Zadonshchina: the Russian poem of the battle of Kulikovo

The Zadonshchina ('the tale beyond the Don') is an Old Russian poetic lament and victory song about the battle of Kulikovo (8 September 1380), traditionally attributed to Sofony of Ryazan and closely modelled on the Lay of Igor's Campaign. This corpus copy is I. I. Sreznevsky's 1858 Academy edition, which combines the 15th century Kirillo-Belozersk manuscript with the later Undolsky copy, adds variant passages from the prose tales of the 'Mamai battle', and a long commentary. Sreznevsky argues the poem circulated orally and was written down from memory. The 1959 Academy edition listed on the card is not stored in this corpus.

How they knew

From informants

Who “Tartar” means here

The Tatars are the army of the Golden Horde under the emir Mamai, called 'pagan Tatars', 'Muslims' (busormane) and, in poetic language, 'Khinova'. Batu, the conqueror of 1237 to 1240, is remembered as the model of Horde power.

Why read it

The Russian literary memory of the Horde at the moment its hold began to break: Tatars as grey wolves, the loot of their camp, Mamai fleeing to Genoese Kaffa, and (in Sreznevsky's notes) the chronicle scene of Batu's siege of Kiev.

Watch out

This is poetry, not a battle report: numbers and speeches are rhetorical and hostile to the 'pagans'. Some quotes come from Sreznevsky's editorial matter and from later prose tales he prints alongside, and are labelled as such.