Garðaríki

Garðaríki (anglicized Gardariki or Gardarike)[1] or Garðaveldi was the Old Norse term used in the Middle Ages for the Kievan Rus' state.[2][3][lower-alpha 1]

Map showing Varangian or Kievan Rus' settlement (in red) and location of Slavic tribes (in green), mid-9th century Khazar influence indicated with blue outline

As the Varangians dealt mainly with Northern Kievan Rus' lands, their sagas regard the city of Holmsgardr (Holmgarðr, Veliky Novgorod) as the capital of Garðaríki.[8][9][10][11] Other local towns mentioned in the sagas are Aldeigjuborg (Old Ladoga), Pallteskja (Polotsk), Smaleskja (Smolensk), Súrsdalar (Suzdal), Móramar (Murom), and Ráðstofa (Rostov).[12][13]

Three of the Varangian runestones, G 114, Sö 338, and U 209, refer to Scandinavian men who had been in Garðar.[14][15][16][17]

Etymology

The word Garðaríki, which first appeared in Icelandic sagas in the twelfth century,[18] could stem from the words Garðar and ríki according to the common Scandinavian pattern for state formations X+ríki,[19] therefore this term could be translated into English as "the kingdom of Garðar".[lower-alpha 2] The name Garðar itself was used in skaldic poems, runic inscriptions and early sagas up to the twelfth century to refer to the lands to the east of Scandinavia populated by the Rus' people.[20][21]

Garðar is a plural form of the Old Norse word garðr which referred to 1) a fence; 2) a fortification; 3) a yard; 4) a court; 5) a farm; 6) a village house[22][23][24][lower-alpha 3], while the related Old Russian word городъ[lower-alpha 4] referred to 1) a fence; 2) a fortification; 3) a field defensive work; 4) a settlement.[26][lower-alpha 5] Since there is an overlapping meaning among the ones these related words once had ("a fence, a fortified place"), both garðr and городъ could mean the same at one time in the past.[27] Thus, some researches interpreted Garðar as a collective name for Old Rus' towns[28][29] encountered by Scandinavians on their way from Lyubsha and Ladoga down the Volkhov River into other Slavonic lands.[30] These fortified towns had to assert themselves especially against the Khazar Khaganate until the end of the 9th century and therefore they developed the first East Slavic state currently designated as Kievan Rus'. In this way, the younger toponym Garðaríki could mean "the realm of towns", or "the country of towns".[31]

Legendary kings

Literature
  • Brandt, Dagmar: Gardariki. Ein Stufenbuch aus dem russischen Raum (novel). 2 Volumes, Berlin 1943. Reprint Faksimile Verlag Bremen 1981.
  • Jakobsson, Sverrir, The Varangians: In God’s Holy Fire (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), ISBN 978-3-030-53796-8

See also

Notes
  1. The original name for the lands of Rus', particularly of Novgorodian Rus', in Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic sources, including runic inscriptions, poetry of skalds and sagas, was the toponym Garðar.[4] First seen in the poem Óláfsdrápa composed by Hallfreðr Vandræðaskáld in 996.[5] The toponym is based on the root garð- with a wide range of meanings.[6][7]
  2. For the etymology of ríki, see the article on Reich and the archaic English term rike
  3. Also see the Old English word ġeard
  4. Old Russian городъ stems from the Proto-Slavic *gȏrdъ meaning "fortification, town"[25]
  5. Also see Evolution of the word Gord
  6. Some scholars linked Svíþjóð hin kalda or "Sweden the Cold" to the ancient Sarmatia and assumed that Gardariki was located there.[35][36][37]

Citations
  1. Store Norske Leksikon 2020.
  2. Cleasby & Vigfússon 1874, p. 192: "Garðar, m. pl. (í Görðum), Garða-ríki or Garða-veldi, n. the empire of Garðar, is the old Scandin. name of the Scandinavian-Russian kingdom of the 10th and 11th centuries".
  3. de Vries 1977, p. 156: "Garðaríki, älter auch Garðar 'name des Wikingerreiches in Russland'".
  4. Pritsak 1981, p. 366: "In the older sources, such as the scaldic poetry and the King's sagas, the usual ON name for Rus' (especially Novgorodian Rus') was Garðar, the plural form of Garðr".
  5. Jackson 2003, p. 37: "The earliest fixation of Garðar, as a designation of Rus, is found in the second strophe of Óláfsdrápa, a poem composed in 996 by the Icelandic skald Hallfreðr Vandræðaskáld".
  6. de Vries 1977, p. 156.
  7. Jackson 2003, p. 39.
  8. Vigfússon 1862, p. 133: "Hon segir Jarizleifi konungi at hann skal bafua hinn æzsla hlut Gardarikis en þat er Holmgard… Jarizleifr konungr skal vera yfir Gardariki".
  9. Rafn 1830, p. 237: "…hann átti at ráða fyrir Hólmgarðaríki, er sumir menn kalla Garðaríki…".
  10. Rafn 1830, p. 362: "Hólmgarðaborg er mest alsetr Garðakonúngs, þat er nú kallat Nogarðar".
  11. Liljegren 1818, p. 204: "Holmgard eller Holmgardaborg, en stad, som af fremlingar mycket besöktes, var deruti hufvudstad och Gardarikes Konungasäte".
  12. Liljegren 1818, p. 204: "HOLMGARD, eller GARDARIKE, egenteligen så kalladt, tillföll Jarislaf, och utgjorde Novogorod, Ladoga, Bielo-Osero, Rostov och angränsande orter dess område".
  13. Jackson 2003.
  14. Pritsak 1981, p. 346: "R i karþum aR. uaR uiue meR::h ... he [Liknat] was in Garðar".
  15. Pritsak 1981, p. 396: "Þōrstæinn must have spent a long time in Rus' since he managed to accumulate a sizable fortune there (as witnessed by his huge monument, Sö 338)".
  16. Pritsak 1981, p. 396: "Þōrstæinn, then, was a commander (forungi) of a retinue (lið) in Rus' (i garþum)".
  17. Pritsak 1981, p. 396: "han fial i urustu austr i garþum ... He fell in action east in Garðar (Rus')".
  18. Jackson 2003, p. 37: "According to Braun, the name Garðaríki was created by those Icelanders who wrote down sagas from the late twelfth century".
  19. Braun 1924, p. 194: "Und so entstand in der isländischen Kunstprosa der Ausdruck Garðaríki, nach dem Vorbild von Danaríki, Svíaríki (woraus Sverige) Hringaríki, Raumaríki u. a. m. Volkstümlich war das Wort ursprünglich nicht und ist es auch später nur auf Island durch die Sagaliteratur geworden".
  20. Jackson 2003, p. 37: "...in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries, Garðar was used for the designation of Old Rus all over Scandinavian Peninsula".
  21. Jackson 2003, p. 37: "In the skaldic poetry of the tenth through the twelfth century, Old Rus is called only by its earliest Old Norse name Garðar. In the runic inscriptions of the eleventh century, the toponym Garðar is used nine times".
  22. de Vries 1977, p. 156: "garðr 1 m. 'zaun, hof, garten’".
  23. de Vries 1977, p. 156: "Gewöhnlich zu garðr ‘hof, festung’".
  24. Jackson 2003, p. 39: "Old Norse garðr has the following meanings: 1) a fence of any kind, a fortification; 2) a yard (an enclosed space); 3) a court-yard, court and premises; 4) a separated farm (in Iceland); 5) a house or building in a country or village (especially in Norway, Denmark and Sweden)".
  25. Derksen 2008.
  26. Jackson 2003, p. 39: "The Old Russian word, in its turn, has the following meanings: 1) a fence; 2) a fortified place, town walls, a fortification; 3) a field defensive work; 4) a settlement, an administrative and trade center".
  27. de Vries 1977, p. 156: "…der ältere Name Garðar war vielleicht eine zusammenfassende Bezeichnung von russischen grady oder 'städte'…".
  28. Braun 1924, p. 196: "Garðar bedeutet also die Gesamtheit der slavisch-russischen Städte mit ihren Bezirken".
  29. Jackson 2003, p. 40: "Thus, the Scandinavians, who set on their way from Ladoga down the Volkhov into other Slavonic territories, came across a chain of fortified settlements, that were called by the local population города [goroda]".
  30. Jackson 2015.
  31. Sögubrot, chpt. 2. Vélræði Ívars konungs: "…Garðaríki. Þar réð fyrir sá konungr, er Raðbarðr hét".
  32. Rafn 1830, p. 237: "Sva byrjar þessa frásögu, at Hreggviðr er konúngr nefndr; hann átti at ráða fyrir Hólmgarðaríki, er sumir menn kalla Garðaríki…".
  33. Sörla, chpt. 1. Frá Sörla ok ætt hans: "Í þann tíma, sem Hálfdan konungr Brönufóstri stýrði Svíþjóð inni köldu".
  34. Laing 1844, p.216: "Swithiod the Great, or the Cold, is the ancient Sarmatia; and is also called Godheim in the mythological sagas, or the home of Odin and the other gods".
  35. Rafn 1852, p.438: "Svethiæ Magnæ (Sarmatiæ)".
  36. Rafn 1852, p.438: "In ea parte orbis, quæ Europa appellatur, Svethia Magna orienti proxima est, quo ad religionem Christianam propagandam Philippus apostolus venit. Hujus regni pars est Russia, quam nos Gardarikiam appellamus".
  37. Sturluson 1230, chpt. 48. Dauði Haralds konungs grenska: "Hit sama kveld kom þar annarr konungr, sá hét Vissavaldr, austan or Garðaríki".

References
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