Russo-Scandinavian marriages of the 11th and 12th centuries in the sagas and Yaroslav's daughters

The saga of the Norwegian kings from roughly 1025 to 1157 is called "Morkinskinna" ("Rotten Skin"). It mentions the marriage of Elizabeth, daughter of Yaroslav, Prince of Kyiv, to Harald Sigurdsson.

It is believed that in reality the princess was called Olisava, and in the sagas she appears under the name Ellisif. The name Elizabeth, for its part, does not occur in Old Russian written sources before the 14th century.

Two other daughters of Yaroslav also married well: the eldest, Anastasia, to King Andrew I of Hungary, the youngest, Anna, to King Henry I of France.

The Russian chronicles have preserved no reports of Yaroslav's daughters; these are found only in foreign writings. Nor do the Old Russian sources mention a single one of the Russo-Scandinavian marriages of the 11th and 12th centuries, whereas the royal sagas furnish considerable information about them.

From the sagas we know of the marriage of Yaroslav, Prince of Kyiv, and Ingegerd; of the marriage of their grandson Vladimir Vsevolodovich and Gytha, daughter of Harold of England; of the marriage of their son Mstislav and Christina, daughter of the Swedish king Inge Steinkelsson; of the marriage of their daughter Malmfrid to the Norwegian king Sigurd the Crusader and the Danish king Eric Emune; of the marriage of Ingeborg, Mstislav's second daughter, to the Danish king Canute Lavard; and of the marriage of their son Valdemar of Denmark to Sofia, daughter of Volodar Glebovich, Prince of Minsk.

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