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Garðaríki (anglicized Gardariki or Gardarike) or Garðaveldi was the Old Norse term used in the Middle Ages for the lands of Rus'. According to Göngu-Hrólfs saga, the name Hólmgarðaríki (also used as a name for Novgorod Land) was synonymous with Garðaríki, and these names were used interchangeably in several other Old Norse stories.
As the Varangians dealt mainly with the northern lands of Rus', their regard the city of Hólmgarðr/Hólmgarðaborg (usually identified with Veliky Novgorod) as the capital of Garðaríki. Other important places of Garðaríki mentioned in the sagas that have generally been identified with well known historical towns are Aldeigja/Aldeigjuborg (Staraya Ladoga), Kœnugarðr/Kænugarðr (Kyiv), Pallteskja/Pallteskia (Polotsk), Smaleskja/Smaleskia (Smolensk), Súrdalar (Suzdal), Móramar (Murom), and Rostofa (Rostov).
At least seven of the Varangian runestones, G 114, N 62, Sö 148, Sö 338, Veda Runestone, U 636, and Öl 28, refer to Scandinavian men who had been in Garðar.
Garðar is a plural form of the Old Norse word which referred to 1) a fence; 2) a fortification; 3) a yard; 4) a court; 5) a farm; 6) a village house, while the related Old Russian word городъ referred to 1) a fence; 2) a fortification; 3) a field defensive work; 4) a settlement. 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. Thus, some researches interpreted Garðar as a collective name for Old Rus' towns encountered by Scandinavians on their way from Lyubsha and Staraya Ladoga down the Volkhov River into other Slavonic lands. The younger toponym Garðaríki could mean "the realm of towns", or "the country of towns".
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