Читать книгу - "Четыре норвежских конунга на Руси - Татьяна Джаксон"

All the four Norwegian kings are seeking a short-time refuge in Rus and obtain it. They are welcomed by the Russian prince and his wife, and are highly honoured and respected here. Olafr Tryggvason and Magnus Olafsson are brought up by the Russian prince (Vladimir and Jaroslav, correspondingly). Olafr Tryggvason, Olafr Haraldsson, and Haraldr Sigurdarson occupy a high position in the Russian military service. АН of them leave Rus for their own country in an attempt to gain (or regain) power in Norway. Old Norse sources have reflected the activity of Jaroslav the Wise in the field of foreign affairs: the Russian prince is said to use not only diplomatic means and military support of the Norwegian kings, but also espionage and bribery of the leading chieftains in Norway.

The life of the Norwegian kings in Rus is described in the sagas with great laconicism, and with the help of a set of common phrases. On the one hand, this manifests the lack of concrete information. On the oth-er hand, it reflects the saga authors' tendency to exaggerate the role of a noble Scandinavian outside his own country. Still, the very fact that these four kings had been to Rus (in spite of the absolute ignorance of the Old Russian sources in this matter) can not be denied. A basis for such statement is the existence of skaldic strophes, composed by the contemporary poets, mentioning the four kings' stay in Rus.

The study of the saga material would not convince us that these sto-ries had not been an invention of saga authors, a literary topos, an el-ement of the positive characteristic of a Viking-king, if there had been no skaldic stanzas within these fragments. But Hallfredr Vandraeda-skald (ca. 996), Sigvatr Pordarson (1014-1015), Bjarni Gullbrar-skald (ca 1050), Arnorr Jarlaskald (ca. 1047), Bolverkr Arnorsson (llth century), Stufr inn blindi (ca. 1067), and Pjodolfr Arnorsson (ca. 1065), all of them, quoted by saga authors, confirm the saga in-formation.

Skaldic poems not only prove certain concrete facts, but also bear а more general information on the character of political contacts between Rus and Norway in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries. Their data demonstrate that at this particular period of time the relations between the two countries were no longer a result of military and trade activities of some enterprising individuals or Viking gangs, but start-ed turning into the inter-state contacts.