Gostomysl

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Gostomysl ( Russian Гостомысл ) was a legendary Slavic ruler of Novgorod in the 9th century .

Historical mentions

Gostomysl was first mentioned in ancient Russian chronicles of the 15th and 16th centuries. The Joachim chronicle described events around Gostomysl in detail.

Surname

Gostomysl was a West Slavic name.

In 844 Goztomuizli , a ruler of the Obodrites, was mentioned.

history

Gostomysl's rule is associated with a union of northern East Slavic and other tribes that arose to counter the threat posed by the Varangians . The league included the Ilmenslawen , the Kriwitschen , the Merja and the Tschuden .

Sergei Platonov and Alexei Shakhmatov believed that the capital of this league was in Russa , and that Gostomysl was one of their leaders.

According to Joachim's chronicle, Gostomysl was chosen by the Ilmenslawen as the supreme ruler. He is said to have expelled the Varangians from Russia , who had conquered the country during the rule of his predecessor Burivoy. Gostomysl had no male offspring because all of his four sons died during his lifetime.

The legend written down in Joachim's chronicle says that he once had a dream about his daughter Umila, from whose lap a large tree grew. The pagan priests interpreted this as a prophecy that Umila's son would one day become a great leader and rule over a vast area. According to the Joachimschronik , this son was Rurik , who was later called by the Novgorodians as prince and who inherited his grandfather as ruler of Novgorod. Rurik's descendants ruled the largest state in Europe, the Kievan Rus . The legend thus establishes a connection between the Rurikid dynasty and the previous Slavic rulers.

Impact history

The Gostomysl legend was well received by writers and scholars in the patriotic milieu of the reign of Catherine the Great when anti-Norman hypotheses arose about the emergence of Russia.

However, the historians Gerhard Friedrich Müller and Nikolai Karamsin did not consider Tatishchev's story to be very credible and suggested that it was a misinterpretation of two Slavic words ( Gost for guest and Mysl for thought).

Although Gostomysl's existence is doubted by many modern historians, it is also clear that it could not be an artificial word creation in the sense of Müller and Karamsin. In German chronicles there are records that Ludwig the German went into battle in 844 against the "rex Gostomuizli" of the Obodrites . The story of Umila's dream bears astonishing resemblance to the legend of the birth of Harald Hårfagre in some Norwegian sagas about a genealogical tree that his mother is said to have seen on the eve of his birth. It should be a symbol of the Hårfagre dynasty, which Harald founded.

literature

Remarks

  1. ^ First Novgorod Chronicle, Sophienchronik, Fourth Novgorod Chronicle
  2. ^ Voskressenskaya Chronicle
  3. ↑ This chronicle only exists in one edition by the Russian historian Vasily Tatishchev from the 18th century and its authenticity is therefore questioned.