Древняя Русь и Скандинавия: Избранные труды

Even more demonstrative is the second case. Wide spread of the name Igor ’ in the princely family did not prevent the borrowing of its original (Ingvarr) for the second time in the twelfth century in an unaltered form Ingvar’. This form is attested in the Hypatian chronicle as the name of a son of great prince Jaroslav Izjaslavich. Ingvar’ Jaroslavich must have been bom in the mid-twelfth century and died in 1212[865]. At the beginning of the thirteenth century two princes of Rjazan’ had the same name. The second of them mentioned in 1207–1219 was a son of prince Igor’ and the annalist called him Ingvar’ with the patronymic Igorevich[866]. The etymological relationship of the two names was not apparent and they were regarded as different ones.

Thus, cardinal changes in the cultural traditions of former Varangians seem to have been completed in the second half of the eleventh century. By the end of this century both runic script and the Varangians’ mother tongue fell into disuse and most probably became forgotten. They were replaced by Cyrillic alphabet and Old Russian language. Personal names of Old Norse origin changed phonetically and stopped being identified with their prototypes. They were no longer viewed as foreign but probably were equaled to Old Russian pagan names.

It should be noted that this conclusion bases on materials coming from larger sites or towns, Gnjozdovo, Kiev, Novgorod. The evidence concerns the princely family, the warrior elite and the descendants of the Varangians of high status. There is no doubt that the social elite and town citizens adopted cultural innovations much easier and quicker than the peasantry. Therefore the processes of assimilation could develop faster in towns than in smaller, especially rural communities.

There are not so many traces of Scandinavian rural colonization in Ancient Rus’, especially in its Southern part. Therefore it is all the more surprising to find vestiges of Scandinavian cultural traditions in rural areas as late as the fourteenth and early fifteenth century. The evidence is again supplied by runic or rune-like inscriptions and by personal names.

The anthroponymicon of ca. 1000 birch-bark letters found by now in Novgorod numbers several hundred personal names. Most of them are Slavic or Christian, but seven birch-bark letters contain Old Norse names[867].

The oldest among these birch-bark letters is dated to the second half of the eleventh century (stratigraphic date is 1080ies) and mentions As gut who lived in a village near lake Seliger and owed a Novgorodian moneylender or tax collector several grivnas[868]. The context of the letter suggests that Asgut was a resident of the village. There is no way of finding out what brought Asgut (or his ancestors) to this village, but it is significant that the settlement was located on the Seliger route from Novgorod to the central part of Rus’.

Other birch-bark letters with Old Norse names were written in the second half of the fourteenth century and came to Novgorod from different parts of the Novgorod land. They name Vigar’ (< Végeirr or Vigeirr)[869], a «man of Mikula» Sten’ (< Steinn)[870], Jakun (< Hákon)[871] and a widow of another, Jakun[872]. The most interesting is the birch-bark letter No.[873] that mentions a place-name Gugmor-navolok deriving from ON Guðmarr, and two persons living nearby named Vozemut (< Guðmundr) and Vel’jut (< Véljótr). The combination of these names suggests that a certain Gudmarr once settled on the site near a portage (navolok) on the way to the lands north of lake Onega and that the tradition of using Old Norse names was preserved in the family (or in the community?) into the fourteenth century. It is highly improbable that Gudmarr was a newcomer, as there are no traces of fourteenth-century immigration in this area, as well as of earlier Scandinavian antiquities in the vicinity. It seems that the descendants of Gupmarr adopted the material culture of Slavic and Finnic neighbours, but retained their own name-giving traditions.