Garðaríki
Encyclopedia
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
term used in medieval times
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
for the states of Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus was a medieval polity in Eastern Europe, from the late 9th to the mid 13th century, when it disintegrated under the pressure of the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240....
. The shortened form Garðar also refers to the same country, as does the general term for "East", Austr, with its various derivations: Austrvegr ("Eastern way"), Austrlönd ("Eastern lands") and Austrríki ("Eastern realm"). A third set of names consisted of Svíþjóð hin mikla ("Great Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
") and Svíþjóð hin kalda, ("Cold Sweden") which probably referred to an east Scandinavian origin of many of the Norse settlers in the region.
The meaning of the word Garðaríki is usually interpreted as "the kingdom of cities", or "the realm of towns", which probably referred to a chain of Norse forts along the Volkhov River
Volkhov River
Volkhov is a river in Novgorod Oblast and Leningrad Oblast in northwestern Russia.-Geography:The Volkhov flows out of Lake Ilmen north into Lake Ladoga, the largest lake of Europe. It is the second largest tributary of Lake Ladoga. It is navigable over its whole length. Discharge is highly...
, starting with Lyubsha
Lyubsha
Lyubsha is an archaeological site situated on the right bank of the Volkhov, about 1,500 metres downstream from Staraya Ladoga. As was established by the 1993 excavations, Lyubsha is the site of the earliest Varangian fort in Russia, established in the first half of the 8th century, thus predating...
and Ladoga
Staraya Ladoga
Staraya Ladoga , or the Aldeigjuborg of Norse sagas, is a village in the Volkhovsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the Volkhov River near Lake Ladoga, 8 km north of the town of Volkhov. The village used to be a prosperous trading outpost in the 8th and 9th centuries...
. These forts had to assert themselves especially against the kingdom of the Khazars
Khazars
The Khazars were semi-nomadic Turkic people who established one of the largest polities of medieval Eurasia, with the capital of Atil and territory comprising much of modern-day European Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the northern Caucasus , parts of...
until the end of the 9th Current century and therefore they developed the first East Slavic state which is known as Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus was a medieval polity in Eastern Europe, from the late 9th to the mid 13th century, when it disintegrated under the pressure of the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240....
.
Gardar contains the same root as Slavic gord ("town") and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
garden. Garðr refers to a wall or fortification but came to primarily mean what it contained. For the Germanic
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
etymology
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
of the latter element, see the article on Reich
Reich
Reich is a German word cognate with the English rich, but also used to designate an empire, realm, or nation. The qualitative connotation from the German is " sovereign state." It is the word traditionally used for a variety of sovereign entities, including Germany in many periods of its history...
.
As the Varangians
Varangians
The Varangians or Varyags , sometimes referred to as Variagians, were people from the Baltic region, most often associated with Vikings, who from the 9th to 11th centuries ventured eastwards and southwards along the rivers of Eastern Europe, through what is now Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.According...
dealt mainly with Northern Russian lands, their saga
Saga
Sagas, are stories in Old Norse about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, etc.Saga may also refer to:Business*Saga DAB radio, a British radio station*Saga Airlines, a Turkish airline*Saga Falabella, a department store chain in Peru...
s regard the city of Holmsgardr (Holmgarðr, Veliky Novgorod
Veliky Novgorod
Veliky Novgorod is one of Russia's most historic cities and the administrative center of Novgorod Oblast. It is situated on the M10 federal highway connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg. The city lies along the Volkhov River just below its outflow from Lake Ilmen...
) as the capital of Garðaríki. Other local towns mentioned in the sagas are Aldeigjuborg (Old Ladoga
Staraya Ladoga
Staraya Ladoga , or the Aldeigjuborg of Norse sagas, is a village in the Volkhovsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the Volkhov River near Lake Ladoga, 8 km north of the town of Volkhov. The village used to be a prosperous trading outpost in the 8th and 9th centuries...
), Kœnugarðr (Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
), Pallteskja (Polotsk), Smaleskja (Smolensk
Smolensk
Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River. Situated west-southwest of Moscow, this walled city was destroyed several times throughout its long history since it was on the invasion routes of both Napoleon and Hitler. Today, Smolensk...
), Súrsdalar (Suzdal
Suzdal
Suzdal is a town in Vladimir Oblast, Russia, situated northeast of Moscow, from the city of Vladimir, on the Kamenka River. Population: -History:...
), Móramar (Murom
Murom
Murom is a historic city in Vladimir Oblast, Russia, which sprawls along the left bank of Oka River. Population: -History:In the 9th century CE, the city marked the easternmost settlement of the Eastern Slavs in the land of the Finno-Ugric people called Muromians. The Russian Primary Chronicle...
), and Ráðstofa (Rostov
Rostov
Rostov is a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, one of the oldest in the country and a tourist center of the Golden Ring. It is located on the shores of Lake Nero, northeast of Moscow. Population:...
).
Three of the Varangian runestones
Varangian Runestones
The Varangian Runestones are runestones that mention voyages to the East or the Eastern route , or to more specific eastern locations such as Garðaríki ....
, G 114, Sö 338, and U 209, refer to Scandinavian men who had been in Garðar.
Legendary kings of Garðaríki
- SigrlamiSvafrlamiSvafrlami was in the H and U version of the Hervarar saga the son of Sigrlami, who was the son of Odin. In the R version, Svafrlami is called Sigrlami and his parentage is not given. Svafrlami was the king of Gardariki and the first owner of the magic sword Tyrfing.One day, he was hunting on his...
(Hervarar saga) - Rollaugr (Hervarar saga)
- Ráðbarðr (SögubrotSögubrot af nokkrum fornkonungumSögubrot af nokkrum fornkonungum is a fragmentary Icelandic text dealing with some legendary Swedish and Danish kings...
) - Hreggviðr (Göngu-Hrólfs sagaGöngu-Hrólfs sagaGöngu-Hrólfs saga is a legendary saga, written mainly for entertainment, as the author clearly states in his preface and at the end of the story...
) - Hálfdan Brönufostri (king of Svíþjóð hin kalda in Sörla saga sterkaSörla saga sterkaSörla saga sterka is a legendary saga which was written in the 14th or 15th century.It is a sequel to Hálfdanar saga Brönufóstra and like its prequel one of its locales is England, which is a vassal to Sweden. Sörli the Strong is a son of the king of Oppland, and is at feud with Halfdan Brana's...
) - Vissavald (king from Garðaríki, Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar)
Literature
- Brandt, Dagmar: Gardariki. Ein Stufenbuch aus dem russischen Raum (novelNovelA novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
). 2 Volumes, Berlin 1943. Reprint Faksimile Verlag Bremen 1981.