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Oleg the Wise

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Oleg
Lay of Oleg the Wise by Viktor Vasnetsov (1899)
Prince of Kiev
Reign881/2/889[1] – 912/922/940s[2]
PredecessorAskold and Dir
SuccessorIgor
Prince of Novgorod
Reign879–912
PredecessorRurik?[2]
SuccessorIgor
Died912[2]
Burial
Kiev (PVL[3]) or Ladoga (NPL[4])
Dynastydisputed[2]
Fatherunknown[1]
ReligionNorse paganism

Oleg (Old East Slavic: Ѡлегъ, romanized: Ōlegǔ, Ольгъ, Olǐgǔ;[5][6] Old Norse: Helgi; died 912, Ukrainian: Олег Віщий, Russian: Оле́г (Ве́щий Оле́г) ,[7] also known as Oleg the Wise,[a] was a Varangian prince of the Rus' who became prince of Kiev,[8][9][10][11] and laid the foundations of the Kievan Rus' state.[12]

According to the Primary Chronicle, he succeeded his "kinsman" Rurik as ruler of Novgorod, and subdued many of the East Slavic tribes to his rule, extending his control from Novgorod to the south along the Dnieper river. Oleg also launched a successful attack on Constantinople. He died in 912 and was succeeded by Rurik's son, Igor.

This traditional dating has been challenged by some historians, who point out that it is inconsistent with such other sources as the Schechter Letter, which mentions the activities of a certain khagan HLGW (Hebrew: הלגו usually transcribed Helgu. Compare Swedish first name Helge.) of Rus' as late as the 940s, during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Romanus I. The nature of Oleg's relationship with the Rurikid ruling family of the Rus', and specifically with his successor Igor of Kiev, is a matter of much controversy among historians.[13]

Oleg in chronicles

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Radziwiłł Chronicle Rurik with Igor and Oleg
The secret arrival of Oleg's military detachment at Ugorskoye near Kyiv; the announcement of young Igor as heir to the Kyiv throne; the murder of Askold and Dir on Oleg's orders. Miniature Radziwiłł Chronicle

According to the Primary Chronicle, Oleg was a "relative" or "kinsman" of Rurik[14] and was entrusted with the care of Rurik’s realm and his young son, Igor.[13] However, the nature of Oleg's relationship with Rurik remains unclear, and modern scholars often dispute the claim. Upon Rurik's death in 879, Oleg assumed control of Novgorod. Between 881 and 882, he expanded his influence, capturing Smolensk and seizing Kiev by reportedly deceiving and killing local rulers Askold and Dir. This marked the establishment of Kiev as the center of what became Kievan Rus'.[12] Despite later Muscovite chroniclers referring to Oleg as a "grand prince" and Kiev as a "grand principality," contemporary sources do not use such titles.[15]

Oleg having his shield nailed to the gates of Tzargrad (Constantinople).

In 883, Oleg imposed tribute on the Drevlians and incorporated them into the Kievan sphere of influence. In 907, he led a campaign against the Byzantine Empire, a key event in the Rus'-Byzantine War (907).[16] According to the Primary Chronicle, Oleg’s forces used wheeled ships propelled by wind to assault Constantinople, forcing the Byzantines into peace negotiations. Oleg famously fixed his shield to the city gates and secured a favorable trade treaty, benefiting both nations. However, Byzantine sources do not mention this campaign, though the treaty text survives in the Chronicle.[17]

The Novgorod First Chronicle presents an alternate account, rejecting Oleg’s familial ties to Rurik and depicting him as a Scandinavian military leader who served Igor. This version dates Oleg's death to 922 rather than 912, contrasting with the thirty-three-year reign attributed to both Oleg and Igor in the Primary Chronicle. While the Primary Chronicle places Oleg's grave in Kiev, Novgorodian sources identify his burial site as a barrow in Ladoga, reflecting differing traditions about his life and legacy.[18][19][20]

Death according to legend

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Oleg by the remains of his beloved horse; Oleg's death by snakebite. Miniature of the Radziwiłł Chronicle

In the Primary Chronicle, Oleg is known as the Prophet, an epithet alluding to the sacred meaning of his Norse name ("priest"). According to the legend, romanticised by Alexander Pushkin in his ballad "The Song of the Wise Oleg,"[21] it was prophesied by the pagan priests (volkhvs) that Oleg would take death from his stallion.[22]

To defy the prophecies, Oleg sent the horse away. Many years later he asked where his horse was, and was told it had died. He asked to see the remains and was taken to the place where the bones lay. When he touched the horse's skull with his boot a snake slithered from the skull and bit him. Oleg died, thus fulfilling the prophecy.[22] Oleg's death has been interpreted as a distorted variant of the threefold death theme in Indo-European myth and legend, with prophecy, the snake and the horse representing the three functions: the prophecy is associated with sovereignty, the horse with warriors, and the serpent with reproduction.[23] A variant of this story occurs in Scandinavian legend, in the 13th-century saga of Örvar-Oddr.[24] Another variant is found in the tale of Sir Robert de Shurland on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, England.[25]

Oleg of the Schechter Letter

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Tribute to Oleg from conquered tribes (884). Miniature from the Radziwiłł Chronicle, late 15th century

According to the Primary Chronicle, Oleg died in 912 and his successor, Igor of Kiev, ruled from then until his assassination in 945. The Schechter Letter,[26] a document written by a Jewish Khazar, a contemporary of Romanus I Lecapenus, describes the activities of a Rus' warlord named HLGW (Hebrew: הלגו), usually transcribed as "Helgu".[27] For years many scholars disregarded or discounted the Schechter Letter account, which referred to Helgu (often interpreted as Oleg) as late as the 940s.[28]

Recently, however, scholars such as David Christian and Constantine Zuckerman have suggested that the Schechter Letter's account is corroborated by various other Rus' chronicles, and suggests a struggle within the early Rus' polity between factions loyal to Oleg and to the Rurikid Igor, a struggle that Oleg ultimately lost.[29] Zuckerman posited that the early chronology of the Rus' had to be re-determined in light of these sources. Among Zuckerman's beliefs and those of others who have analyzed these sources are that the Khazars did not lose Kiev until the early 10th century (rather than 882, the traditional date),[30] that Igor was not Rurik's son but rather a more distant descendant, and that Oleg did not immediately follow Rurik, but rather that there is a lost generation between the legendary Varangian lord and his documented successors.[31] Of particular interest is the fact that the Schechter Letter account of Oleg's death (namely, that he fled to and raided FRS, tentatively identified with Persia,[32] and was slain there) bears remarkable parallels to the account of Arab historians such as Ibn Miskawayh, who described a similar Rus' attack on the Muslim state of Arran in the year 944/5.[33]

Attempts to reconcile the accounts

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In contrast to Zuckerman's version, the Primary Chronicle and the later Kiev Chronicle place Oleg's grave in Kiev, where it could be seen at the time of the compilation of these documents. Furthermore, scholars have pointed out that if Oleg succeeded Rurik in 879 (as the East Slavic chronicles assert), he could hardly have been active almost 70 years later, unless he had a life-span otherwise unheard of in medieval annals. To solve these difficulties, Parkomenko (1924) proposed that the pagan monarch-priests of Rus' used the hereditary title of helgu, standing for "holy" in the Norse language, and that Igor and others held this title.[34]

It has also been suggested that Helgu-Oleg who waged war in the 940s was distinct from both of Rurik's successors. He could have been one of the "fair and great princes" recorded in the Russo-Byzantine treaties of 911 and 944 or one of the "archons of Rus" mentioned in De administrando imperio.[35] But the Primary Chronicle does not specify the relations between minor Rurikid princes active during the period, although the names Rurik, Oleg and Igor were recorded among the late-10th-century and 11th-century Rurikids.[citation needed]

Georgy Vernadsky even identified the Oleg of the Schechter Letter with Igor's otherwise anonymous eldest son, whose widow Predslava is mentioned in the Russo-Byzantine treaty of 944.[36] Alternatively, V. Ya. Petrukhin speculated that Helgu-Oleg of the 940s was one of the vernacular princes of Chernigov, whose ruling dynasty maintained especially close contacts with Khazaria, as the findings at the Black Grave, a large royal kurgan excavated near Chernigov, seem to testify.[37]

[edit]
  • Oleg appears briefly in the Soviet film The Legend of Princess Olga (1983), played by Russian-Ukrainian actor Nikolay Olyalin.
  • Hungarian actor László Helyey portrayed Oleg in the Hungarian production Honfoglalás (1996), a biopic on Árpád (played by Franco Nero).
  • The Danish film A Viking Saga (2008) tells of the early life and career of Oleg. Oleg is played by Ken Vedsegaard, with Erik Holmey in the role of Rurik, Kim Sønderholm as Dir and Peter Gantzler as Askold, the primary antagonist.
  • Prince Oleg appears as the primary villain in season 6 of Vikings (2019–2020). In this production, Askold and Dir are portrayed as his brothers. He is played by Russian actor Danila Kozlovsky.
  • Prince Oleg appears in Russian docudrama The Rurikids. The story of the first dynasty (2019), which tells the story of the Rurik dynasty (9th–16th centuries). He is portrayed by Russian actor Dmitry Moguchev.
  • Oleg appears in the video game Crusader Kings III, where he is Rurik Rurikid's son named Helgi 'The Seer' who is of the Slovianska Pravda faith as opposed to Rurik's Ásatrú (Norse Pagan) faith.

Notes

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  1. ^ Belarusian: Алег Вешчы, romanized: Aleh Vieščy Russian: Олег Вещий, romanized: Oleg Veshij; Ukrainian: Олег Віщий, romanized: Oleh Vishchyi

References

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  1. ^ a b Ostrowski 2018, p. 44.
  2. ^ a b c d Ostrowski 2018, p. 42–44.
  3. ^ Ostrowski 2018, p. 32–33.
  4. ^ Ostrowski 2018, p. 40.
  5. ^ Chronicles by the Hypatian Lists (ЛѢТОПИСЬ ПО ИПАТЬЕВСКОМУ СПИСКУ) Archived 6 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ^ Vasmer, Max. "Этимологический словарь Макса Фасмера". p. Олег. Archived from the original on 21 December 2022. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  7. ^ "Sveerne". www.fortidensjelling.dk. Archived from the original on 7 May 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  8. ^ Brook, Kevin Alan (2006). The Jews of Khazaria. Second Edition. London: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. p. 55. ISBN 9781442203020. Archived from the original on 17 April 2023. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
  9. ^ Kendrick, T. D. (2018). A History of the Vikings. Routledge. pp. 508–509, 847. ISBN 9781136242397. Archived from the original on 5 March 2023. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
  10. ^ Reuter, Timothy (1995). The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 3, c.900–c.1024. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 891. ISBN 9780521364478. Archived from the original on 17 April 2023. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
  11. ^ Lock, Peter (2013). The Routledge Companion to the Crusades. Routledge. p. 8. ISBN 9781135131371. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
  12. ^ a b Dimnik 2004, p. 259.
  13. ^ a b Ostrowski 2018, p. 30–31, 39.
  14. ^ Gabriel Bie Ravndal (1938). Stories of the East-vikings. Augsburg publishing house. p. 173. Archived from the original on 17 April 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  15. ^ Dimnik 2004, p. 259–260.
  16. ^ "The Russian Primary Chronicle".
  17. ^ "The Russian Primary Chronicle".
  18. ^ A. N. Nasonov, Novgorodskaia Pervaia Letopis Starshego i Mladshego Izvodov, (Moscow and Leningrad: ANSSR, 1950),109. cf. Kloss 337–343.
  19. ^ Shahmatov xxxii–xxxiii.
  20. ^ The earliest and most believable version seems to have been preserved in the Novgorod First Chronicle, which says that Oleg departed "overseas" (i.e., to Scandinavia) and was buried there.
  21. ^ Leningrad, Aurora Art Publishers, 1991.
  22. ^ a b "Prince Oleg and his Fateful Steed: A Story from Medieval Rus'". Medievalists.net. 1 October 2022. Archived from the original on 7 March 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  23. ^ Miller, Dean (1997). "Threefold death". In Mallory, J. P.; Adams, Douglas Q. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Taylor & Francis. pp. 577–578.
  24. ^ "Amazing Adventures Of Örvar-Oddr And Encounter With The Mysterious Ögmundr Flóki". Ancient Pages. 27 February 2023. Archived from the original on 7 March 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  25. ^ Harris, Oliver D. (2023). ""Grey Dolphin" and the Horse Church, Minster in Sheppey: the construction of a legend". Archaeologia Cantiana. 144: 97–123.
  26. ^ The text of the Schechter Letter is given at Golb 106–121. It is cited herein by folio and line (e.g. SL Fol. x:x)
  27. ^ SL Fol. 2r, 15–16; 17. The author of the letter describes Khazaria as "our land". SL Fol. 1r:19, 2v:15,20.
  28. ^ No less a personage than Mikhail Artamonov declared the manuscripts' authenticity beyond question. Artamonov 12. Nonetheless, other scholars expressed scepticism about its account, due in large part to its contradiction of the Primary Chronicle. E.g., Gregoire 242–248, 255–266; Dunlop 161. Anatoli Novoseltsev, noting the discrepancy, admits the document's authenticity but declares that the author "displaces the real historical facts rather freely." Novoseltsev 216–218. Brutskus asserted that HLGW was in fact another name for Igor. Brutskus 30–31. Mosin proposed that HLGW was a different person from Oleg and was an independent prince in Tmutarakan; the existence of an independent Rus' state in Tmutarakan in the first half of the tenth century is rejected by virtually all modern scholars. Mosin 309–325; cf. Zuckerman 258.
  29. ^ Zuckerman 257–268. Zuckerman cites, inter alia, to the Novgorod First Chronicle. Cf., e.g., Christian 341–345.
  30. ^ Pritsak 60–71; Shahmatov xxxii–xxxiii;
  31. ^ Pritsak 60–71. Pritsak placed the "lost generation" between Oleg and Igor. Zuckerman dismisses this as "outright speculation"; and places both as contemporaries in the early to mid tenth century.
  32. ^ Pavel Kokovtsov, when publishing a Russian translation of the letter in 1932, argued that FRS may refer to Thrace, where the Rus' forces were defeated by the armies of Lecapenus (online Archived 6 May 2007 at the Wayback Machine).
  33. ^ Miskawaihi 67–74; cf. SL Fol. 2v:3 et seq.
  34. ^ Parkomenko 1924, p. 24 et seq..
  35. ^ Brook 154.
  36. ^ Vernadsky 41 et seq.
  37. ^ Petrukhin 226–228.

Bibliography

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  • Artamonov, Mikhail. Istoriya Khazar. Leningrad, 1962.
  • Bain, Robert Nisbet (1911). "Oleg" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 76–77.
  • Brutskus, Julius D. Pismo Hazarskogo Evreja Ol X Veka. Berlin 1924.
  • Christian, David. A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia, Vol. 1. Blackwell, 1998.
  • Dimnik, Martin (January 2004). "The Title "Grand Prince" in Kievan Rus'". Mediaeval Studies. 66: 253–312. doi:10.1484/J.MS.2.306512. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
  • Dunlop, D.M. History of the Jewish Khazars. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1954.
  • Gregoire, H. 'Le "Glozel' khazare." Revue des Études Byzantines 12, 1937.
  • Golb, Norman and Omeljan Pritsak. Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1982. [Note:as each author was responsible for separate sections of the work, they are referenced separately above.]
  • Kloss, B.M. "Letopis' Novgorodskaja pervaja". Slovar' Kniznikov i Knizhnosti Drevnej Rusi, vol. 1. Leningrad 1987.
  • Kokovtsov P.S. Еврейско-хазарская переписка в X веке. Leningrad 1932.
  • al-Miskawaihi. The Eclipse of the 'Abbasid Caliphate. D. S. Margoliouth, trans. Oxford 1921.
  • Mosin, V. "Les Khazars et les Byzantins d'apres l'Anonyme de Cambridge." Revue des Études Byzantines 6 (1931): 309–325.
  • Nasonov, A.N., ed. Novgorodskaja Pervaja Letopis Starshego i Mladshego Izvodov. Moscow, 1950.
  • Novoseltsev, Anatoli P. Hazarskoe Gosudarstvo i Ego Rol' v Istorii Vostochnoj Evropy i Kavkaza. Moscow 1990.
  • Ostrowski, Donald (2018). "Was There a Riurikid Dynasty in Early Rus'?". Canadian-American Slavic Studies. 52 (1): 30–49. doi:10.1163/22102396-05201009.
  • Parkomenko, V. A. (1924). У истоков русской государственности [On the Origins of Rus' Statehood]. Leningrad: Gosizdat. p. 113.
  • Petrukhin V.Ya. "Князь Олег, Хелгу Кембриджского документа и русский княжеский род". Древнейшие государства Восточной Европы. 1998. Памяти А.П. Новосельцева. Moscow, Russian Academy of Sciences, 2000: 222–230.
  • Pushkin, Alexander. The Song of the Wise Oleg. Leningrad, Aurora Art Publishers, 1991.
  • Shahmatov, A.A. Ocherk Drevnejshego Perioda Istorii Russkogo Jazyka. Petrograd, 1915 (reprinted Paris 1967).
  • Zuckerman, Constantine. "On the Date of the Khazar’s Conversion to Judaism and the Chronology of the Kings of the Rus' Oleg and Igor." Revue des Études Byzantines 53 (1995): 237–270.
  • Vernadsky, Georgy. Kievan Rus. Moscow, 1996.
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Preceded by Prince of Novgorod
c. 879 – c. 912/922/940s 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Prince of Kiev
c. 881/2/9 – c. 912/922/940s
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