About one of the possible source of The Tale of Tsarevich Svetomir by Viacheslav Ivanov

Abstract

The Tale of Tsarevich Svetomir by Vyacheslav Ivanovich Ivanov nowadays looks like a thoroughly researched work. Many of the pretexts of this long poem have been studied, various reminiscences and allusive layers have been revealed, and mythopoetic motives have been analyzed. Readers and researchers have shown great interest in the poem’s unusual discursive structure and the orientation of its language towards the Church Slavonic Bible and Old Russian literature, as well as the form of rhythmic prose chosen by the author, reminiscent of old French verses. However, the pattern of such prose can be found closer, in Russian literature of the 19th century. In a similar way, the narration is organized in one of the works of a writer close to the Slavophiles, Kokhanovskaya (Nadezhda S. Sokhanskaya, 1823–1884). Upon careful reading, her story “Roy-Theodosii Savvich during His Retirement” (1864) turns out, to be close to Vyacheslav Ivanov’s legend, not only rhythmically and phonetically, but also in terms of the system of images performing similar functions in both works. The coincidence of these two factors allows one to consider this half-forgotten work as one of the possible sources of the symbolist writer’s poem.