The Birchbark Press of Karacharovo

The Igor Tale is one of the world's greatest treasures of the medieval period. It is an unparalleled combination of masterful artistry and folkloric simplicity that has bedazzled Russia's greatest poets and her leading minds. Skeptics have put forward all kinds of theories claiming it is a forgery concocted by an 18th-century genius or even by the wife of Count Musin-Pushkin, who discovered the tale in the 1790's, but the evidence continues to mount that it is the text of a genuine epic song from the end of the twelfth century.

Here I offer my translation of the Igor Tale with a commentary that should properly be called an interpretation. What we don't know about early Russian culture far outweighs what we do know. For this reason, any attempt to understand the sole surviving epic from the Kievan Period is inevitably based on a foundation of hypotheses and surmises. I have tried to formulate an interpretation that leads the reader along a straight path that is not lost in a clutter of conflicting arguments. To obtain this translation in book form or to read other books about the Igor Tale, navigate to the online store.  

Follow the link below to view the Igor Tale: