Here I will probably take this opportunity to illustrate the working methods of Snorri Sturlson.
Snorri Sturlson. Monument in Bergen
So, the legend says that Harald did not just live in Gardariki and Könugard, but “became the leader over the king’s people who guarded the country along with Ailiv, the son of Jarl Ryungwald” (who came to Russia along with Ingigerd), “went hiking in Eastern ways "and fought against Poland and the Baltic tribes. Sturlson is looking for confirmation and finds him in Vys Tyodolva - Icelander, Magnus the Good, skald, and then Harald Hardrada:
With Ailiv long
There was a prince at the same time
Fastened build
They are fighting,
Taken in a vice
Wendy shelves.
Tasted
Dashing and fear.
There was a prince at the same time
Fastened build
They are fighting,
Taken in a vice
Wendy shelves.
Tasted
Dashing and fear.
This, of course, is a translation that does not give even the slightest idea of the true construction of this verse. The structure of a vis is indestructible, it is impossible to replace neither a line, nor a word, nor a letter in it - otherwise the poem will cease to be a poem. It is for this reason that the laws in Iceland were written down by the visas: if it is said that the value of a cow should be taken as a vira, then this word cannot be replaced with a sheep or a horse, by no means. On the other hand, a lie in verse (even false praise) is an encroachment on a person’s well-being, which they say is a criminal offense for which, at the very least, they are being driven out of the country. So, Visa confirms the tradition - it means that it is true. In turn, in the Russian chronicles it says:
"In the year 6538, Jaroslav went to Chud, defeated them, and set the city of Yuryev."
“In the year of 6539, Yaroslav and Mstislav gathered a lot of soldiers and occupied the cities of Chervensky again, and fought on the Polish land, and many Poles led them, and divided them among themselves. Yaroslav planted his way to Ros, they are still there today.”
“In the year of 6539, Yaroslav and Mstislav gathered a lot of soldiers and occupied the cities of Chervensky again, and fought on the Polish land, and many Poles led them, and divided them among themselves. Yaroslav planted his way to Ros, they are still there today.”
All right.
In Kiev, Harald fell in love with Yaroslav's daughter Elizabeth, but the groom at that time was unimportant, and, rejected, led the Varangian squad to serve in Constantinople. He did not lose his ties with Kiev, part of his salary and periodically recovered valuables were deposited with Yaroslav. His beloved Harald dedicated a cycle of poems "Visa joy".
Elizabeth, daughter of Yaroslav, wife of Harald
Karamzin counted 16 such poems. Many of them have been translated into French by the romantics of the New Age. Here is an excerpt from a true poem by Harald the Severe:
Horse galloping oak
Kiel circle of Sicily,
Red and rage
Lynx sea prowled.
The edge has come used here
Not like a coward,
Only virgin in Garda
He does not want to know me.
Kiel circle of Sicily,
Red and rage
Lynx sea prowled.
The edge has come used here
Not like a coward,
Only virgin in Garda
He does not want to know me.
(The excerpt contains two keninga: an oak horse — a ship, and a sea lynx — an oar). In the XIX century, this poem was translated into French, and already from French it was translated into Russian by I. Bogdanovich:
"Song of the brave Swedish knight Harald" (the fact is that Norway in the XIX century was part of the Swedish kingdom):
1.
"On the blue of the seas on glorious ships
I rode around Sicily in small days,
Fearlessly everywhere I went where I went;
I beat and won against me who met.
Am I not a young man, am I not dashing?
And the Russian girl tells me to shake home.
3.
In a miserable swim, at the most miserable hour,
When there were sixteen of us on the ship,
When thunder smashed us, the sea was pouring into the ship,
We poured out the sea, forgetting both sadness and grief.
Am I not a young man, am I not dashing?
And the Russian girl tells me to shake home.
4.
I am skilled in everything, I can greed with oarsmen,
On skis, I earned my honor;
I can ride a horse and rule
I throw a spear at the target, in battles I am not shy.
Am I not a young man, am I not dashing?
And the Russian girl tells me to shake home.
6.
I know military craft on earth;
But the water of love and love of the paddle,
For glory, I fly in wet ways;
Norwegian brave men are afraid of me.
Am I not a young man, am I not dashing?
And the Russian girl tells me to shake home.
"On the blue of the seas on glorious ships
I rode around Sicily in small days,
Fearlessly everywhere I went where I went;
I beat and won against me who met.
Am I not a young man, am I not dashing?
And the Russian girl tells me to shake home.
3.
In a miserable swim, at the most miserable hour,
When there were sixteen of us on the ship,
When thunder smashed us, the sea was pouring into the ship,
We poured out the sea, forgetting both sadness and grief.
Am I not a young man, am I not dashing?
And the Russian girl tells me to shake home.
4.
I am skilled in everything, I can greed with oarsmen,
On skis, I earned my honor;
I can ride a horse and rule
I throw a spear at the target, in battles I am not shy.
Am I not a young man, am I not dashing?
And the Russian girl tells me to shake home.
6.
I know military craft on earth;
But the water of love and love of the paddle,
For glory, I fly in wet ways;
Norwegian brave men are afraid of me.
Am I not a young man, am I not dashing?
And the Russian girl tells me to shake home.
But how did you hear these poems by AK? Tolstoy in the ballad "Song of Harald and Yaroslavna":
I ruined the city of Messina,
Looted the seaside of Constantinople,
Rook pearls on the edge loaded,
A tissue and measure is not necessary!
To ancient Athens, like a raven, rumor
Swept before my boats,
On the marble paw of the Pyrean lion
With a sword I put my name!
As a whirlwind I swept over the edge of the seas,
Nowhere is my glory equal!
Would you now be called my
You are my star, Yaroslavna?
Looted the seaside of Constantinople,
Rook pearls on the edge loaded,
A tissue and measure is not necessary!
To ancient Athens, like a raven, rumor
Swept before my boats,
On the marble paw of the Pyrean lion
With a sword I put my name!
As a whirlwind I swept over the edge of the seas,
Nowhere is my glory equal!
Would you now be called my
You are my star, Yaroslavna?
Harald Hardrada. Stained glass window in the Kirkuolsky Cathedral, Orkney Islands
Information about the presence of Harald in the Empire can be found not only in the sagas (which state that during these years our hero participated in 18 successful battles in Sicily, Bulgaria and Asia Minor), but also in Byzantine sources. Here is what is said, for example, in the "Instructions for the Emperor" (1070-1080):
"Aralt was the son of the King of Wering ... Aralt, while he was young, decided to embark on a journey ... taking 500 valiant warriors with him. The emperor accepted him as befits and commanded him and his soldiers to go to Sicily, because the war was started there. Aralt fulfilled the command and fought very successfully. When Sicily conquered, he returned with his detachment to the emperor, and he gave him the title manglavites (wearing a belt). Then it happened that Delia instigated a revolt in Bulgaria. Aralt went on a campaign ... and fought very successfully ... the emperor in reward for his services u assigned Araltu spathrokandates (the leader of the army). After the death of Emperor Michael and his nephew, who inherited the throne during the reign of Monomakh, Aralt asked permission to return to his homeland, but he was not given permission, but, on the contrary, they began to repair any obstacles. “So he left and became king in a country where his brother Julav ruled before."
Weringa Harald served under the three emperors, the Harald Stern Saga states that they played an important role in the 1042 conspiracy of the city, as a result of which the emperor Mikhail Calafat was deposed and blinded. Moreover, in the saga it is claimed that Harald personally expelled the eyes of the ousted emperor. Snorri Sturlson is in apparent disarray: he realizes that they can not believe him, but his method requires that these data be recognized as true - there are verses of skalds confirming this event: "In these two drapes about Harald and many other songs, it is said that Harald had blinded the King of the Greeks himself Harald himself spoke like that, and other people who were there with him "(he apologizes to the readers).
The most striking thing is that Sturlson was not mistaken, trusting the skalds. Michael Psellos writes:
"People Theodora ... sent bold and courageous people with an order to immediately burn out the eyes of both (the emperor and his uncle, who took refuge in the Studii monastery) as soon as they meet them outside the temple."
Harald and his warriors quite fit the definition of "daring and brave people."
However, in 1042, Harald was forced to flee from Byzantium. There are three versions explaining this development: according to the most romantic of them, Empress Zoya (who was 60 years old) fell in love with him and offered to share the throne with her. The Saga of Harald the Severe reports:
"As here, in the North, the Waringa who served in Miklagard told that Zoe, the king's wife, herself wanted to marry Harald. And that was the main and true reason for her quarrel with Harald when he wanted to leave Miklagard, although she put forward another reason. "
According to the testimony of the chronicler Wilhelm of Malmesberian (first half of the 12th century), Harald, because he had dishonored a noble woman, was thrown to the lion, but strangled with his hands.
According to the third - the most prosaic, but perhaps the most plausible version, he was accused of having appropriated the property of the emperor during one of his campaigns.
And what happened at this time on the territory of Russia? Relying on the north of Russia, which remained largely pagan and hired Scandinavian guards, Yaroslav became the sole ruler of a huge country to 1036 and, finally, got the opportunity to realize his ambitious plans. But on the way of their implementation, Yaroslav inevitably had to face active resistance from his old comrades. The number of secret and obvious pagans in his environment was very large. These people did not understand how a free and independent person can publicly call himself a slave (albeit God). The military leaders of the pagan party, who destroyed the rivals of Yaroslav, and then defeated the Pechenegs and practically ousted them from the Black Sea steppes, were very strong and influential. They remembered their merits, knew their own worth and, to put it mildly, did not approve of the internal and foreign policies of their prince. Once their interests coincided, and they were very necessary for each other: Yaroslav dreamed of seizing the Kiev throne, and the Novgorodians eagerly sought revenge on Kiev for the baptism of their city with “fire and sword”. Yaroslav was powerless without the help of the people of Novgorod, and the people of Novgorod needed a reason for war and their “own” legitimate claimant. But now Yaroslav felt strong enough not to be led by his former allies. He could already afford decisive action against the most stubborn and dull of them. Novgorod posadnik Kosnyatin, who in 1018, in order to prevent Yaroslav from fleeing "overseas", ordered all the rooks to be chopped up and organized a new campaign against Kiev, was first exiled to Rostov, and then killed by murder in Murom in his order. But Yaroslav was too smart a man to take the path of mass repression. Building up a single all-Russian state, the prince did not want to play the role of a protege of Novgorod, but did not want to give up their support. Circumstances demanded the removal of the Old Guard from Kiev, but removal under a very specious and understandable pretext. And the necessary excuse was soon found.
So, in 1042, the Norwegian prince Harald returned from Byzantium to Kiev, who from 15 lived at the court of Yaroslav and even went to his daughter Elizabeth. Now his name was known throughout Europe, he was heading home, and it was absolutely clear to everyone who in just a few months would become the king of Norway. Elizabeth was immediately married, and during the wedding feast, Harald spoke about the terrible confusion that seized Byzantium he had left. After the death of Emperor Michael IV, his nephew, carelessly adopted by Empress Zoya and declared by Emperor Michael V, sent a foster mother to a monastery. However, this year the rebellious people freed Zoya, Michael was blinded and executed, the imperial palaces were plundered. But the most important and exciting news became the news of the death of almost everything fleet Empire, including - its terrible fire-fighting ships.
Byzantine ship with the installation of the Greek fire
It was hard even to imagine a more favorable time for an attack on Constantinople, and a large march of the combined Russian-Varangian army was planned for 1043. The basis of the Russian squad were Kiev pagans, Novgorod and people from this city. Yaroslav rightly believed that he would win in any case: victory would bring him tremendous booty and great glory, and defeat would weaken the pagan party and reduce its influence on state affairs. Yaroslav the Wise ordered his general leadership to his son Vladimir Novgorodsky. Vyshata, the son of the Novgorod governor of Ostromir and a close relative of the repressed by Yaroslav Kosnyatin, became the actual commander of the Russian units. Together with them, another Norman detachment set off - about six thousand Vikings. Ingvar was the cousin of Ingigerd, who had lived in Kiev for three years (after bringing another hired Varangian squad) there. The Ingvar Voyager Saga states that he was the son of the famous Norman leader Eymund, who, according to Scandinavian sources, was in the service of Yaroslav the Wise and personally killed his brother Boris. But you shouldn’t trust this information - according to Snorri Sturlson, Eymund was Norwegian. Another leader of the Norman squad was the Icelander Ketil, nicknamed Russian (Garda Ketil) - Eymund's closest ally and the last of the survivors of the assassination of the most dangerous and powerful rival Yaroslav. It seemed that everything was repeating and getting back to normal, the "epigone campaign" was well thought out and well prepared.
And not one treasure, perhaps
Passing grandchildren, great-grandchildren will leave.
And again the skald will add another song
And how his utter it.
Passing grandchildren, great-grandchildren will leave.
And again the skald will add another song
And how his utter it.
But this song about the last campaign against Tsargrad turned out to be sad and scary.
The relationship between the leaders of the expedition somehow did not develop immediately. Vyshat with hostility looked at Ingvar, caressed by Yaroslav, and Vladimir did not want to listen to either. At the mouth of the Danube, the Russians wanted to land and go to Constantinople through the territory of Bulgaria, in order to be able to retreat in case of failure. The Normans almost went into the sea alone. With great difficulty, they managed to persuade Vladimir and Vyshat not to waste their forces in countless land battles, but to immediately go to the capital of the Romans. Without losing a single boat, the Allies safely reached Constantinople and suddenly saw in front of them a fleet of the empire ready for battle, in the first line of which stood menacing fire-fighting ships. Part of the ships came to the capital from the coast of Sicily and Asia Minor, others were hastily built by order of the new emperor Constantine Monomakh.
Emperor Constantine the Ninth and his spouse at the throne of Christ
Alarmed, the emperor still chose to enter into negotiations, and his ambassadors heard the unspeakable conditions of the leaders of the Normans and the Russians: they demanded 4,5 kg. gold on the ship, which was at least 400 - this expedition was too expensive for the allies to return home with little loot.
“They came up with such a thing, either believing that we have some kind of gold-bearing sources, or because in any case they intended to fight and deliberately exposed impracticable conditions,” writes Mikhail Psello.
Further information sources diverge. Russian chronicles claim that there was no naval battle - the storm simply swept away the Allied ships, most of which (including the ship of Vladimir) cast ashore. Prince Kiev was taken in charge of the prince’s son by Ivan Tvorimovich. But the rest of the soldiers (about 6 000 people) left on the shore. The chronicles paint a truly terrible picture of the betrayal of the army by their commanders:
"The rest of Vladimir's eruptions were on the breg, the number of 6 000 on the breze nazi, and at least to go to Russia. And do not go with them anybody from the prince's squad."
(Sofia first chronicle.)
Almost word for word repeats this testimony and the Tale of Bygone Years.
Only the actual leader of this campaign, Vyshata, stayed with them, who said: "If I die, then with them, if I save myself, then with the retinue."
Why in Russia there is still no order of officer honor named Vyshaty, what do you think?
According to Russian chronicles, only twelve ships returned to Kiev. Of the fourteen Byzantine Trier, who rushed in pursuit of these ships, most were sunk in a naval battle. Vladimir and Ketil remained alive, and Ingvar fell ill and died on the way. He was only 25 years old, but in those early years people were growing up early and only a few of them died of old age. And Vyshata, gathering around him the soldiers who remained on the shore, led them to the north, and it seemed that they succeeded, having dispersed the Byzantine infantry, to escape from a terrible place. But the next day, surrounded by the Romais, pressed to the rocks and deprived of water, they were captured, and the triumphant winners of many of them gouged out their eyes.
The Byzantine historian Michael Psellos argues that the Russians entered into a naval battle with the Byzantines and were defeated, and you should probably agree with him. It was beneficial for Vladimir and his last 12 ships arriving home to explain the defeat by bad luck, bad weather conditions, and the mystical influence of the “sheets of Christ with the power of saints” sunk into the sea (Sofia First Chronicle).
According to Mikhail Psella, the Russians after the breakdown of the ransom negotiations “lined up their ships in one line, blocked the sea from one harbor to another, and there was no person between us who looked at what was happening without great emotional anxiety. I myself, standing near the autocrat, from afar watched the events. "
What follows is something very familiar:
"The cloud, suddenly rising from the sea, sucked the royal city with mist."
(I wonder if Mikhail Psella Bulgakov read the Chronography?)
"Opponents were built, but neither those nor the other battles started, and both sides stood motionless in a closed formation."
This delay was very expensive for the Russian-Varangian fleet. Finally, at the signal of the emperor, the two largest Byzantine triremes moved forward:
"... spearmen and stone-throwers raised a battle cry on their decks, fire throwers took their places and got ready to act ... The barbarians surrounded each of the triremes on all sides, ours at that time pelting them with stones and spears."
Russians attack Byzantine dromon
“When the fire that burned his eyes flew at the enemy, some barbarians rushed into the sea to sail to their own, while others were completely desperate and could not figure out how to escape. At this point, the second signal followed, and many trimesters went into the sea ... The barbaric system collapsed, some ships dared to stay in place, but most of them turned to flee. Here ... a strong east wind swept the sea with waves and drove the ramparts off the barbarians. Some ships covered the waves and reared up on the cliffs and the steep shore And staged hen the barbarians real bloodletting; it seemed as if poured out rivers of blood flow colored sea. "
For a relatively sparsely populated Sweden, the consequences of this defeat were disastrous. The coast of Lake Mälaren is littered with runic stones set in memory of the dead relatives. Inscriptions on many of them commemorate Ingvar and his warriors. For example:
"Blasie and Dyarv erected this stone according to Gunnlev, his father. He was killed in the east with Ingvar."
"Geyrvat and Enund and utamr installed a stone on Burstein, his brother. He was in the east with Ingvar"
"Gunnar and Björn and Thorgrim erected this stone along Torstein, his brother. He died in the east with Ingvar"
"Tyalvi and Holmlaug ordered all these stones to be installed according to baka, to his son. He owned a ship and led [it] to the east in the army of Ingvar"
"Torfried installed this stone according to Asgaut and Gauti, to her sons. Gauti died in Ingvar's army"
"Tola ordered this stone to be installed in her son Harald, Ingvar's brother. They bravely left far behind the gold and fed (with themselves) eagles in the east"
"Spyoti, Halfdan, they installed this stone according to Scardi, his brother. [He] went from here to the east with Ingvar"
"Andvette and kiti, and Kar, and Blacie, and Dyarv, they erected this stone according to Gunnlev, their father. He fell in the east with Ingvar"
Four memorial stones were set in memory of Ingvar's pilgrims — their ships died, and that means the warriors who were on them.
Three years later, Yaroslav made peace with Byzantium, and the emperor’s extramarital daughter arrived in Russia with the pledge of a new union of two states. She became the mother of the most famous grandson of Yaroslav the Wise - Vladimir Monomakh. Together with her he returned home and Vyshata. He survived Yaroslav and managed to take part in the wars of his sons and grandchildren described in The Lay of Igor. In 1064, the city of Vyshata, together with the Kiev voevode Preey, erected on the Tmutorokan throne the son of his companion in an unhappy march on Constantinople - Rostislav Vladimirovich. The son of Vyshaty (Jan Vyshatich) was a Christian and became famous for the execution of the Magi, who killed women accused by them of crop failures, and his grandson Varlaam became the abbot of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.
Varlaam Caves
Harald Severe survived Jaroslav for a long time. Until October 1047, he was co-ruler of his nephew Magnus, after Norway had ruled Norway for 19 years. 25 September 1066 Mr. Harald died in England, trying to get himself another crown. On this day, the Anglo-Saxon army of King Harold II Godwinson defeated the Norwegians who had landed in Britain, led by his aged son-in-law, but not losing his belligerence, at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. Harald was struck by an arrow that pierced his throat.
Peter Nicholas Arbo. "Battle of Stamford Bridge"
The Norwegians lost about 10 000 people, the Anglo-Saxons pursued them on their way to 20 km, and 200 returned to their homeland from the 24 Norwegian ships.
"The Norwegians had to wait for a new generation of warriors to grow up before they could take another march across the sea" (Gwyn Jones).
The crushing defeat, first in Byzantium and then in England, the death of a huge number of young men led to a demographic catastrophe in sparsely populated countries of Scandinavia, they did not recover soon. Threatened Norman ships appeared less and less on foreign coasts. The Scandinavian countries for a long time went into the shadows and seemed to fall asleep, without exerting much influence on the course of the European stories. The line under the Viking Age can be summed up with a runic inscription on a gravestone in Sweden:
Good Bond (landowner) Gully had five sons.
Pal at Fairy (Isle of Furer - Denmark) Asmund, a fearless husband.
Assur died in the east in Greece.
He was killed on Holm (Novgorod) Halfdan.
Kari was killed in Dundi (Scotland) and died Bui.
Pal at Fairy (Isle of Furer - Denmark) Asmund, a fearless husband.
Assur died in the east in Greece.
He was killed on Holm (Novgorod) Halfdan.
Kari was killed in Dundi (Scotland) and died Bui.