APOCALYPTIC MOTIVES OF THE GALITIC-VOLYN CHRONICLES

Abstract

The article, based on the text of the Galician-Volyn Chronicle, identifies and analyzes the apocalyptic motifs characteristic of the late Middle Ages in Ukrainian literature. Among the numerous historical characters of the annals, there are those who associatively resonate with the image of the antichrist (devil, Satan), created in the New Testament "Revelation of John the Baptist" ("Apocalypse"). The motif of "God's punishment" permeates those episodes in the annals, which deal with the cruel deeds of individual historical figures (voivode Benedict, Hungarian king Béla). The pages of the Galician-Volyn Chronicle are filled with pictures of terrible murders, because it was primarily the place for military campaigns and battles, which were countless in the Galician and Volyn lands in the 13th century. The sons of the Galician prince Roman (Danilo and Vasylko) were noted for their particular cruelty, which did not prevent the chronicler from glorifying them, because they acted in accordance with the medieval code of chivalry. Therefore, the report that these brothers looted and devastated cities and villages is not interpreted as a manifestation of cruelty and ruthlessness. The years 1237-1242, when the Mongols and Tatars ravaged the Russian lands, are filled with pictures of terrible events. In the Galician-Volyn chronicles, fire appears more than once as a destructive force, as a sign of the apocalypse. The chronicler completes the description of the terrible fire in the Polish city on the bank of the Vistula Sudomira with numerous human victims with a ritual picture similar to a funeral procession. The completeness of the destruction as a sign of the apocalyptic catastrophe appears more than once on the pages of the annals, and the chronicler always points to this completeness. Some omen was depicted as a harbinger of trouble. In the "Tale of Bygone Years" there are many such signs recorded, less in the Kyiv Chronicle, and in the Halytsia-Volyn Chronicle – isolated mentions of them. The semantics of such phenomena is always the same: the signs foretold trouble. Apocalyptic pictures in the annals are a characteristic feature of the tragic time that was in the Ukrainian lands of the 13th century, which led to the demise of the state of Rus.