This is Robert Mann's translation of the only surviving epic song from the Kievan period. The tale depicts the defeat of Prince Igor Sviatoslavich by the Polovtsy in 1185. As Mann explains in his commentary, the tale incorporates numerous song lines and motifs from early Russian wedding ritual. Phases in the battle are portrayed metaphorically as moments in the wedding ritual. The Kiev prince has a dream that is fashioned after a wedding song in which...
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