The Swedes looked east. Men from the Mälaren region died at Salme in Estonia about 750, Scandinavians lived at Grobiņa in Curonia from the 7th century, and King Olof besieged Apuolė in today's Lithuania about 854. Beyond the Baltic the rivers led to the silver of the Caliphate and the silks of Byzantium. Greeks and Slavs called these men Varangians; those who settled and ruled became the Rus'. At home the kingdom formed late, under Eric the Victorious and Olof Skötkonung, and paganism lasted at Uppsala into the 1080s.
- Austrvegr: Birka to Ladoga and Novgorod sea
- The Volga road to Bolghar and Itil river
- The Caspian and the caravan road to Baghdad sea
- The Daugava road: Gotland to Polotsk river
- Sweden to Curonia: Seeburg and Apuolė sea
- Birka to Hedeby sea
Key dates
Dates that define them
Journeys
Where they went
- the eastern Baltic: Estonia, Curonia, Finland
- Ladoga and Novgorod
- the Volga and the Dnieper
- Constantinople (the Varangian Guard)
- the Caspian
The Kingdom of Sweden; the ruling elite of the Rus'; the Varangian Guard of the Byzantine emperors.
Famous people
Faces of the Swedes and Varangians
Kings, raiders, poets and explorers of this branch. Legendary and semi-legendary figures are labelled.
Related events
On the timeline
Key events first, shown in date order. Each opens on the timeline.
- 98 CE Tacitus Describes the Suiones
- c. 550 CE Vendel Period Begins
- c. 550 CE Royal Mounds of Gamla Uppsala
- c. 650 CE Scandinavians Settle at Grobiņa
- c. 750 CE Salme Ship Burials
- c. 750 CE Birka Founded
- 753 CE Staraya Ladoga Founded
- c. 800 CE Rök Runestone Carved
- c. 800 CE Islamic Silver Reaches the Baltic
- 829 CE Ansgar's First Mission to Birka
- c. 852 CE Ansgar's Second Mission to Birka
- c. 854 CE Swedes Besiege Apuolė in Curonia