Editing Oleg the Wise (section)

== Oleg in chronicles ==
[[File:Радзивіллівський літопис Рюрик з Ігорем й Олег.jpg|thumb|250px|Rurik with Igor and Oleg, ''[[Radziwiłł Chronicle]]'']]
According to the ''[[Primary Chronicle]]'', Oleg was a "relative" or "kinsman" of [[Rurik]],<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R3VBAAAAIAAJ&q=oleg+brother+in+law+primary+chronicles|title=Stories of the East-vikings|author=Gabriel Bie Ravndal|publisher=Augsburg publishing house|year=1938|page=173|access-date=30 January 2023|archive-date=17 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417104408/https://books.google.com/books?id=R3VBAAAAIAAJ&q=oleg+brother+in+law+primary+chronicles|url-status=live}}</ref> and was entrusted by Rurik to take care of both his realm and his young son Igor. However, his relation to Rurik is debatable, and has been rejected by several modern scholars.{{sfn|Ostrowski|2018|p=30–31, 39}} Oleg is narrated to have succeeded Rurik as the ruler of Novgorod in 879. In 881–882, he took control of [[Smolensk]], and then seized power in [[Kiev]] by tricking and slaying [[Askold and Dir]], and setting himself up as prince in Kiev, which is commonly taken as the founding of [[Kievan Rus']].{{sfn|Dimnik|2004|p=259}} Although Oleg was the first "prince" (''[[knyaz]]'') of Kiev according to the ''Primary Chronicle'', he was not yet a "grand prince" (''velikiy knyaz'').{{sfn|Dimnik|2004|p=259}} Whereas later Muscovite chroniclers would call Oleg a "grand prince" and Kiev a "grand principality" ({{langx|ru|великое княжение|translit=velikoe knyazhenie}}), the earliest sources do not.{{sfn|Dimnik|2004|p=259–260}}

In 883, Oleg made the [[Drevlians]] pay tribute to Kiev. In 907, the Drevlians took part in the Kievan military campaign against the Byzantine Empire: the [[Rus'-Byzantine War (907)]] against [[Constantinople]] in 907.<ref name="The Russian Primary Chronicle">{{Cite web |title=The Russian Primary Chronicle |url=https://archive.org/details/the-russian-primary-chronicle/page/64/mode/1up}}</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=January 2024}}{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is primary|date=January 2024}}
[[File:Russian konung Oleg by Vasnetsov 1.jpg|thumb|250x250px|[[Viktor Vasnetsov]]. ''Oleg's farewell to his horse'' (1899).]]
According to the chronicle, Oleg, assaulting the city, ordered to wait for favorable wind with sails spread at some other point. When wind arose, it drove the wheeled boats towards the city through the land. The citizens were forced to start a peace negotiation. Having fixed his shield to the gate of the imperial capital, Oleg won a favourable trade treaty, which eventually was of great benefit to both nations. Although Byzantine sources did not record these hostilities, the text of the treaty survives in the ''Chronicle''.<ref name="The Russian Primary Chronicle"/>{{Primary source inline|date=January 2024}}{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is primary|date=January 2024}}

[[Image:trizna 1899.jpg|250px|thumb|[[Viktor Vasnetsov]]. ''Oleg being mourned by his warriors'' (1899).]]

The brief account of Oleg's life in the ''Primary Chronicle'' contrasts with the version given in the ''[[Novgorod First Chronicle]]'', which states that Oleg was not related to Rurik, and was rather a Scandinavian client-prince who served as Igor's army commander. The ''Novgorod First Chronicle'' does not give the date of the commencement of Oleg's reign, but dates his death to 922 rather than 912.<ref>A. N. Nasonov, ''Novgorodskaia Pervaia Letopis Starshego i Mladshego Izvodov'', (Moscow and Leningrad: ANSSR, 1950),109. ''cf.'' Kloss 337–343.</ref>

Scholars have contrasted this dating scheme with the "epic" reigns of roughly thirty-three years for both Oleg and Igor in the Primary Chronicle.<ref>Shahmatov xxxii–xxxiii.</ref> The ''Primary Chronicle'' and other Kievan sources place Oleg's grave in Kiev, while Novgorodian sources identify a funerary [[tumulus|barrow]] in [[Staraya Ladoga|Ladoga]] as Oleg's final resting place.<ref>The earliest and most believable version seems to have been preserved in the [[Novgorod First Chronicle]], which says that Oleg departed "overseas" (i.e., to Scandinavia) and was buried there.</ref>

=== Death according to legend ===
[[Image:OlegsMound.jpg|thumb|250px|The reputed burial mound for Oleg of Novgorod; [[Volkhov (river)|Volkhov River]] near [[Staraya Ladoga]].]]
In the ''Primary Chronicle'', Oleg is known as the Prophet, an epithet alluding to the sacred meaning of his Norse name ("priest"). According to the legend, romanticised by [[Alexander Pushkin]] in his [[ballad]] "The Song of the Wise Oleg",<ref>Leningrad, Aurora Art Publishers, 1991.</ref> it was prophesied by the pagan priests (''[[volkhv]]s'') that Oleg would take death from his stallion.<ref name="Medievalists.net 2022">{{cite web | title=Prince Oleg and his Fateful Steed: A Story from Medieval Rus' |website=Medievalists.net | date=1 October 2022 | url=https://www.medievalists.net/2022/10/prince-oleg-medieval-rus/ | access-date=7 March 2023 | archive-date=7 March 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307190846/https://www.medievalists.net/2022/10/prince-oleg-medieval-rus/ | url-status=live }}</ref>

To defy the prophecies, Oleg sent the horse away. Many years later he asked where his horse was, and was told it had died. He asked to see the remains and was taken to the place where the bones lay. When he touched the horse's skull with his boot a snake slithered from the skull and bit him. Oleg died, thus fulfilling the prophecy.<ref name="Medievalists.net 2022"/>

Oleg's death has been interpreted as a distorted variant of the [[threefold death]] theme in [[Indo-European culture|Indo-European]] myth and legend, with prophecy, the snake and the horse representing the [[trifunctional hypothesis|three functions]]: the prophecy is associated with sovereignty, the horse with warriors, and the serpent with reproduction.<ref name="eiec">{{Cite encyclopedia |first=Dean |last=Miller |editor-first1=J. P. |editor-last1=Mallory |editor-first2=Douglas Q. |editor-last2=Adams |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture]] |title=Threefold death |pages=577–578 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=1997}}</ref>

A variant of this story occurs in Scandinavian legend, in the 13th-century saga of [[Örvar-Oddr]].<ref name="Ancient Pages 2023">{{cite web |title=Amazing Adventures Of Örvar-Oddr And Encounter With The Mysterious Ögmundr Flóki |website=Ancient Pages |date=27 February 2023 |url=https://www.ancientpages.com/2023/02/27/orvar-oddrs-saga/ |access-date=7 March 2023 | archive-date=7 March 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307190853/https://www.ancientpages.com/2023/02/27/orvar-oddrs-saga/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Another variant is found in the tale of [[Isle of Sheppey#Shurland Hall|Sir Robert de Shurland]] on the [[Isle of Sheppey]] in Kent, England.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Oliver D. |last=Harris |title="Grey Dolphin" and the Horse Church, Minster in Sheppey: the construction of a legend |journal=Archaeologia Cantiana |volume=144 |year=2023 |pages=97–123 }}</ref>