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Oleg of Novgorod

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Ancient History,
Classical History and Mythology

   Fyodor Bruni. Oleg Has His Shield Fixed to the Gates of Constantinople.
   Enlarge
   Fyodor Bruni. Oleg Has His Shield Fixed to the Gates of Constantinople.

   Prince (or konung) Oleg ( Slavic: Олег, Old Norse: Helgi, Khazarian,
   possibly Helgu) was a Varangian ruler who moved the capital of Rus from
   Novgorod the Great to Kiev and, in doing so, founded the powerful state
   of Kievan Rus. According to East Slavic chronicles, he was a supreme
   ruler from 879 to 912, which dates do not comply with the Schechter
   Letter mentioning the activities of certain khagan HLGW of Rus in the
   940s.

Oleg of East Slavic chronicles

   A relation (likely brother-in-law) of the first ruler, Rurik, the
   Varangian Helgi was entrusted by Rurik to take care of both his kingdom
   and his young son Ingvar, or Igor. Oleg gradually took control of the
   Dnieper cities, captured Kiev (previously held by other Varangians,
   Askold and Dir) and finally moved his capital from Novgorod there. The
   new capital was a convenient place to launch a raid against Tsargrad (
   Constantinople) in 911. According to the chronicle, the Byzantines
   attempted to poison Oleg, but the Rus' leader demonstrated his oracular
   powers by refusing to drink the cup of poisoned wine. Having fixed his
   shield to the gate of the imperial capital, Oleg won a favourable trade
   treaty, which eventually was of great benefit to both nations. Although
   Byzantine sources did not record these hostilities, the text of the
   treaty survives in the Primary Chronicle.

   The Primary Chronicle's brief account of Oleg's life contrasts with
   other early sources, specifically the Novgorod First Chronicle, which
   states that Oleg was not related to Rurik, and was rather a
   client-prince who served as Igor's army commander. The Novgorod First
   Chronicle does not give the date of the commencement of Oleg's reign,
   but dates his death to 922 rather than 912. Scholars have contrasted
   this dating scheme with the "epic" reigns of roughly thirty-three years
   for both Oleg and Igor in the Primary Chronicle. Besides, the Primary
   Chronicle and other Kievan sources place Oleg's grave in Kiev, while
   Novgorodian sources identify a funerary barrow in Ladoga as Oleg's
   final resting place.
   Viktor Vasnetsov. Oleg being mourned by his warriors (1899).
   Enlarge
   Viktor Vasnetsov. Oleg being mourned by his warriors (1899).

   In the Primary Chronicle, Oleg is known as the Prophet (вещий), an
   epithet nodding to the sacred meaning of his Norse name ("priest"), but
   also ironically referring to the circumstances of his death. According
   to this legend, romanticised by Pushkin in his celebrated ballad, it
   was prophesied by the pagan priests that Oleg would take death from his
   stallion. Proud of his own foretelling abilities, he 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. In Scandinavian traditions, this legend lived on in the saga
   of Orvar-Odd.

Helgu of the Schechter Letter

   According to the Primary Chronicle, Oleg died in 913 and his successor,
   Igor of Kiev, ruled from then until his assassination in 944. The
   Schechter Letter, 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". For years many
   scholars disregarded or discounted the Schechter Letter account, which
   referred to Helgu (often interpreted as Oleg) as late as the 940's.

   Recently, however, scholars such as David Christian and Constantine
   Zuckerman have suggested that the Schechter Letter's account is in sync
   with various other Russian 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. 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 900's (rather than 882, the traditional date), 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.

   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, and was slain there) bears remarkable parallels
   to the account of Arab historians such as al-Miskawaihi, who described
   a similar Rus attack on the Muslim state of Arran in the year 944/5.

Attempts to reconcile the accounts

   Prince Oleg Approached by Pagan Priests, a Kholuy illustration to
   Pushkin's ballad.
   Enlarge
   Prince Oleg Approached by Pagan Priests, a Kholuy illustration to
   Pushkin's ballad.

   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 when these documents were compiled. Furthermore, scholars
   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, if his was not a case of longevity unheard of in medieval
   annals. To solve these difficulties, it has been proposed that "helgu",
   standing for "holy" in Norse language, was a hereditary title of the
   pagan monarchs-priests of Rus and that this title was held by Igor,
   among others.

   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. Regrettably, 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.

   Georgy Vernadsky even identified Oleg of the Schechter Letter with
   Igor's otherwise anonymous eldest son, whose widow Predslava is
   mentioned in the Russo-Byzantine treaty of 944. 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.
   Neither of these theories has been endorsed in the academic mainstream,
   however.
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