Episode 8 | The Eastern Way

If you know one thing about the Vikings, it's probably Lindisfarne. 793. A monastery raided. An age begun. That's the story everyone knows.

But the Swedish Vikings went east.

Long before the ships appeared off the coast of England, warriors from central Sweden and Gotland were already crossing the Baltic under sail, raiding, trading, exploring. The Salme ships, discovered in Estonia, are now considered the oldest known Viking sailing vessels ever found. The warriors they carried died violently, were buried with care, and waited more than a thousand years to be uncovered.

This episode follows their path: the Austrvegr, the Eastern Way.

We'll trace the river routes that led from the Baltic deep into the continental interior, to Staraya Ladoga, to Novgorod, to Kiev, to Constantinople. We'll follow the silver that flowed back: more than 600,000 Arabic dirhams found in Scandinavia, proof of a connection to the Caliphate in Baghdad that reshaped the Viking economy. We'll meet the Rus, the Swedish warriors who gave their name to Russia. We'll walk the harbor at Birka, Sweden's first town, where traders from across the world gathered, and where the dead were buried with silk from China and silver from Samarkand.

We'll trace the genetic echoes that still connect that world to people living today, threads that tie a Gotland harbor to a woman named VK429, and a Stockholm apartment to a man standing on the shoreline.

And we'll ask what it means to follow the water, to leave home, to carry something back, and to live in a place where the horizon has always been wider than it seems.

This is the story of the Vikings who went east.

Places and sources mentioned in this episode:

Vrak – Museum of Wrecks, Djurgården, Stockholm. The Vikings Before Vikings exhibition features the original Salme finds, including swords, game pieces, and the oldest known Viking sailing vessel. Open daily. vrak.se

The Swedish History Museum (Historiska museet) , Narvavägen 13–17, Stockholm. The Gold and Silver Room contains thousands of Arabic dirhams and extensive Viking Age collections, including finds from Birka. Free entry to permanent collections. historiskamuseet.se

Birka Viking City, Björkö, Lake Mälaren. Sweden's first town, with grave fields, harbor remains, and a museum. Accessible by ferry from Stockholm (Strömma) from May to September. birkavikingastaden.se

The Gotland Museum, Visby, Gotland. Home to the Spillings hoard, the largest Viking silver treasure ever found at 67 kilograms, along with picture stones, dirhams, and artifacts from the Fröjel harbor excavations. gotlandsmuseum.se

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey. Runes carved by Varangians can still be seen in the marble railings of the upper gallery.

Vrak Museum press material and exhibition information on Vikings Before Vikings, April 2025

Estonian Maritime Museum research on the Salme ships, published in various archaeological journals

Svein H. Gullbekk, University of Oslo, research on Islamic silver and dirham imports

Marika Mägi, In Austrvegr: The Role of the Eastern Baltic in Viking Age Communication across the Baltic Sea, Brill, 2018

The Russian Primary Chronicle (Povest vremennykh let), medieval manuscript

Birka archaeological research published by the Swedish Historical Museum and Stockholm University

Fröjel excavations, Dr. Dan Carlsson, Gotland University (ongoing research)

Ancient DNA studies published in Nature and Current Biology relating to Viking Age populations and the VK (Viking Kin) project