Ingvar the Far-Travelled (Old Norse: Yngvarr víðförli, Swedish: Ingvar Vittfarne) was a Swedish Viking who led an expedition that fought in Georgia. The Rus' undertook several Caspian expeditions in the course of the 10th century. The Yngvars saga víðförla describes the last Viking campaign in the Caspian in 1041, embellishing the historical facts with a great deal of legend. The expedition probably aimed to reopen old trade-routes after the Volga Bulgars and the Khazars no longer proved obstacles. Ingvar the Far-Travelled launched this expedition from Sweden, travelling down the Volga River into the land of the Saracens (Serkland). While there, the Vikings apparently took part in the 1042 Battle of Sasireti between the Georgians and Byzantines in Georgia. No less than twenty-six Ingvar runestones – twenty-four of them in the Lake Mälaren region of Uppland in Sweden – refer to Swedish warriors who went out with Ingvar on his expedition to the Saracen lands. A stone to Ingvar's brother indicates that he went east for gold but died in Saracen land. Sources Aside from the Ingvar runestones, there are no surviving Swedish sources that mention Ingvar, but there is the Yngvars saga víðförla and three Icelandic annals which mention his death under the year 1041: Annales regii, the Lögmanns annáll and the Flateyarbók annals. These three annals are probably based on Sturla Þórðarson's compilation. Swedish archeologist and historian Mats G. Larsson notes that The Georgian Chronicles mentions a visit from a Viking expedition in the year 1040, which correlates with the description of such a meeting in Yngvars saga víðförla. Life Origin There are three theories on Ingvar's origin. According to one theory, prominently held by Otto von Friesen and Elena Mel'nikova, Ingvar's saga has transmitted his origin correctly, and so he was the son of the Varangian Eymundr, who in turn was the son of a Swedish chieftain named Áki and the daughter of the Swedish king Eric the Victorious. A second theory suggests that Ingvar was the son of a Swedish prince named Eymundr, who would have been the son of Eric the Victorious and the brother of Olof Skötkonung. The existence of this prince Eymundr has been suggested by Lauritz Weibull (1911) and J. Svennung (1966). The theory is based on a re-evaluation of the age of the Ingvar runestones, proposed by Elias Wessén and Sune Lindquist, which suggests that the Ingvar runestones were carved earlier in