Tatjana N. Jackson is the leading Russian Scandinavianist and author of more than ten books and three hundred papers on Russian-Scandinavian relations of the Middle Ages.

The Quellenwert of the Icelandic sagas has long aroused controversy among scholars, especially between historians and those specializing in philology or literature.[...] Fortunately for historians, Tatjana Jackson [...] endorses the more balanced position of T. M. Andersson, Gísli Sigurðsson and others concerning the interplay between the spoken and the written word, whereby writers of sagas drew upon both components. And she approaches the Old Norse Kings’ Sagas in light of Aron Gurevich’s dictum: it is “not a question of whether to use the sagas ..., but of how.”

• Introduction: Sources, Aims, ConventionsPart 1: Eastern Europe in the Old Norse WeltbildChapter 1: Austrhálfa on the “mental map” of medieval ScandinaviansChapter 2: Austrvegr and Other aust-place-namesChapter 3: Austmarr, “the Eastern Sea”, the Baltic SeaChapter 4: Traversing Eastern EuropeChapter 5: East European riversChapter 6: Garðar/Garðaríki as a designation of Old Rus’Chapter 7: Hólmgarðr (Novgorod), and Kænugarðr (Kiev)Chapter 8: Aldeigja/Aldeigjuborg, “Old Ladoga”Chapter 9: “Hǫfuð garðar” in Hauksbók, and Some Other Old Russian TownsChapter 10: BjarmalandPart 2: Four Norwegian kings in Old Rus’Chapter 1: Óláfr TryggvasonChapter 2: Óláfr HaraldssonChapter 3: Magnús ÓláfssonChapter 4: Haraldr SigurðarsonBibliographyIndex