These days, on the Internet, a good story rapidly makes the rounds.  It doesn't matter whether it is true, but rather whether it is a good story.  The original source is rarely acknowledged or even known.  The Middle Ages were not very different.  In the Russian Primary Chronicle we find tales that were copied from elsewhere.   And tales from the Chronicle were retold elsewhere as well.

The Conversion of Prince Vladimir (983-7AD) describes how the ruler of the Rus chose the Greek Orthodox religion from among four emissaries of monotheistic religions: Islam, Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Christianity and Judaism.   Each representative pleads his case and is questioned by the prince.

“…Vladimir summoned together his boyars and the city-elders, and said to them, “Behold, the Bulgars [Moslems] came before me urging me accept their religion.  Then came the Germans [Roman Catholics] and praised their own faith; and after them came the Jews.  Finally the Greeks appeared, criticizing all other faiths but commending their own…”

Various arguments are presented and opinions weighed.  Vladimir rejects Islam, for example, because of the prohibition  against drinking.  Ultimately in the Chronical, the Rus are swayed by the beauty of the Greek Orthodox churches and their ritual.

A very similar story is told by the Khazars, who once were neighbors to the Rus.  The Khazars were a Turkic kingdom that inhabited the region of the Lower Volga in the centuries before the year 1000.  Their conversion to Judaism is described in a famous exchange of letters between Rabbi Chisdai of Cordoba and King Joseph of the Khazars.  The conversion of the Khazars parallels the Russian tale, this time with three emissaries.

 “Afterwards, the kings reputation spread throughout the world.  The kings of Edom [Christian Byzantium] and Ishmael [Moslems] heard of him, and they sent messengers and emissaries with a large sum of money and many gifts, together with wise men, to the king, in order to persuade him to convert to their religion…”

King Joseph, who already leans toward Judaism, asks the two other representatives to choose between his rival’s religion and Judaism.  Given this choice, each picks Judaism as “the better” and Joseph is validated in his choice.

It appears that the Khazar’s story predates the Russian tale apparently by about 100 years, since the dates of Rabbi Chisdai at c. 915 – 990 and the tale is told as history.   It is also more likely that it flowed in this direction as Kiev was at that time tributary to the Khazar Kingdom.

A case of a Russian story influencing a foreign tale is seen in one incident from the ripping yard of Olga's Vengeance (946).  Olga is besieging her enemies the Derevlians and they sue for peace offering to pay tribute.  Olga requests a tribute of “three pigeons and three sparrows from each house”.  She has a trick up her sleeve.

“Now Olga gave each soldier in her army a pigeon or a sparrow, and ordered them to attach by a thread to each pigeon and sparrow a match bound with small pieces of cloth…  Thus the dove-cotes, the coops, and haymows were set on fire…”

Olga succeeds in burning out her enemies, killing the men and selling the women and children into slavery.

The story is closely paralleled in the Icelandic tale of one of the last Viking Kings-- Harald Sigurdsson.   Harald was a mercenary fighting for the Byzantine Empire earlier in his carrier, before eventually becoming king of Norway.  King Harald’s Saga chronicles his life, including exile in Novgorod and a certain siege in Sicily

“So Harald thought up a scheme: he told his bird catchers to catch the small birds that nested within the town and flew out to the woods each day in search of food.  Harald had small shavings of fir tied to the backs of the birds, and then he smeared the shavings with wax and sulphur and set fire to them.  As soon as the birds were released they all flew straight home…  a host of birds set roofs on alight all over the town…”

Harald thus captured the town.

In this case the Viking tale almost certainly is the later, based on the supposed dates in the respective chronicles.

The alert reader will certainly find many more examples of these borrowings.  The Primary Chronicles has pieces of the Old Testament taken verbatim or retold closely to the original.   A snippet of the Greek Alexander Romance also appears—the story of the unclean tribes of Gog and Magog walled up behind mountains by King Alexander.

In fact, medieval historians make a study of this these borrowings and try to understand, among other things, the direction the tales travel.   A historian friend described the process,  “ Basically, it's a textual analysis thing--how old is the manuscript and how old is the text (not always the same thing).  Which one influenced which, and all that jazz.  Or it could just be a milieu thing--none of them directly influencing the others.  It's just something in the air.”

For the widely read amateur it is possible to make discoveries like the ones above.  How amazing that stories (and people) traveled so widely in the days long ago.