The Name of Byzantium in Old Norse Literature

 
PIIS032103910012256-4-1
DOI10.31857/S032103910012256-4
Publication type Article
Status Published
Authors
Affiliation: Institute of World History, RAS
Address: Russian Federation, Moscow
Journal nameVestnik drevnei istorii
EditionVolume 80 Issue 4
Pages1015-1021
Abstract

Byzantium was traditionally designated in Scandinavia in the 11th–14th centuries with an ethnic name Grik(k)jar, pl., which is attested in skaldic verses and runic inscriptions from the early 11th century on. The usage of ethnic names as land-names is highly untypical for Scandinavian toponomastics (the usual pattern is ethnic name + land), but it is common in East-Slavic place-names nomenclature including the name of Byzantium – the Greeks. As the contacts between Scandinavia and Byzantium in the 10th–11th centuries were carried out exclusively via Eastern Europe, the author argues that the name Grik(k)jar was borrowed by Scandinavians in Rus’.

KeywordsOld Norse written texts, name of Byzantium, Rus’
AcknowledgmentRussian Foundation for Basic Research, project no. 18-09-00433-18
Received28.12.2020
Publication date28.12.2020
Number of characters18978
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