Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature 1607-6192 2713-2226 IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2025-24-725-737 Research Article Articles DEATH OF “NARVA” AND SALVATION OF TSAR PETER: “RUSSIAN THEME” IN THE BOOK BRONTOLOGIA THEOLOGICO-HISTORICA Mikhail Yu. Ljustrov old-rus@imli.ru 2025 24 725 737 Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 The article examines the chapter “Sviogothia fulminibus et flammis punita,” which is a part of the book Brontologia Theologico-Historica, thet är enfaldig Lära och sanferdig berettelse om åske-dunder, blixt och skott (Stockholm, 1721) by Andreas Rhyzelius. The chapter we are interested in is a collection of chronologically arranged mostly short stories about ‘fiery disasters’ that happened in Sweden. The Russians mentioned in the chapter are declared by Rhyzelius to be both victims and perpetrators of the fires that occurred in Sweden. The relatively brief account of the loss of the Russian ship “Narva,” struck by lightning in 1715, is left out of the list of such stories. In the source of the Swedish story, the German book Das jetztlebende Schweden, auff dem grossen Schauplatz des Nordischen Krieges, published in 1716, the name of the ship that exploded is linked to the name of the town near which the Swedes defeated the Russians in 1700. After the conclusion of the Peace of Nystad, there was no point in speculating about a turning point in the Russo-Swedish war; for this reason, Rhyzelius omits speculations about the same name of the ship and the city and supplements the story with a fictional account of the rescue of Tsar Peter, who had the intention of boarding the doomed ship. As it follows from the Swedish book, another monarch hostile to the Swedes, King Sigismund III Vasa, was at risk of perishing on a ship struck by lightning. In addition, the ending of the Swedish story about the destruction of the ‘Narva’ turns out to be in line with the stories of European authors of the turn of the 17th–18th centuries, for example, I.G. Korb, about the miraculous rescue of tsar Peter at sea. 1. Ljustrov, Yu. “Virdzhinskie medvedi i moskovitskie kabany: russkaia tema v shvedskom ‘Kratkom rasskaze o Vest-Indii, ili Amerike’.” [“Virginian Bears and Muscovite Boars: Russian Theme in the Swedish ‘Short Story on the West Indies, or America’.”]. Germenevtika drevnerusskoi literatury [Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature]. Issue 22. Ed.-in-chief O.A. Tufanova. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2023, pp. 331–342.  https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2023-22-331-342 (In Russian) 2. Ljustrov, Yu. “Russko-ammonitianskaia  tema  v  shvedskoi  literature pervoi chetverti  XVII veka” [“Russian-Ammonite Theme in Swedish Literature of the First Quarter of the 17th  Century”]. Germenevtika drevnerusskoi literatury [Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature]. Issue 23. Ed.-in-chief O.A. Tufanova. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2024, pp. 303–313.  https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2024-23-303-313 (In Russian) 3. Helander, Neo-Latin Literature in Sweden in the Period 1620–1720. Stylistics, Vocabulary and Characteristic Ideas. Uppsala, Uppsala universitet, 2004. 628 p. (In English)