The Baltic Connection

Recently I have been thinking alot about the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea and their connections to the history of Gotland. I have just now read the most interesting little tid bit...

That the Variagi were of Swedish descent, and that it was they who gave the name of Russia to the Slav countries, is proved beyond the possibility of a doubt. A most weighty argument is the large number of Swedish names in the list of Variag princes who reigned in Russia. It would not have been possible for Nestor to devise the more than one hundred leading names of Swedish origin which occur in his chronicle. Furthermore, it has been shown that there are fifteen Swedish loanwords in Russian. This is very much. Great and powerful nations have left behind a good deal less in modern languages, the Vandals three words, the Burgundians four or five, the Herulians one. Although the Swedes in Russia had no literature in their ancestral language, they have left behind more words than the majority of Teutonic tribes founding states and nations. The Old Swedish equivalents to some of the most important proper names which meet us in early Russian history are as follows : Rurik=Hroerekr, Sineus=Signjôtr, Truvor=Tryggve, Oleg=Helge, Olga=Helga, Igor= Inge, Ingvar.

For two hundred years after Rurik, all the leading men in Russian history carry Swedish names, and all the czars of Russia were the descendants of Rurik, up to the year 1598. The emperor and historian Constantine Porphyrogenitus, speaking of Russia, makes the distinction between the Slays and the Russians proper. In his description of the cataracts of the Dniepr, he gives to each the Russian and the Slav name, and these Russian names are nearly all understood by reference to old Swedish roots. Examples are Gellandri (Gellandi)=the Noisy, Eyfôrr=the Al-ways Turbulent. Luitprand, the Italian chronicler, speaking of the Russians, says : "The Greeks call them Russians, we call them properly Northmen. The annals of St. Bertinus tell how Emperor Theophilus recommended some Russian envoys to Louis le Débonnaire, but how he, taking them for Norman spies, threw them into prison. The first Russian Code of Laws, compiled by laroslaf, presents a striking analogy to the Old Swedish laws.

The Slays must have originally borrowed the name Russian from the Finns, who, up to the present day, call the Swedes Ruotsi. The name is in Sweden connected with a part of the coast of Upland still called Roslagen. The etymology of the name is Old Swedish rodr (rudder) and rodsmenn (oarsmen). Roslagen means "associations of oarsmen." The district is famous for its large peculiar rowboats. By the term Russians, the Slays originally meant people from Roslagen, later Sweden in general. But when these Russians had become the founders of a new empire, south of the Baltic, it became necessary to devise a new name for the inhabitants of Sweden. This name was found in Variagi. Only the Swedes seeking employment as sworn warriors in the service of the new Russian dynasty, or in the body-guard of the Byzantine emperors, were originally thus called. But when the name of the new nation of Swedes and Slays became Russians, the Swedes, and the Scandinavians in general, became known as Variagi. The etymology of the word has been given as the Old Swedish var (sacramentum) and voeringar (sacrarnentarii, soldiers bound by oath). The same name applied to Swedes, or Northmen, occurs frequently in slightly altered forms in Greek and Arabic manuscripts.

So it seems to me that my suppositions regarding Gotland likely having a more Baltic influence than other parts of Scandinavia is correct in that for the Swedes to get to the Baltic region (i.e. Russia) they would have had to have sailed past Gotland and would have likely stopped there. If taken with evidence of Baltic coins being found in the Visby hoard, the supposition becomes even stronger.

Add this quote from Wikipedia... yeah, I know, but this site had sources

Latvians or Letts (Latvian: latvieši; Livonian: laett), the indigenous Baltic
people of Latvia, occasionally refer to themselves by the ancient name of
Latvji, which may have originated from the word Latve which is a name of the
river that presumably flowed through what is now eastern Latvia. A
Finnic-speaking tribe known as the Livs settled among the Latvians and modulated
the name to "Latvis," meaning "forest-clearers," which is how medieval German
settlers also referred to these peoples. The German colonizers changed this name
to "Lette" and called their initially small colony Livland. The Latin form,
Livonia, gradually referred to the whole territory of the modern-day Latvia as
well as southern Estonia, which had fallen under German dominion. Latvians and
Lithuanians are the only surviving members of the Baltic peoples and Baltic
languages of the Indo-European family.

And this from a similar site on Lithuania...

Baltic tribes
The first Lithuanians were a branch of an ancient group known
as the Balts, whose tribes also included the original Prussian and Latvian
people. The Baltic tribes were not directly influenced by the Roman Empire, but
the tribes did maintain close trade contacts (see Amber Road).

Lithuanians have built a nation that has endured for most of the past
ten centuries, while Latvians acquired statehood in the 20th century and
Prussian tribes disappeared in the 18th century. The first known reference to
Lithuania as a nation (Litua) comes from the annals of the monastery of
Quedlinburg and is dated February 14, 1009.

Today, the two remaining
Baltic nationalities are Lithuanians and Latvians, but there were more Baltic
nationalities/tribes in the past. Some of these have merged into the Lithuanian
and Latvian nationalities (Samogitians, Selonians, Curonians, Semigallians),
while others have disappeared (Prussians, Sambians, Skalvians, Galindians).

Towards the creation of a single state
During the 11th century,
Lithuanian territories were included in the list of lands paying tribute to
Kievan Rus', but by the 12th century, the Lithuanians were plundering
neighboring territories themselves. The military and plundering activities of
the Lithuanians triggered a struggle for power in Lithuania, which initiated the
formation of early statehood and was a precondition of the founding of the Grand
Duchy of Lithuania.

And this regarding the Cori or Curonians...

The Curonians or Kurs (Curonian: Kursi; German: Kuren; Latvian: Kurši;
Lithuanian: Kuršiai; Estonian: kuralased; Polish: Kurowie) were a people living
on the shores of the Baltic sea in what is now western parts of Latvia and
Lithuania from the 5th to the 16th centuries. They gave their name to the region
of Courland (Kurzeme), and they spoke the Old Curonian language. Curonian lands
were conquered by the Livonian Order in 1266 and they eventually merged with
other Baltic tribes participating in the ethnogenesis of Latvians and
Lithuanians. Direct descendents of the Curonians include the Kursenieki of the
Curonian Spit and the so-called Curonian Kings of Courland.

The Curonians were known as fierce warriors, excellent sailors and pirates. They
were involved in several wars and alliances with Swedish, Danish, and Icelandic
Vikings. Grobin was their main center during the Vendel Age. Chapter 46 of Egils
Saga describes one Viking expedition by the Vikings Thorolf and Egill
Skallagrímsson in Courland. They took part with the Oeselians in attacking
Sweden's main city Sigtuna in 1187. Curonians established temporary settlements
near Riga and in overseas regions including eastern Sweden and the islands of
Gotland and Bornholm.VIIa.Scandinavians begin settling in Western Baltic lands
in Lithuania and Latvia.

The Curonians were an especially religious
people, worshipping pagan gods and their sacred animal, the horse. Some of the
most important writing sources about the Curonians are the Rimbert's Vita
Ansgarii, the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, the Livländische Reimchronik, Egils
Saga, and Saxo Grammaticus's Gesta Danorum.

It seems to me that my best bet for finding the information I am looking for is to seek out a connection to the Curonians and Gotland.... More to come later