Vikings in the East explores the lesser-known but deeply influential Viking expansion into Eastern Europe, where Scandinavian adventurers, merchants, and warriors followed rivers instead of oceans. Moving through the Baltic, Novgorod, Kyiv, the Volga, and the Dnieper, the Varangians connected the northern forests to the wealth of Byzantium, the Islamic world, and the Eurasian steppe. Along these routes, they traded in silver, furs, wax, slaves, and luxury goods, served emperors in the legendary Varangian Guard, challenged Constantinople, and helped shape the rise of the Rus.
This fifth book reveals how Viking mobility became the foundation of medieval Eastern European power. Through trade, tribute, warfare, diplomacy, and conversion, the Norse presence in the east transformed into something larger than Viking raiding: the birth of a new political and cultural world. From the founding of Novgorod to the rise of Kyiv and the conversion of the Rus to Byzantine Christianity, this volume tells the story of how rivers became roads to empire.