Absent Horses in the Story of Svyatoslav’s Conquests in The Primary Chronicle of Rus’

Abstract

This study examines the importance of horses who are physically absent but whose presence is implied either by direct reference to a horse or by metonymy, referring to objects of equipment associated with horses, such as the saddle and the bridle, as narrated in the Laurentian Codex of The Primary Chronicle. Three episodes where the warhorse is absent, but its presence is implied or imagined, are introduced by the chronicler. All these episodes concern Prince Svyatoslav, one of the last pagan rulers of Rus’. Not only do these episodes confirm the significance of horses in Rusian culture and their polysemantic potential, but they also present problems of interpretation for readers and translators encountering the text today. The narrative and its translations and adaptions into modern languages thus need to be re-examined with an eye on equine history, in order to understand the implications introduced by the author in mentioning the physically absent equines.