Chapter 6
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and late, there are not lacking records of Swedish military operations, sudden raids and conquests, in these provinces towards the close of the Migration Period and during the Viking Period. As far back as the seventh century Sweden had possessed a tax-paying dependency in Kurland (West Latvia), (1) a sýsla as it is called in Ynglingatal, (2) where the praises are sung of King Yngvar of Svitjod who died fighting against the 'Esths', and of King Anund, his son, who also warred in their country. The great Ivar Vidfadmi, king of the united realms of Svitjod and Denmark, must certainly have ruled a part, if not all, of the east Baltic lands in the second half of this century, and so, perhaps, did his successor Harald Hilditönn, though these provinces seem to have regained their freedom in the eighth century after the fall of Harald at Bravalla. Nevertheless the next century was to witness a new period of Swedish aggression in the east Baltic countries, for Archbishop Rimbert in his biography of the missionary Anscar tells (3) how the Danes, at the time of Anscar's second visit to Sweden, that is to say about A.D. 854, had raided Kurland and suffered defeat; but the Swedes, he says, came following upon their heels and, led by King Olof, took this land which had been in the past, as Rimbert knew, a sysla of Sweden.
There are other witnesses to the crossing of the Baltic about this time by expeditionary forces from Sweden. One is a passage in the Russian Chronicle that relates how in A.D. 859 the Varangians came 'from the other side of the (Baltic) sea' and demanded that the Tchuds and various Slavonic peoples of north Russia should pay them indemnities. In 862, the chronicle continues, these vikings were driven out of the conquered territories and forced to return to their homes; thereupon follows the celebrated legend of the recall by invitation from the leaderless Slavs of three viking brothers who recrossed the Baltic to govern the chaotic native tribes. The Tchuds (foreigners) were Finns who lived in Esthonia west of Lake Peipus, and it was in
1. Kurland is defined by Birger Nerman as the district west and southwest of the Gulf of Riga except for the northern fringe of land projecting to Cape Domesnes where there dwelt a distinct group of Livs.
2. v. 18. There has been dispute as to the locality of the sysla and some believe it to have been in East Prussia. Cf. H. Schück, Uppsala Univ. Arskrift, 1910, p. 145 ff., for the whereabouts of the 'Esths' named in this passage.
3. M.G.H. (Pertz), SS. II, 714. The 'Seeburg' mentioned here has been identified at Grobin near Libau; it contains cemeteries of Uppland Swedes and Gotlanders, and is now being excavated.
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their territory, or close to it, at Izborsk, south-west of Pskov, that one of the three Swedish brothers took up his abode with his following; thus to the evidence of Rimbert must be added that of the Russian chronicle as showing that at a period shortly after A.D. 850 Sweden was boldly intent upon conquest abroad, taking to herself the east Baltic provinces of Kurland and Esthonia. And this is not all, for Olof, who was king at Birka, had a contemporary Eric, an Uppsala king, who likewise led Swedish armies eastwards across the Baltic; it is the Icelandic historian Snorri Sturlason who testifies to this; for in the Saint Olaf saga of the Heimskringla he puts into the mouth of Thorgny Lagman a remarkable speech in which the indignant old councillor, upbraiding Olof Skotkonung for his arrogance, declares (this was about 1016) that his (Thorgny's) grandfather could remember Eric, the renowned conqueror of Finland, Karelia, and Estland; the prowess and glory of Eric, he says scornfully, was greater than that of Olof Skotkonung, yet Eric was less haughty and, unlike Olof, would hearken to the advice of others. Doubtless it was Rimbert's Olof of Birka, and not Eric, who was the conqueror of Kurland; but it is abundantly plain that Eric's forces, perhaps the Varangians of the Russian Chronicle, also gained notable successes in the east Baltic area and that a part of the lands of Finland and the modern Esthonia were won, temporarily at least, for the dominion of the Uppsala king.
Yet, as has been said, archaeology offers no proof of serious colonization by the Swedes of the provinces, Finland and Karelia included, that the royal raiders had subdued in the ninth century. The kings came with their armies, conquered, and took an indemnity, afterwards returning with most of their warriors to Sweden, and though perhaps a jarl was left to act as governor, it can only have been in a loose and irregular manner that the overlordship of the Swedish monarchs was exercised during the next hundred years. In the days of Eric Segersäll (c. 980-995) Estland and Kurland, on the indirect evidence of Thorgny Lagman's speech, may possibly have acknowledged the suzerainty of the Swedish king, but in the reign of Olof Skotkonung (9951022), a monarch more interested in western politics and his quarrel with Norway than with eastern affairs, these provinces had most certainly recovered their independence, even though it was at this time that they tolerated, or were forced to tolerate, the establishment of Swedes and Gotlanders in settlements along their shores or along their rivers.
When the ninth century was over they lay an easy prey to the prospering Swedish state in Russia and to the plundering of vikings
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other than the Swedes. At the beginning of the tenth century two Norwegian princes, sons of Harald Fairhair, raided Estland, and to Kurland about this time came the celebrated Icelander Egil Skallagrimsson with his brother Thorolf. But the increasing power of the Russians is not discernible until the '70s of this century, the time when Olaf Tryggvason, afterwards king of Norway, spent some years of his boyhood in Estland, and it was only a short time after this that the indifference of the Swedish Olof Skotkonung was all too plainly demonstrated by his allowing Jarl Eric Haakonsson of Norway, who was on good terms with him, to ravage Ösel Island and Kurland about the year A.D. 1000 and to burn the Aldeigjuborg, the stronghold of the Russian Swedes to the south of Lake Ladoga. Nevertheless in the eleventh century, in the reigns of Anund and Emund and when the allimportant trade with the east had broken down, then once more Sweden found occasion to seek wealth in the lands across the Baltic; this was the time when Swedish traders made their settlements here and the time when Swedish buccaneering again distressed these coasts. Seven Runic inscriptions upon Swedish memorial-stones of this period (1020-1060) tell of Swedes who fell in these countries, and it was in these decades that the royal viking Ingvar Vittfarne descended upon and captured the western and southern coastlands of the Gulf of Riga. By 1070 Kurland, and probably Esthonia, were again under Swedish dominion, (1) but it was not for long that Sweden held these provinces inviolate; for Cnut II of Denmark ravaged Kurland and Estland about ten years later, and after a short period of Danish supremacy they passed again into the keeping of their own Baltic folk.
1. Adam of Bremen, Hamburg Church Hist., IV, 16.
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