Bjarmaland: Encyclopedia II - Bjarmaland - Background

Bjarmaland - Background

The Norwegian merchant Ottar (Ohthere) related for king Alfred the Great that he had passed the North Cape and after several days' voyage he arrived at a great river, the Dvina. At the estuary of the Dvina, dwelt the Beormas, who unlike the nomadic Sami peoples were sedentary, and their land was rich and populous. Ottar did not know their language but he said that it resembled the language of the Samis (Finno-ugric). The Biarmians told Ottar about their country and other countries that bordered it.

Later several expeditions were undertaken from Norway. In 920, Eirik Bloodaxe made a Viking expedition, as well as Harald II of Norway and Haakon Magnusson of Norway, in 1090.

The most well-known expedition was that of Tore Hund (Tore Dog) who together with some friends, arrived in Biarmland, in 1026. They started to trade with the inhabitants and bought a great many pelts, whereupon they pretended to leave. Later, they made shore in secret, and plundered the burial site, where the Biarmians had erected an idol of their god Jomali (Ibmel, cf. (Finnish) Jumala, 'thunder god', see Thor). This god had a bowl containing silver on his knees, and a valuable chain around his neck. Tore and his men managed to escape from the pursuing Biarmians with their rich booty.

The wealth of the Biarmians was due to their profitable trade along the Dvina, the Kama River and the Volga to Bolghar and other trading settlements in the south. Along this route, silver coins and other merchandise were exchanged for pelts and walrus tusks brought by the Biarmians. Further north, the Biarmians traded with the Saami who are said to have been tributaries to the Biarmians.

It seems that the Scandinavians made use of this trade route, in addition to those that were already travelled by the Varangians. In 1217, two Norwegian traders arrived in Biarmland to buy pelts; one of the traders continued further south to pass through Russia in order to arrive in the Holy Land, where he intended to take part in the Crusades. The second trader who remained was, however, killed by the Biarmians. This caused Norwegian officials to perform a campaign of retribution into Biarmland which they pillaged in 1222.

This time seems to be the decline of the Biarmians. The arrival of the Mongols in Russia undoubtedly contributed to the decline. Even if Biarmland was very distant from the lands plundered by the Mongols, many Biarmians sought refuge in Norway, where they were given land in Malangen, by Haakon IV of Norway, in 1240. More important for the decline was probably that the trade routes had found a more westerly orientation and that the Scandinavians had started to trade with Novgorod instead.

When the Novgorodians founded Velikiy Ustiug, in the beginning of the 13th century, the Biarmians had a serious competitor for the trade. More and more Novgorodian Slavs arrived in the area during the 14th and 15th centuries, which lead to the final submission and assimilation of the Biarmians.

This article contains content from the Owl Edition of Nordisk familjebok, a Swedish encyclopedia published between 1904-1926 now in Public Domain.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Background", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki