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Tale of Alexander the Elder Among the stories concerning the Trojan War, the Tale of Alexander the Elder, alluding to both Paris-Alexander of the original circle and his "younger" all-conquering counterpart, has a unique position. Similarly as the (post)modern variants of the Epic Cycle, it does not pretend to stick to any details except the very rough outline of the story, focusing more on its fantastic aspects - dreams used as a medium of communication, use of games for psychological therapy, and, of course, an automatically walking copper horse. This all in a meagre volume of slightly over 1000 words. Scholars, who have found the text in manuscripts scattered over distant locations from Macedonia to Moldavia, were all astonished from what they perceived as a product of a decadent culture, which recycles and plagiarizes motives from other stories. Yet this gives us a unique perspective on what could be perceived as popular, free-time literature of its era. Translated into a language which would like to be Church Slavonic somewhere around Kratovo in 13th-14th century (Miltenova 2018:199), the text also provides rare insight into dialectal developments in the area. Alexander Veles Odessa Petersburg Sofia Adžar Alexander the Elder, the main hero of the story, represents Paris, son of Priam. The epithet alexandros 'protector of men' is well attested in both ancient sources as Illiad (e.g. line 3.100, available here), as well as newer ones, like the Legend of Troy, where Paris receives the epithet aleѯandrъ from Venus (Vat.slav.2). The name alludes also to Alexander "the Younger", the great king of Macedonia, whose spectacular conquest of Persia and Middle East is partly reflected in the final part of the Tale - reinterpreted as a revenge for the destruction of Troas by the Canaanite coalition led by Sion and Og (cf. Kirpičnikov 1891:4, Mazon 1942:30). The hero may also be an allusion to Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria (ruling 1331-1371), who divorced his first wife, Theodora of Wallachia, in favor of Sarah, a younger Jewish lady. The conflict between sons of the two queens, Shishman and Sratsimir, had dire consequences for the kingdom. Orbini (1601:470) also speculated about Sarah's complicacy in the death of one of Theodora's sons. The circle about "evil women", to which the Tale likely belonged (cf. Miltenova 2018:229), would then represent a curious counterpart to Bdinski Sbornik (ms.408 in Ghent University Library, available here), a collection of hagiographies of female saints composed for Anna, Sratsimir's wife and Thedora's niece. Giluda Veles Odessa Petersburg Sofia Adžar The name of "Helen" of the Tale is neither attested elsewhere in Trojan War texts (also the Legend has Elena: Vat.slav.2), nor in the Bible. The very spelling varies a lot. The form giluda is used especially in Odessa and Petersburg editions, as well as elsewhere, only Bucharest prefers egѵluda; in Adžar, along giluda also igulida (preferred in Veles ed.) and igilida are attested. The name likely stems from Gylou or Gillō, a personification of dangers for women giving birth (Kirpičnikov 1891:4), mentioned already by Sappho (Mazon 1942:27). Miklosich (1865:127, here) translates CS gilouda (from another source) as 'magae genus', similar tu Rus. golenduxa, an evil spirit causing fevers. According to Močuľskij (1893:376), the name is taken from a cycle of fever curses used by Bogomils. Magdona Veles Odessa Petersburg Sofia Adžar In the Trojan War myth, Magdona resembles Priam's daughter Cassandra (Kaštranda in the Legend: Vat.slav.2). The name likely reflects Maria Magdalene, to whom Bogomils attributed the ability of divination, as well as the very attribute prěmudra 'most wise' (Mazon 1942:23). Amor Veles Odessa Petersburg Sofia Adžar The name of the Tale's "Priam", the king of Troas (Prějamušъ in the Legend; Vat.slav.2), has been much discussed. Močuľskij (1893:375) considered it an influence of the Legend of Diogenēs Akritēs, where a "King Amir" (Amēras) plays a central role. Mazon (1942:17-20) mentions more possible explanations: e.g. Homer himself, or, following the preferrence for biblical names, Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of Shechem in Canaan (Gen 33:19). He could be also the "king of Amorites" (Amorrhaios in Gen 10:16, tr. in some CS texts as amorěiskii carь, according to Mazon). Sion Veles Odessa Petersburg Sofia Adžar The name for Menelaos' equivalent (Menelaušъ in the Legend: Vat.slav.2) is taken from the Bible - Sion 'Sihon', an Amorite king defeated by Hebrews (Num 21:24, Ps 135:10). The choice of the name was likely influenced by the Latin name of Peloponese (Morea - Amorrea: amorïa in Bucharest ed.), the location of Sparta. However, the city is called Paleopolь in the Tale (cf. below). Jug Veles Odessa Petersburg Sofia Adžar As with Sion, the name for Agamemnon's equivalent (Agamenъ in the Legend: Vat.slav.2) is taken from the Bible, Jug 'Og', king of the Amorite city of Bashan, defeated by Hebrews (Num 21:24, Ps 135:10). Palmida Veles Odessa Petersburg Sofia Adžar Likely a corruption of Palamedes (Palamidešь in the Legend; Vat.slav.2), replaced by Odysseus in some versions as the constructor of the horse used to conquer the city (including the Odyssea of Homer and the Legend) and generally the main "smart guy" among Achaeans. Handled as an ā-stem in annotation, but it appears as a sg.nom only anyway. Sultan Veles Odessa Petersburg Sofia Adžar The name of Sultan, king of Great Saracenia, is self-explaining, even if new to text traditions concerning Trojan War. Saracens appear in the Legend of Troy too, but as allies of the Greeks (e.g. here). Močuľskij (1893:375) interpreted the appearance of Sultan as another influence of the Legend of Diogenēs Akritēs, as the name is similar to that of "King Amir" (Amēras), mentioned above in connection to king Amor. Both Veles and Odessa call Sultan a "son in law" of Alexander, which is actually wrong - they were brothers in law. Troada Veles Odessa Petersburg Sofia Adžar The name of the city is changing between the versions, and sometimes also within the individual texts: Tro(j)an in Veles, Trda or Trad in Odessa and Sofia (with oscillation in gender), Troatь in Adžar. The form Troada, preferred in Bucharest and Petersburg, seems to be the closest one to original Trōas (gen Trōados). The name is used for Biga Peninsula, the location of ancient Troy and the Karamenderes river, but it was likely used as an adjective in the original - *Trōas polis lit. 'Trojan city'. Paleopol Veles Odessa Petersburg Sofia Adžar The name for the throne city of Menelaos/Sion ("Sparta") possibly denotes the island of Kythēra. A city on the island was destroyed by Arab and Slavic raids in the 7th c., afterwards called Paleopolis lit. 'old city'. Vasan Veles Odessa Petersburg Sofia Adžar The name Vasanь, used for "Mycenae" in the Tale, surely reflects the Og's city of Bashan from Numbers. However, Mazon (1942:32) gives an intriguing speculation about the connotations and various renderings of the name in other sources - Par contre, Veliisan de la rédaction bulgare (B. велïисань) n'a pas de correspondant géographique connu (...) Victor Bérard, avec sa hardiesse coutumière, aurait peut-être reconnu dans son nom le calque slave (sanĭ 'le dragon') du nom de la Dragomara, la Taphos antique, et la Dragonière des Instructions nautiques, cette petite île des Échinades située aux bouches mêmes de l'Achéloos, et â laquelle il imaginait, dans le passé, un rôle si important. Nous pourrions, non moins hardimet, retrouver dans le second élément de ce composé l'emprunt roman santu, abrégé en san, et Velii San 'le Grand Saint' désignerait alors soit quelque ville baptisée par les Francs comme le Santamérē 'Saint-Omer' d'Élide, soit tel monasère fortifié comme l' Agios Geōrgios, situé à proximité de la Mycènes antique en Argolide, au pays d'Agamemnon. Le bon sens nous commande pourtant de ne voir dans Veliisan qu'une réplique, inspirée par une graphie fautive de Basan-Vasan comme celle de S2 вь Сань градь, la réplique d'un toponyme slave bien connu de la principauté de Morée: ce Veligosti ou Veligourt des Francs, qui désigne une bourgade située sur l'emplacement du moderne Léondaris et de l'anciennce Mégalopolis (...) au centre de l'Arcadie polema Veles Odessa Petersburg Sofia Adžar Maybe linked to the loanword polemisvam sa 'trudja se' (BAN V 496). Sofia ed. has ot množestva pogolema 'because of the larger number (of troops?)', which is an intriguing example of analytic comparative in a CS text. However, the word was possibly simply left untranslated. imatski Veles Odessa Petersburg Sofia Adžar An adverb (Veles: imatnski, Odessa: maѳataskïi, Bucharest: matatokyi, Petersburg: matatatokyi, Sofia: matski, Adžar: matan'ski) used to describe the movement of the copper horse. It was likely, like polema, simply left untranslated, perplexing scholars since the discovery of the Tale. Syrku (1884:86) translates it as equus hic automatus movebatur 'the horse moved automatically', constructing the Greek source as metatopizomenos, lit. 'changing place'. Mazon (1942:38) reconstructs the original word as metakınētós or metáѳetos 'déplaçable'. da egda Veles Odessa Adžar The formation da egda 'when' is used for hypothetical (or future) clauses in newer CS, e.g. Lk 16:4 Elis. da egda ostavlen budu ot stroenia domu 'when I'll be fired from the staff of the house' (Zogr. egda otstavljenъ bǫdǫ otъ stroenьě domu). Here it seems to be used more frequently and with a broader sense of egda alone. Odessa has only instance of this sequence. As da also appears in front of ašte 'if' and jako 'that, as', it is possible that it is used with the meaning 'and'. conjunction i Veles Odessa Sofia Adžar The conjunction i seems redundant in many main clauses (after a subordinate one following the egda marker). The practice reflects modern Greek. It can be seen also in Kiev d.: i izъmъ tri mednice i podast mi radi imeni xvě. 'and he took three coins and gave them to me for the name of Christ' (here; cf. Thēsauros 1751: kai eugale treis folais kai me edōke dia to onoma tu Xriśtu; Bakačič's translation has two finite verbs: i izjetь tri caty, i dastь mi za ime Xvo) as well as in the Legend of Troy (i slyšavъ to menelae crь i obveseli sę srdcemь 'and having heard it, Menelaus became happy in his heart'; Vat.slav.2). final battle Veles Odessa Petersburg Sofia Adžar The position of the three armies differs across the editions. Veles: aleѯandrь. stoaše vь elewsě a sutan vь paleopoli. Odessa: sïon crь stojaše vъ oleosě. a sul'tan' i rabi ix byjaxu gospodini svoe i ratuvaxu. Bucharest: sionъ carь stoaše vъ paleopoli, aleѯandrъ stoaše vъ eleosě. a saltanь i raby ixь bıaxǫ gospodǫ svoǫ (as in Sofia ed.). Adžar: aleѯanьdrь stojaše vь paliopolь. a sion crь stojaše vь eleosě. a sultan stojaše sь rabmi sionьskimi Literature Angelov, Bonjo (1967) Solunska legenda. In: Iz starata bălgarska, ruska i srъbska literatura, II, Sofia: BAN. 44-67. Acknowledgements The website development is funded by the Stiftung Empiris, Jakob Wüest Fonds, via Foundation for Research in Science and Humanities at the University of Zurich, and realized at the Institute of Slavic Studies at the University of Zurich. The corpus data was collected withing the project 'Ill-bred sons', family and friends: tracing the multiple affiliations of Balkan Slavic funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF № 176378), led by Prof. Dr. Barbara Sonnenhauser. Further thanks to National Library "Sv.Sv. Kirill i Metodii" in Sofia, Ecclesiastical Historical and Archive Institute of the Bulgarian Patriarchate in Sofia, as well as to Prof. Anissava Miltenova of Bulgarian Academy of Sciences for access to the sources used for this edition. Šimko, Ivan. Digital Editions of the Tale of Alexander the Elder. Zürich: UZH Institute of Slavic Studies. Available online at https://www.punco.uzh.ch/editions (last access: ) 
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