КАКИМ «РУКАВОМ» УТИРАЛА ЯРОСЛАВНА КРОВАВЫЕ РАНЫ ИГОРЯ (К ВОПРОСУ О ПОЭТИКЕ «СЛОВА О ПОЛКУ ИГОРЕВЕ»)
WHAT “SLEEVE” DID YAROSLAVNA WIPE CLEAN IGOR’S BLEEDING WOUNDS WITH (ON THE STUDY OF THE POETICS OF THE TALE OF IGOR’S CAMPAIGN)

Summary/Abstract: There still remain some “obscure passages” in the “Tale of Igor’s Campaign” that have no convincing interpretation. However, even those interpretations that seemed quite clear, sometimes need a revision. The article aims at specifying the meaning of the phrase “biebryan sleeve”, present in Yaroslavna’s Lament. Upon completion of the research work by N. A. Meshchersky, it was commonly accepted that “biebryan” means here ‘made of byssus, silk’. Recently, however, this idea as well as the very presence of the word “biebryan” in the original text of the Tale was called into question. It is necessary to find out whether this doubt is well-grounded. The meaning of the word “rukav” (sleeve) did not raise doubts among researchers. It was accepted that it means a sleeve of a female dress. To correlate this meaning with the context the word is used in, researchers had to presume that Yaroslavna wiped clean Igor’s bleeding wounds with a sleeve of a long sleeve shirt. It is arguable, however, that this is exactly a sleeve and not any other part of a female dress. To understand the meaning of the phrase one needs to take into account research works on the history of the Byzantine and Old Russian dress, the phrase berchat sleeve found in bylinas, and Serbian songs about warriors (“yunatski”) where female characters “wipe clean” and bandage wounds of heroes.

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