Praise of generosity, a bowl of the skull, golden Luda

In Russian science, the role of the Varangians in the formation of the Old Russian state is evaluated very highly, in particular, researchers are practically no doubt by the Scandinavian origin of the most princely dynasty of the Rurikovich. However, to date, in the so-called Varangian question, a well-known contradiction is observed: with a huge array of archaeological data, unequivocally testifying to the active presence of the Varangians in Russia in the X-XI centuries, we have a very limited number of linguistic traces and accept the ethnocultural interaction of Russians and Scandinavians in this era.
This book is the experience of historical and philological search in the field of cultural contacts of Scandinavia and Russia at the end of the Viking era. The image of the ideal ruler, the practice of exchanging gifts, the idea of ​​the status and hereditary rights of the illegitimate, the story of the ancestors as a means of characterizing the descendants, the roll call of personal names, nicknames and solemn panegyrics - this is only part of those tense points of this interaction, to which we tried to approach our study