10 Interesting Facts About “The Lay of Igor’s Campaign” – the Most Important Literary Work of Rus’

“The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” is one of the most famous monuments of literature from the times of Ancient Rus’. Old Russian literature covers works from the XNUMXth to the XNUMXth century. The very first written sources cannot even be considered full-fledged literary works, for example, treaties with Byzantium.

But “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” already occupies a place of honor. Full title of the piece:A word about the regiment of Igor, Igor, the son of Svyatoslav, the grandson of Oleg.

The plot is based on the unsuccessful campaign that the Russian princes undertook against the Polovtsians. Its organizer was Igor Svyatoslavich, whose name was used in the title. However, the work describes not only the campaign, but also civil strife, battles and many entertaining things.

In this article, we will look at 10 interesting facts about the “Lay of Igor’s Campaign”

10 Count Musin-Pushkin owned the only list of the monument

Count Alexei Musin-Pushkin is known as one of the most successful collectors among those interested in the monuments of Russian antiquity. He kept the manuscript of the Lay, which is included in the general collection of ancient Russian chronicles.

For a long time it was believed that the prince bought it from the former rector of the Yaroslavl Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery. However, later, based on research, another version appeared, which is now considered more likely.

By this assumption, Musin-Pushkin received a manuscript from the library of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, and then simply appropriated it, because he was the chief prosecutor of the Synod.

9. The “Word” accounts for most of all studies of the works of Ancient Rus’

Despite the fact that at the moment, this work has been studied more than has fallen to the lot of all other literary monuments of Ancient Rus’, “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” remains one of the most controversial and mysterious.

The number of researchers is estimated at about 15. If we take into account the fact that there are only 000 thousand words in the work, then all of them have been researched and studied several times.

However, no matter how much scientists, linguists and historians struggle with the Lay, no one can yet answer the most common questions: who, when, where and why wrote this work?

8. Some of the words are still difficult to translate.

“The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” is written in Old Russian, therefore with understanding and translation, even native speakers of the modern Russian language have some difficulties and difficulties.

Here is a small example illustrating the work of a translator. This is one very famous line from the Lay that is often quoted. She sounds like this:Boyan is more prophetic, and if anyone wants to create a song, then he will be shaken by thought on a tree, a gray wolf on the ground, a chimp eagle under the clouds».

This is where the familiar expression comes from:to spread thought along the tree”but is it true? Researchers believe that the word “thought” is knocked out of the general sense, because animals are named further.

Linguists believe that what was actually meant was not “thought”, а “mouse”. “Mys” in those days it meant “squirrel”. Then the line becomes more logical: Boyan sang about the whole world, ran like a squirrel on a tree, a gray wolf on the ground, a gray eagle under the clouds.

7. Comparison of Yaroslavna with a cuckoo – translation error

One of the moments of the “Word” is a comparison of Yaroslavna with a cuckoo. Yaroslavna is the wife of Igor, who started the campaign. There is a moment in the story when she sits by the river, wets her dress sleeve in water and washes the blood from her husband’s wounds.

The author of the work calls her “Zegzitsiyu”, what was translated as “cuckoo”. However, this is fundamentally not true. Yes, that was the name of a bird before, but most likely a lapwing or a river gull. Yaroslavna was compared with her because at the end of the wings the bird has dark rims, very similar to the sleeves with which they wiped the blood.

6. Implicit comparison of two princes

The Lay does not openly compare anyone, but such a conclusion suggests itself. Prince Igor is opposed to Prince Vladimir, more likely Vladimir Monomakh.

Both of them went on a campaign against the Polovtsy, only Vladimir went to defend his people and lands, and Igor was looking for only glory there. During the campaign, both had signs in heaven: a pillar of fire at Vladimir and an eclipse at the other.

Vladimir receives a blessing and wins, and Igor starts a campaign during the sacred holiday, Bright Week, so he loses and is captured.

5. Intertwining pagan and christian religion

The issue of whether the work belongs to the Christian or pagan religion is widely discussed.. On the one hand, idols and deities are often mentioned there, as well as the figure of Bayan.

This is a songwriter, a pagan person, allegedly being the grandson of Veles, one of the deities. But on the other hand, it seems like at first the author denies that the “Lay” was told by Bayan. And paganism is described only in the dark lands of the Polovtsians. There is still no consensus on this matter.

4. Eclipse is an important symbol

Another important and well-known moment of the plot is the eclipse. A solar eclipse occurs on May 1, 1185. Everything is described as if it happens at the moment when Prince Igor steps for the first time on the land of the Polovtsians..

This is a very important symbol that does not bode well. Eclipses used to be feared, not understanding the true reason. Therefore, many considered this a bad omen.

While reading the story, one gets the impression that the eclipse lasts a very long time and ends only when Igor returns to Russian lands.

3. Captivity and forced escape of the prince

According to the story, Igor was captured, but being there, he could use everything he needed. He had a tent, servants, and even the opportunity to go hunting in the steppe.

The prince waited a long time for the ransom, which should be sent for him, but he was still not there. Then Igor decides to run. Such an act was considered dishonorable and condemned..

The prince decides to escape, but before such an unpleasant and dishonorable step, he confesses to a priest, who was brought from Rus’ especially for the prince. Only here is God mentioned for the first time, showing him the way to the house.

2. The original Lay burned down in 1812, giving rise to rumors of a forgery.

The original manuscript of The Tale of Igor’s Campaign was kept in a single copy in the Musin-Pushkin Palace. No matter how happy he was a collector, here luck turned away from him.

His house was damaged during a fire in Moscow in 1812. The manuscript burned without a trace. Before that, he managed to publish it, but after the loss of the original, talk began about a fake.

Still, no works similar to her of the same time were found, the poetic talents of the Slavs are questioned, there are sections of the text similar to later works, and nowhere else are there any references to her – all this gives reason to doubt the originality of the “Word “.

1. “The Word” has hundreds of translations into different languages

A truly unique work was difficult to translate into Russian, but linguists coped with further translations. The first to write “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” in English was V. V. Nabokov. It has since been translated into other languages ​​more than a hundred times.

So there are a huge number of translation options, both in Russian and in Belarusian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, Bulgarian, Croatian, Slovenian and other languages.