In the Middle Ages, the Norwegians who went to the northeast mentioned a rich country - Biarmia, where there is plenty of everything, and people know how to conjure. Information about it is found in other sources, which placed it in different parts of modern Russia.
Country of wealthy sorcerers
The first evidence of the rich country of Biarmia in the North is associated with the expansion of the Vikings during the reign of King Harald the Fair-haired (850-933). Due to the worsening situation in Norway, many landowners went to seek their fortune in other lands: Orkney, Shetland, Hebrides. Some of them went not to the West, but to the North or East. One of such travelers was the Viking Ottar from Holugaland, who during his wanderings discovered the hitherto unknown country "Biarmia", about which he later told the English king Alfred the Great. He said that he himself hails from a country far north of the Western Sea (Norway); but it is all uninhabited, except for a few places where the Finns live, hunting in winter and fishing in the sea in summer. One day he decided to find outhow far to the North this land lies and whether there are further inhabited lands. For several days he sailed along the coast to the north, then four days to the east, and finally to the south. As a result, he saw a large river that led into the earth. They entered it, but did not dare to sail further, since the land was inhabited on the one hand by hunters from the Terfinn tribe, on the other by a certain people of the Biarmians (Beormas). They lived richly, were engaged in agriculture, and their language was, according to Ottar, similar to Finnish.were engaged in agriculture, and their language was, according to Ottar, similar to Finnish.were engaged in agriculture, and their language was, according to Ottar, similar to Finnish.
Ottar's discovery did not go unnoticed. We know from the sagas that the Vikings later visited the rich lands of the mysterious country of Biarmia more than once. They traded with local residents, buying squirrel, beaver and sable furs. The Scandinavians describe the Biarmians as "skillful at charms" people. So Olaf Magnus writes that: “With a look, words or some other actions, they know how to bind people so that they lose their sanity, lose free will and often commit incomprehensible actions.” Saxon Grammaticus even mentioned their ability to use their “abilities” in battles: “Then the Biarmians changed the power of their weapons to the art of their magic, they filled the heavenly vault with wild songs, and instantly clouds gathered on the clear sunny sky and poured down pouring rain, giving the sad appearance of the recently radiant neighborhood."
Bjarmaland
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Until now, Biarmia causes many scholarly discussions about where exactly it was located and what kind of people inhabited it. The answer could be contained in the toponym, but "Bjarm" or "Biarm" is the name that was used in relation to this exclusively by the Scandinavians. Perhaps it came from the self-name of the tribes, or, according to the philologist Tyander, it sounded like "Beormy", which meant "inhabitants of the coast." In Russian sources, these eponyms and toponyms are not found, except perhaps already in Tatishchev, who refers to the lost Joachim Chronicle. Therefore, we do not know under what name the closest wealthy neighbor of Russia could appear in the sources, which, obviously, had to be in close contacts with her, and then completely became part of the Russian state. In the VIII-XIX centuries in the Russian Empire, it was customary to identify similar toponyms Bjarmia and Velikaya Perm (Bjarma - Parma - Perm) as the name of the territories of the Finno-Ugric tribes in North-Eastern Europe (that is, approximately, the territory from Udmurtia to the Polar Urals).
If we take into account the modern point of view, which places Biarmia in the region of the Northern Dvina, then between these two place names there will be huge, impassable territories. However, during the times of the Novgorod Republic, the Eastern Trade Route passed through the tributaries of the Northern Dvina. In this case, the Scandinavians could call the whole country on behalf of the people living in these territories "change". The latter is mentioned in the Tale of Bygone Years as a non-Slavic people paying tribute to Russia. Based on this, it can be assumed that Biarmia was located in the Northern Dvina delta near the city of Arkhangelsk. A similar point of view was also supported by Lomonosov: “Permia, which they call Biarmia, stretched far from the White Sea up, near the Dvina River … The Northern Dvina River was entered from the sea by sea vessels to a certain merchant town,where in the summer there used to be a populous and glorious trade: no doubt, where the city of Kholmogory stands, for the city of Arkhangelskaya took its beginning barely two hundred years ago."
From the Kola Peninsula to Ladoga Island
Since we do not reliably know where the mysterious Biarmia could be located, the range of its possible territories is very large. We know that if it existed as a separate country, it was located far northeast of Norway. These "coordinates" fit vast territories. Therefore, despite the fact that the most probable version is the location of Biarmia in the area of modern Arkhangelsk, so that certainly not to be mistaken, historians designate the potential territory of the country of rich sorcerers throughout the north of Eastern Europe, from the Kola Peninsula to Lake Ladoga. Approximately within these boundaries, there are the following possible options for the location of Biarmia: on the Kola Peninsula, in Norwegian Lapland, on the Karelian Isthmus, in the Perm region and the Lower Podvina, at the mouth of the Northern Dvina, on the coast of the Gulf of Riga,in the Yaroslavl Volga region.
The problem of the localization of Biarmia lies in the fact that, basically, historians of the issue have studied this problem for a long time, based solely on the texts, while it was necessary to look for archaeological evidence of the stay of the Normans in these places. If there was a lively trade there, then there should have been a lot of them. The absence of these in the places of the possible location of Biarmia gave rise to a new version, according to which Biarmia is nothing more than a phantom.
The only circumstantial evidence can boast of Arkhangelsk, where, during the restoration of Gostiny Dvor, a Scandinavian treasure of the 10th century was found, consisting of fourteen swords, six crossbows, a bow with arrows and battle axes. No similar items were found on the banks of other White Sea rivers. But this is still not enough to claim that Biarmia was there.
On trade routes
The argument for the existence of a real Biarmia is that the Vikings could really use the Northern Dvina as an additional route to the Volga trade route and the Way from the Vikings to the Greeks. The burials of the Perm Territory are rich in silver of the Sassanian state and Sogdiana, which speaks of trade ties. True, this may also indicate the relative proximity of the Volga Bulgaria.
In any case, if Biarmia existed, then it must be looked for along the trade routes, since in the Middle Ages trade was one of the main sources of income. Obviously, at some point, the Vikings decided not to limit themselves to trade. We know about the military campaign of King Hakon IV in 1222, when he sent two of his generals led by a strong army to Biarmia. They devastated the country and returned home with a rich booty of silver and expensive furs. More Biarmia was not mentioned in the Scandinavian sources.
The business started by the Scandinavians was completed by the Russians. Obviously, the lands of Biarmia, or rather what was meant by them, entered the Novgorod Republic in the XIII century, during the intensified colonization of the nearby lands by Novgorod. Local tribes could have been driven into Scandinavia. Another reason for the alleged decline of the alleged country and the disappearance of further mentions of it in historical sources was the loss of their significance by the old trade routes, due to the relocation of the center of trade.