 | The epic songs of Russia |  |
Vasily the Drunkard and Tzar Batyg
THIS song resembles an episode narrated in the
Chronicles, which has been idealized and transferred
to the favourite epoch of Vladimir, and
the siege of Kief by Batyg in 1240.
In 1381, Toktamysh besieged Moscow. "Taken
unawares," says the Chronicle, "and deprived of all
power of defending themselves, nearly all the inhabitants
gave themselves over to drunkenness. A few,
however, fought the enemy from the city wall, among
them a certain cloth-dealer, Adam by name, who shot
an arrow from the Frolof gate, and slew one of the
horde, a son, and a person of distinction, causing
thereby great grief to Tzar Toktamysh, and to all his
princes."
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