Boyan () is the name of a

bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is an oral repository and professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's a ...

mentioned in the

Rus' Rus or RUS may refer to: People * East Slavic historical peoples (). See Names of Rus', Russia and Ruthenia ** Rus' people, the people of Rus' ** Rus, a legendary eponymous ancestor, see Lech, Czech and Rus * Rus (surname), a surname found in Ro ...

epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale Epic(s) ...

'' The Lay of Igor's Campaign'' as being active at the court of

Yaroslav the Wise Yaroslav I Vladimirovich ( 978 – 20 February 1054), better known as Yaroslav the Wise, was Grand Prince of Kiev from 1019 until his death in 1054. He was also earlier Prince of Novgorod from 1010 to 1034 and Prince of Rostov from 987 to 1010, ...

. He is apostrophized as

Volos Volos (; ) is a coastal port city in Thessaly situated midway on the Greek mainland, about north of Athens and south of Thessaloniki. It is the capital of the Magnesia (regional unit), Magnesia regional unit of the Thessaly Region. Volos ...

's grandson in the opening lines of ''The Lay'' (probably a reference to Veles as the patron of musicians). Historians have been unable to determine whether Boyan was his proper name (as

Nikolai Karamzin Nikolay Mikhailovich Karamzin () was a Russian historian, writer, poet and critic. He is best remembered for his fundamental ''History of the Russian State'', a 12-volume national history. Early life Karamzin was born in the small village of ...

and

Fyodor Buslayev Fedor Ivanovich Buslaev (; April 25, 1818 – August 12, 1898) was a Russian philologist, art historian, and folklorist who represented the Mythological school of comparative literature and linguistics. He was profoundly influenced by Jacob Grim ...

postulated) or if all

skald A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry in alliterative verse, the other being Eddic poetry. Skaldic poems were traditionally compo ...

s of Rus were called ''boyans'' (

Alexander Vostokov Alexander Khristoforovich Vostokov (born Alexander Woldemar Osteneck; ; – ) was one of the first Russian philologists. Background He was born into a Baltic German family in Arensburg, Governorate of Livonia, and studied at the Imperial Aca ...

). Although ''The Lay'' is the only authentic source mentioning Boyan, his name became exceedingly popular with later generations. He is mentioned in the ''

Zadonshchina ''Zadonshchina'' (; could be translated as "the region beyond the Don River, Russia, Don River") is a Russian literary monument of the late 14th century, which tells of the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380. The text Redactions and the Prototext ' ...

'' and

Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is conside ...

's ''

Ruslan and Ludmila ''Ruslan and Ludmila'' ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform ) is a poem by Alexander Pushkin, published in 1820. Written as an epic literary fairy tale consisting of a dedication (посвящение), six "cantos" ( песни), and an epilogue ( ...

''. The folklorist

Alexander Afanasyev Alexander Nikolayevich Afanasyev (; – ) was a Russian Slavist and ethnographer best known for publishing nearly 600 East Slavic and Russian fairy and folk tales, one of the largest collections of folklore in the world. This collection was ...

considered Boyan a precursor of Ukrainian ''

kobzar A ''kobzar'' ( ; ) was an itinerant Ukrainian bard who sang to his own accompaniment, played on a multistringed kobza or bandura. Tradition The professional kobzar tradition was established during the Hetmanate Era around the sixteenth cen ...

''s. Soviet scholars tended to associate him with the House of

Chernihiv Chernihiv (, ; , ) is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within the oblast. Chernihiv's population is The city was designated as a Hero City of Ukraine ...

, assuming that he started his career at the court of

Mstislav of Tmutarakan Mstislav Vladimirovich (died ) was the earliest attested prince of Tmutarakan and Principality of Chernigov, Chernigov in Kievan Rus'. He was a younger son of Vladimir I of Kiev, Vladimir the Great, the grand prince of Kiev. His father appointed ...

Boris Rybakov Boris Aleksandrovich Rybakov (; 3 June 1908, Moscow – 27 December 2001, Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian archeologist and historian. He was one of the main proponents of anti-Normanist vision of Russian history. He is the father of Indologis ...

supported this theory and linked his name to a graffito on the wall of

Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev The Saint Sophia Cathedral (, або Софія Київська) in Kyiv, Ukraine, is an architectural monument of Kievan Rus'. The former cathedral is one of the city's best known landmarks and the first heritage site in Ukraine to be inscribe ...

which mentions a purchase of "Boyan's land" by "

Vsevolod Vsevolod or Wsewolod ( ; ) is a Slavic male first name. Its etymology is from Slavic roots 'vse' (all) and 'volodeti' (to rule) and means 'lord-of-everything/everybody', (similar to another princely name, "Vladimir" or "Volodymyr"). It is equiva ...

's wife". The Russian version of the

button accordion A button accordion is a type of accordion on which the melody-side keyboard consists of a series of buttons. This differs from the piano accordion, which has piano-style keys. Erich von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs categorize it as a free reed aerop ...

is known as the

bayan Bayan may refer to: Educational institutions * Bayan Islamic Graduate School, Chicago, IL Places *Bayan-Aul, Pavlodar, Kazakhstan *Bayan Mountain, an ancient mountain name for part of Tarbagatai Mountains at Kazakhstan in Qing Dynasty period *B ...

and was named after legendary Boyan upon its invention in 1907. Boyans were different from

skomorokh A skomorokh (, Ukrainian and Russian: , , . Compare with the Old Polish , ) was a medieval East Slavic harlequin or actor, who could also sing, dance, play musical instruments and compose for oral/musical and dramatic performances. Etymolog ...

s but wandering storytellers were also beaten, their fairy tales were forbidden, they were prosecuted by the authorities, and they eventually disappeared.

References

*''The Encyclopaedia of The Lay of Ihor's Campaign'', in five volumes. Kyiv, 1995. Volume 1, pages 147-153. {{DEFAULTSORT:Boyan The Tale of Igor's Campaign 11th-century poets Russian male poets Belarusian male poets Ukrainian male poets 11th-century people from Kievan Rus' Articles containing video clips