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53-400: The most common feature of tales involving Koschei is a spell which prevents him from being killed. He hides "his death" inside nested objects to protect it. For example, his death may be hidden in a needle that is hidden inside an egg, the egg is in a duck, the duck is in a hare, the hare is in a chest, the chest is buried or chained up on a faraway island of Buyan . Usually he takes the role of

106-561: A record of his adventures , which has been translated into English and published for the Hakluyt Society . A curious monument of old Slavonic times is the Pouchenie ("Instruction"), written by Vladimir Monomakh for the benefit of his sons. This composition is generally found inserted in the Chronicle of Nestor; it gives a fine picture of the daily life of a Slavonic prince. The Paterik of

159-756: A century before the adoption of Christianity in 988 and the establishment of the South Slavic Old Church Slavonic as the liturgical and literary language. Documentation of the Old East Slavic language of this period is scanty, making it difficult at best fully to determine the relationship between the literary language and its spoken dialects. There are references in Byzantine sources to pre-Christian Slavs in European Russia using some form of writing. Despite some suggestive archaeological finds and

212-525: A corroboration by the tenth-century monk Chernorizets Hrabar that ancient Slavs wrote in " strokes and incisions ", the exact nature of this system is unknown. Although the Glagolitic alphabet was briefly introduced, as witnessed by church inscriptions in Novgorod , it was soon entirely superseded by Cyrillic . The samples of birch-bark writing excavated in Novgorod have provided crucial information about

265-476: A curious Discourse to the Brethren . From the writings of Theodosius we see that many pagan habits were still in vogue among the people. He finds fault with them for allowing these to continue, and also for their drunkenness; nor do the monks escape his censures. Zhidiata writes in a more vernacular style than many of his contemporaries; he eschews the declamatory tone of the Byzantine authors. And here may be mentioned

318-468: A development of the old perfect. Note the style of punctuation. Слово о пълку Игоревѣ. c.  1200 , from the Pskov manuscript, fifteenth cent. Illustrates the sung epics , with typical use of metaphor and simile. It has been suggested that the phrase растекаться мыслью по древу ( rastekat'sja mysl'ju po drevu , to run in thought upon/over wood), which has become proverbial in modern Russian with

371-545: A hero is sent to obtain; or he may have other magic powers. In one tale he has eyelids so heavy he requires servants to lift them (cf. the Celtic Balor or Ysbaddaden , or Serbian Vy). The parallel female figure, Baba Yaga , as a rule does not appear in the same tale with Koschei, though exceptions exists where both appear together as a married couple, or as siblings. Sometimes, Baba Yaga appears in tales along with Koschei as an old woman figure, such as his mother or aunt. In

424-489: A malevolent rival figure, who competes for (or entraps) a male hero's love interest. The origin of the tales is unknown. The archetype may contain elements derived from the 12th-century pagan Cuman-Kipchak (Polovtsian) leader Khan Konchak , who is recorded in The Tale of Igor's Campaign ; over time a balanced view of the non-Christian Cuman Khan may have been distorted or caricatured by Christian Slavic writers. By at least

477-465: A miser in the prologue Pushkin 's Ruslan and Ludmila which describes wonders of the fairy-tale land of Lukomorye : "Там царь Кащей над златом чахнет" (There tsar Kashchei is languishing over gold). Buyan In East Slavic folklore, Buyan ( Russian : Буя́н , sometimes transliterated as Bujan ) is a mysterious island in the ocean with the ability to appear and disappear with the tide. The island of Buyan features in many fairy tales; Koschei

530-410: A number of Ukrainian linguists ( Stepan Smal-Stotsky , Ivan Ohienko , George Shevelov , Yevhen Tymchenko, Vsevolod Hantsov, Olena Kurylo ), deny the existence of a common Old East Slavic language at any time in the past. According to them, the dialects of East Slavic tribes evolved gradually from the common Proto-Slavic language without any intermediate stages. Following the end of the "Tatar yoke",

583-405: Is hidden inside various animals, and which are then protected by containers or in remote places. In other tales, Koschei can cast a sleep spell that can be broken by playing an enchanted gusli . Depending on the tale he has different characteristics: he may ride a three- or seven-legged horse; may have tusks or fangs; and may possess a variety of different magic objects (like cloaks and rings) that

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636-455: Is recorded as a riddle: "And here Prince Igor exchanged his golden saddle of a prince for the saddle of a Koshey (slave)." Nikolai Novikov also suggested the etymological origin of koshchii meaning "youth" or "boy" or "captive", "slave", or "servant". The interpretation of "captive" is interesting because Koschei appears initially as a captive in some tales. Koschei is a common villain in east-Slavic folk tales. Often tales involving him are of

689-461: Is represented under the form of spring, Paganism and Judaism under that of winter, and evil thoughts are spoken of as boisterous winds. There are also the works of early travellers, as the igumen Daniel , who visited the Holy Land at the end of the eleventh and beginning of the twelfth century. A later traveller was Afanasiy Nikitin , a merchant of Tver , who visited India in 1470. He has left

742-636: Is speculated to be a distorted record of Konchak's role as the keeper of the Kosh's resources. Koschei's epithet "the immortal" may be a reference to Konchak's longevity. He is last recorded in Russian chronicles during the 1203 capture of Kiev, if the record is correct this gives Konchak an unusually long life – possibly over 100 years – for the time this would have been over six generations. Koschei's life-protecting spell may be derived from traditional Turkic amulets, which were egg-shaped and often contained arrowheads (cf.

795-556: The Alatyr ( Russian : Алатырь ), which is guarded by the bird Gagana and by Garafena the serpent. Old East Slavic Old East Slavic (traditionally also Old Russian ) was a language (or a group of dialects) used by the East Slavs from the 7th or 8th century to the 13th or 14th century, until it diverged into the Russian and Ruthenian languages. Ruthenian eventually evolved into

848-459: The Belarusian , Rusyn , and Ukrainian languages. The term Old East Slavic is used in reference to the modern family of East Slavic languages . However, it is not universally applied. The language is also traditionally known as Old Russian ; however, the term may be viewed as anachronistic, because the initial stages of the language which it denotes predate the dialectal divisions marking

901-715: The Russkaya Pravda of Yaroslav the Wise , which is preserved in the chronicle of Novgorod; the date is between 1018 and 1072. The earliest attempts to compile a comprehensive lexicon of Old East Slavic were undertaken by Alexander Vostokov and Izmail Sreznevsky in the nineteenth century. Sreznevsky's Materials for the Dictionary of the Old Russian Language on the Basis of Written Records (1893–1903), though incomplete, remained

954-538: The steppe c. 1126–1130; by c.1172 he is described in Kievan Rus' chronicles as a leader of the Polovtsi, and as taking part in an uprising. There is not enough information to reconstruct further details of Konchak's appearance or nature from historical sources; though unusual features or abnormalities were usually recorded (often as epithets) by chroniclers, none are recorded for Konchak. The legendary love of gold of Koschei

1007-504: The 12th century to refer to an officer or official during a military campaign. Similar terms include the Ukrainian Кошовий (Koshovyi) for the head of the 'Kish' (military) (see also Kish otaman ). In Old Russian 'Kosh' means a camp, while in Belarusian a similar term means 'to camp' and in Turkic languages a similar term means 'a wanderer'. The use as a personal name is recorded as early as

1060-454: The 12th or 13th century. Thus different variations evolved of the Russian language in the regions of Novgorod, Moscow , South Russia and meanwhile the Ukrainian language was also formed. Each of these languages preserves much of the Old East Slavic grammar and vocabulary. The Russian language in particular borrows more words from Church Slavonic than does Ukrainian. However, findings by Russian linguist Andrey Zaliznyak suggest that, until

1113-567: The 14th or 15th century, major language differences were not between the regions occupied by modern Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, but rather between the north-west (around modern Velikiy Novgorod and Pskov) and the center (around modern Kyiv, Suzdal, Rostov, Moscow as well as Belarus) of the East Slavic territories. The Old Novgorodian dialect of that time differed from the central East Slavic dialects as well as from all other Slavic languages much more than in later centuries. According to Zaliznyak,

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1166-563: The 15th century on Novogrodian birch bark manuscripts . In The Tale of Igor's Campaign a similar sounding term is used, recorded being inscribed on coins, deriving from the Turkic for 'captive' or 'slave'. The same term also appears in the Ipatiev Chronicle , meaning 'captive'. A second mention of the term is made in The Tale of Igor's Campaign when Igor is captured by the Polovtsi; this event

1219-592: The 18th century, and likely earlier, Koschei's legend had been appearing in Slavic tales. For a long period, no connection was made with any historical character. The origin of the tale may be related to the Polovtsian ( Cuman ) leader Khan Konchak , who dates from the 12th century. In The Tale of Igor's Campaign Konchak is referred to as a koshey (slave). Konchak is thought to have come/returned from Georgia (the Caucasus ) to

1272-563: The Deathless keeps his soul of immortality hidden there, secreted inside a needle placed inside an egg in the mystical oak-tree ; other legends call the island the source of all weather, generated there and sent forth into the world by the god Perun . Buyan also appears in Alexander Pushkin 's Tale of Tsar Saltan . It is mentioned in the medieval Dove Book as the place where the mythical stone with healing and magic powers, known as

1325-622: The Kievan Caves Monastery is a typical medieval collection of stories from the life of monks, featuring devils, angels, ghosts, and miraculous resurrections. Lay of Igor's Campaign narrates the expedition of Igor Svyatoslavich , the prince of Novgorod-Seversk, against the Cumans . It is neither epic nor a poem but is written in rhythmic prose. An interesting aspect of the text is its mix of Christianity and ancient Slavic religion . Igor's wife Yaroslavna famously invokes natural forces from

1378-513: The Living Great Russian Language of Vladimir Dahl , the name Kashchei is derived from the verb "kastit" – to harm, to dirty: "probably from the word "kastit", but remade into koshchei, from 'bone', meaning a man exhausted by excessive thinness". ("Bone" here is in Russian кость kost' .) Vasmer notes that the word koshchei has two meanings that have different etymologies: "thin, skinny person, walking skeleton" or "miser" –

1431-545: The Russian language developed as a convergence of that dialect and the central ones, whereas Ukrainian and Belarusian were continuation of development of the central dialects of the East Slavs. Also, Russian linguist Sergey Nikolaev, analysing historical development of Slavic dialects' accent system, concluded that a number of other tribes in Kievan Rus' came from different Slavic branches and spoke distant Slavic dialects. Another Russian linguist, G. A. Khaburgaev, as well as

1484-716: The Slavic languages that were, after all, written down) was influenced as regards style and vocabulary by religious texts written in Church Slavonic. Surviving literary monuments include the legal code Russkaya Pravda , a corpus of hagiography and homily , The Tale of Igor's Campaign , and the earliest surviving manuscript of the Primary Chronicle – the Laurentian Codex of 1377. The earliest dated specimen of Old East Slavic (or, rather, of Church Slavonic with pronounced East Slavic interference) must be considered

1537-558: The consonants of Proto-Slavic , with the exception of ť and ď which merged into č and ž respectively. After the 11th century, all consonants become palatalized before front vowels. The language was a descendant of the Proto-Slavic language and retained many of its features. It developed so-called pleophony (or polnoglasie 'full vocalisation'), which came to differentiate the newly evolving East Slavic from other Slavic dialects. For instance, Common Slavic *gȏrdъ 'settlement, town'

1590-454: The historical records. By c.  1150 , it had the weakest local variations among the four regional macrodialects of Common Slavic , c.  800  – c.  1000 , which had just begun to differentiate into its branches. With time, it evolved into several more diversified forms; following the fragmentation of Kievan Rus' after 1100, dialectal differentiation accelerated. The regional languages were distinguishable starting in

1643-501: The hypothetical uniform language of the East Slavs. American Slavist Alexander M. Schenker pointed out that modern terms for the medieval language of the East Slavs varied depending on the political context. He suggested using the neutral term East Slavic for that language. Note that there were also iotated variants: ꙗ, ѥ, ю, ѩ, ѭ. By the 13th century, ь and ъ either became silent or merged with е and о, and ѧ and ѫ had merged with ꙗ and у respectively. Old East slavic retains all

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1696-404: The language are sparse, it is difficult to assess the level of its unity. In consideration of the number of tribes and clans that constituted Kievan Rus' , it is probable that there were many dialects of Old East Slavonic. Therefore, today we may speak definitively only of the languages of surviving manuscripts, which, according to some interpretations, show regional divergence from the beginning of

1749-593: The many lives of the saints and the Fathers to be found in early East Slavic literature, starting with the two Lives of Sts Boris and Gleb , written in the late eleventh century and attributed to Jacob the Monk and to Nestor the Chronicler . With the so-called Primary Chronicle , also attributed to Nestor, begins the long series of the Russian annalists. There is a regular catena of these chronicles, extending with only two breaks to

1802-461: The meaning "to speak ornately, at length, excessively," is a misreading of an original мысію , mysiju (akin to мышь "mouse") from "run like a squirrel/mouse on a tree"; however, the reading мыслью , myslǐju is present in both the manuscript copy of 1790 and the first edition of 1800, and in all subsequent scholarly editions. The Old East Slavic language developed a certain literature of its own, though much of it (in hand with those of

1855-648: The meanings of many words found in it have not been satisfactorily explained by scholars. The Zadonshchina is a sort of prose poem much in the style of the Tale of Igor's Campaign , and the resemblance of the latter to this piece furnishes an additional proof of its genuineness. This account of the Battle of Kulikovo , which was gained by Dmitry Donskoy over the Mongols in 1380, has come down in three important versions. The early laws of Rus’ present many features of interest, such as

1908-447: The nascent distinction between modern East Slavic languages, therefore a number of authors have proposed using Old East Slavic (or Common East Slavic ) as a more appropriate term. Old Russian is also used to describe the written language in Russia until the 18th century, when it became Modern Russian , though the early stages of the language is often called Old East Slavic instead;

1961-595: The needle in Koschei's egg). It is thought that many of the negative aspects of Koschei's character are distortions of a more nuanced relationship of Khan Konchak with the Christian Slavs, such as his rescuing of Prince Igor from captivity, or the marriage between Igor's son and Konchak's daughter. Konchak, as a pagan, could have been demonised over time as a stereotypical villain. In the Explanatory Dictionary of

2014-535: The nominative case singular), declining according to the type "God". Numerous variant names and spellings have been given to Koschei; these include Kashchei , Koshchai , Kashshei , Kovshei , Kosh , Kashch , Kashel , Kostei , Kostsei , Kashshui , Kozel , Koz'olok , Korachun , Korchun bessmertnyi , Kot bezsmertnyi , Kot Bezmertnyi , Kostii bezdushnyi ; in bylinas he also appears as Koshcheiushko , Koshcheg , Koshcherishcho , Koshchui , Koshel . The term Koshey appears in Slavic chronicles as early as

2067-426: The origin of the word "bone"). Old Russian "youth, boy, captive, slave" from the Turkic košči "slave", in turn from koš "camp". Koschei, as the name of the hero of a fairy tale and as a designation for a skinny person, Max Vasmer in his dictionary considers the original Slavic word (homonym) and associates with the word bone (common Slavic * kostь ), that is, it is an adjective form koštіі (nominative adjective in

2120-1045: The original excerpt has been partly modernized. The translations are best attempts at being literal, not literary. c.  1110 , from the Laurentian Codex , 1377: [REDACTED] In this usage example of the language, the fall of the yers is in progress or arguably complete: several words end with a consonant, e.g. кнѧжит , knęžit "to rule" < кънѧжити , kǔnęžiti (modern Uk княжити , knjažyty , R княжить , knjažit' , B княжыць , knjažyc' ). South Slavic features include времѧньнъıх , vremęnǐnyx "bygone" (modern R минувших , minuvšix , Uk минулих , mynulyx , B мінулых , minulyx ). Correct use of perfect and aorist : єсть пошла , estǐ pošla "is/has come" (modern B пайшла , pajšla , R пошла , pošla , Uk пішла , pišla ), нача , nača "began" (modern Uk [почав] Error: {{Lang}}: invalid parameter: |3= ( help ) , B пачаў , pačaŭ , R начал , načal ) as

2173-402: The period after the common language of the East Slavs is sometimes distinguished as Middle Russian , or Great Russian . Some scholars have also called the language Old Rus'ian or Old Rusan , Rusian , or simply Rus , although these are the least commonly used forms. Ukrainian-American linguist George Shevelov used the term Common Russian or Common Eastern Slavic to refer to

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2226-408: The princesses. Ivan Sosnovich (Russian Иван Соснович ) learns of Koschei's weakness: an egg in a box hidden under a mountain, so he digs up the whole mountain, finds the egg box and smashes it, and rescues the princess. The Serbian Baš Čelik (Head of Steel); Hungarian 'Lead-Headed Monk'; and Slovak 'Iron Monk' also all hide their weakness inside a nested series of animals. Koshchei is mentioned as

2279-488: The pure tenth-century vernacular in North-West Russia , almost entirely free of Church Slavonic influence. It is also known that borrowings and calques from Byzantine Greek began to enter the vernacular at this time, and that simultaneously the literary language in its turn began to be modified towards Eastern Slavic. The following excerpts illustrate two of the most famous literary monuments. NOTE: The spelling of

2332-442: The seventeenth century. Besides the work attributed to Nestor the Chronicler , there are the chronicles of Novgorod , Kiev , Volhynia and many others. Every town of any importance could boast of its annalists, Pskov and Suzdal among others. In the 12th century, we have the sermons of bishop Cyril of Turov , which are attempts to imitate in Old East Slavic the florid Byzantine style. In his sermon on Holy Week , Christianity

2385-461: The tale, also known as " The Death of Koschei the Deathless ", Ivan Tsarevitch encounters Koschei chained in the dungeon of Marya Morevna (Ivan's wife). He releases and revives Koschei, but Koschei abducts Marya. Ivan tries to rescue Marya several times, but Koschei's horse is too fast and he easily catches up with the escaping lovers. Each time Koschei's magical horse informs him that he could carry out several activities first and still catch up. After

2438-473: The territory of former Kievan Rus' was divided between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Grand Duchy of Moscow , and two separate literary traditions emerged in these states, Ruthenian in the west and medieval Russian in the east. The political unification of the region into the state called Kievan Rus' , from which modern Belarus , Russia and Ukraine trace their origins, occurred approximately

2491-521: The third unsuccessful escape, Koschei cuts up Ivan and puts his body parts in a barrel which he throws into the sea. However, water of life revives Ivan. He then seeks out Baba Yaga to ask her for a horse swifter than Koshei's. After undergoing several trials he steals a horse and finally successfully rescues Marya. Tsar Bel-Belianin's wife the Tzaritza is abducted by Koschei (the wizard). The Tsar's three sons attempt to rescue her. The first two fail to reach

2544-417: The type AT 302 "The Giant Without A Heart" (see Aarne–Thompson classification systems ). He also appears in tales resembling type AT 313 "The Magic Flight". He usually functions as the antagonist or rival to a hero. Common themes are love and rivalry. The typical feature in tales about Koschei is his protection against death (AT 302). To kill him you must find his death which is hidden inside an egg. The egg

2597-599: The walls of Putyvl . Christian motifs present along with depersonalised pagan gods in the form of artistic images. Another aspect, which sets the book apart from contemporary Western epics, are its numerous and vivid descriptions of nature, and the role which nature plays in human lives. Of the whole bulk of the Old East Slavic literature, the Lay is the only work familiar to every educated Russian or Ukrainian. Its brooding flow of images, murky metaphors , and ever changing rhythm have not been successfully rendered into English yet. Indeed,

2650-427: The wizard's creatures and obtain the egg. He returns to the wizard's domain and kills him by squeezing the egg – every action on the egg is mirrored on the wizard's body. In "The Snake Princess" (Russian "Царевна-змея" ), Koschei turns a princess who does not want to marry him into a snake. Koschei hears of three beauties in a kingdom. He kills two and wounds a third, puts the kingdom to sleep (petrifies), and abducts

2703-425: The wizard's palace, but the third, Petr, succeeds. He reaches the Tzaritza, conceals himself, and learns how the wizard hides his life. Initially he lies, but the third time he reveals it is in an egg, in a duck, in a hare, that nests in a hollow log, that floats in a pond, found in a forest on the island of Bouyan . Petr seeks the egg, freeing animals along the way – on coming to Bouyan the freed animals help him catch

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2756-604: The written Sermon on Law and Grace by Hilarion , metropolitan of Kiev . In this work there is a panegyric on Prince Vladimir of Kiev , the hero of so much of East Slavic popular poetry. It is rivalled by another panegyric on Vladimir, written a decade later by Yakov the Monk. Other 11th-century writers are Theodosius , a monk of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra , who wrote on the Latin faith and some Pouchenia or Instructions , and Luka Zhidiata , bishop of Novgorod , who has left

2809-442: Was reflected as OESl. gorodъ , Common Slavic *melkò 'milk' > OESl. moloko , and Common Slavic *kòrva 'cow' > OESl korova . Other Slavic dialects differed by resolving the closed-syllable clusters *eRC and *aRC as liquid metathesis ( South Slavic and West Slavic ), or by no change at all (see the article on Slavic liquid metathesis and pleophony for a detailed account). Since extant written records of

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