Древняя Русь и Скандинавия: Избранные труды

An expanded text about the martyrdom of the two Varangians reads also in the «Synaxaire» (Old Russian Prolog, beginning of the thirteenth century), a collection of short lives of saints arranged in calendar order, for 12 July[1436]. The «Prolog» text provides several important additions to the chronicle. First, it indicates the day of their commemoration that must be the exact date of their martyrdom– July, 12. Second, it gives the Christian name of the son – Ioann[1437] that remained unknown to the compiler of the «Primary Chronicle». These minor but important addenda suggest that the author of the «Prolog» text used not only the narration of the «Primary chronicle», probably an earlier version preceding the «Chronicle», but he also had another source – a short note about the martyrdom of the Varangians that included the date and the name of the originally supposed victim[1438].

An abridged version of the vita of the two Varangians was also incorporated into several redactions of «The Prolog Life» of St. Vladimir (for 15 July, not later than the first half of the thirteenth century). It is supposed that the legend about the Varangian martyrs was an integral part of the earliest life of St. Vladimir and served to contrast his pre-Christian godlessness, ferocity, polygamy to his saintly life after baptism[1439]. Basing on his study of the «Life» where the place of the baptism of Kievan citizens «at the place where nowadays there is the church of saint martyrs[1440]of Tur» was defined, A. Shakhmatov suggested that the secular name of the father was Porr or Þόrir[1441]. The church of Tur or Tury («Turova bozhnitsa») in Kiev is also mentioned in other sources without any connection with the Christianization[1442]^[1443]. This identification of the name is, however, open to doubts. First, the name of Tur in the posessive form Turova occurs only in latest manuscripts of the «Life». In earlier copies it reads either Petr's (Petrova) or of Boris and Gleb^u. Second, the location of this church does not coincide with the location of the Desjatinnaja church that was built, according to the «Primary Chronicle», on the site of the house of the Varangians[1444]. According to all available sources the citizens of Kiev were baptized in the Pochaina river, a tribute to the Dnieper. The Pochaina was used as a harbour and its shores beneath the Kievan hills were occupied by the Podol, a trade and artisan quarter of the city. The Desjatinnaja church was located on the hills within the fortified «princely» quarters. Thus, even if there was a church near the site where the Kievan inhabitants were baptized and it was called after a Tur or Tury (the name most probably of Old Norse derivation), it is impossible to identify this person with the Varangian martyr[1445].

The incorporation of the legend about the martyrdom of the two Varangians into several works of different character, both secular (chronicle) and clerical («Life of St. Vladimir», «Prolog») is an unusual phenomenon for Ancient Rus’. The event must have shocked the Christian community of Kiev and stories about the death for faith of the two Varangians spread rapidly and widely so that the narration of their exploit soon took shape and was used by different Christian authors writing for various purposes. A wide circulation of the legend must have been promoted also by the fact that the house of the Varangians stood at the place where Vladimir built the first church after the Christianization – the church was dedicated to Holy Virgin, it was

the earliest one to be bestowed with the tithe which gave rise to its name «the Tithe church» (Desjatinnaja tserkov’) and it enjoyed extraordinary popularity in Kiev. It is in the Desjatinnaja church that the first annals started to be written down and it is with this church that the origin of a short note on the martyrdom of the Varangians is connected. The clerics of the church were well aware and could not forget that their church rested on the remains of the martyrs or at least on the site they were martyred.