At the Dawn of Christianity in Rus': East Meets West Author(S): OMELJAN PRITSAK Source: Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Vol

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At the Dawn of Christianity in Rus': East Meets West Author(s): OMELJAN PRITSAK Source: Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Vol. 12/13, Proceedings of the International Congress Commemorating the Millennium of Christianity in Rus'-Ukraine (1988/1989), pp. 87-113 Published by: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41036307 . Accessed: 19/10/2014 07:16

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This content downloaded from 91.105.30.38 on Sun, 19 Oct 2014 07:16:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions CHRISTIANITY IN RUS' BEFORE 988

At theDawn of Christianityin Rus': East MeetsWest

OMELJANPRITSAK

I. INGERAND THE "MAGIANS"

As CyrilMango showedin 1973,at leastone or twoOld Norse (Scandina- vian)families reached Constantinople by theend ofthe eighth century, con- vertedto Christianity,and succeededin marryinginto the Byzantine gentry. Around825 someonenamed 'lyyep was appointedthe (iconoclast)metropolitanof Nicaea; anotherInger was thefather of Eudocia Ingerina(b. ca. 837, d. 883), themistress of MichaelIII (842-867) and thereafterthe wife of hismurderer and successorBasil I (867 -88 1).1 As statedby Mango, the name Inger cannotbe explainedfrom the ByzantineGreek, or, for that matter, from the Slavic; it is, rather,a variant of theOld Norsename *Ingvarr.2 The last decade of the eighthcentury was preciselythe timewhen the firstViking (Denise I Noromen) ships appearedin the West (accordingto theAnglo-Saxon chronicles, s.a. 787 [789]).3 One maywell ask whetheror notthese events in theEast and theWest weresynchronized, and if so, how. I will discussthe background of these East-West contacts, and in doingso makeuse of some Arabicsources, of a hithertounappreciated reworked Slavonic translationof a Byzantinetext, and of somedata from the Old Norsesources.

1 CyrilMango, "Eudocia Ingerina,the Normans,and the MacedonianDynasty," Zbornik Radova VizantoloskogoInstituía, vol. 14/15(Belgrade, 1973), pp. 17-27 (=idem, Byzantium and itsImage [London:Variorum reprints, 1984], no. XV). 1 Mango,"Eudocia," pp. 18,26-27. 3 Two ofthe Saxon ChroniclesParallel, ed. CharlesPlummer and John Earle, vol. 1 (Oxford, 1892; rptd.1952), p. 54 (the ParkerMS: = Denise); p. 55 (theLaud MS: = Norömen). See PeterH. Sawyer,The Age ofthe Vikings, 2nd ed. (London,1971), pp. 14-18.

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Scholarshave stillnot properlyevaluated the informationof two reliable and well-informedArabic geographers and polymathsof theninth and tenth centuries:Abu'l-Qasim cUbayd Allãh Ibn Khurdãdhbeh(ca. 840-890), the ' caliph's chiefof intelligence(murld al-barld 'postmastergeneral"); and Abu'l-HasancAlï al-Mascûdï (d. 956), themost successful and prolificArab polymathand traveler. In his classical geographicwork, Kitãb al-masalikwaH-mamãlik, Ibn Khurdãdhbehincludes a chapterdealing withthe internationalitinerant negociatores,or tradingcompanies. The firstones were the Jewishmer- chants(at-tuggãr al-yahüd), called ar-Rãdhãniyya,and theothers were the Rãs merchants(tuggär ar-Rüs), who were a kindof Saqãliba (= Veneti).4 They tradeda greatassortment of merchandise,but theirmost lucrative commoditieswere eunuchs(al-khadam), female slaves (al-gawârï), and youngboys (al-ghilmãn).5In his basic extantwork, Murüg adh-dhahab, al-Mascûdïnames only one companyof internationalnegociatores, namely thatof theRüs. He writes:'The Rüs [is a nomenof] numerouscolluvies gentium(umani) of diversekinds (dhãt ^anwfr sattà). Amongthem there is a kindcalled *al-Lo[r]domãna[cf. Spanish Latin Lordoman- < Nordoman-]. They are the mostnumerous. They frequentwith their wares the country al-Andalus[Muslim Spain], Rome, Constantinople, and [thecountry of] the Khazars."6 MuslimSpain is mentionedfirst because al-Mascûdï'sinformation was of Spanishorigin (note the Spanishform of the name forthe Norsemen: Lordomãn-). Apparentlythe RusILordornäna were thought to be centered somewherenot far from Muslim Spain.7 Extremelyimportant is thatMascûdï uses theterm Rus notas an ethnicon

4 This is themeaning I applyin my"The Slavs and theAvars," Settimane di studiodel Cen- troitaliano di studisulV alto medioevo,voi. 30 (Spoleto,1983), pp 380-83, 389-94. 5 Kitãbal-masalik wa' l-mamalik,ed. M. J.de Goeje (Leiden,1889), pp. 153-55. 6 WcPr-Rüsumam kathïrah dhãt >anwãcsattà ; fa-min-humjins yuqãlu la-humal-Lwdhcãnh, wa-humal-aktharüna yukhtalifüna bi-t-tijãrah Hlà bilãd al-Andaluswa-Rümiyyah wa-H- Qustantïniyyahwa-H-Khazar. Les prairies d'or, ed. CharlesPellai, vol. 1 (Beirut,1966), p. 218. The wordal-Lwdhcãnh is a misspellingof *al-Lwdhminh,as is al-Kwdhfcnh(cf. variant readingal-Lwdhghfnh in Masai's Kitãbat-tanbïh, ed. M. J.de Goeje [Leiden,1894], p. 141). 7 Accordingto al-Yacqubï(d. 897) "the [maritime]al-Magus [on thisterm see below],who are called ar-Rüs,"attacked in 844 thethen Arab city of Seville via thefluvial route (Guadal- quivir);al-Yacqubï, Kitãb al-buldãn, ed. M. J.de Goeje (Leiden,1892), p. 354.

This content downloaded from 91.105.30.38 on Sun, 19 Oct 2014 07:16:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AT THE DAWN OF CHRISTIANITY IN RUS ' 89 butas a nomeràof a professionalcolluvies9 of negociatores(Arabic umam is a pluralof umma'people; nation;generation'), consisting of different kinds(jins, pl. ajnãs ).

In a paperentitled "Did theArabs call theVikings 'Magians'?,"10 I have demonstratedthat there were two homonymousforeign words in Arabic- al-magus- of completelydifferent origin. One was the Greek inayoç "Zoroastrian"(< Old Persianmagus), firstintroduced in theMuslim East (Baghdad); and the otherwas the Celtic magos-magus, correspondingto the Germanicvïk, Latin forum, Arabic quran, i.e., non-fortifiedemporta wherethe negociatores kept, displayed, and sold theirwares. The Spanish Arabs,having entered in 793 thepagus Rotinicis/Rutenorum (the modern departmentof Aveyronin France's Midi) withits magoszs (e.g., Caran- tomagus= Cranton;Cobiomagus = Bram; Condatomagus= Millau; Vin- domagus= Le Vigan), simplycalled this territory"the countryof the magoscs(bilãd al-magüs)." In thisway theyacted no differentlythan the Old Norsemen,who, arrivingamong the East-EuropeanRus of the ninth-eleventh centuries, came uponmany garõs, and thuscalled thatpol- itysimply Garõa-ríki, "the land of garõs." Here theterm garó- (Slavic grad) playsthe same role as thename magos (spelled magus) in theArabic bilãd al-magüs. To go even further:magüs can be regardedas a synec- dochefor bilãd al-magüs, just as Garoar I Garör can standfor Garõaríki.n The term magosI magus (Arabic al-magus), from the nomen loci "emporiumof the itinerantnegociatores," shifted in SpanishArabic to designatethe inhabitants of suchemporia with whom they had to deal: the guardsand shipmen.There is a coeval analogy: the shiftingof thename "inhabitantof a vïk" (vïking)into "piratae quos illi Wichingosappellant, nostriAscomannos . . . "n

8 On therole of thenomen/ enoyvx)'iia in ethnogenesis,see Haraldvon Petrikovits,"Fragen derEthnogenese aus derSicht der römischen Archäologie," Studien zur Ethnogenese[vol. 1] (Opladen,1985), pp. 101-122. 9 On the termcolluvies, esp. colluviesgentium, see WilhelmE. Mühlmannin Studienzur Ethnogenese1 (1985): 23 andH. von Petrikovitsin ibid.,pp. 116-18. 10 To appearin TheSeventh International Saga ConferenceICentro Italiano di studisulV alto Medioevo. XII CongressoInternationale di studi sulV alto medioevo,ed. Teresa Pároli (Spoleto). 1x Full documentationis given in mypaper quoted in fn.10. 12 Two ofthe Saxon ChroniclesParallel, ed. CharlesPlummer and JohnEarle, vol. 2, 3rded. (Oxford,1965), p. 129.

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ElsewhereI have arguedthat the form russ- 1 rus- was theRhine German substitutionfor the High Germanruzz-lruz- etymon.13 This, in turn,was theresult of the Germanconsonant shift rut-i > ruzzi. The rutiform, the basis of theCeltic tribal name Rut-i/Rut-en-i, developed in Old Frenchinto *rud-i(cf. themodern Rodez < Rutenis).The latternameform was adapted by theRipuarian Franks and subjectedto "gutturalization."The resultwas the formRug-i, which Adalbert of Trier,active as a missionarybishop in Kiev in 961-962, used with regardto the realm of the Rus' Queen Or ga/Helga (baptizedHelena) of Kiev.14 The leadingFrench medievalist Georges Duby writes:"All thatcan be said is thateighth- and ninth-centurysources, when referring to negociatores,frequently allude to twoethnic groups whose colonies were dispersed along themain routes and reachedfar beyond the frontiers of theEmpire: "15 Jewsand (in theNorth Sea area) 'Frisians.' As we have seen above,the ninth-centuryauthor Ibn Khurdãdhbehmade a verysimilar statement; however,he used thename "Rüs" insteadof "Frisian." I cannotdwell here on theactivity of theubiquitous Frisians, discoverers of thefluvial routes, in CelticRutenia.16 I can mention,however, that their activitybegan in thefirst or secondcentury A.D. in connectionwith the shift in theproduction of theGaulish terra sigillata (which originated in Conda- tomagos,modern La Graufesenque)from Ruthenia to theRhine region. One can assumethat, once established,fluvial trade routes, contacts, and cooperationbetween the Ruteniand Frisianspersisted, and thatonly the typeof merchandisechanged, according to varyingmarket demands. In the seventhto ninthcentury, slaves were the "energy" (= labor) in demand. Hence the involvementof the colluviesof negociatoreswho adoptedas theirnomen the designationRut- 1 Rus- in the slave trade witnessedby ninth-and tenth-century Arabic authors.

Haraldvon Petrikovitsuses theterm colluvies gentium to characterizethe GermanicAllemans among the pre-ClovisFranks.17 I proposeas primum distinguensfor the Magos I RusI Norömen the term colluvies negociatorum, sincethey cannot be regardedas theforerunners of a singlefuture ethnos.

13 "The Origin of the Name Rus/Rus' ," Passé Turco-TatarPrésent soviétique (Etudes offertesà Alexandre Bennigsen), (Paris, 1986). 14 * Pritsak,'The Originof the Name Rus/ Rus'," pp. 45-65. 15 GeorgesDuby, The Early Growth of the European Economy (Ithaca, N. Y., 1974),p. 101. 16 See fn.10. 17 Seem. 9.

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Theirprofessions are thedominant factor. The professionalsin question,generally known as Norômen-,wore manyhats: theywere traders,sailors, pirates, guards, and mercenaries. They are not easily identified,since theyused, simultaneously,many dif- ferentnames, as did theiradversaries. Without pretending to exhaustthis matter,I suggestgrouping the names into fivecategories: (1) names of * 'ethnic" origin:Ruteni I Russi,Darti, Frisians; (2) names based on geo- graphicaldesignations: of Hereda lande (Hardesysselin Jutland),Westfal- " dingi (in Norwegian,Viken); (3) names fromthe word meaning (non- fortified)emporium, market, forum": vïking (< vïk),magos (< magos); (4) names fromthe fortifiedemporia varing (< vár), garoar {

II. "THEODORA" AND THE VERACITY OF THE MIRACULA OF ST. STEPHEN OF SUGDAEA AND THE RUS (CA. 790)

The eighthcentury witnessed a fiercestruggle for the dominationof the Black Sea and Caucasusbetween three rivals: Byzantium,the successor of Rome in theseregions; the caliphate(first the Omaiyadsand later- from 750- the Abbasids),the successorsof Sassanian Iran; and the Khazars, who,ca. 650, had establishedthe center of theirsemi-nomadic empire in the confinesof the old BosporusKingdom.20 The peninsulaof Crimeanow comes intothe forefront. At thattime it had threeparallel structures. The firstwere Greek towns, formerly indepen- dentcolonies with antique roots, located mainly in thesoutheastern parts of

18 The fortifiedemporia were called burgh(Germanic), grad- (Slavic) and vár (Iranian> Hungarian;see Lajos Ligeti,A Magyar nyelvtörök kapcsolatai a honfoglalásel'ótt és az Árpád-korban[Budapest, 1986], pp. 170-71). The differencebetween the "Vikings" and the "Varings(> Varjag-i)" was thatthe first werenamed after unfortified marketplaces, while the others were the stronghold's mercenaries. The Northernmercenaries in Byzantiumwere called Bapayyoi 'the Varangians';see, e.g., BenediktS. Benedikz,The Varangians of Byzantium (Cambridge, 1978). 19 PVL, 1:33. But see A. Karpozilos,"Ros-Dromity i problemapoxoda Olega protivKon- stantinopolja,"Vizantijskij vremennik 49 (1988): 112-18. 20 See MixailI. Artamonov,Istorija xazar (Leningrad,1962), pp. 233-61; J.M. Hussey,ed., The ByzantineEmpire (=The CambridgeMedieval History, vol. 4), pt. 1 (Cambridge,1966), pp. 61 -104.

This content downloaded from 91.105.30.38 on Sun, 19 Oct 2014 07:16:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 92 OMELJANPRITSAK the peninsula. Among themwere Sugdaea (Hunnic > Slavic: Suroz),21 Cherson(=Chersones) (Hunnic > Slavic: Korsun'),and Bosporus(Hunnic > Slavic: Kerc'), the formercapital of the kingdomof the same name.22 Duringthis period, all threecities were sees of autocephalicarchbishoprics; theywere directly subordinated to thepatriarch in Constantinople.23From thepoint of view of thecapital, they were, like Byzantine Dalmatia, frontier towns,and as such theywere allowed to keep theirautonomy, especially afterJustinian I (526-565) had reorganizedthe structure of themunicipali- ties.24While Cherson was themilitary (naval) andpolitical center of Byzan- tineCrimea, Sugdaea remained its commercial hub. Duringthe rule of Theophilus(829-842), the Crimeantowns received therank of a specialtheme called 'The Climes" ( xcovkà,i|li(xtcûv) and were governedby a strategusin Cherson.25 Relationsbetween the Crimean cities and theByzantine emperors were in the hands of the catapan of Paphlagonia.26Its politicaland religious centerwas originallythe city of Gangrae,in theinterior of theprovince, but as a resultof thegrowing importance of Crimeanaffairs, the coastal town Amastris,located on thesouthern shores of theBlack Sea, grewin importance. In the last decades of the eighthcentury, the see of Amastris advancedto therank of autocephalicarchbishopric.27 The naval expedition againstCherson was sentfrom Amastris in 833. John,bishop of the Cri- meanGotthia, fleeing from the Khazars, found refuge there.28 The second structurein the Crimea was representedby the Crimean Goths,remaining from the period of GreatMigrations.29 (One shouldkeep in mindthat until the days of theFlemish diplomat Augier Ghislain de Bus- becq [1522-1592], who around 1560-1562 rediscoveredthe Christian commmunityof Gothsin the Crimea,they retained their Gothic customs

21 One of the typicalfeatures of Hunno-Bulgarian( > Chuvash) was the development *-gd->-r-. 22 On theBosporus kingdom, see ViktorF. Gajdukevic,Bosporskoe Carstvo (Moscow and Leningrad,1949). 23 Hans-GeorgBeck, Kircheund theologischeLiteratur im byzantinischenReich (Munich, 1959),p. 176. 24 - JadranFerluga, Byzantium on theBalkans (Amsterdam, 1976), pp. 65 66. 25 See AlexanderA. Vasiliev, The Goths in the Crimea (Cambridge,Mass., 1936), pp. 108-109. 26 Ferluga,Byzantium, pp. 40-44. 27 Hans-GeorgBeck, Kirche, pp. 168 - 69. 28 Artamonov,Istorija xazar, pp. 255 - 57. 29 "Die Krimgothen"in ErnstSchwarz, Germanische Stammeskunde (Heidelberg, 1956), pp. 98-99.

This content downloaded from 91.105.30.38 on Sun, 19 Oct 2014 07:16:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AT THE DAWN OF CHRISTIANITY IN RUS ' 93 and language. Busbecq notedeighty-six Gothic words.)30 The community of Gothslived in themountainous region of thepeninsula. Their religious center,Theodoro/Doros, the location of which is still disputedamong archaeologists,31was thesee of theGothic bishopric. The seventhecumenical councilin Nicaea (NicaenumII) plannedto elevateDoros to therank of a metropolitanatewith seven bishoprics, encompassing the core territoryof theKhazar empire.32 The acceptanceof Judaismby theKhazar ruling elite, whichtook place soon thereafter,33did not,apparently, help therealization of thatproject. Fromits creationin about650, the Khazar kaganatehad an interestin takingcontrol of the Crimeantowns. On theirside, the leadersof those communities,when they felt Byzantine pressure, preferred submission to the sovereigntyof the mercantile-mindedKhazars. Althoughrelations betweenthe Khazar rulersand the Byzantineemperors were generally friendly,a quietcompetition nevertheless developed regarding the patroni- zationof theCrimean towns. By theend of theeighth century, most of the townswere under the Khazar protectorate.Cherson and Phanagoriawere governedby theirelected priors, called in Khazarianbabajuq ("the [city] fathers''), while in Kerc and Tamatarcha(Tmutorokan') there resided baliycis ("city priors"), appointed by the Khazars. The cities of Sugdaea/Surozand theGothic Doros wereat thattime governed directly by Khazar administrators:Sugdaea by a tarxanand Doros by a tax collector withthe title of tudun.34 In 721, theByzantine emperor Leo III the Isauriantook a public stand againstthe veneration of religiousimages (icons), and in 730 he officially prohibitedtheir use. This iconoclastdoctrine was officiallydefined in 754 at theCouncil of Hieria. Thus beganthe famous iconoclastic controversy, whichsoon embraced all aspectsof Byzantinereligious, cultural, and politi- cal life. The firsticonoclastic period extended from 730 to 787, whenthe seventhecumenical council in Nicaea, convokedby the empressIrene (780-802), theformer Athenian beauty, condemned the iconoclastic teach- ings. But in 814, Leo V theArmenian (813-820) renewedthe destruction

30 J.van der Gheyn, Auger Busbecq et les Gotsorientaux (Bruges, 1888). 31 È. J. Solomonikand O. J. Dombrovs'kyj,"O lokalizaciistrany Dori," Arxeologiceskie issledovanijasrednevekovogo Kryma (Kiev, 1968), pp. 11-44; E. V. Vejmarn,J. T. Loboda, J. S. Pioro,and M. Ja. Coref,"Arxeologiceskie issledovanija stolicy knjazestva Feodoro," Feodal'naja Tavrida(Kiev, 1974),pp. 123-39. 32 See Carl de Boor, "Nachträgezu den NotitiaeEpiscopatuum," Zeitschrift für Kirchen- Geschichte12 (1890): 531 -33. 33 OmeljanPritsak, "The KhazarKingdom's Conversion to Judaism,"Harvard Ukrainian Studies2, no. 3 (September1978): 261-81. 34 Pritsak,"Khazar Conversion," pp. 264-65.

This content downloaded from 91.105.30.38 on Sun, 19 Oct 2014 07:16:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 94 OMELJANPRITS AK of icons, which ended only in 843, when the venerationof icons was restoredby the empress Theodora. Duringthe entireiconoclastic controversy (730-843), all the Crimean bishopsremained iconodules; therefore, the Crimea became a refugefor the persecutedvenerators of icons. Because it was necessaryto preventthe interruptionin the apostolic succession of theestablished Orthodox hierar- chy,new bishopshad to be consecratedby such iconoduleauthorities as JohnofGotthia.35

ThreeLives (Bios = Vita) fromthe periodunder investigation have sur- vived. Naturally,all threeof thesaints so veneratedwere iconodules. Two came fromthe Crimeaand one fromAmastris. The threewere contem- poraries:Stephen, bishop of Sugdaea/Suroz(d. after787); John,bishop of Gotthia(d. ca. 792); and George,bishop of Amastris(d. ca. 807). One of these Lives was writtenin Constantinopleby a prominentpoet and hagiographer;the othertwo were writtenin the provincesby anonymous local literati. The luckyprelate was George of Amastris,since his Life was written about 820 by Ignatius(b. ca. 770, d. after845), who at thattime was the deacon and skeuophylaxof the Great Churchin Constantinople.Later, Ignatius,a fellow-travelerof the iconoclasts,became an archbishopof Nicaea.36 The onlyknown manuscript of theLife of Georgeof Amastris(Parisi- anus 1452) datesfrom the tenth century and is a directcopy, apparently, of theninth-century original. George became archbishop of Amastrisca. 790 (he was probablythe firsttenant of thatnewly elevated see), and died ca. 802-807, duringthe reign of theemperor Nicephorus I (802-81 1). Sometimeafter his death,but beforethe Life (includingits miracula) was written,i.e., between807 and 820, Amastriswas attackedby "the bar- bariansof the Rhos (xcov'Pcoç), a people whichis, as everyoneknows, utterlywild and rough,devoid of any tracesof humaneness."When they wereabout to plunderthe grave of SaintGeorge, expecting to findhidden

35 IhorSevcenko, "Hagiography of theIconoclast Period," Iconoclasmi Papers givenat the 9thSpring Symposium of Byzantine Studies (Birmingham, 1975), pp. 113-31 (=idem, Ideol- ogy,Letters and Culturein theByzantine World [London: Variorum reprints, 1982], no. V. [pp. 1-42], see esp. p. 30, fn.14). 30 I am usingthe edition of Vasilij G. Vasil'evskijm his Trudy,vol. 3 (Petrograd,1915; rptd. Vaduz, 1968), pp. iii-cxli, 1-71. See W. Treadgold,"Three ByzantineProvinces and the FirstByzantine Contacts with the Rus'," in thisvolume of HUS, pp. 132-44.

This content downloaded from 91.105.30.38 on Sun, 19 Oct 2014 07:16:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AT THE DAWN OF CHRISTIANITY IN RUS ' 95 treasures,a miracletook place: the robbersbecame paralyzeduntil their leaderpromised that he wouldnot disturb the Christians any more.37 The attackwas a navalone. Ignatiuspresents this fact to his audiencein the followingway: 'They- thispeople terriblein both theirdeeds and theirname (= biblical Pcoç)- began theirdevastations from the Propontis (àrcòt''ç nporcovTÍôoç)arid after having visited other parts of the littoral [of Paphlagonia] finally reached the birthplaceof the Saint [i.e., Amastris]."38I shall dwell fora momenton the geographicterm "Pro- pontis,"since there is someconfusion about it in thescholarly literature. It is truethat "Propontis" is referredto severaltimes with the specific meaning of "the Sea of Marmara" as well as of the "Bosporus" and/orthe "Dardanelles."39But it seemsto me thatIgnatius, true to his highlyrhetori- cal style,was using"Propontis" not as a concretegeographic term, but in itsappellative meaning, that is, as rcpo-Tcovxic'of thefore-head of thesea'. The "fore-head"in questionwas apparentlythe internal sea of theCrimea, theMaeotis (the Azov Sea), used here as a metaphor.The "head" was, naturally,the Black Sea, on theshores of whichAmastris was located. The textclearly alludes to theCrimea as theplace fromwhich the pirates came. It says: "Amongthem (the Rhõs) stillflourishes that old Taurian[Crimean] ' '40 slaughterof aliens. Since boththe manuscript transmission and theveracity of thisLife are beyondreproach,41 we may notethat in about820 theRhõs were already well knownin Constantinople.Their firstappearance within Byzantine confinesmust have occurred some decades earlier. The Lifeof theiconodule John of Gotthiawas writtenin theprovinces, possiblyin Amastris,sometime between 815 and 842.42It is short,with no rhetoricpretenses, but - in the words of Ihor Sevcenko- "it inspires confidence."43This Life containssome importantdata forthe historyof Khazarrule, but nothing of importancefor the topic under discussion. On theother hand, the secondprovincial Life, also shortand unpretentious,is extremelyvaluable for our study.This is the "Life of St. Stephen of Sugdaea/Suroz,"the originalof which,unfortunately, has not come down to us. We know of its existencefrom two sources. One is a late

37 Ed. Vasil'evskij,Trudy, 3: 64; see also therest of themiraculum, pp. 65 -71 . 38 Ed. Vasil'evskij,Trudy, 3: 64. 39 See Vasil'evskij,Trudy, 3: cxxviii-cxli. 40 Ed. Vasil'evskij,Trudy, 3: 64-65. Cf. Vasiliev,The Goths, p. 11 1, fn.5. 41 Sevcenko,"Hagiography," pp. 12-17. 42 Vasil'evskij, "Zitie Joanna Gotskogo," in Trudy, vol. 2 (St. Petersburg,1909), pp. 351-427. Cf. Vasiliev,The Goths, pp. 89-96; Sevcenko,"Hagiography," p. 4. 43 Sevcenko,"Hagiography," p. 4.

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Greekexcerpt made by an illiterateGreek from Sugdaea sometimein the fourteenth-fifteenth century, preserved in a singlecopy in thelibrary of the Patriarchateof Constantinople(Chalcensis, no. 75). The otheris a Slavic translation,embedded in a laterhagiographie Slavic work,which, as willbe shown,could notdate earlier than from the middle of thefifteenth century. It existsin numerous(at least fifteen)copies datingfrom the end of the fifteenthcentury on.44 Vasilij Grigor'evicVasil'evskij, in his classic study of thisLife, has provenbeyond any doubtthat the Slavic version,in the formit has come down to us, was not just a plain translationfrom the Greek,but an independentcompilation by a Rus' writer(whom I shallcall 4 'Slavic" insteadof "Rus' "; see below) of themid-fifteenth century who knewGreek. Vasil'evskijidentified the compilation's five sources, two of whichbelonged to thetradition of St. Stephenand threeof whichstood out- side it. In the firstcategory was the shortGreek Life (=Bios) of the saint. Vasil'evskij's findingswere corroboratedby FriedrichWestberg, who demonstratedthat biographical details in theGreek and theSlavic rework- ingsagree and bearthe stamp of truth.45Apparently both were based on the lost Greekoriginal. The second sourcewas the "Miracula of St. Stephen (of Sugdaea)," which,according to Vasil'evskij,was appendedto theorigi- nal Life and had the same author.46His argumentsare convincing.The name of St. Stephen'schurch in Sugdaea is correctlynamed St. Sophia.47 Philaretuswas in fact St. Stephen'ssuccessor (d. 826).48 In the second miracle,the local Khazar governoris called Jurijtarxan, by theexpected Khazar title;he is referredto in anotherSlavic translationaltext as Jurij namestnik.49According to Vasil'evskij(and Westberg),the third miracle in whichthe Rus' appear is also credible.50On the lattersubject I will say morelater. The fifteenth-centurycompiler embellished the meager text of theorigi- nal Lifewith rhetorical passages taken from classical hagiographie literature in bothGreek and Slavic. Verylarge portions belong to theLife of St. John Chrysostomby George of Alexandria(d. 630), wherebythe fifteenth- centurycompiler used boththe Greek original and an earlierSlavic trans- 44 All available material was collected by Vasil'evskij in his Trudy, vol. 3, pp. cxlii-cclxxxviii,72-98. 45 FriedrichWestberg, "O zitii Sv. Stefana Surozskogo," Vizantijskijvremennik 14 (1908): 226-36. 46 Ed. Vasil'evskij,Trudy, 3: cclxvi-cclxix. 47 Ed. Vasil'evskij,Trudy, 3: cxcv-cxcvi,ccxii. 48 Ed. Vasil'evskij,Trudy, 3: cclxvi-cclxvii,eclxx, eclxxii, cexe, cexciv; text, pp. 94, 96. 49 Ed. Vasil'evskij,Trudy, 3: 95; see also pp. ccxxix,eclxvii. 50 Ed. Vasil'evskij,Trudy, 3: cclxix-cclxxxvi;Westberg, "O zitii," pp. 226-36.

This content downloaded from 91.105.30.38 on Sun, 19 Oct 2014 07:16:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AT THE DAWN OF CHRISTIANITY IN RUS ' 97 lation.51Another plundered victim was JohnMoschus (seventhcentury), theauthor of Pratumspirituale.52 A thirdwork from which the compiler of thefifteenth-century manuscript borrowed freely was theLife of St. Peter, Metropolitanof Kiev (residingin Moscow) (d. 1326), writtenby theBul- gariancleric Cyprian (d. 1406), who was fordecades metropolitanof Rus' and who was among the initiatorsof the so-called second South Slavic intellectualand literary revival in Rus'.53 If one deletesthese borrowed elements from the extant text of theSlavic Lifeof St. Stephen(of Sugdaea),there still remains a solidkernel. Friedrich Westberghas shownthat the data it contains(as well as thosein theextant Greekabridgement) are sufficientto establishbasic biographicalinforma- tionon thesaint.54 On thebasis of Westberg's studyand on thereanalysis of the sourcedata, it is possibleto reconstructthe following events in St. Stephen'slife: ca. 698 Stephen(= S.) was bornin thelocality of Morivasin Cappadocia;he attendedthe local school; ca. 714he visited Athens, soon to be thecenter of the iconodules; ca. 720S. arrivedin Constantinople, hisdomicile for the next five years; ca. 724 S. becamea monkin Constantinopleand spentfour (A) yearsin a monastery; ca. 728/729the patriarch Germanus I (715-730) made S. (atthat time at least thirty yearsof age) archbishop ofSugdaea; ca. 730-741S. waspersecuted by the emperor Leo III (717-741); ca. 741the empress Irene of Khazaria (see below) helped S. toregain his freedom; 787S. participatedinthe eighth ecumenical council of Nicaea; between787 and 790 S. dieda nonagenarian. The presenceof thename of Ireneof Khazariain boththe Slavic Lifeof Stephen(of Sugdaea) and in an Arabichistorical text (see below) is a warn- ingfor both Byzantinists and Slavicistsnot to dismissthis monument com- pletely:in itseasily discernible, non-borrowed parts, it is in factreliable. Let us proceedwith uncovering the identity of theliteratus, skilled both in Greekand Slavic hagiography,who transformeda simple, short Greek Lifeinto a largerhetorical opus. Also, whydid he do so? The thirty-year-longpontificate of ArchbishopEvfimij II (1429-1459) in GreatNovgorod has a special significancefor the intellectual history of thatrepublic. Confronted with the threat from Moscow, Evfimij sought to

51 Ed. Vasil'evskii,Trudy, 3: ccxli-cclviii. 52 Ed. Vasil'evskij,Trudy, 3:ccxxxiv. See CatherineIgnatiev, Zitie Petra des Metropoliten Kiprian. Eine Untersuchungzu Form und Stil russischerHeiligenleben (Wiesbaden, 1976) (= Abhandlungenzur Slavistik, 22). 53 Ed. Vasil'evskij,Trudy, 3: cclix,cclxxxvi. 54 Westberg,"O zitii,"pp. 227-32.

This content downloaded from 91.105.30.38 on Sun, 19 Oct 2014 07:16:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 98 OMELJANPRITS AK createa basis for Novgorodianidentity.55 What he needed was a set of Lives of Novgorodiansaints, and of those who could be connectedwith Novgorodduring the early history of Rus'. He was also eager to obtaina new commonRus' chroniclein whichGreat Novgorod played the leading role. In thefifteenth century, the main supplier of learnedliterary craftsmen forthe Orthodox Slavic worldwas holyMount Athos with its learned South Slavic (Serbian and Bulgarian)monks, who masteredboth Greek and Slavic. The major figuresin the intellectuallife of Rus' were,with rare exceptions,of SouthSlavic origin.Hence EvfimijII invitedthe Serbian Pa- xomijLogofet to workfor him in Novgorod.56Paxomij, then about thirty yearsold, arrivedin Novgorodin ca. 1438,and therestarted his careeras a veryprolific writer of Lives. Occasionally,however, he also workedfor Moscow,but shrewdly, without antagonizing any of his patrons.57 Indeed,Paxomij was a literatus who could satisfyeveryone's tastes and expectations.He was well read in bothGreek and Slavic, and had a very mobilepen. As mentionedabove, he was an extremelyprolific and popular writer,if notone veryserious or concernedwith historical veracity. It was typicalfor him to borrowfreely from the existing hagiographical literature, old andnew, Greek and Slavic. Paxomijwrote, re-edited, and copied a greatnumber of Lives and other edifyingtexts. But foremostof all he suppliedEvfimij II with a true Novgorodiansaint, whom he also presentedas an anti-Moscowactivist. This was the firstarchbishop of Novgorod,John (1163-1186), forwhom Evfimijconstructed some miracles, and thenwrote his Life on thatbasis.58 The Slavic versionof theLife of Stephen(of Sugdaea) alreadyexisted in themiddle of thefifteenth century, since its third miraculum is paraphrased, as Vasil'evskijrecognized, in theLife of St. DimitrijPriluckij (d. 1391),for whichthe year 1450 has been establishedas the date of composition.59 Hence theextant Slavic Lifeof Stephen(of Sugdaea) musthave been writtenin Novgorodby the 1440s. The onlyv/ta-writer active in Novgorodat thattime was Paxomijthe Serbian.

55 V. L. Komaroviöin Istorijarusskoj literatury, vol. 2. pt. 1, ed. A. S. Orlovet al. (Moscow andLeningrad, 1946), pp. 257-64. 56 On PaxomijLogofet see DmytroCyzevs'kyj, Pachomij Logofet: Werke in Auswahl(Sla- vischePropyläen, vol. 1) (Munich,1963); thiswork consists of theeditor's introductory biblio- graphicalessay (pp. 5-12) and reprintedexcerpts from V. Jablonskij'sedition: Paxomij Serb i ego agiografiéeskiepisanija (St. Petersburg,1908), and G. M. Proxorov,"Paxomij Serb," in Slovar' kniznikovi kniznostiDrevnej Rusi, II: 2, ed. D. S. Lixaõev (Leningrad,1989), pp. 167-77. 57 Cyzevs'kyj,Paxomij, pp. 6-9. 58 Komaroviö,in Istorija, pp. 262-64. 59 Ed. Vasil'evskij,Trudy, 3: cclx-cclxi.

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I submitthat a professionalv/ta-writer such as Paxomijwould not miss theopportunity to producean extrafavor for his Novgorodianpatron. Fa- miliarwith the unpretentious and shortGreek Life of Stephenof Sugdaea, whichhe may have takenwith him together with other texts when he left MountAthos for Novgorod, he realizedits potentialin thiscontext. The Greekoriginal apparently mentions, as did theLife of George(of Amastris), theRhõs (Pcoç) in a generalway as barbaricraiders. Having found in the Old Rus' Chronicle(P ovest' vremennyxlet) the (legendary)information thatthe Rus' dynastybegan its careerin Novgorod,Paxomij decided that the attackersof Sugdaea came fromNovgorod. This was veryimportant forhis purposes,because now theprimacy of Novgorodcould be corroboratedby a Lifeof a Greeksaint, just by changingthe simplemention of Rhõs into"rat' velikarousskaa iz" Novagrada(the great Rus' armyfrom Novgorod)."60 Paxomijmade a similarlyintelligent editorial change when he borrowed a passage fromCyprian the Bulgarian's Life of St. Peter"of Moscow" to achieve the greatfinal effect in his reworkingof the Life of Stephen(of Sugdaea): Cyprian Paxomij no ubo ponezetebe predstatelja no oubo ponezetebë pred'statelja Rusiiskaazemlja stjaza, Rous'kaja zemljastjaza. slavnyize grad" Moskva, slavnyjze grad" Suroz' cestnyjatvoja mosci jakoze cestnyjatvoja mosci jakoze nëkoes"krovisce cestno nëkoesokrovisce cestno s"bljudaet". . . sobljudaet".. .61 But now we leave Paxomij and returnto the miraculaof the Life of Stephen(of Sugdaea), whichwere, according to Vasil'evskij,adopted by thecompiler of the Slavic reworkingfrom the originalGreek text. I can provideadditional proof for this thesis. Ihor Sevcenko,in his seminal 1977 studyon the hagiographyof the iconoclastperiod, expressed doubts about the authenticityof the Life of Stephen(of Sugdaea): "Its Greek[excerpt] version," he wrote,"confuses Leo III withLeo V and its authordoes not know- or does not wantto know- thatthe pious womanEirene who helpedthe Saint was in facta Khazar princess,the very wife of the dreadedConstantine the Kopro-

60 Ed. Vasil'evskij,Trudy, 3: 95. 61 Ed. Vasil'evskij,Trudy, 3:cclx: "But since theland of Rus' got you as a leaderand the " gloriouscity of Moscow/ Suroz preserves your venerable relics as a venerabletreasure. . .

This content downloaded from 91.105.30.38 on Sun, 19 Oct 2014 07:16:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 100 OMELJANPRITSAK nymos.. ."62 Sevcenkoalso findsit strange,as Vasil'evskijdid beforehim, thatthe empress Irene (the Khazar) appears in theSlavic versionas "Theo- " 63 dora,daughter of theking (car' ) of Kerc. One shouldnot blame the Life of Stephenfor confusingLeo V with Leo III. As Westbergsuggested, the originalGreek text had here simply the name Leo, as the Slavic translationconfirms: "/ prija v'se carstvo Lev"."64 The addition'Apjiévioç (before Aecov) in theextant Greek text is just one of many errorson the part of the illiterateabbreviator of the fifteenthcentury.65 The case of themistaken identity of theempress Irene of Khazaria,the wifeof ConstantineKopronymos, also has an explanation.The textual(in thelate Greek reworking) ôtòc xivoç ydvocikòç EípfívTiç 'through the agency of theLady Irene' is not to be interpretedas "a certainwoman Eirene," since it is qualifiedby the succeedingparenthetical sentence, Kai tg>ovxi GrÙTfiçeípiivriç 'and in factshe was a peace(maker),'which was sufficiently markedto meanthe empress Irene (of Khazaria). The Slavic textomits the name Irene altogether,66but it has extremelyvaluable informationabout thatlady: "a carici ego [ConstantineKopronymos] Feõdora ker'ceskogo carja dsci."61 This sentence,misunderstood by many scholars,68was correctlyexplained by Westberg:69Empress 'Teodora" is notmeant here, but,as thesyntax demands, 'Teodor, kingof Kerc" (in thegenitive), i.e., one musttranslate the passage as: "and his queen [was] the daughterof Theodore,King of Kerc." As mentionedabove, Kerc (Bosporus)was the capitalof the formerBosporus Kingdom, and, therefore,"King of Bos- porus" was a naturalmetaphor for the emperor of Khazaria. Thismetaphor had alreadybeen recognizedby Westberg70and Sevcenko,71independently of each other. But thereis irrefutablecorroboration that the father of the empressIrene, the kagan of Khazaria,was namedTheodore. In onlya few cases do theextant sources note the name of thekagan of Khazaria. For- tunately,they do forthe fatherof Irene. A veryreliable old Arabic his- torian,Abu MuhammadAhmad b. cAlïIbn Acthamal-Kûfï (d. 926), writes

62 Sevcenko,"Hagiography," p. 2. 63 Sevcenko,"Hagiography," p. 29, fn.8. 64 Ed. Vasil'evskij,Trudy, 3: 91. ' 65 Westberg,'O zitii," p. 230. 66 Ed. Vasil'evskij,Trudy, 3: 76 (Greektext) = p. 93 (Slavic text). 67 Ed. Vasil'evskij,Trudy, 3: 93. 68 E.g., Sevcenko,"Hagiography," p. 29, fn.8. 69 Westbere,"O zitii," p. 231. 70 Westberg,"O zitii," p. 231, however,implies the existence of a Khazarsub-kagan residingin Kerö,a vassal ofthe Itil-based grand-kagan, which is incorrect. 71 Sevcenko,"Hagiography," p. 29, fn.8.

This content downloaded from 91.105.30.38 on Sun, 19 Oct 2014 07:16:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AT THE DAWN OF CHRISTIANITY IN RUS' 101 in his Kitãbal-Fuiüh that the name of thekagan who ruledin 732/733was T*Hr' khãqãn malik al-Khazar wcfsmu-hü f 5(r.72 Peter Golden, who in his Khazar Studiessearched for Turkic elements in the Khazarianlanguage, 4 'corrected"(German: Verschlimmbesserung) the manuscriptform to a " nice Turkic"bftr (= *bayatur)'hero,'73 although that word is neverman- ifestin Arabicscript written with "t" (ta muallif),but only with "t" (dot- ted O-74In my opinionf*tr - fãtr (withthe initialt- and not b-) is the Khazar-Bulgarianrendering of theGreek name "Theodore,"75 whereby the local pronunciationof the Arabic letteriicAyn" as -y-substituted for the hiatusmissing in thislanguage group.76 In Khazariathe Bosporus Bulgars were already Muslims during the reign of thecaliph al-Ma^mün (813-833).77 The descendantsof theold Bulgars, thenon-Muslim Chuvashes, render the Arabic iicAyn" by %[y] even today,78 e.g.,sacat 'time' > sexet;19cãr 'shame' > xar; caql 'mind'>xakäl. The Arabic"fa" is commonlyused forthe Turkic (and Bulgarian)-d-. The graphicrepresentation fãtr shouldbe read as *teyador,the Khazarian (and Bulgarian)version of theGreek name "Theodore."80 Hence,the empress Irene was notcalled "Theodora" in theSlavic Life of Stephenof Sugdaea.

11 TopkapiSarayi Miizesi, III. AhmetKütüphanesi 2956 (copied in A.D. 1468); vol. 2, fol. 241r,1.13 (reproducedby Peter B. Golden,Khazar Studies, vol. 2 [Budapest,1980], p. 40). 73 Golden,Khazar Studies, 1 : 156-57. 74 See GerhardDoerfer, Türkische und mongolischeElemente im Neupersischen,vol. 2 (Wiesbaden,1965), no. 817 (pp. 366-77); Sir GerardClauson, An EtymologicalDictionary of Pre-ThirteenthCentury Turkish (Oxford, 1972), p. 313. 75 Therewas no one uniformrendering of Greekpersonal names in Arabic. In his Kitãb al- Fihrist(the oldest Arabic bibliography), an-Nadïm writes (a.D. 988) indiscriminatelyty'drws (ed. GustavFlügel, vol. 1 [Leipzig,1871]), p. 242, 1. 17; p. 303, 1. 16; thywdwrs(ibid., p. 269, 1.5). In his Ta'rlkh,the Christian patriarch of AntiochYahyã b. Sacïd al-Antakï(d. ca. 1066) also uses differentvariants: th'wdhrs; th'wdwrs; and thdwrs;see ed. J. Krackovs'kijand A. Vasil'iev (Paris,1932), p. 375. 76 ' Also in Kazan-Tatar,Bashkir, and Kazakhthe Arabic '£Ay«"is usuallyrendered as -y-. 77 See OmelianPritsak, The Origin of Rus', vol. 1 (Cambridge,Mass., 1981),pp. 60-61. 78 See Vasilij G. Egorov, Sovremennyjcuvasskij literaturnyjjazyk v sravnitel'no- istoriceskomosvescenii, pt. 1 (Ceboksary,1954), pp. 116-17. 79 It is interestingthat the Codex Cumanicusfrom the thirteenth -fourteenth century also has the variantsahat 'hora.' Kaare Gr0nbech,Komanisches Wörterbuch (Copenhagen, 1942), p. 210. 80 Interestinglyenough, the Moldaviandocuments of the fifteenth-seventeenth centuries renderthe Greek name as Toader,Tador, Toder, etc. See, e.g.,Documenta Romaniae Histór- ica. A. Moldava,vol. 1 (Bucharest,1975).

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III. BRAV[A]LINAND THE BRÁVELLIRBATTLE: THENORDMANNI IN THE WESTAND EAST

The thirdmiraculum of St. Stephenof Sugdaeahas in itsSlavic (Paxomij's) versionthe title: "(9 prixozdeniiratiju k Surozu knjazja Bravlina (Bra- valina) iz" VelikogoNovgoroda," i.e., "On the comingto Sugdaea of Prince Bravlin [Bravalin]with his armyfrom Novgorod the Great."81 Naturally,the words "from Novgorod the Great" are Paxomij'sadditions. The storybegins as follows: Po smertize svjatagomalo let" minoupriide rat' velika rousskaa iz" Novagrada knjaz'Brav[a]lin" silen" zelo, pieniot" Korsounjai do Korea,s" mnogojusiloju priidek Sourozu.za 10 d'nij bisasja zie mezousebe, i pò 10 d'nij vnide Brav[a]lin".siloju izlomiv" zeleznaa vrata i vnidev" grad",i zem" mee' svoj.i vnidev" cerkov'v" svjatujuSofiju. i razbiv"dveri i vnideidëze grob" svjatago. a na grobecar'skoe odëalo i zemejug"i zlatoi kamen'dragyj, i kandila zlata. is" sudov"zlatyx" mnogo, vse pograbisa. i v torn"case raz'bolësja. . . [A fewyears after the death of the Saint (who died ca. 787)came a largeRus' army fromNovgorod (with) Prince Brav [a] lin (who was) verystrong. He tookcaptives fromCherson to Kerc,and with a largeforce he arrivedin Sugdaea.For ten days theyfought harshly with each other, and after ten days Brav [a] lin entered, having forciblycut the Iron Gates. And he entered the city, and having taken his sword, he burstinto the Church of St. Sophia. And having broken the door, he approached the graveof the saint. On the grave there was a royalrobe and pearls, and gold and pre- ciousstones, and goldencandelabras, and manygolden vessels. Having robbed everything,heat once became ill. . .] He was strickenby palsy. Enquiringabout the cause of his calamity,he was told about the Christianfaith by the sainthimself, and consequently wished to become Christian.Archbishop Philaret and his priestsnow appeared,and Brav[a] lin and his entirecomitatus (i boljar e vsi) werebap- tized. As a result,Brav [a] lin was miraculouslyhealed. He thenordered thatthe captivestaken from the littoralsbetween Cherson and Kerc be released. Having bestowed great offeringson the grave of the saint, Brav[a]lindeparted with his retinue. I mayadd thatthe phrasing "from Cherson to Kerc [Bosporus]"should notbe takenliterally: it is merelythe contemporary (eighth- ninth-century) generaldesignation for the Greek Crimea (the Klimata), which occurs, for example,in theLife of Theodore of Studium(written before 855).82

81 Ed. Vasil'evskij,Trudy, 3: 95. 82 Oi yap év Toîç kXíiiclgixr'q raxà XepaôvocKai Bóarcopovrcaponcíaç emaKorcoi Kai jtpeapikepoi,"Vita S. TheodoriStuditae," ed. J. P. Migne,Patrologiae cursus completus, Seriesgraeco-latina, vol. 99, col. 253.

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As mentionedabove, Evfimij II neededan all-Rus' chroniclethat depicted Novgorodas the originalpolitical and religiouscenter, and he commis- sioned the hagiographerPaxomij to write such a compilation.Unfor- tunately,this first Novgorod-centered historical work has notcome downto us, apparentlydue to thedemise of theNovgorodian republic thirty years later,when Novgorod was conqueredand destroyedby Ivan III of Moscow (1478). It was Aleksej AleksandrovicSaxmatov who provedthat the so-called Russkijxronograf (redaction 1442), whichleft indelible marks on subse- quentall-Rus' chronicle-writing of the fifteenth and sixteenthcenturies, was producedby Paxomij.83But thelatter's success at introducing"Brav[a]lin fromGreat Novgorod" as thefirst single ruler of Rus' was shortlived. It was the firstKievan chronicler,working ca. 1072, who made an ingeniousdiscovery about the year that marks the debut of theRus' in history.Having found in certainBulgaro-Slavonic translations of theByzan- tinechronicles that the name of Rus' firstappeared during the reign of the Byzantineemperor Michael III (842-867), he placed the emergenceof Rus' in the firstyear of thatemperor's reign. Unfortunately,due to a numericalerror in his translationalsources (explained by A. A. Saxmatov), he computedthat crucial date as A.M.6362/ A.D. 854 ratherthan A.D. 842, the year of the ascent to the throneof Michael III.84 This error was "corrected" by the later chronicler,the hegumenSilvester (ca. 1116), compilerof theauthoritative Povësf vremennyxlet, to anotherincorrectly computeddate, A.M. 6360/ A.D. 852.85 Since thattime, the majority of chron- iclers(and modernhistorians following in theirfootsteps) have erroneously regardedthe year 852 as the"first known historical date" of Rus'. But the old chroniclersdid notname the Rus' princewho ruledduring that crucial yearof 852. Paxomij,who knew fromthe Life of Stephen(of Sugdaea), whichhe reworked,that there was a Rus' princeBrav[a]lin, did nothesitate to makehim (and, naturally, Great Novgorod) the originator of thehistori- cal periodof Rus'. Initiallythis was acceptedeven in Moscow,but with the replacementof theodious name of Novgorodwith that of Kiev. In thefinal

83 Aleksej A. Saxmatov,Obozrenie russkix letopisnyx svodov XIV-XVI vv. (Moscow and Leningrad,1938), pp. 134-36. 84 ' See OmeljanPritsak, 'The Povësf vremennyxlet and theQuestion of Truth,"History and Heroic Tale. Proceedingsof the Eighth International Symposium. Centre for theStudy of Ver- nacularLiterature in theMiddle Ages (Odense, 1983), pp. 136-37. 85 Povësf vremennyxlet (hereafterPVL), ed. D. S. Lixacev,vol. 1 (Moscow and Leningrad, 1950),p. 17.

This content downloaded from 91.105.30.38 on Sun, 19 Oct 2014 07:16:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 104 OMELJANPRITSAK analysis,the Brav[a]lin episode was ignoredby thechroniclers and fellinto oblivion. To illustratehow presentationof thisepisode progressed, I quote three chronicles,each witha differenttreatment of the eventsof the yearA.M. 6360/A.D. 852: P ovestvremennyx let86 V" lëto 6360, indikta15 den', nacensjuMixailu carstvovati,naca sja prozyvati Ruskajazemlja. 0 sem' bo uvëdaxom",jako pri sem' cari prixodisaRus' na Car'gorod",jakoze pisetsjav lëtopisan'igrec'stëm'. Tëmze otselepocnem" i cisla polozim." [In the year 6360 (852), the 15thof the indiction,at the accession of Emperor Michael,the land of Rus' was firstnamed. We have determinedthis date (fromthe fact) that in thereign of thisemperor the Rus' attackedConstantinople, as is writtenin theGreek chronicle. Hence we shall beginat thispoint and record the dates.] Paxomij'sRusskij xronograf%1 V" lëto6360 nacen'suv" Grëcëx" Mixailucarstvovati, nacatsja prozyvati Ruskaja zemlja. 1 xodisa Slovjanëiz" Novagorodaknjaz' imenem"Bravalin" i voevasa na Grekii povoevasa Greceskujuzemlju ot" Xersonai do Korceva i do Suroza okolo Carja grada. [In theyear 6360 (852), at theaccession of Michaelin Byzantium,the land of Rus' was firstnamed. And the Slovene of Novgorod(under) Prince Bravalin went out, and theycam- paignedagainst the Greeks and raidedthe Greek land (Byzantium)from Cherson to Kerc(Bosporus) and to Sugdaeanear Constantinople.] Demidov'sxronograf* Pri carë Mixailë, v" lëto 6360, xodili Rus' vojnoju iz" Kieva grada, Knjaz' imenem" Bravalin", voevati na Greki,na Car'grad", i povoevasa Greceskuju zemlju,ot" Xersonai do Skurueva[variants: korueva/ korceva] i do Suroza.... o tom" pisanov" Cjudesëx" Sv. StefanaSurozskago. [Duringthe reign (of Emperor)Michael, in theyear 6360 (852), theRus' wentout fromKiev City(under) the prince by thename of Bravalinto combatthe Greeks, againstConstantinople. And theycampaigned in theGreek land (Byzantium)from Chersonto Kerc and to Sugdaea.... It is writtenabout this in themiracula of St. Stephenof Sugdaea.]

86 PVL, 1:17. 87 AleksandrVostokov, ed., Opisanie russkixi slovenskixrukopisej Rumjancovskogo muzeuma(St. Petersburg,1842), p. 351. 88 AndrejPopov, ed., Obzorxronografov russkoj redakcii, pt. 1 (Moscow, 1866),p. 234. See also F. Giljarov,Predanija russkoj NacaV noj letopisi(Moscow, 1878),p. 102.

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Now let us turnto thename Bravalin/Bravlin, since it appearsin thesetwo variants.In my opinionthe form Bravalin is theprimary one. The name couldnot have been inventedby Paxomij,since it neitherrings true nor has anymeaning either in Greekor in Slavic,or even in Khazarian.Assuming thatthe name was presentin theGreek original of theMiracula of Stephen (of Sugdaea),it musthave been writtenthere as *ßpaßaXxvoc;apparently it representeda propername with the adjectivizingsuffix -ivoç (-in-o-s). Since in Greekthe final vowel of a stemwould be elidedby thesuffix -ivoç, it is reasonableto supposethat the startingpoint for the Greekform was ^bravala. This, again, seems to be none otherthan the Old Norse oblique form bra-valla?9the genitiveof the name Brá-vellir. It so happensthat this etymonis founduniquely in the name of the mostfamous battle in Old Norse pre-history- that of Brávellir- probably fought on the later Swedish-Gautishfrontier. The originalmeaning in Greekmust have been "of Brávalla" i.e., "a manwho participated at theBrávellir battle." Whether the form was a ren- ditionof Old Norse *Brávalla-kappi'a championof Brávellir,'or another Old Norseform, is a matterfor further investigation and discussion.What is decisiveand of primaryimportance for the present investigation is that we finallyhave a relativelywell-dated event directly connected with the Brávellirbattle. We have seen above thatthe naval attackon Sugdaea/Suroz,led by a warriorcalled Bravalin,i.e., "participantat the Brávellirbattle," took place sometimearound 790. This again makes it veryprobable that the Brávellirbattle occurred within the life span of Bravalin,who in 790 must nothave been of an advancedage. Hence,we can establish,provisionally, thatthe Brávellir battle occurred between 770 and 790. It is reasonableto assumethat this - apparentlythe earliest - encounter betweenthe Northmen and theByzantine Greeks of theCrimea in ca. 790, whichended with the conversions of theRus Bravalinand his comitatus90 resultedin theappearance of baptizedNorthmen in Byzantiumno laterthan theend of theeighth century, as notedat thebeginning of thispaper.

89 The Old Norseforms given above are in theplural (nom. vellir; gen. valla). The nomina- tivesingular is vçllr,with the basic meaningof "field." 90 The Danube-Bulgarian Slavic form boljar- is used for Bravalin's comitatus',ed. Vasil'evskij,Trudy, 3:95.

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Seven Old Norsesagas of theFornaldar type, reduced to parchmentin the second half of the thirteenthcentury, among themsome fromca. 1260, mentiona "decisive" battlefought both at the vik ("a smallcreek, inlet, bay"; "tradingfactory") and on the vçllr ("a field,plain"; cf. Celtic magos"field; trading factory") of Brá.91 Duringthe last century,scholars have expressedmany ingenious(if conflicting)opinions about the historicity or non-historicityof the Brávellir battle.The firstschool of thoughtwas bestformulated by Axel Olrik,who dated the eventto ca. A.D. 550. Accordingto Olrik,at thattime, on the greatplain of Bra härad(East Gotland,north of modernNorrköping), the East Gauts(Sigurör Hring) decisively defeated the invading Danes (Harald Hilditçnn)and thusstopped the Danish expansion to thenorth. But thevic- toriousGauts suffered heavy losses at thebattle and soon fellvictim to the Svear, thus paving the way for Swedish hegemony.92While accepting Olrik's dating,Birger Nerman suggests that the competitorsin the battle werethe Swedes and theGauts,93 while Kemp Malone (basinghis conclu- sionson thedata fromBeowulf) believes that the conflict was betweenthe Franksand Frisians,on the one hand,and the Gauts,on the other.94The supportersof themythic interpretation, especially Stig Wikander, regard the Brávellirbattle as the reflectionof an Old Indo-Europeanmyth, as recountedin theOld IndianMahabharatcC s Kurukshetra battle.95

91 The basic literatureon the Brávellir battle is: Axel Olrik, "Brâvallakvadets kœmperaîkke,"Arkiv for nordiskfilologi 10 (n.s. vol. 6) (1894): 223-87; idem,"Brávellir," Namnoch Bygd(Uppsala), 2 (1914): 297-312; TureHedeström, Fornsagor och Eddakvädeni geografiskbelysning, 2 vols. (Stockholm,1917-19); Paul Herrmann,"Die Heldensagendes Saxo Grammaticus,"in idem,Erläuterungen zu den erstenneun Büchernder Danischen Geschichtedes Saxo Grammaticus,pt. 2 (Leipzig, 1922), esp. pp. 539-48; Hermann " Schneider,"Harald Kampfzahnund die 'Bravalla-Schlacht,' in idem,Germanische Helden- sage (Berlin),vol. 2, pt. 1 (1933): 189-210; DidrikArup Seip, "Det norskegrunnlag for Brâvallakvadethos Saxo," Norsktidsskrift for sprogvidenskap(Oslo), 3 (1929): 5-20; idem, "Brâvallakvadet,"Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordiskmiddelalder (Copenhagen), 2 (1957): cols. 295-97; Bjarni Guönason, "Um Brávallafmlu," Skírnir (Reykjavik), 132 (1958): 82- 128; Kurt Schier, "Brávallaschlacht-Lied,"Kindlers Literatur Lexikon im dtv (Munich),3 (1986): 1618-19. 92 Axel Olrik,"Brávellir," pp. 297-312. 93 BirgerNerman, Studier över Svärges hedna Litteratur, Akademisk avhandling (Uppsala, 1913),pp. 74-88. 94 Kemp Malone, "Ubbo Fresicusat Brávellir,"in idem,Studies in Heroic Legendand in CurrentSpeech (Copenhagen, 1959), pp. 82-85. 95 Stig Wikander,"Frân Brâvalla till Kurukshetra,"Arkiv for nordisk filologi 75 (1960): 183-93; Magnus Wistrand,"Slaget vid Brâvalla- en reflexav den indoeuropeiska mytskatten?,"Arkiv for nordisk filologi 85 (1970): 208-22.

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The battle- the events surroundingit and a long list of the participants- has come downto us in twosources, written independently of each otherbut apparently drawn from a commonOld Norwegian-Icelandic sourcefrom ca. 1200. The olderrepresentative of thatsource is theeighth book of Saxo Grammaticus's Latin Gesta Danorum,written in Roskilde (Denmark)ca. 1200- 1216.96Saxo impliesthat he was drawingupon an Old Norse poem, supposedlycomposed by the Danish hero Starkather (Starkaör),an alleged active participantin the events described. The second witnessof the Brávellirtradition is an anonymousOld Icelandic fragmentcalled Sçgubrot affornkonungum, from ca. 1300.97 Saxo's listof participantsis extensive:it contains162 names(68 supportersof Haraldrand 94 championsof Hringr).Sçgubrot's roll has only 98 names(36 on Haraldr'sside, and 62 on Hringr's).The majorityof the namesthat occur in theSçgubrot are also listedin theGesta of Saxo, who typicallylatinized the Old Norse bynames. OccasionallySaxo gives a detailmissing in theSçgubrot, and vice versa. If one is to believeSaxo, and no otherpossibility is leftto us, thecom- monsource of ca. 1200-1216 was stillan oral one. Saxo statesthis explic- " itly: Starkather,also a chiefpillar of the Swedishwar, was the firstto relateits historyin theDanish tongue[=dçnsk tunga,i.e., the Old Norse linguafranca], though it was handeddown by wordof mouthrather than in . . , ,QQyö wnting. Studiesby Axel Olrikestablished that the storywas based on a pula, a verselist (in thiscase of heroes)within a prosesaga." It has been stressed in scholarlyliterature that in the pula, geographicalnames fromevery Norwegianprovince are represented,with special attentiongiven to Tele- mark.It was probablycomposed by an Icelanderliving in Norway. Thereis no doubtthat the pula was "dynamic" ratherthan "static." It triedto satisfythe taste of thepatrons and to be au courant,as well as to replacethe forgotten hero by thethen popular one. Naturally,the mighty Danishking Haraldr, of theeighth century, had to have (anachronistically,

96 SaxonisGesta Danorum, ed. J0rgenOlrik and Hans Raeder,vol. 1 (Copenhagen,1931), pp. 214-29; Saxo Grammaticus:The History of the Danes: vol. 1: Englishtext, trans. Peter Fisher, ed. Hilda Ellis Davidson(Cambridge, 1979), pp. 238-52; vol. 2: Commentary,by Hilda Ellis Davidsonand Peter Fisher (Cambridge, 1980), pp. 127-36. 97 I am using the diplomaticedition by Carl af Petersonsand Emil Olson in Sçgur Danakonunga(=Samfund, vol. 46) (Copenhagen,1925), pp. 15-25, esp. p. 20; see also the recentstandardized edition by BjarniGuönason, Danakonunga sçgur (Islenzk Fornrit, vol. 35) (Reykjavik,1982), pp. 59-71, esp. p. 65. 98 Saxo Grammaticus,1: 238. 99 Axel Olrik, "Brâvallakvadetskaemperaekke," pp. 223-87; idem, "Brávellir," pp. 297-312.

This content downloaded from 91.105.30.38 on Sun, 19 Oct 2014 07:16:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 108 OMELJANPRITS AK to be sure)Icelandic skalds at his court,100as was thepractice in eleventh- andtwelfth-century Scandinavia. ' Saxo, too, was not immuneto 'correcting"the pula. In order to describethe splendor of theDanish army, he embellishedhis listwith Kur- landersand Estlanders(newly conquered), as well as with"Slavs, Livoni- ans,and seventhousand Saxons."101

Interestinglyenough, Saxo and the Sçgubrotdisagree on who was the battle'smain hero. Accordingto Saxo, it was theDane Starkather,while in theSçgubrot the champion was Ubbo theFrisian. Surprisingly,Starkather is the leadingchampion of Hringr,the Swedish (Gautish)king, whereas Ubbo fightson the side of the Danish king Haraldr. One may agree, however,with Kemp Malone that"Starkaör had no place in the original traditionabout Brávellir,"and no embellishmentscan shake the central importanceof Ubbo.102 Thereis stillanother Frisian component in theBrávellir-/>w/a - one that is apparentlyold, as it concernsa marginalchampion who appearsonly at thebeginning of thebattle. His nameis styleddifferently in the two lists: in Saxo,103"Regnaldus Ruthenus Rathbarthi nepos [Regnaldus,the Ruthenus (sic!), thegrandson of Rathbarth]";and in Sçgubrot,in reconstructedform, *Rç>gnvaldrhái Raö baros nefi [RQgnvaldrthe Tall, or grandsonof Raöbarör]."104 Raö baror of the Old Norse traditioncorresponds with the historical Radbod,king of Frisia (and Flanders)and lordof thetowns of theepoch (especiallyDorestad). For fourdecades Radbod opposed the Carolingian 105 Frankishexpansion in his country(679-719). In theOld Norsetradition his realmis called Garôaríki 'the land of thetowns', a termwhich in ca.

100 SaxonisGesta Danorum, 1: 214; Saxo Grammaticus,1: 238; 2: 127,fh. 8. 101 SaxonisGesta Danorum,1:218. The firstDanish "crusading"expeditions into Livonia, Estonia,and the Gulf of Finland took place duringthe reign of ValdemarII (1202- 1241). 102 Malone,"Ubbo," p. 83. 103 SaxonisGesta Danorum, 1 : 257. 104 The Sçgubrottext (ed. Samfund,p. 20), Rognualldrhai eòa Radbarór hnefi,is certainly corrupt.Axel Olrik("Bravallakvadets kaemperaekke," pp. 254-55) reconstructsit as follows: *Rçgnvaldrryzki, Rá abarás nefi.While I have no objectionsin acceptinghis emendationsof thelast two words (*Rá abarás nefi),I cannotunderstand how hai eòa couldbe a corruptionof *ryzki.The wordhai has beenexplained by the editors (e.g., Bjarni Guönason [see fn.97]) and thecommentators (e.g., Hilda Ellis Davidson,Saxo Grammaticus:The Historyof theDanes, vol. 2, Commentary[Cambridge, 1980], p. 130,fn. 37) as *hái "tall." 105 pritsak,Origin of Rus', 1: 490, 494; see also StéphaneLebecq, Marchands et navigations Frisonsdu hautmoyen âge, 2 vols. (Lille, 1983),vol. 1,pp. 11 1 - 15, 150-52, 212- 15.

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theeleventh -twelfth century came to designatethe Rus' of Novgorodand ' Kiev.106Saxo's termRuthenus to mean 'Frisian" is notsurprising, since it is notan ethnicdesignation, but (as elaboratedabove) thenomen for a col- luviesnegociatorum.101

Charlemagne(771-814) decisively changed the map of Europe: in 773-774 he conquered Lombard Italy; in 787-788 he incorporated Bavaria;by 790 he finallysubdued the Frisians; and in 795-796 he reduced

106 Pritsak,Origin of Rus' , 1: 2 17 - 26, 23 1. 107 In his HistoriaRegum Britanniae (written in 1136; firstedition, Paris, 1508; the latest, eighthedition by JacobHammer [Cambridge, Mass., 1951]),based on theso-called Chronicle of Nenniusand thenative Welsh "burgher"tradition (comparable to theOld Norse "Piöreks saga af Bern"), Geoffreyof Monmouth(d. 1136) presentsthe gloriouscourt of Arthur,the legendaryking of the Britons. Amongthe fellowsof Arthur's"Round Table," Geoffrey namesHoldin, duke of theRuteni, who ruled over Flanders and was buriedin his nativecity of Tervana(Thérouanne in Artoisin theNetherlands, IX, 13); Caesar came ad litusRutenorum and saw Mie Britanniaminsulam (IV, 1). Doubtlessly,Holdin' s modelswere the economically mindedcounts of Flanders,the enterprising successors of theformer kings of Frisia. See also J. S. P. Tatlock,The Legendary History of Britain: Geoffrey of Monmouth' s "Historiaregum Britanniae"and itsEarly Vernacular Versions (University of CaliforniaPress, 1950), esp. pp. 94-96. The LombardPapias (ca. 1050),commenting on a passagefrom Lucan's Pharsalia (I, 402) in his ElementumDoctrinae Rudimentum, a widely used and muchcopied Latin dictionary and encyclopaedia,explains the Ruteni flavi of thetext (i.e., Lucan's CelticRuteni) as Flandrenses populi. The Codex Cumanicusis a productof missionary(German) and mercantile(Italian) activi- ties in the Crimean-Azov Sea region from the early period of the Golden Horde (thirteenth-fourteenth centuries). It was a multilingualguide forthose who plannedto visit thecommercially minded Turkic Cumans (Qipéaqs). Thereis a specialpassage (phototyp, ed., Kaare Gr0nbech[Copenhagen, 1936], fol. 46) dealingwith the linenfabrics (Middle Latin tele= Arabicketãn) of Franco-Flandersand Italy:gonban k. 'linenof Champagne';or lens k. 'linen of Orleans'; lombardik:, 'linen of Lombardy';astexan k. 'linen of [Italian]Asti'; ostumek. 'linen of Ostuni'; bergoniak. 'linen of Bourgogne';bergamaske k. 'linen of Ber- gamo'; and finally,rusi k., which is explainedas telede Rens 'linenof (i.e., sold at thegrand fairsof) Rheims'. Significantlyenough, the Arab travelerand adventurerfrom Spain, Abu Hamidal-Gharnâtï, who livedin Volga Bulgariaand in Hungarybetween 1131 and 1153, simply namesthe land producingthe ketãnar-Rüs 'linen of Rüs' as nãmis(= nämiä',cf. Slavic nëmci;ed. G. Ferrand,Journal Asiatique, 1925, no. 7-9, pp. 195-98), i.e.,the German Roman Empire,a termincluding "Imperial Flanders" (Rijksvlaanderen), i.e., Flandersand Frisia. In 1282 a majorflood breached the land between the Zuider Zee and theNorthern Sea, and caused thedeaths of over60,000 people. This eventin theFrisian Land is describedin theGalician Chronicles.a. 6793/1285;the Frisiansare called thereNëmci (PSRL, vol. 2, ed. A. A. Saxmatov[St. Petersburg, 1908], col. 896). A traceof theactivity in theemporium of theRus negociatoreson theDanube in Upper Austriais leftin theCarolingian charter from 863, whereRuzaramarcha, or "the marchof the Ruzzi (Rus)" appears;see OmeljanPritsak, "The Originof the Name RüsIRus'," in Passé Turko-Tatar-Présent Soviétique (Paris, 1986), pp. 50-51.

This content downloaded from 91.105.30.38 on Sun, 19 Oct 2014 07:16:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 110 OMELJANPRITSAK thenomadic Avar pax in CentralEurope. But mostof his effortswere in fightingthe Saxons (772-785; 793-797). The only Germanicpeople on thecontinent that Charlemagne was unableto conquerwere the rulersof Denmark,who thenmade theirappearance in history.Between 777 and 797 the Frankishsources mentiona king called SigifridDanorum rex (' 'AnnalesEinhardi," s.a. 777), Sigifridiregis, id est Halptani("Annales Laurissenses,"s.a. 777), or Sigifridiregis Danorum,Halbdani vidilicet ("Annales Fuldenses," s.a. 782).108Sigifrid, like his successor,Godfred, was a formidablerival of Charlemagne:he notonly dared to giverefuge to the Saxon chief Widukind,an enemy of Charlemagne,but also gave 109 Widukindhis own daughter, Geva, in marriage(778).

Of crucialimportance is thatboth Sigifridand his people are given two appellations:Sigifrid is also "Half-Dane" {Halbdan, Halptan) and his Dani are also Nordmanni.The coeval Anglo-Saxonepic Beowulf(ca. 800) uses thedesignation Haelf-Dene for the itinerant Vikings connected with the emporiaof thenegociatores.uo Singled out specificallyis HnaefHoeing as Haelf-Denain the "Finn Episode."111The termNordmanni i^Lordoman-) has beendiscussed above. It was thegreat Russian medievalist Ernst (Arist) Kunick (1814-1899) who identifiedthe valiantSigifrid of the FrankishAnnals withSigurör Hringrof theBrávellir battle, who, after his greatnorthern victory, was epi- cally identified(epic hypostatis)with the older Germanic hero of thesame name: SigurörFafnisbani of the Nibelungencycle. As the date of the "112 Brávellirbattle, Kunick suggested "around 770.

108 I quotethe Frankish annals from the editions of Monumenta Germaniae Histórica; Scrip- toresrerum Germanicarum in usumscholarum separati: Annales regni Francorum inde ab a. 741 usque ad a. 829, qui dicunturAnnales Laurissenses maiores et Einhardi,ed. Friedrich Kurze (Hanover,1895); Annales Fuldenses sive Annales regni Francorumorientalis, ed. FriedrichKurze (Hanover, 1891). 109 ConradBotho, Chronicon Brunsvicensium, ed. GottfriedLeibnitz, Scriptorum Brunsvi- censiaillustrantium, vol. 3 (Hanover,171 1), p. 292. See ErnstKunick, "Die Brawallaschlacht ist dererste sichere Ausgangspunkt für die dänische,schwedische und ostslavischeChronolo- gie," MélangesRusses (St. Petersburg),1 (1851): 279. 110 Pritsak,Origin of Rus', 1: 183-87. Concerningthe etymologyof the term,see Jande Vries,Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (Leiden, 1961), p. 204: "Halfdanm. PN. eig. 'derHalbdäne'." 11 1 Pritsak,Origin of Rus' , 1: 186. 112 Kunick,"Die Brawallaschlacht,"pp. 265-89, esp. pp. 270-71.

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A characteristicfeature of the earlymedieval history of Eurasia was the role of theimperial limes as theofficina gentium or vaginapopulorum, to use theterms coined by Jordanesin A.D.55 1.113It was essentiallyunimpor- tantwhether the sedentaryempire was China, Iran, or Rome, since the ' behaviorof the 'barbarians" in question was very similar,be they 4 'nomads" of thesteppe or thoseof thesea. As was the case withthe emergenceof the Old Turksca. 550 on the Chinese limes, the Yindivarii (ancestors of the Wenedi/Wends) were, accordingto Jordanes,ex diversis nationibusadgregati, 'as thoughthey had fledto one particularrefuge and had subsequentlyformed a tribe(gens)' - theVistula-Baltic sea regionin thecase of theVindivarii and Mongoliain thecase of theOld Turks. Essentialto thefuture frontier "tribe" was the acquisitionof a commonname, a nomenlvocabuluml eTucovojiia, as mentionedabove. It made no differencewhether the nomenwas chosen (or usurped,as in thecase of thePseudo- Avars) by the band itself, or givento it by others. The Halani (= Alans)- writes AmmianusMarcellinus (ca. 380)- had "in the course of time been united under one name (ad unum.. .vocabulum),and are all, forconvenience, called Halani because of the similarityof theircustoms, their savage mode of life, and their weapons";114cf. the tribalnames: "Franks" fromfranca 'spear'; "Sax- ons" fromsahs 'single-edgedsword'; Turks from tiirk 'a youngman in his prime'. The case of the Alemanni was similar ([oi ôè 'AÀxxjiavoí] Í;i)vr|AA)8éçeiaiv âvGpamoiKai iniyaôeçKai xoîxo ôúvaxai ccòxoíçr| èrccovonia).115H. von Petrikovits has shown that a name (nomen/vocabulum/èn(£)vx>'iía)was essential to the developmentof tribes formedof ad hoc colluvies- congregationsof linguisticallyand racially disparateelements - since thename comprised"the self-consciousnessof ' ' thegroup and itsrecognition as a unitof action. Thata band developing intoa tribemight collaborate with, prey on, or incorporatethe pre-existing organizationof internationaltraders (colluvies negociatorum) in an inter- imperialpax can be seen fromthe (well-documented)example of theOld TurkicEmpire (550-745), whichwas theresult of thefusion of thefrontier bands known as "Turk" with the East Iranian Sogdian international traders,called "Sir." The pax consequentlyhad a doublename: TurkSir

113 See myremarks in "The Slavs and theAvars," Settimane di studiodel Centroitaliano di studisull'alto medioevo, voi. 30, pt. 1 (Spoleto,1983), pp. 353-424. 114 AmmianusMarcellinus, with an Englishtranslation by JohnC. Rolle, vol. 3 (Cambridge, Mass., 1958),pp. 390-91. 115 "The Alemaniare a flockedtogether and mixedpeople, and thismeans [to them;i.e., their]surname," Agathias (d. ca. 582), Historiarum,ed. Ludwig Dindorf(Historiei Graeci Minores,2) (Leipzig,1871), pp. 149-50.

This content downloaded from 91.105.30.38 on Sun, 19 Oct 2014 07:16:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 112 OMELJANPRITSAK boddn(used in ceremonialacts),116 the abbreviatedform of which was Turk.

As statedabove, the second half of theeighth century was dominatedby the empire-buildingand expansionof theFranks under Charlemagne. A new semi-barbarianpax soon came intoexistence along the limes of his empire. It consistedof the colluviesof internationaltraders (negociatores) and of warriors/seamen.The nomenof thenegociatores was Rut-/Rus-, and that of thewarriors was Nordmanni.As in thecase of theTurks, the nomen that thisincipient pax chose,or was given,was Noromen (Anglo-Saxon Chroni- cles, s.a. 787), a wordwhich in thebasin of theMare Nostrum,the main focusof contemporaryinternational trade, was tranformedinto lordoman- both in the West (Spain) and in the East (Caliphate: al-Mas'ûdï: al- lõ[r]domãn-).The sourcesname Sigifridus,rex of the Nordmann-(also calledDani), as thecatalyst in thisprocess, which evolved from 777 to 797. It is impossibleto investigatein one paperthe way in whichsedentariza- tion of both the D anilNordmanni in French Normandyand of the Rus-INordmanniin EasternEurope proceeded, or to attemptto determine the degreeto whichthe two groupsinteracted within the two politiesin question.Suffice it to notethat the Nordmanni {Dani ) of thesecond half of theeighth to theearly ninth century used an Old Norselingua franca called 4 'Danish" (dçnsk tungä)'ni hence the appearanceof the name Inger in Byzantiumby the end of the eighthcentury. It may have been brought thereby participantsin thebattle that was decisivein forgingthe maritime ' " mercantile'tribe" {gens)Rus-Nordmanni; hence the name of the"Rus' leaderBrav [a] lin (< *Brávalla-£a/?/?/,etc.) in themiraculum of theLife of Stephenof Sugdaea. The thrustof thispaper has been to show thatby theend of theeighth centurya corollarymovement to thatof the Rus-Nordmanni(also called Vikings)in theWest had also begunin theEast, wherethe focal point was firstthe Crimea (and Old Ladoga118),and later Kiev. Thereaftercom- mencedthe processof individual(or group)acculturation to Christianity.

116 See my "The DistinctiveFeatures of thePax Nomadica,"Settimane di studiodel Centro Italianodi studisull'alto medioevo, voi. 35 (Spoleto,1988), pp. 749-88. 117 In his De administrandoimperio (from ca. 948-952), ConstantinePorphyrogenitus witnessesthat along the Dnieper trade route in his timestwo linguae francae were in use: one of theOld Norse type,which he calls 'Pcoaiaii (= dçnsktungo), and theother EKXaßnviaxi ("Slavonic"); ed. Gy. Moravcsikand R. J.H. Jenkins(Budapest, 1949), pp. 58, 60. 118 I cannotdiscuss here the Old Ladoga aspectsof the problem under study.

This content downloaded from 91.105.30.38 on Sun, 19 Oct 2014 07:16:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AT THE DAWN OF CHRISTIANITY IN RUS ' 113

At leastone suchneophyte family had a successfulcareer in Constantinople in the firsthalf of theninth century. There must have been similarcases alongthe Dnieper trade route, which either went unrecorded or have yetto be discovered.

HarvardUniversity

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