Daily Medieval

Vladimir the Great (c.958 - 1015) was Prince of Novgorod and Grand Prince of Kyiv. Although originally a pagan, he converted himself, and t...

The word for a Slavic epic hero is bogatyr . One of the best-known was patterned on Prince Vladimir's uncle, Dobrynya . His battle with...

A bylina  (plural byliny ) is an Old Russian epic poem. They often contain tales of a bogatyr , a legendary hero . Early examples are like a...

Grand Prince of Kiev Vladimir the Great (958 - 1015) expanded the territory for the Kievan Rus. He cared about his reputation, showing his ...

Vladimir the Great's mass conversion plan for the Kievan Rus was not acceptable to everyone. Less than a decade earlier he hd built a t...

Although his grandmother, the cruel and vicious Olga , is considered by some to be the reason the Kievan Rus became Christian, Vladimir the ...

Vladimir the Great (also Vladimir I, also St. Vladimir/Volodymyr) was Grand Prince of Kyiv and ruler of Kievan Rus from 980 to 1015. He was ...

The Varangian Guard  were personal bodyguards for Byzantine emperors from the 10th to 14th centuries. The guards were primarily hired from N...

We touched on the Christianization of Kievan Rus when talking about the Varangian Guard . This Christianization did not happen all at onc...

An 11th-century depiction of Varangian Guards. In recent posts on the 4th Crusade and the Siege of Constantinople, I mentioned the Vara...