Kylfings
The Kylfings were a people of uncertain origin active in Northern Europe during the Viking Age. They could be found in areas of Lapland, Russia, and the Byzantine Empire. The exact etymology of the word kylfing is disputed and many different theories have been put forward as to its ultimate origin.
About Kylfings in brief
The Kylfings were a people of uncertain origin active in Northern Europe during the Viking Age. They could be found in areas of Lapland, Russia, and the Byzantine Empire that were frequented by Scandinavian traders, raiders and mercenaries. The exact etymology of the word kylfing is disputed and many different theories have been put forward as to its ultimate origin. Whether the name Kylfing denotes a particular tribal, socio-political, or economic grouping is also a matter of much debate. According to the sagas, the Kylfs opposed the consolidation of Norway under Harald Fairhair and participated in the pivotal late ninth century Battle of Hafrsfjord. They are mentioned in Old Norse runestone inscriptions, sagas, and poetry as well as Byzantine records and Rus’ law-codes. In a number of minor Icelandic manuscripts on mathematics and geography, Kylfedaland is identified as Garðaríki, i.e. Kievan Rus’, but the sources are unclear as to whether there is any connection at all. Some scholars see Kylfers as marauders and report back to him that he is reported to have killed over a hundred marauding Kylfes. Some other scholars see them as traders and plundering and trading in Finnmark around the year 900.
In Byzantine Greek, they were named koulpingoi and they served as a unit of the Byzantine army listed alongside the Varangian Guard, which was of Scandinavian origin. A very different derivation was put forward by the Russian scholar B. Briems. He hypothesised that Kylfer was a direct Norse translation of the Votic self-designation Vatjalaiset and Vatja used by the Votes, a Finnic tribe residing in Ingria, Russia. The Russian cognate of Kylfe is Kolbjag, following the pattern of development *kolƀing > kolbhag > kolbjag. A number of historians have asserted thatKylfing referred to a member of a “club in the social or Anglo-American sense”, a “brotherhood” or a Norse félag. The word would be more or less synonymous with ‘kolbiagi’, a term used in Eastern Europe to describe traders and pirates of the Baltic sea. It is also possible that the word could mean a smaller stick, such as a tally-stick or wooden token used by merchants, and, according to Jesch, it can also mean the highest and narrowest part of a ship’s stem.
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This page is based on the article Kylfings published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 01, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
