Hólmgarðr (Novgorod)

Hólmgarðr — Novgorod — is the great northern stronghold of the Rus, the seat of King Valdemar's power on the river-road east, and the northern hinge of the whole Austrvegr. Down to it came the ransomed boy Olaf Tryggvason, to be raised at the eastern court; through it passed St Olaf in exile, sheltered by Yaroslav; and from it Magnus the Good began his journey home to be king of Norway. It was the gateway through which Norse traders and warriors moved on toward Kyiv and Constantinople, and where the kings of the North were sometimes made, sheltered, and sent home. Hólmgarðr is the corpus's image of the Norse reach into the Christian east — a great river-city of the Rus, far from any homeland, where Norwegian royal fates were shaped and the road south to Byzantium began.