THE MOTIF OF BINARY CHARACTERS IN “THE TALE OF THE BATTLE WITH MAMAI”

Abstract

There are several paired characters in “The Tale of the Battle of Mamai.” These are Dmitry Donskoy and Vladimir Serpukhovsky, brothers Andrey and Dmitry Olgerdovich, Peresvet and Oslyabya, as well as the heavenly helpers of the warriors — the first Russian saints Boris and Gleb. The poetic technique of depicting paired heroes is used in The Tale with a certain artistic aim. The comprehension of this aim allows to put a point in the dispute of researchers concerning the image of Dmitry Donskoy in this work. Some of them believed that the author of The Tale created a panegyric to the Grand Duke, approaching to hagiographic praises, according to others — it is a pamphlet directed against him, minimizing and distorting his role in the battle. The article suggests that the author uses the image of paired characters to divide military functions between the main characters. Thus the role of the heroic prince-warrior, the real winner on the battlefield is assigned by the author to Vladimir Andreevich Serpukhovsky, and Dmitry Ivanovich acts as an ideal Christian, whose unwavering faith in God and diligent prayers ensured the victory of the Russian army. The article shows that the paired characters of The Tale go back to the binary images of the ancient and medieval heroic epic, the archetypal model of these imagesis the myth of the Dioscuri.