Witchcraft in the first Prince is responsible for the preparation of various potions. The greater the witchcraft skill, the higher the concentration of the drug. The simplest drugs are made from three ingredients: white root, ground nut and poisonous sting. The first two “grow” freely in the Forest Country, but the poisonous sting is obtained only from poisonous monsters: poisonous spiders, worms and all man-eating flowers.
To prepare a simple potion, you need to “squeeze” the ingredient into an empty jar. In other words, drag it onto an empty jar in the mixing slot in your inventory. The simplest medicines are obtained from the white root, groundnut and sting: medicinal balm, oil and poison, respectively.
| Empty jar Capacious container in which you can mix and store various mixtures |
|
| Healing balm The healing balm will heal any wounds, but will not revive the dead. |
|
| Oil The oil is suitable for peaceful purposes - for creating potions, and for military purposes - for incendiary arrows. |
|
| I Why risk your life in a long battle, it is quite easy to wound the enemy with a poisoned blade |
By mixing the simplest drugs with each other, you can get more complex ones, such as: antidote, mash, potion, EM, emergency medicine, ZhV.
| Antidote (balm + poison) This special decoction will save you from inevitable and painful death from poison |
|
| Braga (balm + oil) There is nothing better than a good brew - it makes a warrior stronger, although it deprives him of agility |
|
| Potion (balm + mash) The magician's potion can transform any cripple into a fairy-tale hero for a short time |
|
| Elixir of Wisdom (poison + mash) Gives the warrior a piece of the wisdom of centuries and bestows the experience of his ancestors |
|
| Pure Tear (Poison + Oil) Temporarily increases vigilance; this helps you find treasures faster and shoot enemies better |
|
| Living Water (oil + antidote) |
When receiving various potions and mixing them (for example, mash + mash) in order to increase concentration, witchcraft increases. So, when the concentration of oil is obtained or increased, 2 points are added to witchcraft; poison, antidote, mash, potion and pure tears - 3 points; living water and elixir of wisdom - 4 points. When the concentration (LB+LB) of the medicinal balm increases, the jar disappears and witchcraft increases by 1 point. In addition to the natural smooth increase in witchcraft, it can also be increased with scrolls of “Works of Hippocrates” (+100), which can be purchased from merchants. The maximum value of witchcraft = 500. At this value, the ingredients will produce (simple) potions with a concentration of 5.00.
When mixing drugs of different concentrations, the final drug will be obtained with a lower concentration, which was among the two components. Those. if you mixed a balm of concentration 3.0 with mash of concentration 2.6, then you will get a potion of concentration 2.6.
Recipes and descriptions
Healing balm
The most common and necessary drug. Restores the health of the character who took it. Concentration 0.1 restores 1 unit. health, 10.00 - respectively 100. When taken (like any other drug in the first Prince) it is used immediately, i.e. if you had health = 90, and took 10.00 balm, then health will become = 100, and the jar will remain empty.
Oil
Using oil, you can lubricate ordinary arrows (in the mixing slot) in order to obtain incendiary arrows, with which you can set fire to wooden buildings and fabric tents. Minimum working concentration = 10.00 (less than this does not work).
The higher the concentration, the fewer arrows you will need to spend to set fire to the building.
I
Poison can be used to lubricate weapons and arrows. The only difference is that with impact-crushing samples, the poisonous damage decreases with each effective blow (for example, the first blow is 15, then 14, 13, 12... 0), and all the arrows in the quiver will be greased, and each will have the same poison damage. Those. 30 shots with maximum poison damage versus a maximum of 15 hits with decreasing damage. Another thing is that the skill of using impact weapons can be better developed. What to lubricate first, and whether to lubricate it, is up to the player: when killing a monster with poison, the character who killed it does not receive experience for it. You can also drink poison as a means of suicide in case you are tired of living ;)
Antidote
When struck by poison, poisoning occurs. Poisoning depends on the concentration of the poison. Those. if a character or monster receives an arrow smeared with poison with a concentration of 15.00, then he will receive 15.00 poisoning. If hit multiple times, the poisoning accumulates. When poisoning 16, 1 unit is removed. health per second, at 32 - respectively 2 health/sec. Accordingly, to remove 1 unit. poisoning, you need to take an antidote with a concentration of at least 0.1. Before attacking poisonous monsters, it is better to stock up on the proper amount of antidote, because over time, the poison, among other things, is not eliminated from the body, and if you are poisoned, your hero will continue to be poisoned until he takes the antidote of the proper concentration.
Braga
In the first Prince, it temporarily increases strength and endurance at the expense of agility. Braga concentration 1.00 adds 1 unit. strength and endurance for subtracting 3 agility.
2.00 => +2 strength; +2 out; -6 catch. And so on.
Potion
Temporarily increases all characteristics (except charisma). Minimum = +1 strength/dex/con (concentration 1.00), maximum = +15 (15.00). Also, the effect of the potion is the restoration of health, depending on the concentration, similar to a healing balm.
Elixir of Wisdom
Adds free experience. But it has a number of side effects: strength is temporarily reduced to 1, health to 10, and the ability to increase characteristics is blocked. The amount of experience and duration of side effects depend on the concentration of the essential oil. Below are the values.
| concentration | experience |
| 6 | 100 |
| 7 | 141 |
| 8 | 173 |
| 9 | 200 |
| 10 | 223 |
| 11 | 244 |
| 12 | 264 |
| 13 | 282 |
| 14 | 300 |
| 15 | 316 |
pure tear
Highlights all objects lying on the ground. Works at any concentration. It is especially visible at night if it is turned on in your settings.
Living water
Revives a deceased character. To do this, you need to drag the Live Character from the inventory of a living character onto the portrait of a dead character. If you don’t have it at hand (as well as a scroll of resurrection words) or there are clearly not enough pieces, then you can try to prepare it, but if this is not possible, when you move to another location, you will lose the dead character forever. The wounded character is fully restored to health. Minimum working concentration = 10.00. Useless as a revive for the main character.
An incomprehensible mixture
It will happen if you mix it incorrectly. For example, empty jar + empty jar, white root + white root, etc. At first glance, a useless, incomprehensible mixture that reduces your health by half can also be useful. So, if you have accumulated too many (more than 5) empty cans, you can “mix” them all into one incomprehensible mixture, thus putting things in order in your inventory, and if the quantity is >5, also reducing the character’s current load. Yes, undoubtedly, empty cans can be thrown away or simply sold, but, really, you shouldn’t litter the Forest Country with household waste or waste time on trifles and change your route towards the merchant for trifles;) Moreover, in both cases there will be clearly less mouse manipulation. And in the second Prince it gets another application.
In the Second Princes, witchcraft is divided into 2 parameters: “witchcraft” and “preparation of mixtures.”
The first is responsible for the character’s healing skill for himself and squad members (ctrl + left click on the portrait). In order to be able to heal yourself or everyone at once, the health of the person we are treating must be less than the witchcraft skill. For example, if the “doctor” has skill = 20, then the “patient” should have health from 19 and below. Health decreases when fighting monsters or artificially: when drinking an unknown mixture or poison. With each successful attempt at treatment, the “doctor” gets +1 to witchcraft. For example, having cured 3 people (including yourself) with health 50 and skill 60, the health of the party members will become 61, 62, 63, respectively, and the healer skill of the “doctor” will be 63. After treatment, the “doctor” rests for some time (the ability to heal disappears ), restores strength. The difference between k2 and k2.5 is that in the latter you can heal less often.
The preparation of mixtures is similar to the witchcraft of the first Prince. Only the maximum skill = 100 (which makes life difficult), with any correct mixing the skill increases by +1, but when mixing the same potions the skill does not increase.
You can now increase your skills in witchcraft and preparing mixtures not only by using healing and preparing mixtures, but also by spending free experience points on these skills when you level up. Points are awarded in the same way as with promotion.
The effects of the drugs vary slightly.
When drinking a medicinal balm and an antidote from a jar, not all of the potion is drunk, but as much as is necessary to restore health to 100 and reduce poisoning to 0. For example, a character with health = 80 and poisoning 17 will “sip” from a jar of medicinal balm 2.00 , and from antidote 1.7, if the potion jars contain less than these concentrations, then the jar will be used up and become empty, and the hero will need to “sip” from the next one. By the way, the poison is now gradually leaving the body (poisoning is decreasing) and you can survive poisoning on balms.
The healing balm can not only be drunk with the mouse, but also automatically by selecting the appropriate option in the inventory window.
Braga in the second Princes concentration 1.00 adds 1 unit. strength for subtracting 3 agility.
The accrual of experience when drinking EM (as well as experience for completed quests and eaten apple of knowledge) now depends on the selected difficulty of the game. At the normal difficulty level, the “average value” is added. At easy and difficult levels - a third (of this number) more or less, respectively.
| concentration | experience | third |
| 6 | 300 | 100 |
| 7 | 423 | 141 |
| 8 | 519 | 173 |
| 9 | 600 | 200 |
| 10 | 669 | 223 |
| 11 | 732 | 244 |
| 12 | 792 | 264 |
| 13 | 846 | 282 |
| 14 | 900 | 300 |
| 15 | 948 | 316 |
If you look closely at this very third, you can find some pattern for different Princes;)
The effects of the potion and pure tears in k2 and k2.5 are similar to k1.
There is no living water (as well as words of resurrection) in k2 and k2.5.
That's all the differences.
Good luck!
P.S. I wrote the article not because of its relevance - it is not relevant now (December 3, 2006) - but because it became boring.
(potion recipes, potions, descriptions)
In Prince 3 quackery is divided into 2 skills: “witchcraft” and “potions”.
Quackery
Witchcraft in Prince 3 is responsible for the effectiveness of the use of medicinal herbs (plantain, celandine, a set of medicinal herbs) and the effectiveness of the treatment of your squad by village healers.
Unlike a healing potion, using a healing herb by one unit will heal the entire squad. The higher the witchcraft skill, the more effective the treatment will be from the use of medicinal herbs. This skill is also necessary for the village healers from whom you are treated: the higher the skill, the more health they will heal you. The skill of witchcraft depends on intelligence. Below are the values.
|
quackery |
factor |
heals health |
intelligence requirement |
| 1 | x2 | to 10 | 5 |
| 2 | x3 | up to 20 | 10 |
| 3 | x4 | up to 30 | 15 |
| ... | ... | ... | ... |
| 10 | x11 | up to 100 | 50 |
So, a fighter who has witchcraft 2 and used celandine will add +30 health to everyone, and a witch doctor in a village with witchcraft 7 will heal your squad up to 70 health. Unlike Prince 2, your fighter who has this skill cannot heal the squad, as it was before - only the village healers. Also, this skill does not increase as a result of someone successfully treating someone. To increase a fighter's skill, you need to spend on it development points, with the proper intelligence. You can increase your witchcraft skills without the proper intelligence by using the scroll “The Works of Hippocrates” (witchcraft +1). The same scroll is also necessary for the village healers in order to increase the effectiveness of the treatment of your squad and the village guards. Unlike Prince 1, you cannot take a healer from your village into your squad, and also ask them to prepare an apprentice. The number of healer students (as well as blacksmith students) in Prince 3 is strictly limited. The healers, unlike Prince 1 and Prince 2, do not wear weapons or armor, which makes them very vulnerable to the enemy.
Potions
The preparation of potions, compared to previous Princes, has undergone a number of changes. There were more recipes, solutions and decoctions appeared, and a burner appeared.
Ingredients
The number of ingredients for potions has increased several times. Almost everything can be bought from merchants, but some can also be found in locations. Some of them (hops, fern leaves, indrik horn powder) are in great short supply, and their quantity in the game is limited. Of the monsters, only the spider and the poisonous spider are notable in terms of ingredients. The first one periodically drops powder from the spider's legs, the second one drops a poisonous sting (always) and l.p. powder. (periodically). White root and groundnut are still in the locations, but you can find them much less often than in previous parts of the game, if only because they do not stand out on the surface as clearly as they did in Prince 1 and Prince 2. Therefore, if you There are no intentions of persistently looking at the screen with the alt key held down, contact only merchants. As with regular bags, plants are best illuminated at night. All ingredients except white root and ground nut (1.00 each) weigh 0.10.
| White root | |
| Peanut | |
| Poisonous sting | |
| Spider Leg Powder | |
| Viper tooth powder | |
| Nettle | |
| Elder | |
| Wolfberry | |
| Crow's eye berry | |
| St. John's wort | |
| Oak bark | |
| Honey | |
| Resin | |
| Malachite | |
| Golden Nugget | |
| Hop | |
| Fern flower | |
| Indrik Horn Powder | |
| Empty can, weight 0.10 | |
| Potions burner, weight 0.70 |
Unlike previous Princes, for the first time a recipe is prepared, experience is added to the person who prepared it, and the recipe itself is recorded in the diary. To prepare a simple potion, you need to drag the ingredient onto the jar in the mixing slot. But not all ingredients are suitable for this purpose.
Unlike previous Princes, the maximum concentration is now = 255, and some drugs have no concentration at all. If you combine a concentrated drug with an empty jar, you get 2 drugs with half the concentration. For example, if oil of concentration 101 is poured into 2 jars, then the final concentrations will be 50 and 51, respectively.
Solutions and decoctions
One of the simplest drugs is a solution. To prepare it, you need to combine one of 7 ingredients with a jar. For the first preparation of any solution, +15 experience is added. If the solution is combined with a burner, you get a decoction. The exception is the solution of elderberry and the solution of viper's teeth: when they are combined with a burner, an incomprehensible mixture is obtained. For the first preparation of any decoction, +30 experience is added. There are 7 solutions and 5 decoctions in total. By themselves, they are useless (using them reduces health by 50%), but they are components for other potions.
| Spider leg powder solution | |
| R/R powder from viper's teeth | |
| R/R nettle | |
| R/R elderberry | |
| R/R wolfberry | |
| R/R St. John's wort | |
| R/R oak bark | |
| Spider leg powder decoction | |
| O/r nettle | |
| O/r wolfberry | |
| O/R St. John's wort | |
| oak bark o/r |
Drugs
There are simple and complex ones. To get simple ones, you need to connect something to an empty jar. There are 6 simple ones in total: a healing potion, oil, poison, elixirs of strength, agility and endurance. For the first preparation of simple potions, +15 experience is awarded. There are 10 complex potions, and they have a more complex formula. For the first preparation of antidote, living water, fire balm, snake and boiling acid (5 pcs.), we get +50 experience. For the first preparation of the philosophical elixir, poisonous balm, stone balm, holy water and fiery acid (5 pcs.), we get +75 experience.
|
Healing Potion (jar + white root) restores health |
|
|
Oil (jar + groundnut) creating incendiary arrows |
|
|
(can + poisonous sting) poisoning of arrows and weapons |
|
|
Antidote (healing balm + poison) relieves poisoning |
|
|
Fire Balm (r/r elderberry + r/r spider legs) gives the item protection from fire |
|
|
Poison Balm (o/r wolfberry + resin) gives the item protection from poison |
|
|
Holy water (o/r St. John's wort + honey) gives the item protection from chaos |
|
|
Stone balm (oak bark + malachite) gives the item protection from impacts |
|
|
Fiery acid (o/r spider legs + resin) gives the item additional fire damage quest item |
Healing Potion
Restores health. As in Prince 2, as much concentration from the jar is used as necessary to restore health. For example, when used by a fighter with health = 70, a potion of concentration 120, health will become 100, and the concentration of a healing potion will become 90.
Oil
Used to create incendiary arrows. Theoretical maximum fire damage = 15. However, if you first douse the arrows with conc. 255 and then oil 255, then you will get 30 fire damage. Hello testers. For preparing incendiary arrows for the first time, +60 experience is awarded.
I
Poisons arrows and weapons. Theoretical maximum poisoning = 15. Practical - read the situation with the oil. For the first time a weapon or arrow is smeared with poison, a fighter will receive +50 experience.
Antidote
When poison enters a fighter’s body (caught a poisoned arrow, hit with a poisoned weapon, drank the wrong can), poisoning occurs. Similar to the first Prince, when poisoned = 16, 1 health/sec is removed, 32 => 2 health/sec. Over time, the poison is eliminated from the body. Poison removal rate = 1 unit of poison/1sec. For example, if a fighter received poisoning of 50, waited 20 seconds, then drank an antidote of concentration 60, then he will lose health -50 (we round the number obtained using the arithmetic progression formula) will heal the 30 remaining units of poisoning and will be left with an antidote of concentration 30. Poisoning by difficulty game and protection from poison does not depend.
Elixirs of strength, agility, endurance
When used, they permanently add +5 strength, +5 agility and +5 endurance, respectively. Elixirs, like their components (hops, fern leaves, Indrik horn powder), are expensive, rare, and their quantity is limited.
Philosophical elixir
Turns almost all items that can be placed into a mixing slot into gold. Prices are low. For example, for the restored staff, Fury of Triglav, you will receive 1 coin (hello to the testers again), and for a quiver of silver arrows - 141. With each “eaten” item, the concentration of the elixir ff decreases by 1. The price of the “eaten” items depends on the skills of potions and trade does not depend.
Living water
Resurrects one of your squad members, be it a fighter or a traveler. If they killed someone not from your squad - alas. When moving to another location, a dead fighter from the squad disappears. The exception is quest characters, for example, Elena. Useless as a resurrection for the main character.
Bonus drugs
Fire balm, poison balm, holy water and stone balm give the item protection from: 1. Fire; 2. Poison; 3. Chaos; 4. Regular strikes respectively.
Fire Acid, Snake Acid, Boiling Acid give the item additional damage:
1. Fire; 2. Poison 3. Normal respectively.
The amount of the bonus depends on the concentration of the drug. Below are the values.
| conc. | bonus |
| 1 | +1 |
| 16 | +1 |
| 32 | +2 |
| 48 | +3 |
| 64 | +4 |
| 80 | +5 |
| 96 | +6 |
| 112 | +7 |
| 128 | +8 |
| 144 | +9 |
| 160 | +10 |
| 176 | +11 |
| 192 | +12 |
| 208 | +13 |
| 224 | +14 |
| 240 | +15 |
| 255 | +15 |
To upgrade an item, you need to drag a bonus potion onto an item of equipment in the mixing slot. In total, the same item can be improved 2 times: once with a drug from the first category and once from the second category. For example, you can upgrade an ax with both fire balm and fire acid, but you cannot upgrade it with both fire balm and stone balm. An item that has been improved once with one potion cannot be improved a second time with the same potion, so it is most effective to improve an item with a potion that straightaway gives the maximum bonus (i.e. +15). The number of upgradeable pieces of equipment depends on the skill of the gunsmith. Below are the values.
| weaponsmith skill | level requirement | allows you to improve |
| 1 | 1 | one-handed weapon |
| 2 | 3 | + bows |
| 3 | 5 | + crossbows |
| 4 | 7 | + two-handed |
| 5 | 10 | + shields |
| 6 | 12 | + helmets |
| 7 | 14 | + armor |
| 8 | 16 | + bracelets |
| 9 | 18 | + rings |
| 10 | 20 | + amulets |
There is a bug in the game: bows and crossbows are not treated with poison balm.
It remains to add that all non-empty jars weigh 0.5. An incomprehensible mixture results from improper mixing. As before, it reduces health by 50%, but does not perform additional functions, as it did in Prince 1 and Prince 2.
Have questions?
Ask , do not be shy.
P.S. A drug that gives an item additional chaos damage, does not exist
P.P.S. Initially, in this article, the witchcraft section dedicated to Prince 3 was done in Flash in order to make it difficult for one thieving site to steal my materials. But as soon as my material was retyped from here by hand, there was no point in keeping Flash anymore. However, I left it in the flash as a keepsake. In general, I’m fed up with the theft of my materials, editing of content, substitution of authorship, adding gags.
Once upon a time there lived an evil, arrogant prince. All he could think about was how to conquer the whole world, to strike fear into everyone with just his name. And so he went to foreign lands with fire and sword; his warriors trampled the fields and set fire to peasant houses; red tongues licked the leaves on the trees, and the fruits roasted on the charred branches. Often the poor mother hid with her naked baby behind the smoking walls, but the soldiers scoured everywhere, found them, and the devilish fun began! Evil spirits could not do worse. But it seemed to the prince that things were going as they should. His power grew day by day, his name terrified everyone, and luck accompanied him in all his deeds. He exported gold and rich treasures from the conquered cities, and countless riches accumulated in his capital: nowhere in the world was there anything like it. He ordered the construction of magnificent palaces, churches and arches, and everyone who saw these wonderful buildings said: “What a great prince!” They did not think about the disasters into which he plunged foreign lands, did not hear the groans and complaints heard in the robbed and burned cities.
The prince himself looked at his gold, at the magnificent buildings and thought, like others: “What a great prince I am! But all this is still not enough for me! I want more! No one’s power in the world should be equal to mine, let alone exceed it!”
And he went to war against all his neighbors and conquered everyone.
He ordered the captured kings to be chained with golden chains to his chariot every time he was going to ride through the streets of the capital. When he sat at the table, they had to lie at the feet of him and his courtiers and grab the pieces of bread that were thrown to them.
Finally, the prince ordered statues to be erected in his squares and palaces; he wanted to place them in churches, in front of the altar of God, but the priests said: “Prince, you are great, but God is higher than you, we do not dare to do this.”
OK! - said the evil prince. - So I will conquer God too!
And, blinded by insane pride, he ordered the construction of an outlandish ship on which one could fly through the air. The ship was painted with different colors and looked like a peacock's tail, dotted with thousands of eyes, but each eye was a gun barrel. The prince boarded the ship; As soon as he pressed one spring, thousands of bullets flew out of the guns, and the guns immediately loaded themselves again. oskazkah.ru - website One hundred mighty eagles were harnessed to the ship, and so it soared into the air, towards the sun. The earth was barely visible below, the mountains and forests seemed at first like plowed turf, then drawn on a flat land map, and finally completely disappeared into the cloudy fog. The eagles rose higher and higher; Then God sent out one of his countless angels, but the evil prince met him with a rifle volley. The bullets bounced off the angel's shining wings like hailstones; only one single drop of blood flowed out of the snow-white wing and fell onto the ship where the prince was sitting. It ate deeply into the wood and pressed on the bottom of the ship with terrible force, like a thousand-pound block of lead. The ship flew down with incredible speed; the mighty wings of the eagles were broken; the wind was whistling in the prince’s ears; clouds gathered from the smoke from the burnt cities crowded around and took on monstrous forms: huge crayfish stretching out strong claws towards the prince, rolling fragments of rocks and fire-breathing dragons. The prince lay at the bottom of the ship, half-dead from fear. Finally the ship got stuck in the dense branches of forest trees.
I will defeat God! - said the prince. - I swore an oath to defeat him, and so be it! - And he ordered the construction of new airships; They took seven years to build. He also ordered to forge lightning bolts from the hardest steel in order to take the stronghold of heaven by storm, and gathered warriors from all over his state; the troops covered an area of several square miles. The warriors were ready to board the ships, the prince approached his, but God sent a swarm of mosquitoes to attack him, just one small swarm of mosquitoes. Insects buzzed around the prince and stung him in the face and hands. He angrily pulled out his sword, but he only cut the air with it and could not hit the mosquitoes. Then he ordered to bring precious carpets and wrap himself in them from head to toe, so that not a single mosquito could reach him with its sting. His order was carried out, but one mosquito managed to get under the very bottom carpet, crawled into the prince’s ear and stung him. It was as if fire spread through the prince’s blood, poison penetrated his brain, and he tore off all the carpets from himself, tore his clothes and naked began to rush and jump in front of the crowd of his fierce soldiers, and they only made fun of the mad prince who wanted to defeat God and was himself defeated by the mosquito!
Add a fairy tale to Facebook, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, My World, Twitter or Bookmarks
Oleg of Novgorod usually begins to be credited with the formation of the ancient Russian state. His figure is truly significant, since it determined the beginning of a new era, a new era. His life, like his death, has many mysteries for historians. But still, Prince Oleg the Prophet, whose brief biography will be discussed below, is a rather interesting personality for researchers and ordinary lovers of antiquity.
Appearance in Rus'
His biography is known to us only briefly, and is considered the founder of the Old Russian state. He was a relative of the legendary Varangian Rurik, that is, he was the brother of Efanda, the commander’s wife. There is an opinion that he was an ordinary commander, whom the Viking trusted immensely. Otherwise, would you have instructed him to take away his young son? It is worth believing that Oleg acted in agreement with Rurik, and perhaps had a certain freedom. One way or another, he quickly took possession of Smolensk and Lyubech, and then Kiev. By the way, the golden-domed city was captured by him by cunning: the Varangians lured them out from behind the walls (who were also probably Vikings) and killed them, declaring himself a prince.
Achievements and successes
Prince Oleg, whose biography is discussed in this article, strengthened his power either by enlisting the support of the Slavic tribes neighboring Kiev, or by conquering them. He established a tribute for them, which did not burden the people too much. But his military successes were truly impressive. Campaigns against the Khazars freed the Russian lands from the need to pay polyudye to the Khaganate. The great Constantinople fell, on the gates of which, according to the chronicle, the prince nailed his shield. As a result, Russian merchants could trade with Byzantium without duties and receive all kinds of support from it. Thus, Prince Oleg the Prophet, whose brief biography is discussed above, has more merit to Russia than Rurik. Moreover, practically nothing is known about the founder of the princely dynasty.
March to Constantinople
Prince Oleg, whose brief biography is covered in the Tale of Bygone Years, is an extraordinary personality. He organized the famous campaign against Constantinople, after which he received his nickname - the Prophetic. The chronicle says that he sent a huge army to the city on two thousand boats. Each boat accommodated four dozen warriors. The emperor ordered the gates of the capital to be closed, leaving the suburbs and villages to be torn apart by the enemies. But the Kiev prince ordered wheels to be attached to the ships, on which the army reached the gates of Constantinople. The Byzantines were at a loss, so they surrendered, offering Oleg a generous tribute and peace.
Was there a trip?
Prince Oleg, whose short biography can be found in almost every history textbook, is a controversial figure. Researchers have more questions than answers about his life. For example, the fact of a campaign against Byzantium seems unreliable. This is because the authors from Constantinople described in detail all the attacks on their country, but they do not mention Oleg’s campaign. In addition, the return from Constantinople of Oleg and Vladimir the Great is very similar. Perhaps this is a description of the same event. At the same time, after Oleg, Igor also went to the southern city, and also won. This is also stated by European authors who chronicled those years.
Was there a snake?
Oleg, whose biography is also known from literature lessons, died as mysteriously as he appeared in Rus'. The same one describes that a sorcerer once predicted his death from his beloved horse. The Varangian was superstitious, so he mounted another animal, and entrusted his favorite to the servants, ordering them to take care of him until his death. The ruler remembered him during the feast, but it turned out that the horse had died long ago. Sad about his favorite and angry that he believed the magicians, the prince went to the bones. But when he stepped on the skull, he saw a snake, which immediately bit him in the leg. Oleg died from poison.
Prince Oleg, whose biography has long been studied, could have died a different death. And the legend of the horse and the snake may have been borrowed from the saga of Orvard Odd. Although some scientists believe that the hero of Scandinavian legends and the Prophetic Oleg are one and the same person. But there are several facts that allow us to think about whether the story about the death of the prince could be true. Among them are the following:
Could a snake bite through a leather boot worn in Rus'? Most likely not, or did Oleg come to the mountain to the horse bones barefoot?
What if the snake jumped and bit the prince above the top of his boots? But on the territory of Ukraine there are no such vipers!
As a rule, before biting, a snake hisses and tries to crawl away. Could Oleg or his entourage have not noticed this?
Alternatively, the prince died from poison, but the snake was slipped to him on purpose or Oleg was poisoned in advance. Unfortunately, it is impossible to establish where the truth is.
Some more interesting facts
The Russian prince Oleg, whose biography is already known to the reader, is mentioned not only in the annals of Kyiv and Novgorod. Al-Masudi (Arabic author) talks about the unsuccessful campaign of the Rus (500 ships!) on the forehead with Olwang and Al-dir to Persia. They gave part of the booty to the Khazars, but the latter betrayed them and killed everyone. About thirty thousand warriors died there, and those who retreated beyond the Caspian Sea were killed by the Volga Bulgars. Thus, the legendary prince died on the campaign, as befits a brave Varangian.
This is how he is, the smart and warlike Prince Oleg. His biography is full of blank spots, because of which an aura of mystery and mystery remains around this figure. Perhaps time will find answers to all questions.
Doctor of Historical Sciences T. PANOVA.
Stories about poisons, this infallible weapon in the hands of a villain or an insidious enemy, will surprise few people. They are replete with historical works about the medieval past of many countries of the world (especially France and Italy), when poison often resolved dynastic and political disputes. And the pages of modern detective stories are not inferior to the atrocities of the Middle Ages in the sophistication of their plots. Getting acquainted with Russian chronicles and notes of foreigners who visited Muscovy in the 14th-17th centuries, you see that in Russia they resorted to poisons no less than in enlightened Europe. However, this side of the life of our ancestors usually remains beyond the interests of historians. Meanwhile, modern research methods make it possible to verify chronicle reports of murders committed with poison, real or alleged. This happens when it is possible to conduct a subtle chemical analysis of the remains that have survived to this day (by the way, sometimes such studies can also reveal diseases that a long-dead person suffered from). The richest material is provided by the burials of the Moscow Kremlin. Here two historical lines converge: the chronicler’s records, as a rule, recorded information about the life and death of noble persons, namely, their burial took place in the central cathedrals of Russia, which still stand today. The journal has already written about many studies of this kind (see articles by T. Panova in the journal "Science and Life", No. 7, 1995; No. 4, 1997; No., 2001; No., 2004; No. No. and, 2006). However, many detective stories of the past are still waiting to be resolved.
The medieval miniature depicts a European pharmacy typical of that time.
John Foxe's Martyrology (a collection of stories about Christian saints and martyrs) repeats the story that King John was poisoned by a monk. England. Beginning of the 13th century.
A “destilator” at work in the “passage room” of an ancient Russian pharmacy, in other words, a pharmacist preparing a medicine. Drawing from a manuscript (based on a 17th-century copy).
Jars like this Italian one were used for medicinal potions in the 15th century.
A miniature from the “Facebook Chronicle” of the 16th century depicts a patient taking a “medicinal potion” from the hands of a doctor.
And in ancient times, nosebleeds were stopped with the help of a cotton swab - “paper”, as stated in the Galitsyn volume of the “Facebook Chronicle”.
Analyzing historical events and destinies, first of all you understand: in the everyday life of that distant time in question, poisons, or rather their use, were not something unusual. In any case, the monastic chroniclers narrated such stories without much surprise or censure. Moreover, sometimes they even reported on the method of poisoning, as, for example, when they wrote about the death of Prince Rostislav of Tmutarakan (he was the grandson of Yaroslav the Wise), poisoned in 1066. And it was like that. A “kotopan” (official, administrator) who arrived from Byzantium infiltrated the prince’s trust. At one of the feasts of Rostislav and his retinue, a Greek guest invited the prince to drink a cup of wine “in half.” About the moment of poisoning of Rostislav in the Trinity Chronicle it is said: “He (Greek - Note auto) drank half, and gave half to the prince to drink, holding his finger on the edge of the cup, having poison under his nail,” or, as they called it then, “soluble mortal.” Who needed the death of the prince? One can only guess about this.
In the middle of the 13th century, the fate of Rus' was for a long time connected with the Mongolian state, or rather, with the powerful union of nomadic tribes created by Genghis Khan (Temuchin). Trips of Russian princes to the headquarters of the Horde khans (on call or to receive a label to reign) were always a difficult ordeal, which often ended tragically. This is exactly how the Vladimir-Suzdal prince Yaroslav III Vsevolodovich, the father of Alexander Nevsky, died in 1246. The Italian traveler, Franciscan Minor monk Giovanni da Plano Carpini writes about this in the “History of the Mongols”: “At that time, Yaroslav, who was the Grand Duke in a certain part of Russia called Suzdal, died. He had just been invited to the mother of the emperor (that is, Khan - Note auto), who, as if as a sign of honor, gave him food and drink from her own hand; and he returned to his room, immediately fell ill and died seven days later, and his whole body surprisingly turned blue. Therefore, they believed that they drugged him there in order to more freely take possession of his land."
Carpini suggested that the same fate awaited Alexander Nevsky: “The emperor’s mother... hastily sent a messenger to Russia to his son Alexander so that he would come to her<...>everyone believed that if he appeared, she would kill him or<...>will subject him to eternal captivity." This happened, but much later, in 1263, when Prince Alexander, having left the Horde, felt unwell and died on the way to Rus'.
As we see, the nomads knew well the quiet power of poisons and used them widely, eliminating not only opponents, but also rivals. “The Mongolian everyday collection”, dedicated to describing the life of the great Genghis Khan (he lived in 1155-1227), tells how his father, Yesugai-Baatur, died from poison: “On the road to the Tsektser steppe<...>The Tatars feasted. Having met them, Yesugai-Baatur decided to stay late at the festival, as he was thirsty. Tatars<...>remembered their old grievances and scores. And so, with the intention of secretly poisoning him, they mixed him with poison. Leaving them, he felt ill, three days later, when he got home, he became very ill<...>and died."
Rumors have penetrated into Russian written sources that the wife of the Moscow prince Yuri Danilovich, Agafya, who in 1317 became a captive of the Tver prince Mikhail Yaroslavich, died of poison in Tver. This is mentioned not only in the chronicles, but also in the “Life of Mikhail Yaroslavich Tverskoy,” created at the end of the 14th century. It says that the accusation against Mikhail Tverskoy was heard at the trial at the headquarters of the Horde khans. The prince rejected everything, calling the Lord God as a witness, but he never escaped death - he was killed in 1318.
An attempt to poison the Moscow prince Dmitry Ivanovich (the future Donskoy, hero of the Battle of Kulikovo) was recorded in Russian chronicles in 1378. The battle on the Vozha River, when they managed to defeat the troops of Khan Begich, became the first major victory of the Russians over the Horde. Among the prisoners was a priest, the confidant of a certain Ivan Vasilyevich, a descendant of the Moscow thousand. As it turned out, Ivan was very angry with the Moscow prince Dmitry, who abolished the institution of thousands in 1374, which deprived him, Ivan, of hopes for a high position at the Moscow court. Having hated Prince Dmitry, he went to serve in Tver, to the eternal enemies of Moscow. And the captured priest, who told about this, found a “sack of evil and fierce potions.” Apparently, fears for the life of Prince Dmitry were justified: it was a rare case for the 14th century when the chronicles mentioned the torture to which the priest was subjected, who was then exiled “to captivity on Lache Lake.”
Poisons at the end of the 14th century are a serious reality. This is confirmed by a unique archaeological find discovered in the Moscow Kremlin in 1843 during the construction of “glaciers for royal use.” A copper jug with paper and parchment documents from the reign of Dmitry Donskoy and a small clay vessel, the so-called spherocone, containing mercury were then found in the ground. Mercury salts (sublimate) and arsenic ("mouse potion") were the most popular poisons of the Middle Ages.
The 15th century has arrived. If we move along the chronology of events, we should talk about the death of the nephew of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas, which happened in Moscow. N.M. Karamzin has brief information about this event. His work “History of the Russian State” contains extracts from sources that have not survived to this day. From them it is known: in the 1440s, the cousin of Grand Duchess Sophia Vitovtovna (the widow of Vasily I) Mikhail appeared in Moscow, and it was no coincidence that there was a sharp struggle for power in Lithuania, which was gripped by turmoil.
The way in which they dealt with a noble Lithuanian in 1452 was unusual, or rather, sinful: “Some abbot of Moscow poisoned Mikhail with poison in the prosphora.” He disturbed someone, someone was interested in the death of Prince Mikhail Vitovt, who was already living in exile in Rus'. But it is difficult to say who exactly.
The second quarter of the 15th century was marked by a fierce and long struggle for the throne between the grandchildren of Dmitry Donskoy: Grand Duke Vasily II, on the one hand, and the princes of Galicia and Zvenigorod Vasily Kosy, Dmitry Shemyaka and Dmitry the Red - on the other.
A detailed “case history” of Dmitry Yuryevich the Red, who died on September 22, 1441, appeared on the pages of the chronicles. Her symptoms puzzled the chronicler with their uncertainty. In those days, many diseases were recognized quite accurately, and they had specific names. In this case, the description of Prince Dmitry’s illness begins with the words: “There was something wonderful in his illness.” The severe but unknown illness first caused loss of appetite and sleep, then worsened with nosebleeds. "Blood flows from both nostrils, like the rods of a techahu<...>his spiritual father Hosea<...>I will plug his nostrils with paper."
At some point, the prince felt a little better, which pleased those close to him, but soon fell into severe unconsciousness. When he woke up, he suffered for two more days and died. Apparently, blood appeared on the prince’s body along with sweat - in any case, this is briefly mentioned in the chronicle description of the course of the disease: “I think that blood is sweat.”
Prince Dmitry Krasny (Handsome) died very young, still unmarried, and there is no reason to believe that he suddenly developed some kind of fatal disease. The rapid course of the disease and its symptoms are typical for poisoning. And the subsequent fate of his brother, Prince Dmitry Shemyaka, makes one suspect evil will here.
The story of the death of Zvenigorod Prince Dmitry Yuryevich Shemyaka (Grand Duke of Moscow in 1445-1447) differs from other cases in that we know exactly all its participants. The reasons are also known. The main one is the struggle for the Moscow table, during which Dmitry Shemyaka managed to capture the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily II, blinded him (in retaliation for the blinding of his brother, Vasily Yuryevich, by the Grand Duke) and sent him into exile. Having regained power, Vasily the Dark (as Vasily II was now called) brutally took revenge on the rebellious prince, who after the defeat found refuge in Veliky Novgorod.
None of the participants in this crime, of course, wanted publicity. And therefore, in the official chronicles of that time, only general information was preserved about the death of Dmitry Shemyaka: in the summer of 1453, “on July 23, news came to the Grand Duke from Novagorod (Vasily the Dark was then listening to the evening service in the Church of Boris and Gleb. - Note auto) that Prince Dmitry Shemyaka died in vain in Novgorod<...>and Beda brought the clerk with that news, and from there the clerk was born.” The word “in vain” in those days meant violent death, but the compilers of the chronicle did not specify what caused it.
However, along with the official Moscow “weather” reports of events, there were others that were created outside the capital and were negatively disposed towards the central government (and then too!). Such oppositionists included Veliky Novgorod, where Shemyaka went after being defeated in military clashes with Vasily the Dark. It was in one of the lists of the IV Novgorod Chronicle under 1453 that it was written: “Prince Dmitry Yuryevich Shemyaka died of poison in Veliky Novgorod, June 17.”
In other chronicles there are more detailed stories about this story, according to which the chain of participants in the crime is quite logically built - from the customer to the perpetrator. The most detailed information is contained in the Ermolinsk and Lvov chronicles, which name the names and sequence of events: “That same summer, Grand Duke Stefan the Bearded sent to Novgorod with a mortal potion to kill Prince Dmitry.”
Stefan Bradaty - clerk of Vasily the Dark, one of the most educated people of his time (apparently, he was also knowledgeable in poisons). The intermediate link in this chain was either the bribed boyar of Dmitry Shemyaka, Ivan Notov (or Kotov), or the Novgorod mayor Isaac, a member of Prince Dmitry Yuryevich. But all sources cover the further course of the operation without discrepancies. The cook of Prince Shemyaka was bribed with a name quite typical for this situation - Toadstool. “He bribed Prince Dmitreev’s cook, named Poganka, who will give him a potion in the smoke” (this dish is called the same in all sources). Prince Dmitry fell ill on the same day and, after being ill for 12 days, died.
Incredible story! But what’s even more incredible is that this is precisely the death of Shemyaka that is confirmed by modern research methods. It turned out that the remains of the rebel prince were partially mummified. This became clear at the end of the last century when studying the necropolis of St. Sophia Cathedral, where Shemyaka’s burial was transferred from the Yuriev Monastery near Novgorod in the 17th century (cases of mummification of remains in the necropolises of medieval Rus' are extremely rare due to our rather humid climate). And what is especially important: the prince’s dried liver and one of the kidneys have been preserved, that is, organs capable of accumulating (as, by the way, hair) harmful substances that enter the human body and persist for centuries.
Forensic chemists, having examined the preserved organs, discovered: Dmitry Shemyaka was poisoned with arsenic compounds. Its amount in the kidney reaches 0.21 mg per hundred-gram sample sample (the natural background of arsenic in the human body ranges from 0.01 to 0.08 mg). By the way, it was arsenic poisoning, leading to severe dehydration of the body before death, that could have caused the mummification of Shemyaka’s body.
Thus, five centuries later, scientists confirmed the authenticity of the information recorded in chronicles, the compilers of which were not afraid to write the truth about the events of 1453. Apparently, it was not possible to hide this story even then; rumors about the death of Dmitry Shemyaka spread quite widely. Proof of this is the fate of the cook Poganka.
This man, apparently tormented by remorse, became a monk. But notoriety ran ahead. Information about him is in the “Life of Paphnutius Borovsky” (1394-1477), a contemporary of the events described: “A certain monk came to the monastery of the monk. The ascetic, seeing him, quietly said to his disciples: “You see, even for the sake of the monastic rank he was not cleansed from blood?" The disciples were surprised, but were afraid to ask the monk about the meaning of these words. However, the elder himself later explained them: "This monk, being a layman, poisoned the prince whom he served in Novgorod. Tormented by his conscience, he became a monk."
Wars, blindings, poisoning of rivals - all these terrible vicissitudes of the struggle for power in the middle of the 15th century were quite common events in medieval life. And yet Vasily the Dark, who died in 1462 from pulmonary tuberculosis (“dry sickness”), received from one of his contemporaries a brief but harsh posthumous assessment: “Judas the murderer, your doom has come” (the inscription was preserved on one of the church books of the middle XV century).
The fate of women, even from the circle of the highest nobility, has traditionally rarely attracted the attention of chroniclers. But there are quite detailed reports about the death of one of them in the Sofia and Lviv Chronicles. We are talking about the first wife of Grand Duke Ivan III, Princess Maria Borisovna of Tver: “In the summer of 6975 (1467) April 25, 3 o’clock in the night, Grand Duchess Maria reposed<...>from the mortal potion." It is a rare case when the cause of death is so firmly named. The chronicler noted the unusual condition of the deceased's body, which very quickly swollen to incredible sizes, although the funeral took place the very next day after death (as was then customary), and the time of year, April - not the hottest in Rus'.
Grand Duke Ivan III Vasilyevich, distinguished by his decisive and tough character, ordered an investigation, which revealed that Maria Borisovna’s belt was worn to a fortune teller (“woman”) and that the wife of clerk Alexei Poluektov, Natalya, participated in this. The angry prince alienated the clerk from himself: “Then he became angry with Oleksei and for many years, six years, was not with him (the Grand Duke. - Note auto) in front of him, barely a pity."
Why was the Grand Duchess's belt worn to the witch? Perhaps for divination about health or fertility. Be that as it may, the young princess (she was not even 23 years old) died, poisoned by someone, as her relatives believed. It is no coincidence that the chronicler wrote: “from the mortal potion.”
Almost five and a half centuries passed before science was able to confirm these words. In 2001, the princess’s tomb was opened, and scientists analyzed the microelement composition of the bones of her skeleton. In the bones they found an incredible, compared to the background, content of zinc (242 times!), mercury (30 times), lead (45 times) and an increased amount of minerals such as zirconium, gallium - after all, the human body contains the entire periodic table. The monstrous amount of toxic substances that entered the body clearly made Maria Borisovna sick and unwell. It was her poor health that probably made her turn to the fortune teller.
The princess’s youth and the unnaturally large amount of harmful substances that got into her bone tissue (in order to accumulate, for example, so much zinc, you need to work for many years in a serious metallurgical production), leave no doubt: the princess was poisoned.
Medical errors (and even more so crimes) in those days were costly for doctors, people of a complex and almost dangerous profession. Written sources of the Russian Middle Ages associate two cases of poisoning with foreign doctors. In the first case, the chronicles openly report that the doctor “Nemchin Anton” poisoned “Tsarevich Danyarov,” who was in favor with Ivan III, “to die with a mortal potion for laughing.” Apparently, a quarrel occurred between a noble patient and a doctor, which was offensive to the doctor. Grand Duke Ivan, decisive as always, handed over the German Anton to the son of the serving Tatar prince Karakachi, and the Tatars “brought him to the Moscow River under the bridge in winter and slaughtered him with a knife like a sheep.”
The second case is much more complicated; it is connected with the family of Ivan III and the fate of his eldest son. Prince Ivan the Young, the son from his first marriage to Maria Borisovna, suffered from gout, or arthritis. Chroniclers called this disease “kamchjug in the legs.” In 1489, various craftsmen, architects and a doctor, “Leon of Venice,” a Jew by nationality, came to Moscow from Italy in 1489 with one of the Russian embassies. He assured the Grand Duke that he would cure his son, and if he did not cure him, then he was ready to accept the death penalty. The doctor's rash statement testified to his complete ignorance of the character of the Moscow sovereign.
The doctor Leon, who was admitted to the patient, began to treat him using the traditional method, well known in Rus' - by applying vessels with hot water to the swollen joints of the legs. “And the doctor began to treat... by rubbing glass bottles on the body, pouring hot water; and that’s why he (Ivan the Young. - Note auto) a serious case and you will die." Is it possible to die quickly from gout? Today doctors will answer unequivocally: “No.” Especially at 32 years old, like Ivan the Young. But the chroniclers noted that Leon also used some internal medicines: “drink a potion will give it to him."
It is known how Sophia Paleologue strove to transfer over time her father’s throne to her eldest son Vasily - bypassing the legal heir, Ivan the Young. Therefore, there is a strong suspicion that poison plays a primary role in this story. Ivan III, after the death of his son Ivan the Young (which followed on March 7, 1490), took the doctor Leon into custody, and after “Sorochin... ordered him to be executed by death, his head cut off.”
In the legal practice of the Middle Ages, there were strict penalties not only for poisoners, but also for manufacturers of poisons. Most often these were mortal “articles”. According to the “Charter” of Yaroslav the Wise (11th century), a wife who tried to poison her husband, but without death, was separated from her husband and a large fine was imposed on her. The German monument of criminal law "Carolina" (16th century) ordered male poisoners to be wheeled on the wheel, and women to be drowned in the river, having previously been subjected to severe torture. Under the Hungarian king Ladislaus (late 13th century), a fine of 100 libras was imposed for preparing poisons (if the manufacturer was caught the first time). If the accused did not have money, he was burned alive. The punishments are terrible, but they did not stop people who were planning dark deeds.
What about the 16th century? In Russian history this time cannot be called calm. It was about him that the 19th century poet A. N. Maikov wrote:
And that was the century when Venetian poison
Invisible, like a plague, creeping
everywhere:
In a letter, in communion, to brother
and to the dish...
One of the founders of the Old Russian state is considered to be Prince Oleg, nicknamed the Prophetic for his ability to foresee the future. It is still not completely clear whether he actually existed or whether he is a literary character who combined the features of historical prototypes - Oleg (the Kiev prince, mentioned in the treaty between Rus' and Byzantium in 911 and Oleg, a contemporary of Igor Rurikovich. In addition, Lavrentievskaya The chronicle reports that Oleg died in 912 and was buried in the city of Kiev on Mount Shchekovitsa.At the same time, according to the Novogorod Chronicle, this sad event occurred in 922 and Oleg was buried in the city of Ladoga.
But the confusion is connected not only with the life of Prince Oleg, but also with the circumstances of his death.
Prediction of the Magi.
According to the classical legend, the Magi warned Oleg that he would die from his beloved horse. From that moment on, the prince stopped riding him, but ordered him to be fed with selected grain. Four years after the prediction, Oleg, returning from a military campaign, remembered his favorite and wanted to see him. Having learned that the horse had died, Oleg, laughing at the wise men, wanted to see his bones. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin spoke wonderfully about what happened next:
The prince quietly stepped on the horse's skull
And he said: “Sleep, lonely friend!
Your old master outlived you:
At the funeral feast, already nearby,
It’s not you who will stain the feather grass under the ax
And feed my ashes with hot blood!
So this is where my destruction was hidden!
The bone threatened me with death!”
From the dead head of the grave serpent
Meanwhile, hissing crawled out;
Like a black ribbon wrapped around my legs:
And the suddenly stung prince cried out.
"Song about the prophetic Oleg"
There is no doubt that the legend is beautiful and instructive, in the sense that one must obey the Magi, but, at the same time, it is completely unreliable.
And the point is not even that snakes do not have the habit of stinging with their sharp sting forked at the end (this is a fallacy), as Pushkin wrote, but simply and without any pretense they bite with poisonous teeth. And the point is not that in order for a snake to bite a person, the latter still needs to try. And it’s not that it’s unclear why Oleg needed to step on the horse’s skull with his foot? Some strange expression of respect for an old battle friend.
Parting.
But let's say everything was exactly like that. And the prince was still bitten by a snake. It is logical to assume that it was a viper, since neither the cobra, nor the epha, nor the rattlesnake, nor the deadliest snake in the world, the black mamba, are found in our area. And here new questions arise. It is completely incomprehensible how an ordinary viper could miraculously bite through a boot made of rough leather? But even if this did happen, then why did Oleg die? The bite of vipers is fatal to pregnant women and children, but not to a healthy and strong warrior like the prince.
It is interesting that there is an Icelandic saga very strongly reminiscent of the myth about the death of the Prophetic Oleg. It talks about the Viking Orvar Odd. The sorceress predicted his death by horse, for which he was beaten until he bled. To prevent the prediction from coming true, Odd and his friend Asmund killed the horse, threw the corpse into a hole and covered it with stones. The saga goes on to tell of Odd's death:
“And as they walked quickly, Odd kicked and bent down. “What was it that I hit my foot on?” He touched the tip of the spear, and everyone saw that it was the skull of a horse, and immediately a snake rose from it, rushed at Odd and stung him in the leg above the ankle. The poison took effect immediately, and the entire leg and thigh became swollen. Odd became so weak from this bite that they had to help him go to the shore, and when he got there, he said: “You should now go and cut out a stone coffin for me, and let someone stay here sitting next to me and write down that story.” which I will lay down about my deeds and life.”
Death by horse.
It is still unknown for sure whether the saga of Orvar Odd became the reason for the appearance of the legend about the death of the Prophetic Oleg from a snake bite, or vice versa. But we can definitely say that the cause of the prince’s death was different. Different researchers cite different reasons, among which the most popular version is that Oleg was poisoned and insidiously killed by his own vigilantes. We are once again convinced of how far from reality the legends known to all of us from childhood can be.
