A poem on Igor Sviatoslavich's defeat by the Polovtsians in 1185 that addresses the princes of the day by name: Vsevolod of Vladimir, Rurik and David Rostislavich, Yaroslav of Galich, Roman of Volhynia and the Olgovichi of Chernigov, of whom Igor himself was prince from 1198. It is a political map of the south as a court poet saw it just before 1200 and a witness to the Polovtsian steppe. Its authenticity has been argued over since 1800 because the manuscript burned in 1812, though most scholars accept it.
About this source
- Title
- Slovo o polku Igoreve
- Author
- Anonymous
- Author's dates
- a poet of the southern Rus' courts
- Written
- about 1187 to 1200 (disputed)
- Language
- Old East Slavic
- Covers
- the campaign of 1185, with a survey of the princes of the 1180s and 1190s
- Kind
- Poem
Date and authenticity are disputed; treat it as a witness to attitudes rather than to events of 1200.
Where to read it
Editions
- First edition by A. I. Musin-Pushkin and others, Iroicheskaya pesn o pokhode na polovtsov (Moscow 1800); modern Russian editions not verified online in this task (not freely online)
Translations
- L. A. Magnus (ed. and trans.), The Tale of the Armament of Igor, A.D. 1185 (London 1915), English with Old East Slavic text
- V. Nabokov (trans.), The Song of Igor's Campaign (New York 1960), English; under copyright (not freely online)