What "bridges" did Prince Igor build? (From comments to "The Tale of Igor’s Campaign")
It is now accepted to consider that the phrase “to build bridges” found in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” means to make a corduroy or a brushwood road, i.e. to make a road of brushwood across marshy ground, throwing precious fabrics and all sorts of other rich trophies into the marsh. The author of the article, rejecting this interpretation, which is incorrect in the author’s view, concludes that in this case, it is a matter of making a pagan sacrifice by Igor’s armed retinue, which is typical of those with a double faith, but, judging by the text, Igor Svyatoslavich, Prince of Novgorod-Seversky, the main protagonist of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, belonged to such people as well. An issue, unexplained in the scientific literature about “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, on how exactly Igor, who had been captured, was shown the way to the Homeland by God, is considered in the article. Analysing certain fragments of the literary monument of Old Rus’, the author of the article concludes that in it, there is another sign that forms a composite concurrency with the first presage of God which the Prince was given before his reckless march against the Polovtsians.