Varangians

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Varangians or Varyags, sometimes referred to as Variagians, were Vikings, Norsemen, who went eastwards and southwards through what is now Russia, Belarus and Ukraine mainly in the 9th and 10th centuries. However, according to some scholars the term "Varangians" was used to refer to any sea travellers, merchants and pirates irrespective of their origin. The term was used in relation to Vikings as well as to Slavic troops shuttling between major trade centres of the time and occasionally engaged in warfare. A similar term in the Russian language is "nemets", which was used with respect to almost all foreigners from European countries, but primarily with respect to Germans. In modern Russian this term has only one meaning - "a German".