Reading time: 5 minutes
This is my translation of an interesting article from the 30th of July 2013, containing a letter from Anna Yaroslavna, Queen of France. The original in Russian can be found at the site of the on-line newspaper The President.
This article goes well along with Lada Ray’s “Forbidden History Forgotten Origins” webinar series, where the line of Rjurik and Anna Yaroslavna are discussed in Webinar 8 “1000 Lost Years & Falsified History”.
I have not verified the authenticity of the letter’s text, though given the other historical accounts of the French court of that time, the letter seems to describe the genuine state of affairs. I’ll try researching more into Anna’s letters at a later point.
An English translation of this personal old-Slavic text cannot convey all the emotions and colloquialisms, but should be read as the best approximation.
A Russian girl, Anna Yaroslavna – the Queen of France. She carried out a revolution in a foreign country. It was she who taught the French court to read and write in the XI century. She introduced the French to the bath and forced them to use fork and knife during meals. Anna kept up a correspondence with the Pope. Subjects of a foreign for her France worshipped Anna and called her Red Agnes.
The TV series “In Search of Truth” on STB TV channel with the host Vyacheslav Garmash is dedicated to this topic.
Anna Yaroslavna (also known as Anne of Kiev in the West) signed her name as “Анна Ръина” – “Anna Rhine”. Some translate this from the French “roi”, “Queen Anne”, which is wrong. The word “Ръина” – Rina – should be translated from the old Russian “Ra”, which means, well, “Russian”, (tl. note: or “light”) or “Queen”, which is the same.
Anna was born around 1024. At that time all of Rus was literate. Let us, for example, remember the birch bark letters of that time, of which many have been found. Anna was the youngest of three daughters of Knyaz (King) Yaroslav the Wise of Kiev, wife of French king Henry I, and Queen of France.
Anna grew up at the King’s court in Kiev and received good education. On may the 19th of 1051 she married the widowed Henry I, from whom she later had children.
And so, a very interesting letter from Anna Yaroslavna.
“Hello, my beloved father! Greetings to you, King of all Russia, from your faithful daughter Anya, Anna Yaroslavna Ruricovich, and now the Queen of France. And where did you send me, a sinner? To such a stinking hole, to France, to Paris-town, wishing to never have set my eyes on it!
You said the French are smart, while they don’t even know about the stoves. As the winter starts, they stoke the open hearths. From them soot fills the whole Palace, smoke in the whole room, and not a droplet of heat. I only find refuge here in the Russian beavers and sables. I once called theirs masons, and began to explain what a stove is. I drew and sketched, but to no avail – they do not understand, and that’s it. “Madam,” they say, “it’s impossible.” I answer: “Do not be lazy, go to Russia, we have a stove in every wooden hut, not to speak of the stone chambers.” And they say to me: “Madam, we do not believe. A house with a small chamber filled with fire, and there are no fires? Oh, non-non!” I swore that’s true. They say, “You, Russ, are barbarians, Scythians, Asians, that’s your witchcraft. Madame, see that you don’t tell this to anyone but us, or else both you and we will be burnt at the stake!»
And do you know what they eat, daddy? You won’t believe it – frogs! Even our common folk would be ashamed to put such things into their mouth, while here the dukes and duchesses not only eat them, but at the same time praise them. And they eat “côtelettes”. They would take a piece of meat, beat it with a hammer, fry and eat it.
The Byzantine spoons are still new to them, while they’ve never seen the Venetian forks. I once prepared for my husband, king Henry, the kurnik (translator note: a variaty of a large royal Russian pie, traditionally stuffed with chicken, duck, buckwheat porridge, potatoes and nuts – a few recipes here). He licked his hands. “Anchor! — he cried – More!” I made him some more. He screamed again, ” Anchor!” I said to him: “You stomach will ache!” He asks:” Kes-ke-se? — What is it?” I explained to him according to [the writings of] Claudius Galen. He says, ” You’re a blackbooker (witch)! See that you don’t tell anyone or the Pope will have us burnt at the stake.”
Another time I say to Henry: “Let me teach your clowns to perform ‘Alexandria’.” He replies: “And what is it?” I say, “the history of the wars of Alexander the Great.” — “Who is he?” Well, I explained to him in accordance with [the writings of] Antisthenes the Younger. He told me: “Oh, non-non! It’s incredible! One person cannot conquer so many countries!” Then I showed him the book. He grimaced and said, “I am not a priest to read so much! In Europe, no king can read. Don’t show this to anyone or my Dukes and Counts will promptly stab you with the daggers!” That’s the life here, father.
And also, Saracens came to us. No one, except me, could speak the tongue of the Saracens, so the Queen had to become an interpreter, even if the Dukes with Counts where gnashing their teeth. Yet this is something that I am not afraid of – my Varjags are always with me. Something else is scary. These Saracens invented al’kugl (Arab. — alcohol), it’s stronger than even our beer and mead, not speaking of the Polish water.
And this is why I am writing to you, father, so that not a single barrel of this al’kugl is allowed into Russia. God forbid! That will be the death to the Russian folk. And with this I bow to you in farewell, being thy true daughter Anna Yaroslavna Ruricovich, and by husband, Anna Regina Francorum.”
Such letters wrote the Russian Queen back home to Russia.
