Edla
Edla was a Slavic woman of the 10th and 11th centuries whose life took a dramatic turn sometime between 995 and 1000, when she was carried away from her homeland as a prisoner of war. She was the daughter of a Lechitic tribal chief who held power in the territory between the Oder and Elbe rivers, in the land now known as Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. From that captivity came a life that touched the royal courts of two kingdoms. She would become the mother of a king of Sweden and a queen of Norway. Yet almost nothing she said or felt was recorded. What survives are the bare facts of her lineage, her captivity, and her children. The questions worth asking are not just who she was, but what her story reveals about the world that shaped her, and how her descendants carried her name into the chronicles of the North.
Sometime before the year 1000, Edla arrived in Sweden not as a guest but as a prize of war. King Olof Skötkonung took her as his concubine. Her capture predated the arrival of another Slavic woman, Estrid of the Obotrites, whom Olof would later marry as his queen. The order of these two women in Olof's life mattered enormously for what came next. Edla held no formal title and no legal standing as a wife. She occupied a position common in the Viking Age, when concubinage was a recognized arrangement at royal courts, but one that placed her children in an uncertain position relative to any future legitimate heirs.
Edla became the mother of at least three children: Emund, Astrid, and likely Holmfrid. The chronicler Snorre Sturlasson recorded that these children were sent to foster parents away from the royal court. His explanation was direct: Queen Estrid was unkind to them. Fostering was a normal practice among Norse aristocrats, but the reason Snorre gave here carries a sharper edge. The children of a foreign concubine were being displaced by the preferences of a royal wife. Snorre's note carries one further implication. The fact that Edla's children were removed while still young may suggest she had already died by then, leaving no one at court to shield them.
Emund, known to history as Emund the Old, became King of Sweden. His half-sister Astrid Olofsdotter married King Olav II of Norway. A third child, Holmfrid, married Sven Ladejarl. Taken together, these marriages and kingships represent a remarkable reach for the children of a woman who arrived in Sweden as a prisoner. Astrid's union with Olav II made Edla the maternal grandmother of a line that connected the Scandinavian kingdoms. The Lechitic chieftain's daughter, captured in the borderlands between the Oder and the Elbe, produced descendants who would be listed in the royal genealogies of Sweden and Norway for generations.
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Common questions
Who was Edla and when did she live?
Edla was a Slavic woman of the 10th and 11th centuries who lived during the Viking Age. She was the daughter of a Lechitic tribal chief who ruled the region between the Oder and Elbe rivers, in what is now Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. She is historically significant as the mother of King Emund of Sweden and Queen Astrid of Norway.
How did Edla come to Sweden?
Edla was brought to Sweden as a prisoner of war sometime between 995 and 1000. She was captured before the arrival of Estrid of the Obotrites at the Swedish court.
What was Edla's relationship with King Olof Skötkonung?
King Olof Skötkonung took Edla as his concubine. He later married Estrid, who became his queen, while Edla held no formal status as a wife at court.
Who were Edla's children?
Edla was the mother of Emund the Old, who became King of Sweden; Astrid Olofsdotter, who married King Olav II of Norway; and likely Holmfrid, who married Sven Ladejarl.
Why were Edla's children sent away from the royal court?
According to the chronicler Snorre Sturlasson, Edla's children were sent to foster parents away from the royal court because Queen Estrid was unkind to them. Snorre's account also implies that Edla may have died while her children were still young.
What was Edla's ethnic and geographical background?
Edla was a Slavic woman, specifically the daughter of a Lechitic tribal chief. Her father's territory lay between the Oder and Elbe rivers, in the region now called Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in modern Germany.
All sources
3 references cited across the entry
- 1bookGuests in the House: Cultural Transmission between Slavs and Scandinavians 900 to 1300 ADMats Roslund — BRILL — 2007-09-30
- 2bookEncyclopedia of Women in the Middle AgesJennifer Lawler — McFarland — 2018-01-16
- 3bookThe Queens and Royal Women of Sweden, c. 970–1330: Their Lives, Power, and LegacyCaroline Wilhelmsson — Taylor & Francis — 2024-10-11