Part 6.
Ancient Russia, world history and geography in mediaeval Scandinavian geographical tractates.
Chapter 22.
Corollaries. What the Scandinavian geographical tractates and maps report about the ancient Russia.
We provide a multitude of identifications in Chapter 21; let us now choose three of them that we’re interested in the most, namely:
1) Russia, or the Horde, also known as the Great = “Mongolian” Empire, or the Russian state of the XIV-XVI century.
2) River Don.
3) Europe.
We shall remove all references and comments from the resulting table, and only keep the marks of equivalence. Let us once again explain the meaning of the “=” symbol.
Mediaeval Scandinavian geographers occasionally provide their own identifications of certain geographical names, stating it directly that “Thracia is the same as Grikland” ([523], page 96). Certain other “collations” were discovered by modern historians; finally, we have added a few of those ourselves.
In some cases our use of the “=” symbol is to be interpreted as a consequence of a natural hypothesis – one that is nonetheless based on the Scandinavian chronicles, although occasionally in need of additional verification.
1. How different nations referred to Russia, or the Horde.
Russia, also known as the Great = “Mongolian” Russian Empire of the XIV-XVI, also had the following names (some of them may have referred to parts of the Empire and not its entirety):
Rusia = Ruzkia = Ruzcia = Ruzaland = Risaland (land of the giants) = Gardariki (land of the cities, or Horde-Reich) = Gardar = Great City = gorod (ancient Slavonic for “city”) = grhas (ancient Indian for “home”) = gardas (Lithuanian for “fence”) = Scandinavian and Gothic “gards” (“home” and “family”) = Samaria = Sarmatia, land of the Sarmatians (cf. the city of Samara) = Kylfingaland = land of the bells = Africa = Thracia = Turkey = Tartary = Blaland = Austrriki = Asian and Tartaric Empire = Austria = Scythia = Scithia = Sithia = Cithia = Kitia, or China = Scotia and Scotland = “the land named after Magog” = Great Svitjod (Svitjod Hinn Mikla) = Sarmatia + Alania + Gothia (the three provinces of Scythia) = Godland = Land of the Great God = Gods = Gautar = Geta = Hittites = Land of Giants = Jotunheim = Hittite Kingdom = Great Gothia = Gothia the Glorious (Reidgotaland, Hreidgotar etc).
The settlers that populated Great Svitjod initially are said to be of Turkic origins.
It is likely that Great Svitjod had once included Lesser Svitjod, or Sweden.
Furthermore, ancient Russia = Serkland = Serkland the Great, which is occasionally located in Africa (Thracia) or right next to it = Kvennaland = Quenland Kunaland = Land of the Amazons = Land of the Queens = Land of the Seres (Russians), or Assyrians. Also, Scythia = China = Land of the Saracens, or a Muslim country = Chaldea = Palestine = Mesopotamia = India, or faraway land; also, the division of India into three parts resembles the division of Russia into three Hordes.
Scythians colonised Parthia; the latter appears to have been the old name of Prussia = Prutenia = PRT = P + Russia, or White Russia.
It is possible that Russia = Biarma = Land of the Boyars (or “barmi”, a symbol of royal power in the ancient Russia). Biarma, or Great Perm, was initially the name borne by the territory nowadays occupied by Germany, Austria and Italy. Later on Romanovian historians transferred the name Great Perm to the territory of Romanovian Russia.
Furthermore, Russia = Scythia = Barbary, according to the English sources.
Let us also mention the identification that we discovered earlier: Russia = Kingdom of Presbyter Johannes. Also, let us add thereto the synonyms of Russia as used in the mediaeval English sources (see [517]) and the list of identifications that we have compiled after the book of V. I. Matouzova (see CHRON4, Chapter 15:1.5).
The ancient Russian state = Susie, Russie, Ruissie, Rusia, Russia, Ruthenia, Ruthia, Ruthena, Ruscia, Russcia, Russya and Rosie.
“Ruthia” unvocalised leaves us with RT or RD – the Horde, or “rhat” (old Russian word translating as “army”). This is how the Great = “Mongolian” Empire was referred to the most often. Since the word Ruthia is most likely to be related to the word “horde”, the English authors were using the correct terminology, which is also implied by our reconstruction.
This multitude of synonyms is most likely to be explained by the growing significance of the world-spanning Great = “Mongolian” Empire in the XIV-XVI century. Each of the numerous European, Asian, African and American nations had a special name for the Russian Empire, or the Horde, hence such great abundance of synonyms.
Let us remind the reader that in our reconstruction the Great Empire of the XIV-XVI century was a close ally of the Ottomans, or Cossack Atamans; the rift between the two dates back to the epoch when the Romanov dynasty usurped the Russian throne, which resulted in a military confrontation with Turkey.
One of the phantom reflections of the Ottoman = Ataman Empire in the distant past is the “ancient” Empire of Alexander the Great, qv in CHRON1 and CHRON2. Incidentally, why was Alexander also known as Iscander the Bicorn? The horns obviously symbolise the Ottoman crescent; what about “Iscander”? Could this translate as “a native of Scandia” – or “Scyth”?
2. Rivers known as “Don” in the Middle Ages.
These are the identifications reported by the Scandinavian sources:
Don = Danube = Danubis (or Danubius) = Dun = Danubium = Dyna = Hister (Hyster) = Istr = Dniester = Don = Tanais = Tanakvisl = Duna = West Dvina = Dan = Jordan (Jor + Dan).
The existence of so many identifications is the furthest thing from surprising, and has a very simple explanation. We have already mentioned the fact that the word “Don” translated simply as “river”. As we demonstrated in CHRON4, Chapter 6:2.12, Don was also the word used for referring to the modern River Moskva.
3. Sons of the Biblical Japheth.
According to the Scandinavian geographical tractates, the seven sons of Japheth used to own Europe. Scandinavians give a detailed account of who used to own which part exactly. In CHRON5, Part 3, we used these Scandinavian chronicles in order to support our hypothesis that the division of lands between the sons of Japheth is yet another reflection of how the Great = “Mongolian” Empire colonised the Western Europe and reigned over it for a long period of time.
The seven sons of Japheth are most likely the seven main tribes, or primary Eurasian regions that constituted the Great Empire during the first expansion period in the XIV century. They are as follows:
1) Magog = “The Mongols” = The Great Ones = The Goths.
2) Madai – the same Mongols,
3) Ivan, or the Ivans – Ivan Kalita = Batu-Khan, conqueror of the West,
4) The Turks – The Tartars = Thiras, southern part of the Empire,
5) Thubal – the Siberian part of the “Mongolian” Empire,
6) Homer – Etruscan Italy, Florence and Western Europe in general.
7) Meshech – Muscovia, the most likely candidate for the title of the original Mecca.
4. The “Norman Theory” as perceived after a study of the Scandinavian maps.
One must perish the thought that the chronicle records that have survived until our time and undergone a tendentious editing in the XVII-XVIII century permit anything in the way of an unambiguous interpretation. Nowadays we are being told that the old names used to have the same meanings in the Middle Ages as they do today. It turns out to be incorrect in many cases.
For instance, let us consider the quintessence of the “Norman Theory” and the interpretation of the data contained in the surviving Russian chronicles that this theory implies. Let us disregard the finer details and concentrate on the actual kernel of the theory. “Ryurik, the Varangian prince of the Normans, was summoned by the Russians from Scandinavia, and came to reign over Russia”.
The “Norman theory” is based on the following assumptions made about the mediaeval period:
1) The name “Scandinavia” has always referred to the same territory as today.
2) The Normans and the Varangians were always the natives of the modern Scandinavia.
3. Russia was the name of a rather small region on the territory of the modern Russia.
However, our research reveals an altogether different picture.
1) Scandinavia, or New Scythia was the mediaeval name used for referring to a part of Russia, or the Horde. It was only later, in the epoch of the Great = “Mongolian” Conquest of the XIV century, that it migrated from Russia to the modern Scandinavia.
2) Russians were known as the Normans in the Middle Ages, qv in CHRON5, Chapter 9:19, and also in Fasmer’s Dictionary ([866]).
3) In the Middle Ages, the name Russia referred to a much larger territory than today (one that included all the lands conquered by the Russian = “Mongolian” Empire in Europe and Asia).
4) Russian princes, or khans, that united Russia in the XIII-XIV century and launched the Great = “Mongolian” Conquest in the XIV century were called “enemies” in some chronicles (“vragi” in Russian) – the term later transformed into the name “Varangians”.
We come up with a wholly different interpretation of the Russian chronicles that have survived until our day and age. In particular, the modern Scandinavia appears to have preserved the memory of being a colony of the Horde in its very name – “New Scythia”.
