Rurik - Genetic Investigation

Genetic Investigation

See also: List of haplogroups of historical and famous figures#N (Y-DNA)

According to the FamilyTreeDNA Rurikid Dynasty DNA Project, Rurik appears to have belonged to Y-DNA haplogroup N1c1, based on testing of his modern male line descendants. But while genetically related to the later Baltic Finnic peoples, the Rurikids do not possess the DYS390=24 mutation associated with East Finns and Karelians, theirs remaining the ancestral DYS390=23 (which is also found among West Finns). The Rurikid haplotype itself (all 67 markers considered) is more closely associated with Northern Germanic language speakers.

It is not known what languages Rurik and his fellow Varangians spoke. However, it is known that the Finnish language area (Meänkieli and Kven dialects of Finnish) in the past covered a much larger territory of the modern area of Sweden than it does today. Uppland, where Rurik allegedly was born, was during his lifetime bordered by Norrland - the entire northern half of today's Sweden -, which then was not a part of the Northern Germanic language zone. The descendants of the primeval Finnic people of the modern area of Sweden today speak largely Swedish.