Customer Reviews

The Varangians of Byzantium

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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Don't let the four-star review dissuade you, as this is a very good book. It is a highly detailed and scholastic history of Russian, Norse and Anglo-Saxon mercenaries serving in the Byzantine Empire. It is a very scholarly book, and those who are looking for a good read about the famed Varangian guard will find what they are looking for in here, but they will also find a lot of technical information that may bore them.

The book's viewpoint is refreshing. Rather than adopting a typical Romanocentric viewpoint, Blondal looks at what the Norsemen were doing in the Empire, rather than what the Norsemen were doing for the Empire. The core of the book is an exquisitely detailed history of Harald Hardrada, the famous mercenary and king who was eventually killed at Stamford Bridge just before the Battle of Hastings.

Blondal uses a wide variety of source materials, including Arabic, Russian, Greek, western European and Scandinavian chronicles. While all of this adds to the authority of the work, it is where I find my one of my two faults with this book. Blondal spends almost half of the allotted page space discussing the linguistic difficulties associated with the use of such varied sources, and the difficulties in translating Old Norse, Old Icelandic and Old Slavonic. Thus, one moment the book is a military history, but in the next moment it is a philological discussion. These discussions break up the book, and would have been better suited to be in the footnotes.

My other fault is that this book is completely unforgiving to those who do not have a background in Norse mythology and literature. While this is a book for scholars, I would suspect that many Byzantine scholars would be using this work who simply don't have the required background. Blondal could have at least included some recommended works to bring those unfamiliar with the northern world up to speed.

This is an excellent history of the northern mercenaries in the Byzantine Empire. While it is unforgiving to those who lack a backing in Norse literature and often delves into obscure philological discussions that would be best left in the footnotes, it is the best work on the Eastern Roman Empire's most well-known mercenary contingents. More casual readers will be able to find interesting sections on the famed Varangian guard, while scholars will find the entire book valuable.

The author has done an immense mount of work gathering together the documentary evidence to create a narrative that throws light on this obscure corner of Byzantine history, giving its colourful subjects the recognition they deserve. Ably served by his translator (an under looked skill as a bad one can kill a story), they call their characters from the wings to centre stage at the heart of the Imperial Court.
From their early days as the personal bodyguard of germanic warriors, loyal only to the Roman Emperors, the national component may have changed, but the reason for their existence remained. Despite the exotic, almost romantic air that surrounded them, they were the Emperors Life Guards and executioners of his dirty work: from naval squadrons to elite military units to mutilations and killings.
A variety of linguistic sources are cited, from Old Norse, Russian, English and French to explain the root, which seems to come from a West German prototype `wareganga', meaning ` a foreigner who has taken service with a new lord by a treaty of fealty', akin to foederati. This adapted or evolved through the great Scandinavian kingdoms and lordships that occupied huge swathes of Russia (another story crying to be told) to Væringjar, `companion'. One who by oath, treaty or contract, gives security, accepts responsibility for his companions, as they accept responsibility for him.
The book then gives a regimental biography noting the ethnic eddies and flows in its composition, from the Roman Goth and German personal bodyguard, to the Russian Norse mercenaries to Basil II (the Bulgar-Slayer) regularising them as an Imperial regiment and his complex psychological relationship with them. The appearance of Saxon Englingvarangoi after William the Bastards conquest to the collapse of High Byzantium in 1204 and the final monochrome, grim days of 1453 when as a band of Cretan archers the Varangians fulfilled their duty to the last Emperor.
The most famous of them, Harald Sigurðarson (Hardrada) gets a chapter to himself, explaining that most complex of Vikings, giving some idea of what drove him to meet his end in the cold north at Stamford Bridge.

A fascinating book, one that takes you off th beaten path of Byzantine Studies, but well worth exploring

Wonderfully detailed researched and well-written. Good foot notes and cross references. A primer on the topic.