The Tale of Igor's Campaign

"The Tale of Igor's Campaign" is a unique monument of Old Russian literature: telling the story of the unsuccessful campaign of the Prince Igor Svyatoslavich of Novgorod-Seversk against the Polovtsians in 1185, an unknown author of the late 12th century combined epic with lyric poetry and the book tradition with folklore. It is hardly possible to imagine Russian literature without the "Tale," and it is even more surprising that its long path to the reader could have been interrupted at any moment. The only source, an ancient handwritten collection, was discovered by the antiquities collector A. I. Musin-Pushkin in the late 18th century, and soon after its first publication, it was burned in the Moscow fire of 1812. Rediscovered after almost seven hundred years of oblivion, the "Tale," in the words of the poet A. N. Maykov, "made an epoch in our literary world": for many years it has inspired writers, artists, and composers. This edition includes both the best adaptations and translations of "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" and its original text in Old Russian with commentary.