September 15, 2020 • 23 mins
In 945, Olga's husband, Igor I, was murdered by a subjugated tribe. Olga then became the de-facto ruler of Kievan-Rus, and she would let the Drevlians who killed her husband know that mercy was not one of her strong suits.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Miinki. Listener discretion is advised.
In the year nine hundred and fifty seven, Olga of
Kiev traveled to Constantinople to meet with the Byzantine Emperor.
(00:22):
Olga was the regent leader of Kievan Russ, a federation
of East Slavic tribes. Kievan Rus spread from the White
Sea in the north all the way down to the
Black Sea in the south, and its people would eventually
go on to form Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. Olga had
(00:43):
been married to the Grand Prince of Kiev, Igor, and
the two had a young son, Sviatoslav. But Igor had
been murdered while on tour to collect tributes from his tribes,
and Sviatoslav was just in his early teens and nine
hundred and fifty Oven and so until he came of age.
Officially it was Olga who acted as regent as she
(01:06):
was on this diplomatic mission to Constantinople. Olga and the
people of Kievan Ruce were Pagans, but Constantine the Seventh,
the Byzantine Emperor, was a Christian. He was also smitten
with the attractive, sophisticated, self assured widow Olga, and he
made his feelings clear when he sidled up next to
(01:29):
her and said, a fine woman like you would make
a marvelous empress. But Olga was already an autonomous ruler,
and after the death of her husband Igor, she had
no interest in being another man's wife. But she couldn't
outright reject him, and so, according to a historical text
(01:50):
known as the Primary Chronicle, Olga did something clever, something
that many women today are familiar with. She tricked Constantine
in order to spare his feelings and prevent the possibility
of him becoming violent. Oh, Olga said, flirtatiously, Well, the
(02:10):
Byzantine Empire is so wonderfully Christian, while back in Kievan
russ we're all terrible pagans. Before I would even think
of becoming empress, I would need to be baptized. Constantine
was ecstatic. The very next day, Olga was baptized, and
he himself stood as her godfather. When the ceremony was over,
(02:35):
Olga wrapped herself in one of the many furs that
she had brought with her on the trip. Oh, what
a shame, she said, you being my Godfather now and all,
and us not being able to get married. It would
just feel so wrong to me, you know, me caring
so much about your spiritual paternity, no hard feelings, Like
(02:56):
a clever cartoon rabbit. Olga had escaped the too of
her enemy through cunning, and she returned to kievan Rus'
Christian but still single. Now. There are a few problems
without folksy version of the story. For one, Constantine was
already married at the time to a woman named Helena.
(03:18):
According to Byzantine records for Olga's visit, Helena hosted Olga
in her court a number of times. Olga actually took
the Christian name Helena when she was baptized in the
Empress's honor. There are also records that Olga had actually
already become a Christian a few years earlier, in nine
hundred and fifty five, and that her trip to Constantinople
(03:41):
was more of a courtesy visit. The facts are that
Olga visited Constantinople in nine hundred and fifty seven, that
she was bestowed with a bevy of generous gifts, and
that she converted to Christianity and then attempted to spread
the good word back to her people. Her clever manipular
ation of Constantine, at least to me, sounds apocryphal, the
(04:04):
type of story you'd get from a trickster, Norse god,
or Greek nymph, if not from bugs Bunny or scooby Doo.
The primary source, also known as the Tale of Bygone
Years where we get that story, is a history of
Kievan Ruce from eight hundred and fifty to one thousand,
one and ten. It's an essential document for scholars of
(04:27):
East Slavs, but it had been rewritten by so many
different regimes, tweaked through word of mouth, misinformation, or modified
to flatter a current ruler that now some sections of
it read almost like folk tales, and its most compelling
folk hero is Olga, the clever, vengeful wife of a
(04:50):
murdered king. Eventually, Olga would become a saint of the
Eastern Orthodox Church, known as equal to the Apostles, for
her efforts to bring Christian entity to her people. But
a much more interesting story about Olga, in my opinion,
is the bloody revenge she would enact on the people
who killed her husband. Someone said something sometime about turning
(05:15):
the other cheek, didn't they? Well, remember when Olga murdered
a boatload of people and burned an entire village to
the ground. She wasn't Christian yet. I'm Dani Schwartz and
this is noble blood. M Keevan. Ruth was a loose
(05:38):
federation of East Slavic tribes across what is now the
western border of Russia, with a capital at the strategic
hub of Kiev. The grand prince would make a yearly
pilgrimage to collect tributes from his subordinate people's. In nine
hundred and forty five BC, the grand prince was Igor
(06:00):
the First, who ruled alongside his wife, the Grand Princess Olga.
The pair already had a three year old son, s Viadislav,
so succession was secure. For now. All Igor had to
worry about in nine hundred and forty five was collecting
his tributes. One of the tribes he collected from was
(06:21):
the Drevillians, a name which literally translates to among the trees.
The Drevillians lived in a resource rich area dense with
as you might imagine, trees. They were craftsmen and workers,
and when the terrifying Igor the First and his retinue
(06:41):
came to town, to demand his annual tribute. They gave
him a respectable amount of wax, honey, leather, and fur,
and then returned to their wooden houses with the relief
of not having given in to the temptation of spitting
at Egor's feet. They had to give him tribute, but
(07:02):
they didn't have to like it. As Igor and his
retinue rode away, Igor got to thinking, sure, the honey, wax, leather,
and furs that the Drevelands gave were nice, but it
was a rich region. They barely would even feel the
pinch of that. And they've been so insubordinate all but
scoffing at him when he rode by. It was only
(07:25):
a matter of time before they enacted a full out
rebellion and pulled away from Kiev and Ruse, and that
would be no good. Their tributes were an essential part
of his yearly income. Tributes don't mean anything if the
citizens don't feel the sacrifice. Maybe that's why they were
becoming rebellious. When you think about it, it's like the
(07:48):
dread Lands never gave him any tribute at all. There
was no respect, no deference. They were just buying him
off with a bit of their wealth they didn't even
care about. Someone needed to lay down the law. Igor
was an hour outside of is Garston, the principal Drevelan city,
when he pulled his horse to a stop. You guys
(08:10):
go on ahead, He called to his attendants, whose horses
were slowed with the weight of all of the tributes
they had already collected. I'm going to go back to
Isgorston and get a real tribute. And so Igor rode
back and met the Prince of the Drevelians, Prince Mall,
in the town's main assembly. Loudly, Igor demanded a larger tribute.
(08:38):
Prince Mall was silent for a moment. They had already
given their tribute to Kievan Russ. If they just agreed
to Egor's demands, well, where would it end, well, Igor
demanded of the silent Prince. A wolf chasing a single
sheep will eventually reach all of the sheep unless the
(09:00):
wolf is killed, Prince Moll said. The Prince made a
gesture with his hand, and Igor was captured. The Dreveland
went to a hill in the woods, where they found
two supple birch trees not too far away from one another.
(09:21):
They forced the birches to bend down towards the ground,
half a dozen men pulling with all of their strength
until the tops of the trees grazed the dirt. The
men secured the trees to the ground with rope. One
of Igor's arms was then tied to each tree, and
(09:42):
then the ropes securing the trees to the ground were cut.
The birch trees snapped back up into place and ripped
Grand Prince Igor in half. It was a bloody, violent death,
but it was also a symbolic one. The birch trees
(10:03):
were bowed. Deference can be safe, but if something is
bowing under enough pressure, well look what happens When they
decided to stand straight up. Twenty men came from Koristan
in a single, long wooden boat to inform Grand Princess
(10:27):
Olga that her husband was dead. Your husband was a wolf,
they said to her, as they rose from their respectful greetings.
He got what he demanded, and then he demanded more.
But our prince, Prince Mal is a good man. You're
a woman without a husband, and your son is still
an infant. Marry our prince, mall Olga thought. For a moment,
(10:53):
it was obvious why they wanted her to marry Prince Maul,
to undo the domination of Kievan Ruce, to win back
drively in autonomy. They had murdered Grand Prince Igor, and
so they thought that they had the upper hand. Olga
would let them know soon enough that they didn't, but
(11:14):
she pretended to play along. You're right, she said, my
husband isn't going to return from the dead. Let's let
bygones be bygones. And of course I'll marry Prince Mal.
I mean not like I would hold a grudge against
the guy who just killed my husband. But first I
need you to return to my court as honored guests,
(11:37):
with all of the respect you deserve. Go back to
your boat tonight and tomorrow morning i'll send a request
for your presence. You must insist that you won't come
to the castle by foot nor by horse. That you
demand that my people carry you in your boat like
they would carry you in a palanquin. It's a great
(11:59):
sign of her spect here. The Drevelan men agreed, and
they went back to their boat for the night. Meanwhile,
Olga had a massive ditch dug inside the castle walls
as deep as her servants and slaves could make it.
(12:20):
The next morning, the drevelands did as Olga instructed. They
demanded that they be carried to her court in their boat.
The entire way there they puffed with pride, sitting on
the rowing benches in the open air, wearing their finest robes,
waving merrily to the miserable passers by who had just
(12:41):
lost their grand prince. When the servants carrying the boat
reached the trench, they threw the boat and all of
the men inside it down into the hole and began
to fill it with dirt, while the men shouted. Trapped
beneath the boat, Do you find the honor to your taste?
(13:02):
Olga asked, looking down at them. All twenty men were
buried alive. Olga sent her own messenger to Escoraston, saying
that she agreed to marry Prince Maul, but that she
wanted more distinguished men to come. Ask her, you just
sent common men. Don't I deserve high ranking envoys to
(13:24):
escort me to my new husband. The people of kievan
Rus will hardly agree to let me go if you
don't at least do me that honor. She didn't mention
that those twenty men were now dead in a trench.
But soon enough a dozen distinguished men arrived in Kiev,
(13:45):
all governors wearing their best finery. Before you hold court
with me, Olga said, after she greeted them, you have
to take a bath right this way, gentlemen, and not
to worry, the bath house is heated. The gentleman agree,
you believe, filed into the wooden bathhouse. When they were
all inside, Olga gave the order for the door to
(14:07):
be locked. The bathhouse was then set on fire. Now
it was time for Olga to go on the offensive.
Rather than wait for yet another group of emissaries to
arrive from Miss Corrison, Olga brought her army and her
three year old son to the city. Little Swiadislav was
(14:27):
technically the grand Prince now, and so he was equipped
with a tiny toddler sized bow and arrow, which Olga
bade him to pull and release. The toddler did, but
the arrow just teetered and then fell from his bow.
But technically it was the first shot of the siege.
The grand Prince had signaled them, and so the Kievan
(14:50):
Russ army began to attack. The siege lasted all summer
with very little progress. The city was well defended, but
even so the Kievan Ruth's army could cut them off
from all trade. So by the end of three months,
the people inside the city were starving and poor, and
the soldiers outside the city had grown impatient from the
(15:13):
endless battle with no victory, and so Olga, reading the
attitude of her men, signaled to the Drevelians that she
had a message for them. I have forgiven you the
death of my husband. Let us not continue this endless siege.
You're hungry and we're tired, so it's time to move on.
(15:35):
I just ask that you prepare great quantities of meat
on the hill where you killed my husband, so that
I can properly celebrate his life and weep over his grave.
The Drevelans readily agreed and set out all of their
best meat for Olga and the Kievan Ruth's army. While
(15:55):
they waited for them to arrive, the Drevelans began to drink.
Olga and her army waited. When the Drevelians were drunk
and passed out on the hill, she and her men
ambushed and massacred their army. The siege was over, and
(16:19):
Olga had won but she wasn't done yet. Okay, she said,
all of this began because you wouldn't pay tribute. If
you give me a tribute, I'll go back to Kiev
tomorrow and the siege will be over for good scouts
on her. If the Peanuts cartoon had existed in nine
hundred forty five, I imagine she would have looked a
(16:41):
little like Lucy holding of football. Yes, the Drevelands cried, anything, please,
we have honey and furs. What do you want for
your tribute? Olga smiled a kind, wide smile that didn't
quite reach her eyes. Your people are impoverished by the siege,
(17:03):
she said, I know that, and so I'm going to
take mercy on you. All I want is three pigeons
and three sparrows from each house no more. The Drevelans rejoiced.
Every household gathered the requisite birds and gave them to Olga, who,
true to her word, took their offering and headed out
(17:26):
of town. But that night she embarked on her final revenge.
She had her army attached a tiny piece of sulfur
to each bird's leg, bound by a long piece of cloth.
When she gave the signal, the sulfur dangling from each
bird was the lit on fire, and then the birds
(17:49):
were a leased into the sky. Pigeons and sparrows, you
might know, are extremely good at being able to find
their way home. The birds all flew back to their
nests in the eaves of roofs, nestled near houses, and
all of escorsed and caught fire. Within hours, the entire city,
(18:12):
built mainly of wood, had burnt to the ground and
become ashes. As people fled to the burning city, Olga
gave orders to capture them. They were either killed outright
or gifted as slaves to her loyal kievan Ruth soldiers.
Prince Mal was killed, and from nine dty six on
(18:34):
there was never another problem with the dreve Llans being
able to pay their tribute into Olga's treasury. If some
of that story sounds apocryphal to you, you're probably right.
Homing birds are a staple in Scandinavian folklore, and Olga's
(18:55):
clever tricks, one after another, sound more like myth than reality.
She even nailed the rule of threes. One detail that
sounds made up. That the evil prince is named Prince
Mal Latin for bad, isn't it actually is true that
was his name. Here's what else We know for sure.
(19:17):
That Igor attempted to extort additional revenue from the Dravelans,
and that when he returned, they murdered him and his widow,
Olga led a successful revenge campaign against them. Later, Olga
would convert to Christianity, the first Kievan Ruce royal to
do so, and for her efforts to bring Christianity to
(19:39):
the East Slavs, she would be made a saint in
fifteen forty seven by the Russian Orthodox Church and then
the Roman Catholic Church. Olga is the saint of widows
and converts. Her grandson, Vladimir, would actually succeed in bringing
Christianity to Kievan Rus and he was made a saint too.
(20:00):
In fact, the only church in the United States named
after St. Vladimir and Olga is in Chicago, where I
happened to be recording this episode. Any specifics of the
raid against the Drevelans and their deaths, clever or otherwise,
are lost in that mist of unknowable history that's been
made soft and around by centuries of retelling. I imagine
(20:23):
if in the end the Drevelans had come out on top,
and it was their sources we were reading. The story
would be more about a brutal, extortionist king and a
brave people who stood up to him and then nobly
extended their arms out to his widow, only for her
to enact a series of saw style murders on those good,
(20:46):
generous common people in her wicked fury. I can tell
you that the Drevelans probably wouldn't have made her a saint.
That's the story of Olga of Kiev. But keep listening
after a brief sponsor break to hear a bit more
(21:06):
about her politics. While she was regent, like any good ruler,
Olga of Kiev understood that to truly avenge her husband's death,
it wasn't enough just to punish the people responsible. She
(21:29):
also had to undo the circumstances that made his death
possible in the first place. Olga established what can be
considered the first internal revenue service in Russia. She abolished
the annual trip by the Kievan Prince to collect his
tributes from various tribes. Instead, she built a system in
(21:51):
which the land was divided into districts, and each district
had their taxes collected by an authorized board or or agent.
Olga would then go from district to district personally to
get the payments from that agent. She traveled by sleigh
covered in as many furs as possible. You have to
(22:15):
make an impression during these sorts of things, just so
everyone knows you mean business. Although with Olga, I can't
imagine anyone ever forgot. One final note for anyone who
hears the story of Olga of Kiev and is tempted
to paint her as a quote badass warrior queen with
(22:38):
multiple exclamation points, remember that she didn't really participate in
any of the fighting. She was a general, if anything else,
a leader and orchestrator. Her own mythology is to emphasize
her cleverness. There's no need to paint all women in
history who have some modicum of power with the exact
(23:00):
same brush. Noble Blood is a production of I Heart
Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey. The show
is written and hosted by Dana Schwartz and produced by
Aaron Mankey, Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and Trevor Young. Noble
Blood is on social media at Noble Blood Tales, and
(23:23):
you can learn more about the show over at Noble
blood Tales dot com. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows. M
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Miinki. Listener discretion is advised.
In the year nine hundred and fifty seven, Olga of
Kiev traveled to Constantinople to meet with the Byzantine Emperor.
(00:22):
Olga was the regent leader of Kievan Russ, a federation
of East Slavic tribes. Kievan Rus spread from the White
Sea in the north all the way down to the
Black Sea in the south, and its people would eventually
go on to form Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. Olga had
(00:43):
been married to the Grand Prince of Kiev, Igor, and
the two had a young son, Sviatoslav. But Igor had
been murdered while on tour to collect tributes from his tribes,
and Sviatoslav was just in his early teens and nine
hundred and fifty Oven and so until he came of age.
Officially it was Olga who acted as regent as she
(01:06):
was on this diplomatic mission to Constantinople. Olga and the
people of Kievan Ruce were Pagans, but Constantine the Seventh,
the Byzantine Emperor, was a Christian. He was also smitten
with the attractive, sophisticated, self assured widow Olga, and he
made his feelings clear when he sidled up next to
(01:29):
her and said, a fine woman like you would make
a marvelous empress. But Olga was already an autonomous ruler,
and after the death of her husband Igor, she had
no interest in being another man's wife. But she couldn't
outright reject him, and so, according to a historical text
(01:50):
known as the Primary Chronicle, Olga did something clever, something
that many women today are familiar with. She tricked Constantine
in order to spare his feelings and prevent the possibility
of him becoming violent. Oh, Olga said, flirtatiously, Well, the
(02:10):
Byzantine Empire is so wonderfully Christian, while back in Kievan
russ we're all terrible pagans. Before I would even think
of becoming empress, I would need to be baptized. Constantine
was ecstatic. The very next day, Olga was baptized, and
he himself stood as her godfather. When the ceremony was over,
(02:35):
Olga wrapped herself in one of the many furs that
she had brought with her on the trip. Oh, what
a shame, she said, you being my Godfather now and all,
and us not being able to get married. It would
just feel so wrong to me, you know, me caring
so much about your spiritual paternity, no hard feelings, Like
(02:56):
a clever cartoon rabbit. Olga had escaped the too of
her enemy through cunning, and she returned to kievan Rus'
Christian but still single. Now. There are a few problems
without folksy version of the story. For one, Constantine was
already married at the time to a woman named Helena.
(03:18):
According to Byzantine records for Olga's visit, Helena hosted Olga
in her court a number of times. Olga actually took
the Christian name Helena when she was baptized in the
Empress's honor. There are also records that Olga had actually
already become a Christian a few years earlier, in nine
hundred and fifty five, and that her trip to Constantinople
(03:41):
was more of a courtesy visit. The facts are that
Olga visited Constantinople in nine hundred and fifty seven, that
she was bestowed with a bevy of generous gifts, and
that she converted to Christianity and then attempted to spread
the good word back to her people. Her clever manipular
ation of Constantine, at least to me, sounds apocryphal, the
(04:04):
type of story you'd get from a trickster, Norse god,
or Greek nymph, if not from bugs Bunny or scooby Doo.
The primary source, also known as the Tale of Bygone
Years where we get that story, is a history of
Kievan Ruce from eight hundred and fifty to one thousand,
one and ten. It's an essential document for scholars of
(04:27):
East Slavs, but it had been rewritten by so many
different regimes, tweaked through word of mouth, misinformation, or modified
to flatter a current ruler that now some sections of
it read almost like folk tales, and its most compelling
folk hero is Olga, the clever, vengeful wife of a
(04:50):
murdered king. Eventually, Olga would become a saint of the
Eastern Orthodox Church, known as equal to the Apostles, for
her efforts to bring Christian entity to her people. But
a much more interesting story about Olga, in my opinion,
is the bloody revenge she would enact on the people
who killed her husband. Someone said something sometime about turning
(05:15):
the other cheek, didn't they? Well, remember when Olga murdered
a boatload of people and burned an entire village to
the ground. She wasn't Christian yet. I'm Dani Schwartz and
this is noble blood. M Keevan. Ruth was a loose
(05:38):
federation of East Slavic tribes across what is now the
western border of Russia, with a capital at the strategic
hub of Kiev. The grand prince would make a yearly
pilgrimage to collect tributes from his subordinate people's. In nine
hundred and forty five BC, the grand prince was Igor
(06:00):
the First, who ruled alongside his wife, the Grand Princess Olga.
The pair already had a three year old son, s Viadislav,
so succession was secure. For now. All Igor had to
worry about in nine hundred and forty five was collecting
his tributes. One of the tribes he collected from was
(06:21):
the Drevillians, a name which literally translates to among the trees.
The Drevillians lived in a resource rich area dense with
as you might imagine, trees. They were craftsmen and workers,
and when the terrifying Igor the First and his retinue
(06:41):
came to town, to demand his annual tribute. They gave
him a respectable amount of wax, honey, leather, and fur,
and then returned to their wooden houses with the relief
of not having given in to the temptation of spitting
at Egor's feet. They had to give him tribute, but
(07:02):
they didn't have to like it. As Igor and his
retinue rode away, Igor got to thinking, sure, the honey, wax, leather,
and furs that the Drevelands gave were nice, but it
was a rich region. They barely would even feel the
pinch of that. And they've been so insubordinate all but
scoffing at him when he rode by. It was only
(07:25):
a matter of time before they enacted a full out
rebellion and pulled away from Kiev and Ruse, and that
would be no good. Their tributes were an essential part
of his yearly income. Tributes don't mean anything if the
citizens don't feel the sacrifice. Maybe that's why they were
becoming rebellious. When you think about it, it's like the
(07:48):
dread Lands never gave him any tribute at all. There
was no respect, no deference. They were just buying him
off with a bit of their wealth they didn't even
care about. Someone needed to lay down the law. Igor
was an hour outside of is Garston, the principal Drevelan city,
when he pulled his horse to a stop. You guys
(08:10):
go on ahead, He called to his attendants, whose horses
were slowed with the weight of all of the tributes
they had already collected. I'm going to go back to
Isgorston and get a real tribute. And so Igor rode
back and met the Prince of the Drevelians, Prince Mall,
in the town's main assembly. Loudly, Igor demanded a larger tribute.
(08:38):
Prince Mall was silent for a moment. They had already
given their tribute to Kievan Russ. If they just agreed
to Egor's demands, well, where would it end, well, Igor
demanded of the silent Prince. A wolf chasing a single
sheep will eventually reach all of the sheep unless the
(09:00):
wolf is killed, Prince Moll said. The Prince made a
gesture with his hand, and Igor was captured. The Dreveland
went to a hill in the woods, where they found
two supple birch trees not too far away from one another.
(09:21):
They forced the birches to bend down towards the ground,
half a dozen men pulling with all of their strength
until the tops of the trees grazed the dirt. The
men secured the trees to the ground with rope. One
of Igor's arms was then tied to each tree, and
(09:42):
then the ropes securing the trees to the ground were cut.
The birch trees snapped back up into place and ripped
Grand Prince Igor in half. It was a bloody, violent death,
but it was also a symbolic one. The birch trees
(10:03):
were bowed. Deference can be safe, but if something is
bowing under enough pressure, well look what happens When they
decided to stand straight up. Twenty men came from Koristan
in a single, long wooden boat to inform Grand Princess
(10:27):
Olga that her husband was dead. Your husband was a wolf,
they said to her, as they rose from their respectful greetings.
He got what he demanded, and then he demanded more.
But our prince, Prince Mal is a good man. You're
a woman without a husband, and your son is still
an infant. Marry our prince, mall Olga thought. For a moment,
(10:53):
it was obvious why they wanted her to marry Prince Maul,
to undo the domination of Kievan Ruce, to win back
drively in autonomy. They had murdered Grand Prince Igor, and
so they thought that they had the upper hand. Olga
would let them know soon enough that they didn't, but
(11:14):
she pretended to play along. You're right, she said, my
husband isn't going to return from the dead. Let's let
bygones be bygones. And of course I'll marry Prince Mal.
I mean not like I would hold a grudge against
the guy who just killed my husband. But first I
need you to return to my court as honored guests,
(11:37):
with all of the respect you deserve. Go back to
your boat tonight and tomorrow morning i'll send a request
for your presence. You must insist that you won't come
to the castle by foot nor by horse. That you
demand that my people carry you in your boat like
they would carry you in a palanquin. It's a great
(11:59):
sign of her spect here. The Drevelan men agreed, and
they went back to their boat for the night. Meanwhile,
Olga had a massive ditch dug inside the castle walls
as deep as her servants and slaves could make it.
(12:20):
The next morning, the drevelands did as Olga instructed. They
demanded that they be carried to her court in their boat.
The entire way there they puffed with pride, sitting on
the rowing benches in the open air, wearing their finest robes,
waving merrily to the miserable passers by who had just
(12:41):
lost their grand prince. When the servants carrying the boat
reached the trench, they threw the boat and all of
the men inside it down into the hole and began
to fill it with dirt, while the men shouted. Trapped
beneath the boat, Do you find the honor to your taste?
(13:02):
Olga asked, looking down at them. All twenty men were
buried alive. Olga sent her own messenger to Escoraston, saying
that she agreed to marry Prince Maul, but that she
wanted more distinguished men to come. Ask her, you just
sent common men. Don't I deserve high ranking envoys to
(13:24):
escort me to my new husband. The people of kievan
Rus will hardly agree to let me go if you
don't at least do me that honor. She didn't mention
that those twenty men were now dead in a trench.
But soon enough a dozen distinguished men arrived in Kiev,
(13:45):
all governors wearing their best finery. Before you hold court
with me, Olga said, after she greeted them, you have
to take a bath right this way, gentlemen, and not
to worry, the bath house is heated. The gentleman agree,
you believe, filed into the wooden bathhouse. When they were
all inside, Olga gave the order for the door to
(14:07):
be locked. The bathhouse was then set on fire. Now
it was time for Olga to go on the offensive.
Rather than wait for yet another group of emissaries to
arrive from Miss Corrison, Olga brought her army and her
three year old son to the city. Little Swiadislav was
(14:27):
technically the grand Prince now, and so he was equipped
with a tiny toddler sized bow and arrow, which Olga
bade him to pull and release. The toddler did, but
the arrow just teetered and then fell from his bow.
But technically it was the first shot of the siege.
The grand Prince had signaled them, and so the Kievan
(14:50):
Russ army began to attack. The siege lasted all summer
with very little progress. The city was well defended, but
even so the Kievan Ruth's army could cut them off
from all trade. So by the end of three months,
the people inside the city were starving and poor, and
the soldiers outside the city had grown impatient from the
(15:13):
endless battle with no victory, and so Olga, reading the
attitude of her men, signaled to the Drevelians that she
had a message for them. I have forgiven you the
death of my husband. Let us not continue this endless siege.
You're hungry and we're tired, so it's time to move on.
(15:35):
I just ask that you prepare great quantities of meat
on the hill where you killed my husband, so that
I can properly celebrate his life and weep over his grave.
The Drevelans readily agreed and set out all of their
best meat for Olga and the Kievan Ruth's army. While
(15:55):
they waited for them to arrive, the Drevelans began to drink.
Olga and her army waited. When the Drevelians were drunk
and passed out on the hill, she and her men
ambushed and massacred their army. The siege was over, and
(16:19):
Olga had won but she wasn't done yet. Okay, she said,
all of this began because you wouldn't pay tribute. If
you give me a tribute, I'll go back to Kiev
tomorrow and the siege will be over for good scouts
on her. If the Peanuts cartoon had existed in nine
hundred forty five, I imagine she would have looked a
(16:41):
little like Lucy holding of football. Yes, the Drevelands cried, anything, please,
we have honey and furs. What do you want for
your tribute? Olga smiled a kind, wide smile that didn't
quite reach her eyes. Your people are impoverished by the siege,
(17:03):
she said, I know that, and so I'm going to
take mercy on you. All I want is three pigeons
and three sparrows from each house no more. The Drevelans rejoiced.
Every household gathered the requisite birds and gave them to Olga, who,
true to her word, took their offering and headed out
(17:26):
of town. But that night she embarked on her final revenge.
She had her army attached a tiny piece of sulfur
to each bird's leg, bound by a long piece of cloth.
When she gave the signal, the sulfur dangling from each
bird was the lit on fire, and then the birds
(17:49):
were a leased into the sky. Pigeons and sparrows, you
might know, are extremely good at being able to find
their way home. The birds all flew back to their
nests in the eaves of roofs, nestled near houses, and
all of escorsed and caught fire. Within hours, the entire city,
(18:12):
built mainly of wood, had burnt to the ground and
become ashes. As people fled to the burning city, Olga
gave orders to capture them. They were either killed outright
or gifted as slaves to her loyal kievan Ruth soldiers.
Prince Mal was killed, and from nine dty six on
(18:34):
there was never another problem with the dreve Llans being
able to pay their tribute into Olga's treasury. If some
of that story sounds apocryphal to you, you're probably right.
Homing birds are a staple in Scandinavian folklore, and Olga's
(18:55):
clever tricks, one after another, sound more like myth than reality.
She even nailed the rule of threes. One detail that
sounds made up. That the evil prince is named Prince
Mal Latin for bad, isn't it actually is true that
was his name. Here's what else We know for sure.
(19:17):
That Igor attempted to extort additional revenue from the Dravelans,
and that when he returned, they murdered him and his widow,
Olga led a successful revenge campaign against them. Later, Olga
would convert to Christianity, the first Kievan Ruce royal to
do so, and for her efforts to bring Christianity to
(19:39):
the East Slavs, she would be made a saint in
fifteen forty seven by the Russian Orthodox Church and then
the Roman Catholic Church. Olga is the saint of widows
and converts. Her grandson, Vladimir, would actually succeed in bringing
Christianity to Kievan Rus and he was made a saint too.
(20:00):
In fact, the only church in the United States named
after St. Vladimir and Olga is in Chicago, where I
happened to be recording this episode. Any specifics of the
raid against the Drevelans and their deaths, clever or otherwise,
are lost in that mist of unknowable history that's been
made soft and around by centuries of retelling. I imagine
(20:23):
if in the end the Drevelans had come out on top,
and it was their sources we were reading. The story
would be more about a brutal, extortionist king and a
brave people who stood up to him and then nobly
extended their arms out to his widow, only for her
to enact a series of saw style murders on those good,
(20:46):
generous common people in her wicked fury. I can tell
you that the Drevelans probably wouldn't have made her a saint.
That's the story of Olga of Kiev. But keep listening
after a brief sponsor break to hear a bit more
(21:06):
about her politics. While she was regent, like any good ruler,
Olga of Kiev understood that to truly avenge her husband's death,
it wasn't enough just to punish the people responsible. She
(21:29):
also had to undo the circumstances that made his death
possible in the first place. Olga established what can be
considered the first internal revenue service in Russia. She abolished
the annual trip by the Kievan Prince to collect his
tributes from various tribes. Instead, she built a system in
(21:51):
which the land was divided into districts, and each district
had their taxes collected by an authorized board or or agent.
Olga would then go from district to district personally to
get the payments from that agent. She traveled by sleigh
covered in as many furs as possible. You have to
(22:15):
make an impression during these sorts of things, just so
everyone knows you mean business. Although with Olga, I can't
imagine anyone ever forgot. One final note for anyone who
hears the story of Olga of Kiev and is tempted
to paint her as a quote badass warrior queen with
(22:38):
multiple exclamation points, remember that she didn't really participate in
any of the fighting. She was a general, if anything else,
a leader and orchestrator. Her own mythology is to emphasize
her cleverness. There's no need to paint all women in
history who have some modicum of power with the exact
(23:00):
same brush. Noble Blood is a production of I Heart
Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey. The show
is written and hosted by Dana Schwartz and produced by
Aaron Mankey, Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and Trevor Young. Noble
Blood is on social media at Noble Blood Tales, and
(23:23):
you can learn more about the show over at Noble
blood Tales dot com. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows. M
Host
Dana Schwartz
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