- early legends and characters to set stage for future lit
- oral literature
- holy men, vladimir, very active
- saints who thought activity was not the business of saints, world closer to god, monestary (kenotic saints)
- two brothers, most famous: boris and gleb
- sviatopolk, brother got angry, wanted to kill younger brothers
- boris did not run, rather die than fight with his brother
- gleb decided to die with boris
- josif volotsky: active saint, trying to bring the world closer to the beginning of god
- nil sorsky: lived in monestary,
- devils and demons: some could be nice, but mean if you cross them. christian devils, could tempt people
- punishment: turn russians in to horses and pull devil carriages and get whipped
- iurodivyi: a fool in christ — people would take care of them (kind of like monks?)
- st isaac, came back from being taken by the devil and then became one, when he died body did not smell or decay, proving his sanctity
- poetry/oral lit, existed in east slovic, spoken by common people
- the lay of the host of prince igor (compared to beowolf)
- mongols, displaced tatars so they moved down to kiev – tatars had better technology and methodologies
- igor made an alliance with khans, but igor went against it
- poem describes how he left the city
- when he left, an eclipse happened, bad omen
- igor moved on (pray to god)
- lost, him and all men put into captivity
- he laments he did not protect rous and his men, he thinks of he wife
- khan says he still wants an alliance and igor says he has to stay faithful to his wife and country – khan shows many women to igor and he still doesn’t go for it
- wife: yaroslavna: intelligent, literate (rare), beautiful – laments her husband “why did you sun, blow the wind…” why did nature work against him
- take beaver fur sleeve dipped in waters wiping away blood of beloved (?!)
- (see-er) 10 falcons on a flock of swans, compose a poem, recites it, puts people in a trance
- poem later some scholars said it was not written at the time, was written later for political reasons
- french scholar later proved that the epic is genuine based on language…. etc
- eventually successors of tatars came through and murdered and slaughtered whole city for treasure
- kiev went into 200 year rule of tatars, kiev “fell” and moscow became the new power city — was able to build a powerful fortress due to nature surrounding city (surrounded by hills etc) – kremlin, fortress
- 1500s moscow east slavic, russian languge now being used (ivan groznyi came to power, ivan the terrible)
- 1530s, started police that went around killing people he didn’t like (their symbol skull and broom sweep away)
- cruel yet powerful tsar, demanded he be called emperor (caesar, tsar) by others
- he went to get “kiev” back from tatar, used gun powder
- ivan tried to kill his general that helped him conquer, ivan said he is god’s representative and that is god’s will
- succeeded by boris gudonov, ivan did not have a son as a successor