Jarizleifr (Yaroslav the Wise)

Jarisleif — Yaroslav the Wise, Grand Prince of Kyiv and Novgorod — is the great Christian prince of the east, and the shelter of Norway's kings on the road of exile. At his court in Garðaríki the fugitive St Olaf found refuge when his own chiefs drove him out, welcomed with honour by Jarisleif and his queen Ingegerd and even offered a kingdom of his own in Russia; and there Olaf left his young son Magnus to be fostered when he turned home to his death. From Jarisleif's keeping the boy Magnus was later fetched home to be king of Norway. Yaroslav is the saga's image of the powerful, generous eastern ally — the Christian prince at the far end of the river-road who shelters exiled kings, fosters their heirs, and sends them home, the human anchor of the whole Austrvegr. Through him the Norwegian royal line is sheltered, raised, and returned across the breadth of the eastern world.