A woman outwits an opposing army, and reeks revenge on those who wish to conquer her kingdom.
An interesting
account of a true warrior woman in history is The Deeds of Princess Olga. Olga lived in the tenth century.
According to modern scholar Judith Jesch, Olga is the Russian translation of
Helga, a Norse name. Although the Vikings did reach into Russia during
their raids and some settled there, historians disagree over Helga’s true
origins. It is unclear as to whether she was of Slavic or Norse descent, but
compelling evidence suggests Norse origins as her parents were said to speak
the ‘Varangian’ tongue.[1] In the tenth century, Helga/Olga, was brought
to the city of Pskov as a wife for Igor, prince
of Kiev. When
Prince Igor is killed in 945 CE by the neighboring Derevlians, they demand that
Olga marry their Prince, Mal, to create an alliance. This would technically
give the Derevlians power over Kiev and over her
young son by Igor, who was destined be the future prince of Kiev.
Olga plots to
avenge the death of her husband in good old fashioned Norse/Viking tradition.
First, she tricks the Derevlian ambassadors who come by river to secure her
hand in marriage for their prince. She specifies that they must come to the
palace from the river carried in a boat. Anxious to please her and secure the
alliance, they comply. When they arrive in their boat/carriage, the boat, with
the ambassadors inside it, is dropped into a deep ditch and the envoys are
buried alive.
Another group
arrives, unaware of the plight of the first. Olga instructs them to
ceremonially bathe before meeting her at the palace. They comply, are locked in
the bath house, and the bath house is set fire with the men inside.
She invites the
next wave of Derevlians to attend a feast at her husband’s grave as a sort of
peace offering before she will agree to marry their prince. She instructs them
to prepare vast quantities of mead and meet her for a funeral feast at the
grave site. When the ambassadors are drunk, she orders her followers to kill
them. She then leads her troops in the attack against Derevlian cities in the
ensuing war, using her young son (Igor, who will be the future prince) as a
figurehead for the troops. When the city of Iskorosten held out against her siege, she
demands tribute and submission before she will leave. The tribute, (according
to The Russian Primary Chronicle) was
to be three pigeons and three sparrows from each household. When the strange
tribute was paid, Olga ordered her soldiers to attach a small piece of cloth
filled with sulfur to each bird’s foot with a thread. At sunset they released
the birds. The birds then flew to their respective nesting places beneath the
eaves of the houses, in haymows and outbuildings within the city, and the city
was set on fire.[2] The entire city went up in flames.
The chronicle
goes on to record that Olga converted to Christianity in 955 CE. Her son did
not convert, but grandson Vladmir I (r. 998-1015) also converted and is
considered the first Christian ruler in Russia. The woman in this tale
sounds suspiciously like a valkyrie. Scholar Judith Jesch believes Olga’s Norse
lineage is responsible for her ferocity in seeking vengeance for the death of
her spouse.
[1] Judith
Jesch. Women in the Viking Age. (Woodbridge; The Boydell Press,
1991) 111-113. Chapter VI,
Warrior Woman to
Nun.
[2] We
aren’t told how this feat happened, if the soldiers fired flaming arrows at the
birds as they flew or if they just spontaneously combusted in unison!
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