A Study Guide for Anonymous's "The Song of Igor's Campaign"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Anonymous's "The Song of Igor's Campaign," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Epics for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Epics for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Sep 20, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535839679

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10

The Song of Igor's Campaign

Anonymous

C. 1185

Introduction

The Song of Igor's Campaign is one of the classics of medieval epic literature and the only surviving example of the epic form written in Russian. It was composed between 1185 and 1187, shortly after the events it describes took place. The epic relates the unsuccessful expedition of Prince Igor of Novgorod-Seversk in Kievan Rus against the nomadic tribes known as the Kumans, who had been raiding the Kievan Rus lands in the southeast. Igor is defeated and captured, but he eventually escapes and returns to Kievan Rus.

Kievan Rus was the name of the area about which the epic author writes. This area was subsequently divided between Russia and Poland, along with other neighboring powers. Later still, it was one of the republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (called the Soviet Union or the USSR), and at dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the republic gained its independence as Ukraine. Kievan Rus is used in this chapter as the name of the country because that was its name in the 1100s at about the time the epic was written. However, people in the epic are referred as Russian.

The manuscript of The Song of Igor's Campaign was discovered in 1795 and first published in 1800. The one surviving manuscript was then destroyed in the fire of Moscow in 1812. Fortunately, a copy had been made for Russia's Catherine the Great (1729–1796). However, there are many corrupt passages where the anonymous author's meaning is unclear.

The Song of Igor's Campaign has always been treasured for its literary quality. It is dense with imagery, simile, and metaphor, and shows great structural variety. To the tale of Igor's military campaign, the author adds reminiscences of the country's past. He employs laments, panegyrics (passages which lavishly praise a person), omens, and dreams. The Song of Igor's Campaign is also notable for its poetic view of nature, in which animals, vegetation, and natural forces react to and even shape the actions of humans. The author's psychological insight into his characters has also been admired.

The author pleads for unity among the Kievan Rus princes, who had a history of feuding among them. The author believes that disunity leads to disaster. A melancholy feeling, therefore, pervades the epic. Although the author makes Igor's defeat seems more important than it was historically, his words proved prophetic. Early in the next century, the Mongol army of Genghis Khan (1162–1227) conquered Kievan Rus and subjugated it for two hundred years.

Author Biography

The author of The Song of Igor's Campaign is unknown. Scholars believe the epic was