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- Rurik (c.830-c.879), also spelled Riurik, Rorik, or Hrorekr, in Old East Norse: R?rik, meaning "famous ruler"; the semi-legendary founder of the Rurik dynasty of Kievan Rus.
Riurik is the Slavic rendering of the same Germanic name as the modern Anglo-Scots Roderick, the Welsh Rhydderch or Spanish and Portuguese Rodrigo. In old Germanic languages it had forms such as Hrodric (Old High German) and Hro?ric (Old English). In Old Norse, Hr?rekr (Norway, Iceland) and R?rikr (Denmark, Sweden), from which Riurik is derived. The name also appears in Beowulf as Hr??r?k.
Rurik as a Varangian chieftain who gained control of Ladoga in 862, built the Holmgard settlement near Novgorod, and founded the Rurik Dynasty which ruled Kievan Rus and then Galicia-Volhynia until the 14th and Muscovy until the 16th century.
Rurik was a Viking, or Varangian, prince. His story is told in the Russian Primary Chronicle (compiled at the beginning of the 12th century) but is not accepted at face value by modern historians. According to the chronicle, the people of Novgorod, tired of political strife, invited the Varangians about 862 CE to establish an orderly and just government there. Hence, Rurik came with his two brothers and a large retinue (druzhina) and became ruler of the city and region of Novgorod.
Some historians think that Rurik came from the Scandinavian peninsula or from Jutland (now in Denmark) and seized the town of Ladoga, on Lake Ladoga. After establishing a stronghold there (c.855), he may have gone southward along the Volkhov and captured Novgorod. Another possibility is that Rurik and his army were mercenaries, hired to guard the Volkhov-Dnepr waterway, who turned against their employers.
There is a debate over how Rurik came to control Ladoga and Novgorod. The only information about him is contained in the 12th-century Russian Primary Chronicle, which states that Chuds, Slovene (one of the tribes of eastern Slavs), Merias, Veses and Krivichs (also a slavic tribe) ". . . drove the Varangians back beyond the sea, refused to pay them tribute, and set out to govern themselves". Afterwards the tribes started fighting each other and decided to invite Rurik to re-establish order.
Rurik remained in power until his death in 879. He married Efanda (Edvina, Alfrind or Ingrid) of Urman. Urman is a term originally from Kazan Tatar meaning "a forest", synonymous with "taiga". His successors (the Rurik Dynasty), however, moved the capital to Kiev and founded the state of Kievan Rus, which persisted until 1240, the time of Mongol invasion. Rurik's kinsman Oleg founded the grand principality of Kiev. Oleg's successor, Igor, believed to be Rurik's son, is considered the real founder of the Russian princely house. A number of extant princely families are patrilineally descended from Rurik, although the last Rurikid to rule Russia, Vasily IV, died in 1612.
Even though some historians emphasize folklore roots for the Riurik legend and consequently dismiss Rurik as a legendary figure, there is a controversy about his ethnic origins in Eastern Europe.
According to the Primary Chronicle Riurik was one of the Rus, a Varangian tribe likened by the chronicler to Danes, Swedes, Angles, and Gotlanders. In the 20th century, archaeologists partly corroborated the chronicle's version of events. It was discovered that the settlement of Ladoga, whose foundation has been ascribed to Rurik, was actually established in the mid-8th century. Earthenware, household utensils, and types of buildings from the period of Rurik's foundation correspond to patterns then prevalent in Jutland.
Some Slavic historians (B.A. Rybakov and his followers among them) argue that the account of Rurik's invitation was borrowed by a pro-Scandinavian chronicler from a hypothetical Norse document. For instance, the Primary Chronicle states that Rurik arrived to Slavic lands with two brothers, Sineus and Truvor, and sent them to rule the towns of Beloozero and Izborsk, respectively. Instead of connecting Sineus to Signjotr and Truvor to Torvald, they suggest that the chronicler read a hypothetical Scandinavian document and misinterpreted the Norse words 'sine hus' (with house) and 'tru voring' (with loyal guard) as the names of Rurik's brothers: Sineus and Truvor.
There is another theory that Rurik, on account of common intermarriages between Varangians and Slavic women, was of mixed Slavic-Varangian descent. This theory is based on the information of the first modern historian of Russia, Vasily Tatishchev (a Rurikid himself), who claimed that Rurik was of Wendish extraction. He went so far as to name his mother, Umila; his maternal grandfather, Gostomysl; and a cousin, Vadim. And that Rurik's father was from Finland. Those who assume good faith on Tatishchev's part point out that he based his account on the lost Ioachim Chronicle.
Last there is a theory that identifies Rurik with the Danish Viking chief Rorik of Dorestad, who ruled the western coast from Jutland down to northern France.
This database researched and compiled by Norman Lee Madsen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 21 July 2015.
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830 - 879 (~ 49 år)
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