IZBA—A peasant’s house, small and made of wood, often with carved embellishments. The plural is izby.
KOKOSHNIK—A Russian headdress. There are many styles of kokoshniki, depending on the locale and the era. Generally the word refers to the closed headdress worn by married women, though maidens also wore headdresses, open in back, or sometimes just headbands, that revealed their hair. The wearing of kokoshniki was limited to the nobility. The more common form of head covering for a medieval Russian woman was a head scarf or kerchief.
KOLOMNA—A town that still exists today, part of the Moscow region.
Its name likely derives from the Old Russian word for a bend in the river. Its official arms were granted by Catherine the Great.
The historical location of Dmitrii’s mustering of the Russian army before marching to Kulikovo.
KREMLIN—A fortified complex at the center of a Russian city.
Although modern English usage has adopted the word kremlin to refer solely to the most famous example, the Moscow Kremlin, there are actually kremlins to be found in most historic Russian cities. Originally, all of Moscow lay within its kremlin proper; over time, the city spread beyond its walls.
KULIKOVO—Kulikovo Pole, literally “Snipes’ Field.” The location of the historic Battle of Kulikovo, which took place in 1380.
LESNAYA ZEMLYA—Literally, “Land of the Forest.” Vasya, Sasha, and Olga’s home village, the location for much of the action of The Bear and the Nightingale, referenced in The Girl in the Tower and The Winter of the Witch.
LETNIK—A calf-length, light woman’s garment with long, wide sleeves, worn over a shift.
LISICHKI—Chanterelles, a kind of mushroom.
LITTLE BROTHER—English rendering of the Russian endearment bratishka. Can be applied to both older and younger siblings.
LITTLE SISTER—English rendering of the Russian endearment sestryonka. Can be applied to both older and younger siblings.
MATYUSHKA—Literally, “little mother,” a term of endearment.
MEAD—Honey-wine, made by fermenting a solution of honey and water.
METROPOLITAN—A high official in the Orthodox church. In the Middle Ages, the Metropolitan of the church of the Rus’ was the highest Orthodox authority in Russia and was appointed by the Byzantine Patriarch.
MONASTERY OF THE ARCHANGEL—The monastery’s full name was Aleksei’s Archangel Michael Monastery; it was more familiarly known as the Chudov Monastery, from the Russian word chudo, miracle. It was dedicated to the miracle of the Archangel Michael at Colossae, where the angel purportedly gave the power of speech to a mute girl. It was founded in 1358 by Metropolitan Aleksei.
MOSCOW (RUSSIAN: MOSKVA)—Currently the capital of the modern Russian Federation, Moscow was founded in the twelfth century by Prince Yury Dolgoruki. Long eclipsed by cities such as Vladimir, Tver, Suzdal, and Kiev, Moscow rose to prominence after the Mongol invasion, under the leadership of a series of competent and enterprising Rurikid princes.
MOSKVA RIVER—River along which Moscow was founded.
MUSCOVY—Derived from Latin Moscovia, from the original Russian appellation Moscov, the term refers to the Grand Duchy or Grand Principality of Moscow; for centuries, Muscovy was a common way to refer to Russia in the West. Originally Muscovy covered a relatively modest territory stretching north and east from Moscow, but from the late fourteenth to the early sixteenth century it grew enormously, until by 1505 it covered almost a million square miles.
NEGLINNAYA RIVER—Moscow was originally built on a hill between the Moskva and the Neglinnaya, and the two rivers formed a natural moat. The Neglinnaya is now an underground river in the city of Moscow.
OLEG OF RYAZAN—Also Oleg Ryazansky. The Grand Prince of Ryazan during the latter half of the fourteenth century. His role in the
time leading up to the Battle of Kulikovo, and in the battle itself, is ambiguous. Some sources put him fully on the side of the Tatars. Others say he tried to play both sides, so as to come out ahead whoever won. He might have been the first one to bring word to Dmitrii that Mamai’s forces were advancing on Kulikovo; he might have delayed his own arrival at the battle and turned aside Mamai’s reinforcements to give Dmitrii a chance. He might have allowed his boyars to fight on the side of the Russians but hung back himself.
OTCHE NASH—Our Father, the opening phrase of the Lord’s Prayer in Old Church Slavonic. Even today, the prayer is generally memorized and said in this older form rather than in modern Russian.
OVEN—The Russian oven, or pech’, is an enormous construction that came into wide use in the fifteenth century for cooking, baking, and heating. A system of flues ensured even distribution of heat, and whole families would often sleep on top of the oven to keep warm during the winter.
PATENT—A term used in Russian historiography for official decrees of the Golden Horde. Every ruler of Rus’ had to have a patent, or yarlyk, from the Khan giving him the authority to rule.
Jockeying for the patents of various cities made up a good deal of the intrigue between Russian princes from the thirteenth century on.
POLUDNITSA—Lady Midday, sister to Lady Midnight, who wanders the hayfields and causes heatstroke with her cutting shears.
POLUNOCHNITSA—Literally, midnight woman; Lady Midnight, a demon that comes out only at midnight and causes children’s nightmares. In folklore, she lives in a swamp, and there are many examples of charms sung by parents to send her back there. In The Winter of the Witch, this folkloric character is associated with Night, the servant of Baba Yaga in the fairy tale Vasilisa the Beautiful.
POSAD—An area adjoining, but not within, the fortified walls of a Russian town, often a center of trade. Over the centuries, the
posad often evolved into an administrative center or a town in its own right.
POZHAR—Fire, bonfire; the name of the golden mare in The Winter of the Witch, who is also the firebird. You can see the root of her name in the Russian word for firebird, zhar-ptitsa.
RUBAKHA—A long-sleeved shift, the main undergarment for nearly all medieval Russian women, the only one consistently washed.
RUS’—The Rus’ were originally a Scandinavian people. In the ninth century C.E., at the invitation of warring Slavic and Finnic tribes, they established a ruling dynasty, the Rurikids, that eventually comprised a large swath of what are now Ukraine, Belarus, and western Russia. The territory they ruled was eventually named after them, as were the people living under their dynasty, which lasted from the ninth century to the death of Ivan IV in 1584.
RUSSIA—From the thirteenth through fifteenth centuries, there was no unified polity called Russia. Instead, the Rus’ lived under a disparate collection of rival princes (knyazey) who owed their ultimate allegiance to Mongol overlords. The word Russia did not come into common use until the seventeenth century. Thus, in the medieval context, the use of the word Russia, or the adjective Russian, refers to a swath of territory with a common culture and language, rather than a nation with a unified government. Hence the phrase “All the Russias” refers to these various states, rather than a unified whole.
SAPOGI—Short boots, generally made of multiple pieces of leather, with a rounded toe. In this era, they did not distinguish between left and right foot.
SARAFAN—A dress something like a jumper or pinafore, with shoulder straps, worn over a long-sleeved blouse. This garment actually came into common use only in the early fifteenth century; I included it in The Bear and the Nightingale slightly before its time because of how strongly this manner of dress evokes fairy-tale Russia to the Western reader.
SARAI—From the Persian word for “palace,” the capital city of the Golden Horde, originally built on the Akhtuba River and later relocated slightly to the north. Various princes of Rus’ would go to Sarai to do homage and receive patents from the Khan to rule their territories. At one point, Sarai was one of the largest cities in the medieval world, with a population of over half a million.
SERPUKHOV—Currently a town that sits about sixty miles south of Moscow. Originally founded during the reign of Dmitrii Ivanovich to protect Moscow’s southern approaches, and given to Dmitrii’s cousin Vladimir Andreevich (Olga’s husband in The Girl in the Tower). Serpukhov did not get town status until the late fourteenth century. In The Girl in the Tower and The Winter of the Witch, Olga lives with her family in Moscow despite being the Princess of Serpukhov, because Serpukhov, at this time, consists of little more than trees, a garrison, and a few huts. The Prince of Serpukhov was the only lord in Muscovy who was not a vassal, i.e., was a prince in his own right and not subordinate to Moscow.
SNEGUROCHKA—Derived from the Russian sneg, snow, the Snow-Maiden, a character who appears in several Russian fairy tales.
