In the meantime Patzinak (Pechneg) Turks had migrated from Central Asia to wedge themselves between the Volga Bulgars and the Khazars, squeezing the Magyars from the east as the Oleg Russian state pushed down from the north. They ended the Khazar control of the Russian steppe, although the latter remained important in that area until the next century. (Ref.
137 ) The Magyars absorbed considerable Turkish blood from the Kavar branch of the Khazars. (Ref.
211 )
In the far east of European Russia there was a Swedish market at Bolgar on the middle Volga where Muslims were eager to acquire furs and slaves which the Swedes could get in the northern forests. (Ref.
224 ) It was thus that after about 882 Russia was subjected to powerful external influences for almost 500 years - first from the Vikings from the north, then from Byzantium with its Christianity and the Arabs with Islam from the south and southeast and finally, as we shall see later, by Mongols from the east.
The Danish King Horik gave northern Germany much trouble in this century, destroying Hamburg in 845 and attacking up the Elbe in 851 and Bremen in 858. The valleys of the Rhine and Meuse were relatively immune from Viking attacks, except for one major one in 863, apparently because Lothar and Lothar II of the middle kingdom, let the Vikings have the estuaries of those rivers. The Danish leader Harald and his nephew Roric were so treated, with Roric getting Dorestadt. (Ref.
501 )
After Louis' death Viking raiders sailed up the Seine and by 841 towns along that river paid very large amounts of silver for the sake of peace. In 845 an attack on Paris was prevented by the payment of 7,000 pounds of silver. In the next 20 years every major river in western Frankia was exploited by one or more Viking fleets. Soon they were based in the Loire and each year moved farther up the valley. This was the main area of Viking activity for 25 years, probably because of the weaknesses and rivalry of Louis' sons, Charles and Louis. In 862 Charles made systematic efforts to fortify at least the heart of his kingdom. After the death of Charles the Bald in 877 and then his son two years later, there was much political confusion and the Vikings returned with a large army and fleet. At one time 200 ships, loaded with prisoners, returned home to Scandinavia. Those Vikings who settled in Normandy did not speak a Scandinavian language for long and now there is no trace in Norman names. (Ref.
301 )
In 1810 Charlemagne ordered fleets to be built and stationed at Ghent and Boulogne, in response to Scandinavian attacks on Frisia. It was later, when the Frankish empire was divided, that defenses were neglected and the Viking raids really started. The Dane Godfred was granted land in the Rhine estuary, to proteCt against other raiders, but Godfred was killed in 885 and afterwards there was very little trace left of the Vikings in the Netherlands. In Belgium a series of circular forts were built along the coast on each side of the Scheldt estuary, probably in the last years of Louis' reign. These defenses may have sufficiently thwarted the Vikings that they were diverted to start their serious attacks on England. (Ref.
301 )
