- In the 9th century AD, a Swedish prince named Rurik built a fortification north of modern-day St. Petersburg. Rurik was a Varangian, one of the eastern Vikings journeying out of Sweden into the vast lands west of the Urals occupied by pagan Slav tribes.
- Before 500 BC, the languages spoken in the coastal East Baltic were likely related to forerunners of modern Scandinavian or Slavic languages...
These sentences are misleading and one of the reasons is the usage of misleading taxonomy. Before 500BC did not exist, neither Scandinavian nor Slavic languages. The term ‘Slavic’ is used after the 7th c.AC. The language mentioned was – Serbian language. Who ruled in Sweden in the 9th c.AC? In the last OT, we mentioned couple things about Beowulf and Geats (i.e. Goths - will write more about them) and also Vikings. Every text I’ve seen about Vikings hide an important fact proven by geneticists and archaeologists – Vikings were – (let say) Slavs. So, the ‘Swedish prince’ Rurik was a Viking and (let say) – a Slav, himself, who spoke Serbian language because at that time sc. Slavic languages (nor Scandinavian) still did not exist.
Just to comment on two sentences:
- In the 9th century AD, a Swedish prince named Rurik built a fortification north of modern-day St. Petersburg. Rurik was a Varangian, one of the eastern Vikings journeying out of Sweden into the vast lands west of the Urals occupied by pagan Slav tribes.
- Before 500 BC, the languages spoken in the coastal East Baltic were likely related to forerunners of modern Scandinavian or Slavic languages...
These sentences are misleading and one of the reasons is the usage of misleading taxonomy. Before 500BC did not exist, neither Scandinavian nor Slavic languages. The term ‘Slavic’ is used after the 7th c.AC. The language mentioned was – Serbian language. Who ruled in Sweden in the 9th c.AC? In the last OT, we mentioned couple things about Beowulf and Geats (i.e. Goths - will write more about them) and also Vikings. Every text I’ve seen about Vikings hide an important fact proven by geneticists and archaeologists – Vikings were – (let say) Slavs. So, the ‘Swedish prince’ Rurik was a Viking and (let say) – a Slav, himself, who spoke Serbian language because at that time sc. Slavic languages (nor Scandinavian) still did not exist.