Cheated groom
Ingigerde, the eldest daughter of the Swedish king Olaf Shötkonung, was not lucky. She was to marry the Norwegian king Olaf the Saint - not out of love, but by the decision of the Thing. So to speak, her father decided to sacrifice her virginity in the name of improving relations between Sweden and Norway. For some time, the girl was with her betrothed in love correspondence, and a feeling even kind of flared up between them. The wedding was supposed to take place in September 1018, but on the appointed day the groom was in for an unpleasant surprise. The man had already sewn a suit, sent out invitations - and suddenly found out that the wedding … took place without him.
Olaf the Saint.
runaway Bride
While Olaf was preparing for the wedding, an embassy from Novgorod arrived to the bride's father - from the Grand Duke Yaroslav the Wise. It is not known for certain why Shotkonung "gave a ride" to his Norwegian namesake. Apparently, the political and international situation in those years changed quite quickly and dramatically, and the Swedish ruler simply acted according to the situation. There is no doubt that the marriage was purely dynastic: the married life of Ingigerda and Yaroslav turned out to be difficult in the end. One way or another, the young ones drove off to Novgorod, and Olaf the Saint had to be content with Princess Astrid, the youngest daughter of the Swedish king.
Yaroslav and Ingigerda.
Promotional video:
Ingigerda and Olaf
It is known that skalds were great hunters to the point of being "yellow." According to the sagas, Ingigerda (in baptism Irina) continued to love Olaf and constantly compared her husband with the Norwegian king. Stung Yaroslav once even beat his wife - and the case almost ended in divorce and maiden name. And in 1028, Olaf, expelled from Norway, came to Novgorod - and at the urgent request of Ingigerda, the Russian prince had to grant him asylum. As the Skalds unequivocally hint, all the two years that the exiled king spent in Russia, he often looked into the princess's chambers. In other words, Vsevolod Yaroslavich, born in 1030, could have turned out to be not that Yaroslavich. But that, as they say, is not accurate.
Holy Blessed Princess Anna of Novgorod. Baptized Irina. In the world of Ingigerd.
Instead of an epilogue
If for Yaroslav the marriage with Ingigerda turned out to be not particularly successful, then for Novgorod and Russia it brought a lot of benefits. Through her efforts, the most important European books were translated into the Slavic language. Under her, her own coins appeared in Novgorod. It was she who prompted Yaroslav to write "Russian Truth", in the text of which you can find quite a few rolls of words with the codes of Scandinavian laws. Finally, Ingigerda became the founder of the first nunnery in Russia - and for this she was canonized.