Rurik

In the 20th century, archaeologists partly corroborated the chronicle's version of events. It was discovered that the settlement of Ladoga, whose foundation has been ascribed to Rurik, was actually established in the mid-9th century, although doubt is now cast on this by the dendrochronological evidence that Ladoga existed by the mid-8th century.[5] Earthenware, household utensils, and types of buildings from the period of Rurik's purported foundation correspond to patterns then prevalent in Jutland. However, the excavations denied most of the chronicle's data about Rurik's arrival when it was apparent that the old settlement stretched to the mid-8th century and the excavated objects were mostly of Finno-Ugric and Slavic origin, also dated to the mid-8th century, which showed the settlement was not Scandinavian from the beginning.[6]

Rorik of Dorestad, as conceived by H. W. Koekkoek

The name Rurik is accepted to be a form of the Old Norse name Hrærekr. This has been taken as evidence that Rurik was in some way ethnically Scandinavian.[7] The only similarly named figure described in the Carolingian Annales Fuldenses and Annales Bertiniani was Rorik of Dorestad (also spelled Rørik, Rörik, Roerik, Hrörek, etc.), a Germanic king from the royal Scylding house of Haithabu in the Jutland Peninsula. Since the 19th century, there have been attempts to identify him with the Rurik of Russian chronicles.

Rorik of Dorestad was a member of one of two competing families reported by the Frankish chroniclers as having ruled the nascent Danish kingdom at Hedeby, and was likely nephew of king Harald Klak. He is mentioned as receiving lands in Friesland from Emperor Louis I. This was not enough for him, and he started to plunder neighbouring lands: he took Dorestad in 850, attacked Hedeby in 857, and looted Bremen in 859, yet 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 the Western sources for a considerable period of time, while only two years later, in 862, the Russian chronicle's Rurik arrives in the eastern Baltic, builds the fortress of Ladoga, and later moves to Novgorod.

Rorik of Dorestad reappeared in Frankish chronicles in 870, when his Friesland demesne was returned to him by Charles the Bald; in 882 Rorik of Dorestad is mentioned as dead (without a date of death specified). The Russian chronicle places the death of Rurik of Novgorod at 879, three years earlier than the Frankish chronicles. According to Western sources, the ruler of Friesland was converted to Christianity by the Franks. This may have parallels with the Christianization of the Rus', as reported by Patriarch Photius in 867.

The idea of identifying the Rurik of Nestor's chronicle with Rorik of Dorestad of the Carolingian chronicles was revived by the anti-Normanists Boris Rybakov and Anatoly H. Kirpichnikov in the mid-20th century,[8] while modern scholars like Alexander Nazarenko object to it.[9] The hypothesis of their identity currently lacks support among scholars,[10] though support for a "Normannic" (i.e., Norse, rather than Slavic) origin of the Rus' has increased.