Synopses & Reviews
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II OLEG THE WISE RADITION tells that to the hardy Norsemen of Scandinavia came messengers from the people of Novgorod, saying, Our country is vast and fertile, but there is no order in it; come, therefore, and rule over us and, according to the chronicler, Warrior, From A Fresco, Kiev. Varangians did not hesitate to accept this generous invitation. Thus it happened that only a few years earlier than the Vikings, Ingvar and Hubbar, said to be the sons of the great Scandinavian hero, Ragnar Lodbrog, were invading England, the Viking Rurik and his brothers, Sineus and Truvor, started for Russia. They left the shores of Scandinavia and, sailing across the Gulf of Finland and up the Neva, they entered the great northern lake; and where the river Volkhov flows into its crystal waters, Rurik founded, in 862, a town which he named Ladoga. To his brothers he gave Byelo-ozero and Isborsk, but as they died withoutleaving any heirs, all the lands soon came again under his rule. Later on he left Ladoga, making Novgorod his capital and the centre of his dominions, whence his rule extended over many parts of Russia. Novgorod was surrounded by marshes and forests, and while the people living within the city were traders, those living around it were hunters, who brought thither costly furs which were carried south by the Greek Way to Byzantium, or down the Volga to Itil, the capital of the Khazars. There Arab merchants bought them to re-sell to the rich people of Baghdad, while in return the Russians purchased fine oriental blades and bright beads, much beloved by Russian women. On his deathbed Rurik entrusted his principality and his infant son Igor to the care of his trusted friend and kinsman Oleg, as true and bold a knight as legendary hero ever was. Fierce and...
Synopsis
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