Oleg the Wise
Oleg | |
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Norse paganism |
Oleg (
According to the
This traditional dating has been challenged by some historians, who point out that it is inconsistent with such other sources as the
Oleg in chronicles
According to the
In 883, Oleg made the
According to the chronicle, Oleg, assaulting the city, ordered to wait for favorable wind with sails spread at some other point. When wind arose, it drove the wheeled boats towards the city through the land. The citizens were forced to start a peace negotiation. Having fixed his shield to the gate of the imperial capital, Oleg won a favourable trade treaty, which eventually was of great benefit to both nations. Although Byzantine sources did not record these hostilities, the text of the treaty survives in the Chronicle.
The brief account of Oleg's life in the Primary Chronicle contrasts with the version given in the Novgorod First Chronicle, which states that Oleg was not related to Rurik, and was rather a Scandinavian client-prince who served as Igor's army commander. The Novgorod First Chronicle does not give the date of the commencement of Oleg's reign, but dates his death to 922 rather than 912.[18]
Scholars have contrasted this dating scheme with the "epic" reigns of roughly thirty-three years for both Oleg and Igor in the Primary Chronicle.[19] The Primary Chronicle and other Kievan sources place Oleg's grave in Kiev, while Novgorodian sources identify a funerary barrow in Ladoga as Oleg's final resting place.[20]
Death according to legend
In the Primary Chronicle, Oleg is known as the Prophet, an epithet alluding to the sacred meaning of his Norse name ("priest"). According to the legend, romanticised by Alexander Pushkin in his ballad "The Song of the Wise Oleg,"[21] it was prophesied by the pagan priests (volkhvs) that Oleg would take death from his stallion.[22]
To defy the prophecies, Oleg sent the horse away. Many years later he asked where his horse was, and was told it had died. He asked to see the remains and was taken to the place where the bones lay. When he touched the horse's skull with his boot a snake slithered from the skull and bit him. Oleg died, thus fulfilling the prophecy.[22]
Oleg's death has been interpreted as a distorted variant of the
A variant of this story occurs in Scandinavian legend, in the 13th-century saga of Örvar-Oddr.[24] Another variant is found in the tale of Sir Robert de Shurland on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, England.[25]
Oleg of the Schechter Letter
According to the Primary Chronicle, Oleg died in 912 and his successor,
Recently, however, scholars such as
Of particular interest is the fact that the Schechter Letter account of Oleg's death (namely, that he fled to and raided FRS, tentatively identified with Persia,
Attempts to reconcile the accounts
In contrast to Zuckerman's version, the Primary Chronicle and the later Kiev Chronicle place Oleg's grave in Kiev, where it could be seen at the time of the compilation of these documents. Furthermore, scholars have pointed out that if Oleg succeeded Rurik in 879 (as the East Slavic chronicles assert), he could hardly have been active almost 70 years later, unless he had a life-span otherwise unheard of in medieval annals. To solve these difficulties, Parkomenko (1924) proposed that the pagan monarch-priests of Rus' used the hereditary title of helgu, standing for "holy" in the Norse language, and that Igor and others held this title.[34]
It has also been suggested that Helgu-Oleg who waged war in the 940s was distinct from both of Rurik's successors. He could have been one of the "fair and great princes" recorded in the Russo-Byzantine treaties of 911 and 944 or one of the "archons of Rus" mentioned in De administrando imperio.[35] But the Primary Chronicle does not specify the relations between minor Rurikid princes active during the period, although the names Rurik, Oleg and Igor were recorded among the late-10th-century and 11th-century Rurikids.[citation needed]
Georgy Vernadsky even identified the Oleg of the Schechter Letter with Igor's otherwise anonymous eldest son, whose widow Predslava is mentioned in the Russo-Byzantine treaty of 944.[36] Alternatively, V. Ya. Petrukhin speculated that Helgu-Oleg of the 940s was one of the vernacular princes of Chernigov, whose ruling dynasty maintained especially close contacts with Khazaria, as the findings at the Black Grave, a large royal kurgan excavated near Chernigov, seem to testify.[37]
In popular culture
- Oleg appears briefly in the Soviet film The Legend of Princess Olga (1983), played by Russian-Ukrainian actor Nikolay Olyalin.
- Hungarian actor Honfoglalás (1996), a biopic on Árpád (played by Franco Nero).
- The Danish film A Viking Saga (2008) tells of the early life and career of Oleg. Oleg is played by Ken Vedsegaard, with Erik Holmey in the role of Rurik, Kim Sønderholm as Dir and Peter Gantzler as Askold, the primary antagonist.
- Prince Oleg appears as the primary villain in season 6 of Vikings (2019–2020). In this production, Askold and Dir are portrayed as his brothers. He is played by Russian actor Danila Kozlovsky.
- Prince Oleg appears in Russian docudrama The Rurikids. The story of the first dynasty (2019), which tells the story of the Rurik dynasty (9th–16th centuries). He is portrayed by Russian actor Dmitry Moguchev.
- Oleg appears in the video game Crusader Kings III, where he is Rurik Rurikid's son named Helgi 'The Seer' who is of the Slovianska Pravda faith as opposed to Rurik's Ásatrú (Norse Pagan) faith.
Notes
References
- ^ a b Ostrowski 2018, p. 44.
- ^ a b c d Ostrowski 2018, p. 42–44.
- ^ Ostrowski 2018, p. 32–33.
- ^ Ostrowski 2018, p. 40.
- ^ Chronicles by the Hypatian Lists (ЛѢТОПИСЬ ПО ИПАТЬЕВСКОМУ СПИСКУ) Archived 6 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ Vasmer, Max. "Этимологический словарь Макса Фасмера". p. Олег. Archived from the original on 21 December 2022. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
- ^ "Sveerne". www.fortidensjelling.dk. Archived from the original on 7 May 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
- ISBN 9781442203020. Archivedfrom the original on 17 April 2023. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
- ISBN 9781136242397. Archivedfrom the original on 5 March 2023. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
- ISBN 9780521364478. Archivedfrom the original on 17 April 2023. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
- ISBN 9781135131371. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
- ^ a b c Dimnik 2004, p. 259.
- ^ a b Ostrowski 2018, p. 30–31, 39.
- ^ Gabriel Bie Ravndal (1938). Stories of the East-vikings. Augsburg publishing house. p. 173. Archived from the original on 17 April 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
- ^ Dimnik 2004, p. 259–260.
- ^ "The Russian Primary Chronicle".
- ^ "The Russian Primary Chronicle".
- ^ A. N. Nasonov, Novgorodskaia Pervaia Letopis Starshego i Mladshego Izvodov, (Moscow and Leningrad: ANSSR, 1950),109. cf. Kloss 337–343.
- ^ Shahmatov xxxii–xxxiii.
- ^ The earliest and most believable version seems to have been preserved in the Novgorod First Chronicle, which says that Oleg departed "overseas" (i.e., to Scandinavia) and was buried there.
- ^ Leningrad, Aurora Art Publishers, 1991.
- ^ a b "Prince Oleg and his Fateful Steed: A Story from Medieval Rus'". Medievalists.net. 1 October 2022. Archived from the original on 7 March 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
- ^ Miller, Dean (1997). "Threefold death". In Mallory, J. P.; Adams, Douglas Q. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Taylor & Francis. pp. 577–578.
- ^ "Amazing Adventures Of Örvar-Oddr And Encounter With The Mysterious Ögmundr Flóki". Ancient Pages. 27 February 2023. Archived from the original on 7 March 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
- ^ Harris, Oliver D. (2023). ""Grey Dolphin" and the Horse Church, Minster in Sheppey: the construction of a legend". Archaeologia Cantiana. 144: 97–123.
- ^ The text of the Schechter Letter is given at Golb 106–121. It is cited herein by folio and line (e.g. SL Fol. x:x)
- ^ SL Fol. 2r, 15–16; 17. The author of the letter describes Khazaria as "our land". SL Fol. 1r:19, 2v:15,20.
- Anatoli Novoseltsev, noting the discrepancy, admits the document's authenticity but declares that the author "displaces the real historical facts rather freely." Novoseltsev 216–218. Brutskus asserted that HLGW was in fact another name for Igor. Brutskus 30–31. Mosin proposed that HLGW was a different person from Oleg and was an independent prince in Tmutarakan; the existence of an independent Rus' state in Tmutarakan in the first half of the tenth century is rejected by virtually all modern scholars. Mosin 309–325; cf. Zuckerman 258.
- ^ Zuckerman 257–268. Zuckerman cites, inter alia, to the Novgorod First Chronicle. Cf., e.g., Christian 341–345.
- ^ Pritsak 60–71; Shahmatov xxxii–xxxiii;
- ^ Pritsak 60–71. Pritsak placed the "lost generation" between Oleg and Igor. Zuckerman dismisses this as "outright speculation"; and places both as contemporaries in the early to mid tenth century.
- ^ Pavel Kokovtsov, when publishing a Russian translation of the letter in 1932, argued that FRS may refer to Thrace, where the Rus' forces were defeated by the armies of Lecapenus (online Archived 6 May 2007 at the Wayback Machine).
- ^ Miskawaihi 67–74; cf. SL Fol. 2v:3 et seq.
- ^ Parkomenko 1924, p. 24 et seq..
- ^ Brook 154.
- ^ Vernadsky 41 et seq.
- ^ Petrukhin 226–228.
Bibliography
- Artamonov, Mikhail. Istoriya Khazar. Leningrad, 1962.
- Bain, Robert Nisbet (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 76–77.
- Brutskus, Julius D. Pismo Hazarskogo Evreja Ol X Veka. Berlin 1924.
- Christian, David. A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia, Vol. 1. Blackwell, 1998.
- Dimnik, Martin (January 2004). "The Title "Grand Prince" in Kievan Rus'". Mediaeval Studies. 66: 253–312. . Retrieved 6 March 2023.
- Dunlop, D.M.History of the Jewish Khazars. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1954.
- Gregoire, H. 'Le "Glozel' khazare." Revue des Études Byzantines 12, 1937.
- Golb, Norman and Omeljan Pritsak. Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1982. [Note:as each author was responsible for separate sections of the work, they are referenced separately above.]
- Kloss, B.M. "Letopis' Novgorodskaja pervaja". Slovar' Kniznikov i Knizhnosti Drevnej Rusi, vol. 1. Leningrad 1987.
- Kokovtsov P.S. Еврейско-хазарская переписка в X веке. Leningrad 1932.
- al-Miskawaihi. The Eclipse of the 'D. S. Margoliouth, trans. Oxford 1921.
- Mosin, V. "Les Khazars et les Byzantins d'apres l'Anonyme de Cambridge." Revue des Études Byzantines 6 (1931): 309–325.
- Nasonov, A.N., ed. Novgorodskaja Pervaja Letopis Starshego i Mladshego Izvodov. Moscow, 1950.
- Novoseltsev, Anatoli P. Hazarskoe Gosudarstvo i Ego Rol' v Istorii Vostochnoj Evropy i Kavkaza. Moscow 1990.
- Ostrowski, Donald (2018). "Was There a Riurikid Dynasty in Early Rus'?". Canadian-American Slavic Studies. 52 (1): 30–49. .
- Parkomenko, V. A. (1924). У истоков русской государственности [On the Origins of Rus' Statehood]. Leningrad: Gosizdat. p. 113.
- Petrukhin V.Ya. "Князь Олег, Хелгу Кембриджского документа и русский княжеский род". Древнейшие государства Восточной Европы. 1998. Памяти А.П. Новосельцева. Moscow, Russian Academy of Sciences, 2000: 222–230.
- Pushkin, Alexander. The Song of the Wise Oleg. Leningrad, Aurora Art Publishers, 1991.
- Shahmatov, A.A. Ocherk Drevnejshego Perioda Istorii Russkogo Jazyka. Petrograd, 1915 (reprinted Paris 1967).
- Zuckerman, Constantine. "On the Date of the Khazar’s Conversion to Judaism and the Chronology of the Kings of the Rus' Oleg and Igor." Revue des Études Byzantines 53 (1995): 237–270.
- Vernadsky, Georgy. Kievan Rus. Moscow, 1996.
External links
- Media related to Oleg of Novgorod at Wikimedia Commons