Sineus VARANGIAN

   General Notes:

BOOKS
The Story of Civilization, Will Durant, Vol IV, The Age of Faith, Bk IV, The Dark Ages, Ch XVIII, The Byzantine World, Sec VII, The Birth of Russia, p448: "`The Ancient Chronicle' of Russia (twelfth century) gave personality to this Scandinavian infiltration by its tale of `three princes': the Finnish and Slavic population of Novgorodand its vicinity, having driven out their Varangian overlords, fell to so much quarreling among themselves that they invited the Varangians to send them a ruler or general (862). Three brothers came, says the story- Rurik, Sineus, and Truvor-and established the Russian state. The story may be true, despite latter-day skepticism; or it may be a patriotic gloss on a Scandinavian conquest of Novgorod..."