The nature and the image of princely power in Kievan Rus', 980-1054
Subtitle: a study of sources
By: by Walter K. Hanak
Series: East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450 -- volume 25
Publisher: Brill
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Leiden; Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 203
ISBN-13: 9789004259829; 9789004260221
Subjects: History; Princes; Kings and rulers; Sources
Description: "In The Nature and the Image of Princely Power in Kievan Rus', 980-1054, Walter K. Hanak offers a critical analysis of the annalistic, literary, and other works that provide rich if conflicting and contradictory information on the nature of princely power and their image or literary representations. The primary sources demonstrate an interaction between the reality and the notions concerning princely power and how this power generates an image of itself. The author also analyses the textual incongruities that appear to be a reflection of a number of currents -- Byzantine, Varangian, Khazar, and Eastern Slavic. The secondary sources provide a variety of interpretations, which Hanak seeks to uphold and dispute. His stress, however, is to view this evidence in the light of a newly Christianized state and the launching of a maturative process in its early history"--Back cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 171-190) and index.
Table of contents: title: The nature and the early Rus' image of Kievan princely power; title: Byzantine imperial thought in theory and practice in Vladimirian-Jaroslavian Rus'; title: The decline of the Varangians; title: The khazars in the shadows of Kievan political thought; title: The eastern slavic political and social structure.