Russian], vol. 1 (St Petersburg: v tipografii N. Grecha, 1818), 86. 2 S.A. Gedeonov, The Varangians and Rus. Historical Research [in Russian], pt. 1 (St Petersburg: Tipografiya Imperatorskoi Akademii Nauk, 1876), 171. 3 Gedeonov, The Varangians and Rus, pt. 1, 169. 44 Historia provinciae – журнал региональной истории. 2023. Т. 7, № 1 ISSN 2587-8344 (online) I.M. Tarasov. On the Mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the Context of the Legend of the Beginning of Kiev Research appearance of mercenaries from the Slavic seaboard in the 10 th – 11th centuries withthe Varangians who lived on the shores of the Warm (Black) Sea even before the founding of Kiev and believes that it refers to a Slavic ethnos.4 Obviously, this subject is little studied. However, its research potential is quite high, since the available material may contain valuable information on the prehistory of Rus. The paper presents an attempt to determine the ethnic origin of the Varangians mentioned above and to date their stay on the Dnieper. Main body To begin with, let us quote the earliest and most common texts that contain this storyline. All of them date back to the last third of the 17 th century. The most famous version is from the Mazurin Chronicle: Leta 6463 (955) po Igore velikom knyaze v Velikom Novegrade knyazhil Ol'g5. I v to vremya v Velikom Novegrade bysha tri brata razboinitsy, imena zhe im Kii, Shchok, Khoriv, i imeyashe zhei sestru imyanem Lybed'. I velikuyu novgorodtsem pakost' tvoryakhu. Nekogda zhe ikh novgorodtsy pereimasha so vsekh druzhinoyu ikh, chislom tridtsat' dush, vsii zhe byakhu khrabrii i silni zelo, i osudisha ikh povesiti. Oni zhe molyashe knyazya Ol'ga so slezami, daby ikh otpustil, i obeshchashasya idti, ide zhe nest' votchiny, ni derzhavy knyazya Ol'ga. On zhe otpusti ikh. Oni zhe idosha dva mesyatsa ot Velikogo Novgrada i priidosha na reku Dnepr, izhe techet iz Ruskiya zemli na polden' v more teploe, ponezhe obretosha gory vysokiya i na nikh postavlen krest Andreem, apostolom pervozvannym. I vselisya Kii na toi gore, yazhe i nyne zovettsa Kievets, a Shchok na drugoi gore, yazhe i nyne zovetsya Shchekovitsa, Goriv [sic.] zhe vselisya na 4 S.E. Tsvetkov, The Beginning of Russian History. From Ancient Times to the Reign of Oleg [in Russian] (Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf, 2012), 280–81. 5 Old Russian princes Oleg (879–912) and Igor (912–945) are meant. Igor is mentioned before Oleg here. An analogy can be found in the tale of Rus’s campaign against the Greeks told in the Novgorod Frist Chronicle: at first Igor led the troops to Constantinople, and two years later Oleg did (A.N. Nasonov, ed., Novgorod First Chronicle of the Senior and Junior Editions [in Russian] (Moscow; Leningrad: Izdatel'stvo Akademii Nauk SSSR, 1950), 107–9). It is believed that the reason for that can be found in the Rus’ oral narrative tradition when the story of Igor’s defeat was told first and then the “revanche” victory of Prince Oleg was described, which was reflected in the Initial Codex and in the Novgorod First Chronicle of the Junior Edition (see E.A. Mel'nikova, “Oral Tradition in the Tale of Bygone Years: On the Type of Oral Legends” [in Russian], in Eastern Europe in Historical Retrospect. To the 80th Anniversary of V.T. Pashuto, ed. T.N. Dzhakson, and E.A. Mel'nikova (Moscow: Yazyki russkoi kul'tury, 1999), 153–65; A.S. Shchavelev, “How did the author of the Primary Chronicle date the treaty of Igor Rurikovich with the Byzantime emperors?” [in Russian], in The earliest states of Eastern Eeurope. 2016. Galina V. Glazyrina: In Memoriam, ed. T.V. Guimon, et al. (Moscow: Russkii fond sodeistviya obrazovaniyu i nauke, 2018), 267). Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, 2023, vol. 7, no. 1 ISSN 2587-8344 (online) 45 Research I.M. Tarasov. On the Mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the Context of the Legend of the Beginning of Kiev tret'ei gore, yazhe i nyne glagoletsya Khorivitsa. I nachasha pakhati zemlyu s rody svoimi. K nim zhe mnozi prikhozhdakhu i zhivyakhu s nimi. I potom Kii sozda mal gradets i narekosha ego Kievets. I priide na nikh knyaz' Ol'g i pobi Kiya i z bratieyu ego i zalozhi grad velikii Kiev. [In the summer of 6463 (955), after Grand Prince Igor, Oleg reigned in Veliky Novgorod. And at that time, there were three brothers the robbers in Veliky Novgorod and their names were Kyi, Shchok, and Khoryv, and they had a sister named Lybid. And they did great harm to the Novgorod residents. Once the Novgorodians caught them and all their druzhina of thirty men in number, all of whom were brave and strong, and sentenced them to be hanged. They begged Prince Oleg, with tears in their eyes, to let them go, and promised to leave the patrimonies and the realm of Prince Oleg. He let them go. They walked for two months from Veliky Novgorod and reached the Dnieper River, which flows from the Russian land to the south into the warm sea, and they reached high mountains, and on those mountains there is a cross placed there by Apostle Saint Andrew the First-Called. And Kyi settled on that mountain, which is still called Kyivets, and Shchok settled on another mountain, which is even now called Shchekovitsa; Goryv [sic. – I. T.] settled on the third mountain, which is even now called Khorivitsa. And they started tilling the land with their kinsmen. Many people came to them and stayed to live with them. And then Kyi founded a small town and called it Kievets. And Prince Oleg came to them and beat Kyi and his brothers and founded the great city of Kiev.]6 While the Mazurin Chronicle presents the variant that is close to the original text, the text on the loose leaves in the Nikanor’s Chronicle7 show that the material underwent a certain literary reworking. A very remarkable fragment about the Warm Sea was removed from it, but there appeared the Dnieper Varangians, who were not mentioned in the Mazurin Chronicle. Apparently, the mention of the Varangians was borrowed from the same source that formed the basis of the narrative of the Mazurin Chronicle. It is believed that Isidor Snazin, a Novgorod resident, was the compiler of the manuscript. Driven by the desire to belittle the role of Kyi and his brothers, this scribe used a text that clearly dated back to the Novgorod stage in the development of the Code of 1652 but not included in that Code. 8 Let us conventionally refer to this text as the Varangian topos. 6 Complete Collection of Russian Chronicles (hereinafter PSRL) [in Russian], vol. 31, Chroniclers of the Last Quarter of the 17th Century, ed. B.A. Rybakov (Moscow: Nauka, 1968), 39. 7 PSRL, vol. 27, Nikanor’s Chronicle. A ridged Chronicles of the Late 17th Century, ed. A.N. Nasonov (Moscow; Leningrad: Izdatel'stvo Akademii Nauk SSSR, 1962), 158–59. 8 A.P. Bogdanov, “Rus from Novgorod, Novgorod from Noah: Novgorod’s Contribution to the All-Russian Chronicles of the 17th Century” [in Russian], NOVOGARDIA, no. 2 (2019): 262. 46 Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, 2023, vol. 7, no. 1 ISSN 2587-8344 (online) I.M. Tarasov. On the Mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the Context of the Legend of the Beginning of Kiev Research In Zhdanov’s collection, the text is cited under the title “Novgorod Robbers Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv.”9 The story itself was preserved in the manuscript as of the 17th century and is another edition of the information from the Mazurin Chronicle. The author describes the beauty and courage of Lybid, which were not mentioned in the earlier version, and the three brothers are shown not only as robbers but also as warriors, which may be evidence of additional processing of the original text. A slightly modified version of this legend is also presented in the Book of the Antiquities of the Russian State (end of the 17th century), which Karamzin referred to. It also mentions the Dnieper flowing into the Warm Sea and some Varangians dwelling on its banks.10 This compiled collection11 was written by T. KamenevichRvovskii, hierodeacon of the Kholopiev Monastery (1684–97). So, the Dnieper Varangians are not mentioned in the Mazurin Chronicle, but they are present in all subsequent works that borrowed the legend about Kyi the robber from it. However, inserting them into the known manuscripts (loose leaves in the Nikanor’s Chronicle, the Zhdanov’s manuscript, the book by Kamenevich-Rvovskii) cannot be attributed to the decision of the scribes. It would be more correct to attribute their appearance to the same source of the middle of the century that was used by Isidor Snazin when compiling his Chronicle. Apparently, the local folklore motif about the Varangians and the Warm Sea (for more on this, see below) was originally included into this unknown text. Snazin ignored the mention of the Varangians in the text for some reason but the other compilers who included the story about Kyi the robber into their texts left that topos there. The original source of information about Oleg, Kyi, his relatives-robbers, and the Varangians on the Dnieper can be dated back to an earlier epoch, to which the correlation of the periods of Oleg’s and Kyi’s reign should go back as it was perceived by contemporaries. At the same time, Kyi is brought back from his ancient time into the middle of the 9th century, which is a later addition. If we try to identify the period when this tradition appeared, we cannot ignore the Novgorod First Chronicle of the junior version (mid-15th century). This source dates the reign of the three brothers 854 (6362), i.e. the early Old Russian era. Zhivyakhu kozhdo s" rodom" svoim" na svoikh" mѣstekh i stranakh", vladѣyushcha kozhdo rodom" svoim". I bysha tri bratiya: edinomu imya Kii, vtoromu zhe imya Shchek", tret'emu zhe // imya Khoriv", a sestra ikh Lybed' 9 I. Zhdanov, Russian Epos. Research and Materials. I–V [in Russian] (St Petersburg: Izdanie L.F. Panteleeva, 1895), 605–06. 10 Karamzin, History of the Russian State, vol. 1, 86. 11 Chronicle Collection. 17th + 18th Сenturies [in Russian], sin. 964, accessed November 27, 2021, https://catalog.shm.ru/entity/OBJECT/178476?query=964&index=0 Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, 2023, vol. 7, no. 1 ISSN 2587-8344 (online) 47 Research I.M. Tarasov. On the Mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the Context of the Legend of the Beginning of Kiev [Everyone lived with their kin in their places and countries, everyone had their own kin. And there were three brothers: the name of one of them was Kyi, the name of the second one was Shchek, the name of third one was Khoryv, and their sister was Lybid.]12 The same tradition was continued in the Ustyug Chronicle (first quarter of the 16th century).13 From a similar source, Kyi was transferred by the chronicle to the later time of Oleg’s reign. In the abovementioned sources of the 17 th century we can see an echo of the same chronicle tradition. Thus, we have a story related to some lost tradition that originally placed the Varangians in the south but not in the north as it was done in the Tale of Bygone Years, according to which the historical Varangians lived on the shores of the Baltic Sea.14 The Varangians found themselves in the south relatively late, only after the start of Vladimir the Great’s sole reign (980).15 The obvious antagonism of the north and the south in the Varangian topos is also emphasized by the phrase “the Warm Sea,” which was uncharacteristic for chronicles. It can only be opposed to the Cold, i.e. Icy Sea. It is known that in the ancient Russian tradition the Arctic Ocean was referred to as the Icy Sea or Cold Sea.16 Thus, the Warm Sea comes as the opposite of the Icy Sea (i.e. the Cold Sea) (respectively, the Arctic Ocean and the White Sea, whose waters washed the northeastern Novgorod possessions) on the map of the Old Russian ecumene. Consequently, it is the Black Sea that is referred to here, since the Sea of Azov was predominantly called the Blue Sea, and the Caspian Sea was distant and alien to the Russians, having being cut off first by the Khazar Khaganate and then by the Polovtsian nomads and their steppe relatives. The indication that the Dnieper flows into the Warm Sea also confirms its correlation with the Black Sea. The designation of the Black Sea as the Warm Sea is characteristic of folklore. It is mentioned in Russian songs under this name (although it is noteworthy that such a phrase is quite rare). For instance, the folk song “Ptitsy na more” [Birds on the Sea] contains the following lines: 12 A.N. Nasonov, ed. Novgorod First Chronicle of the Senior and Junior Editions [in Russian] (Moscow; Leningrad: Izdatel'stvo Akademii Nauk SSSR, 1950), 433. 13 PSRL, vol. 37, Ustyug and Vologda Chronicles of the 16th–18th Centuries [in Russian], comp. N.A. Kazakova, and K.N. Serbina (Leningrad: Nauka, 1982), 17. 14 PSRL, vol. 1, The Laurentian Codex [in Russian], ed. I.F. Karskii (Leningrad: Izdatel'stvo Akademii Nauk SSSR, 1926–1928), 4, 7, 8, 19, 20, et al. 15 Ibid., 79. 16 T.G. Ivanova, “Late Toponyms in the Bylina Epic Space of the North-East of the Russian North” [in Russian], Russkii fol'klor: materialy i issledovaniya, vol. 35 (2016): 69. 48 Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, 2023, vol. 7, no. 1 ISSN 2587-8344 (online) I.M. Tarasov. On the Mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the Context of the Legend of the Beginning of Kiev Research Protekalo teploe more, Sletalisya ptitsy stadami, Sadilisya ptitsy ryadami; Sprashivali maluyu ptitsu, Maluyu ptitsu sinitsu. . . [The warm sea flowed, Birds flew in flocks, Birds sat down in rows; They asked a small bird Small tit bird. . .]17 Over time, this phrase lost its clear geographic reference and began to mean some kind of sea in the far south. Cf. moria teupla, located somewhere beyond the Ob River, according to the local Russian population of Western Siberia, which was evidenced by Francis Cherry, a Moscow agent of the English Muscovy Company in the 16th century.18 It is obvious that it refers to some kind of southern sea, but all the seas war far away even from the source of the Ob (the Caspian Sea is more than two thousand kilometers away and the Bohai Sea is almost three thousand kilometers away). Even the Aral Sea, which has shrunk, was more than one thousand kilometers away from the indicated location on the straightaway. Summarizing this information, it should be concluded that the migrating ancestors of the Ob region inhabitants brought the legend of the Warm Sea from Rus, where it was the designation of the Black Sea (as opposed to the Icy Sea). Thus, it can be assumed that the Varangian topos of the mid-17th century has a folklore basis and was compiled in the north of Rus. Hypothetically, the place of its creation can be Novgorod or its surroundings, where both the Novgorod First Chronicle of the junior version and the Mazurin Chronicle were written. It may be possible to raise an objection, saying that the legend of Kyi the robber is the fruit of the activity of the seventeenth-century Novgorod scribe, who sought to belittle the role of the southern capital of Rus and therefore transferred the founding of Kiev to a later time and turned its founder into a robber. The ancient confrontation between the two Russian centers, Kiev and Novgorod, as we know, continued on the pages of chronicles. The scribes of both cities tried to belittle the importance of the rival. For instance, the Novgorodians openly referred to the founder of Kiev as a 17 Great Russian Folk Songs, Published by Professor A.I. Sobolevskii [in Russian], vol. 1 (St Petersburg: Gosudarstvennaya tipografiya, 1895), 583. 18 “Message from Francis Cherry, one of the members of the Muscovy Company and Thomas Linde about the Warm Sea southeast of the Ob River” [in Russian], Vostochnaya literatura, accessed November 10, 2021, http://www.vostlit.info/Texts/rus16/Cherry/text.htm Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, 2023, vol. 7, no. 1 ISSN 2587-8344 (online) 49 Research I.M. Tarasov. On the Mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the Context of the Legend of the Beginning of Kiev ferryman.19 At the same time, a Kiev chronicler argued with them, calling the disseminators of such ideas “incompetent people.”20 He also told historical anecdotes (cf. the story about the sails of the Slovenes and Rus).21 A relic of such relations is presented even in the Russkaya Pravda, where the population of the Novgorod region is opposed to the population of the Middle Dnieper region (i.e. Slovenes and Rusyns). Developing this idea, one can even try to determine the name of the scribe who wanted to belittle the role of Kiev and its founder and therefore invented the whole story. It may be Isidor Snazin, the Novgorodian who completed the compilation of the Mazurin Chronicle in December 1682. However, even if we refer to the eternal rivalry between the two capitals of Rus, even in this instance no explanation can be found for the mention of either the Varangians even before the appearance of the city or the important point about the Warm Sea, or the exact location – the lower reaches of the Dnieper where a group of non-Slavic population lived. Clearly, they were migrants from the north. The text fragment where the Warm Sea is mentioned definitely goes back to the category of folklore included in the later chronicle by the scribe. Obviously, the Russian chronicler had some now unknown evidence, like, for example, the compilers of the Nikon Chronicle, who drew knowledge from now lost manuscripts (the so-called Askold Chronicle, etc.). This source probably contained bits of information about the Varangians who lived in the Dnieper region even before the founding of Kiev and another (Novgorod) legend saying that Kyi was allegedly a robber. Correlation of the period of Kyi’s reign with the epoch of Prince Oleg (late 9th century) has analogues in the Novgorod annals and became known in the mid-15th century. However, we are unlikely to be able to recognize or find this source. Perhaps it was some kind of ancient heroic song (let us point out that the Goths (Crimean Goths) were mentioned in the legends of the ninth-century Slavs).22 First of all, it is necessary to answer the question what kind of the Varangians the sources refer to and whether they can be correlated with other Germanic peoples who lived in the south in ancient times. More than a thousand years before the compilation of the Mazurin Chronicle, the Germanic peoples lived in the south of historical Russia. This refers to the Greuthungi Goths of Ermanaric’s realm (4th century AD). However, the living memory of them had been lost long before. Russian scribes did not even remember the Crimean Goths, the contemporaries of Igor’s Campaign against the Polovtsians. 19 Nasonov, Novgorod First Chronicle, 103. PSRL, vol. 1, The Laurentian Codex, 9. 21 Ibid., 32. 22 I.A. Sizova, “The Gothic Language” [in Russian], in Languages of the World: Germanic Languages. Celtic Languages, ed. N.N. Semenyuk, V.P. Kalygin, and O.K. Romanova (Moscow: Academia, 2000), 102. 20 50 Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, 2023, vol. 7, no. 1 ISSN 2587-8344 (online) I.M. Tarasov. On the Mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the Context of the Legend of the Beginning of Kiev Research And the rare references to the Goths in the Russian literature of the 17th century are based solely on the Western bookish tradition, but not on popular memory. In the 16th – 17th centuries the works by Polish historians (Marcin Bielski, Maciej Stryjkowski, et al.) were very popular with the Russians. For over a hundred years, they were used for the compilation of chronicles (the Hustyn Chronicle, et al.), granographs [chronographs] (Chronograph of the Western Russian Edition, et al.), written historiography (Synopsis by I. Gizel, Scythian History by A. Lyzlov, et al.).23 When studying these works, one gets an impression that the scribe who copied the information of the Polish historians had a poor idea of who the Goths were. For example, the compiler of the Chronograph of the Western Russian Edition (second half of the 16th century) wrote that the Goths expelled the former population from the steppes (fields) between the Don and the Volga and “v tekh" polyakh" seli, kotorykh" pol' est' bliz" dvu sot" mil'” [settled in those fields, which are about two hundred miles away] (this refers to southern Russian steppes between the Dnieper and the Volga).24 Cf. the mention in the same place, to the west of Tanais, “polya, idezhe Gottove [zhivut]” [fields where the Goths [live]].25 However, the same collection erroneously confuses the Goths are with the Scythians (Khazars, Chazari) who spread their influence in the territories where the Goths were previously noted (Crimea, Taman). Compare: under the year 5758 (250): Po Dekii tsarstvova v Rime Gal" i Vulusiyan" leta 2 i mesyats" 8. Pri sikh" zhe byst' glad" velii 15 let", nachen" ot" Efioniya dazhe i do zapada. I Skifyane priidosha, rekomii Kozare, ves' zapad", Italiyu, vostok" zhe i Asiyu poplѣnisha do Solnyachnago grada. [After Decius, Gallus and Volusianus reigned in Rome for 2 years and 8 months. And during that time there was great famine for 15 years. It started in Ethiopia and spread to the whole West. And the Scythians, called Khazars, came and captured Asia as far as Heliopolis].26 The scribe of the 17th century, who compiled the Mazurin Chronicle, hardly understood the history of the ancient Goths and definitely did not understand what kind of people they were, where they came from and why they lived in the lower reaches of the Dnieper. But, being a well-read man of the time, he was familiar with For the first time, a kind of rebellion against the “charms” of Polish historiography was raised by V. Tatishchev in the first half of the 18th century (For more, see V.N. Tatishchev, History of Russia from the Most Early Times [in Russian], bk. 1, pt. 2 (Moscow: Napechatana pri Imperatorskom Moskovskom universitete, 1769), 325. 24 PSRL, vol. 22, The Russian Chronograph, pt. 2, Chronograph of the Western Russian Edition, ed. S.P. Rozanov (Petrograd: Tipografiya M.A. Aleksandrova, 1914), 235. 25 Ibid., 236. 26 Ibid., 76. 23 Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, 2023, vol. 7, no. 1 ISSN 2587-8344 (online) 51 Research I.M. Tarasov. On the Mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the Context of the Legend of the Beginning of Kiev the chronicle tradition. Without a doubt, the scribe must have known that The Tale of Bygone Years mentions some гъте (gete) (Gotlanders) of the Baltic who were also known to the Novgorod chronicle tradition. The population of the island of Gotland (Гъцкъ берегъ (G"tsk" bereg")) was sometimes called the Varangians in medieval Novgorod.27 The Novgorod First Chronicle of the Junior Edition refers to the Gotlanders as Варязи на Гътѣхъ (Varyazi na G"tekh") [Varangians of the Goths].28 The scribe should also have known about the voyage of the Old Russian Varangians along the Dnieper, which is mentioned in the Primary Chronicle. Therefore, having come across a source (either written or folkloric), which spoke of unknown Goths on the Dnieper, the scribe of the 17th century designated them for the reader by the more familiar term “Varangians,” which in that era was the designation of the population of the Circum-Baltic region. In addition, in the Early Modern period, Gotland was considered the ancestral home of the ancient Goths. According to the testimony of Baron Sigismund von Herberstein, “the majority believed that the Goths came from this island.”29 Elsewhere in his Notes, Herberstein wrote that the Baltic Sea in his time was called in Russian the Varangian Sea, i.e. Sea of the Varangians (Vuaretzokoie morie, hoc est, Vuaregum mare).30 Swedish historian Peter Petreius emphasized: . . .those peoples are called by the Russians the Varangians who live neighboring the Baltic Sea, for example, the Swedes, Finns, Livonians, Curonians, Prussians, Kashubians, Pomeranians and Wends, and the Baltic Sea is called the Varangian Sea.31 Thus, in our opinion, the compiler of the “Varangian topos” who happened to have the source that mentioned the ancient Goths,32 quite reasonably correlated them with “1189–1199 – Novgorod’s Letter of Agreement with the Goths’ Coast and Germanic Cities about Peace, about Embassy and Trade Relations, and about the Court” [in Russian], Vostochnaya literatura, accessed November 27, 2021, https://vostlit.info/Texts/Dokumenty/Russ/XIII/12601280/Gramoty_otn_Novgoroda_knjaz/21-40/28.htm 28 Nasonov, Novgorod First Chronicle, 229. 29 S. Herberstein, Notes on Muscovite Affairs [in Russian], ed. A.L. Khoroshkevich, vol. 1, Latin and German Texts, trans. A.I. Malein, A.V. Nazarenko (Moscow: Pamyatniki istoricheskoi mysli, 2008), 491. 30 Herberstein, Notes on Muscovite Affairs, 43–46. 31 P. Petreius, “History of the Grand Duchy of Muscovy” [in Russian], Vostochnaya literatura, accessed November 27, 2021, https://www.vostlit.info/Texts/rus9/Petrej2/pred.phtml?id=1089 32 Cf. готе (gote) (PSRL, vol. 1, The Laurentian Codex, 4); гѣте, гъте (gete, g"te) (PSRL, vol. 1, The Laurentian Codex, 19); готѣ/гте (gote/gte) (PSRL, vol. 2, The Hypatian Codex, ed. A.A. Shakhmatov (St Petersburg: Tipografiya M.A. Aleksandrova, 1908), 4); гѣдѣти (gedeti) (PSRL, vol. 30, The Vladimir Chronicle. Novgorod Second (Archive) Chronicle, 27 52 Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, 2023, vol. 7, no. 1 ISSN 2587-8344 (online) I.M. Tarasov. On the Mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the Context of the Legend of the Beginning of Kiev Research the Gotlanders and designated them with the more familiar word “Varangians,” i.e. natives of the Baltic Sea shores. It is impossible to ignore an important indication of the location of the Varangians. In the sources cited, they live on the Dnieper, “izhe techet" iz" Rusi na polden' v more teploe” [which flows from Rus to the south into the warm sea]. This may indicate that the Varangians lived outside the Russian land. The southern border of Rus in the narrow sense of the word is Porosye. In any case, the steppe territories of the Northern Black Sea region (including the Lower Dnieper) were not part of Rus. Consequently, the locus that meant the land of the Dnieper Varangians was located between the southern border of Rus (the forest-steppe, beyond which the territories of the Kiev and Pereyaslav principalities ended) and the Black (Warm) Sea. 33 Thus, it is possible to locate the Varangians only in the lower reaches of the Dnieper. It can be argued that by the “Varangians,” the later chronicler meant the Goths and other Germanic peoples neighboring them who had lived in the lower reaches of the Dnieper long before the founding of Kiev. In our opinion, the legend is based on some ancient source: a manuscript or, more likely, a folklore story (the Varangian topos), according to which the Goths lived in the south, on the Dnieper. The folklore component of the above fragments is revealed both in the presence of the phrase “warm sea” and clear song motifs such as “high mountains,” “the First-Called Apostle,” et al. In general, some historians note that Russian chronicles could include fragments of heroic songs, so our example is not an isolate instance.34 Thus, based on the above, a number of assumptions can be made: (1) a certain source existed that contained information about the Dnieper Varangians, i.e. the Goths; (2) the Varangians had lived on the Dnieper before Kiev was founded; (3) they occupied some territory in the lower reaches of the Dnieper. What time was the founding of Kiev dated to in the Early Modern Period? The compiler of the chronicle might have learnt the date of the construction of Kiev from the Polish historical sources that were popular at the time or draw it from the Synopsis, which also relied on the works of the Poles. In the 17 th century, the founding of Kiev was traditionally dated to 430 or 431. First of all, these data came from Polish historiography (its authority in Russia in the late 16 th – early 18th centuries was extremely high). Maciej Stryjkowski (1547–86/93) mentioned the founding of Kiev in 430. However, he noted that “due to the great age of this city, ed. M.N. Tikhomirov (Moscow: Nauka, 1965), 14). All the words cited go back to the original stem *gъt-. 33 B.A. Rybakov, Kievan Rus and Russian Principalities in the 12th – 13th Centuries. The Origin of Rus and the Formation of Its Statehood [in Russian] (Moscow: Akademicheskii Proekt, 2013), 71–72. 34 S.P. Pletneva, The Polovtsians [in Russian] (Moscow: Lomonosov'', 2010), 23–24. Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, 2023, vol. 7, no. 1 ISSN 2587-8344 (online) 53 Research I.M. Tarasov. On the Mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the Context of the Legend of the Beginning of Kiev the Russian chronicles could not deduce the exact date.”35 Of interest is his remark: “. . . the Russians believe that the autocracy of all Rus (before the conquest of Kiev by the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas) or the Kievan monarchy was founded in 431.”36 Apparently, Stryjkowski referred to some of the lost Old Russian chronicles. Later sources also dated the founding of Kiev to 430–431. For instance, the compiler of the Mazurin Chronicle gave the same date as Stryjkowski did. 37 One of the first Russian historians, Alexei Mankiev (died 1723), dated the founding of “Mother of Rus Cities” to 430.38 In the Detailed Chronicle from the Beginning of Russia to the Battle of Poltava, which is attributed to Feofan Prokopovich (1681–1736), the year 430 is mentioned as the date of the founding of Kiev.39 In his essay on Old Russian history, V. Trediakovskii (1703–69) also dated the foundation of Kiev ca. 430.40 The same year of the beginning of Kiev is given in the writings by Catherine the Great.41 Innokenty Gizel (died 1683) indicated 431 as the year of the founding of Kiev in the Synopsis. It is generally believed that this point was borrowed by the author of the Synopsis from Polish historiography.42 However, this does not negate the assumption that once there was an annalistic source in Rus that connected the founding of Kiev with the year 431. (See Stryjkowski’s remark above). The fact that there were some works in Rus that included valuable information on the prehistory M. Stryjkowski, “Chronicle of Poland, Lithuania, Samogitia, and All of Ruthenia of Kiev, Moscow, Novgorod,” Vostochnaya literatura, accessed November 27, 2021, https://www.vostlit.info/Texts/rus7/Stryikovski_2/text11.htm 36 Ibid. 37 PSRL, vol. 31, Chronicles of the Last Quarter of the 17th Century, 28. 38 A.I. Mankiev, The Core of Russian History, Composed by Closer Stolnik and Former Resident in Sweden, Prince Andrei Yakovlevich Khilkov, in Favor of the Russian Youth, and for Everyone Who Wish to Have a Brief Idea of Russian History [in Russian] (Moscow: V Senatskoi tipografii, u soderzhatelya F. Gippiusa, 1770), 19. (The work of A.I. Mankiev (Mankeev) was mistakenly attributed to A.Ya. Khilkov for some time, therefore the name of the latter is mentioned in the title of the book.) 39 Detailed Chronicle from the Beginning of Russia to the Poltava Battle [in Russian], pt. 1 (St Petersburg: Pechatano u I.K. Shnora, 1798), 26. 40 V.K. Trediakovskii, Three Arguments about Three Most Important Russian Antiquities: Namely I. On the Primacy of the Slavic Language over Teutonic. II. On the Origin of the Russians. III. On Varangian Russians, Slavic Rank, Kin and Language [in Russian] (St Petersburg: Tipografiya Sukhoputnogo kadetskogo korpusa, 1773), 420. 41 Catherine II, Writings on the Russian History, [in Russian], pt. 1, The First Epoch. Before 862 – The Second Epoch. 862–1132 (St Petersburg: Imperatorskaya tipografiya, 1787), 17. 42 M.B. Sycheva, “Foreign Sources of the Kievan Synopsis” [in Russian], Vestnik SanktPeterburgskogo universiteta. Seriya 2: Istoriya, is. 4 (2009): 72. 35 54 Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, 2023, vol. 7, no. 1 ISSN 2587-8344 (online) I.M. Tarasov. On the Mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the Context of the Legend of the Beginning of Kiev Research of the Russian state has already been stated by the author.43 New manuscripts, unknown to science, are still discovered in our time. For example, the work by I. Gagin mentions previously unknown Slavic manuscripts discovered in the Roman Pontifical Oriental Institute in the beginning of the 21st century.44 However, over time historians began to question that dating of the foundation of the Rus capital. For instance, V. Tatishchev (1686–1750) doubted such an old age of Kiev. He assumed that Kiev “was built not by Christians, but by idolaters more than 700 years after [the First-Called] Andrew”.45 Tatishchev’s disagreement with the dating of the founding of Kiev to 430–431 is quite logical because his rather critical attitude towards Polish sources is well known. It should be understood that the founding of Kiev in the early 430s is the scientific mainstream of the era when the Russian scribe recorded the mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the chronicles. Thus, according to the author, they “sat” there as early as the 1st third of the 5th century (judging by the context). A reference to the Dnieper Varangians before the appearance of Kiev clearly indicates a date before 430–431. The compiler of the record clearly understood that those whom he called the Varangians lived in the first third of the 5 th century. It also seems obvious that he relied on the following information: a certain ethnos, clearly of non-Slavic but northern origin, designated by him as the Varangians, lived in the lower reaches of the Dnieper even before the appearance of Kiev. At the same time, the mention of Oleg (the regent for the childhood of the grandfather of Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir) should not confuse the researcher because it seems obvious that the folk legend about the Goths was overlapped with the later Novgorod legend about the seniority of Novgorod over Kiev. Thus, the Germanic origin of the Dnieper Varangians should not raise any doubt. Who lived around 430–431 AD in the lower reaches of the Dnieper? The Goths of Ermanaric’s realm lived in the Northern Black Sea region at the indicated time, and their center, correlated with Bashmachka, is believed to be located in the lower reaches of the Dnieper.46 I.M. Tarasov, “Some Plots of Gothic History Mentioned in the Ioachim Chronicle. Paper One” [in Russian], Zametki uchenogo, no. 11–2 (2021): 60, 64. 44 I.A. Gagin, “The Latest Appraisals of V.N. Tatishchev’s History of Russia” [in Russian], Voprosy istorii, no. 10 (2008): 21. 45 V.N. Tatishchev, History of Russia from the Most Early Times [in Russian], bk. 1, pt. 1 (Moscow: Napechatana pri Imperatorskom Moskovskom universitete, 1768), 23. 46 M.B. Shchukin, The Gothic Way (the Goths, Rome, and the Chernyakhov Culture) [in Russian] (St Petersburg: Filologicheskii fakul'tet SPbGU, 2005), 231; I.V. Zin'kovskaya, “The Goths and the Chernyakhov Culture in Modern Ukrainian Historiography” [in Russian], Vestnik Voronezhskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya: Istoriya. Politologiya. Sotsiologiya, no. 1 (2010): 28. 43 Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, 2023, vol. 7, no. 1 ISSN 2587-8344 (online) 55 Research I.M. Tarasov. On the Mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the Context of the Legend of the Beginning of Kiev If we consider the monuments of the so-called Kiselev group of the Chernyakhov community as archaeological traces of the Greuthungi (who occupied a privileged position in the Chernyakhov state formation), these people lived on the Black Sea coast from the mouth of the Danube to the Lower Dnieper.47 M. Shchukin assumed that the Greuthungi (Steppe Goths) could be archaeologically linked to the Kiselev group of the Chernyakhov culture (represented by monuments on the Black Sea coast between the mouths of the Danube and the Dnieper), which is separated from the rest of the Chernyakhov culture monuments by a kind of “zone of emptiness.” It was even proposed to single out this group of monuments into a separate archaeological culture. Unlike other representatives of the Chernyakhov culture, the inhabitants of this territory built manor houses on rubble foundations of dry masonry. The percentage of burials that preserve Scythian Sarmatian traditions is also higher here: catacombs, side walls, and the so-called “shoulder-outlined” graves.48 B. Magomedov, a prominent expert in Roman archeology, believed that after the Hun invasion, the “core” of the former Ermanaric’s realm could be located in the Dnieper region, where the legendary Danparstadir of the North Germanic sagas was located. The researcher himself placed this city somewhere in the region of the Dnieper rapids, taking into account the concentration of Chernyakhov antiquities there, including the ancient settlement in Bashmachka and the burial mounds of the Gothic nobility. Magomedov correlated the Gothic “fragment” of Ermanaric’s state formation with Vinitharius49 mentioned by Jordanes.50 According to another version, Danparstaðir was not a city but a designation of a certain area on the Danp (Dnieper) River. Staðr belongs to the frequent lexemes of the Old Norse language and denotes place of action, place, abode, dwelling and also homeland.51 Thus, this 47 Shchukin, The Gothic Way, 163–64. Shchukin, The Gothic Way, 163–64. 49 A number of researchers consider a different location of the “fragment” of Vinitharius who survived the Hun invasion (see M.M. Kazanskii, “Ostrogothic Kingdoms Hunnic Period: Jordanes’s Story and Archeological Data” [in Russian], in Stratum+. St Petersburg Archeological Bulletin, ed. M.Yu. Vakhtina, and Yu.A. Vinogradov (St Petersburg; Kishinev: Biznes-Elita, 1997), 181–93; O.A. Radyush, “‘Princely’ and ‘Chieftain’ Cultures of the Early 5th Century in the Middle Dnieper Region: New Research and Finds” [in Russian], Kratkie soobshcheniya Instituta arkheologii, no. 234 (2014): 234–51). The author of this article supports this version (I.M. Tarasov, “Returning to the Theme of Ancient Migrations of the Galindians” [in Russian], Istoricheskii format, no. 2 (2020): 108–09). 50 Zin'kovskaya, “The Goths and the Chernyakhov Culture,” 28. 51 E.A. Mel'nikova, “The Name of the Dnieper in the Actual and Epic Geographical Nomenclature of Ancient Scandinavia” [in Russian], in GAUDEAMUS IGITUR: A Collection of Articles Dedicated to the 60th Anniversary of A.V. Podosinov], ed. T.N. Dzhakson, 48 56 Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, 2023, vol. 7, no. 1 ISSN 2587-8344 (online) I.M. Tarasov. On the Mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the Context of the Legend of the Beginning of Kiev Research version says that the territory located on the right bank of the Lower Dnieper 52 could be called Danparstadir, which in translation meant Dnieper locality or Dnieper homeland. Archaeological monuments of the Chernyakhov culture in the Northern Black Sea region Source: M.B. Shchukin, The Gothic Way (the Goths, Rome, and the Chernyakhov Culture) [in Russian] (St Petersburg: Filologicheskii fakul'tet SPbGU, 2005), 165 (Fig. 53) The Goths also settled in the south – in Crimea. On the peninsula, archaeologists discovered two ethnic “islets” of the Goths: near Kerch and in the southwestern part of the peninsula (the Dory region).53 Archaeologist A. Ambrose believed that the I.G. Konovalova, and G.R. Tsetskhladze (Moscow: Russkii Fond Sodeistviya Obrazovaniyu i Nauke, 2010), 264–67. 52 S.V. Yartsev, and O.I. Krayushkina, “Oium in the Epic Germanic Tradition, Historical and Geographical Realia of the Northern Black Sea Region” [in Russian], Nauchnye vedomosti Belgorodskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya: Istoriya. Politologiya. Ekonomika. Informatika, no. 1 (198) (2015): 23–29. 53 S.V. Ushakov, “Barbarians of Mountainous Taurica at the Turn of Eras: Ethnic Situation in the South-Western Crimea (3rd – Mid-4th Centuries AD). An Attempt of Reconstruction” [in Russian], Archaeological Miscellany, ed. A.V. Kolesnik, no. 23 (Donetsk: Donbass, 2010), 19. Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, 2023, vol. 7, no. 1 ISSN 2587-8344 (online) 57 Research I.M. Tarasov. On the Mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the Context of the Legend of the Beginning of Kiev Tauride Goths retained their ethnic identity for some time but in the end they completely disappeared into the local ethnic environment.54 There is information that references to the Crimean Goths are found in Slavic legends as early as in the 9th century.55 There remain some elements of Gothic toponymy in Crimea.56 Anthropology also testifies in favor of the presence of some groups of the Gothic population in the Lower Dnieper region. In the Chernyakhov era, certain groups close to the Germanic population were noted on the lower Dnieper. A number of Chernyakhov series of materials from burial grounds in the Lower Dnieper region (and some other loci) “deviate towards populations of northern Caucasians, therefore Germanic admixture is possible in these areas.”57 This morphological complex was not typical for the population of this region at earlier times. Consequently, its appearance on the Chernyakhov burial grounds of the Northern Black Sea region can be associated with the migrations of the Germanic tribes. It is noteworthy that the settlement of the Goths in the Lower Dnieper region was pointed out by ancient authors as well. According to Jordanes, the Goths lived just “near the Meotian swamp” [the Sea of Azov – I. T.];58 “in Scythia near Maeotis.”59 Stephen of Byzantium (6th century) maintained the same view. He wrote: “Goths. Tribe. In ancient times, they settled in Meotida, after which they moved to outer Thrace. . .”60 It is noteworthy that Stephen of Byzantium relied on the works by Parthenius of Phocaea, a historian who supposedly lived in the 4 th century AD, in the time of Ermanaric.61 In the South Russian Hustyn Chronicle there is also an indication of the location of the Goths (“sedosha vo pervykh mezhi Dneprom i Volgoyu, izgnav"she ottudu Slovyan” [settled first between the Dnieper and the Volga, having driven out the Slavs from there”).62 Scandinavian epos also mentions the areas of southern Russia (the Northern Black 54 Ushakov, Barbarians of Mountainous Taurica, 19. Sizova, “The Gothic Language,” 102. 56 H. Stang, “The Naming of Russia (Herulian version)” [in Russian], Stratum plus, no. 5 (1999): 123; M.B. Kizilov, Crimean Gothia: History and Fate (Simferopol: BF “Nasledie tysyacheletii,” 2015); T. Fadeeva, and A. Shaposhnikov, The Principality of Theodoro and Its Princes. Crimean Gothic Collection [in Russian] (Simferopol: Biznes-inform, 2005), 274–75. 57 T.A. Rudich, “The Population of the Chernyakhov Culture of the Danube-Dniester Interfluve According to the Materials of Anthropology” [in Russian], Stratum plus, no. 4 (2010): 224. 58 Jordanes, The Origins and Deeds of the Goths. Getica [in Russian], trans. E.Ch. Skrzhinskaya (Moscow: Izdatel'stvo vostochnoi literatury, 1960), 72. 59 Jordanes, Getica, 72. 60 Cited in V.V. Lavrov, “East Germanic Peoples in the Sea of Azov Region in the 3 rd – 4th Centuries AD” [in Russian], Stratum plus, no. 4 (2000): 332. 61 Lavrov, “The East Germanic Peoples in the Sea of Azov Region,” 332. 62 PSRL, vol. 40, The Hustyn Chronicle, ed. V.A. Kuchkin (St Petersburg: Dmitrii Bulanin, 2003), 22. 55 58 Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, 2023, vol. 7, no. 1 ISSN 2587-8344 (online) I.M. Tarasov. On the Mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the Context of the Legend of the Beginning of Kiev Research Sea region) as the ancient dwelling of the Goths. The Atlakviða (The Lay of Atli) mentions in the same context “the famous forest that is called Myrkvið,” the Danp River (Danpar)63 and a certain wide Gnitaheið field, most likely, the southern Russian steppe on both sides of the Dnieper. The Danp is the Dnieper,64 and the Myrkwviðr forest, i.e. “gloomy, dark forest” that separated the lands of the Goths (Gotaland) from the Huns (Húnaland), can be correlated with Hylaea in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, which was “all covered with a dense forest of various tree species.”65 The Myrkwviðr forest can also be compared with the Black Forest of the Russian chronicle,66 located east of the present-day city of Dnieper. Jassarfjöllum is probably the Carpathians (Jassy Mountains), as pointed out by Academician A. Veselovskii.67 Ancient Svithiod, a country in the Northern Black Sea region, the memory of which was kept by the Scandinavian sagas, is apparently *Swi-þiud-, actually “one’s own people,” similar to Gutthiuda, “a pagan country of the Goths” (which was already mentioned above). Actually, this Svithiod should be correlated not with Scythia but with the Gothic realm of Ermanaric (ca. 350 AD – ca. 376 AD), the geographical contours of which to some extent resembled the outlines of the ancient Scythia of Herodotus. Except for a remote consonance, Svithiod proper and Scythia hardly have something in common. The memory of the Goths in the Northern Black Sea region has been preserved by modern languages as well. And it is despite the fact that more than 1500 years separate us from the Goth era. Nevertheless, the Slavs of Polesye (an integral part of the future Rus) assimilated the remnants of the Goths and related Germanic peoples who ended up in this territory and the Chernyakhovites (mostly Goths) were absorbed by the carriers of Penkov antiquities – the Antes of the early medieval Byzantine sources.68 Starting from the 13th century, the Russians are known to the 63 Beowulf. Poetic Edda. The Song of the Nibelungs [in Russian], ed. S. Shlapoberskaya (Moscow: Khudozhestvennaya literatura, 1975), 312. 64 Poetic Edda [in Russian], trans. A. Korsun (St. Petersburg: Azbuka-klassika, 2008), 445. 65 Herodotus, “The History. Book 4: Melpomene” [in Russian], trans. G.A. Stratanovskii, Antichnaya Literatura, accessed January 9, 2023, http://ancientrome.ru/antlitr/t.htm?a=1269004000 66 PSRL, vol. 2, The Hypatian Codex, 540. 67 A.N. Veselovskii, “Attila” [in Russian], in A.N. Veselovskii, From the History of the Novel and Novella: Materials and Research, is. 2, Slavic and Romance Department (St Petersburg: Tipografiya Imperatorskoi Akademii Nauk, 1888), 346. 68 Tarasov, “Some Plots of Gothic History,” 63. Groups of the Wielbark population penetrated the area of formation of the future Kiev culture as early as in the first centuries AD. (M.B. Shchukin, “The Birth of the Slavs. Background of the problem. Two Ways of Retrospective Search” [in Russian], in Stratum: Structures and Aatastrophes: A Collection of Symbolic IndoEuropean History: Archeology, Source Studies, Linguistics, Philosophy of History, ed. M.E. Tkachuk, et al. (St Petersburg: Nestor, 1997), 138). Individual elements of the Wielbark culture might have influenced the emergence of the Slavic Prague-Korchak culture Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, 2023, vol. 7, no. 1 ISSN 2587-8344 (online) 59 Research I.M. Tarasov. On the Mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the Context of the Legend of the Beginning of Kiev Lithuanians under the name Gudos (Gudai, Gudas), i.e. the Goths. For the first time, Maciej Stryjkowski mentioned that in his story about one of the battles of the early 13th century between the Lithuanians and the Russians (Gudos) (the victorious campaign against Lithuania in 1203 led by the Chernigov Olgovichi is meant here).69 According to historian M. Shchukin, the Goths not only settled in the Northern Black Sea region, but they were also familiar with many rivers of the European part of historical Russia, using them as means of communication, like the Varangians did several centuries later. Ermanaric’s Greuthungi raided the lands of the autochthonous population who had settled along the Baltic-Volga river route; moreover, this can refer not to the army but to a large detachment of well-trained warriors on several dozens of boats.70 Why are they not as good as the Varangians who traveled along the river routes of Rus five hundred years later? Another representative of the “Leningrad school,” D. Machinskii believed that the Suiones who lived on the coast of the Scandinavian Peninsula were skillful travelers along the rivers of Eastern Europe.71 This version, according to which the Suiones traveled through the territory of the European part of Russia with trade and military (D.A. Machinskii, “Some Prerequisites, Driving Forces, and Historical Context for the Formation of the Russian State in the Middle of the 8th – the Middle of the 11th Centuries” [in Russian], in D.A. Machinskii, Scythia – Russia. Key Events and Prevailing Problems, vol. 2 (St Petersburg: Izdatel'stvo Ivana Limbakha, 2018), 311). Everything can also point to their participation in the ethnogenesis of the ancient Dnieper Slavs. Linguistic data can evidence that. Significant borrowings from the Gothic language in the Proto-Slavic language are noted (Proto-Slavic *buky < Gothic ka “letter”; Proto-Slavic * ǫdog-, * ǫdo ьn- “masterful”, “knowledgeable”, “experienced”, “skillful” < Gothic *handags, cf. handugs “wise”, handus “hand”; Proto-Slavic elmъ < Gothic hilms “helmet” (< *helmaz); Proto-Slavic *kotьlъ < Gothic *katils, *katilus (acknowledged katil ); ProtoSlavic * l vъ < Gothic hlaiw “cave”; Old Slavic врътоградъ < Gothic aútri-gards; Proto-Slavic *mьčь < Gothic *m keis, Proto-Slavic *kъn d ь < Gothic *kuniggs, or Proto-Germanic *kuningaz or Old High German kuning, et al.). At the same time, the Slavs also enriched the Gothic language with their own words. For instance, the Gothic plinsjan “to dance” is a borrowing (< Proto-Slavic *pl sati) (H. Wolfram, The Goths. From the Origins to the Middle of the 6th Century (An Outline of Historical Ethnography) [in Russian], trans. M.B. Shchukin, N.A. Bondarko, and P.V. Shuvalov (St Petersburg: Yuventa, 2003), 168); Gothic pugg “bag, purse” can also be traced back to a Slavic source (cf. Polish dialect. pągwica “button; thickening on the neck of a goat, goiter”, Russian пук, пучок, Polish р k “bundle”); Proto-Slavic *pǫkъ and *pǫgy (the origin of puk “bunch”, puchok “bundle” and pugovitsa “button”, respectively) (M. Vasmer, Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language [in Russian], trans. O.N. Trubachev, vol. 3, Muza-Syat (Moscow: Progress, 1987), 403–04); sûtrava (Gothic) – “forests, props, bonfire” < Proto-Slavic дрова Proto-Slavic *drъva “firewood”, “trees” (singular *drъvo) (see Etymological Dictionary of Slavic Languages: Proto-Slavic Vocabulary [in Russian], is. 5, (*delo – *dьrzьlь), comp. O.N. Trubachev, et al. (Moscow: Nauka, 1978), 141–42). 69 Stryjkowski, Chronicle of Poland, Lithuania, Samogitia. 70 Shchukin, The Gothic Way, 215. 71 Machinskii, “Some Prerequisites, Driving Forces, and Historical Context,” 330. 60 Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, 2023, vol. 7, no. 1 ISSN 2587-8344 (online) I.M. Tarasov. On the Mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the Context of the Legend of the Beginning of Kiev Research purposes on a trade mission as early as in the 4 th–6th centuries,72 cannot be accepted due to the new studies. According to them, the Scandinavian influence of Roman times and the early Migration Period did not spread east of Estonia and Western Finland.73 At the same time, the nomads of the Pontic steppes,74 who could hardly be the Goths, had already begun to control the fur trade at the time under consideration. Thus, it was the Gothic population that could live in the territory and at the time indicated by the Varangian topos. As for the territory of the Kiev region, ca. 400 AD (after the defeat of the Goths by the Huns), those lands were no longer controlled by the East Germanic peoples, but by the Sarmato-Alanian tribes (see the work by D. Machinskii).75 Let us compare the opinion expressed by E. Shmurlo in the 1920s that in the area of ancient Kiev there could be a Sarmatian camp or the city of Metropolis.76 This view is supported by some of the modern historians.77 The territory of Eastern Europe at the beginning of the Migration Period Source: D.A. Machinskii, “On the Places of Habitation and Directions of Movement of the Slavs in the 1st–7th Centuries AD According to Written and Archaeological Sources” [in Russian], in D.A. Machinskii, Scythia – Russia. Key events and prevailing problems, vol. 2 (St Petersburg: Izdatel'stvo Ivana Limbakha, 2018), 360 (Fig. 49) Machinskii, “Some Prerequisites, Driving Forces, and Historical Context,” 332–39. M.M. Kazanskii, “Scandinavian Fur Trade and the Eastern Road in the Migration Period” [in Russian], Stratum plus, no. 4 (2010): 112. 74 Kazanskii, “Scandinavian Fur Trade and the Eastern Road,” 112. 75 D.A. Machinskii, “On the Places of Habitation and Directions of Movement of the Slavs in the st th 1 –7 Centuries AD According to Written and Archaeological Sources” [in Russian], in D.A. Machinskii, Scythia – Russia. Key events and prevailing problems, vol. 2, 360 (Fig. 49). 76 E.F. Shmurlo, A Course in Russian History. The Emergence and Frmation of the Russian State (862–1462) [in Russian] (St Petersburg: Aleteiya, 1998), 61. 77 S.E. Tsvetkov, Russian History [in Russian], bk. 1 (Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf, 2003), 47. 72 73 Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, 2023, vol. 7, no. 1 ISSN 2587-8344 (online) 61 Research I.M. Tarasov. On the Mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the Context of the Legend of the Beginning of Kiev However, the groups of the Kievan population were starting to gradually crowd out Sarmato-Alans. Later on, they assimilated the remaining Chernyakhov Goths. These events led to the formation of new socio-political realitiy, for example, potestary formations of the Penkovka Antes (it is known that the Penkovka culture absorbed some elements of the Chernyakhov culture).78 In the Middle Dnieper region, the population of the Chernyakhov culture “largely became part of the Slavs who assimilated it.”79 Thus, it should be noted that the indicated localization of the Varangian Goths in the lower reaches of the Dnieper turns out to be historically reliable. Could the Goths of the Dnieper region survive until 430–431? We cannot draw a line at the Chernyakhov culture at the turn of the 5 th century. In 431, the Goths still remained not only in the Crimea but also in the Northern Black Sea region because the Chernyakhov culture continued to exist until the 5 th century.80 Its final disappearance is dated by researchers differently: (1) the first half of the 5th century;81 (2) the period of ca. 430 AD;82 (3) the middle of the 5th century.83 V.V. Sedov, The East Slavs in the 6th–13th Centuries [in Russian] (Moscow: Nauka, 1982), 26–27; I.P. Rusanova, and E.A. Symonovich, eds., Archeology of the USSR. Slavs and Their Neighbors at the End of the 1st Millennium BC – the First Half of the 1st Millennium AD [in Russian] (Moscow: Nauka, 1993), 193, 196; S.V. Alekseev, The Proto-Slavs. Experience in Historical and Cultural Reconstruction [in Russian] (Moscow: Akademicheskii proekt, 2015), 34–35. 79 G.A. Khaburgaev, Ethnonyms of ‘The Tale of Bygone Years’ [in Russian] (Moscow: Izdatel'stvo Moskovskogo universiteta, 1979), 99. 80 I.S. Vinokur, “Forest-Steppe Tribes in the 2nd – 5th Centuries AD and Their Role in the History of South-Eastern Europe” [in Russian], Sovetskaya arkheologiya, no. 4 (1972): 138; O.A. Radyush, “Modern Studies of the Chernyakhov Culture in the Territory of Russia” [in Russian], in 5th (21st) All-Russian Archaeological Congress: A collection of scientific papers (Barnaul, October 02–07, 2017), ed. A.P. Derevyanko, and A.A. Tishkin (Barnaul: Altaiskii gosudarstvennyi universitet, 2017), 857. 81 Machinskii, “Some Prerequisites, Driving Forces and Historical Context,” 315; P. Heather, Empires and Barbarians: Migration, Development and the Birth of Europe [in Russian], trans. S.V. Chepelevskii, and G.Yu. Chepelevskaya (Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf, 2016), 172. 82 E.L. Gorokhovskii, “Chronology of the Chernyakhiv Burial Grounds in Forest-Steppe Ukraine” [in Russian], in Proceedings of the 5th International Congress of Slavic Archaeologists (Kiev, September 18–25, 1985), vol. 4, ed. B.A. Rybakov (Kiev: Naukova dumka, 1988), 34–46. B.V. Magomedov, Chernyakhov Culture. The problem of Ethnos in Russian] (Lublin: Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej, 2001), 146. 83 A.A. Aleksandrov, “Provincial Roman Antiquities of the First Centuries A.D. in the Territory of the Pskov Land” [in Russian], in European Sarmatia: Collection Dedicated to Mark Borisovich Shchukin: Based on the Materials of the Conference Held as Part of the 14th Readings in Memory of Anna Machinskaya (Staraya Ladoga, December 26–27, 2009), ed. D.A. Machinskii (St Petersburg: 78 62 Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, 2023, vol. 7, no. 1 ISSN 2587-8344 (online) I.M. Tarasov. On the Mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the Context of the Legend of the Beginning of Kiev Research Individual elements of this culture can be attributed to the period before 475.84 Thus, it is the Goths that are mentioned in the source brought to us in the later chronicle. And they are localized quite accurately, both geographically and chronologically. Conclusion Summarizing the above, let us emphasize that the evidence of the 17 th century is not the invention of the compiler. It is confirmed by the indication of the Varangians who lived in antiquity, i.e. before the 530s on the Dnieper. Also, strikingly accurate is the focus on the lower reaches of the Dnieper, where the core of the Gothic (Greuthungi) super-chiefdom, a territorial entity also known as the realm of Ermanaric, was situated. Naming the Black Sea the Warm Sea deserves special attention, which allows us to assume that such a name could be given to it only by the people who lived in the north. According to the source under study, the Dnieper flows into the sea itself, but in reality it flows into the Dnieper-Bug estuary, which is an additional indication of the author’s poor knowledge of the geography of the Northern Black Sea region. It is impossible not to point out the passage about the Warm Sea (“izhe techet v more teploe, po nemu zhe zhivut varyagi” [it flows into the warm sea, along it the Varangians live]), which can be attributed to folklore poetry. Let us compare it with a similar story from The Tale of Igor’s Campaign, where the Goths are located on the shores of the blue sea. Thus, it becomes obvious that the chronicler included into his text the information borrowed from some non-extant heroic song about the Warm Sea and the Dnieper that flew into it, and until the beginning of the 430s there were some natives of the north in the lower reaches of the Dnieper. From the studies of ethnographers, it is known that epic memory can be preserved in human collectives for several centuries, up to 600 years.85 An example of this is the mention of the “seventh century of Trojan” in The Tale of Igor’s Campaign. Judging by the context, Old Russian Boyan still remembered the heroic legends of the events of the early Troyan era (“zero point” of which is the 4 th or 5th century). In the same work, the “gotskie krasnye devy” [Gothic beauteous maidens] in 1185 allegedly sang of the war between Vinitharius and Boz (vremya Busovo according to the most common version). And at the heart of the Ioachim Chronicle Nestor-Istoriya, 2011), 225; M. Kazanski, Les Goths (Ier–VIIe sie’cle apre’s J.-C) (Paris: Errance, 1991). 84 B.V. Magomedov, “On the History of the Final Stage of the Chernyakhov Culture” [in Russian], in One Hundred Years of the Chernyakhov Culture, ed. M.І. Gladkykh (Kiev: Tovarystvo Arkheologіyi ta Antropologіyi, 1999), 39–47; Ushakov, Barbarians of Mountainous Taurica, 101. 85 S.V. Alekseev, Chronicle of Priest Duklyanin. Translation and Commentary [in Russian] (St Petersburg: Peterburgskoe Vostokovedenie, 2015), 33. Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, 2023, vol. 7, no. 1 ISSN 2587-8344 (online) 63 Research I.M. Tarasov. On the Mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the Context of the Legend of the Beginning of Kiev there is a mention of “ancient songs” that remembered the times of “Vladimir the Ancient” (King Valamir) who lived in the 5th century. These songs allegedly sang in the era of Burivoy and Gostomysl (9th century). Slovene legends of Early Modern time mention Attila (died 453).86 The introduction of the legend about the Dnieper Varangians (Goths), to whom this article is devoted, may also refer to this time. It was noted above that the legend of the beginning of Kiev under consideration preserved the remains of some ancient poetic work about the Varangians. These Varangians should be identified with the Goths of the latest period of the existence of the Chernyakhov / Sântana de Mureș culture (until the mid-5th century). They lived mainly in the lower reaches of the Dnieper and on the coast between the Dnieper and the Dniester. Dating can be considered reasonable, since these Goths lived before the foundation of Kiev, which in the 17th century was traditionally dated 430 or 431. The hint that the Goths could occupy the territory of the lower reaches of the Dnieper is consistent with historical facts, according to which the Greuthungi of king Ermanaric settled in the Lower Dnieper region. Most likely, the Gothic “capital,” which some researchers correlate with the excavated settlement of Bashmachka, was located there. It can be stated that this oral and now lost legend (song) about the Goths on the shores of the Warm (Black) Sea should be dated to the middle of the 17 th or even the 15th(?) – 16th centuries. It mentioned the Goths along the (Lower) Dnieper even before the foundation of Kiev. The creation of this legend could date back to ancient times, but it was written down in the Early Modern times. The pen of the chronicler changed the ethnonym “Goths” into the “Varangians.” It is also curious to note that the legend preserved by the scribes of the 17 th century that tells us about Kyi the robber and his brothers who came from the north surprisingly reflected the migration of population groups from the forest zone to the south, to the fertile regions of the Northern Black Sea region, devastated by the Huns. After the devastation by the Huns and the subsequent extinction of the Chernyakhov culture, a huge ethno-linguistic Proto-Slavic (or Balto-Proto-Slavic, Baltic Veneti) array of tribes began to move. They occupied vast expanses from the banks of the Pripyat and the Seversky Donets to the Ilmen regions. On the Dnieper, those Slavs (or Balto-Proto-Slavs) were supposed to meet the remaining representatives of the Chernyakhov culture, whose groups were assimilated by the newcomers and took part in the formation of new cultures (primarily the Penkovka culture). 86 64 Tarasov, “Some Plots of Gothic History,” 66. Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, 2023, vol. 7, no. 1 ISSN 2587-8344 (online) I.M. Tarasov. On the Mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the Context of the Legend of the Beginning of Kiev Research Список литературы Александров А.А. Провинциально-римские древности первых веков н.э. на территории Псковской земли // Европейская Сарматия: Сборник, посвященный Марку Борисовичу Щукину: по материалам конференции, проведенной в рамках XIV чтений памяти Анны Мачинской (Старая Ладога, 26–27 декабря 2009 г.) / под редакцией Д.А. Мачинского. СанктПетербург: Нестор-История, 2011. С. 225–238. Алексеев С.В. Летопись попа Дуклянина. Перевод и комментарий. 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(In Russian) Информация об авторе Илья Михайлович Тарасов – аспирант кафедры истории России, http://orcid.org/00000002-0831-2813, tarasowilya@yandex.ru, Ленинградский государственный университет им. А.С. Пушкина (д. 10, Петербургское шоссе, 196605 г. Санкт-Петербург, Пушкин, Россия). Information about the author Il'ya M. Tarasov – Postgraduate student of the Department of Russian History, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0831-2813, tarasowilya@yandex.ru, Pushkin Leningrad State University (10, Petersburgskoye shosse, 196605 St Petersburg, Pushkin, Russia). Статья поступила в редакцию 07.07.2022; одобрена после рецензирования 24.08.2022; принята к публикации 29.08.2022. The article was submitted 07.07.2022; approved after reviewing 24.08.2022; accepted for publication 29.08.2022. Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, 2023, vol. 7, no. 1 ISSN 2587-8344 (online) 71