Igor Tale found or lost? (STRAKHOV'S POINT)

Wed Jun 10 15:51:03 UTC 2009

	Dear Richard,
	unfortunately, I cannot answer your question without consulting with Golovin's edition. I am pretty sure that you find answers to this question in the new book by Robert Mann which (no doubts!) is worthy of reading. My skepticism is based only on one point: today we know more than one hundred manuscripts of the Skazanie; all of them belong to eight redactions of the text (Osnovnaia, Letopisnaia, Rasprostranennaia, etc.). None of them has readings attested in Golovin's version (I mean those that have such striking similarities with the Igor' Tale). Rich manuscript tradition of the Skazanie makes the uniqueness of these Golovin's reading (there are few of them) to look suspicious (at least, in my eyes). Therefore, in my opinion, before comparing Golovin's version with the Igor' Tale (and before claiming it to be an undoubtful proof of the Igor' Tale's authenticity) one has to find a place for it within the manuscript tradition of the text.
	And then, who knows? Perhaps, Golovin did discover something. Once again, the problem is that he says nothing of where and how he found his manuscript. O.S.
	P.S. True, the Golovin's version is not discussed in "Slovo-Zadonshchina-Skazanie" articles. Is it because it was overlooked by herds of scholars who studied this problem or because they all were skeptical, I do not know. 

-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Richard Schultz
Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 10:38 AM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Igor Tale found or lost? (STRAKHOV'S POINT)

Steven and Olga, I share your skepticism. 
Olga, you seem to have firsthand knowledge of the Golovin version of the Skazanie.  
What, exactly, did Golovin add to make the text more like the Igor Tale? That is, in what way is Golovin's text closer than the Zadonshchina to the Igor Tale? Looking through my editions of the Skazanie, I find no mention of Golovin's version anywhere, although Tvorogov has an entry about Golovin in Entsiklopediia Slova o polku Igoreve. He says nothing in his entry to cast real doubt on the authenticity of Golovin's version.
  Richard

----- Original Message ----
From: Prof Steven P Hill <s-hill4 at ILLINOIS.EDU>
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 2:18:15 AM
Subject: [SEELANGS] Igor Tale found or lost? (Strakhov's point)

Dear colleagues and Prof Strakhov:

Mann's new publication is definitely worth our attention.  At the 
same time, I think it should be taken with a grain of salt, and we 
can thank Olga Strakhov for being the first (or one of the first) 
to mention that grain of salt.  It's a question that nagged me 
previously, but which I did not post on this list-server till now.
So hosannahs to Prof Strakhov for standing up and posting it.

Namely,  where is the ORIGINAL mss of that particular "Skazanie" 
which Golovin edited (?) and published in 1835.  We all could hope 
that the particular mss which Golovin found (and later lost?)
could be precisely photo-reproduced (in addition to the edited 
[?] version which Golovin did publish)...

With a bit of skepticism,
Steven P Hill,
University of Illinois.
________________________________________________________

Date: Wed 10 Jun 00:42:28 CDT 2009 
From:  <LISTSERV at bama.ua.edu> 
Subject: Re: GETPOST SEELANGS 
To: "Steven P. Hill" <s-hill4 at ILLINOIS.EDU> 

Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 11:46:46 -0400 
From: "Strakhov, Olga" <strakhov at GSD.HARVARD.EDU> 
Subject: Re: Another Igor Tale hoax? 

As far as I understand, in his book Robert Mann compares Slovo o Polku Igoreve 
with Nikolai Golovin's edition of the Skazanie of Mamaevom poboishche. 
Nikolai Golovin published his version of Skazanie in Moscow in 1835 (see 
"Skazanie o poboishche velikago kniazia Dimitriia Ioannovicha Donskago s 
nechestivym tsarem Mamaem: i s bezchislennymi tatary na Donu, na reke 
Nepriadve, na pole Kulikove, 1380 goda 8-go sentiabria: sochinenie XV stoletiia", 
izdal Nikolai Golovin [Moskva: V tip. A. Semena, 1835]; quoted after the copy of 
the Houghton Library, Harvard). 
Golovin's text in some respect is closer to Slovo than the Zadonshchina. 
The problem is that the original manuscript of Golovin's edition has never been 
found. Hence, it is quite possible (and more than possible, since this version is 
unique in many readings) that Golovin either "corrected" or "reconstructed" his 
text so that it might look more "Igor'-like". 
In short, Golovin's version of the Skazanie is well known, but is not considered to 
be reliable. 
Olga Strakhov 
_____________________________________________________________ 

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