Ol'ga's Conversion and the Construction of Chronicle Narrative

Abstract

T A he Povesf vremennykh let, variously known in English as the Primary Chronicle or the Tale of Bygone Years, is the single most important source for the history of Kievan Rus'. Although the origins of the Povesf are obscure, the earliest portions of the text certainly date to after the acceptance of Christianity by St. Vladimir Sviatoslavich of Rus', an event that the Povesf itself dates to AM 6496 (988/989 CE).1 In fact, these portions probably date to a considerably later period, some time after the ecclesiastical literary initiative of Vladimir's son, Iaroslav the Wise, dated by the Povesf to AM 6545 (1037/1038).2 The full text of the Povesf in its currently extant form almost certainly dates no later than the colophon of Hegumen Sylvester, which appears in the Laurentian, Radziwill, and Academy manuscripts of the text and is dated AM 6624 (1116/1117).3 The entry for AM 6463 (955/956) in the Povesf, which describes how Ol'ga of Rus', the grandmother of St. Vladimir, at once received baptism in Byzantium and avoided marriage to a Byzantine emperor, has doubtless entertained generations of readers.4 Yet although this entry holds an important place in a lengthy and heated debate about the time and place of Ol'ga's baptism (probably not 955/956), the passage itself has received rather