Female Viking Pirate Rusla – The Red Maiden’s Deadly Encounter With Her Brother Tesondus

Ellen Lloyd – AncientPages.com – Brothers and sisters can love or hate each other. Siblings can also be rivals, which was by no means uncommon in the ancient world. Sometimes, encounters between siblings were deadly, as in the case of the Viking siblings Rusla and Tesondus.
Viking pirate Rusla made a colossal mistake that led to her death.

The story of Rusla, sometimes called the Red Maiden and her brother Tesondus can be found in Gesta Danorum. This comprehensive and valuable ancient manuscript recounts the history of Medieval Denmark. Written in the 13th century by Saxo Grammaticus (“Saxo the Literate”, literally “the Grammarian”), the manuscript consists of 16 books. The first nine books deal with Norse mythology and semi-legendary Danish history. The books 10-16 focus on Medieval history.

Piecing together Rusla’s life story is not easy because the authors of ancient texts occasionally mixed events and people. Still, it is nevertheless possible to get a historical overview of Rusla’s achievements and fate.