Oda of Stade
A portrait commissioned in 1073 by Sviatoslav II of Kiev (on right) of Oda of Stade, their young son, Yaroslav, and Sviatoslav’s four sons from a previous marriage
Grand Princess consort of Kievan Rus'
Tenure	1073–1077
Born	1040
Died	1087
Spouse	Sviatoslav II of Kiev
Issue	Yaroslav of Murom Akarina/Aliarina
Father	Lippold/Liudolf of Derlingau or Dedi of Saxony
Mother	Ida of Elsdorf

Oda of Stade (also Oda of Elsdorf) (b. 1040 – d. 1087) was a German noblewoman, who was the daughter of Ida of Elsdorf. Through marriage to Sviatoslav II of Kiev, she became a Grand Princess consort of Kievan Rus'.^[1]

Oda's mother was Ida of Eldsorf (d.1052), daughter of Liudolf, Margrave of Frisia and sister of Matilda of Frisia.^[2] Ida was also a niece of Pope Leo IX, a granddaughter of Gisela of Swabia, and thus a niece of Emperor Henry III of Germany.^[3] Oda's father was perhaps Ida's first husband, Lippold/Liudolf of Derlingau (d.1038),^[4] or he may have been Ida's second husband, Dedi of Saxony (d.1056).^[5]

According to the thirteenth-century chronicler Albert of Stade, before her marriage, Oda was a nun in the monastery of Rinthelen.^[6] The location of this monastery is not known, but is thought to have been Ringelheim.^[7] In order to have Oda released from the monastery, her mother Ida granted Villa Stedenthorp near Heßlingen to Rinthelen.^[8]

Around 1065, however, Oda left the monastery and married Sviatoslav II of Kiev, as his second wife.^[9] According to the eleventh-century chronicler Lampert of Hersfeld, Oda's brother, Burchard, provost of St Simeon in Trier (d.1086), was sent to Rus’ to arrange the marriage.^[10] According to Albert of Stade, this was done at the instigation of Oda's mother Ida.^[11] Around 1070 Oda gave birth to Sviatoslav's fifth son, Yaroslav (also known as Constantin), who later became prince of Murom (r.1097-1123, 1127–1129) and Chernigov (r.1123-1127).^[12] After Sviatoslav's death (d.1076), Oda returned to the Holy Roman Empire with her son, where she raised him.^[13]

Oda is believed to have arranged the marriage of her niece Eupraxia of Kiev to Henry III the Long, Count of Stade.^[14]

By her second marriage, to an unknown Saxon nobleman, Oda had a daughter: Akarina of Elsdorf (1079-1130) (whom Albert of Stade refers to as Aliarina), who was the mother of Burchard of Loccum.^[15]

• Albert of Stade, Annales Stadenses, ed. J. Lappenberg, MGH SS 16 (Hannover, 1859, pp. 283-378
• Lampert of Hersfeld, Annales, ed., O. Holder-Egger, MGH SS rer Germ 38 (Hannover and Leipzig, 1894).

• R-H. Bautier, ‘Anne de Kiev, reine de France, et la politique royale au XIe siècle: étude critique de la documentation,’ Revue des Études Slaves 57:4 (1985), 539–564.
• R. Bloch, ‘Verwandtschaftliche Beziehungen des sächsischen Adels zum russischen Fürstenhause im XI. Jahrhundert,’ in L. Santifaller, ed., Festschrift Albert Brackmann (Weimar, 1931), pp. 185–206.
• M. Dimnik, The Dynasty of Chernigov, 1054–1146 (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1994).
• E. Hlawitschka, Untersuchungen zu den Thronwechseln der ersten Hälfte des 11. Jahrhunderts und zur Adelsgeschichte Süddeutschlands. Zugleich klärende Forschungen um "Kuno von Öhningen" (Sigmaringen, 1987).
• R. Hucke, Die Grafen von Stade 990-1144 (Stade, 1956).
• D.C. Jackman, Canes palatini: Dynastic Transplantation and the Cult of St. Simeon (Editions Enlaplage, 2010).
• C. Raffensperger, Reimagining Europe: Kievan Rus' in the Medieval World (Harvard University Press, 2012).
• T. Zajac, 'Marriage Impediments in Canon Law and Practice: Consanguinity Regulations and the Case of Orthodox-Catholic Intermarriage in Kyivan Rus, ca. 1000 – 1250,' in Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law, Toronto, 5–11 August 2012, ed. Joseph Goering, Stephan Dusil, and Andreas Thier (Vatican City, 2016), pp. 711–29.