It isn’t “East/West” as much as it is “North/South”.

So… are you going to answer the question?

Short answer: we don’t really know specifically where in Europe it first appeared, just that it’s most prevalent among northern Europeans. It should be noted, however, that blond hair has evolved more than once in humans.

And given the intermixing of European-Asian populations, trying to pin down one trait to a specific population is problematic. Russians are a prime example of that, as Russia is a huge Eurasian melting pot, and you’ll find off kinds ethnic, cultural and genetic lineages among the Russian people. For example: Russia has a largely Slavic cultural base, but the early rulers of Russia were Nordic, and the name “Russia” itself is derived from a Slavic name for Viking conquerors.

Cultural/ethnic lines are never as clean and clear as we seem to want to make them.

Thanks! Very interesting information— Russia for the reasons you stated is very interesting—equally interesting for me is those elusive groups and tribes known as “Scythian” which have both quasi-Asian and Russian traits and maybe Gothic or distantly Celtic but don’t seem Slavic.

Since posting this question, I have become aware of how far eastward the Vikings made their homelands—which might also explain how blond hair is spread from Iceland to the far reaches of Russia— and why some of the architectural traits of the Black Sea area seem to be found in places like Finland and eastern Sweden. I have also become entrenched in the hype about Hyperborea for the time being, though a lot of it seems to be hype (sensationalism)

Thanks for responding and for your answer!

There is Viking graffiti (runic inscriptions) dating from the 9th century in the Hagia Sophia in what is now Istanbul.

@zenvelo

Yeah, as I recall the emperors of Byzantine would frequently employed Norsemen as mercenaries and as bodyguards for themselves.

@Yellowdog

Indeed. While we mostly think of the Vikings as raiding (later settling) in the British Isles and France, they were the world’s greatest shipbuilders and navigators of their age, and they had a serious wanderlust. They went all over the map.