Excerpts from The Ballad Of Igor's Raid

The Igor Tale is an epic poem generally considered to have been composed in the 12th century CE (though there remains a nagging dispute over whether it is a 18th-century forgery).  Its topic is the unsuccessful campaign of the Kievan Rus' prince Igor in 1185 against the Kumans (Polovtsy), a steppe people in constant conflict with Rus'.  While the object of that campaign is not altogether clear, it appears that Igor was attepting to regain control of the Kerch Peninsula, that part of the Crimea forming the southwestern edge of the Sea of Azov.  What the poem makes obvious, however, is what befell Igor: ignoring portents and warnings, he led his forces into battle and was annihilated.  The Igor Tale is usually regarded as one of Russia's fundamental creation legends, on the order of the Song of Roland for France, the Tales of the Heike for Japan, or the Arthur tales for England.  Whether or not it is as old as most believe, its description of glorious death in battle against the enemies of the realm became extremely important in the construction of [at the very least, modern] Russian identity.  Moreover, whatever its authenticity, it provides a stirring picture of the warrior culture that was twelfth-century Rus.'

1.  How do Igor and his brother mobilize their forces for a campaign against the Kumans?

2.  What are some of the portents and signs that augment the story of Igor's march to battle?  Why might they been included in the narrative?

3.  How does the actual battle proceed?   What happens to Igor and his forces?

4.  Assuming the Tale is authentic, why was its story of failure preserved?  What meaning might this commemoration of defeat have had for Kievan Rus'?

I.  INVOCATION

It does not suit us, brothers, to begin the verses of the ancient ballad of Igor's campaign (Igor, the son of Sviatoslav) with brusqueness....

Let us begin this narration, brothers, from the olden days of Vladimir to the present.  Igor strengthens his mind with courage, and quickens his heart with valour.  Full of martial spirit, he leads his valiant forces against the land of Kuman (1) in defence of the land of Rus'.

II.  PRINCE IGOR PREPARES HIS CAMPAIGN

lgor sees that all his warriors have become shrouded in darkness, and looks up towards where there should be bright sun. (2)   And Igor says to his army:  "Brothers and warriors!  It is better to be killed in battle than to be taken prisoner.  Let us mount our swift horses, brothers!  Let us see the blue river Don."

The prince's mind is seized by ambition, and his desire to drink from the great Don River hides evil omens from him.  He declares:  "I want to splinter my lance on the Kuman frontier.  Oh my Russians!  I want to drink with you from the Don with my helmet for my cup, or else lose my head there." (3)

lgor awaits his dear brother, Vsevolod.  Fighting Bull Vsevolod (4) comes to him and declares:  "My only brother, lgor, you are my shining light.  We are both sons of Sviatoslav.   Brother, order your fastest horses to be saddled.  Mine are ready -- they were already saddled at the city of Kursk.  My men of Kursk are renowned warriors.  They were swaddled as babies to the sound of trumpets.  They were raised by men wearing helmets and were fed their food on the points of lances.  They have known the road.  The ravines are familiar to them.  Their bows are taut, their quivers are open, and their sabres have been sharpened.  They run in the steppe like grey wolves, seeking honour for themselves and glory for their prince."

III.  THE OMENS

Prince Igor sets his foot in the golden stirrup (5) and rides into the open steppe.  The sun blocks his way with darkness and night.  Roaring storms awaken the birds.  The beasts begin to howl.   The sky-god Div rises. (6)  From the treetops he cries, enjoining the lands of obscurity to listen: the land of the Volga, the land on the Azov Sea, the land at the river Sula, (7) the city of Surozh, (8) the city of Kherson, (9) and you, the idol of the city of Tmutorakan.(10)

The Kumans hasten by secret ways to the great river Don. The wheels of their plunder-carts squeak in the middle of the night, sounding like scattering swans. 

Igor leads his warriors to the river Don. The birds in the oak forests foretell his misfortune. The wolves conjure up storms in the ravines.   Screeching eagles call wild beasts to feast on bones.  Foxes bark at crimson shields.  O Russian land!  You are already far away, beyond the hills!

IV.  THE FIRST DAY OF BATTLE: THE RUSSIANS ARE VICTORIOUS

The night is long and dark.  Finally the glow of dawn arrives and mist covers the steppe. The song of the nightingale dies out and the crows begin to caw.  Russian warriors block the wide prairie with their crimson shields.  They seek honour for themselves and glory for their prince.  Early that morning, the Russians trample the pagan Kuman armies.  Flying over the prairie like arrows, they gallop away with beautiful Kuman maidens.   With them they take gold and brocades, and costly velvets.  With cloaks and coats and fur mantles and with all kinds of Kuman garments, they began to make bridges across the swarnps and marshes.  The crimson banner, the white gonfalon, the scarlet panache, and the silver lance are taken to brave Igor, son of Sviatoslav. (11)   Having flown far, Oleg's brave clan sleeps in the steppe.  It was not born to be offended by falcons, nor by gyrfalcons, nor by those black ravens, the pagan Kumans.  But their Khan Gza is coming like a grey wolf.  Khan Konchak shows him the way to the great river Don.

V.  THE SECOND DAY OF BATTLE: THE VICTORY OF THE KUMANS

Very early on the second morning, a blood-red dawn announces the day.  Black clouds rise from the sea, trying to envelop the four suns. (12)  Blue lightning flashes through the clouds.  There is to be a mighty thundering.   A rain of arrows will come from the great river Don.  Here on the river Kaiala, (13) here on the great river Don, lances will be splintered and swords will be dulled on Kuman helmets.  O Russian land!  You are already far away, beyond the hills!

Now the winds, the grandsons of the god Stribog, (14) blow the arrows from the sea against brave Igor's regiments.  The earth groans, the rivers roil.  Dust covers the steppe.  The signal flags announce: "The Kumans have come from the river Don and from the sea. They encircle the Russian regiments from all sides."  The Devil's children fill the steppe with their battle cries.  Brave Russians bar it with their crimson shields.  Fighting Bull Vsevolod!  Your defence is firm, your arrows rain down upon Kuman warriors.  Your Frankish swords (15) crunch Kuman helmets.   Fighting Bull!  Wherever you gallop gleaming in your golden helmet, there fall the heads of pagan Kumans.  There Avar helmets (16) are split by your hands, Fighting Bull Vsevolod!  What wound can matter, brothers, to one who has forgotten honours and fortune, and his father's golden throne in the city of Chernihiv, (17) and the habits and ways of his dearly beloved and beautiful wife, the daughter of Prince Gleb?

....

VII. THE RUSSIAN DEFEAT

There have been battles and campaigns before, but never a battle like this.  From early morning to night, from evening to dawn, tempered arrows fly and swords rain down upon helmets.  Frankish lances resound, all this in the mysterious prairie, in the Kuman land.  The black earth under the hooves is strewn with bones, is drenched with blood.  Grief overwhelms the land of Rus'.

'What noise do I hear?  What clanging comes to my ears so early in the morning, before the dawn?'  Igor pities what is befalling his brother, Vsevolod.  He turns his troops around.  They fight for one day.   They fight for another day.  At noon on the third day Igor's banners fall.   Here, on the shores of the swift river Kaiala, the brothers are parted forever....

Notes:

Base map courtesy of www.theodora.com/maps used with permission.

(1) Kuman = A Turkic-speaking, nomadic steppe people. Known as Polovtsi by the Russians, Kumans by the Byzantines, Kun by the Hungarians, and Kipchaks or Kupchaks by their fellow Turks, they dominated the steppes as far as Hungary from the late eleventh into the thirteenth century.  Eventually they were overrun by the Mongol invasion.  One major group fled from the Mongols into Hungary in 1241, merging into the local population and providing it with the surname Kun.

(2) An allusion to the solar eclipse of May 1, 1185.

(3) The taking of defeated leaders' heads as trophies was not uncommon in steppe warfare.

(4) "Fighting Bull" may have been a reference to the temperament of the aurochs, the notoriously fierce wild European ox (now extinct).

(5) Apparently referring to ceremonial tack used to signify the leader of a war party.

(6) Div = the sky-god of pagan Rus.

(7) Sula River = a minor river in northeastern Ukraine.

(8) Surozh = important trading center of the day, in the Crimea.

(9) Kherson = city strategically located on the estuary formed by the Dniepr River as it flows into the Black Sea near Odessa.

(10) Tmutokoran = Crimean city on the Kerch Peninsula, which forms the southwestern border of the Sea of Azov.  The reference to the "idol" is obscure, though some scholars suggest there may have been a stone mother-diety.

(11) These were pennants and other heraldic-type devices signifying rank and identity.

(12) Four suns = metaphor for the four princes of Rus' who were defeated in the battle. 

(13) Kaiala River = The location cannot be identified with certainty, and it is possible that the reference is actually metaphorical (as in 'river of blame').

(14) Stribog = from context a pagan diety, the name apparently alluding to the father of the lesser gods.

(15) Probably a reference to swords forged in the Carolingian style (i.e. weapons of the sort used in Western Europe at roughly the time by Charlemagne's armies)

(16) Avars = a nomadic Turkic-speaking people who scythed through southern Russia and east-central Europe in the sixth century, winding up relatively sedentarized in the Caucasus by the twelfth.  Almost certainly the ancestors of the modern Avartsy, their fighting equipment typically included wood-framed leather helmets.   The reference is probably to helmets "in the Avar style," rather than to actual Avars.

(17) Chernihiv = One of the most important Kievan Rus' principalities, now a major city in present-day Ukraine.

Original non-verse translation from unknown source, revised for easier reading (syntax clarifications, tense changes, etc.) and annotated by Jon Bone on the basis of the Haney/Dahl translation and concordance.  For the full Haney/Dahl text, a brilliant example of textual scholarship, see http://faculty.washington.edu/dwaugh/rus/texts/igortxt2.htm#23.