Hubbry Logo
logo
Sword Kladenets
Community hub

Sword Kladenets

logo
0 subscribers
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Contribute something to knowledge base
Hub AI

Sword Kladenets AI simulator

(@Sword Kladenets_simulator)

Sword Kladenets

Sword Kladenets (also mech-kladenets; Russian: меч-кладенец. [mʲetɕ klədʲɪˈnʲets]) is a magic sword in Russian fairy tales and byliny (Russian epic poetry), rendered as "sword of steel", "hidden sword", or "magic sword" in English translations.

The "self-swinging sword" or mech-samosek (also mech-samosyok, самосёк. [səmɐˈsʲɵk]) is also regarded as equivalent by certain commentators, though others consider them to be distinct.

Max Vasmer's dictionary defines kladenets as a modifier designating a "magic sword in Russian tales", and the sword kladenets has been translated "magic sword" in texts.

The word "kladenets" can putatively be linked to the Slavic word klad (клад) "treasure, hoard," although "a number of philologists doubt" that this word-stem figures in the derivation of "[this] Russian epithet of this sword".

Some sources point out that kladenets sword, being a treasure, is frequently connected with the motif of being hidden inside a wall, under a rock, or under a sacred tree, waiting to be discovered by the bogatyr hero, and George Vernadsky goes as far as to translate the kladenets weapon as "the hidden sword". Although Vernadsky fails to elaborate, an alternative etymology connects the term kladenets to klast' (класть) "to lay or put", and his interpretation lies in this camp.

One rational explanation derives the word from uklad[ny] (укладъ, укладный) "steel" and kladenets is defined as meaning "made of steel" in the Dictionary of the Russian Language published by the Russian Academy of Sciences (and later in the Dictionary of archaic and obsolete words, published by Nauka). Hence some sources render "sword of steel".

Another explanation, credited to Alexander Veselovsky (1888), theorizes that kladenets may be a corrupted pronunciation of Kgl'arentsya or Kgl'adentsya (кгляренцыя, кгляренция or кгляденцыя, кгляденция), the sword of Bova Korolevich [ru]. The Russo-Ukrainian tale of Bova was adapted from the medieval Italian romance of Buovo d'Antona, in which the original sword name is Clarença or Chiarenza. This etymology has been endorsed by Max Vasmer's dictionary, under the entry that defines kladenets as a "magic sword in Russian tales", or "magic sword".

The corrupted form mech-kolunets (меч-колуне́ц) is also attested.

See all
magic sword in Old Russian fairy tales
User Avatar
No comments yet.