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https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/jul/04/anglo-saxons-may-have-fought-in-northern-syrian-wars-say-experts

interesting but not surprising in reality. thanks for the link and find Duncan

One wonders how the Byzantines enticed North Europeans to go fight in Syria in the days before air travel and social media.   

goooooold

As they say, "follow the money" 

It is interesting that archaeologists have found evidence of 'regular' Byzantine trade with British sites along the west coast. Tintagel and others.
I wonder if these contacts were not restricted to sub-Roman groups?

Good point Jim. Quite a few Byzantine artifacts have been uncovered in Britain and not just the west

Quote from: Nick Harbud on July 04, 2024, 05:35:06 PMOne wonders how the Byzantines enticed North Europeans to go fight in Syria in the days before air travel and social media.   

Soft fruit, perhaps?  Vikings loved it and - if my memory of long ago lectures is correct - are recorded to have gorged themselves to death on it at times.  Excavations of their burial mounds (around Smolensk?) have turned up vast quantities of date pits and other fruit stones.

Well, yes.  Tales of bounty in far-off lands would doubtless appeal to a certain portion of any population.  However, this does not explain the physical impediments to recruitment on anything other than a very small scale.

How does the message get to a receptive audience?  I mean, for sure if you happen to have a recruiter arrive on a ship in a port and start buying drinks at the nearest tavern, this will elicit a certain number of bodies.  However, it is not like today when such enticements appear on every smart phone and in every teenage bedroom in the land.  It is not even on the same scale as papal representatives recruiting for the crusades.

How do they get to their area of employment?  Hopping on a plane and then taking a bus over the border is not an option to a Dark Age Saxon.  Overland travel could be a long and hazardous procedure.  Sea travel would be quicker and probably less perilous, but how many would be able to pay for this?

Quote from: Keraunos on July 04, 2024, 10:55:55 PM

Quote from: Nick Harbud on July 04, 2024, 05:35:06 PMOne wonders how the Byzantines enticed North Europeans to go fight in Syria in the days before air travel and social media.   

Soft fruit, perhaps?

You mean the Byzantines invited them for a date?

Quote from: Nick Harbud on July 05, 2024, 09:41:32 AMWell, yes.  Tales of bounty in far-off lands would doubtless appeal to a certain portion of any population.  However, this does not explain the physical impediments to recruitment on anything other than a very small scale.

How does the message get to a receptive audience?  I mean, for sure if you happen to have a recruiter arrive on a ship in a port and start buying drinks at the nearest tavern, this will elicit a certain number of bodies.  However, it is not like today when such enticements appear on every smart phone and in every teenage bedroom in the land.  It is not even on the same scale as papal representatives recruiting for the crusades.

How do they get to their area of employment?  Hopping on a plane and then taking a bus over the border is not an option to a Dark Age Saxon.  Overland travel could be a long and hazardous procedure.  Sea travel would be quicker and probably less perilous, but how many would be able to pay for this?

Would the recruiters just approach the larger warlords and 'Kings'. They could send men by the ship load

Quote from: Duncan Head on July 05, 2024, 10:17:12 AMYou mean the Byzantines invited them for a date?

Well, people have gone to work on an egg, so why not dates?

Quote from: Jim Webster on July 05, 2024, 11:19:27 AMWould the recruiters just approach the larger warlords and 'Kings'. They could send men by the ship load

Ah, you mean rather than serruptiously poach the odd huscarl from amongst those enjoying a pint in the tavern, the recruiter simply swans up to the local lord and makes him an offer he can't refuse?

"Listen, peasant, my employers can pay more money to their warriors than you can possibly imagine.  I'm going to take your entire band of trusted henchmen away with me.  Here's a bag of gold.  Take it or leave it."

Quote from: Nick Harbud on July 05, 2024, 12:11:52 PMHere's a bag of gold.  Take it or leave it."

Perhaps a bit more colonial style.  The great Emperor of the Romans has sent these exotic things which you don't have - bronze buckets, pots full of smelly stuff, dates.  If you were his friend and sent warriors to fight for him, there is more where that came from" 

It's not necessaraly 'recruitment' as we know it. The wealth of the East and multiple instances of Warriors returning from Miklagard (New Rome,aka Byzantium or Constantinople) with tales of huge wealth and easy fights, led to a steady stream of warriors going to make their fortune.