MEMORIES FROM THE FORMER COLONIES. GARÐARÍKI IN THE EYES OF THE ICELANDIC SAGAS' AUTHORS AND READERS. THE EXAMPLE OF SOME PAGAN CUSTOMS' DESCRIPTIONS.

Scandinavians visiting and trying to get profits from trade in Eastern Europe's regions during early middleages had very specific knowledge about the lands and cultures that developed there. They had a lot of information about geography and political powers, but almost non about people living outside of known towns and ports-of-trade. This disproportion are due to their intrest focused in getting profits from those lands and were not interested in get to know people from the outside of their ecumena. This phenomenon is also present in the testimonies from Portuguese sailors' travels to the western coasts of Africa and starting colonisation of that regions. In sagas description of scandinavan expeditions written centuries after scandinavian activity in Eastern Europe there is a trace of the same motivations and methods of action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]