Editing Rurik (section)

==Alternative theories==
{{main|Rorik of Dorestad|Anti-Normanism}}
[[Image:Rorik by H. W. Koekkoek.jpg|thumb|{{center|[[Rorik of Dorestad]], as conceived by H. W. Koekkoek (1912)}}]]

The name ''Rurik'' is a form of the Old Norse name ''[[Hrœrekr]]''.<ref>Omeljan Pritsak, "Rus{{'"}}, in ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=d-XiZO8V4qUC Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230426163702/https://books.google.com/books?id=d-XiZO8V4qUC |date=26 April 2023 }}'', ed. Phillip Pulsiano (New York: Garland, 1993), pp. 555–56.</ref> Rorik of Dorestad was a member of one of two competing families reported by the [[Frankish Empire|Frank]]ish chroniclers as having ruled the nascent Danish kingdom at [[Hedeby]]. He may have been a nephew of king [[Harald Klak]]. He is mentioned as receiving lands in [[Friesland]] from [[Louis the Pious|Emperor Louis I]]. He plundered neighbouring lands: he took [[Dorestad]] in 850, attacked Hedeby in 857, and looted [[Bremen (city)|Bremen]] in 859, while his own lands were ravaged in his absence. The Emperor was enraged and stripped him of all his possessions in 860. After that, Rorik disappears from western sources for a considerable period of time. In 862, according to Russian sources, Rurik arrived in the eastern Baltic and built the fortress of Ladoga. Later he moved to Novgorod.{{citation needed|date=May 2023}}

Rorik of Dorestad reappeared in Frankish chronicles in 870, when his Friesland [[demesne]] was returned to him by [[Charles the Bald]]. In 882, Rorik is mentioned as dead (without a specific date of death).{{citation needed|date=January 2024}} The ''Primary Chronicle'' places the death of Rurik of Novgorod in 879,{{sfn|Ostrowski|2018|p=40}} three years earlier than the Frankish chronicles. According to western sources, the ruler of Friesland was converted to Christianity by the Franks.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

The idea of identifying Rurik of Rus' with Rorik of Dorestad was revived by the anti-Normanists [[Boris Rybakov]] and Anatoly H. Kirpichnikov in the mid-20th century,<ref>Kirpichnikov, Anatoly H. "Сказание о призвании варягов. Анализ и возможности источника". ''Первые скандинавские чтения'', СПб; 1997; ch. 7–18.</ref> but [[Alexander Nazarenko]] and other scholars have objected to it.<ref>Nazarenko, Alexander. "Rjurik и
Riis Th., Rorik", ''Lexikon des Mittelalters'', VII; Munich, 1995; pp. 880, 1026.</ref>