A Viking fleet in Georgia

In the beginning of the 1040s an armed force with Varjagi(*) i.e. Scandinavians, came to the small place Bashi, situated by the river Rioni in Georgia. In the old Georgian chronicle Kartlis tsovreba it is stated that they were 3000 men and presumably they had been rowing up the river after sailing eastwards on the Black Sea, most likely from the estuary of the Dnjepr River.

After an agreement had been made with Bagrat, the king of Georgia, 700 of them continued to travel further into the country where they took part in a battle against the king's enemies on the wooded shores of Sasirethis, a few miles west of Tbilisi.

Despite their help, the king lost the battle and fled. After reaching an agreement with the hostile army, the Scandinavian force returned westwards, thereafter disappearing from history.

Both the geographical area, the course of events and the time period make it probable that the story in the Georgian chronicle is a trace of the fatal Swedish expedition by the chieftain, Ingvar den Vittfarne (Ingvar the Far-Traveled), mentioned on at least 26 rune stones in mid-Sweden as well as in an imaginative saga from Iceland. Archaeologist. Mats G. Larsson, Ph.D, maintains this theory in his book "Ett ödesdigert vikingatåg - Ingvar den Vittfarnes resa 1036-1041" ("A fatal Viking Raid - the journey of Ingvar the Far-Travelled 1036-1041").


Expedition Vittfarne

How did they travel through the land that is Sweden today, in the Viking Age? And how did they travel from here to Russia and the Black Sea? What did the boats look like and how could they find their way on narrow rivers, past rapids and over land between different watercourses? The only way to get more knowledge about this is to do practical tests with similar kind of boats. Many experiments like this have been carried out during later years, but often with boats that were mostly adapted to sailing and thus far too heavy and clumsy for journeys on rivers and pulling on land.

At an archaeological information meeting about ships, held at Vik's castle in 1994, Mats G. Larsson met the Viking enthusiast Håkan Altrock. They started to talk about Mats' idea of testing the practical prerequisites needed for a voyage in the wake of Ingvar den Vittfarne through Transcaucasia, with a replica of a Viking ship. Later on their conversation resulted in Håkan's decision to build a light, flexible Viking ship for the expedition.

The keel of the ship was laid in 1998 and it was launched in 2001. Since then it has been test sailed. In 2003 the non-profit association Vittfarne was formed, in charge of planning for the expedition.


The Viking boat "Himingläva"

The Viking boat replica we use is called Himingläva and was built with this expedition in mind. The original is a boat found in a grave mound excavated in 1880 in Gokstad, Norway. In the mound a very well preserved, 23 metre-long ship was found.

The king buried in the mound seems to have enjoyed being on the sea because, among his grave gifts, there were also three smaller boats. The largest and smallest of them have been reconstructed and are now on exhibit in the Viking Ship House on Bygdøv in Oslo. The largest seems to fulfil the requirements needed for a river traveller while still being able to manage sailing in fairly close coastal waters.

The boat, that has been named "sexäringen" ("the six oars"), is 9,75 metres long and 1,86 metres wide. It has room for 9 people on longer trips. It is driven by six pairs of oars or a square sail of 16 square metres.


From the "Old Swedish-village" to Serkland

The expedition started in the Old Swedish-Village, in the south of Ukraine in spring 2004 (The name of the village is Gammalsvenskby in Swedish, present-day Kakhovka in Russian language. The old Swedish-village is a village where the inhabitants, whose ancestors emigrated from the Baltic Island of Dagö, still speak Swedish). Here the scientific expedition that brought the Viking boat Aifur from Sigtuna, Sweden to the estuary of the Dnjepr via river systems in the late Sovjet during the seasons of 1994 and 1996, was broken off. Our journey can be seen as a continuation of this expedition.

The journey started out from the Dnjepr River, passed the Crimean peninsula and along the Russian and Abchazian coast to the mouth of the Rioni River at the Georgian port of Poti. Via Rioni and its tributaries we proceeded to the village of Zuare, where the traverse over the water divider tooke place. The boat was then launched in the Kura River that flows out into the Caspian Sea at the coast of Azerbajdzjan. The final destination was Baku, the capital of Azerbajdzjan.

The scientific expedition lasted more than three months and the Swedish Television had a photographer on board from the start to the end. The documentary from the Expedition Vittfarne was shown on the Swedish Television and on the satellite channel SVT Europe on 28 March and on 31 March 2005.




Ed. note:
(*) The word Varjagi (Varangians) is mentioned in the Russian Nestorian Chronicle as a name of a people living beyond the Varjagic Sea (the Baltic Sea). According to the chronicle (chapter XV) the Varjagi included many tribes or ethnic groups, among which Rus, Svear, Northmen, Anglians and Goths are listed.

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