and supplied their
numbers with fresh streams of adventurers from the Baltic coast. [47]
But when the Scandinavian chiefs had struck a deep and permanent root
into the soil, they mingled with the Russians in blood, religion,
and language, and the first Waladimir had the merit of delivering his
country from these foreign mercenaries. They had seated him on the
throne; his riches were insufficient to satisfy their demands; but
they listened to his pleasing advice, that they should seek, not a
more grateful, but a more wealthy, master; that they should embark for
Greece, where, instead of the skins of squirrels, silk and gold would
be the recompense of their service. At the same time, the Russian prince
admonished his Byzantine ally to disperse and employ, to recompense and
restrain, these impetuous children of the North. Contemporary writers
have recorded the introduction, name, and character, of the Varangians:
each day they rose in confidence and esteem; the whole body was
assembled at Constantinople to perform the duty of guards; and their
strength was recruited by a numerous band of their countrymen from the
Island of Thule. On this occasion, the vague appellation of Thule is
applied to England; and the new Varangians were a colony of English
and Danes who fled from the yoke of the Norman conqueror. The habits of
pilgrimage and piracy had approximated the countries of the earth; these
exiles were entertained in the Byzantine court; and they preserved, till
the last age of the empire, the inheritance of spotless loyalty, and the
use of the Danish or English tongue. With their broad and double-edged
battle-axes on their shoulders, they attended the Greek emperor to the
temple, the senate, and the hippodrome; he slept and feasted under their
trusty guard; and the keys of the palace, the treasury, and the capital,
were held by the firm and faithful hands of the Varangians. [48]

[Footnote 47: Yet, as late as the year 1018, Kiow and Russia were still
guarded ex fugitivorum servorum robore, confluentium et maxime Danorum.
Bayer, who quotes (p. 292) the Chronicle of Dithmar of Merseburgh,
observes, that it was unusual for the Germans to enlist in a foreign
service.]

[Footnote 48: Ducange has collected from the original authors the state
and history of the Varangi at Constantinople, (Glossar. Med. et Infimae
Graecitatis, sub voce. Med. et Infimae Latinitatis, sub voce Vagri. Not.
ad Alexiad. Annae Comnenae, p. 256, 257, 25