Interesting article about Variags

[Zigûr]

Hello everyone,

Has anyone read this 2010 blog post discussing the implications of the use of the word "Variag" to refer to the people of Khand?
http://blog.tolkien-studies.com/2010...iags-of-khand/

I did a search and I don't think this has been posted before.

I found it to be quite an interesting read discussing the word and its origins. Of course the connection to "Varangians" has been considered for a long time, but this article wonders if Professor Tolkien meant to imply that, like the Varangians, the Variags were foreign people working as soldiers in an adopted homeland, and, if they were like the Russian Norsemen of the Varangians, we might imagine the Variags possibly being an offshoot of the Northmen of Rhovanion.

I personally wonder if the Variags are meant to add a little glimpse of an early medieval Russian culture in Middle-earth, similar to the Easterlings possibly being reminiscent of Mongolian or Central Asian peoples and the Haradrim of Near Harad suggesting the populations of North Africa. The Varangians seem to have traditionally been Germanic peoples who came to Slavic lands but I wonder if a Slavic element might be hinted at too.

I note the article also touches upon the common misconception that the Variags were the same thing as the axe-bearing bearded Easterlings who also fought at the Pelennor; in fact they are mentioned one after another at one point, which I take to be as clear an indication as any that they were two separate groups.

So if you read the article, what do you think? Does it shed any speculative light upon the identity of the mysterious Variags?

[Inziladun]

Seems a decent theory. As a side note, I think the first post I ever made here was about Variags.

Interesting that Variags did get a specific name by which they were known, as opposed to the generic "Easterlings" and "Southrons".

[Mithadan]

I never considered the distinction between the Easterlings and the Variags. Perhaps the Easterlings, who were said to be swarthy or sallow skinned, refer to a race akin to the Asiatic Huns while the Variags refer to peoples who eventually became Russian or East European.

[Galadriel55]

I find it curious that so many people associate the Variags with Russian people, not just on this thread. From the perspective of a Russian person, they're Scandinavian.

I haven't really thought much about who these people are in ME terms, but I suppose I subconsciously pictured them as sellsword Vikings, which sums up my knowledge of Varangians at that point. The Russian word for Varangian is literally Variag, so it was hard not to make the association.

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

I find it curious that so many people associate the Variags with Russian people, not just on this thread. From the perspective of a Russian person, they're Scandinavian.

I haven't really thought much about who these people are in ME terms, but I suppose I subconsciously pictured them as sellsword Vikings, which sums up my knowledge of Varangians at that point. The Russian word for Varangian is literally Variag, so it was hard not to make the association.

I hope I haven't seemed too boorish for living up to that stereotype! I think your insight probably tells us something very definitive that might otherwise be lost on a primarily English-speaking audience. It seems very likely to me that Professor Tolkien would have seen it the way you do given his wide knowledge. As the article says, there is more than one instance in which Professor Tolkien seems to be "reusing a historically significant term in a way that most of his readers would not be expected to understand." I think this lends further credence to the idea of the Variags being related to the Northmen, who are the equivalents, I would say, of Scandinavians in Middle-earth.

Originally Posted by Mithadan

I never considered the distinction between the Easterlings and the Variags.

I think it can be observed in things like the fact that the Wainriders "made alliance with men of Khand and of Near Harad", which suggests that its people were distinct from the various groups of Easterlings, and the fact that at the Pelennor we are told "Gothmog the lieutenant of Morgul had flung them into the fray; Easterlings with axes, and Variags of Khand. Southrons in scarlet..." This suggests to me that Khand is seen as being distinct from Rhûn and Harad. It also shows, quite clearly I think, that the Men of Khand were not the "Easterlings with axes". I don't know where that blurring-together of ideas has come from but I've seen it a lot.

Judging by the article and Galadriel's comments, perhaps there is also a difference between the "Variags of Khand" and the "Men of Khand", the locals as it were. Perhaps there were two populations, one descended from the same branch of the tree of Men as the Easterlings and Haradrim and one descended from the Edain. I can imagine, for instance, a small "Northmen-descended" population which has survived over the centuries in a foreign place by working as "Variags" for Khand's ruler or rulers.

I know it's just speculation but I can't help but feel that this is a good example of how Professor Tolkien's work reveals the strengths of a very considered and judicious use of language; the received wisdom is that we know almost nothing about the Variags, but perhaps Professor Tolkien told us more than we realised with a single word.

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

we might imagine the Variags possibly being an offshoot of the Northmen of Rhovanion.

This is a popular theory among some elements of the Tolkien game modding community. In The Fourth Age Total War the Variags are exactly that.

I personally wonder if the Variags are meant to add a little glimpse of an early medieval Russian culture in Middle-earth, similar to the Easterlings possibly being reminiscent of Mongolian or Central Asian peoples and the Haradrim of Near Harad suggesting the populations of North Africa. The Varangians seem to have traditionally been Germanic peoples who came to Slavic lands but I wonder if a Slavic element might be hinted at too.

I've always thought that the northern Easterlings would have a Slavic flavor. The Wainriders always seemed to have the flavor of a migrating steppe like the Huns, the Cumans, etc. The Haradrim seem to parallel North Africa and the Middle East.

Khand is the connecting point between the East and the South. Culturally, since cultures in origin are so heavily impacted by the climates in which they develop, I think Khand was more arid than steppe making them possibly fit better into the milieu of Harad rather than Rhun.

While it is not a great parallel in many respects, Constantinople from the perspective of Western Europe was also a connecting point between East and South so perhaps that is where the idea suggested itself to Tolkien?

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

The Russian word for Varangian is literally Variag, so it was hard not to make the association.

Very interesting. I did not know that.

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

This is a popular theory among some elements of the Tolkien game modding community. In The Fourth Age Total War the Variags are exactly that.

That's interesting; the very reason I discovered this article was because I was looking for information on the word "Variag" after daydreaming about what a book-accurate "Midde-earth" tabletop game (with toy soldiers) could be like. I was wondering how a game developer might make the Men of Khand distinct from the Easterlings and Haradrim without inventing wildly and using what little information was available from Professor Tolkien's own writing.

You probably have a point about Khand being in arid climes. I suppose I just imagined the word "Variag" having specific connotations of "Scandinavians in Russia", and thus in Middle-earth being "Northmen in [The Middle-earth equivalent of Russia]" but of course the geography does not match, and I'm possibly being too literal.

I suppose one might imagine Khand possibly being a bit of a melting pot of Northmen, Easterling and Haradrim influences, a bit like the Men of Umbar being something of a combination of Númenórean and Haradrim elements. I find it amusing to speculate, at any rate.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

Khand is the connecting point between the East and the South. Culturally, since cultures in origin are so heavily impacted by the climates in which they develop, I think Khand was more arid than steppe making them possibly fit better into the milieu of Harad rather than Rhun.

While it's always dangerous to play sound-alikes with Tolkien's nomenclature, Khand could be a sort of sideways allusion to Khazar: the Turkic inhabitants of the medieval Crimea, likewise a "connecting point between the East and the South".

----------------

The only issue I have with the otherwise attractive Varangian theory is that the Varangian Guard were the Norse (and Anglo-Saxon) expats in service to the Byzantine Empire -- upon which Gondor is clearly calqued -- not Byzantium's Slavic and Muslim enemies.

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

The only issue I have with the otherwise attractive Varangian theory is that the Varangian Guard were the Norse (and Anglo-Saxon) expats in service to the Byzantine Empire

I suppose the response to this would be what the article points out - that the word "varangian" and its relatives (such as "variag") does not necessarily refer to the Varangian guard:

Varangian means primarily a “denizen” or [Greek spelling], and took its rise among the Scandinavians to denote the Swedish settlers in Russia. The name was afterward given to the imperial body-guard at Constantinople, which was at first mainly a Scandinavian corps.

Thus the use to refer specifically to the guard came later. One assumes Professor Tolkien knew of this.

If we solely connect the term "variag" to the Varangian guard, then the Variags of Khand might not be Northmen because that might be taking the historical analogy too far; as you point out, we'd expect them to be in the service of Gondor if they were meant to be totally equivalent to the Byzantine Variags. However, it's also worth pointing out this other quote:

Hence Varangians were historically seen as outsiders settling among (and being accepted among) the Slavic peoples of the region that later became Russia.

Thus "variag" can also have connotations (at least, perhaps, to Professor Tolkien) "Scandinavian in Russia, not exclusively "Scandinavian in the Byzantine Empire". Of course, we have no evidence to suggest that Khand was meant to be in any way equivalent to Russia beyond the fact that Professor Tolkien suggested in a note that "variag" was representing a word from a non-Western language in Middle-earth.

That's how it seems to me, at least.

[Galadriel55]

This is something I only came to appreciate in the last little while, particularly after giving this thread another think. Rationally, I can see how there could be an equivalent of Russia somewhere in the north of Rhun. It would make logical sense, since other real-world regions have their parallels in Middle-earth. But I would never have thought of the possibility myself, and my gut reaction is still that there is no such thing. I thought about it, and realized that the discrepancy is due to the assumption that LOTR is a story of another world, and that therefore there cannot be any of yours in it. Other countries are okay, other regions, cultures, etc. But your own just doesn't fit. You don't expect to see your life amid a tale of magical beings and mythical races. It's not foreign enough. So while it's easy for me to say "It's like Africa!" or "They are like Scythians!", when it comes to Russia my gut reaction is "Where did you get that? There's no way there's ancient Russia in Middle-earth. That's us, we can't have been one of these mythical races, we were definitely something different. We definitely don't fit the bill". You just mentally fill up the spaces with imaginary foreign races, but can't accept your own.

I should probably mention that while I became obsessed with LOTR when already living in Canada, my first introduction has been in Russia, which might have affected my initial perception (first impressions matter, right?). And I read my translation of LOTR a lot more than I did the original. The translators did a good job with the names, in my opinion, but they do not always match the tone and style of the original. For instance, Bree is a mix of English- and Western Slavic-sounding names, and the Shire is similar but with more things shoved in the mesh. So as a result, hobbits get associations with Britain and with something close to home (like the British associations are for Brits ) but not quite home. Maybe that also shifted my perception that if "home" is anywhere, it's with the hobbits and not in the vast uncharted space. Those spaces automatically get filled in with any neighbouring or faraway culture and people in history, except your own.


I know I've gotten into debates about Varangians and Slaves in Middle-earth before, and now I have to reconsider everything keeping in mind that the main reason I didn't want to see it is I was looking from within a people on its potential parallel. I am consoling myself with the thought that statistically I can't be the only ethnocentric Tolkien fan, which begs the question: do you think your own country, culture, language, or upbringing may have affected how you see parallels between the legendarium and the real world? Are you more likely or less likely to draw parallels with other cultures or with your own? [especially regarding the Variags, because I am not gonna hijack the thread. If this gains enough interest I'll start a new thread for it].

[Andsigil]

I noticed in the Hobbit film that the men of Dale had a slavic look to their armor, with spiked helmets, just before Smaug came and roasted everyone.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Andsigil

I noticed in the Hobbit film that the men of Dale had a slavic look to their armor, with spiked helmets, just before Smaug came and roasted everyone.

But didn't PJ also think Radagast the Brown was much more interesting as a rabbit-riding Monty Python refugee?

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

when it comes to Russia my gut reaction is "Where did you get that? There's no way there's ancient Russia in Middle-earth. That's us, we can't have been one of these mythical races, we were definitely something different. We definitely don't fit the bill".

I suppose it's worth bearing in mind that "variag" seems to be a word in the tongue of Khand in the same way that the Men of Rohan "speak Old English" or the Men of Dale "speak Old Norse", which is to say that they don't really; it's just a relational linguistic equivalent. Even if Professor Tolkien used "variag" to suggest that the Men of Khand were linguistically the equivalent of ancient Russians in relation to Westron, they still wouldn't really be Russians or Slavs. They would just possibly occupy an equivalent position in the linguistic landscape of Middle-earth.
That being said, it's odd that we seem to see the "real" tongue of Near Harad in the word mûmak and yet the tongue of Khand is represented by a Slavic language. Off the top of my head I can't think of any words we hear that are in any tongue of the Easterlings of the Third Age.

Originally Posted by Andsigil

I noticed in the Hobbit film that the men of Dale had a slavic look to their armor, with spiked helmets, just before Smaug came and roasted everyone.

I wonder if this was a lazy way to represent that they're "from the North" (which they aren't any more than Bilbo is especially; they're just Northmen in relation to Gondor) or if the filmmakers thought making them look like Scandinavians (of which the Men of Dale are meant to be an equivalent) would have caused them to look too much like the film version of the Men of Rohan (which they wouldn't have, really).

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Originally Posted by Andsigil

I noticed in the Hobbit film that the men of Dale had a slavic look to their armor, with spiked helmets, just before Smaug came and roasted everyone.

I noticed in the Hobbit film that goblins ride Shai-halud sandworms from Arrakis.

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

I noticed in the Hobbit film that goblins ride Shai-halud sandworms from Arrakis.

"Tell me of your home world, Estel."

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

I noticed in the Hobbit film that goblins ride Shai-halud sandworms from Arrakis.

Originally Posted by Morthoron

"Tell me of your home world, Estel."

Sandworms! Those were Were-worms, I'll have you know! Practically almost canonical-ish.

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Nerwen

Sandworms! Those were Were-worms, I'll have you know! Practically almost canonical-ish.

I guess we should be just happy that Jackson didn't import a Fastitocalon to come out of the lake and be ridden triumphantly into battle by Bard and all the rest of the Laketowners.

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

I guess we should be just happy that Jackson didn't import a Fastitocalon to come out of the lake and be ridden triumphantly into battle by Bard and all the rest of the Laketowners.

And why, why not a Mewlip encounter? Such a missed opportunity!

[Rhun charioteer]

Wasn't Khand south of Rhun, east of Harad, and southwest of Mordor?

So I imagine the Variags were ethnically distinct from the easterlings and Haradrim.

Since I always imagined Khand to be dry scrub and grassland-I figure the Variags were axe wielding Mongol/Viking/Turkic people or something like that.

Maybe Magyars?

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Rhun charioteer

Wasn't Khand south of Rhun, east of Harad, and southwest of Mordor?

So I imagine the Variags were ethnically distinct from the easterlings and Haradrim.

Since I always imagined Khand to be dry scrub and grassland-I figure the Variags were axe wielding Mongol/Viking/Turkic people or something like that.

Maybe Magyars?

Not Magyars. Here is a nice bit of research here:

http://blog.tolkien-studies.com/2010...iags-of-khand/

It contains both conjecture on the word "Variag" as well as "Khand". I say conjecture because actual mention of the terms is scant in Tolkien's own writing.

[Rhun charioteer]

I read the post and I honestly disagree.

The Varangians were historically Vikings that traveled south and famously served as the palace guard of the Byzantine emperors.

The Variags are a horse people, living on the far edge of the map-east of Harad even.

The black numenorians and Umbar as I understand it settled largely on the coast south of Gondor.

While the linguistic similarity between Variag and Varangian is fairly obvious I think the post is reading a little too much into it.

We know the Variags were a horse people, a fierce people, and servants of Sauron who lived pretty darn far away from Gondor and far even from Near Harad.

I doubt the Black numenorians settled so far.

The best comparison between the Varangians and Variags is that they were fierce foreign combatants in the service of someone else.

I'd say they were natives to the region.

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Rhun charioteer

The Variags are a horse people, living on the far edge of the map-east of Harad even.

I am unaware of any documentation saying they were "a horse people". The Wainriders, of course, had an affinity to horses, but the same isn't mentioned of the Variags that I can recall. All we really know is that the axe was their preferred weapon. Axes of the nature used in foot combat (battle axe, pole axe, halberd) are entirely different than the much smaller single-handed axes used while mounted. I am not sure Tolkien would have these warriors hefting just hatchets.

[Rhun charioteer]

Given the likely geography of their homeland I can't see why they wouldn't be horsemen.

Rhun had large plains and open country.

We can assume Harad being desert and Khand bordering both of them and Mordor would a climate intermediate from them both(while probably getting the benefits of volcanic ash and water form the sea of nurnen.

So I imagine rough grasslands, scrub, and hilly country.

An environment suited for horses.

Also I can't imagine they all marched straight through Mordor on foot.

They like the Haradrim probably had a ground contingent yet horses to me at least seem sensible.

[Galadriel55]

Rhun Charioteer -

I think you may be presenting reasonable ideas against Variags being Varangians, but your horsemen argument is too akin to this. https://res.cloudinary.com/teepublic...s/671556_1.jpg

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

All we really know is that the axe was their preferred weapon. Axes of the nature used in foot combat (battle axe, pole axe, halberd) are entirely different than the much smaller single-handed axes used while mounted. I am not sure Tolkien would have these warriors hefting just hatchets.

If you'll permit me to raise a point here Morthoron, there's no evidence I can see that the Variags of Khand fought with axes. Of the scant times they or their land is mentioned, axes are never specified in relation to them. I think this derives from a common but, as far as I can tell, mistaken belief the "axe bearing Easterlings" who fought at the Pelennor were the same people as the Variags.

I don't mean to cast doubt on your knowledge, Morth, but I see people saying this fairly often, and I very much don't think the two are connected.

Easterlings with axes are mentioned exactly twice, I believe. Firstly, Ingold says:

"countless companies of Men of a new sort that we have not met before. Not tall, but broad and grim, bearded like dwarves, wielding great axes. Out of some savage land in the wide East they come, we deem."

This doesn't connect them with the Variags as far as I can tell.

The second time is this remark about the reserves being sent in at the Pelennor:

Gothmog the lieutenant of Morgul had flung them into the fray; Easterlings with axes, and Variags of Khand. Southrons in scarlet, and out of Far Harad black men like half-trolls with white eyes and red tongues.

This heavily implies, if not outright states, that the axe-bearing Easterlings were a separate people to the Variags of Khand.

Axes are mentioned again at the Pelennor here:

The axes hewed Forlong as he fought alone and unhorsed

This might refer to these Easterlings, although we know Orcs used axes as well. Nonetheless, there is no connection to the Variags.

Incidentally, the only other time the word "Variag" is used is in this line:

East rode the knights of Dol Amroth driving the enemy before them: troll-men and Variags and orcs that hated the sunlight.

Again, axes are never mentioned in relation to them, only to this new group of Easterlings, who appear to be a separate party in the host.

The "Men of Khand", not referred to as "Variags", are mentioned once more in Appendix A, and that's it. The article notes the times Khand is referred to in Unfinished Tales and The Peoples of Middle-earth, each time in a very general sense. Unfinished Tales mentions "peoples of Khand" and "allies in Khand". The Peoples of Middle-earth simply makes an observation about the word "Variag" in isolation. There isn't anything about axes (or horses for that matter). Beyond that I believe we hear absolutely nothing further about Khand of Variags in the entire corpus.

As such I don't believe that they are ever specified as being horsemen or specified as fighting with axes (the axe bearers are a separate group).

I apologise if I'm overemphasising the point but I have encountered this curious elision of the Variags of Khand and the "Easterlings with axes" before, and I'm unsure where it comes from.

As for horses, it's probably likely they did use horses in some capacity, as most Men seem to have done so, but we don't actually have any hard evidence to that effect. Admittedly this line from Unfinished Tales suggests use of horses:

The Wainriders had mustered a great host by the southern shores of the inland Sea of Rhun strengthened by men of their kinsfolk in Rhovanion and from their new allies in Khand. When all was ready they set out for Gondor from the East moving with all the speed they could

If they kept up with the Wainriders they were probably mounted, I suppose, but there's nothing to indicate any particular focus or speciality of horsemanship among them.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

The "Men of Khand", not referred to as "Variags", are mentioned once more in Appendix A, and that's it. The article notes the times Khand is referred to in Unfinished Tales and The Peoples of Middle-earth, each time in a very general sense. Unfinished Tales mentions "peoples of Khand" and "allies in Khand". The Peoples of Middle-earth simply makes an observation about the word "Variag" in isolation. There isn't anything about axes (or horses for that matter). Beyond that I believe we hear absolutely nothing further about Khand of Variags in the entire corpus.

In HOME: The War of the Ring, there is a single reference in the manuscript of the story of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, in which Christopher Tolkien notes that the chapter was "all but achieved" as it stood in LOTR. He says that there was no precedent form of the name 'Variag', and in the index of the same HOME volume, 'Variag' is said to mean 'the people of Khand'.

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

In HOME: The War of the Ring, there is a single reference in the manuscript of the story of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, in which Christopher Tolkien notes that the chapter was "all but achieved" as it stood in LOTR. He says that there was no precedent form of the name 'Variag', and in the index of the same HOME volume, 'Variag' is said to mean 'the people of Khand'.

That's a good find. I suppose that adds more fuel to the fire about what implications, if any, the choice of the word "Variag" has.

Nonetheless it doesn't explain the recurring linking of the Variags with axes and horses (not that I'm saying you meant it to).

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

The Tolkien Studies blog is right about variag being hard to find in a dictionary. I have a complete Oxford here, and even in that it appears only in passing under varangian, in a section of the Dictionary that I believe was being compiled while Tolkien was employed there.

In the old Russian chronicle of Nestor the name [varangian] occurs as variags and variazi (pl.) and survives in mod. Russ. варигь a pedlar, Ruthenian varjah a big, strong man

The OED goes on to say that Partington's British Cyclopædia of Literature identifies the Varangians as "a race of bold pirates who infested the coasts of the Baltic".

It's possible that Tolkien intended to convey the sense of a mercenary or pirate. What I find very interesting is that he chooses to use a specifically Russian word for people who originated in Scandinavia and north-western Europe. The Scandinavian origins of the Rus are well known, so it may be that he wanted to imply a branch of the northern peoples that included the Rohirrim. Possibly he intended to imply in one word a group who were akin to but long sundered from the people of the North, living in Khand but not originally native to it, perhaps employed as swords for hire and now seeming foreign to their close relatives elsewhere. It's also possible that he liked the sound of the word, or thought it carried overtones of menace. The overall effect, though, is to give a thoroughly alien feeling to the otherwise reasonably familiar Varangians. Tolkien often also uses synonyms for 'pirate' as names for groups aligned with Sauron (or at least against Gondor), cf Corsair, although I have a suspicion that he might have taken exception to Partington's vague definition. With Tolkien, any, all or none of my suggestions might be true, and I am thinking aloud so to speak, so I may be far off target. It would be very like Tolkien, though, to use a word with the intention that his readers would immediately see - as he did - various layers of historical meaning and significance. He was particularly fond of a terseness of diction that packs a great deal of meaning into few words, and this is one way to achieve that effect. Also, in my view, more often than not JRRT overestimates the average learning of his audience (certainly in my case): one of his more endearing traits.

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

If you'll permit me to raise a point here Morthoron, there's no evidence I can see that the Variags of Khand fought with axes.

You are entirely right. I conflated the "Easterlings with axes" with the men of Khand. My point was, though, there was no mention of Variags being horsemen either. Having axes on horses was merely the slicing of the cake.

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

You are entirely right. I conflated the "Easterlings with axes" with the men of Khand. My point was, though, there was no mention of Variags being horsemen either. Having axes on horses was merely the slicing of the cake.

Yep. I think virtually everything we know about the Variags is:
1. They lived in Khand.
2. They were Men.
3. They were allies of the Wainriders, and that's assuming the "Men of Khand" of the second millennium of the Third Age were the same as the Variags of 3019. I notice that the Tolkien Gateway cautiously observes that "The Men of Khand included the Variags." (emphasis mine) We don't even know for sure that all Men of Khand were "Variags". The index to HOME 12 suggests this, but is that Professor Tolkien's own view, or Christopher Tolkien's interpretation?
4. They fought for Sauron at the Pelennor.

I think that more or less sums up literally everything we're told about them. I don't think there's anything about their behaviour or appearance.