According to Chronicles, Did the “Route from the Varangians to the Greeks” Go by Sea or Overland?

Abstract

This article deals with the historical and geographical analysis of the description of the “Route from the Varangians to the Greeks” — a key reference point in the system of spatial coordinates of the Primary Chronicle. The author reconsiders the “ultra-philological” approaches to this description and the cosmographic introduction of the Primary Chronicle as a purely literary (and manuscript) reality and argues in favor of the real geographical basis of the passage about the “Route from the Varangians to the Greeks”. Contrary to the traditional historiographical idea, the scheme mainly reflects not the water, but the overland route covered by the hypothetical author of this passage. Firstly, this is indicated by the obvious view of the “Route from the Varangians to the Greeks” “from land” (волоки), and not “from the river / sea”. Secondly, the medieval word usage of the term “волок” in the sense of a land route through a vast watershed space and at the same time about this space itself, which finds analogies not only in Old Russian sources but also in at least one medieval Icelandic text. The author draws a comparison of the building activity of prince Vsevolod Yaroslavich with his special attitude to the cult of Andrew the Apostle which makes it possible to assume that the author of the description of the “Route from the Varangians to the Greeks” was Metropolitan Ephrem of Pereyaslavl. Being of Greek origin, Ephrem entered the close circle of Vsevolod Yaroslavich after his marriage to the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos. Ephrem personally made a journey along the “route from the Varangians to the Greeks” and left a topographically detailed description typical of Greek (Byzantine) culture, i.e. an eye-witness observation. In accordance with Christian cosmography, his task was to “normalize” the vast territory of Rus’ which had never been part of the universal Roman imperial (and later Christian) order.