V A R 



able fliarc in founding the Ruffian ftate, and who were a 

 northern tribe of GotWc defcent and of waihke difpoi.tion 

 and charafter. Their original country was probably bcan- 

 dinavia ; and they confided of a combined multitude oi 

 Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians, who, perpetually in quelt 

 of adventures, eaabU(hed governments in the weftern and 

 eaftem parts of Europe, and produced revolutions, elpecially 

 ill the fouth, the confequences of which extended through one 

 quarter of the globe. The firft trace of their maritime ex- 

 peditions is difcoverable about the year 516; though it is 

 thought probable that they carried on their piracies at an 

 earlier period, and were generally comprehended under the 

 name of Franks, who already appeared under the emperor 

 Probus as enterprifing mariners. In the year 795, they 

 were firft perceived in Ireland. About the yeai- 813, they 

 began their incurfions by the Elbe into Friefland and 

 Flanders ; in procefs of time they advanced to Aquitain and 

 along the Seine : about the year 840, they ravaged France ; 

 and in 857, made the conqueft of Luna, and afterwards of 

 Pifa, in Italy. In the year 862, Rurfk founded the Ruflian 

 monarchy, and became the father of adynafty which reigned 

 above 700 years. Accordingly, in the ninth century the 

 Varangians conquered from the Ruffians, a kindred north- 

 gothic people, the earheft mention of whofe name is in the 

 year 839, before Rurik's reception in Novgorod, the mo- 

 dern diftrias of Reval, St. Peterfburg, and Archangel ; 

 and fubjefled the Sclavonians, Krivitfchcs, Tfchudes, 

 Veffenians, and Mxrenes, to a tribute. The Ruffians retired 

 to Finland and Karelia ; but the Sclavonians, in conjunc- 

 tion with the reft of the forenamed nations, drove out the 

 Varangians, and formed themfelves at the lake Ilmen, near 

 Novgorod, into a federative democratical republic. Al- 

 though the Varangians compofed the predominant, and 

 under Rurik the moft confequential part of the people, yet 

 Sclavonians and Ruffians were foon blended into one nation. 

 As piracy was the excrcife, the trade, the glory, and the 

 virtue of the Scandinavian youth, the Baltic was the firft 

 fcene of tlie naval achievements of the northern adventurers ; 

 they then vifited the eaftem ihores, the felect refidence of 

 Finnic and Sclavonian tribes ; and the primitive Ruffians of 

 the lake Ladoga paid a tribute, the (kins of white fquirrels, 

 to thefe ftrangers, whom they faluted with the title of 

 Varangians, or corfairs. Their fuperiority in arms, dif- 

 cipline, and honour, commanded the fear and veneration of 

 the natives. In their wars againft the more inland favages, 

 the Varangians condefcended to ferve as friends and auxi- 

 liaries, and gradually, by choice or conqueft, obtained the 

 dominion of a people, whom they were qualified to protect. 

 At length Rurik appeared ; his influence was extended by 

 his brothers ; the example of fervice and ufurpation was 

 imitated by his companions in the fouthern provinces of 

 Ruffia ; and their eftablifhments, by the ufual methods of 

 war and affaffination, were cemented into the fabric of a 

 powerful monarchy. 



As long as the defcendants of Rurik were confidered as 

 aliens and conquerors, they ruled by the fword of the 

 Varangians, diftributcd cilates and fubjefts to their faithful 

 captains, and fupphed their numbers with frefti ftreams of 

 adventurers from the Baltic coaft. But when the Scan- 

 dinavian chiefs had ftruck a deep and permanent root into 

 the foil, they mingled with the Ruffians in blood, religion, 

 and language, and the firft Waladimir had the merit of 

 deUvcring his country from thefe foreign mercenaries. 

 They had feated him on the tlirone ; his riches were in- 

 fufficient to fatisfy their demands ; but they Uftened to his 

 plcafing advice, that they (hould feek, not a more grateful, 

 but a more wealthy mailer ; that they ftiould embark for 



V A R 



Greece, where, inftead of the fliins of fquirrels, filk and 

 gold would be the recompence of their fervice. At the 

 fame time the Ruffian prince admonifiied his Byzantine ally 

 to difperfe and employ, to recompenfe and reftrain, thefe 

 impetuous children of the north. - Contemporary writers 

 have recorded the introduftion, name, and charafter, of the 

 Varangians : each day they rofe in confidence and efteem ; 

 the whole body was aflembled at Conftantinople to perform 

 the duty of guards ; and their ftrength was recruited by a 

 numerous band of their countrymen from the ifland of 

 Thule. On this occafion, the vague appellation of Thule 

 is applied to England ; and the new Varangians were a 

 colony of Englifh and Danes who fled from the yoke of the 

 Norman conqueror. The habits of pilgrimage and piracy 

 had approximated the countries of the earth ; thefe exiles 

 were entertained in the Byzantine court ; and they pre- 

 ferved, till the laft age of the empire, the inheritance of 

 fpotleis loyalty, and the ufe of the Danifli or Enghfli 

 tongue. With their broad and double-edged battle-axes 

 on their (houlders, they attended the Greek emperor to the 

 temple, the fenate, and the hippodrome ; he flept and feafted 

 under their trufty guard ; and the keys of the palace, the 

 treafury, and the capital, were held by the firm and faithful 

 hands of the Varangians. 



About the time of Rurik, a Norman of a fimilar name, 

 Rurich, became famous in the hiftory of Holland. Soon 

 after this, Oflcold and Dir founded another fovereignty at 

 Kief. In the tenth century Ragnvald reigned in Polotfk, 

 from whofe daughter, Rogned, the Ruffian annals derive the 

 grand-dukes of Lithuania. About the year 1000, they 

 took Apulia from the Greeks, and Sicily from the Ara- 

 bians. They gave Normandy its name, after RoUo had 

 wrefted that country from the kings of France. Even the 

 conqueft of England by the Danes, in fome degree formed 

 a part of tlie hiftory of thefe northern adventurers. Tooke's 

 Ruff. vol. i. Gibbon's Rom. Emp. vol. x. See Scla- 

 vonians. 



VARAHA, in Hindoo Mythology, a name of the god 

 Vilhnu, meaning a hoar ; he having in one of his ten grand 

 incarnations, affumed that form, called Varahavatara ; which 

 fee. 



VARAHAVATARA, is one of the ten grand incar- 

 nations of their god Vifhnu. In this the god aifumed, as is 

 commonly faid, the form of a boar, Varaha ; but is ufuaUy 

 reprefented in piftures, with the head of that animal on the 

 body of a man, four-armed, holding the attributes of 

 Viftinu. On the elevated tufks of the boar refts a crefcent, 

 containing in its concavity an epitome of the earth, which had 

 been fubmerged in the ocean, as a punifhment for its ini- 

 quities. So that this avatara, or incarnation, the third of 

 Vilhnu, feems to be a repetition of the ftory of the deluge, 

 like the two former, which are named Matjyavatara and 

 Kurmavatara, noticed under thofe articles. The fecond 

 combines with it a portion of aftronomical allegory, and 

 none of the other ten avataras have any apparent reference 

 to the general cataftrophe, fo pointedly indicated by the 

 three firft, which are underftood to have occurred in the 

 earlieft ages of Hindoo hiftory ; if fuch a chaotic mafs as 

 their fabulous records may be dignified by fuch a title. 



There are many fables accounting for the fliape affumed 

 on this occafion by Vifhnu, which our limits will not allow 

 us to recite. 



VARALLO, in Geography, a town of Italy, in the de- 

 partment of the Gogna, on the Sefia ; 24 miles N.N.W. 

 of Novara. N. lat. 45° 49'. E- long. 8° 14'. 



VARAMBON, or Varembon, a town of France, in 

 the department of the Ain ; 2 miles S.W. of Pont d'Ain. 



VARAMUS, 



