Rolf A. Heyno (Heijno)
CIVILITY FROM SEA TO SEA CIVITATUM MARITIMARUM
Facts & Arguments
FACT:
There are many writers who have told hair rising stories about so called “Vikings”, but only very few of them have tried to tell the truth about these northern marauders. Therefore it is very difficult to have a true picture of the people whom they call “Vikings”, and about the 300 years which are called the “Viking Era”, which started around early 9th century and ended abruptly around 12th century. None of the writers has ever bothered to analyze the reasons, why it started, and why it ended.
ARGUMENTS:
My argument is that it started, because as the population in Fenno- Scandian countries began to grow, and due to the harsh climate the lands couldn’t sustain the growing populations, young impatient men decided to explore new lands and possibilities for their survival, even rob innocent people who lived in warmer areas and therefore were more fortunate.
The name “Viking” came from Scandinavian languages “viking” pronounced in most European languages “veeking”, only in English it is pronounced “viking”. The word “veeking” is derived from “I viken pirates” and means “to do the bays” in other words, to rob the passing merchants’ ships for rich spoils, as some of the writers have pointed out.
The first ones who moved south from their place of habitation were the Jutes (Danes) from Jutland. They went to the Frankens’ Kingdom (France). The Frankens’ King Emperor Charlemagne called them “worthless scamps”. But because he understood that Jutland couldn’t sustain its growing population, he gave the Normen an area of land which we know today as Normandy. After that the raids against the Frankens ended and the Normen attacked their former neigbours, the Angles in Anglia on the British Isles, there they were known as Normen and Danes.
As Norway experienced similar overpopulation their young men sailed to Hebrides, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland, Iceland, Greenland and Northern Canada. They were known as Norsemen from the word Norske because they came from Norway.
As the Slavs had had occupied the ancient Germanic lands, west of Carpathian Mountains to the Baltic Sea, and even as far west as Jutland (Denmark) the Germanic merchants were forced to re-route their Baltic Sea trade through Bjoerkoe, Sweden, to Bergen in Norway. And Visby on the Isle on Gotland lost its importance as a relay port.
As the people on Gotland lost their sources of income, they also became restless and began to explore other possibilities of income. Therefore they went to the area we know today as Novgorod. They called “varjaags” (in Russia varyiagi). Here comes into the play the difference of pronunciation in various languages. In English the word “varjaags” is not pronounced the same way as in other European languages, therefore the word “varjaags” became “varangians”. There are many speculations of the origin of the word “varjaag”.
My argument is, that as Rurik’s lieutenants Askold and Dir were arguing in Swedish, that whose idea it was to go to Kiev, Askold said “Det var jag” (it was I) and Dir objected by saying “Nej, det var jag” (No, it was I). As this was going on for a while, Rurik who was sitting at the other end of the room, stood up and said in a deep solemn voice “Var jag” (was I). And because they were surrounded by the local Finnic people who didn’t understand a word, what the guys were arguing about, they only heard “var jag, var jag, var jag” they started to call them “Varjaags”.
Similar name calling happened about 900 years later in the 30 years war, as Gustavus II Adolf had Finnish cavalry detachment in his army whose war cry was “Hakkaa pelotta”, to encourage their young men of 15 – 17 years of age. Because their Swedish compatriots didn’t understand what the war cry meant, they started to call the Finnish cavalry men as “Hakkapeliittas”.
The Viking Era ended in 12th century and I believe that as Germanic farmers came up with the iron plow around 1000 A.D. people were able to till the soil and use the land which was previously considered as useless for agriculture. Therefore there was no need to venture into other lands for the additional income. At the same time the Christianity started to gain a foothold among the northern people, which had a pacifying effect on the population.
Here I want to point out the origin of the word “pogrom”.
FACTS:
Around 500 A.D. after the Huns’ invasion, the Slavic people started to move into the area which we know today as Ukraine. Rurik’s expeditions happened around mid 9th century. In 13th century the Komi_Finn’s Orthodox Bishop Tapani devised an alphabet for the Komi-Finns based on the Cyrillic alphabet. And at the end of 19th century during the time of the Czar Alexander III (1881-1894) according to the Finnish history, less than 50% of Russia’s population spoke Slavic Russian language. So that you can imagine what kind of percentage of people in Russia spoke Slavic language at the time of Rurik’s voyage.
ARGUMENTS:
As Czar Alexander III heard that less than 50% of his people spoke Slavic Russian language, he became very concerned of the national security, because Otto von Bismark’s unification program in Germany was a threat to Russia. Therefore he began his forced relocations of non-Russian speaking people. The most brutal relocations were carried out in Lithuania where people refused to move from their ancestral land. These forced relocations were dubbed by the people as “pogroms”.
FACTS:
Another cause of arguments, in my opinion, is the name of “Die Hanse” or “The Hansa”, which many historians call The Hanseatic League.
ARGUMETNS:
My argument is that the merchant Princes knew perfectly well what they were doing, as they called their enterprise “Die Hanse”, which means a group of combatant men. Considering the political instability in Europe all ready before the Interregnum 1254-1274 had lasted for decades and merchants had attempted to form all kind of unions, leagues and confederations for their protection against greedy local rulers, as pointed out by The Cambridge Medieval History. As the Hainault-Haino merchant Patricians decided to form a union among their own kindreds, they didn’t have the same problems as the other merchants had, because they were all members of the same family or clan and worked together as an entity. Therefore they were able to organize “Die Hanse” or “The Hansa” as an empire.
The first step was the Lübeck – Hamburg treaty in 1241 which automatically included Visby, because in 1163 Henry the Lion had signed a proclamation wherby he committed himself to protect Visby and Lübeck against Danish King Waldemar II. This, in my opinion, indicates that the leading merchants of Visby were members of the Hainault-Haino family as were the leading merchants of Hamburg, who had paid high ransom to the Austrians for the release of Richard the Lionhearted from the Austrian captivity.
Considering that “Die Hanse” or “The Hansa” operated as an empire with the exception that it wasn’t ruled by an Emperor, but by an assembly of Patriarchs. And according to my understanding, proves that it was a family owned and democratically ruled franchise rather than a league. Therefore the designation of “The Hanseatic League”, in my opinion, is unrealistic and misleading.
FACTS:
Buried treasures
An innumerable amount of buried treasures have been found in Baltic Sea area, especially in Gotland. These treasures usually are explained by the “Viking” storytellers as being buried by their “beloved Vikings”. However, the storytellers have been puzzled by the fact that the treasures were buried in a lot of manure.
In my manuscript I mention the following facts:
ARGUMENTS:
In support of my arguments I want to remind the total lawlessness at the “Vikings” time in the Baltic Sea area. In those days people had to be self sufficient in everything. Therefore the merchants had to have their country estates, or farms for their families’ necessities. The merchants knew that in the case of marauders attack the robbers ransacked the living quarters, especially, during their absence, their families were in great danger. Therefore they had to hide their valuables away from their homes, but close enough to be able to get them whenever needed. The merchants knew also that the robbers didn’t have much time and that the robbers were too proud to poke around in manure. Therefore I suggest that merchants hid their valuables in manure which they had on their farms. In case that the merchants passed away on trading expedition, or died unexpectedly, the buried treasures were forgotten, because they had been afraid to tell their families were the treasures were hidden, in the fear, that under torture, they would have told the robbers where the valuables were hidden. In my opinion, a very good example of the in manure hidden treasures was the case in Viborg, Finland. Around 1870 in the area of “Luostarin-Uudenportin-Vahtitornin” Streets in Viborg, the workers, while digging to lay sewers, came across a very rich burial treasure consisting of silver and gold coins, buried in a lot of manure. According to my knowledge, the “Vikings” never raided Viborg, because at that time Viborg was a small trading post. However, there is a story in Runic script about a raid by Vikings to Finland. The script was found in Schone, Sweden, and it tells that in 1050 A.D. about 2000 “Vikings” in some 200 ships travelling along the river “Kokemaeki” attacked Hauho (pronounced as Howhoh) in south central Finland, but were defeated by the tribe of “Haeme” which is one of the Finnish tribes (in Swedish Tavast tribe) and the Vikings had to flee back to Sweden.
What concerns the unearthed treasures; In the northern countries, they are considered to belong to the states were they were found, and are kept in museums as a part of national heritage, and the same should apply, in my opinion, for example, to all the valuables which were robbed by the French revolutionary scum during the Napoleonic Wars, and to be considered as the property of various states, and kept in museums.
The fact that there may be manufactured bills of sale, or other fraudulent documents, as was done in the Ex-Soviet Union by communists (Bolsheviks), does not change the fact that they are stolen goods. And it is universally accepted that the possession of stolen property is a punishable offence.
It seems that the entire Napoleonic gang was a poor revolutionary bunch of war criminals, regardless of their fancy titles given by Napoleon, who in fact was the “capo di tutti capi”.
We have to keep in mind that times were different and that in those days, and even later, only small sector of humanity was interested in any kind of luxuries, gentiles and Jews alike. There were not many “Rothschilds” as the film “Fiddler on the Roof” illustrates.
I feel that a very good example was the action of a Gentleman how all the stolen treasures should be treated. As this Gentleman acquired on an auction a “Faberge Egg”, decided to send it to Russia, because it is well known fact that the Faberge Eggs belonged to the Czar and as such are a part of the national treasures of Russia. This was shown on television News a few years ago, and also this story can be found on the Internet.
Rolf A. Heyno (Heijno)
FACT:
There are many writers who have told hair rising stories about so called “Vikings”, but only very few of them have tried to tell the truth about these northern marauders. Therefore it is very difficult to have a true picture of the people whom they call “Vikings”, and about the 300 years which are called the “Viking Era”, which started around early 9th century and ended abruptly around 12th century. None of the writers has ever bothered to analyze the reasons, why it started, and why it ended.
ARGUMENTS:
My argument is that it started, because as the population in Fenno- Scandian countries began to grow, and due to the harsh climate the lands couldn’t sustain the growing populations, young impatient men decided to explore new lands and possibilities for their survival, even rob innocent people who lived in warmer areas and therefore were more fortunate.
The name “Viking” came from Scandinavian languages “viking” pronounced in most European languages “veeking”, only in English it is pronounced “viking”. The word “veeking” is derived from “I viken pirates” and means “to do the bays” in other words, to rob the passing merchants’ ships for rich spoils, as some of the writers have pointed out.
The first ones who moved south from their place of habitation were the Jutes (Danes) from Jutland. They went to the Frankens’ Kingdom (France). The Frankens’ King Emperor Charlemagne called them “worthless scamps”. But because he understood that Jutland couldn’t sustain its growing population, he gave the Normen an area of land which we know today as Normandy. After that the raids against the Frankens ended and the Normen attacked their former neigbours, the Angles in Anglia on the British Isles, there they were known as Normen and Danes.
As Norway experienced similar overpopulation their young men sailed to Hebrides, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland, Iceland, Greenland and Northern Canada. They were known as Norsemen from the word Norske because they came from Norway.
As the Slavs had had occupied the ancient Germanic lands, west of Carpathian Mountains to the Baltic Sea, and even as far west as Jutland (Denmark) the Germanic merchants were forced to re-route their Baltic Sea trade through Bjoerkoe, Sweden, to Bergen in Norway. And Visby on the Isle on Gotland lost its importance as a relay port.
As the people on Gotland lost their sources of income, they also became restless and began to explore other possibilities of income. Therefore they went to the area we know today as Novgorod. They called “varjaags” (in Russia varyiagi). Here comes into the play the difference of pronunciation in various languages. In English the word “varjaags” is not pronounced the same way as in other European languages, therefore the word “varjaags” became “varangians”. There are many speculations of the origin of the word “varjaag”.
My argument is, that as Rurik’s lieutenants Askold and Dir were arguing in Swedish, that whose idea it was to go to Kiev, Askold said “Det var jag” (it was I) and Dir objected by saying “Nej, det var jag” (No, it was I). As this was going on for a while, Rurik who was sitting at the other end of the room, stood up and said in a deep solemn voice “Var jag” (was I). And because they were surrounded by the local Finnic people who didn’t understand a word, what the guys were arguing about, they only heard “var jag, var jag, var jag” they started to call them “Varjaags”.
Similar name calling happened about 900 years later in the 30 years war, as Gustavus II Adolf had Finnish cavalry detachment in his army whose war cry was “Hakkaa pelotta”, to encourage their young men of 15 – 17 years of age. Because their Swedish compatriots didn’t understand what the war cry meant, they started to call the Finnish cavalry men as “Hakkapeliittas”.
The Viking Era ended in 12th century and I believe that as Germanic farmers came up with the iron plow around 1000 A.D. people were able to till the soil and use the land which was previously considered as useless for agriculture. Therefore there was no need to venture into other lands for the additional income. At the same time the Christianity started to gain a foothold among the northern people, which had a pacifying effect on the population.
Here I want to point out the origin of the word “pogrom”.
FACTS:
Around 500 A.D. after the Huns’ invasion, the Slavic people started to move into the area which we know today as Ukraine. Rurik’s expeditions happened around mid 9th century. In 13th century the Komi_Finn’s Orthodox Bishop Tapani devised an alphabet for the Komi-Finns based on the Cyrillic alphabet. And at the end of 19th century during the time of the Czar Alexander III (1881-1894) according to the Finnish history, less than 50% of Russia’s population spoke Slavic Russian language. So that you can imagine what kind of percentage of people in Russia spoke Slavic language at the time of Rurik’s voyage.
ARGUMENTS:
As Czar Alexander III heard that less than 50% of his people spoke Slavic Russian language, he became very concerned of the national security, because Otto von Bismark’s unification program in Germany was a threat to Russia. Therefore he began his forced relocations of non-Russian speaking people. The most brutal relocations were carried out in Lithuania where people refused to move from their ancestral land. These forced relocations were dubbed by the people as “pogroms”.
FACTS:
Another cause of arguments, in my opinion, is the name of “Die Hanse” or “The Hansa”, which many historians call The Hanseatic League.
ARGUMETNS:
My argument is that the merchant Princes knew perfectly well what they were doing, as they called their enterprise “Die Hanse”, which means a group of combatant men. Considering the political instability in Europe all ready before the Interregnum 1254-1274 had lasted for decades and merchants had attempted to form all kind of unions, leagues and confederations for their protection against greedy local rulers, as pointed out by The Cambridge Medieval History. As the Hainault-Haino merchant Patricians decided to form a union among their own kindreds, they didn’t have the same problems as the other merchants had, because they were all members of the same family or clan and worked together as an entity. Therefore they were able to organize “Die Hanse” or “The Hansa” as an empire.
The first step was the Lübeck – Hamburg treaty in 1241 which automatically included Visby, because in 1163 Henry the Lion had signed a proclamation wherby he committed himself to protect Visby and Lübeck against Danish King Waldemar II. This, in my opinion, indicates that the leading merchants of Visby were members of the Hainault-Haino family as were the leading merchants of Hamburg, who had paid high ransom to the Austrians for the release of Richard the Lionhearted from the Austrian captivity.
Considering that “Die Hanse” or “The Hansa” operated as an empire with the exception that it wasn’t ruled by an Emperor, but by an assembly of Patriarchs. And according to my understanding, proves that it was a family owned and democratically ruled franchise rather than a league. Therefore the designation of “The Hanseatic League”, in my opinion, is unrealistic and misleading.
FACTS:
Buried treasures
An innumerable amount of buried treasures have been found in Baltic Sea area, especially in Gotland. These treasures usually are explained by the “Viking” storytellers as being buried by their “beloved Vikings”. However, the storytellers have been puzzled by the fact that the treasures were buried in a lot of manure.
In my manuscript I mention the following facts:
- In the so called “Viking” era (850-1050 A.D.) there weren’t any laws nor law enforcement forces in the Baltic Sea area, the way it is today, therefore there wasn’t any need for the northern marauders (Vikings) to hide their loots. A very good example was Norwegian Harold Hardrada, who later became the King of Norway.
- The “Vikings” and other robbers’ operations were sort of “hit and run” events for not to give the local people time to organize resistance, therefore they didn’t have the time to bury their loots, nor would they have been able to acquire needed manure.
- In those days there weren’t any safe places for anyone to safe keep their valuables.
ARGUMENTS:
In support of my arguments I want to remind the total lawlessness at the “Vikings” time in the Baltic Sea area. In those days people had to be self sufficient in everything. Therefore the merchants had to have their country estates, or farms for their families’ necessities. The merchants knew that in the case of marauders attack the robbers ransacked the living quarters, especially, during their absence, their families were in great danger. Therefore they had to hide their valuables away from their homes, but close enough to be able to get them whenever needed. The merchants knew also that the robbers didn’t have much time and that the robbers were too proud to poke around in manure. Therefore I suggest that merchants hid their valuables in manure which they had on their farms. In case that the merchants passed away on trading expedition, or died unexpectedly, the buried treasures were forgotten, because they had been afraid to tell their families were the treasures were hidden, in the fear, that under torture, they would have told the robbers where the valuables were hidden. In my opinion, a very good example of the in manure hidden treasures was the case in Viborg, Finland. Around 1870 in the area of “Luostarin-Uudenportin-Vahtitornin” Streets in Viborg, the workers, while digging to lay sewers, came across a very rich burial treasure consisting of silver and gold coins, buried in a lot of manure. According to my knowledge, the “Vikings” never raided Viborg, because at that time Viborg was a small trading post. However, there is a story in Runic script about a raid by Vikings to Finland. The script was found in Schone, Sweden, and it tells that in 1050 A.D. about 2000 “Vikings” in some 200 ships travelling along the river “Kokemaeki” attacked Hauho (pronounced as Howhoh) in south central Finland, but were defeated by the tribe of “Haeme” which is one of the Finnish tribes (in Swedish Tavast tribe) and the Vikings had to flee back to Sweden.
What concerns the unearthed treasures; In the northern countries, they are considered to belong to the states were they were found, and are kept in museums as a part of national heritage, and the same should apply, in my opinion, for example, to all the valuables which were robbed by the French revolutionary scum during the Napoleonic Wars, and to be considered as the property of various states, and kept in museums.
The fact that there may be manufactured bills of sale, or other fraudulent documents, as was done in the Ex-Soviet Union by communists (Bolsheviks), does not change the fact that they are stolen goods. And it is universally accepted that the possession of stolen property is a punishable offence.
It seems that the entire Napoleonic gang was a poor revolutionary bunch of war criminals, regardless of their fancy titles given by Napoleon, who in fact was the “capo di tutti capi”.
We have to keep in mind that times were different and that in those days, and even later, only small sector of humanity was interested in any kind of luxuries, gentiles and Jews alike. There were not many “Rothschilds” as the film “Fiddler on the Roof” illustrates.
I feel that a very good example was the action of a Gentleman how all the stolen treasures should be treated. As this Gentleman acquired on an auction a “Faberge Egg”, decided to send it to Russia, because it is well known fact that the Faberge Eggs belonged to the Czar and as such are a part of the national treasures of Russia. This was shown on television News a few years ago, and also this story can be found on the Internet.
Rolf A. Heyno (Heijno)
