But the author of the poetic legend was not the ever-remembered Ryazan and it was undoubtedly written in the 15th century, therefore not contemporary with the event. The Zadonshchina is older than it, and Sophony was one of the first glorifiers of the Zadonsk victory. His work has not reached us in its entirety, but only in echoes, recorded from memory in legends, in changing, fluctuating poetic episodes.
The second monument, after the chronicle legend: “poetic legend” is imbued with the spirit of religious, spiritual poetry and represents a rounded whole. The 10th century was the golden age of monasticism. Monasteries appeared in the wooded deserts. The strength of the spirit, humbled by the blows of fate in the first half of the Tatar yoke, became an active, creative force, arranging the salvation of the brethren. Squads stood out from the people, closed around the courageous abbots and they went to meet feats, dangers, difficulties of all kinds. But their goal was different from the goal of the heroes - defenders of the fatherland. Mental benefit, the salvation of the soul - this is the motivation for which strong, unyielding ascetics first of all needed humility. It is this spirit of humility that permeates our story. Its main character is Sergius. With His blessing and prayers great things are accomplished. The poeticized personality of the Radonezh abbot, the father of the new northern Russian monasticism, only in the 15th century. could appear in such splendor and with such meaning.
This story is a religious poem, with a lively, partly folk
I. O. KHRUSCHOV,
character. This is a kind of Lusiad of Moscow creativity, where the profane, popular element is reconciled with the monastic outlook. The anachronisms that scientists talk about, as if they were inserted by copyists, constitute an essential part in the body of the legend and thus indicate that the legend is not contemporary with the event. But these anachronisms are natural and can be easily explained. For completeness, the author needed to outline the relationship of the humble Grand Duke to his father, the Metropolitan of All Rus'. Memory of Cyprian in the 15th century. was fresh, he was remembered as a teaching shepherd and they remembered that he was a contemporary of Dmitry Ivanovich. This was enough for his personality to be installed in Moscow during the farewell of Demetrius, although Cyprian was not a metropolitan during the Zadonsk campaign. The same thing happened with the Lithuanian Grand Duke. Jogaila could not be remembered like Olgerd, who waged a long and stubborn war with Moscow. The author of the story failed to keep track of the year of Olgerd’s death in the chronicle. He remembered Olgerd as Dmitriev's enemy. The third anachronism is the prayer of the Grand Duke before the image of the Mother of God, transferred from Vladimir already under his son. At the time of writing the legend, the image of the Vladimir Mother of God was an integral and primary shrine of Moscow, and the author, leading the prince from church to church, was inspired alternately by the shrines of the Kremlin under his own impressions. He did not remember the ceremonial transfer of the icon from Vladimir to Moscow. Another proof that the monument was written not earlier than the 15th century.