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Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio

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Speaker 1: and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Miinki. Listener discretion is advised.

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Speaker 1: In the year nine hundred and fifty seven, Olga of

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Speaker 1: Kiev traveled to Constantinople to meet with the Byzantine Emperor.

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Speaker 1: Olga was the regent leader of Kievan Russ, a federation

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Speaker 1: of East Slavic tribes. Kievan Rus spread from the White

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Speaker 1: Sea in the north all the way down to the

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Speaker 1: Black Sea in the south, and its people would eventually

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Speaker 1: go on to form Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. Olga had

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Speaker 1: been married to the Grand Prince of Kiev, Igor, and

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Speaker 1: the two had a young son, Sviatoslav. But Igor had

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Speaker 1: been murdered while on tour to collect tributes from his tribes,

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Speaker 1: and Sviatoslav was just in his early teens and nine

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty Oven and so until he came of age.

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Speaker 1: Officially it was Olga who acted as regent as she

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Speaker 1: was on this diplomatic mission to Constantinople. Olga and the

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Speaker 1: people of Kievan Ruce were Pagans, but Constantine the Seventh,

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Speaker 1: the Byzantine Emperor, was a Christian. He was also smitten

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Speaker 1: with the attractive, sophisticated, self assured widow Olga, and he

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Speaker 1: made his feelings clear when he sidled up next to

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Speaker 1: her and said, a fine woman like you would make

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Speaker 1: a marvelous empress. But Olga was already an autonomous ruler,

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Speaker 1: and after the death of her husband Igor, she had

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Speaker 1: no interest in being another man's wife. But she couldn't

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Speaker 1: outright reject him, and so, according to a historical text

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Speaker 1: known as the Primary Chronicle, Olga did something clever, something

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Speaker 1: that many women today are familiar with. She tricked Constantine

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Speaker 1: in order to spare his feelings and prevent the possibility

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Speaker 1: of him becoming violent. Oh, Olga said, flirtatiously, Well, the

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Speaker 1: Byzantine Empire is so wonderfully Christian, while back in Kievan

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Speaker 1: russ we're all terrible pagans. Before I would even think

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Speaker 1: of becoming empress, I would need to be baptized. Constantine

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Speaker 1: was ecstatic. The very next day, Olga was baptized, and

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Speaker 1: he himself stood as her godfather. When the ceremony was over,

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Speaker 1: Olga wrapped herself in one of the many furs that

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Speaker 1: she had brought with her on the trip. Oh, what

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Speaker 1: a shame, she said, you being my Godfather now and all,

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Speaker 1: and us not being able to get married. It would

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Speaker 1: just feel so wrong to me, you know, me caring

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Speaker 1: so much about your spiritual paternity, no hard feelings, Like

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Speaker 1: a clever cartoon rabbit. Olga had escaped the too of

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Speaker 1: her enemy through cunning, and she returned to kievan Rus'

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Speaker 1: Christian but still single. Now. There are a few problems

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Speaker 1: without folksy version of the story. For one, Constantine was

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Speaker 1: already married at the time to a woman named Helena.

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Speaker 1: According to Byzantine records for Olga's visit, Helena hosted Olga

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Speaker 1: in her court a number of times. Olga actually took

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Speaker 1: the Christian name Helena when she was baptized in the

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Speaker 1: Empress's honor. There are also records that Olga had actually

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Speaker 1: already become a Christian a few years earlier, in nine

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty five, and that her trip to Constantinople

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Speaker 1: was more of a courtesy visit. The facts are that

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Speaker 1: Olga visited Constantinople in nine hundred and fifty seven, that

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Speaker 1: she was bestowed with a bevy of generous gifts, and

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Speaker 1: that she converted to Christianity and then attempted to spread

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Speaker 1: the good word back to her people. Her clever manipular

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Speaker 1: ation of Constantine, at least to me, sounds apocryphal, the

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Speaker 1: type of story you'd get from a trickster, Norse god,

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Speaker 1: or Greek nymph, if not from bugs Bunny or scooby Doo.

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Speaker 1: The primary source, also known as the Tale of Bygone

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Speaker 1: Years where we get that story, is a history of

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Speaker 1: Kievan Ruce from eight hundred and fifty to one thousand,

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Speaker 1: one and ten. It's an essential document for scholars of

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Speaker 1: East Slavs, but it had been rewritten by so many

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Speaker 1: different regimes, tweaked through word of mouth, misinformation, or modified

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Speaker 1: to flatter a current ruler that now some sections of

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Speaker 1: it read almost like folk tales, and its most compelling

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Speaker 1: folk hero is Olga, the clever, vengeful wife of a

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Speaker 1: murdered king. Eventually, Olga would become a saint of the

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Speaker 1: Eastern Orthodox Church, known as equal to the Apostles, for

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Speaker 1: her efforts to bring Christian entity to her people. But

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Speaker 1: a much more interesting story about Olga, in my opinion,

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Speaker 1: is the bloody revenge she would enact on the people

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Speaker 1: who killed her husband. Someone said something sometime about turning

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Speaker 1: the other cheek, didn't they? Well, remember when Olga murdered

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Speaker 1: a boatload of people and burned an entire village to

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Speaker 1: the ground. She wasn't Christian yet. I'm Dani Schwartz and

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Speaker 1: this is noble blood. M Keevan. Ruth was a loose

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Speaker 1: federation of East Slavic tribes across what is now the

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Speaker 1: western border of Russia, with a capital at the strategic

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Speaker 1: hub of Kiev. The grand prince would make a yearly

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Speaker 1: pilgrimage to collect tributes from his subordinate people's. In nine

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Speaker 1: hundred and forty five BC, the grand prince was Igor

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Speaker 1: the First, who ruled alongside his wife, the Grand Princess Olga.

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Speaker 1: The pair already had a three year old son, s Viadislav,

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Speaker 1: so succession was secure. For now. All Igor had to

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Speaker 1: worry about in nine hundred and forty five was collecting

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Speaker 1: his tributes. One of the tribes he collected from was

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Speaker 1: the Drevillians, a name which literally translates to among the trees.

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Speaker 1: The Drevillians lived in a resource rich area dense with

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Speaker 1: as you might imagine, trees. They were craftsmen and workers,

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Speaker 1: and when the terrifying Igor the First and his retinue

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Speaker 1: came to town, to demand his annual tribute. They gave

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Speaker 1: him a respectable amount of wax, honey, leather, and fur,

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Speaker 1: and then returned to their wooden houses with the relief

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Speaker 1: of not having given in to the temptation of spitting

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Speaker 1: at Egor's feet. They had to give him tribute, but

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Speaker 1: they didn't have to like it. As Igor and his

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Speaker 1: retinue rode away, Igor got to thinking, sure, the honey, wax, leather,

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Speaker 1: and furs that the Drevelands gave were nice, but it

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Speaker 1: was a rich region. They barely would even feel the

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Speaker 1: pinch of that. And they've been so insubordinate all but

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Speaker 1: scoffing at him when he rode by. It was only

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Speaker 1: a matter of time before they enacted a full out

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Speaker 1: rebellion and pulled away from Kiev and Ruse, and that

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Speaker 1: would be no good. Their tributes were an essential part

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Speaker 1: of his yearly income. Tributes don't mean anything if the

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Speaker 1: citizens don't feel the sacrifice. Maybe that's why they were

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Speaker 1: becoming rebellious. When you think about it, it's like the

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Speaker 1: dread Lands never gave him any tribute at all. There

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Speaker 1: was no respect, no deference. They were just buying him

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Speaker 1: off with a bit of their wealth they didn't even

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Speaker 1: care about. Someone needed to lay down the law. Igor

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Speaker 1: was an hour outside of is Garston, the principal Drevelan city,

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Speaker 1: when he pulled his horse to a stop. You guys

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Speaker 1: go on ahead, He called to his attendants, whose horses

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Speaker 1: were slowed with the weight of all of the tributes

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Speaker 1: they had already collected. I'm going to go back to

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Speaker 1: Isgorston and get a real tribute. And so Igor rode

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Speaker 1: back and met the Prince of the Drevelians, Prince Mall,

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Speaker 1: in the town's main assembly. Loudly, Igor demanded a larger tribute.

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Speaker 1: Prince Mall was silent for a moment. They had already

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Speaker 1: given their tribute to Kievan Russ. If they just agreed

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Speaker 1: to Egor's demands, well, where would it end, well, Igor

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Speaker 1: demanded of the silent Prince. A wolf chasing a single

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Speaker 1: sheep will eventually reach all of the sheep unless the

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Speaker 1: wolf is killed, Prince Moll said. The Prince made a

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Speaker 1: gesture with his hand, and Igor was captured. The Dreveland

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Speaker 1: went to a hill in the woods, where they found

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Speaker 1: two supple birch trees not too far away from one another.

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Speaker 1: They forced the birches to bend down towards the ground,

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Speaker 1: half a dozen men pulling with all of their strength

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Speaker 1: until the tops of the trees grazed the dirt. The

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Speaker 1: men secured the trees to the ground with rope. One

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Speaker 1: of Igor's arms was then tied to each tree, and

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Speaker 1: then the ropes securing the trees to the ground were cut.

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Speaker 1: The birch trees snapped back up into place and ripped

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Speaker 1: Grand Prince Igor in half. It was a bloody, violent death,

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Speaker 1: but it was also a symbolic one. The birch trees

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Speaker 1: were bowed. Deference can be safe, but if something is

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Speaker 1: bowing under enough pressure, well look what happens When they

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Speaker 1: decided to stand straight up. Twenty men came from Koristan

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Speaker 1: in a single, long wooden boat to inform Grand Princess

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Speaker 1: Olga that her husband was dead. Your husband was a wolf,

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Speaker 1: they said to her, as they rose from their respectful greetings.

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Speaker 1: He got what he demanded, and then he demanded more.

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Speaker 1: But our prince, Prince Mal is a good man. You're

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Speaker 1: a woman without a husband, and your son is still

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Speaker 1: an infant. Marry our prince, mall Olga thought. For a moment,

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Speaker 1: it was obvious why they wanted her to marry Prince Maul,

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Speaker 1: to undo the domination of Kievan Ruce, to win back

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Speaker 1: drively in autonomy. They had murdered Grand Prince Igor, and

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Speaker 1: so they thought that they had the upper hand. Olga

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Speaker 1: would let them know soon enough that they didn't, but

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Speaker 1: she pretended to play along. You're right, she said, my

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Speaker 1: husband isn't going to return from the dead. Let's let

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Speaker 1: bygones be bygones. And of course I'll marry Prince Mal.

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Speaker 1: I mean not like I would hold a grudge against

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Speaker 1: the guy who just killed my husband. But first I

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Speaker 1: need you to return to my court as honored guests,

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Speaker 1: with all of the respect you deserve. Go back to

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Speaker 1: your boat tonight and tomorrow morning i'll send a request

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Speaker 1: for your presence. You must insist that you won't come

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Speaker 1: to the castle by foot nor by horse. That you

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Speaker 1: demand that my people carry you in your boat like

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Speaker 1: they would carry you in a palanquin. It's a great

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Speaker 1: sign of her spect here. The Drevelan men agreed, and

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Speaker 1: they went back to their boat for the night. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 1: Olga had a massive ditch dug inside the castle walls

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Speaker 1: as deep as her servants and slaves could make it.

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Speaker 1: The next morning, the drevelands did as Olga instructed. They

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Speaker 1: demanded that they be carried to her court in their boat.

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Speaker 1: The entire way there they puffed with pride, sitting on

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Speaker 1: the rowing benches in the open air, wearing their finest robes,

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Speaker 1: waving merrily to the miserable passers by who had just

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Speaker 1: lost their grand prince. When the servants carrying the boat

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Speaker 1: reached the trench, they threw the boat and all of

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Speaker 1: the men inside it down into the hole and began

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Speaker 1: to fill it with dirt, while the men shouted. Trapped

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Speaker 1: beneath the boat, Do you find the honor to your taste?

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Speaker 1: Olga asked, looking down at them. All twenty men were

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Speaker 1: buried alive. Olga sent her own messenger to Escoraston, saying

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Speaker 1: that she agreed to marry Prince Maul, but that she

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Speaker 1: wanted more distinguished men to come. Ask her, you just

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Speaker 1: sent common men. Don't I deserve high ranking envoys to

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Speaker 1: escort me to my new husband. The people of kievan

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Speaker 1: Rus will hardly agree to let me go if you

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Speaker 1: don't at least do me that honor. She didn't mention

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Speaker 1: that those twenty men were now dead in a trench.

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Speaker 1: But soon enough a dozen distinguished men arrived in Kiev,

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Speaker 1: all governors wearing their best finery. Before you hold court

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Speaker 1: with me, Olga said, after she greeted them, you have

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Speaker 1: to take a bath right this way, gentlemen, and not

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Speaker 1: to worry, the bath house is heated. The gentleman agree,

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Speaker 1: you believe, filed into the wooden bathhouse. When they were

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Speaker 1: all inside, Olga gave the order for the door to

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Speaker 1: be locked. The bathhouse was then set on fire. Now

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Speaker 1: it was time for Olga to go on the offensive.

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Speaker 1: Rather than wait for yet another group of emissaries to

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Speaker 1: arrive from Miss Corrison, Olga brought her army and her

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Speaker 1: three year old son to the city. Little Swiadislav was

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Speaker 1: technically the grand Prince now, and so he was equipped

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Speaker 1: with a tiny toddler sized bow and arrow, which Olga

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Speaker 1: bade him to pull and release. The toddler did, but

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Speaker 1: the arrow just teetered and then fell from his bow.

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Speaker 1: But technically it was the first shot of the siege.

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Speaker 1: The grand Prince had signaled them, and so the Kievan

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Speaker 1: Russ army began to attack. The siege lasted all summer

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Speaker 1: with very little progress. The city was well defended, but

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Speaker 1: even so the Kievan Ruth's army could cut them off

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Speaker 1: from all trade. So by the end of three months,

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Speaker 1: the people inside the city were starving and poor, and

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Speaker 1: the soldiers outside the city had grown impatient from the

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Speaker 1: endless battle with no victory, and so Olga, reading the

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Speaker 1: attitude of her men, signaled to the Drevelians that she

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Speaker 1: had a message for them. I have forgiven you the

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Speaker 1: death of my husband. Let us not continue this endless siege.

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Speaker 1: You're hungry and we're tired, so it's time to move on.

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Speaker 1: I just ask that you prepare great quantities of meat

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Speaker 1: on the hill where you killed my husband, so that

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Speaker 1: I can properly celebrate his life and weep over his grave.

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Speaker 1: The Drevelans readily agreed and set out all of their

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Speaker 1: best meat for Olga and the Kievan Ruth's army. While

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Speaker 1: they waited for them to arrive, the Drevelans began to drink.

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Speaker 1: Olga and her army waited. When the Drevelians were drunk

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Speaker 1: and passed out on the hill, she and her men

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Speaker 1: ambushed and massacred their army. The siege was over, and

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Speaker 1: Olga had won but she wasn't done yet. Okay, she said,

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Speaker 1: all of this began because you wouldn't pay tribute. If

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Speaker 1: you give me a tribute, I'll go back to Kiev

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Speaker 1: tomorrow and the siege will be over for good scouts

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Speaker 1: on her. If the Peanuts cartoon had existed in nine

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Speaker 1: hundred forty five, I imagine she would have looked a

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Speaker 1: little like Lucy holding of football. Yes, the Drevelands cried, anything, please,

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Speaker 1: we have honey and furs. What do you want for

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Speaker 1: your tribute? Olga smiled a kind, wide smile that didn't

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Speaker 1: quite reach her eyes. Your people are impoverished by the siege,

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Speaker 1: she said, I know that, and so I'm going to

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Speaker 1: take mercy on you. All I want is three pigeons

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Speaker 1: and three sparrows from each house no more. The Drevelans rejoiced.

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Speaker 1: Every household gathered the requisite birds and gave them to Olga, who,

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Speaker 1: true to her word, took their offering and headed out

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Speaker 1: of town. But that night she embarked on her final revenge.

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Speaker 1: She had her army attached a tiny piece of sulfur

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Speaker 1: to each bird's leg, bound by a long piece of cloth.

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Speaker 1: When she gave the signal, the sulfur dangling from each

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Speaker 1: bird was the lit on fire, and then the birds

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Speaker 1: were a leased into the sky. Pigeons and sparrows, you

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Speaker 1: might know, are extremely good at being able to find

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Speaker 1: their way home. The birds all flew back to their

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Speaker 1: nests in the eaves of roofs, nestled near houses, and

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Speaker 1: all of escorsed and caught fire. Within hours, the entire city,

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Speaker 1: built mainly of wood, had burnt to the ground and

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Speaker 1: become ashes. As people fled to the burning city, Olga

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Speaker 1: gave orders to capture them. They were either killed outright

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Speaker 1: or gifted as slaves to her loyal kievan Ruth soldiers.

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Speaker 1: Prince Mal was killed, and from nine dty six on

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Speaker 1: there was never another problem with the dreve Llans being

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Speaker 1: able to pay their tribute into Olga's treasury. If some

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Speaker 1: of that story sounds apocryphal to you, you're probably right.

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Speaker 1: Homing birds are a staple in Scandinavian folklore, and Olga's

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Speaker 1: clever tricks, one after another, sound more like myth than reality.

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Speaker 1: She even nailed the rule of threes. One detail that

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Speaker 1: sounds made up. That the evil prince is named Prince

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Speaker 1: Mal Latin for bad, isn't it actually is true that

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Speaker 1: was his name. Here's what else We know for sure.

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Speaker 1: That Igor attempted to extort additional revenue from the Dravelans,

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Speaker 1: and that when he returned, they murdered him and his widow,

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Speaker 1: Olga led a successful revenge campaign against them. Later, Olga

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Speaker 1: would convert to Christianity, the first Kievan Ruce royal to

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Speaker 1: do so, and for her efforts to bring Christianity to

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Speaker 1: the East Slavs, she would be made a saint in

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Speaker 1: fifteen forty seven by the Russian Orthodox Church and then

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Speaker 1: the Roman Catholic Church. Olga is the saint of widows

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Speaker 1: and converts. Her grandson, Vladimir, would actually succeed in bringing

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Speaker 1: Christianity to Kievan Rus and he was made a saint too.

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Speaker 1: In fact, the only church in the United States named

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Speaker 1: after St. Vladimir and Olga is in Chicago, where I

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Speaker 1: happened to be recording this episode. Any specifics of the

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Speaker 1: raid against the Drevelans and their deaths, clever or otherwise,

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Speaker 1: are lost in that mist of unknowable history that's been

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Speaker 1: made soft and around by centuries of retelling. I imagine

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Speaker 1: if in the end the Drevelans had come out on top,

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Speaker 1: and it was their sources we were reading. The story

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Speaker 1: would be more about a brutal, extortionist king and a

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Speaker 1: brave people who stood up to him and then nobly

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Speaker 1: extended their arms out to his widow, only for her

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Speaker 1: to enact a series of saw style murders on those good,

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Speaker 1: generous common people in her wicked fury. I can tell

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Speaker 1: you that the Drevelans probably wouldn't have made her a saint.

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Speaker 1: That's the story of Olga of Kiev. But keep listening

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Speaker 1: after a brief sponsor break to hear a bit more

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Speaker 1: about her politics. While she was regent, like any good ruler,

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Speaker 1: Olga of Kiev understood that to truly avenge her husband's death,

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Speaker 1: it wasn't enough just to punish the people responsible. She

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Speaker 1: also had to undo the circumstances that made his death

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Speaker 1: possible in the first place. Olga established what can be

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Speaker 1: considered the first internal revenue service in Russia. She abolished

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Speaker 1: the annual trip by the Kievan Prince to collect his

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Speaker 1: tributes from various tribes. Instead, she built a system in

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Speaker 1: which the land was divided into districts, and each district

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Speaker 1: had their taxes collected by an authorized board or or agent.

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Speaker 1: Olga would then go from district to district personally to

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Speaker 1: get the payments from that agent. She traveled by sleigh

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Speaker 1: covered in as many furs as possible. You have to

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Speaker 1: make an impression during these sorts of things, just so

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Speaker 1: everyone knows you mean business. Although with Olga, I can't

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Speaker 1: imagine anyone ever forgot. One final note for anyone who

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Speaker 1: hears the story of Olga of Kiev and is tempted

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Speaker 1: to paint her as a quote badass warrior queen with

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Speaker 1: multiple exclamation points, remember that she didn't really participate in

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Speaker 1: any of the fighting. She was a general, if anything else,

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Speaker 1: a leader and orchestrator. Her own mythology is to emphasize

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Speaker 1: her cleverness. There's no need to paint all women in

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Speaker 1: history who have some modicum of power with the exact

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Speaker 1: same brush. Noble Blood is a production of I Heart

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Speaker 1: Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey. The show

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Speaker 1: is written and hosted by Dana Schwartz and produced by

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Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey, Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and Trevor Young. Noble

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Speaker 1: Blood is on social media at Noble Blood Tales, and

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Speaker 1: you can learn more about the show over at Noble

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Speaker 1: blood Tales dot com. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,

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Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

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Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows. M