The legacy of the Vikings is often portrayed by secular historians as a bloody saga of pagan raiders and heathen berserkers. But this narrative leaves out a powerful and transformative truth: many Vikings embraced Christianity and became some of the most loyal defenders of Christendom. Among them, none stand out more than the Varangians—the Christian Vikings who fought for the Byzantine Empire and helped shape the spiritual and geopolitical destiny of Christian Europe.
The Varangians were mostly Norsemen, Swedes in particular, who traveled eastward through the rivers of modern-day Russia and Ukraine in the 9th and 10th centuries. They established trade routes and settlements, and over time, they became the warrior elite of the Kievan Rus. As the Rus adopted Orthodox Christianity under Prince Vladimir the Great in 988 A.D., many of these Vikings were baptized and began to identify not just as warriors, but as Christian knights.
But it was in Constantinople—the heart of the Christian Eastern Roman Empire—where these Norsemen took on a new identity as the Varangian Guard, the elite personal bodyguards of the Byzantine emperors. They were known for their fierce loyalty, imposing stature, and unshakable Christian faith. These Scandinavian warriors swore oaths to protect the Christian emperor, the Church, and the sacred traditions of the Eastern Roman world. The Byzantine historian Michael Psellus wrote that the Varangians "showed loyalty not to gold or power, but to honor and to God" (1).
These Christian Vikings came to see themselves as soldiers of Christ, not unlike the future Crusaders. They fought against Muslim Saracens in Sicily, pagan Pechenegs in the Balkans, and even rebellious Orthodox nobles who sought to betray the Empire. They were, in many ways, proto-Crusaders—Christian knights who offered their swords not for plunder, but for the defense of Christian civilization. And unlike the mercenaries of later ages, the Varangians were bound by a code of loyalty rooted in Christian brotherhood.
Even the Slavic nations owe much of their Christian heritage to these Norse converts. The very name "Russia" is derived from the Rus', the Varangian founders of the Kievan state. And when Vladimir the Great converted to Christianity, he did so under the influence of both his Varangian ancestry and his ties to Constantinople—a union of Nordic and Eastern Christian traditions that shaped the soul of Eastern Europe (2).
Today, as we face a new spiritual war—against cultural Marxism, atheism, and Islamist infiltration—we should remember the example of the Christian Vikings. They were not perfect, but they were fearless. They did not bow to idols or foreign gods. They stood for the Church, for the Empire, for the Christian faith. Their axes were not instruments of pagan bloodshed, but of Christian justice.
As Christian men in the West, we are called to the same duty. To fight for truth. To protect our families. To defend our Christian heritage—without apology. The Varangians understood that Christianity is not a weak religion. It is a warrior’s faith. A king’s faith. And it demands courage, sacrifice, and conviction.
We need that Varangian spirit again.
Citations
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Psellus, Michael. Chronographia, trans. E.R.A. Sewter, Penguin Classics, 1953.
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Franklin, Simon, and Jonathan Shepard. The Emergence of Rus 750–1200. Longman, 1996.
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Treadgold, Warren. A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford University Press, 1997.
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Norwich, John Julius. Byzantium: The Apogee. Knopf, 1992.
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