Prince Ivar 'the Boneless' Erikson of Kiev falls in love with and marries Princess Helga (Olga) of Chernigov. While taxing her people to finance a war against Denmark, the Chernigov 20 ambush and capture the prince and his retinue and threaten to e...
17.0 THE MARRIAGE SUIT OF PRINCE MAL (Circa 931 AD)
Olga was informed that the Derevlians had arrived, and summoned
them to her presence with a gracious welcome. They proposed that
Olga should come and marry their Prince Mal. "Return now to your boat,
and I shall send for you on the morrow, and you shall say, 'carry us in
our boat.' And you shall be carried in your boat." She dismissed them.
Now Olga had a large deep ditch dug near the hall, and on the morrow,
the people of Kiev carried the Derevlians in their boat and they dropped
them into the trench along with the boat. Olga then commanded that
they should be buried alive.
Appended from the Hraes' Primary Chronicle
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Prince Mal of Dereva
(931 AD) Soon after King Ivar had returned to the west to overwinter in Denmark with his merchant fleet, Prince Mal of the Drevjane Slavs sent envoys, the 'Chernigov Twenty', to Kiev to propose marriage between their prince and Princess Helga of Chernigov. Prince Mal felt that the princess still held feelings for the boys that she had grown up with in Chernigov, even though they had maimed her husband, so he thought them best suited to extend his offer. Queen Helga treated the envoys with respect but reminded them that she was their queen and was married to King Ivar of Denmark and Gardar. When they told her they had been informed that King Ivar had divorced her and remarried a Christian princess in Denmark, Helga sent them away from Kiev and watched from the main quay as they rowed their eight oared boat back up the Dnieper.
Later, in the winter, the 'Chernigov Twenty' returned on horseback down the frozen river and petitioned Princess Helga, once more, on behalf of Prince Mal and his proposal of marriage. They were a little more insistent this time. Helga realized the vulnerability of her situation. Twenty armed men were on the front porch of her hall and she only had two armed guards within. She remembered that many Slav groups saw the kidnapping of brides as an approved form of courting. So, she invited the men inside and she treated them like the boys that she had grown up with, offering them mead and food in a friendly manner while secretly sending her handmaiden off for reinforcements.
