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Hey, Hi, Hello, this is the History Wizard and welcome back for Day 19 of Have a Day w/ The History Wizard. Thank you to everyone who tuned in for Day 18 last week, and especially thank you to everyone who rated and/or reviewed the podcast. I hope you all learned something last week and I hope the same for this week as well. Originally this week was going to cover the currently ongoing genocide in Ukraine, but I need to do some more research before I'm ready to record that episode so instead today's episode is going to be an interlude and we're going to be talking aboutone of my favorite women in history. Olga of Kiev, a woman who is the very definition of fuck around and find out. But first! The Alchemist's Table! Today's libation is called Kissed by Summer. It's 2 oz of bourbon, 1 oz each of amaretto and francelico. .75 oz of vanilla simple syrup, 3 dashes of angostura bitters. Shake well and pour over ice. Top with equal parts lemonade and ginger beer and enjoy! So, now onto Ola of Kiev, the Saint of Slaughter. Olga's exact year of birth is unknown, but we know she was born somewhere between 890 and 925 CE in Pleskov. She was of Varangian origin, which was an ethnic group descended from Swedish vikingr invaders that eventually settled in the area of the Kievan Rus. She was 15 years old when she was married to Prince Igor I of the Rurik Dynasty. Igor was the son of Rurik, making him only the second ruler of this particular dynasty. During Igor's reign and owing to a great deal of military aid from his guardian Oleg the Wise the Kievan Rus, and the many tribes of people living in it all came under Rurik control. Tragedy would strike the Rurik Dynasty in the form of a neighboring tribe known as the Drevelians, a tribe of Eastern Slavic peoples. The Drevelians were not part of the Kievan Rus, though they had joined them in military campaigns against the Byzantine Empire previously and paid a yearly tribute to Igor's predecessors in the Rurik Dynasty. After Oleg the Wise died in 912 CE the Drevelians stopped paying their tribute to Igor, instead paying it to a local warlord. In 945 CE Igor set out with his army to bring the Drevelians into line. No longer would he allow them to deny him what he saw as his rightful tribute. He marched his army to the traditional Drevelian capital, Iskorosten, today known as Korosten in the Zhytomyr Oblast in northern Ukraine. Now, Igor's army was much larger than any the Drevelians could field, so they backed down and agreed to resume their payments to Igor. However, Igor became greedy and after leaving to return home he turned around and went back to Iskorosten to demand even MORE tribute, at which point he Drevelians captured him alone and killed him. According to the Byzantine chronicler Leo the Deacon, Igor's death was caused by a gruesome act of torture in which he was "captured by them, tied to tree trunks, and torn in two." They allegedly tied one leg each to two bent over birch trees and then let them catapult up in opposing directions, tearing him in half. Though it is possible that this exact story is apocryphal, the fact that Igor was killed by the Drevelians cannot be denied. Upon learning of the death of her husband Olga ascended to the throne to rule as regent in the name of her son Sviatoslav. Olga was the first woman to rule over the Kievan Rus. Now, there isn't a great deal of information in the historical record regarding what Olga's reign was like. But there is A LOT of information detailing the bloody revenge she got on those who stole her love from her. The Drevelians, now firmly in the Fuck Around stage and emboldened by their successful murder of Igor sent a missive to Olga. They proposed that Olga should marry the Drevelian prince Mal. The man directly responsible for killing her husband. According to the Russian Primary Chronicle, a document formerly thought to have been written by Nestor the Chronicler, although now it is considered to be of unknown authorship, Olga responded to their bold pronouncement thusly: “Your proposal is pleasing to me, indeed, my husband cannot rise again from the dead. But I desire to honor you tomorrow in the presence of my people. Return now to your boat, and remain there with an aspect of arrogance. I shall send for you on the morrow, and you shall say, "We will not ride on horses nor go on foot, carry us in our boat." And you shall be carried in your boat.” When they returned the next day the Drevelians repeated the words Olga had bade them and the people of the Kievan Rus lifted their boat upon their shoulders and carried them into the courtyard of Olga's castle. The Drevelians were thrilled by this, feeling as though they were carried in great honor upon a palanquin. Once they were brought into the courtyard their porters dropped them, boat and all, into a trench that Olga had ordered dug the day before and were buried alive. It is written that Olga bent down to watch them as they were buried and "inquired whether they found the honor to their taste." The Drevelins were now squarely in the middle of the Find Out stage, although they didn't know it yet as all 20 of the men from the initial retinue they had sent were now buried in the courtyard of Olga's home. So Olga wrote to the Drevelians and asked them to send “their distinguished men to her in Kiev, so that she might go to their Prince with due honor.” The Drevelian, completely unaware of the fate of the previous retinue sent others to Olga, who ordered a bath be drawn so that they might wash off the dust of the road. Once the bath was drawn and the Drevelians were comfortably in the bathhouse, Olga set the damnthing on fire. No one escaped alive. But Olga's revenge was not complete. The Drevelians, still unaware that Olga was engaged in acts of genocidal revenge over the death of her husband, received another missive from her. She was on her way to Iskotorsten and asked that they prepare great quantities of mead so that she might mourn and feast her husband as is proper. And the Drevelians compiled and a funeral feast was held by Igor's tomb. When the Drevelians were good and drunk on mead, Olga ordered her followers to fall upon them and slaughter them all. According to the Primary Chronicle some 5000 Drevelians were killed in a single night. Olga would then return to Kiev, her capital city, and prepare her armies to march back to Iskotorsten. She swept across Drevelian land like an avenging angel until she reached, once again, their capital. Here is where things stalled and Olga entered into a year long siege. Eventually she sent another missive to the Drevelians asking them why their capital refused to surrender. “All of your other cities have surrendered and now pay tribute to me, why would you rather die of hunger than pay tribute.” The Drevelians, as you might expect, responded that they were worried that Olga ws still dead set on revenge, but Olga told them that the boat, bathhouse, and feast massacres had satisfied her. She instead asked them for 3 pigeons and three sparrows from each house and the Drevelians rejoiced that the price they were asked to pay was so low. Oh those poor fools. Olga then instructed her army to attach a piece of sulphur bound with small pieces of cloth to each bird. At nightfall, Olga told her soldiers to set the pieces aflame and release the birds. They returned to their nests within the city, which subsequently set the city ablaze. As the Primary Chronicle tells it: "There was not a house that was not consumed, and it was impossible to extinguish the flames, because all the houses caught fire at once." As the people fled the burning city, Olga ordered her soldiers to catch them, killing some of them and giving the others as slaves to her followers. Olga would go on to become a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Not because of the genocide she committed. Mostly because of her efforts to Christianize the Kievan Rus, a mission that she did not succeed in, but that was carried to fruition by her grandson Vladimir. Well… that's it for this week folks. No new reviews, so let's get right into the outro. Have a Day! w/ The History Wizard is brought to you by me, The History Wizard. If you want to see/hear more of me you can find me on Tiktok @thehistorywizard or on Instagram @the_history_wizard. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe to Have a Day! On your pod catcher of choice. The more you do, the more people will be able to listen and learn along with you. Thank you for sticking around until the end and, as always, Have a Day.
Cuando pensamos en las incursiones vikingas en nuestra imaginación lo primero en aparecer es el asalto a Lindisfarne, los ataques a las costas francas o el Danelaw. Es decir, las navegaciones hacia el occidente europeo. Sin embargo, las embarcaciones escandinavas también se dirigieron hacia las regiones orientales. Allí llegaron los suecos, conocidos como varegos o rus; lo hicieron como comerciantes, pero pronto se acabaron convirtiendo en una élite que dominó a la mayoría eslava. En aquellas tierras, de la mano de la dinastía Rurikovich nació la llamada Rus’ de Kiev, el Estado más grande de la Europa Medieval. Si te gusta nuestro contenido podéis dejarnos un me gusta y un comentario, así nos ayudáis a seguir creciendo. También nos podéis apoyar a través de la pestaña «Apoyar» con una suscripción mensual. ¡Muchísimas gracias! BIZUM: +34 614 23 58 90 Sobre los dioses eslavos: https://go.ivoox.com/rf/101812353 Síguenos en: Twitter: https://twitter.com/ElScriptorium TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@elscriptorium?is_from_webapp=1&;;;sender_device=pc Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scriptoriumpodcast Telegram: https://t.me/ElScriptorium Contacto: scriptoriumpodcast@protonmail.com Bibliografía: - Quesada Mayo, I. (2018). Los Varegos y la Rus de Kiev en el siglo X. La Ergástula. - Torres Prieto, S. (2020). Los antiguos eslavos. Síntesis. - Plokhy, S. (2006). The Origins of the Slavic Nations. Cambridge University Press. - Perrie, M. (2006). The Cambridge History of Russia. Volume I: from early Rus’ to 1689. Cambridge University Press. - Curta, F. (2019). Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages (500-1300). Brill. - Bushkovitch, P. (2013). Historia de Rusia. Akal. - Kaplan, F. I. (1954). «The Decline of the Khazars and the Rise of the Varangians». The American Slavic and East European Review, 13 (1), pp. 1-10. - Lind, J. (2010). «Vikingos en el Este. Penetración escandinava en Europa oriental durante la Era Vikinga». Desperta Ferro: Antigua y Medieval, 3, pp. 8-13. - Stokes, A.D. (1961). «The background and chronology of the Balkan Campaigns of Sviatoslav Igorevich». The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 40 (94 ), pp. 44-57. - Fine, J.V.A. (1983). The Early medieval Balkans. A critical survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century. The University of Michigan Press. - Butler, F. (2008). «Ol'ga's Conversion and the Construction of Chronicle Narrative». The Russian Review, Vol. 67 (2), pp. 230-242. - Hazzard Cross, S. & Sherbowitz-Wetzor, O. (1953). The Russian Primary Chronicle. Laurentian Text. The Mediaeval Academy of America. Música: - "Danza Inglesa Siglo XIII" - Artefactum - "Sackpipelät" - Emilio Villalba (Bajo Licencia CC BY) - "Ancient Stone (without voices)" - Crypt of Insomnia - "Medieval fire" - Ivan Tregub - "Slavonic spirit" - Ivan Trebug - "Eric the Brave" - Petite Viking - "In the Last Way" - Crypt of Insomnia - "Antiquity and Middle Ages" - Rafael Klepsch - "Ibn Al Andalus" - Fatima Mhedden - "Alone on the edge of the dark" - Reip - "General's Death" - ElfShadow - "Kyrie" - Aufklarung - "Eric the Brave" - Petite Viking - "Viking formation (cello version)" - Crypt of Insomnia - "The crusade" - Midoriiro - "Y de pronto...el invierno" - Jaime Heras - "Saltarello I Siglo XIV" - Artefactum Escucha el episodio completo en la app de iVoox, o descubre todo el catálogo de iVoox Originals
As raiders and explorers, the Vikings played a decisive role in the formation of Latin Christendom, and particularly of western Europe. Now, in a series of 36 vivid lectures by an honored teacher and classical scholar, you have the opportunity to understand this remarkable race as never before, studying the Vikings not only as warriors, but in all of the other roles in which they were equally extraordinary - merchants, artists, kings, raiders, seafarers, shipbuilders, and creators of a remarkable literature of myths and sagas. Professor Harl draws insights from an astonishing array of sources: The Russian Primary Chronicle (a Slavic text from medieval Kiev), 13th-century Icelandic poems and sagas, Byzantine accounts, Arab geographies, annals of Irish monks who faced Viking raids, Roman reports, and scores of other firsthand contemporary documents. Among the topics you'll explore are the profound influence of the Norse gods and heroes on Viking culture and the Vikings' extraordinary accomplishments as explorers and settlers in Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland. And with the help of archaeological findings, you'll learn to analyze Viking ship burials, rune stones and runic inscriptions, Viking wood carving, jewelry, sculpture, and metalwork. By the end of the series, you'll have a new understanding of what it meant to be a Viking and a richer appreciation of this remarkable race - a people who truly defined the history of Europe, and whose brave, adventurous, and creative spirit still survives today.
As raiders and explorers, the Vikings played a decisive role in the formation of Latin Christendom, and particularly of western Europe. Now, in a series of 36 vivid lectures by an honored teacher and classical scholar, you have the opportunity to understand this remarkable race as never before, studying the Vikings not only as warriors, but in all of the other roles in which they were equally extraordinary - merchants, artists, kings, raiders, seafarers, shipbuilders, and creators of a remarkable literature of myths and sagas. Professor Harl draws insights from an astonishing array of sources: The Russian Primary Chronicle (a Slavic text from medieval Kiev), 13th-century Icelandic poems and sagas, Byzantine accounts, Arab geographies, annals of Irish monks who faced Viking raids, Roman reports, and scores of other firsthand contemporary documents. Among the topics you'll explore are the profound influence of the Norse gods and heroes on Viking culture and the Vikings' extraordinary accomplishments as explorers and settlers in Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland. And with the help of archaeological findings, you'll learn to analyze Viking ship burials, rune stones and runic inscriptions, Viking wood carving, jewelry, sculpture, and metalwork. By the end of the series, you'll have a new understanding of what it meant to be a Viking and a richer appreciation of this remarkable race - a people who truly defined the history of Europe, and whose brave, adventurous, and creative spirit still survives today.
Most of what we know about Olga comes from the Russian Primary Chronicle, also known as the Chronicle of Nestor or the Tale of Bygone Years. Some elements of the story may borrow more from legend than from history – it involves an elaborate, gruesome, very thorough revenge … and then a religious conversion. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
As raiders and explorers, the Vikings played a decisive role in the formation of Latin Christendom, and particularly of western Europe.Now, in a series of 36 vivid lectures by an honored teacher and classical scholar, you have the opportunity to understand this remarkable race as never before, studying the Vikings not only as warriors, but in all of the other roles in which they were equally extraordinary - merchants, artists, kings, raiders, seafarers, shipbuilders, and creators of a remarkable literature of myths and sagas. Professor Harl draws insights from an astonishing array of sources: The Russian Primary Chronicle (a Slavic text from medieval Kiev), 13th-century Icelandic poems and sagas, Byzantine accounts, Arab geographies, annals of Irish monks who faced Viking raids, Roman reports, and scores of other firsthand contemporary documents.Among the topics you'll explore are the profound influence of the Norse gods and heroes on Viking culture and the Vikings' extraordinary accomplishments as explorers and settlers in Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland. And with the help of archaeological findings, you'll learn to analyze Viking ship burials, rune stones and runic inscriptions, Viking wood carving, jewelry, sculpture, and metalwork. By the end of the series, you'll have a new understanding of what it meant to be a Viking and a richer appreciation of this remarkable race - a people who truly defined the history of Europe, and whose brave, adventurous, and creative spirit still survives today.
As raiders and explorers, the Vikings played a decisive role in the formation of Latin Christendom, and particularly of western Europe.Now, in a series of 36 vivid lectures by an honored teacher and classical scholar, you have the opportunity to understand this remarkable race as never before, studying the Vikings not only as warriors, but in all of the other roles in which they were equally extraordinary - merchants, artists, kings, raiders, seafarers, shipbuilders, and creators of a remarkable literature of myths and sagas. Professor Harl draws insights from an astonishing array of sources: The Russian Primary Chronicle (a Slavic text from medieval Kiev), 13th-century Icelandic poems and sagas, Byzantine accounts, Arab geographies, annals of Irish monks who faced Viking raids, Roman reports, and scores of other firsthand contemporary documents.Among the topics you'll explore are the profound influence of the Norse gods and heroes on Viking culture and the Vikings' extraordinary accomplishments as explorers and settlers in Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland. And with the help of archaeological findings, you'll learn to analyze Viking ship burials, rune stones and runic inscriptions, Viking wood carving, jewelry, sculpture, and metalwork. By the end of the series, you'll have a new understanding of what it meant to be a Viking and a richer appreciation of this remarkable race - a people who truly defined the history of Europe, and whose brave, adventurous, and creative spirit still survives today.
In this episode I talk about the Russian Primary Chronicle, archaeology, and the beginning of the Viking age. Some of the major trade routes for the Vikings. The beautiful Oseberg ship in Oslo.
The lecture opens with a response to Adrian's previous lecture by Adrian's teaching assistant, a Russo-Ukrainian scholar, Dmytro Ostapenko. History is all about argument and evidence. Dmytro critiques Adrian's "Normanist" point of view about the C9th-C10th origins of the Russian state (i.e., that the Rusi’an state was Varangian-Viking inspired). Dr Dmytro Ostapenko offers a stricter view of what is meant by “statehood”. Dr Ostapenko cites evidence discussing how bands had already evolved into Slavic tribes and kings (and hence a state) and he discusses a wider range of what he believes are indigenous Slavic cultural and economic influences on state formation. Adrian then replies and as he does he discusses more of the Viking and Slav evidence, focussing on the Russian Primary Chronicle (circa 1115) and relations between forest and steppe, as viewed in the light of Arab-Persian (Ibn Fadhlan, Ibn Khurdadbeh), Carolingian (Bertinian Annals 832), Byzantine (C10th Constantine VII Porphyrogenitas on the Administration of the Empire) and Khazar sources. Copyright 2013 Adrian Jones / La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.
It is claimed by the Russian Primary Chronicle that it was the experience of the Divine Liturgy in the church of the Holy Wisdom in Constantinople that persuaded the ambassadors of Prince Vladimir to recommend the adoption of Orthodoxy: ‘we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth… We only know that there God dwells among men'. The experience of the Divine Liturgy remains central to Orthodox experience, not least Russian Orthodox experience. First of all, the liturgy takes place in a sacred space; the church building is divided by an iconostasis which separates the sanctuary (called the altar) from the nave, the clergy from the people. ‘Separates'—but also links and unites: the deacon, in particular, passes between the nave and the altar, and in singing the litanies, carries the prayers of the people into the presence of God. Secondly, the differentiated space makes possible a movement of symbolism—from nave to altar, from earth to heaven. The 5 movement of the liturgy—processions, incensing—draws together heaven and earth. There is a sense of rhythm about the liturgy, which one very soon picks up. The music—sung by human voices, without instruments; that is, by ‘instruments' made by God in his image—the colour of the icons and the vestments, the splendour of the sacred vessels: in all of this, the material world is affirmed and offered to God. Thirdly, the splendour manifest in this way is the splendour of the Kingdom of God, of the Heavens, which is proclaimed by the priest at the beginning of the Liturgy—‘Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit'—and which recurs throughout the liturgy, until before Holy Communion, we beg to be ‘remembered in the Kingdom' along with the repentant thief.
It is claimed by the Russian Primary Chronicle that it was the experience of the Divine Liturgy in the church of the Holy Wisdom in Constantinople that persuaded the ambassadors of Prince Vladimir to recommend the adoption of Orthodoxy: ‘we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth… We only know that there God dwells among men’. The experience of the Divine Liturgy remains central to Orthodox experience, not least Russian Orthodox experience. First of all, the liturgy takes place in a sacred space; the church building is divided by an iconostasis which separates the sanctuary (called the altar) from the nave, the clergy from the people. ‘Separates’—but also links and unites: the deacon, in particular, passes between the nave and the altar, and in singing the litanies, carries the prayers of the people into the presence of God. Secondly, the differentiated space makes possible a movement of symbolism—from nave to altar, from earth to heaven. The 5 movement of the liturgy—processions, incensing—draws together heaven and earth. There is a sense of rhythm about the liturgy, which one very soon picks up. The music—sung by human voices, without instruments; that is, by ‘instruments’ made by God in his image—the colour of the icons and the vestments, the splendour of the sacred vessels: in all of this, the material world is affirmed and offered to God. Thirdly, the splendour manifest in this way is the splendour of the Kingdom of God, of the Heavens, which is proclaimed by the priest at the beginning of the Liturgy—‘Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit’—and which recurs throughout the liturgy, until before Holy Communion, we beg to be ‘remembered in the Kingdom’ along with the repentant thief.