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96-645: As the Varangians dealt mainly with the northern lands of Rus', their sagas regard the city of Hólmgarðr/Hólmgarðaborg (usually identified with Novgorod ) as the capital of Garðaríki . Other important places of Garðaríki mentioned in the sagas that have generally been identified with well known historical towns are Aldeigja/Aldeigjuborg ( Ladoga ), Kœnugarðr/Kænugarðr ( Kiev ), Pallteskja/Pallteskia ( Polotsk ), Smaleskja/Smaleskia ( Smolensk ), Súrdalar ( Suzdal ), Móramar ( Murom ), and Rostofa ( Rostov ). At least seven of

192-524: A compound of vár 'pledge' or 'faith', and gengi 'companion', thus meaning 'sworn companion', 'confederate', extended to mean 'a foreigner who has taken service with a new lord by a treaty of fealty to him', or 'protégé'. Some scholars seem to assume a derivation from vár with the common suffix -ing . However, this suffix is inflected differently in Old Norse. Furthermore, the word is attested with -gangia and cognates in other Germanic languages in

288-659: A name used for two of the Danish straits, the Belts , while others claim it to be directly derived from the source of the Germanic word, Latin balteus "belt". Adam of Bremen himself compared the sea with a belt, stating that it is so named because it stretches through the land as a belt ( Balticus, eo quod in modum baltei longo tractu per Scithicas regiones tendatur usque in Greciam ). He might also have been influenced by

384-634: A normal winter, except sheltered bays and shallow lagoons such as the Curonian Lagoon . The ice reaches its maximum extent in February or March; typical ice thickness in the northernmost areas in the Bothnian Bay , the northern basin of the Gulf of Bothnia, is about 70 cm (28 in) for landfast sea ice. The thickness decreases farther south. Freezing begins in the northern extremities of

480-724: A red ruby set in the left ear and ornamented dragons sewn on their chainmail shirts. In these years, Swedish men left to enlist in the Byzantine Varangian Guard in such numbers that a medieval Swedish law, Västgötalagen , from Västergötland declared no one could inherit while staying in "Greece"—the then Scandinavian term for the Byzantine Empire —to stop the emigration, especially as two other European courts simultaneously also recruited Scandinavians: Kievan Rus' c. 980–1060 and London 1018–1066 (the Þingalið ). Composed primarily of Scandinavians for

576-704: A rich biology. The remainder of the Sea is brackish, poor in oxygen, and in species. Thus, statistically, the more of the entrance that is included in its definition, the healthier the Baltic appears; conversely, the more narrowly it is defined, the more endangered its biology appears. Tacitus called it the Suebic Sea, Latin: Mare Suebicum after the Germanic people of the Suebi , and Ptolemy Sarmatian Ocean after

672-500: A tradition of faithful, oath-bound service (to death if necessary), and after the Norman Conquest of England there were many fighting men, who had lost their lands and former masters, looking for a living elsewhere. The Varangian Guard not only provided security for Byzantine emperors but participated in many wars involving Byzantium and often played a crucial role, since it was usually employed at critical moments of battle. By

768-539: A typical depth of 5–10 meters only) and notably deeper water. Drogden Sill (depth of 7 m (23 ft)) sets a limit to Øresund and Darss Sill (depth of 18 m (59 ft)), and a limit to the Belt Sea. The shallow sills are obstacles to the flow of heavy salt water from the Kattegat into the basins around Bornholm and Gotland . The Kattegat and the southwestern Baltic Sea are well oxygenated and have

864-437: Is a plural form of the Old Norse word garðr which referred to 1) a fence; 2) a fortification; 3) a yard; 4) a court; 5) a farm; 6) a village house, while the related Old Russian word городъ referred to 1) a fence; 2) a fortification; 3) a field defensive work; 4) a settlement. Since there is an overlapping meaning among the ones these related words once had ("a fence, a fortified place"), both garðr and городъ could mean

960-664: Is a reduction from the 25 incidents representing 1,110 kg (2,450 lb) of material in 2003. Until now, the U.S. Government refuses to disclose the exact coordinates of the wreck sites. Deteriorating bottles leak mustard gas and other substances, thus slowly poisoning a substantial part of the Baltic Sea. After 1945, the German population was expelled from all areas east of the Oder-Neisse line , making room for new Polish and Russian settlement. Poland gained most of

1056-417: Is about 20,000 km (4,800 cu mi). The periphery amounts to about 8,000 km (5,000 mi) of coastline. The Baltic Sea is one of the largest brackish inland seas by area, and occupies a basin (a Zungenbecken ) formed by glacial erosion during the last few ice ages . The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Baltic Sea as follows: The northern part of

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1152-413: Is adapted to reproducing also with no ice in the sea. The sea ice also harbors several species of algae that live in the bottom and inside unfrozen brine pockets in the ice. Due to the often fluctuating winter temperatures between above and below freezing, the saltwater ice of the Baltic Sea can be treacherous and hazardous to walk on, in particular in comparison to the more stable fresh water-ice sheets in

1248-957: Is connected by artificial waterways to the White Sea via the White Sea–Baltic Canal and to the German Bight of the North Sea via the Kiel Canal . The Helsinki Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area includes the Baltic Sea and the Kattegat , without calling Kattegat a part of the Baltic Sea, "For the purposes of this Convention the 'Baltic Sea Area' shall be

1344-529: Is that the name originally meant "enclosed sea, bay" as opposed to open sea. In the Middle Ages the sea was known by a variety of names. The name Baltic Sea became dominant after 1600. Usage of Baltic and similar terms to denote the region east of the sea started only in the 19th century. The Baltic Sea was known in ancient Latin language sources as Mare Suebicum or even Mare Germanicum . Older native names in languages that used to be spoken on

1440-450: Is the genitive form of Garðar , therefore the compound Garðaríki could be translated into English as "the kingdom of Garðar" or "the empire of Garðar". The name Garðar itself was used in skaldic poems, runic inscriptions and early sagas up to the twelfth century to refer to the lands to the east of Scandinavia populated by the Rus' people, primarily to Novgorodian Rus'. Garðar

1536-572: Is used by the Øresund Bridge , including the Drogden Tunnel . By this definition, the Danish straits is part of the entrance, but the Bay of Mecklenburg and the Bay of Kiel are parts of the Baltic Sea. Another usual border is the line between Falsterbo , Sweden, and Stevns Klint , Denmark, as this is the southern border of Øresund. It is also the border between the shallow southern Øresund (with

1632-556: The All Saints' Flood of 1304 and other floods in the years 1320, 1449, 1625, 1694, 1784 and 1825. Little is known of their extent. From 1872, there exist regular and reliable records of water levels in the Baltic Sea. The highest was the flood of 1872 when the water was an average of 2.43 m (8 ft 0 in) above sea level at Warnemünde and a maximum of 2.83 m (9 ft 3 in) above sea level in Warnemünde. In

1728-780: The Black Sea and southern Russia. This Norse-dominated period is referred to as the Viking Age . Since the Viking Age , the Scandinavians have referred to the Baltic Sea as Austmarr ("Eastern Sea"). "Eastern Sea", appears in the Heimskringla and Eystra salt appears in Sörla þáttr . Saxo Grammaticus recorded in Gesta Danorum an older name, Gandvik , -vik being Old Norse for "bay", which implies that

1824-570: The Bothnian Bay and the Bothnian Sea ), the Gulf of Finland , the Gulf of Riga and the Bay of Gdańsk . The " Baltic Proper " is bordered on its northern edge, at latitude 60°N, by Åland and the Gulf of Bothnia, on its northeastern edge by the Gulf of Finland, on its eastern edge by the Gulf of Riga, and in the west by the Swedish part of the southern Scandinavian Peninsula. The Baltic Sea

1920-465: The Christianization of Kievan Rus' in 988. Coinciding with the general decline of the Viking Age , the influx of Scandinavians to Rus' stopped and Varangians were gradually assimilated by East Slavs by the late 11th century. Medieval Greek Βάραγγος Várangos and Old East Slavic варягъ varjagŭ ( Old Church Slavonic варѧгъ varęgŭ ) are derived from Old Norse væringi , originally

2016-526: The Curonians of Grobin faced an invasion by the Swedes at about the same date. It has been argued that the word Varangian , in its many forms, does not appear in primary sources until the eleventh century (though it does appear frequently in later sources describing earlier periods). This suggests that the term Rus ' was used broadly to denote Scandinavians until it became too firmly associated with

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2112-655: The Danes , he incarcerated them. In 860, the Rus' under Askold and Dir launched their first attack on Constantinople from Kiev. The result of this attack is disputed, but the Varangians continued their efforts as they regularly sailed on their monoxyla down the Dnieper into the Black Sea . The Rus' raids into the Caspian Sea were recorded by Muslim authors in the 870s and in 910, 912, 913, 943, and later. Although

2208-402: The Danish straits . According to the 18th-century natural historian William Derham , during the severe winters of 1703 and 1708, the ice cover reached as far as the Danish straits. Frequently, parts of the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland are frozen, in addition to coastal fringes in more southerly locations such as the Gulf of Riga. This description meant that the whole of the Baltic Sea

2304-743: The Greece Runestones . These were raised by former members of the Varangian Guard, or in their memory. A smaller group consists of the four Italy Runestones which commemorate members of the Varangian Guard who died in southern Italy. The oldest of the Greece runestones are six stones in the RAK style , which dates to the period before 1015 AD. The group consists of Skepptuna runestone U 358 , Västra Ledinge runestone U 518 , Nälberga runestone Sö 170 and Eriksstad runestone Sm 46 . One of

2400-665: The Netherlands , Denmark , and Scotland . The Polabian Slavs were gradually assimilated by the Germans. Denmark gradually gained control over most of the Baltic coast, until she lost much of her possessions after being defeated in the 1227 Battle of Bornhöved . In the 13th to 16th centuries, the strongest economic force in Northern Europe was the Hanseatic League , a federation of merchant cities around

2496-531: The Netherlands : their fleets needed the Baltic timber, tar, flax, and hemp. During the Crimean War , a joint British and French fleet attacked the Russian fortresses in the Baltic; the case is also known as the Åland War . They bombarded Sveaborg , which guards Helsinki ; and Kronstadt , which guards Saint Petersburg; and they destroyed Bomarsund in Åland . After the unification of Germany in 1871,

2592-532: The North and Central European Plain . The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 10°E to 30°E longitude. It is a shelf sea and marginal sea of the Atlantic with limited water exchange between the two, making it an inland sea . The Baltic Sea drains through the Danish straits into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund , Great Belt and Little Belt . It includes the Gulf of Bothnia (divided into

2688-707: The Sambia Peninsula in Kaliningrad Oblast . The Bay of Pomerania lies north of the islands of Usedom/Uznam and Wolin , east of Rügen . Between Falster and the German coast lie the Bay of Mecklenburg and Bay of Lübeck . The westernmost part of the Baltic Sea is the Bay of Kiel . The three Danish straits , the Great Belt , the Little Belt and The Sound ( Öresund / Øresund ), connect

2784-518: The Sarmatians , but the first to name it the Baltic Sea ( Medieval Latin : Mare Balticum ) was the eleventh-century German chronicler Adam of Bremen . The origin of the latter name is speculative and it was adopted into Slavic and Finnic languages spoken around the sea, very likely due to the role of Medieval Latin in cartography . It might be connected to the Germanic word belt ,

2880-657: The Stockholm area, southwestern Finland, and Estonia. The Western and Eastern Gotland basins form the major parts of the Central Baltic Sea or Baltic proper. The Bornholm Basin is the area east of Bornholm, and the shallower Arkona Basin extends from Bornholm to the Danish isles of Falster and Zealand . In the south, the Bay of Gdańsk lies east of the Hel Peninsula on the Polish coast and west of

2976-562: The Varangian runestones , G 114 , N 62, Sö 148, Sö 338 , U 209 , U 636, and Öl 28, refer to Scandinavian men who had been in Garðar . The word Garðaríki , which first appeared in Icelandic sagas in the twelfth century, could stem from the words Garðar and ríki (an empire, realm, kingdom) according to the common Scandinavian pattern for state formations X+ríki . Garða

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3072-655: The Viking Age , and there are many associated with the Varangian Guards. These Varangian runestones commemorate various fallen warriors through carved runes , and mention voyages to the East ( Austr ) or the Eastern route ( Austrvegr ), or to more specific eastern locations such as Garðaríki (what is today Russia and Ukraine). The losses that the Varangian Guard suffered are reflected by the largest group of runestones that talk of foreign voyages, such as those known as

3168-788: The Volga trade route (between the Varangians and the Muslims), connecting the Baltic to the Caspian Sea and the Dnieper and Dniester trade route (between Varangians and the Greeks) leading to the Black Sea and Constantinople . Those were the main important trade links at that time, connecting Medieval Europe with Abbasid Caliphates and the Byzantine Empire . Most of the silver coinage in

3264-404: The 12th century. The bordering countries have also traditionally exported lumber, wood tar , flax , hemp and furs by ship across the Baltic. Sweden had from early medieval times exported iron and silver mined there, while Poland had and still has extensive salt mines. Thus, the Baltic Sea has long been crossed by much merchant shipping. The lands on the Baltic's eastern shore were among

3360-709: The 750s, Norse colonists played an important role in the early ethnogenesis of the Rus' people and in the formation of the Rus' Khaganate . The Varangians ( Varyags , in Old East Slavic ) are first mentioned by the Primary Chronicle as having exacted tribute from the Slavic and Finnic tribes in 859. It was the time of rapid expansion of the Vikings in Northern Europe; England began to pay Danegeld in 859, and

3456-720: The 9th century, traveling as merchants along the Volga trade route, selling furs, honey, and slaves, as well as luxury goods such as amber, Frankish swords, and walrus ivory. These goods were mostly exchanged for Arabic silver coins, called dirhams. Hoards of 9th-century Baghdad -minted silver coins have been found in Sweden, particularly in Gotland. Variations in the size of the coin hoards show that there were phases of increased importation of coins and sometime decades during which very few coins were imported. The economic relationship between

3552-406: The Baltic Sea and the North Sea . In the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Poland , Denmark , and Sweden fought wars for Dominium maris baltici ("Lordship over the Baltic Sea"). Eventually, it was Sweden that virtually encompassed the Baltic Sea . In Sweden, the sea was then referred to as Mare Nostrum Balticum ("Our Baltic Sea"). The goal of Swedish warfare during the 17th century

3648-665: The Baltic Sea and the Entrance to the Baltic Sea, bounded by the parallel of the Skaw in the Skagerrak at 57°44.43'N." Historically, the Kingdom of Denmark collected Sound Dues from ships at the border between the ocean and the land-locked Baltic Sea, in tandem: in the Øresund at Kronborg castle near Helsingør ; in the Great Belt at Nyborg ; and in the Little Belt at its narrowest part then Fredericia , after that stronghold

3744-471: The Baltic Sea is known as the Gulf of Bothnia , of which the northernmost part is the Bay of Bothnia or Bothnian Bay . The more rounded southern basin of the gulf is called Bothnian Sea and immediately to the south of it lies the Sea of Åland . The Gulf of Finland connects the Baltic Sea with Saint Petersburg . The Gulf of Riga lies between the Latvian capital city of Riga and the Estonian island of Saaremaa . The Northern Baltic Sea lies between

3840-414: The Baltic Sea was known as the Mare Suebicum or Mare Sarmaticum . Tacitus in his AD 98 Agricola and Germania described the Mare Suebicum, named for the Suebi tribe, during the spring months, as a brackish sea where the ice broke apart and chunks floated about. The Suebi eventually migrated southwest to temporarily reside in the Rhineland area of modern Germany, where their name survives in

3936-424: The Baltic Sea with the Kattegat and Skagerrak strait in the North Sea . The water temperature of the Baltic Sea varies significantly depending on exact location, season and depth. At the Bornholm Basin, which is located directly east of the island of the same name, the surface temperature typically falls to 0–5 °C (32–41 °F) during the peak of the winter and rises to 15–20 °C (59–68 °F) during

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4032-443: The Baltic states and Poland. The remaining non-NATO and non-EU shore areas are Russian: the Saint Petersburg area and the Kaliningrad Oblast exclave . Winter storms begin arriving in the region during October. These have caused numerous shipwrecks , and contributed to the extreme difficulties of rescuing passengers of the ferry M/S Estonia en route from Tallinn , Estonia, to Stockholm , Sweden, in September 1994, which claimed

4128-404: The Baltic states. In 1945, the Baltic Sea became a mass grave for retreating soldiers and refugees on torpedoed troop transports . The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff remains the worst maritime disaster in history, killing (very roughly) 9,000 people. In 2005, a Russian group of scientists found over five thousand airplane wrecks, sunken warships, and other material, mainly from World War II, on

4224-401: The Bothnian Bay and the Bothnian Sea were frozen with solid ice near the Baltic coast and dense floating ice far from it. In 2008, almost no ice formed except for a short period in March. During winter, fast ice , which is attached to the shoreline, develops first, rendering ports unusable without the services of icebreakers . Level ice , ice sludge , pancake ice , and rafter ice form in

4320-404: The Byzantines to re-arrange their trading arrangements; militarily, the Varangians were usually defeated by the superior Byzantine forces, especially in the sea due to Byzantine use of Greek fire . The Varangian Guard ( Greek : Τάγμα των Βαράγγων, Tágma tōn Varángōn ) were a part of Byzantine Army and personal bodyguards of the Byzantine emperors from the 10th to the 14th centuries. Initially

4416-471: The Early Middle Ages; examples include Old English wærgenga , Old Frankish wargengus and Langobardic waregang . The reduction of the second part of the word could be parallel to that seen in Old Norse foringi 'leader', correspondent to Old English foregenga and Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌰𐌲𐌰𐌲𐌲𐌾𐌰 fauragaggja 'steward'. There are raised stone memorials called runestones throughout Scandinavia of which almost all are found in Sweden . Many date to

4512-546: The Gulf of Bothnia normally thaw in late April, with some ice ridges persisting until May in the eastern extremities of the Gulf of Finland. In the northernmost reaches of the Bothnian Bay, ice usually stays until late May; by early June it is practically always gone. However, in the famine year of 1867 remnants of ice were observed as late as 17 July near Uddskär . Even as far south as Øresund , remnants of ice have been observed in May on several occasions; near Taarbaek on 15 May 1942 and near Copenhagen on 11 May 1771. Drift ice

4608-494: The Gulf of Bothnia typically in the middle of November, reaching the open waters of the Bothnian Bay in early January. The Bothnian Sea , the basin south of Kvarken , freezes on average in late February. The Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Riga freeze typically in late January. In 2011, the Gulf of Finland was completely frozen on 15 February. The ice extent depends on whether the winter is mild, moderate, or severe. In severe winters ice can form around southern Sweden and even in

4704-472: The Islamic world in the 9th and 10th centuries and the Rus merchants who went there to trade their goods for silver interacted with cultures and goods from the Islamic World, and also from China, India, and North Africa. The trade between the Rus and the lands south of the Black and Caspian seas made it possible for cultural interactions to take place between the Rus and the Islamic World. The account written by Ibn Fadlan about his 921–922 travels from Baghdad to

4800-416: The Rus and the Islamic world developed quickly into a network of trading routes. Initially the Rus founded Staraya Ladoga as the first node from the Baltic to the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. By the end of the 9th century, Staraya Ladoga was replaced as the most important center by Novgorod. From these centers the Rus were able to send their goods as far as Baghdad. Baghdad was the political and cultural center of

4896-505: The Rus and the Muslims were interested in and fairly knowledgeable about each other's cultures. The geography of the Volga region and the relative lack of physical wealth available for stealing (compared to targets of Viking raids in the west) made raiding a less important aspect of the Rus/Varangian activities in the East. Some raiding was necessary to gain initial control of the towns and regions that they developed into centers of economic activities. The first small-scale raids took place in

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4992-475: The Rus' had predominantly peaceful trading relations with the Byzantines, the rulers of Kiev launched the relatively successful naval expedition of 907 and the abortive campaign of 941 against Constantinople, as well as the large-scale invasion of the Balkans by Sviatoslav I in 968–971. In 1043, Yaroslav sent his son Vladimir to attack Constantinople. The Byzantines destroyed the attacking vessels and defeated Vladimir These raids were successful in forcing

5088-626: The Rus' may have been written prior to 842. It is preserved in the Greek Life of St. George of Amastris , which speaks of a raid that had extended into Paphlagonia . Contemporary Byzantine presence of the Rus' is mentioned in the Frankish Annals of St. Bertin . These relate that a delegation from the court of the Byzantine emperor visited Frankish Emperor Louis the Pious at his court in Ingelheim in 839. In this delegation were two men who called themselves Rhos ( Rhos vocari dicebant ). Louis enquired about their origins and learnt that they were Swedes. Fearing that they were spies for their brothers,

5184-431: The Rus' might have ruled an earlier hypothetical polity known as the Rus' Khaganate . Rurik's relative Oleg conquered Kiev in 882 and established the state of Kievan Rus', which was later ruled by Rurik's descendants . Engaging in trade, piracy, and mercenary service, Varangians roamed the river systems and portages of Gardariki , as the areas north of the Black Sea were known in the Norse sagas . They controlled

5280-426: The Vikings correctly regarded it as an inlet of the sea. Another form of the name, "Grandvik", attested in at least one English translation of Gesta Danorum , is likely to be a misspelling. In addition to fish the sea also provides amber , especially from its southern shores within today's borders of Poland , Russia and Lithuania . First mentions of amber deposits on the South Coast of the Baltic Sea date back to

5376-524: The West came from the East via those routes. Attracted by the riches of Constantinople, the Varangian Rus' began the Rus'-Byzantine Wars , some of which resulted in advantageous trade treaties. At least from the early 10th century, many Varangians served as mercenaries in the Byzantine Army , constituting the elite Varangian Guard (the bodyguards of Byzantine emperors ). Eventually most of them, in Byzantium and in Eastern Europe, were converted from Norse paganism to Orthodox Christianity , culminating in

5472-423: The bottom of the Gotland Basin, at depths greater than 225 m (738 ft), the temperature typically is 4–7 °C (39–45 °F). Generally, offshore locations, lower latitudes and islands maintain maritime climates , but adjacent to the water continental climates are common, especially on the Gulf of Finland . In the northern tributaries the climates transition from moderate continental to subarctic on

5568-524: The bottom of the sea. Since the end of World War II , various nations, including the Soviet Union , the United Kingdom and the United States have disposed of chemical weapons in the Baltic Sea, raising concerns of environmental contamination. Today, fishermen occasionally find some of these materials: the most recent available report from the Helsinki Commission notes that four small scale catches of chemical munitions representing approximately 105 kg (231 lb) of material were reported in 2005. This

5664-417: The capital of the Bulghar kingdom gives details which can reveal the cultural interaction between the two groups. Ibn Fadlan gives a vivid description of the daily habits of the Rus, as well as the only known first-person account of the complicated ship-burning funeral ceremony. Certain details in his account, especially the dialogue of the ceremonies and his personal conversations with Rus individuals, show that

5760-401: The collapse of the Communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe in the late 1980s. Finland and Sweden joined NATO in 2023 and 2024, respectively, making the Baltic Sea almost entirely surrounded by the alliance's members, leading some commentators to label the sea a ″NATO lake″. Such an arrangement has also existed for the European Union (EU) since May 2004 following the accession of

5856-408: The eastern coast. Russia became and remained a dominating power in the Baltic. Russia's Peter the Great saw the strategic importance of the Baltic and decided to found his new capital, Saint Petersburg , at the mouth of the Neva river at the east end of the Gulf of Finland . There was much trading not just within the Baltic region but also with the North Sea region, especially eastern England and

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5952-408: The first hundred years, the guard increasingly included Anglo-Saxons after the successful Norman Conquest of England. By the time of Emperor Alexios Komnenos in the late 11th century, the Varangian Guard was largely recruited from Anglo-Saxons and "others who had suffered at the hands of the Vikings and their cousins the Normans". The Anglo-Saxons and other Germanic peoples shared with the Vikings

6048-435: The guard was composed of Varangians who came from Kievan Rus'. Immigrants from Scandinavia (predominantly immigrants from Sweden but also elements from Denmark and Norway ) kept an almost entirely Norse cast to the organization until the late 11th century. According to the late Swedish historian Alf Henrikson in his book Svensk Historia ( History of Sweden ), the Norse Varangian guardsmen were recognised by long hair,

6144-413: The historic region known as Swabia . Jordanes called it the Germanic Sea in his work, the Getica . In the early Middle Ages , Norse (Scandinavian) merchants built a trade empire all around the Baltic. Later, the Norse fought for control of the Baltic against Wendish tribes dwelling on the southern shore. The Norse also used the rivers of Russia for trade routes, finding their way eventually to

6240-431: The ice further into the north, and much of the waters north of Gotland were again free of ice, which had then packed against the shores of southern Finland. The effects of the afore-mentioned high-pressure area did not reach the southern parts of the Baltic Sea, and thus the entire sea did not freeze over. However, floating ice was additionally observed near Świnoujście harbor in January 2010. In recent years before 2011,

6336-443: The interior lakes. The Baltic Sea flows out through the Danish straits ; however, the flow is complex. A surface layer of brackish water discharges 940 km (230 cu mi) per year into the North Sea . Due to the difference in salinity , by salinity permeation principle, a sub-surface layer of more saline water moving in the opposite direction brings in 475 km (114 cu mi) per year. It mixes very slowly with

6432-433: The last in Europe to be converted to Christianity . This finally happened during the Northern Crusades : Finland in the twelfth century by Swedes, and what are now Estonia and Latvia in the early thirteenth century by Danes and Germans ( Livonian Brothers of the Sword ). The Teutonic Order gained control over parts of the southern and eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, where they set up their monastic state . Lithuania

6528-423: The last very heavy floods the average water levels reached 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) above sea level in 1904, 1.89 m (6 ft 2 in) in 1913, 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) in January 1954, 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in) on 2–4 November 1995 and 1.65 m (5 ft 5 in) on 21 February 2002. An arm of the North Atlantic Ocean , the Baltic Sea is enclosed by Sweden and Denmark to

6624-495: The late 13th century, Varangians were mostly ethnically assimilated by Byzantines, though the guard operated until at least the mid-14th century, and in 1400 there were still some people identifying themselves as "Varangians" in Constantinople. Primary sources Additional secondary sources Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark , Estonia , Finland , Germany , Latvia , Lithuania , Poland , Russia , Sweden , and

6720-404: The late 9th and early 10th centuries. The Rus' undertook the first large-scale expedition in 913; having arrived on 500 ships, they pillaged Gorgan , in the territory of present-day Iran , and the adjacent areas, taking slaves and goods. On their return, the northern raiders were attacked and defeated by Khazar Muslims in the Volga Delta , and those who escaped were killed by the local tribes on

6816-405: The later runestones in the Pr4 style is Ed runestone U 112 , a large boulder at the western shore of the lake of Ed. It tells that Ragnvaldr, the captain of the Varangian Guard, had returned home where he had the inscriptions made in memory of his dead mother. The youngest runestones, in the Pr5 style , such as Ed runestone U 104 (presently in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford ), are dated to

6912-461: The lives of 852 people. Older, wood-based shipwrecks such as the Vasa tend to remain well-preserved, as the Baltic's cold and brackish water does not suit the shipworm . Storm surge floods are generally taken to occur when the water level is more than one metre above normal. In Warnemünde about 110 floods occurred from 1950 to 2000, an average of just over two per year. Historic flood events were

7008-406: The middle Volga . During their next expedition in 943, the Rus' captured Barda , the capital of Arran , in the modern-day Republic of Azerbaijan . The Rus' stayed there for several months, killing many inhabitants of the city and amassing substantial plunder. It was only an outbreak of dysentery among the Rus' that forced them to depart with their spoils. Sviatoslav , prince of Kiev, commanded

7104-463: The more open regions. The gleaming expanse of ice is similar to the Arctic , with wind-driven pack ice and ridges up to 15 m (49 ft). Offshore of the landfast ice, the ice remains very dynamic all year, and it is relatively easily moved around by winds and therefore forms pack ice , made up of large piles and ridges pushed against the landfast ice and shores. In spring, the Gulf of Finland and

7200-638: The name of a legendary island mentioned in the Natural History of Pliny the Elder . Pliny mentions an island named Baltia (or Balcia ) with reference to accounts of Pytheas and Xenophon . It is possible that Pliny refers to an island named Basilia ("the royal") in On the Ocean by Pytheas. Baltia also might be derived from "belt", and therein mean "near belt of sea, strait". Others have suggested that

7296-532: The name of the island originates from the Proto-Indo-European root *bʰel meaning "white, fair", which may echo the naming of seas after colours relating to the cardinal points (as per Black Sea and Red Sea ). This '*bʰel' root and basic meaning were retained in Lithuanian (as baltas ), Latvian (as balts ) and Slavic (as bely ). On this basis, a related hypothesis holds that

7392-425: The name originated from this Indo-European root via a Baltic language such as Lithuanian. Another explanation is that, while derived from the aforementioned root, the name of the sea is related to names for various forms of water and related substances in several European languages, that might have been originally associated with colors found in swamps (compare Proto-Slavic *bolto "swamp"). Yet another explanation

7488-738: The next attack, which destroyed the Khazar state in 965. Sviatoslav's campaign established Rus' control over the north–south trade routes, helping to alter the demographics of the region. Raids continued through the time period with the last Scandinavian attempt to reestablish the route to the Caspian Sea led by Ingvar the Far-Travelled in 1041. While there, Varangians took part in the Georgian-Byzantine Battle of Sasireti in Georgia (1042). The earliest Byzantine record of

7584-493: The northernmost coastlines. On the long-term average, the Baltic Sea is ice-covered at the annual maximum for about 45% of its surface area. The ice-covered area during such a typical winter includes the Gulf of Bothnia , the Gulf of Finland , the Gulf of Riga , the archipelago west of Estonia, the Stockholm archipelago , and the Archipelago Sea southwest of Finland. The remainder of the Baltic does not freeze during

7680-534: The peak of the summer, with an annual average of around 9–10 °C (48–50 °F). A similar pattern can be seen in the Gotland Basin , which is located between the island of Gotland and Latvia. In the deep of these basins the temperature variations are smaller. At the bottom of the Bornholm Basin, deeper than 80 m (260 ft), the temperature typically is 1–10 °C (34–50 °F), and at

7776-529: The period 1080–1130, after which runestones became unfashionable. The Varangians returned home with some influence from Byzantine culture, as exemplified by the Byzantine cross carved on the early eleventh-century Risbyle runestone U 161 , and which today is the coat-of-arms of Täby , a trimunicipal locality and the seat of Täby Municipality in Stockholm County, Sweden. The runes were made by

7872-687: The runemaster Viking Ulf of Borresta , see Orkesta runestone U 344 , in memory of another Ulf, in Skålhamra, and at the request of the latter's father. In the 9th century, the Rus ' operated the Volga trade route , which connected Northern Rus ( Garðaríki ) with the Middle East ( Serkland ). The Volga route declined by the end of the century, and the Dnieper and Dniester routes rapidly overtook it in importance. Apart from Ladoga and Novgorod , Gnyozdovo and Gotland were major centers for Varangian trade. Having settled Aldeigja (Ladoga) in

7968-601: The same at one time in the past. Thus, some researches interpreted Garðar as a collective name for Old Rus' towns encountered by Scandinavians on their way from Lyubsha and Ladoga down the Volkhov River into other Slavonic lands. The younger toponym Garðaríki could mean "the realm of towns", or "the country of towns". Varangians The Varangians ( / v ə ˈ r æ n dʒ i ə n z / ) were Viking conquerors, traders and settlers, mostly from present-day Sweden . The Varangians settled in

8064-657: The shores of the sea or near it usually indicate the geographical location of the sea (in Germanic languages), or its size in relation to smaller gulfs (in Old Latvian), or tribes associated with it (in Old Russian the sea was known as the Varanghian Sea). In modern languages, it is known by the equivalents of "East Sea", "West Sea", or "Baltic Sea" in different languages: At the time of the Roman Empire ,

8160-519: The south came from the area of modern Sweden. The Varangians left rune stones in their native Sweden that tell of their journeys to what is today Russia, Ukraine, Greece, and Belarus. Most of these rune stones can be seen today, and are a telling piece of historical evidence. The Varangian runestones tell of many notable Varangian expeditions, and even account for the fates of individual warriors and travelers. The Rus' initially appeared in Serkland in

8256-674: The southern shore . The Soviet Union gained another access to the Baltic with the Kaliningrad Oblast , that had been part of German-settled East Prussia . The Baltic states on the eastern shore were annexed by the Soviet Union. The Baltic then separated opposing military blocs: NATO and the Warsaw Pact . Neutral Sweden developed incident weapons to defend its territorial waters after the Swedish submarine incidents . This border status restricted trade and travel. It ended only after

8352-501: The subsequent elite of Kievan Rus who assimilated Slavic culture. At that point, the new term Varangian was increasingly preferred to name Scandinavians, probably mostly from what is now Sweden, plying the river routes between the Baltic and the Black and Caspian Seas. Due largely to geographic considerations, it is often argued that most of the Varangians who traveled and settled in the lands of eastern Baltic, modern Russia and lands to

8448-550: The territories of present-day Belarus, Russia and Ukraine from the 8th and 9th centuries, and established the state of Kievan Rus' as well as the principalities of Polotsk and Turov . They also formed the Byzantine Varangian Guard . According to the 12th-century Primary Chronicle , a group of Varangians known as the Rus' settled in Novgorod in 862 under the leadership of Rurik . Before Rurik,

8544-402: The west, Finland to the northeast, and the Baltic countries to the southeast. It is about 1,600 km (990 mi) long, an average of 193 km (120 mi) wide, and an average of 55 metres (180 ft) deep. The maximum depth is 459 m (1,506 ft) which is on the Swedish side of the center. The surface area is about 349,644 km (134,998 sq mi) and the volume

8640-716: The whole southern coast became German. World War I was partly fought in the Baltic Sea. After 1920 Poland was granted access to the Baltic Sea at the expense of Germany by the Polish Corridor and enlarged the port of Gdynia in rivalry with the port of the Free City of Danzig . After the Nazis' rise to power, Germany reclaimed the Memelland and after the outbreak of the Eastern Front (World War II) occupied

8736-568: Was the last European state to convert to Christianity . In the period between the 8th and 14th centuries, there was much piracy in the Baltic from the coasts of Pomerania and Prussia , and the Victual Brothers held Gotland . Starting in the 11th century, the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic were settled by migrants mainly from Germany , a movement called the Ostsiedlung ("east settling"). Other settlers were from

8832-414: Was also observed on 11 May 1799. The ice cover is the main habitat for two large mammals, the grey seal ( Halichoerus grypus ) and the Baltic ringed seal ( Pusa hispida botnica ), both of which feed underneath the ice and breed on its surface. Of these two seals, only the Baltic ringed seal suffers when there is not adequate ice in the Baltic Sea, as it feeds its young only while on ice. The grey seal

8928-537: Was built. The narrowest part of Little Belt is the "Middelfart Sund" near Middelfart . Geographers widely agree that the preferred physical border between the Baltic and North Seas is the Langelandsbælt (the southern part of the Great Belt strait near Langeland ) and the Drogden -Sill strait. The Drogden Sill is situated north of Køge Bugt and connects Dragør in the south of Copenhagen to Malmö ; it

9024-467: Was covered with ice. Since 1720, the Baltic Sea has frozen over entirely 20 times, most recently in early 1987, which was the most severe winter in Scandinavia since 1720. The ice then covered 400,000 km (150,000 sq mi). During the winter of 2010–11, which was quite severe compared to those of the last decades, the maximum ice cover was 315,000 km (122,000 sq mi), which

9120-470: Was reached on 25 February 2011. The ice then extended from the north down to the northern tip of Gotland , with small ice-free areas on either side, and the east coast of the Baltic Sea was covered by an ice sheet about 25 to 100 km (16 to 62 mi) wide all the way to Gdańsk . This was brought about by a stagnant high-pressure area that lingered over central and northern Scandinavia from around 10 to 24 February. After this, strong southern winds pushed

9216-630: Was to make the Baltic Sea an all-Swedish sea ( Ett Svenskt innanhav ), something that was accomplished except the part between Riga in Latvia and Stettin in Pomerania. However, the Dutch dominated the Baltic trade in the seventeenth century. In the eighteenth century, Russia and Prussia became the leading powers over the sea. Sweden's defeat in the Great Northern War brought Russia to

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