The Viking World (Routledge Worlds)

Figure 37. 1 Map of ‘the way from the Varangians to the Greeks’. The ‘way’ is described in the Rus Primary
Chronicle c. 1100 and is also attested by the many eleventh-century Swedish runestones commemorating
individual travellers to ‘the Greeks’. The routes – which could enter Rus via the western Dvina or the
VolkLov and Lovat rivers – were in use much earlier, but the sea-link from the Middle Dnieper to
Constantinople was regularised only in the early tenth century. Very few goods went all the way from the
North Atlantic to Byzantium, but the slave trade spanned the British Isles, the Baltic and Rus, and
Byzantine silks have been unearthed in York, Lincoln and Dublin. Scandinavians, including Icelanders,
attended the emperor at court and served with his forces. Many eventually returned home, probably
bringing Byzantine luxury goods with them. Exchanges of embassies and courtesies between Nordic,