Sources of information about
Prince Oleg the Prophet

ATTENTION! Links to the listed sources lead to Russian-language versions of the documents, as we do not have the ability to translate large source fragments. If you do not understand Russian, you can use the built-in translation feature (for Google Chrome).

This page contains the sources of information we used on the personality of Prince Oleg the Prophet – books, articles, clippings from magazines, etc. To the extent possible, without violating copyright, we have added links for downloading original documents, or information for self-search of publication

Historical documents

Tale of Bygone Year

Повѣсть врємѧнныхъ лѣтъ (also called the “Original Chronicle” or “Nestor’s Chronicle”) – the earliest of the ancient Russian chronicles of the beginning of the 12th century that have come down to the present day. Known from several editions and lists with minor deviations in the texts introduced by scribes. Was compiled in Kyiv.

We have cited clippings related directly to the reign of Prince Oleg the Prophetic, translated by D.S. Likhachev.

Source

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Saga of Odd the Arrow

We present a fragment of the saga describing the prophecy about death and the very death of its main character Odd, which is in many ways similar to the chronicle description of the death of Prince Oleg the Prophet.

It is difficult to say whether Odd and Oleg were the same person, or whether the mixing of their biographies occurred over time when retelling the events of the life of two famous warriors, however, these two plots have something in common.

Source

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Books (secondary sources)

V. N. Tatishchev – “Russian History”

In Tatishchev, it is worth paying attention primarily to two fragments that tell about the Prophetic Oleg – the first, this is subsection “G” in the 4th chapter of the 1st book, which describes the so-called. “Joachim Chronicle”.

The second section (2nd chapter of the 2nd book) is more detailed, it is a description of Oleg’s reign, collected by Tatishchev from various sources.

Read chapter 4
1st book

Read Chapter 2
2nd book

S. M. Solovyov “History of Russia since ancient times”

This excerpt from the fundamental work of S. M. Solovyov “History of Russia from ancient times” contains a description of the reign of Prince Oleg the Prophet, as well as related events.

The fragment was cut from the 5th chapter of the 1st volume.

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N. M. Karamzin “History of the Russian State”

This clipping from N. M. Karamzin’s large-scale historical work “History of the Russian State” contains a detailed description of the reign of Prince Oleg the Prophet.

The fragment represents the 5th chapter of the 1st volume.

Read