Vikings – the Rus – Varangians

Courtesy Medievalists.net:
"The Viking age in Scandinavia is usually dated from the end of the eighth century to the mid-11th century. Those who came from Scandinavia were called Rus and Varangians by peoples in Eastern Europe. French and Anglo-Saxon chroniclers sometimes divide the Vikings into ‘Danes’, ‘Swedes’ (Svear) and ‘Norsemen’ (Norwegians). In their turn, Arab scribes distinguished between Scandinavians, inhabiting Western Eurorpe, calling them ‘magus’ or al-urmania, and peoples in the east, which they called al-rus." A PDF of the full article, originally published in Historiska nyheter (2004), may be accessed at Academia.edu.

Flamboyant director Ken Russell's wish was for a Viking funeral

Funeral of a Viking, by Sir Frank Dicksee, 1893.
Courtesy Art Magick

"It is a lurid image to grace any of Russell's films: the conflicted Catholic film director leaving the world in a blazing pagan longship. And, unlike many of the projects of his final decades, it looks like it might actually happen. 'We will do one, even if it's symbolic, and even if we have to wait a while,' Mrs Russell said." Read the full article by Ben Hoyle of  the Times at the Australian.com.