Varangerfjord and varangolimen: "varangian harbors" or consonance?
In the discussion about the origin and initial form of the ethnonym "Varangians", the names "Varangerfjord" and "Varangolimen", as well as the name of the northern people, used in eastern sources, play an important place. The Norman, as well as the South Baltic version of the origin of hydronyms and ethnonym are not confirmed. All three types of names are consonant, but completely different in semantics and origin of lexemes. The connection between them, as well as the name of the Byzantine guards βάραγγοι, is artificial. The Varank people of eastern sources are the fruit of borrowing from the Byzantine scientific community, which, in turn, created this form by extrapolating the name of the imperial guard to the ethnonym. The basis of the hydronym "Varangerfjord" is typically Sami, has natural landscape semantics and does not mean any ethnic group. "Varango(limen)" is a Romanesque name associated with the shape of one of the Crimean bays.