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From: Rafal Prinke <>
Subject: Eric's wife - Sigrida
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 1996 19:39:26 +0200

Stewart Baldwin <sbald%AUBURN.CAMPUS.MCI.NET> wrote:

>Thus, Thietmar's contamporary statements confirm that both Erik and
>Svein were married to a sister of Boleslav, and Adam's statement
>confirms that it was in fact the same sister. So we have a sister of
>Boleslav who md. 1st Erik and had Olaf, and then md. 2nd Svein and had
>Harald and Knut, all confirmed by good contemporary or near
>contemporary evidence, and not contradicted by any eleventh contury
>source.

This summarizes the argumentation put forward by the standard work
by Oswald Balzer, Genealogia Piastow (Krakow, 1895) who
discusses Sigrid on 9 folio pages of small print, taking into account
the sagas etc.

Kazimierz Jasinski's recent work (Rodowod pierwszych Piastow [Genealogy
of first Piasts], Warsaw-Wroclaw, n.d. [1993]) accepts the same argumentation
as valid and discusses only dates and her name. He says both Thietmar
(a contemporary) and Adam of Bremen (late 11th c.) are much more reliable
than the later sagas. Sigrida is thought (after Balzer) to be the name
adopted after her marriage to Eric. Now it is hypothetically accepted
that her Slavonic name may have been Swietoslawa because Canut had
a sister of that name who may have been named after her mother
(this was first noted by the Danish scholar Steenstrup quoting
from an English lithurgical text saying: "Santslaue soror Cnutis regis
nostri"). But Jasinski stresses that it is just a hypothesis.
Recent Danish historiography prefers the theory that her original
name was Gunhild and the sagas made two persons from one.

She was probably a daughter of Mieszko's Christian wife Dobrava of
Bohemia, though it is also possible that she may have been born
from his hypothetical earlier pagan wife. The argument for her being
full sister of Boleslaw Chrobry is that after being sent away by Swen,
she found shelter at his court in Poland. After Swen's death in 1014
her sons came to take her back to Denmark, which is confirmed by
independent sources: Thietmar and "Cnutonis regis gesta sive enconium
Emmae reginae" (Pariter vero Sclavoniam adierunt, et matrem suam quae
illuc morabatur, reduxerunt.)

Jasinski is against Balzer's statement that she was engaged to
Olaf Trygwason in 997/998. This story is based on later romantic myth
from the sagas.

The references include, besides Thietmar, Adam of Bremen and Balzer,
the following:

I. Skovgaard-Petersen, Gunhild [in:] Dansk Biografisk Lexikon, vol. 5,
Kobenhavn 1980, p. 387.

L. Koczy, Zwiazki malzenskie Piastow ze Skandynawami [Marriages of Piasts
with Scandinavians], Slavia Occidentalis 11 (1932).

Slownik starozytnosci slowianskich [Dictionary of Slavonic antiquities],
Warsaw-Carcow-Wroclaw 1961-1986, vols. I-VII (entries for: Swietoslawa,
Kanut Wielki, Swen Widlobrody, Olaf Skotkonung, Olaf Trygwason).

Best regards,

Rafal

This thread:

• Eric's wife - Sigrida by Rafal Prinke <>