EFL - Enciclopedia delle Famiglie Lombarde

http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/RUSSIA,%20Rurik.htm OLGA [Helga/Haelg ha] --- (-969). The ''Primary Chronicle'' records that a wife Olga wa s brought [to Igor] from Pskov in 903 [1]. The date is clearly inconsi stent with the suggested birth date of their son Sviatoslav in [935/40 ]. After her husband was killed, the Derevlian Slavs proposed her marr iage to their own leader Mal, but the ''Primary Chronicle'' records th at Olga exacted prompt and effective revenge for her husband's death a fter besieging the Derevlian capital of Iskorosten [2]. Olga was regen t for her son [from 945 to 964]. Her centre of power was based aroun d Kiev where she owned two halls [3]. The ''Primary Chronicle'' record s that Olga was baptised in Constantinople in [957] by the emperor (Ko nstantinos VII), and took the name HELENA after the mother of Empero r Konstantinos the Great [4]. Cedrenus records that "Elga Rossorum pri ncipis uxor" came to Constantinople after her husband died, was baptis ed, and returned home [5]. The Continuator of Regino records that "leg ati Helenæ reginæ Rugorum", who had been baptised at Constantinopl e "sub Romano imperatore Constantinopolitano", visited Otto I King o f Germany in 959, and that in 960 "Libutius ex cœnobitis sancti Alban i" was consecrated "genti Rugorum episcopus" by "episcopo Adaldago" [a rchbishop of Bremen] [6]. The ''Annales Quedlinburgenses'' record th e arrival of "legati Rusciæ gentis ad regem Ottonem" in 960 and his s ending "Adalbertum episcopum" to their country [7]. The difference i n the two sources of the name of the supposed first bishop is not expl ained. The ''Primary Chronicle'' records that, during the invasion o f the Pechenegs in 968, Olga shut herself in the city of Kiev with he r grandsons Yaropolk, Oleg and Vladimir and that she died in 969 [8] . She was later esteemed to be a saint, her feast day being 11 July . [1] Russian ''Primary Chronicle'' (1973), 903, p. 60. [2] Russia n ''Primary Chronicle'' (1973), 945, pp. 78-80. [3] Franklin & Shepar d (1998), p. 112. [4] Russian ''Primary Chronicle'' (1973), 948-955 , p. 82. [5] Migne, J. P. (1889) ''Cedreni Historiarum Continuatio'' , Patrologiæ cursus completus, Series Græca Tomus CXXII (Paris) ("Ce drenus II"), col. 62. [6] Continuator Reginonis, 959. 960, MGH SS I , p. 624. [7] ''Annales Quedlinburgenes'', MGH SS I, p. 60. [8] Russ ian ''Primary Chronicle'' (1973), 968, p. 85, and 969, p. 86.