Swietoslawa

Sigrid Storråda, better known by her Polish first name Swietoslawa (pronounce chvietoswava), sometimes cited using the name Germanic Gunhild, was a Polish Duchess who successively became Queen of Sweden and Queen of Denmark. She is the mother of Canut the Great (also called Knut; King of Denmark, England and Norway) and Olof Skötkonung (King of Sweden).

Daughter of Mieszko I^er of Poland and Dubravka, sister of Boleslaus I^er the Valiant, she was born around 970 in Poznań. According to Thietmar of Merseburg, King Sven would have married not the daughter but the sister of King Borislav and would have had two sons: Knut and Harald.

For their part, the Nordic sagas formally differentiate "Gunnhild" the first wife of Sven from the second "Sigrid Storråda", whose father would be the Viking Skoglar Toste.

Between 980 and 988, for political reasons, she would have married Eric VI of Sweden (Eric VI the Victorious), Mieszko wanting to build an alliance against the Danes.

In 998, three years after the death of Eric VI, she is said to have married Sven I^er (960-1014), King of Denmark (985-1014). A Danish source talks about Første ægteskab: Gunhild af Venden, datter af polsk hertug: meaning "[Sven's] first marriage: Gunhild of Venden, daughter of the Duke of Poland". At the time, Sell or Wendes was the word used to designate the Polish tribes, even the slavs Westerners. Gunhild is the other name of Swietoslawa. The Duke of Poland is Mieszko I^er.

This marriage is of great historical importance, Swietoslawa being the daughter and the sister of Polish sovereigns, the wife and the mother of sovereigns reigning over Sweden, Norway, Denmark and England. In Scandinavia, she is known as Sigrid (Sigrid Storrada, Sigrid Storråda, Sigrid the Haughty, Sigrid the Haughty). It is under this name that she is mentioned in the Norse sagas.