WAGED BY IGOR
The Lay of the Warfare Waged by Igor was written as long ago as in 1187, but time has not muted its patriotic appeal or dimmed its brilliant colours. Interest in The Lay, far from slackening, is actually growing wider and deeper.
Why is this not very long epic poem enjoying such a long life? Why do the ideas it carries and the writing itself continue to move us till this day?
The Lay was first published in the autumn of 1800. Count Alexei Musin-Pushkin, a well-known collector and lover of Russian antiquities had acquired the manuscript a few years previously. True, it was not the original authors text, but one of the copies made by a scribe in the 16th century and included in a collection of old Russian secular writing. And it was this collection that Musin-Pushkin bought among other manuscripts through a commission agent from Archimandrite Joel of the since closed down Spasso-Yaroslavsky Monastery.
The manuscript perished in the Moscow fire of 1812 together with the whole invaluable collection of Musin-Pushkin, which he kept in his house.
At the beginning of the 19th century, ancient Russia had been little studied as yet. People had only a very vague notion of ancient Russian literature and the literary language, of its wonderful architecture, painting and jewelers art. Therefore, it was not surprising that when The Lay was discovered the skeptics refused to believe that a marvelous work like that could have belonged to the 12th century. Their voices were all the louder because scientific skepticism in general was widespread at the beginning of the 19th century. In Russia, as in the West, there existed a whole trend in historical science, a skeptical school. It subjected to doubt the authenticity of most ancient writings (Russian, Ancient Greek, and West European), even Nestors Chronicle (The Tale of Bygone Years) among them although hundreds of 14th 16th century copies and numerous testimonials of its authenticity have been preserved.
The more The Lay was investigated, the clearer it became that it was genuine. At the end of the 18th century, ancient Russian was so little known that an imitation was hardly possible. In the course of research some passages in The Lay which first seemed obscure were clarified, as were also many references to actual historical events found in the poem.
The poem was written at a time when the feudal fractioning of Russia was at its height. The economical, political and cultural life of the princedoms was insulated within their local little worlds. A great number of the smaller princes fought with each other, contending for land, for seniority, and becoming involved in fratricidal wars for the sake of purely personal, local claims. And Kiev list its significance as the centre of the Russian lands.
Just a cursory enumeration of 12th century cultural achievements is evidence enough that The Lay was not the times only work of art. It had its contemporaries in different spheres: in architecture, in painting, in applied arts.
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Literature oral or written was really the pride of Russian 12th century culture. The little that has come down to us of the wealth that was destroyed in enemy raids, that perished in fires or was lost through negligence, proves not just the existence of good literary works but also the general development of literature at the time. There were several literary schools, numerous genres, a demand for literature and an ingrained habit of reading.
The diversity of schools, styles, traditions and genres in architecture, painting and literature, reflecting the fractionisation of the land into separate feudal princedoms, must also be put down to another development, typical for the 12th century, that is, the intensified influence of the old local folk tradition exerted on the development of the Russian national culture. This influence was at its strongest during the writing of The Lay, although it had begun long before, and the poem with its natural combination of folk tradition and elements of refined literature is indisputably typical for the 12th century.
The name of the author is unknown to us, and will hardly ever be known. So far, all the attempts to establish his identity have been based on the most fantastic assumptions.
Still, there are some things we can assume about the author, his views, and his social position. First of all, he was not a monk, he was most likely a soldier, seeing how familiar he is with military concepts. He was undoubtedly an educated man and did not belong to the toiling class. In his political views, however, he clearly gave his sympathies to the working population of Russia, and had none for the class interests of the feudal elite. That is why he uses elements of folk poetry so freely. He wrote The Lay soon after Igors campaign of 1185. It is not a historical tale about the remote past, it is a response to a recent happening that still hurts. He speaks of things that are very well known to him. It is a fresh impression of something that his readers, his contemporaries, still vividly remember, and therefore the poem is full of hints, reminders, and muted indications. There is no doubt that in the 16th century The Lay was copied out in Pskov or else in Novgorod.
. 4. :
1. When was "The Lay of the Warfare waged by Igor" written? 2. When was it first published? 3. Was the manusript of the Lay preserved? 4. Did everybody at that time believe that the poem was genuine? 5. What proves that it was genuine? 6. What can be said about the development of literature in the 12th century?
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. 1. , - :
| Present Simple | A dictation is written | twice a week. | |
| Past Simple | an hour ago. | ||
| Future Simple | in the morning. | ||
| Present Continuous | now. | ||
| Past Continuous | when I came into the classroom. | ||
| Present Perfect | just. | ||
| Past Perfect | before they bell rang. | ||
| Future Perfect | by 12 oclock. |
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