Dr Ines Garcia de la Puente

Writing Legends, Crafting History: The Rus’ Primary Chronicle and Its European Counterparts

Legends of origins are important because they create a historical myth into which, centuries later, nations still believe to see themselves mirrored. My project proposes to study the earliest legend of the origins of Rus’ (located in today’s Ukraine, Belarus and Western Russia) within the framework of Western narratives. In doing so, it repositions Rus’ on the map of medieval European culture.

The results of my close reading and comparative study of chronicle legends will point to the possibility of the circulation of Western Latin texts in Slavonic-writing Rus’. It will also throw light on the processes of chronicle composition, and on the nature of narrative circulation and translation in the medieval world. With its pan-European approach, my project will contribute to our understanding of the causes of the problematic reception of 11th-12th-century Rus’ legacy in modern states that so loudly resonates in political events today.