Tove (Mecklenburg)

The Runestone 1 Sønder Vissing is the only evidence of the existence of Tove

Tove (* 10th century; † after 980) was an Abodritic princess from the Nakoniden family and wife of the Danish king Harald Blue Tooth from the Jelling family .

Tove, Old Norse Tofa of Dove ( Dove) , was the daughter of abodritischen Samtherrschers Mstivoj that from 965/967 to 990/995 from Mecklenburg , prevailed over the abodritischen tribal group whose sub-tribes along the southern Baltic coast from today's Kiel until after Rostock settled . Tove had a sister Hodica and a brother Mistislaw .

Tove's father Mistivoy pursued a dynastic marriage policy to secure his political ties. It was probably for this reason that he married his daughter to the Danish King Harald Blauzahn, against whom he had gone to battle at Danewerk in 974 at the side of the German Emperor Otto II . It is unclear whether Tove already received her Nordic name as a birth name, for example as the daughter of a Danish wife Mistivoj, or only in Denmark. Tove's children are not recorded.

Around 980, Tove had the rune stone built by Sønder Vissing in honor of her mother . Its inscription reads

Tofa let gœrwa kumbl, Mistiwis dottiR, often mopur sina, Haralds hins gopa, Gorms sonar kona.

Traditionally this inscription is read “Tofa had the monument made, Mistivoj's daughter / in memory of her mother / Harald the good / Gormssohn's wife.” According to a more recent interpretation of the inscription, the inscription should be read: “Tove, die Daughter Mistives, had this stone set for her mother, wife Harald the good, Gorm's son. ”According to this, it would not have been Tove, but her mother, the wife of Harald Blauzahns. Then Harald Mistivoy would have to have survived and married his widow, making him Tove's stepfather. With the inscription, Tove is said to have raised claims to an honorable position with both the Abodrites and the Danes and asserted inheritances from both parents.

literature

• Christian Lübke : Relations between Elbe and Baltic Sea Slavs and Danes from the 9th to the 12th century: Another option for Elbe Slavic history? In: Ole Harck, Christian Lübke (ed.): Between Reric and Bornhöved. The relations between the Danes and their Slavic neighbors from the 9th to the 13th century (= research on the history and culture of Eastern Central Europe. 11). Steiner, Stuttgart 2001, pp. 23-36, (overview of the Danish-Abodritic relations).

Remarks

1. ^ Birgit Sawyer, Peter Sawyer: A Gormless History? The jelling dynasty reviseted. In: Wilhelm Heizmann , Astrid van Nahl (Ed.): Runica. Germanica. Mediaevalia (= Real Lexicon of Germanic Antiquity . Supplementary volumes. 37). de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2003, ISBN 3-11-017778-1 , pp. 689-706, here p. 702.