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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
MARCO POLO BOOK IV.
490
tc
Waraegs or Warangs are celebrated in the oldest Russian history as a race of warlike immigrants, of whom came Rurik, the founder of the ancient royal dynasty, and whose name was long preserved in that of the Varangian guards at Constantinople. Many Eastern geographers, from Al Biruni downwards, speak of the Warag or Warang as a nation dwelling in the north, on the borders of the Slavonic countries, and on the shores of a great arm of the Western Ocean, called the Sea of Warang, evidently the Baltic. The Waraegers are generally considered to have been Danes or Northmen, and Erman mentions that in the bazaars of Tobolsk he found Danish goods known as Varaegian. Mr. Hyde Clark, as I learn from a review, has recently identified the Warangs or Warings with the Varíni, whom Tacitus couples with the Angli, and has shown probable evidence for their having taken part in the invasion of Britain. He has also shown that many points of the laws which they established in Russia were purely Saxon in character. (Bayer in Conzmcnt. Acad. Petropol. IV. 276 segq.; Fraehn in App. to Ibn Fozlan, p. 177 seqq.; Erman, I. 374 ; Sat. Review, 19th Tune, 1869 ; Gold Horde, App. p. 428.)
CHAPTER XXIII.
HE BEGINS TO SPEAK OF THE STRAITS OF CONSTANTINOPLE, BUT DECIDES TO LEAVE THAT MATTER.
AT the straits leading into the Great Sea, on the west
side, there is a hill called the FARO. But since be-
ginning on this matter I have changed my mind, because
so many people know all about it, so we will not put it
in our description, but go on to something else. And so
I will tell you about the Tartars of the Ponent, and the
lords who have reigned over them.
CHAPTER XXIV.
CONCERNING THE TARTARS OF THE PONENT AND THEIR LORDS.
THE first lord of the Tartars of the Ponent was SAIN, a
very great and puissant king, who conquered ROSIA and
COMANIA, ALANIA, LAC, MENJAR, ZIC, GOTHIA, and GA-
ZARIA ; all these provinces were conquered by King Sain.
Before his conquest these all belonged to the Comanians,
I
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