Motif as a form of the representation of historical memory: Scandinavians in Eastern Europe in the 9th and 10th centuries as depicted in the Old Icelandic ‘Viking sagas’

Abstract

Old Icelandic Kings’ and Family, but primarily Viking sagas base many of their stories about Scandinavians in Eastern Europe and in Rus’ on narrative motifs, i.e. stereotyped tales about the deeds of the hero. This feature is especially characteristic of Viking sagas. Most of their heroes find themselves in Gardariki (in this case only the north-western part of Eastern Europe) where they fight local rulers or enter their service, marry the wife/widow or the daughter of the local ruler and eventually become ‘konungs of Gardariki’ themselves. Though these are common narrative motifs, their consistent localisation in Eastern Europe seems to suggest that their emergence and secure place in the Old Norse narrative tradition reflect the activities of Scandinavians in the Ladoga region (according to one of the sagas, the ‘jarldom that belongs to Ladoga’) in the 8th and 9th centuries, the time of the consolidation and functioning of the Ladoga-Il’men’ polity under the rule of Scandinavian ‘konungs’. The past is thus represented in the form of narrative motifs based on recurrent events.