- I am paraphrasing the view of P. Maas, Textkritik, 2nd ed., 1950, 13.
- La Geste du prince Igor… Texte… sous la direction d'Henri Grégoire, de Roman Jakobson et de Marc Szeftel, assistés de J. A. Joffe [= Annuaire de l'Institut de Philologie et d'Histoire Orientales et Slaves, 8, 1945–47], This book will be referred to throughout as La Geste.
- For this and all other English renderings of passages of the Tale the translation by S. H. Cross (La Geste, 151–179) has been used.
- The scribe must have been puzzled by the “free” position of the reflexive pronoun, which in the later language became inseparable from the verb. To remove the difficulty, he eliminated the pronoun altogether.
- Enumeration of these readings in V. Perete, Slovo o polku Ihorevim, 1926, 305.
- Slavistična Revija 3, 1950, 378f., 390.
- Op. cit., 123.
- Slovo o polku Igoreve, ed. V. P. Adrianova-Peretc, 1950, 26 (the text of the Tale has been edited by D. S. Lixačev).
- F. Buslaev, Russkaja xrestomatija, 1888, 100.
- V. Peretc, Slovo o polku Ihorevim, 305, finds it paleographically inadmissible.
- Slovo…, ed. Adrianova-Peretc, 70, 98.
- In the commentary to our passage, provided on p. 461 of the work quoted in the preceding note, there is not even a mention of the fact that neznaema is a conjecture.
- By coincidence, as will soon be seen. Of course, we will not consider this form as an adverbialized locative. Such a postulated form, derived from a passive participle and having an active (?) meaning, besides being a hapax, is not a satisfactory remedy. A. Potebnja, Slovo o polku Igoreve… (Voronež 1878; 2nd ed., Xarkiv 1914), p. 136, who does not comment on his own conjecture, takes it in a passive sense.
- La Geste, 197, 71, 173.
- Some of these details are confirmed by the Hypatian and Laurentian Chronicles; cf. La Geste, 118, 144.
- According to the Hypatian Chronicle, only fifteen Rusɔ warriors escaped death. We may assume that Belovolod Prosovič, mentioned in the same source, who brought the tidings of the defeat to Great Prince Svjatoslav (then in Novgorod-Seversk land), was one of the survivors.
- The Tale, vv. 29, 67, 128; for examples derived from the Chronicles, cf. Slavo…, ed. Adrianova-Peretc, 394. The same technical term was used to designate the Cuman nation. When the author of the Poxvala of Feodosij Pečerskij referred to the havoc wrought by Cuman incursions towards the end of the eleventh century, he said that cities of Rusɔ had been taken ot jazyka neznaema, ‘by the unknown people’. Cf. D. Abramovyč, “Kyevo- Pečersɔkyj Pateryk”, in Vseukrajinsɔka Akad. Nauk, Pamjatky movy ta psyɔmenstva davnjoji Ukrajiny 4, 1930, 93. For a similar expression, cf. a Prologue-type Life of St. Constantine-Cyril, where we read that this apostle azbukvy neznaemi sъstavi dobrě ‘skillfully composed an unknown [i.e. hitherto unknown, unfamiliar] alphabet,’ Materialy po istorii vozniknovenija drevnejšej slavjanskoj literatury, 1930, 104.
- V. I. Borkovskij, “O jazyke suzdalɔskoj letopisi po Lavrentɔevskomu spisku”, in Akad. Nauk SSSR, Izvestija komisii po russkomu jazyku I, 1931, 10, where we find, for example: be (= bože)… sozdavyi nbo (= nebo) i. ž. (= zemlju). Cf. also E. F. Karskij, Slavjanskaja kirillovskaja paleografija, 1928, 243.
- Undolɔskij ms. Cf. J. Frček, Zádonšina… (Prague 1948), p. 2 of synoptic texts.
- Ždanov ms. Text in S. K. Šambinago, “Povesti o Mamaevom poboišče”, in Imper. Akad. Nauk, Sbornik ORJaS 81:7, 1906, 104.
- A similar case is found in another passage of the Zadonščina (Frček, op. cit., p. 17 of synoptic texts), where the ms. of the Kirillo-Belozerskij monastery omits the word zemlja, preserved in all other mss. The reconstruction of the Zadonščina is currently being undertaken by Professor Jakobson.
- J. Tymčenko, “Nominatyv i datyv v ukrajinsɔkij movi”, in Ukrajinsɔka Akad. Nauk, Zbirnyk istor.-filol. viddilu, 32, 1925, 31. Cf. E. F. Karskij, “Nabljudenija v oblasti sintaksisa Lavrentɔevskogo spiska letopisi”, in Akad. Nauk SSSR, Izvestija po russkomu jazyku i slovesnosti 2:1, 1929, 32–33 (of course, with verbs of movement). The closest parallel to our text is found in the so-called Christmas Sermon of John of Damascus (ed. A. Nikolɔskaja, “K voprosu o pejzaže v drevne-russkoj literature”, Sbornik statej v čestɔ… A. I. Sobolevskogo, 1928, 435 f.): i slavii i lastovica pripěvajut goram. J. Tymčenko, op cit., p. 36, adduces examples from Ukrainian folklore texts of the type kozak orlu promovljaje.
- On alliterations in the Tale cf. D. Tschižewskij, Geschichte der altrussischen Literatur im 11., 12. und 13. Jahrhundert, 1948, 343f. and 414–16. Cf. also the same author's “On Alliteration in Ancient Russian Epic Literature”, in Russian Epic Studies, edd. R. Jakobson and E. J. Simmons, 1949, 125–130.
WORD
Volume 8, 1952 - Issue 4: Slavic Word No. 1