Борисоглебская проблема: вопрос доверия источникам
Boris and Gleb problem in light of source reliance

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses on two approaches to the solution of Boris and Gleb problem: traditional, whose supporters tend to trust domestic sources, and alternative, according to which any available historical source may be given priority. The author attempts to add some new methods to the study of Boris and Gleb problem. Не distinguishes three basic sources: the Chronicle of Titmar Merzeburgsky, the Legend on Boris and Gleb (repeated in the Primary Chronicle « ale of Bygone Years») and the Saga of Eymund. Special attention should be paid to genre features of these texts. The Saga as an epic writing concen- trates on the relationship between people and their opposition, and this information we can trust. The purpose of Life is to teach certain ethical ideas. The main ethical content of Lives of Boris and Gleb is kindness to murderers and the assassin's paymaster, readiness to sacrifice one's life life Christ and the con- sent to concede superiority to the elder brother who not only encroaches on it, but also has the right to claim it. Genre characteristics testify to the correctness of the alternative approach, which is emphasized by similarity of foreign preferences of Boris, Gleb and Svyatopolk.

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