Royce Perry wrote: > Humm,,I had always thought it was mostly the Swedish tribes that went east > inland towards Russia. Nothing to say that Norse from Orkney couldn't > have,,I had just never thought of it before. Always thought of the Norse as > going west and south out of Norway towards Iceland/Greenland and Shetland, > Orkney, and Scotland > Anybody got any evidence on the matter? > R The Orkneyinga Saga certainly suggests that there was some contact between the Orkney Norse and Russia. Rognvald Brusisson or Brusason eventually became an Earl of Orkney and was killed on Papa Stronsay in about 1046, betrayed by the barking of his little dog. However, the Saga also describes earlier events in his life. Some heavily edited quotations from the translation by Palsson and Edwards: "Now we come back to Rognvald Brusason. He took part in the Battle of Stiklestad in which King Olaf the Saint was killed, but Rognvald got away with other fugitives. He rescued from the battle King Olaf's brother, Harald Sigurdarson, who was badly wounded. Rognvald left him with a peasant to recover from his wounds and travelled east over the Kjolen Mountains to Jamtland, and from there to Sweden where he met King Onund. Harald stayed with the peasant until his wounds were healed, then with the peasant's son as guide he made his way east to Jamtland and from there to Sweden, travelling secretly... In Sweden Harald went to see Rognvald Brusason. Then they travelled east together to Russia along with many of the troops who had been with King Olaf. They kept on the move until they reached Novgorod, where King Jaroslav gave them a kindly welcome on account of the holy King Olaf. All the Norwegians joined up with Earl Eilif, the son of Earl Rognvald Ulfsson, to take over the defences of Russia, and it was there that Rognvald Brusason stayed when King Harald Sigurdarson went to Byzantium, defending the country for several years during the summer but staying in Novgorod over winter..." Rognvald returned to Orkney in around 1038: "Earl Rognvald Brusason sailed west to Orkney, went at once to the estates his father had owned and sent a message to his uncle Earl Thorfinn claiming the third of the islands that had belonged to his father. Moreover, he added, King Magnus had granted him in fee the third of Orkney that had belonged to King Olaf, so that he was making claim not just to one-third, but two... Now, at that time Thorfinn was having a great deal of trouble with the Hebrideans and the Irish and needed reinforcements badly, so in his reply he told the messengers that Rognvald ought certainly to take control of that third of the islands which was his by right..." I think that's the only reference to Russia in the Orkneyinga Saga, though, so I don't know how frequent such contact was. Norman Tulloch