Rus’ as “Rod”: A Critical Analysis of G.V. Dzibel’s Hypothesis

Abstract

The article critically analyzes the attempt of G.V. Dzibel to derive the ethnonym Rus’ from the Slavic rod (clan, kin). I argue that the hypothesis of G.V. Dzibel is based on some anachronisms, erroneous etymologies, as well as on the unreal assumption about the historical and archaeological situation of the considered epoch. I cannot agree either with the G.V. Dzibel assumption that the ethnonym svear was semantically clear for Scandinavians (and, moreover, for Slavs and Finns) during the times as late as the 10th century A.D., or with his thesis that “Varangian-Rus’ druzhinas of 10th century A.D.” were the ethnic environment where the ethnonym Rus’ emerged. The whole body of information that we have about the ethnonym Rus’ testifies that it must have arisen earlier than the 10th century – even earlier than the middle of the 1st millennium A.D. Yet, if we were to consider the Finno-Ugric *rōtsand the ethnonym Rus’ as related, we could suppose that certain contacts between Finno-Ugrians and some Germanic (East-Germanic) tribes (but not Scandinavians) of the Great Migration period might have been the initial source for this ethnonym.