The Christian Narrative pushed in the Film/Opera Version of “The Lay of Igor’s Campaign”

The Lay of Igor’s campaign depicts religious imagery in the form of winds, sunlight, and divine intervention/communication, but depicts its imagery in a noncommittal manner in respect to the particular religion acting upon the plot. The story mentions God and ends with an “Amen,” but it also mentions Slavic Deities such as Div, Stribog, Dazhbog, and even a personified form of the river Donets. The critical thing to note in this tale is the peaceful existence of these divine and supernatural forces in Kievan Rus’. I also watched the elective material, which was several tracks from the film opera rendition of the poem. This rendition, however, in my opinion, seems to be presenting and overbearing Christian agenda that I did not see paralleled in the text version of the story. One example of this agenda can be seen in Igor’s army’s banner. In the text, the Russians carry a scarlet shield with scarlet banners and golden helmets. In the film, the banners depict Jesus Christ, and the color scarlet is nowhere to be seen, replaced by the holy colors white and gold. The positioning of scenes further pushes this narrative in the example of the eclipse scene wherein the film the eclipse is pictured next to a cross on the top of a church. This is different from the text where even the first mention of God by his name on page 187. The film works to establish a fight between the pagan and Christian gods as the Kumans are seen to worship Pagan idols that are present in their homestead. The leader of the Kumans tries to persuade Igor into being his ally by offering him sex slaves who would disrespect the holy Christian ceremony of marriage to his wife. The fact that the Russians so heavily respect the Christian God and the Kuman the Pagan ones literally pits the two faiths against each-other, which is the complete opposite to the coexistence of forces in the original text. I might have misinterpreted the original text, but nature (pagan) had its own forces from the get-go, such as the tree of wisdom. I understood this representation as coexistence, but I’m open to other interpretations.

One thought on “The Christian Narrative pushed in the Film/Opera Version of “The Lay of Igor’s Campaign”

  1. Professor Alyssa Gillespie

    All great points! Yes, it’s very striking how the film of the opera brings out the Christian vs. pagan conflict so strongly when, as you say, the two cultures co-exist in the original text, and Christianity is really a very minor presence (although, of course, the pagan gods of the Turkic Kumans were entirely different from the pagan gods of the ancient Slavs, so there was still a cultural conflict there!). I’m so glad you watched the film clips from the opera and hope we can mention this elective material at least briefly in class tomorrow!

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