The Serbian Alexandreid and The Trojan History are examples of the “high” courtly literature that entered Russian letters in the fifteenth century. But during the same period several other works of quite a different nature, close to the oral tradition of the Middle Ages, also appeared in Russia. One of […]

The absence of a clearly expressed moral and an appropriate ending is characteristic of another work that entered Russia from South Slav literature in the latter half of the fifteenth century, the book of fables entitled Stefanit and IkhnilatP The structure of the plot was rather complex. Deriving from the […]

Original Tales. Alongside the translated tale, which was fully mastered by Russian literature in the fifteenth century, the same period saw the creation of original tales in Russia. These tales were extremely varied in content and character. They included stories about real and comparatively recent historical events (similar to The Tale […]

This tale has an even more pronounced folk-tale character. The subject matter is simple. It tells of a certain monk who is puzzled by the New Testament words in St Matthew: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto […]

The Tale of Dracula is based on legends about the Wallachian (Rumanian) prince of the middle of the fifteenth century Vlad Tepes (Dracula) famed for his cruelty. These legends circulated and were written down in the neighbour­ing countries of Hungary and Germany that bordered on Wallachia. The Russian Tale of […]

The plot structure of The Tale of Basarga and His Son Quick-Wit is not as complex as that of The Tale of Dracula, It is not a combination of anecdotes, but one long story.30 It tells how the merchant Basarga and his seven-year-old son Quick-Wit set off on a journey […]

The Voyage Beyond Three Seas by the Tver merchant Afanasy Nikitin is a work that stands alone in the literature of the fifteenth century. Outwardly it resembles the accounts of pilgrimages to the Holy Land which had existed since the twelfth century or the description of journeys to church councils. […]

1 On Euphrosyne see: Лурье Я. С. “Литературная и культурно-просветительная деятельность Ефросина в конце XV в.”. ТОДРЛ, Vol. XVII, 1961, i- рр. 130-168; Дмитриева Р. П. “Приемы авторской правки книгописца Ефросина (к вопросу об индивидуальных чертах Кирилло-Белозерского списка Задонщины)”. In the book: “Слово о полку Игореве” и памятники Куликовского цикла. […]