Impact of Vikings in Siberia

Harald Hardrada actually sent expeditions to try and find a northern route to Asia. Perhaps they could discover the Ob. I think OTL they made it to Novya Zemalya

Hardrada was a fascinating man, he's forever remembered as the brute that failed to take England from Harold Godwinson, but his fame as a brilliant commander serving the Byzantines was far more interesting. If his men does discover the lucrative opportunities of the Northeast passage I wonder how this might change his plans to invade England. William will probably still win, but it's not assured.

A Varangian Guard in the service of a Song emperor would be interesting.

As far as Mongols attacking, who knows. A string of fur towns in Siberia isn't exactly going to be high up on the priority list of any khan.
 
Hardrada was a fascinating man, he's forever remembered as the brute that failed to take England from Harold Godwinson, but his fame as a brilliant commander serving the Byzantines was far more interesting. If his men does discover the lucrative opportunities of the Northeast passage I wonder how this might change his plans to invade England. William will probably still win, but it's not assured.

A Varangian Guard in the service of a Song emperor would be interesting.

I can now imagine my namesake spending decades fighting Eastern Turks and coming back in silk robes, chanting Buddhist prayers
 
If it as easy as you think it is, then why didn't it happen OTL?

The Silk Road provided an adequate trade route between China and the Mediterranean. This northeast passage would primarily benefit Northern Europeans who had no knowledge of Siberia, and Siberian natives had no knowlege of Europe. Really the only people who could do this were the Vikings, and they were busy colonizing more familiar lands. I suppose later on the Golden Horde could have done it, if milking their subjects weren't so much easier.
 
Hardrada was a fascinating man, he's forever remembered as the brute that failed to take England from Harold Godwinson, but his fame as a brilliant commander serving the Byzantines was far more interesting.

He was also pretty solid as the Norwegian king right up until the misadventure in England. A fascinating man all around.
 
Multiple waves of Mongols, Turkmen, Usbeks, etc. surged out of the Asian steepes driven by multiple waves of global warming and cooling interspaced with dry and wet years. The Asian steepes breathed like a great pair of lungs during a long series of dry and wet years. During wet years, Mongol ponies grew fat on plentiful steppe grass, allowing them to wander farther from home. During dry, lean years, desperate young Mongol men drove their hardy ponies farther afield to steal livestock from neighboring tribes.
If starving Mongol rustlers met Viking who were willing to trade food, they might have started trading with the strange blondes from Norway.
 
No, the Viking leader, taking off his helmet, goes one step forward, and the Mongol leader, understanding im without any words needed, ties his limbs to four horses and tears him apart, then displays his head on a pike in the midst of the Vikings' burning wreck of a city

I know I know but horse mounted mongolo-vikings just caused a small flash in my head. It just had to get out, see that fantasy as an equivalent to bear cavalry ;)
 
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