For the interpretation of the Tale of Igor’s Campaign: the mourning of Yaroslavna and historical realities

Category: Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature: Issue 19
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Author: A. M. Ranchin
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Andrey M. Ranchin — DSc in Philology, Assistant Professor, Professor of the Department of History of Russian Literature at the philological faculty at Lomonosov Moscow State University; Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie gory, 1, the 1st corpus of humanitarian faculties, 119991 Moscow, Russia.

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DOI: 10.22455/978-5-9208-0610-9-390-398
Keywords: The Tale about Igor’s Campaign, the mourning of Yaroslavna, the image of Vladimir Igorevich, the heroic epic, the fairy tale, mythopoetics.
Date of publication: March 05, 2020

Abstract: The article discusses the reasons why Yaroslavna, in her lament, grieves for her husband, Prince Igor Svyatoslavich, but does not even mention her son Vladimir, who was also captured by the Polovtsy. It is proved that the lack of mention about Vladimir cannot be explained by real reasons and does not have psychological motivation. It is shown that this peculiarity of Yaroslavna’s lament is explained by the mythopoetic nature of the The Tale about Igor’s Campaign. Igor’s defeat and captivity in the fairy-tale code of The Tale is depicted as a happy return from the realm of death, like a resurrection. Vladimir Igorevich, partly equivalent to the father in the plot of the “song”, after Igor escaping from captivity, confusing Konchak and abducting the bride from the “kingdom of death”, is not the protagonist of the Word, The doubling of the central character is impossible in the plot of the fairy tale, and Vladimir Igorevich is given a marginal role. Therefore, his mother Yaroslavna does not mourn him.

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