The whole expedition is described in this poetical style, in three hundred and eighty-four unrhymed lines, with a curious mingling of heathen beliefs and Christian views. God shows Igor the road "to the land of Polovetzk, to the Russian land," and on his return from captivity, Igor rides to Kieff to salute the Holy Birth-giver of God of Pirogoshtch, while the Polovtzy are called "accursed," in contrast with the orthodox Russians. But the winds are called "the grandchildren of Stribog," and the Russian people are alluded to as "the grandsons of Dazhbog," both heathen divinities, and other mythical and obscure personages are introduced. With this epic lay, the first period of Russian literature closes. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. How did Vladimir and his son provide for the education of their people? 2. What kind of literature naturally grew out of the learning of the monasteries? 3. What was the chronicle of Nestor? What special interest has it? 4. Quote some of the precepts from the "Exhortation of Monomachus." 5. By what good fortune has "Igor's Raid" been preserved? 6. What is the character of this Epic Song? FOOTNOTES: [4] Evidently an ancient epic bard. CHAPTER III SECOND PERIOD, FROM THE TATAR DOMINION TO THE TIME OF IVAN THE TERRIBLE, 1224-1330. During the Tatar Dominion, or yoke (1224-1370), Kieff lost its supremacy, and also ceased to be, as it had been up to this time, the center of education and literature. The dispersive influence of the Tatar raids had the effect of creating centers in the northeast, which were, eventually, concentrated in Moscow; and in so far it proved a blessing in disguise for Russia. The conditions of life under the Tatar sway were such, that any one, man or woman, who valued a peaceful existence, or existence at all, was driven to seek refuge in monasteries. The inevitable consequence was, that a religious, even an aesthetic, cast was imparted to what little literature was created. One celebrated production, dating from about the middle of the fourteenth century, will serve to give an idea of the sort of thing on which men then exercised their minds and pens. It is the Epistle of Archbishop Vasily of Novgorod to Feodor, bishop of Tver, entitled, "Concerning the Earthly Paradise," wherein the author discusses a subject of contention which had arisen among the clergy of the latter's diocese, as to "whether the earthly paradise planted by God for Adam doth still exist upon the earth, or whether not the earthly but only an imaginary paradise doth still exist." The worthy archbishop, with divers arguments, defends his position, that the earthly paradise does still exist in the East, and hell in the West: which latter proposition is not surprising when we recall the historical circumstances under which it was enounced.