The Norse sagas describe Vladimir's mother as a prophetess who lived to the age of 100 and was brought from her cave to the palace to predict the future.
As the chronicles are silent on the subject of Malusha's pedigree, 19th-century Russian historians devised various theories to explain her parentage and name.
[5] However, historian Leo Loewenson rebutted that Malk was not Drevlian nor a prince, pointing out that the Primary Chronicle only mentions his name as 'Malk Lyubechinin' or 'Malk of Lyubech' and that "there is not the faintest indication that Malyusha's father was a prince".
[6] Dmitry Prozorovsky believed that Malusha was the daughter of Mal, a Drevlyan leader.
The anti-Normanist historian Dmitry Ilovaisky managed to draw an opposite conclusion: that the Slavic name Malusha was turned into a Scandinavian Malfried.