Russia
Russia appears across two primary sources as both a geographic setting for heroic action and a node in the travel networks of the Norse world.
Russia appears across two primary sources as both a geographic setting for heroic action and a node in the travel networks of the Norse world. In the Gesta Danorum, Russia features in episodes spanning several books: a massive battle against the Huns that lasted seven days, producing carnage so great that three Russian rivers were bridged with corpses (Gesta Danorum, Book Five); the exploits of the champion Wisin who settled on a rock called Ana-fial in Russia and terrorized surrounding provinces until Starkad traveled there to destroy him (Gesta Danorum, Book Six); and the news that reached Halfdan in Russia through traders, prompting his voyage to prevent a wedding (Gesta Danorum, Book Seven). An earlier reference ties Russia to the marriage politics around Saxo's Danish kings, where a woman reminds her brother of freedom he had granted her before his Russian war (Gesta Danorum, Book Two).
In Njal's Saga, Russia appears as a destination on Norse travel routes. One passage establishes it as part of a trading network stretching from Norway to Biarmaland (Njal's Saga, 28. Hallvard Comes Out to Iceland), while another records that Kolskegg "fared east to Russia" in connection with his baptism (Njal's Saga, 80. Of Kolskegg: How He Was Baptized).
The two sources construct markedly different Russias. Saxo's Gesta Danorum treats the territory as a theatre of heroic violence and political maneuver: rivers choked with the dead, outlaws nesting on Russian rocks, intelligence traveling along trade routes. The Book Five battle scene, with its seven-day duration and corpse-bridges across three rivers, belongs to Saxo's characteristic register of amplified martial horror. By contrast, the Book Six episodes featuring Wisin and Starkad use Russia as a setting for individual heroic combat rather than mass warfare.
Njal's Saga presents a more prosaic Russia -- a real place on known routes, where men go to trade, travel, and in Kolskegg's case, encounter Christianity. The difference reflects the genres: Saxo's Latin chronicle inflates Russia into an epic backdrop, while the Icelandic saga treats it as part of the everyday geography of Norse movement.
The Book Two reference adds a domestic dimension: Russia matters not only as a place of combat but as a political absence. A king's departure for a Russian war creates the conditions for his sister's unsanctioned marriage, demonstrating how distant campaigns reshuffled power at home.