Kirjalax (Alexios)

Kirjalax — the Greek emperor at Constantinople (the sagas' rendering of Alexios Komnenos) — is the lord of the richest city on earth, at whose court the Norse reach their farthest and most dazzling horizon. He commands the Varangian Guard, the elite Norse troops in imperial service, and receives the kings and warriors who come down the long roads east and south. When Sigurd the Crusader sails into Miklagard, it is Kirjalax who receives him in splendour and offers him a choice between six lispund of gold or the games of the Hippodrome staged in his honour — and is pleased when Sigurd chooses the spectacle over the treasure. Kirjalax is the saga's image of imperial magnificence itself — the Greek emperor whose city, wealth, and ceremony mark the outer limit of the Norse world, the dazzling far pole toward which the boldest of the Northmen travelled, served, and were honoured.