History Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread VII
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Domen
Misico dux Vandalorum
How often did Vikings fight on horseback?
This is some excellent advice. He's a patriot who fights for his country, doesn't follow Nazi doctrine.
And do not give away more details before someone steals your book idea-is that possible?
Never? (just a guess) Could the original (Kievan) Rus' be considered a Viking state? A partially Viking state? A Viking/Slavic Union?
In case this wasn't mentioned before I have to once again stress that:
Naming of Nazi Germany invented, built and run Concentration Camps in occupied Poland during WWII as Polish Death Camps by American politicians is very offensive to Poland and all Slavic People! (president Obama's speech, May 2012)
Over the millennia, is there much human factor in the gradual expansion of deserts across the globe? If yes then how (agriculture?) and to what degree?
Moderator Action: Merged four posts together. Please don't make multiple consecutive posts like that.
I'm fairly sure that Kievan Rus was supposed to have been started by the Swedes, i.e. the Varangian, Rurik.
"Viking" is more correctly an activity, rather than a demonym. The Danes in northern England almost certainly used horses, especially because a lot of Yorkshire is rather flat!
"Viking" is more correctly an activity, rather than a demonym. The Danes in northern England almost certainly used horses, especially because a lot of Yorkshire is rather flat!
Domen
Misico dux Vandalorum
daft said:
Large part of the population of Kievan Rus - at least at the beginning, as later they underwent gradual Slavization - were also Finnic peoples (red in the map below), and Baltic peoples intermixed with Slavic peoples in what is now Belarus (blue colour in areas of Belarus, Lithuania, Prussia and Latvia).
This map shows areas with Finno-Ugric (red colour) and Baltic settlement in the mid-to-late 800s. Some of these areas were regions with mixed Slavic-Baltic, Slavic-Finnic, etc. settlement, rather than fully Baltic and fully Finnic regions (compare with the 2nd map, showing the extent of Slavic settlement in ca. year 850 - area with big red dots is "controversial", either still purely Finnic / Baltic in the mid-800s, or already mixed with Slavic settlement):
Kiova = the city of Kiev:
Here the 2nd map: Slavic lands ca. year 850 (for comparison) - it includes also areas shared by Slavs with other ethnic groups:
Spoiler :
And a map of the extent of Western Christianity (a + d), Islam (c) and Eastern Christianity (b + e) after the Great Schism of 1054:
The north-eastern portion of Eastern Christianity corresponds roughly to political borders of Kievan Rus:
Spoiler :
cybrxkhan
Asian Xwedodah
Have there ever been any U.S. Presidents who have been good friends with their Vice President or even a close work relationship, especially if their friendship started before they came to office? I guess president/vice-presidential candidates of major parties who didn't win either count too.
Over the millennia it is a matter of climate change. Whether recent desertification is influenced by human activity on desert border areas remains inconclusive. It's impossible to rule out, but the evidence doesn't allow a definite Yes. For detailed information I suggest using a web search; research publications are available.
The desert advanced substantially in North Africa thanks to intensive but poor farming techniques used under Roman rule, though some have argued that the real problem was the animal husbandry made dominant after the Arab conquests. During the Republic, Egypt and Tunisia had perhaps the most fertile land in Europe; one of the main motivations for the Romans to invade Carthage was to get their hands on the farmland.
That seems rather contradictory.
We have little way of determining whether 'the desert advanced substantially in North Africa thanks to intensive but poor farming techniques used under Roman rule". This is a view presently largely abandoned AFAIK. The main problem, as usual, is lack of sufficient data to make a clear case. (Hence the heated argument among economic historians on such matters.)
I'll admit I'm not much read up on it, but I thought the correlation - if not the causation - was fairly well established?
I hope you're not referring to the agri deserti thing. At any rate, there's a lack of sufficient data. and as I just explained concerning modern desertification, even if there is plentiful data, it can still be inconclusive. A fortiori when we are speaking of roughly 2,000 years ago.
Domen
Misico dux Vandalorum
Arakhor said:
The formation of Kievan Rus was far more complex than that.
In the 700s, before any Varangian activity in the region, there existed already three realms in East Slavic territories, mentioned by Muslim writers Al-Gaihani and Ibn Haukal - those were Kuyavia (with the capital in Kiev), Slavinia (with the capital in Novgorod), and Artania (probably with the capital in Ryazan). Later, but it isn't certain when exactly (from the 800s to the late 900s) also Haqaniyya by the Azov Sea (which controlled Tmutarakan) formed.
Rurik and his Varangians may be credited with uniting those realms into one, rather than starting the whole thing.
This is also the role that Nestor of Kiev in his Primary Chronicle ascribed to Rurik - and to his successor Oleg - that of unification.
Another controversy is what or who was/were - originally - the Rus? Some claim that it was a demonym for some tribe or group. But for example Omeljan Pritsak suggested, that it was probably a "trading company" originally founded in southern France (but with a network of influences throughout most of Europe), which employed Varangians to protect their trade routes, just like later the Byzantine Empire employed them as guard units.
If Pritsak is right, then the formation of Kievan Rus could be - to some extent - similar to that of British India. The East India Company exploited political landscape of India and through a combination of alliances with some of local caciques and wars against others, extended their control.
But some scholars are sceptical when others suggest the existence of "trading companies" during the - so called - Dark Ages.
That's not something anyone needs to worry about. In fiction, publishers care about execution, not about "ideas". The possibility of having your ideas "stolen" is a non-issue.
Well, yes. I believe that Rurik lies in the same category of people as Ragnar Loðbrokk, i.e. legendary people who probably didn't exist as portrayed.
Domen
Misico dux Vandalorum
Rurik is rather not in the same category as Ragnar. The Primary Chronicle gives specific dates when Rurik lived, the dynasty was called Rurikids, the tradition of genealogy from Rurik survived, etc. No of this can be said about mentioned Ragnar. The latter one is even more legendary than Rurik.
Ragnar lies probably in the same category of people as King Arthur - i.e. a legendary conflation of several different individuals.
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As for those East Slavic realms in the 700s:
Al-Gaihani and Ibn Haukal mention the realm of Kuyavia in the area around Kiev.
It is interesting that a region of the same name - Kuyavia - exists also in Poland:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kujawy
Moreover, the Kuyavia around Kiev was inhabited by the tribe of [eastern] Polans:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polans_(eastern)
Genealogy is hardly a guarantee of authenticity, given how many people alleged that they were descended from Jesus or various mythical figures, and your choice of dynastic name would likely follow from your alleged ancestor.
I think having life dates grant much greater authenticity, even if it's only in a single source.
I think having life dates grant much greater authenticity, even if it's only in a single source.
Domen
Misico dux Vandalorum
daft said:
They had ships for transporting horses - but I wonder how often did they use them in battle, and how often just for movement and as pack animals:
In a Polish history fiction movie "When the Sun Was a God" (British title: "Army of Valhalla") set in the 800s, Vikings are shown fighting on horseback. They are also much better armed and armoured than Vikings from History Channel's "Vikings" series (in which they rarely use armour, only shields).
Ajidica
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Not often. The issues with transporting horses by ship made bringing cavalry along on raids difficult. When fighting as part of kingdoms, such as the danelaw or battles back in Scandinavia, there are occasional records of it but it wasn't particularly common. They would fight mounted when needed but it wasn't needed very often.
If you want more detail, I recommend Guy Halsall's Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West. He spends a lot of time talking about the role horses and cavalry played in Frankish, Anglo-Saxon, and Norse armies.
sydhe
King of Kongs
Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren would be one example. Possibly Washington and Adams. Bush 43 and Cheney seemed to have a close working relationship on some subjects
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