Стаття «”Тournaments” and “games” in Rus’: tradition or single mentions? (англ.)» // Христина Меренюк

The tournament culture in Rus` has been known, since the XII century. Early fights of the X-XI centurєs in their content, are classic judicial combats. We are talking about fights in 993 and 1022., However, since the middle XII century, we can talk about the spread of, games among the Rus` elite. Thus, Hypatian chronicles periodically pay, attention to the tactics of Rus` military elites and some of the chronicle, descriptions can be qualifєd as mentions of mount ed shock combat – a, tactical and technical method of cavalry attack, in which horsemen strike, with spears strictly horizontally. This type of combats was characteristic, of the participants of the tournament called joust. In 1151, the Hypatian, Chronicle described the mount ed shock combat of hostile dukes on the, enemy’s battle formations. It has been proven that it is quite difficult to, “break” a spear that was not intended for a ram strike in the saddle. In, addition, it was found that the counterpart of the horse type “destrєr” –, trained in joust, in Rus` was probably the chronicle “фаръ”. The latter is, mentioned under 1150 in the chronicle. A generally accepted example of the, tournament of 1245 is a description of the classic European hastilude. It is, not surprising that the chronicler calls this battle “iгра”, because in fact,, this type is interpreted literally as a game with spears. In Rus`, “iграми”, were actually called different types of Western European tournaments. We, are talking about equestrian competitions in general, but there were also, hiking fencing. We see that Rus` can distinguish acquaintance with the, exact types of tournament competitions, including combat on foot, joust,, hastiludium and even the usual city tournaments in Europe. In addition,, as in Europe, in the selected plots of the chronicle, we can divide into types, of tournaments, taking into account the criterion of combat safety. Most, of the fights belonged to the “Jousts ʻa Outrance”, or “Justes Martelels, et` a Champ”, – deadly combats, but there also were common a fights for, pleasure, for example event under 1150: the main purpose of which was, to share experєnces