The Enchanted Wanderer and Other Stories

  1. “big fire” in Orel: There were several major fires in Orel during the first half of the nineteenth century. The “big fire” referred to here is probably the one in 1848, which destroyed much of the town.

  2. “a big part … memory”: A paraphrase of lines from the poem “Monument,” by Gavrila Derzhavin (1743–1816), which is in turn a paraphrase of the Exegi monumentum (“I have built a monument”) of Horace (65–8 BC), the closing poem of his third book of odes.

  3. Orel Assembly of the Nobility: See note 34 to “The Enchanted Wanderer.”

  4. A Nest of Gentlefolk: A novel by Ivan Turgenev (1818–83), published in 1859. Turgenev, like Leskov, was born in Orel, but unlike Leskov he belonged to the wealthy landed gentry.

  5. the hundred and four sacred stories … book: One Hundred and Four Sacred Stories from the Old and New Testaments, a popular eighteenth-century collection of biblical stories, translated from the German.

  6. Alexei Petrovich Ermolov: General Ermolov (1777–1861) distinguished himself in the Napoleonic Wars (1805–1814) and was then sent to the Caucasus, where he was made commander in chief of Russian forces. He retired in 1831 and spent the last thirty years of his life on his estate near Orel.

  7. molokan: The word comes from moloko (“milk”). It was applied derisively to a Christian sect that emerged in seventeenth-century Russia, because its members drank milk on fast days, contrary to Orthodox teaching. They called themselves “Spirit Christians” and rejected all churches, not only the Orthodox.

  8. St. Agafya the Dairymaid: An eighteenth-century martyr, patron saint and protector of cattle, who died on February 5, 1738.

  9. The Cool Vineyard: A handwritten book of medical advice translated from the Polish at the end of the seventeenth century. It became very popular and spread among the Russian people until the early nineteenth century. Leskov quotes from a printed edition of 1879.

10. Naum Prokofiev: Despite the author’s claim here, Russian scholars have been unable to identify the man.

11. athelaea … Manus-Christi sugar: A list of partly fanciful, partly authentic medicaments. “Sealed earth” is terra sigillata, a medieval medicinal earth; “Malvasian wine” is made from the Malvasian varieties of grapes, originally grown in the Mediterranean basin; “mithridate” is an ancient remedy made up of as many as sixty-five different ingredients, used in treatment of the plague; “Manus-Christi sugar” is a cordial made by boiling sugar with violet or rose water, thought to give enfeebled people “a hand” (manus).

12. bezoar-stone: A gray or black stone from the stomach of a goat or other herbivorous animal, much used in popular medicine and believed to cure many diseases.

13. rebaptizers: Leskov may be referring to the Anabaptists (literally “rebaptizers”), who had come to southern Russia from Germany in the later eighteenth century, but more likely he means Old Believers who practiced rebaptism (see note 6 to “Lady Macbeth”).

14. young St. George: The feast of St. George is celebrated on April 23.

15. Bishop Nikodim: Nikodim (d. 1839) was bishop of Orel from 1828 to 1839.

16. Apollos: Apollos Baibakov (1745–1801) was bishop of Orel from 1788 to 1798.

17. the saint … revealing himself: See note 16 to “The Enchanted Wanderer.” The saint in this case uses more radical methods to “reveal himself.” Reference will be made to the “revealing of relics” at the end of chapter 7.

18. the prophet Jeremiah … its own day: The prophet Jeremiah is commemorated on May 1, St. Boris on May 2, St. Mavra on May 3, St. Zosima (of Volokolamsk) on May 8, St. John the Theologian (the Evangelist) likewise on May 8, St. Nicholas on May 9, and Simon the Zealot on May 10, which is also the pagan Slavic feast day of Mother Earth.

19. St. John’s … the joints of the earth: The birth of St. John the Baptist is celebrated on June 24, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul on June 29. The feast day of St. Theodore of the Wells is June 8.