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The “Legend of Gorislava” (not “Rogned’” or “Rogneda”): An Edition, Commentary, and Translation
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Dubitando: Studies in History and Culture in Honor of Donald Ostrowski. Brian J. Boeck, Russell E. Martin, and Daniel Rowland, eds. Bloomington, IN: Slavica Publishers, 2012, 335–52. The “Legend of Gorislava” (not “Rogned’” or “Rogneda”): An Edition, Commentary, and Translation Francis Butler I. Introduction The Ostrowski-‐‑Birnbaum-‐‑Lunt edition of the Povest’ vremennykh let (PVL) con-‐‑ stitutes a monumental advance in the study of the single most important text for the history of Kievan Rus’.1 My contribution to this Festschrift consists of an edition of what I shall call the “Legend of Gorislava,” a short excerpt from a text sometimes called the Suzdal’skaia letopis’, which I prefer to call the Laurentian-‐‑Radziwill-‐‑Academy Chronicle or LRAC.2 The LRAC is itself a continu-‐‑ ation of the PVL, and the format of, and principles behind, the present edition are very similar (though not quite identical) to those used by Donald Ostrow-‐‑ ski and his distinguished co-‐‑editors. Moreover, the “Legend of Gorislava” is of interest because it contains a word-‐‑for-‐‑word echo, perhaps first noted in a publication by N. I. Kostomarov, of a passage in the PVL.3 I have included a translation of the “Legend of Gorislava” for anyone who may have difficulty reading the text. While I do not believe that truly “literal” translations exist, my own translation falls far closer to the “literal” than to the “literary” end of the spectrum, and much of its vagueness and clumsiness reflect qualities of the original. Some readers of these words may be familiar with the name “Rogneda,” which is commonly associated with one of the most important wives of Vladi-‐‑ mir Sviatoslavich of Rus’. A few readers may know that in all textual wit-‐‑ nesses of all entries in the PVL this woman’s name appears in forms that 1 Donald Ostrowski, David Birnbaum, and Horace G. Lunt, eds., The Pověst´ vremen-‐‑ nykh lět: An Interlinear Collation and Paradosis, 3 vols. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, distributed by Harvard University Press, 2003). Cited throughout by line number. 2 On nomenclature, see Polnoe sobranie russkikh letopisei, vol. 1, Lavrent’evskaia letopis’, ed. E. F. Karskii, reprint with new introduction by B. M. Kloss and appendix by O. V. Tvorogov (Moscow: Iazyki russkoi kul’tury, 1997), cols. 289–90; and Francis Butler, “The House of Rogvolod,” in Imenoslov: Istoricheskaia semantika imeni, vyp. 2, ed. F. B. Uspenskii (Moscow: Indrik, 2007), 189–204, here 196. 3 N. I. Kostomarov, Istoricheskie monografii i issledovaniia, vol. 13 (St. Petersburg and Moscow, 1881), 174. 336 FRANCIS BUTLER suggest a soft feminine nominative singular “Rogned’” rather than the hard feminine “Rogneda.”4 Many scholars believe that Rogned’ was renamed “Gorislava” in the course of the “Legend of Gorislava,” a narrative that appears in the entry for the March year AM 6636 (corresponding to 1128/1129 CE) in the LRAC and (in other forms) elsewhere.5 Indeed, the central figure in the “Legend of Gorislava” is a woman named “Gorislava,” and the “Legend” itself is very obviously a variation on what I shall hereafter call the “Legend of Rogned’” in the PVL. Nevertheless, while the “Legend of Gorislava” may be read as suggesting that Gorislava was not initially named “Gorislava,” no-‐‑ where does it indicate that she was initially “Rogned’.” In fact, the earliest text to suggest that Rogned’ (or “Rogneda”) was renamed “Gorislava” appears to have been a text generally known as Moskovskii letopisnyi svod 1479 g., though published under the title Moskovskii letopisnyi svod kontsa XV veka.6 The wide-‐‑ spread belief in such a renaming appears to be due largely to the influence of the 16th-‐‑century Nikonian Chronicle (which identifies Gorislava with “Rog-‐‑ neda”) in Karamzin’s History.7 In other words, despite the obvious and close resemblances between the “Legend of Rogned’” in the PVL entry for AM 6488 (980/981 CE) and the “Legend of Gorislava” in the LRAC (including the word-‐‑ for-‐‑word-‐‑similarity between the two texts noted by Kostomarov), the names of the women who figure in the two legends were initially different, and the assertion that Rogned’/Rogneda and Gorislava were one and the same person arose only in later chronicles; hence the title of the present edition. Although much more might be said about the relation of the legends of Rogned’ and Gorislava, I shall simply state that, unlike A. A. Shakhmatov and many others, but together with A. V. Rukavishnikov, A. F. Litvina, and F. B. 4 Pov...