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The Story of “Chazar Tribute”: A Scandinavian Ritual Trick in the Russian Primary Chronicle

The story of the Chazars who had claimed a tribute from a Slavic tribe, the Poljanians, and received a sword in response, is usually considered in scholarship to be testimony that the Chazar empire was extended to the region of Kiev. A similar offering of a sword in Heimskringla and Nóregs konunga tal demonstrates that the story does not relate to a tribute paid to the Chazars, but rather the opposite, that the Poljanians suggested that the Chazars acknowledge their overlordship. Even if the narrative had Scandinavian origins, it was well assimilated by Russian compilers. Our interpretation shows that the story of the “Chazar tribute” belongs not to real, historical time or space, but rather to “annalistic space” under the influence of various narrative traditions. The theme of the sword became a kind of cliché, which is reiterated in several episodes when the Primary Chronicle tells of political subordination in the pre-Christian epoch. The development of the written tradition under Prince Jaroslav the Wise and his descendants led to a change in the original meaning of the archaic ritual, considered now in the light of literary rationalism. The tale was most likely invented and included in the chronicle by an early compiler in the middle or the second half of the eleventh century. Around the year 1110, the original motif of offering a sword was elaborated into a claim of tribute.