?
Загадка как нарративный прием в «Повести временных лет»: Хазарская дань и византийский визит княгини Ольги
This study is an attempt to look at the episodes of the Khazar tribute and Princess Olga’s visit to Byzantium (955) in the Poviest’ vriemiennyh liet (Повести временных лет) from the point of view of their structure. Thus, a riddle, as a part of the battle of wits motive, is proposed as one of the main genres that influenced the narrative construction of the episodes. Traces of the riddle can be seen in the structure that is called here „a riddle situation” and that shows features of the „question-answer” form. Moreover, riddles are used as subtexts; it is suggested that the episode of the Olga’s visit to the Byzantine Emperor unfolds from the riddle that appears in one of the Olga’s speeches – the riddle that is known from the apocryphal question-answer text known as the Biesieda trioh sviatitieliey (Беседа трех святителей).