Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This study is focused on the fear of foreigners in the oldest East Slavic chronicles and hagiography. Among texts written in different settings, at different times, and in different genres, there are deep differences in how they viewed contact with foreigners. In general, however, the existence and actions of foreign ethnic groups were not inherently important to the authors of the earliest East Slavic literature. They were only considered worthy of recording if they were directly related to the history of Rus'. The image of fearsome foreigners thus served primarily as a counterpoint to the construction of the collective identity of the inhabitants of medieval Rus'.
Source: Studia historica Brunensia
DOI: 10.5817/shb2025-1-5
Author: Jitka Komendová
Institution: Palacký University Olomouc
Language: English
Subfield: Classics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4413224932