Daniil the Sharpener

Daniil Sharpener ( XII or XIII century ) - a native of Pereyaslavl , writer, biographical information about him is missing. It is believed that he owns two works that are close in text, called editions, or one of them. The first edition is “ The Word of Daniel the Sharpener ”, the second is “The Prayer of Daniel the Sharpener. ” There is a version that under this pseudonym Cyril Turovsky wrote his manuscripts, pursued by Andrei Bogolyubsky.

Daniil Zatochnik is mentioned in the Simeon Chronicle (1387), which tells about a certain priest who came from the Horde “with a bag of potions” and was exiled by Yuri Dolgoruky to Lake Lacha ( Arkhangelsk Region ), “even the Danilo Zatochnik”. The very word “Sharpener” itself, perhaps, was a nickname and could mean a prisoner, an exiled person (in this case, one can also assume his “imprisonment” on Lake Lache, especially since this lake is also mentioned in the text “Prayer ...”) or person “ pledged ”- agreed to forced labor.

The parsimony of information about Daniil the Sharpener and their legendary nature led to various hypotheses about his life, social status, time of writing works, etc., and most of these assumptions are hypothetical. Daniil Zatochnik was considered a boyar slave ( N.K. Gudziy ), the son of a princely slave ( F.I. Buslaev ), a member of the younger princely squad (E.I. Modestov), ​​the prince's doom ( P.P. Mindalev ), a nobleman (I. U. Budovnits). MN Tikhomirov , noting the excellent knowledge of craftsmen by Daniil the Sharpener, deduced from this his belonging to artisans. NN Voronin believed that the activities of Daniil Zatochnik was connected with the city of Vladimir , the time of the rapid construction activity of Andrei Bogolyubsky . B. A. Romanov wrote that Daniil Zatochnik is “a candidate for any social position where his game of chance leads,” “a man who has come off his social standard,” and even created the term “imprisonment,” emphasizing the instability of the position of the person to whom converted. D. S. Likhachev noted the influence of the style of buffoons on Daniil the Sharpener, considered him a kind of intellectual of Ancient Russia, "belonging to the exploited layers of society."

Kh. M. Loparev suggested that Daniil Zatochnik could also be the author of “ Words about the ruin of the Russian land ” and “ Tales of the exploits and life of Alexander Nevsky ”.