Boyan

According to one version, the very word "Boyan" or "button accordion" (these two forms are used indifferently from time to time; the same person is called either Boyan or Bayan) is well known among all Slavs: Russians, Bulgarians , Serbs , Poles , Czechs . It comes from the old Slavonic “ba [jon] ti”, which meant, on the one hand: to “twist”, “to speak”, and on the other - to “fabulous”. Hence the Old Slavonic words: “balalnik”, “balalnitsa”, “magician”, “fortune teller”; "Baan", "Ba [jon] nie" - divination, "fable"; “Ba [jon] nik”, “ba [jon] n” - a bayan. Hence the later Russian forms: "button accordion", "boyan", "balyan" - a krasnobay, a biker who knows fairy tales, fables; Belarusian “bayun” - a storyteller . In Arabic, the word “bayan” ( Arabic: بيان ) means “clarification, explanation, explanation” (there are other meanings) ^[1] .

The name Boyan is very common among the South Slavic peoples, especially among the Serbs, Bulgarians, Macedonians, Montenegrins. In addition to the name Boyan, in territories with a predominantly Bulgarian population since the 10th century, names were etymologically similar - Boimir (10th century), Boyana (16th century), Boyo (15th century) and others ^[2] . It is also worth mentioning the legendary founder of the Avar Kaganate Bayan I and the ancient Bulgarian prince Batbayan .

According to ancient Russian monuments (a record of the deed of purchase “I’m in the land of Boyana” ^[3] in St. Sophia Cathedral ^{[4] [5]} ) and birch bark letters from Novgorod and Staraya Russa of the 11th-12th centuries, a number of people are known by the name of Boyan, which proves the reality of this name and in various regions of Russia. Boyana Street is also known (in ancient times - Buyana or Boyana ^[6] ) in Veliky Novgorod , existing to this day, apparently named after the Novgorodian who lived in this place. Attempts have been made to identify the singer from the "Word" with one or another of these Boyan, but such hypotheses, of course, are unreliable.

Boyan’s name is mentioned seven times in the “ Word on Igor’s Regiment ”. According to the point of view most widespread in modern science, Boyan is a historical person, a court singer of a number of Russian princes of the 11th century . The author of the “Word” names three princes whom Boyan sang: rival brothers Mstislav Vladimirovich the Brave (died in 1036) and Yaroslav the Wise (died in 1054), as well as the grandson of the second of them Roman Svyatoslavich (died in 1079), and one prince whom Boyan condemned: it was Vseslav Polotsky (he ruled in 1044–1101, in 1068 he reigned briefly in Kiev). Judging by the fact that two of Boyan's goodies ruled in the Principality of Chernigov and the dependent Tmutarakan principality (and after the death of Mstislav all Russia, including Chernigov and Tmutarakan, was also owned by the third of them, Yaroslav the Wise), a hypothesis was put forward that he himself Boyan was associated with these places. The timeline shows that Boyan has been active as a singer for at least 40 years.

By the nature of his work, Boyan most likely resembled the Scandinavian skalds , composing rhythmic praise songs or hula songs in honor of specific princes. The author of the “Word” quotes Boyan’s blasphemous refrain about Vseslav Polotsky: “Don’t miss a minute, not a lot, not a hell of a lot of God's judgment.” Boyan was both the author and performer of his songs, accompanying himself on a string instrument like a gusel .

In the XIX century there was a point of view according to which Boyan is the generalized name of the singer (supposedly from the verb to bay ). This mistake was shared by A. S. Pushkin . Hypotheses about its Bulgarian origin were also put forward. At the end of the XIX century. the real existence of such a name in Russia was shown.

For the author of “The Word,” Boyan is his great predecessor, a possessor, capable (like Vseslav) of werewolf (he spreads his thoughts - perhaps “cape”, a squirrel - on a tree, a wolf on the ground and an eagle under the clouds), his fingers are compared with 10 falcons, and strings - with 10 swans, the Boyan himself The author compares several times with the nightingale . The author calls Boyan the grandson of Veles , from which some researchers draw conclusions about the poetic functions of this deity. At the same time, the Author “dissociates” himself from him: at the beginning of the “Word” he announces: “Begin the song according to the past of this time, and not according to the intention of Boyan ” ; perhaps, as opposed to Boyan, two alternative versions of the song can be interpreted by Igor's squad. At the end of the work Boyan is possibly mentioned next to Khodyna (there are alternative interpretations of this place); some see in Khodyn another singer - a contemporary of Boyan, with whom he sang songs, according to the tradition of the skalds, together. Here, the author again quotes Boyan: “Heavily head over the shoulder, evil head back” (the symbolic image of the “orphanhood” of the land without a prince).

At the time of the creation of the “Word” of the Zadonshchina on the model ( 15th century ), Boyan’s name didn’t say anything to the Old Russian scribes, therefore it was subjected to numerous distortions during correspondence: in different lists of Zadonshchina Goboyan, Boyun, exuberant, boyar are in the place of this name. The singer loses a specific temporal confinement and turns into an epic image; in “Zadonshchina”, a differently named Boyan praises not only the princes of the 11th century, but also Igor the Old . ^[7]

In 19th-century Russian literature , the name “Boyan” became the common name of an old Russian singer, a hussar , and it was often mistakenly written as “Bayan” (from the word “bayan”). In this version, it became at the end of the 19th century the trademark of a company that produced accordions , and in the end the common name of a musical instrument button accordion . In the XX century, Boyan becomes a character in the works of the poet Victor Sosnora "Songs of Boyan."

Monuments to Boyan were erected in Trubchevsk (1975), Bryansk (1985) and Novgorod-Seversky (1989) .

• Cartoon “ Prince Vladimir ” (2006, Russia) directed by Yuri Kulakov , Boyana is voiced by Lev Durov .

• Vaishampayana is the character of Mahabharata, one of the two main Old Indian epics in Sanskrit.

• Dmitriev L. A. Boyan // Encyclopedia “Words on Igor's Regiment”: In 5 vols. - St. Petersburg: Dmitry Bulanin, 1995. T. 1. A — B. - 1995. - S. 147-153
• Bayan, singer // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb., 1890-1907.
• Boyan // Big Russian Encyclopedia. Volume 4. - M., 2006 .-- S. 111.