47. St. Olga Massacres the Drevlians, Ukraine, 945

From the Radziwill Chronicle of the 15th century, we see the first batch of Drevlian ambassadors, as they are honored by being carried in their boat, through the streets of Kiev, and then thrown, boat and all, into the trench that got dug the night before, where they will be buried alive. This didn’t happen.

The Primary Russian Chronicle tells us much about the revenge that Olga of of the Kievan Rus took on the Drevlians after they killed her husband. And most of it is surely mythological. Entire boatloads of ambassadors being dropped into a trench, dug overnight in the royal hall?  Two groups of ambassadors slaughtered, without the Drevlians getting suspicious?  Flocks of bird set on fire, and then burning a town down? No, no, and no.  However, Anne stands firm on the blood feast, and Michelle stands firm on the idea that the  Primary Russian Chronicle should have been published under its name in direct translation, “Tale of Bygone Years.” It’s true that Olga converted and saved a lot of Christians later,  though, so the saintliness part we are just fine with.

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