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who wrote a continuation of the chronicle of Nestor,
and we can see from that the endeavor of the unknown
poet to confine himself to the historic truth. It is quite
true that we find in the “Story of Igor” many traditions
or mythical stories incorporated with the principal
event, while the monk who is the author of the
chronicle has carefully eliminated every heathen expression
and element, but still there is a more evident attempt in
the chronicler to endow the heroes with fine qualities.
When the battle is lost the princes are advised to fly.
In the chronicle they refuse to do so; they will not
desert their men, their common soldiers, but will live or
die with them. The story has nothing of this. And
when Igor is taken prisoner according to the chronicle
he refuses for a long time to escape from captivity,
because he has given his word to the princes of the
Polovtsians, until at last the regard for Russia, now so
exposed to the enemy, moves him. In the story he is
at once ready for flight.
When we mentally compare the “Story of Igor” with
the heroic lays of the Edda, which are probably of
greater antiquity and, at any rate, describe a rougher
and wilder form of national life, the Russian poem, no
doubt (in contradistinction to the Niebelungennôt), has
the inequality and lyrical form as well as the predilection
for a vivid dramatic representation in common with
the Norse poems, but the essential feature of the Slavic
epic is still entirely distinct. In the first place, the
latter possesses an individuality. We do not know the
author’s name, but his entity stands out very distinctly
before the reader, rich as it is in enthusiasm and piety.
He speaks in his own name, stands as an individual
responsible for his words, is conscious of a personal style
of composition which is less flighty and fantastic than
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