Region of the Sagas
Garðaríki (Russia)
Garðaríki — 'the realm of strongholds' — is the Norse name for the lands of the Rus along the great river-road east: Novgorod, Kyiv, and the country between. It is the eastern pole of the corpus, as far as Vínland is the western, and the road to it runs through the whole story of the kings. Down it the boy Olaf Tryggvason was carried after being ransomed from slavery, to be raised at King Valdemar's court; to it St Olaf fled in exile, sheltered by Yaroslav the Wise at Kyiv, leaving his son Magnus to be fostered there; and back down it Magnus was fetched home to be king. It was the highway of Norse traders and the route by which warriors travelled on to serve in the Varangian Guard at Constantinople. Garðaríki is the proof of how far the Norse world stretched eastward — a land of rivers and Christian princes where Norwegian kings were made, sheltered, and sent home.
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the saga’s own words
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Olaf Tryggvason — the King from the Eastunlock Magnus the Good — the King Fetched from the Eastunlock St Olaf — the Saint Who Fell at StiklestadunlockFind Garðaríki (Russia) on the map
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