To the twelfth century, also, belongs Russia's single written epic song, "The Word (or lay) Concerning Igor's Raid," which contains an extremely curious mixture of Christianity and heathen views.

By a fortunate chance, this epic was preserved and was discovered, in 1795, by Count Musin-Pushkin, among a collection which he had purchased from a monastery.

Unhappily, Count Musin-Pushkin's valuable library was burned during the conflagration of Moscow, in 1812.
But the _Slovo_ had been twice published previous to that date, and had been examined by many learned paleographists, who decided that the chirography belonged to the end of the fourteenth century or the beginning of the fifteenth century.
Igor Svyatoslavitch was the prince of Novgorod-Syeversk, who in 1185, made a raid against the Polovtzy, or Plain-dwellers, and the Word begins thus: Shall we not begin our song, oh brothers, With the story of the feuds of old; Song of the valiant troop of Igor, And of him, the son of Svyatoslaff, And sing them as men now do sing, Striving not in thought after Boyan.[4] Making this ballad, he was wont the Wizard, As a squirrel swift to flit about the forest, As a gray wolf o'er the clear plain to trot, And as an eagle 'neath the clouds to hover; When he recalleth ancient feuds of yore, Then, from out the flock of swans he sendeth In pursuit, ten falcons, swift of wing.
The whole expedition is described in this poetical style, in three hundred and eighty-four unrhymed lines, with a curious mingling of heathen beliefs and Christian views.

God shows Igor the road "to the land of Polovetzk, to the Russian land," and on his return from captivity, Igor rides to Kieff to salute the Holy Birth-giver of God of Pirogoshtch, while the Polovtzy are called "accursed," in contrast with the orthodox Russians.

But the winds are called "the grandchildren of Stribog," and the Russian people are alluded to as "the grandsons of Dazhbog," both heathen divinities, and other mythical and obscure personages are introduced.
With this epic lay, the first period of Russian literature closes.
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