Sorcery in the first Prince is responsible for the preparation of various potions. The greater the skill of quackery, the higher the concentration of the potion. The simplest drugs are made from three ingredients: white root, peanut and poisonous sting. The first two "grow" freely in the Forest Country, but the poisonous sting is obtained only from poisonous monsters: poisonous spiders, worms and all cannibal flowers.

To prepare the simplest potion, you need to "squeeze" the ingredient into an empty jar. In other words, drag it onto an empty jar in the mix slot in your inventory. From the white root, peanut and sting, the simplest drugs are obtained: healing balm, oil and poison, respectively.

When mixing the simplest potions with each other, you can get more complex ones, such as: antidote, mash, potion, EM, ES, ZhV.

Upon receipt of various potions and when they are mixed (for example, mash + mash), in order to increase the concentration, the healer increases. So, when receiving or increasing the concentration of oil, 2 points are added to the healer; poison, antidotes, mash, potions and pure tears - 3 points; living water and the elixir of wisdom - 4 points. With an increase in the concentration (LB + LB) of healing balm, the jar disappears and the healer increases by 1 point. In addition to the natural gradual increase in witchcraft, it can also be increased with the Scrolls of "Works of Hippocrates" (+100), which can be bought from merchants. Max healing value = 500. With this value, the ingredients will produce (simple) potions with a concentration of 5.00.

When mixing drugs of different concentrations, the final drug will be obtained with a lower concentration, which was among the two components. Those. if you mix a 3.0 concentration balm with a 2.6 concentration brew, you will get a 2.6 concentration potion.

Recipes and descriptions

Healing balm

The most common and necessary drug. Restores the health of the character who received it. Concentration 0.1 restores 1 unit. health, 10.00 - respectively 100. When taken (like any other drug in the first Prince) it is used immediately, i.e. if you had health = 90, and took a balm of 10.00, then health will become = 100, and the jar will remain empty.

Butter

Oil can be used to lubricate normal arrows (in the mix slot) in order to get incendiary arrows, which can be used to set fire to wooden buildings and fabric tents. Minimum working concentration = 10.00 (less than this does not work).

The higher the concentration, the fewer arrows will need to be spent to set fire to the building.

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Poison can lubricate weapons and arrows. The only difference is that from shock-crushing samples, poisonous damage decreases with each effective hit (for example, the first hit is 15, then 14, 13, 12 ... 0), and all the arrows that are in the quiver will be smeared, and each will have the same poison damage. Those. 30 shots with max poison damage vs max 15 hits with debuff. Another thing is that the skill of owning shock and crushing weapons can be better developed. What to lubricate first, and whether to lubricate, is up to the player: when killing a monster with poison, the character who killed him does not receive experience for him. You can also drink yada as a means of suicide in case you are tired of living;)

Antidote

When poisoned, poisoning occurs. Poisoning depends on the concentration of the poison. Those. if a character or monster is hit by an arrow lubricated with poison of concentration 15.00, then he will receive poisoning at 15.00. With multiple hits, the poisoning is cumulative. When poisoned 16, 1 unit is removed. health per second, at 32 - respectively 2 health / sec. Accordingly, in order to remove 1 unit. poisoning, you need to take an antidote with a concentration of at least 0.1. Before attacking poisonous monsters, it’s better to stock up on the proper amount of antidote, because over time, the poison, among other things, is not excreted from the body, and if you are poisoned, your hero will continue to walk poisoned until he takes the antidote of the proper concentration.

Braga

In the first Prince, temporarily adds strength and endurance to the detriment of agility. Braga concentration 1.00 adds 1. strength and endurance for subtracting 3 dexterity.

2.00 => +2 strength; +2 out; -6 catches. Etc.

Potion

Temporarily increases all stats (except charisma). Min = +1 Str/Dex/Con (1.00 Focus), Max = +15 (15.00). Also, the effect of the potion is the restoration of health, depending on the concentration, similar to a healing balm.

Elixir of Wisdom

Adds free experience. But it has a number side effects: Strength is temporarily reduced to 1, health to 10, the ability to increase characteristics is blocked. The amount of experience and the duration of side effects depend on the concentration of EO. Below are the values.

Pure tear

Illuminates all objects lying on the ground. Works at any concentration. You can see it especially well at night if you have it enabled in your settings.

living water

Resurrects a dead character. To do this, you need to drag the ZhI from the inventory of a living character to the portrait of a dead one. If you do not have it at hand (as well as a scroll of resurrection words) or there are clearly not enough pieces, then you can try to cook it, but if this is not possible, you will lose it forever when moving to another location of a dead character. The wounded character's HP is fully restored to health. Minimum working concentration = 10.00. Useless as a revival for the main character.

Incomprehensible mixture

It will turn out with any variant of the wrong mixing. For example, empty jar + empty jar, white root + white root, etc. At first glance, a useless obscure mixture that reduces health by half can also be useful. So, if you have accumulated too many (more than 5) empty cans, you can "mix" them all into one incomprehensible mixture, thus putting things in order in your inventory, and if the quantity is >5, you can also reduce the character's current load. Yes, no doubt, empty cans can be thrown away or simply sold, but, really, you should not litter the Forest Country with household waste or trifle and change the route of your movement towards the trifle merchant;) In addition, there will be clearly fewer mouse manipulations in both cases. And in the second Prince receives one more application.

In the second Princes, medicine is divided into 2 parameters: "healing" and "preparing mixtures".

The first is responsible for the character's ability to heal himself and the squad members (ctrl + left click on the portrait). In order to be able to heal yourself or everyone at once, the health of the one we are treating must be less than the healer skill. For example, if the "doctor" has skill = 20, then the "sick" health should be from 19 and below. Health decreases when fighting monsters or artificially: when drinking an incomprehensible mixture or poison. With each successful attempt to treat the "doctor" +1 is added to the healer. For example, having cured 3 people (including himself) with health 50 and skill 60, the health of the squad members will become 61, 62, 63 respectively, and the healer's skill of the "doctor" will be 63. After treatment, the "doctor" rests for a while (the ability to heal disappears ), restores strength. The difference between k2 and k2.5 is that the latter can be treated less frequently.

The preparation of mixtures is similar to the medicine practice of the first Prince. Only the maximum skill = 100 (which makes life difficult), with any correct mixing, the skill increases by +1, and when mixing the same potions, the skill does not increase.

You can now improve your healing and concoction skills not only by using healing and concoctions, but also by spending free experience points on these skills when you level up. Points are awarded in the same way as with an increase.

The effects of drugs vary slightly.

When drinking a healing balm and an antidote from a jar, not all the potion is drunk, but as much as is necessary to restore health to 100, and reduce poisoning to 0. For example, a character with health = 80 and poisoning 17 will "take a sip" from a jar of healing balm 2.00 , and from antidote 1.7, if there are less than these concentrations in potion jars, then the jar will be used up and become empty, and the hero will need to "take a sip" from the next one. Poison, by the way, is now gradually leaving the body (poisoning is reduced) and you can survive poisoning on balms.

Healing balm can not only be drunk with the mouse, but also automatically by selecting the appropriate option in the inventory window.

Braga in the second Princes of concentration 1.00 adds 1 unit. strength for subtracting 3 dexterity.

The accrual of experience when drinking EM (as, by the way, experience for completed quests and eating an apple of knowledge) now depends on the selected difficulty of the game. At the normal level of difficulty, the "average" value is added. At an easy and difficult level - a third (of this number) more or less, respectively.

If you look closely at this very third, you can find some pattern for different Princes;)

The effects of the potion and pure tear at d2 and d2.5 are the same as d1.

There is no living water (as well as the words of resurrection) in d2 and d2.5.

That's all the differences.

good luck!

P.S. I wrote the article not because of the relevance - it is now (12/3/2006) is not relevant - but because it has become boring.

(potions recipes, potions, descriptions)

In Prince 3 quackery It is subdivided into 2 skills: "healing" and "potions".

Quackery

Witchcraft in Prince 3 is responsible for the effectiveness of the use of medicinal herbs (plantain, celandine, a set of medicinal herbs) and the effectiveness of the treatment of your squad by village healers.

Unlike a healing potion, the use of a healing herb by one fighter heals the entire squad. The higher the healing skill, the more effective treatment will be from the use of medicinal herbs. Also, this skill is necessary for the village healers, with whom you are treated: the higher the skill, the more health they will heal you. Witchcraft skill depends on intelligence. Below are the values.

So, a fighter with a healer of 2 and using celandine will add +30 health to everyone, and a healer in a village with a healer of 7 will heal your squad up to 70 health. Unlike Prince 2, your fighter with this skill cannot heal the squad, as it was before, only village healers. Also, this skill does not increase as a result of successfully healing someone by someone. To increase the skill of a fighter, you need to spend development points, with due intelligence. You can increase your quackery if you don't have the proper intellect with a scroll of "The Works of Hippocrates" (quackery +1). The same scroll is also needed by the village healers in order to increase the effectiveness of the treatment of your squad and the village guards. Unlike Prince 1, you cannot take a healer from your village to the squad, and also ask to prepare an apprentice. The number of healer apprentices (as well as blacksmith apprentices) in Prince 3 is strictly limited. Witch doctors, unlike Prince 1 and Prince 2, do not carry weapons and armor, which makes them very vulnerable to the enemy.

Potions

The preparation of potions, in comparison with the previous Princes, has undergone a number of changes. There were more recipes, solutions and decoctions appeared, a burner appeared.

Ingredients

There are several times more ingredients for potions. Almost everything can be bought from merchants, but some can also be found at locations. Some of them (hops, fern leaves, indrik horn powder) are very scarce, and their number in the game is limited. Of the monsters, only the spider and the poisonous spider are remarkable in terms of ingredients. From the first, powder from the legs of the spider periodically falls out, from the second - a poisonous sting (always) and powder l.p. (periodically). The white root and the peanut are still on the locations, however, they can be found much less frequently than in the previous parts of the game, if only because they do not stand out on the surface as clearly as they did in Prince 1 and Prince 2. Therefore, if you have there is no intention to stubbornly look at the screen with the alt key pressed, contact only the merchants. As with regular bags, the plants are best illuminated at night. All ingredients except white root and peanut (1.00 each) weigh 0.10.

Unlike previous Princes, for the first time a recipe is prepared, the one who prepared it gains experience, and the recipe itself is recorded in the diary. To prepare the simplest potion, you need to drag the ingredient onto the jar in the mixing slot. But not all ingredients are suitable for this purpose.

Unlike previous Princes, the maximum concentration is now = 255, and some potions have no concentration at all. If you combine a drug that has a concentration with an empty jar, you will get 2 drugs with a concentration of half that. For example, if oil with a concentration of 101 is poured into 2 cans, then the final concentrations will be 50 and 51, respectively.

Solutions and decoctions

One of the simplest drugs is a solution. To prepare it, you need to combine one of the 7 ingredients with a jar. For the first preparation of any solution, +15 experience is added. If the solution is combined with a burner, a decoction will be obtained. The exception is elderberry solution and viper tooth solution: when combined with a burner, an incomprehensible mixture is obtained. For the first preparation of any decoction, +30 experience is added. In total there are 7 solutions and 5 decoctions. By themselves, they are useless (using them reduces health by 50%), but are components for other potions.

potions

There are simple ones and complex ones. To get simple ones, you need to combine something with an empty jar. There are 6 simple ones in total: healing potion, oil, poison, elixirs of strength, agility and endurance. For the first preparation of simple potions, +15 experience is awarded. There are 10 complex potions, and they have a more complex formula. For the first preparation of an antidote, living water, fire balm, snake and boiling acid (5 pcs.) We get +50 experience. For the first preparation of a philosophical elixir, poisonous balm, stone balm, holy water and fiery acid (5 pcs.) We get +75 experience.

Healing Potion

Restores health. As in Prince 2, only as much concentration is used from the jar as needed to restore health. For example, when used by a fighter with health = 70, a potion of concentration of 120 health will become 100, and the concentration of a healing potion will become 90.

Butter

Used to create incendiary arrows. Theoretical maximum fire damage = 15. However, if you first douse the arrows with poison conc. 255 and then oil 255, then you get 30 fire damage. Hello testers. For the first time prepared incendiary arrows are charged +60 experience.

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Poisons arrows and weapons. Theoretical maximum poisoning = 15. Practical - read the situation with oil. For the first time a weapon or arrow smeared with poison, the fighter will receive +50 experience.

Antidote

When poison enters the body of a fighter (caught a poisoned arrow, got hit with a poisoned weapon, drank the wrong jar), poisoning occurs. Similar to the first Prince, when poisoned = 16, 1 hp/sec is removed, 32 => 2 hp/sec. Over time, the poison is excreted from the body. Poison removal rate = 1poison/1sec. For example, if a fighter gets poisoned by 50, waits 20 seconds, then takes a 60 concentration antidote, they will lose -50 health (round up the number obtained by the arithmetic progression formula), heal 30 remaining poisoning units and remain with a 30 concentration antidote. game and protection from poison does not depend.

Elixirs of strength, agility, endurance

When used, permanently add +5 strength, +5 agility and +5 stamina, respectively. Elixirs, like their components (hops, fern leaves, powder from Indrik horn), are expensive, rare, and their number is limited.

Philosophical elixir

Turns almost all items that can be put into the mixing slot into gold. Prices are low. For example, for the restored Staff Fury of Triglav you will receive 1 coin (hello again to the testers), and for a quiver of silver arrows - 141. With each "eaten" item, the concentration of the ff of the elixir decreases by 1. The price of "eaten" items from potion and trade skills does not depend.

living water

Resurrects one of your squad members, be it a fighter or a traveler. If they killed someone not from your squad - alas. When moving to another location, a dead fighter from the squad disappears. The exception is quest characters, for example, Elena. Useless as a resurrection for the main character.

Bonus Potions

Fire balm, poison balm, holy water and stone balm give the item protection from: 1. Fire; 2. Poison; 3. Chaos; 4. Ordinary strokes respectively.

Fire Acid, Serpentine Acid, Boiling Acid give the item additional damage:

1. Fire; 2. Poison 3. Normal, respectively.

The amount of the bonus depends on the concentration of the drug. Below are the values.

To improve an item, you need to drag the bonus potion onto the item of equipment in the mix slot. In total, the same item can be improved 2 times: once with a potion from the first category and once from the second category. For example, you can upgrade an ax with both Fire Balm and Fire Acid, but you can't upgrade it with both Fire Balm and Rock Balm. An item improved once with one potion cannot be improved with the same potion a second time, therefore it is most effective to improve an item with a potion that straightaway gives the maximum bonus (i.e. +15). The number of upgradeable items of equipment depends on the skill of the gunsmith. Below are the values.

There is a bug in the game: bows and crossbows are not treated with poison balm.

It remains to add that all non-empty jars weigh 0.5. Incomprehensible mixture resulting from improper mixing. As before, it reduces health by 50%, however additional features, as it was in Knyaz 1 and Knyaz 2, does not perform.

Have questions? Ask , do not be shy.

P.S. A potion that gives the subject additional chaos damage, does not exist

P.P.S. Initially, in this article, the witchcraft section dedicated to Prince 3 was made in Flash in order to make it more difficult for one thief site to steal my materials. But as soon as my material was retyped manually from here, there is no point in keeping Flash anymore. However, I left it in the flash as a keepsake. In general, I got tired of stealing my materials, editing the content, substituting authorship, adding gag.

One of the founders Old Russian state it is customary to consider Prince Oleg, nicknamed for his ability to foresee the future, the Prophetic. Until now, it is not completely clear whether he actually existed or whether it is a literary character that combines the features historical prototypes- Oleg (Prince of Kiev, mentioned by the agreement between Russia and Byzantium of 911 and Oleg, a contemporary of Igor Rurikovich. In addition, Laurentian Chronicle reports that Oleg died in 912 and was buried in the city of Kiev on Mount Shchekovitsa. At the same time, according to the Novgorod chronicle, this sad event occurred in 922 and Oleg was buried in the city of Ladoga.

But the confusion is connected not only with the life of Prince Oleg, but also with the circumstances of his death.

Magi prediction.

According to the classical legend, the Magi warned Oleg that he would die from his beloved horse. From that moment on, the prince stopped riding him, but ordered to feed him with selected grain. Four years after the prediction, Oleg, who returned from a military campaign, remembered his favorite and wanted to see him. Upon learning that the horse had died, Oleg, laughing at the Magi, wanted to see his bones. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin remarkably told about what happened next:

The prince quietly stepped on the horse's skull
And he said: “Sleep, lonely friend!
Your old master has outlived you:
At the funeral feast, already close,
It's not you who will stain the feather grass under the ax
And drink my ashes with hot blood!

So that's where my death lurked!
The bone threatened me with death!”
From the dead head the coffin serpent
Meanwhile, hersing crawled out;
Like a black ribbon wrapped around the legs:
And suddenly the stung prince cried out.

"Song of the Prophetic Oleg"

No doubt, the legend is beautiful and instructive, in the sense that the Magi must be obeyed, but, at the same time, it is completely unreliable.

And the point is not even that snakes do not have the habit of stinging with their sharp forked sting at the end (this is a delusion), as Pushkin wrote, but simply and without fanfare they bite with poisonous teeth. And it's not that in order for a snake to bite a person, the latter still needs to try. And not that it is not clear why Oleg needed to step on the horse's skull with his foot? Some strange expression of respect for an old fighting friend.

Parting.

But let's assume that's exactly what happened. And the prince was still bitten by a snake. It is logical to assume that it was a viper, since neither a cobra, nor an efa, nor a rattlesnake, nor the most deadly snake in the world, the black mamba, is found in our area. And here new questions arise. It is completely incomprehensible how, in such a miraculous way, an ordinary viper could bite through a boot made of rough leather? But even if this did happen, why did Oleg die after all? The bite of vipers is fatal for pregnant women and children, but not for a healthy and strong warrior, which was the prince.

It is interesting that there is an Icelandic saga very much reminiscent of the myth of the death of the Prophetic Oleg. It is about the Viking Orvar Odd. The sorceress predicted his death from a horse, for which he was beaten to the point of blood. So that the prediction would not come true, Odd and his friend Asmund killed the horse, threw the corpse into the pit and filled it with stones. The saga goes on to tell of Odd's death:

“And as they walked quickly, Odd hit his foot and bent down. “What was it, what did I hit my foot on?” He touched the point of the spear, and everyone saw that it was the skull of a horse, and immediately a snake flew out of it, rushed at Odd and stung him in the leg above the ankle. The poison immediately worked, the whole leg and thigh swelled up. Odd was so weakened by this bite that they had to help him go to the shore, and when he arrived there, he said: “You should now go and cut down a stone coffin for me, and let someone stay here to sit beside me and write down that story. which I will lay down about my deeds and life.

Death by horse.

It is still not known exactly whether the saga of Orvar Odd caused the legend of the death of the Prophetic Oleg from a snakebite, or vice versa. But we can definitely say that the cause of the death of the prince was different. Various researchers call different reasons, among which the version about the poisoning of Oleg and the insidious murder by his own combatants is the most popular. We are once again convinced how far from reality the legends known to all of us since childhood can be.

Once upon a time there was an evil, arrogant prince. He only thought about how to conquer the whole world for himself, to instill fear in everyone with his own name alone. And so he went to foreign lands with fire and sword; his warriors trampled fields and set fire to peasant houses; red tongues licked the leaves of the trees, and the fruits were roasted on the charred branches. Often the poor mother took cover with her naked breast baby behind the smoking walls, but the warriors scoured everywhere, found them, and the devilish fun began! Evil spirits couldn't have done worse. But it seemed to the prince that things were going as they should. Day by day his power grew, his name terrified everyone, and luck accompanied him in all his deeds. From the conquered cities he exported gold and rich treasures, and innumerable riches accumulated in his capital: nowhere in the world was there anything like it. He ordered the construction of magnificent palaces, churches and arches, and everyone who saw these wonderful buildings said: “What a great prince!” They did not think about the disasters in which he plunged foreign lands, did not hear the groans and complaints heard in the plundered and burned cities.

The prince himself looked at his gold, at the magnificent buildings and thought, like others: “What a great prince I am! But all this is not enough for me! I want more! No one's power in the world should be equal to mine, let alone surpass it!

And he went to war against all his neighbors and conquered them all.

He ordered the captured kings to be chained with golden chains to his chariot every time he was going to ride through the streets of the capital. When he sat at the table, they had to lie at the feet of him and his courtiers and grab pieces of bread that were thrown to them.

Finally, the prince ordered that statues be erected for himself in the squares and in the palaces; he wanted to put them in temples, in front of the altar of the Lord, but the priests said: "Prince, you are great, but God is higher than you, we dare not do this."

Okay! - said the evil prince. - So I will conquer God!

And, blinded by insane pride, he ordered the construction of an outlandish ship, on which it was possible to rush through the air. The ship was painted with different colors and looked like a peacock's tail, dotted with thousands of eyes, but each eye was a gun barrel. The prince boarded the ship; as soon as he pressed one spring, thousands of bullets flew out of the guns, and the guns immediately reloaded by themselves. oskazkah.ru - site One hundred mighty eagles were harnessed to the ship, and now it soared into the air, towards the sun. The earth was barely visible below, the mountains and forests seemed at first to be plowed turf, then drawn on a flat landmap, and finally completely disappeared in a cloudy fog. Higher and higher rose the eagles; then God sent one of his countless angels, but the evil prince met him with a volley of guns. The bullets bounced off the shining wings of the angel like hailstones; only one single drop of blood flowed out of the snow-white wing and fell on the ship where the prince was sitting. It bit deeply into the tree and pressed down on the bottom of the ship with terrible force, like a thousand-pound block of lead. The ship flew down with incredible speed; the mighty wings of the eagles broke; the wind whistled in the prince's ears; the clouds, gathered from the smoke from the burnt cities, crowded around and took on monstrous forms: huge crayfish, stretching strong claws towards the prince, rolling fragments of rocks and fire-breathing dragons. The prince lay at the bottom of the ship half dead with fear. Finally, the ship got stuck in the dense branches of forest trees.

I will defeat God! - said the prince. - I swore to myself to defeat him, and to be on this! - And he ordered the construction of new airships; built them for seven years. He also ordered to forge lightning from the hardest steel in order to take the stronghold of heaven by storm, and gathered soldiers from all over his state; the troops covered an area of ​​several square miles. The warriors were ready to board the ships, the prince approached his own, but God sent a swarm of mosquitoes at him, only a small mosquito swarm. Insects buzzed around the prince and stung him on the face and hands. He angrily drew his sword, but he only cut air with it, but he could not hit the mosquitoes. Then he ordered to bring precious carpets and wrap himself with them from head to toe, so that not a single mosquito could reach him with his sting. His order was carried out, but one mosquito managed to get under the lowest carpet, crawled into the prince's ear and stung him. As if fire had spread through the blood of the prince, the poison penetrated his brain, and he tore off all the carpets, tore his clothes and naked began to rush about and jump in front of a crowd of his ferocious soldiers, and they only made fun of the mad prince who wanted to defeat God and was himself defeated by a mosquito!

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Oleg Novgorodsky usually begin to deduct the formation of the ancient Russian state. His figure is really significant, since it determined the beginning new era, new era. His life, like his death, has many mysteries for historians. But still, Prince Oleg the Prophet, short biography which will be discussed below, is a rather interesting personality for researchers and ordinary lovers of antiquity.

Appearance in Russia

Biography of which we know only briefly, is considered the founder of the Old Russian state. He was a relative of the legendary Varangian Rurik, that is, he was the brother of Efanda, the commander's wife. It is believed that he was an ordinary governor, whom the Viking immensely trusted. Otherwise, would he have ordered him to take away his young son? It is worth assuming that Oleg acted in agreement with Rurik, and maybe he had a certain freedom. One way or another, but rather quickly, he took possession of Smolensk and Lyubech, and then Kiev. By the way, the golden-domed city was captured by him by cunning: the Varangian lured out of the walls (who were also probably Vikings) and killed them, declaring himself a prince.

Achievements and successes

Prince Oleg, whose biography is discussed in this article, strengthened his power either by enlisting the support of the Slavic tribes neighboring Kiev, or by conquering them. He established a tribute for them, which did not greatly burden the people. But his military successes were really impressive. Campaigns against the Khazars saved the Russian lands from the need to pay polyudye to the Khaganate. The great Constantinople fell, on the gates of which, according to the chronicle, the prince nailed his shield. As a result, Russian merchants could trade with Byzantium without duties and receive all kinds of support from it. Thus, Prince Oleg the Prophetic, whose brief biography is discussed above, has more merits to Russia than Rurik. Moreover, almost nothing is known about the ancestor of the princely dynasty.

Hike to Tsargrad

Prince Oleg, whose brief biography is covered in the Tale of Bygone Years, is an outstanding personality. He organized the famous campaign against Constantinople, after which he received his nickname - Prophetic. The chronicle says that he sent a huge army to the city on two thousand boats. Each boat contained four dozen vigilantes. The emperor ordered the gates of the capital to be closed, leaving suburbs and villages to be torn apart by enemies. But the prince of Kiev ordered to attach wheels to the ships, on which the army reached the gates of Constantinople. The Byzantines were at a loss, so they surrendered, offering Oleg a generous tribute and peace.

Was there a trip?

Prince Oleg, whose brief biography can be found in almost every history textbook, is a controversial figure. Researchers have more questions than answers about his life. For example, the fact of a campaign against Byzantium seems unreliable. This is because the authors from Constantinople described in detail all the attacks on their country, but they do not mention Oleg's campaign. In addition, the return of Oleg and Vladimir the Great from Constantinople are very similar. Perhaps this is a description of the same event. At the same time, after Oleg, Igor also went to the southern city, who also won. This is also stated by European authors who chronicled those years.

Was there a snake?

Oleg, whose biography is also known from literature lessons, died as mysteriously as he appeared in Russia. In the same one, it is described that once the sorcerer predicted his death from his beloved horse. The Varangian was superstitious, so he sat on another animal, and entrusted his pet to the servants, ordering him to take care of him until his death. The ruler remembered him during the feast, but it turned out that the horse had died long ago. Saddened by his beloved and angry that he believed the Magi, the prince went to the bones. But when he stepped on the skull, he saw a snake, which immediately stung him in the leg. Oleg died from poison.

Prince Oleg, whose biography has long been studied, could die another death. And the legend of the horse and the snake may have been borrowed from the saga of Orvard Odd. Although some scholars believe that the hero of Scandinavian legends and Prophetic Oleg are one and the same person. But there are several facts that allow you to think about whether the story about the death of the prince could be true. Among them are the following:

Could a snake bite through a leather boot worn in Russia? Most likely not, or did Oleg come to the mountain barefoot to the horse's bones?

But what if the snake jumped and bit the prince above the tops of his boots? But on the territory of Ukraine there are no such vipers!

As a rule, the snake, before stinging, hisses and tries to crawl away. Could Oleg or his entourage not notice this?

Alternatively, the prince died from poison, but the snake was slipped on him on purpose or Oleg was poisoned in advance. Unfortunately, it is impossible to establish where the truth is.

Some more interesting facts

The Russian prince Oleg, whose biography is already known to the reader, is mentioned not only in the annals of Kiev and Novgorod. Al-Masudi (Arabic author) speaks of the unsuccessful campaign of the Rus (500 ships!) on the forehead with Olvang and Al-dir against Persia. They gave part of the booty to the Khazars, but the latter betrayed them and killed everyone. About thirty thousand warriors died there, and those who retreated beyond the Caspian were killed by the Volga Bulgars. Thus, the legendary prince died on a campaign, as befits a brave Varangian.

Here he is, smart and warlike Prince Oleg. His biography is full of white spots, because of which an aura of mystery and mystery remains around this figure. Perhaps time will find answers to all questions.

Doctor of Historical Sciences T. PANOVA.

Stories about poisons, this trouble-free weapon in the hands of a villain or an insidious enemy, will surprise few people. They are full of historical writings about the medieval past of many countries of the world (especially France and Italy), when poison often resolved dynastic and political disputes. And the pages of modern detective stories are not inferior to the villainy of the Middle Ages with the sophistication of plots. Getting acquainted with the Russian chronicles and notes of foreigners who visited Muscovy in the XIV-XVII centuries, you see that in Russia they resorted to poisons no less than in enlightened Europe. However, this side of the life of our ancestors usually remains outside the interests of historians. Meanwhile, modern research methods make it possible to check the annalistic reports of murders committed with the help of poison - real or alleged. This happens when it is possible to conduct a subtle chemical analysis of the remains that have survived to this day (by the way, sometimes such studies can also tell about the diseases that a long-dead person suffered from). The richest material is provided by the burials of the Moscow Kremlin. Two historical lines converge here: the chronicler's records, as a rule, recorded information about the life and death of noble persons, namely, their burial took place in the central cathedrals of Russia, which still stand today. The journal has already written about many studies of this kind (see articles by T. Panova in the journal "Science and Life", No. 7, 1995; No. 4, 1997; No., 2001; No., 2004; No. No. i, 2006). However, many more detective stories of the past are waiting for their resolution.

The medieval miniature depicts a European pharmacy typical of that time.

In John Foxe's Martyrology (a collection of stories about Christian saints and martyrs), the story is repeated that King John was poisoned by a monk. England. Early 13th century.

A "deshtilator" at work in the "transmission chamber" of an old Russian pharmacy, in other words, a pharmacist preparing a medicine. Drawing from a manuscript (according to the list of the 17th century).

Jars like this Italian one were used for medicinal potions in the 15th century.

A miniature from the "Face Chronicle" of the 16th century depicts a patient taking a "medicinal potion" from the hands of a doctor.

And in ancient times, nosebleeds were stopped with the help of a cotton swab - "papers", as stated in the Galitsyn volume of the "Facial Chronicle".

Analyzing historical events and destinies, you first of all understand: in the everyday life of that distant time, which will be discussed, poisons, or rather their use, were not something unusual. In any case, the chroniclers-monks told about such stories without much surprise and censure. Moreover, sometimes they even reported on the method of poisoning, as, for example, when they wrote about the death of Prince Rostislav Tmutarakansky (he was the grandson of Yaroslav the Wise), who was poisoned in 1066. And it was like that. A "kotopan" (official, administrator) who came from Byzantium crept into the prince's confidence. At one of the feasts of Rostislav with his retinue, the Greek guest invited the prince to drink a cup of wine “in half”. About the moment of the poisoning of Rostislav in the Trinity Chronicle it is said: "He (Greek - Note. ed.) drank half, and gave half to the prince to drink, holding his finger on the edge of the bowl, having poison under the nail, "or, as they called it then," soluble mortal. "Who needed the prince's death? One can only guess about this.

In the middle of the XIII century, the fate of Russia was for a long time associated with the Mongol state, or rather, with a powerful union of nomadic tribes created by Genghis Khan (Temuchin). Trips of Russian princes to the headquarters of the Horde khans (on a call or to receive a label for reigning) have always been a difficult test, which often ended tragically. That is how the Vladimir-Suzdal prince Yaroslav III Vsevolodovich, the father of Alexander Nevsky, died in 1246. An Italian traveler, the Franciscan Minorite monk Giovanni da Plano Carpini, writes about this in the History of the Mongols: “At that time, Yaroslav, who was the Grand Duke in a certain part of Russia called Suzdal, died. Khan - Note. ed.), who, as if in honor, gave him food and drink from her own hand; and he returned to his quarters, immediately fell ill, and died after seven days, and his whole body turned remarkably blue. Therefore, they believed that he was drunk there in order to more freely take possession of his land.

Carpini suggested that the same fate awaited Alexander Nevsky: "The emperor's mother ... hastily sent a messenger to Russia to his son Alexander to come to her<...>everyone believed that if he appeared, she would kill him or<...>subject to eternal captivity." This happened, but much later, in 1263, when Prince Alexander, having left the Horde, felt unwell and died on the way to Russia.

As you can see, the nomads were well aware of the quiet power of poisons and widely used them, eliminating not only opponents, but also rivals. The Mongolian Ordinary Izbornik, dedicated to describing the life of the great Genghis Khan (he lived in 1155-1227), tells how his father, Yesugai-Baatur, died from poison: "On the way to the Tsektser steppe<...>Tatars feasted. Having met with them, Yesugai-Baatur decided to linger on the holiday, as he was languishing with thirst. Tatars<...>remembered their old grievances and scores. And so, with the intention of secretly poisoning him, they mixed poison with him. Leaving them, he felt ill, after three days, having reached home, he became very ill.<...>and died."

Rumors penetrated into Russian written sources that in Tver the wife of the Moscow prince Yuri Danilovich, Agafya, who in 1317 became a prisoner of the Tver prince Mikhail Yaroslavich, died of poison. This is mentioned not only in chronicles, but also in the Life of Mikhail Yaroslavich of Tver, created at the end of the 14th century. It says that the accusation against Mikhail of Tver was made at the trial at the headquarters of the Horde khans. The prince rejected everything, calling on the Lord God as a witness, but he did not escape death - he was killed in 1318.

An attempt to poison the Moscow prince Dmitry Ivanovich (the future Donskoy, the hero of the Battle of Kulikovo) was recorded in Russian chronicles under 1378. The battle on the Vozha River, when it was possible to defeat the troops of Khan Begich, was the first major Russian victory over the Horde. Among the prisoners was a priest, a confidante of a certain Ivan Vasilyevich, a descendant of the Moscow thousand. As it turned out, Ivan was very angry with the Moscow prince Dmitry, who in 1374 abolished the institute of thousands, which deprived him, Ivan, of his hopes for a high position at the Moscow court. Having hated Prince Dmitry, he went to serve in Tver, to the eternal enemies of Moscow. And at the captive priest, who told about this, they found "evil potions of a fierce bag." Apparently, the fears for the life of Prince Dmitry were justified: a rare case for the XIV century, when the annals mention the torture to which the priest was subjected, who was then exiled "into imprisonment on Lake Lache".

Poisons at the end of the 14th century are a serious reality. This is also confirmed by a unique archaeological find discovered in the Moscow Kremlin in 1843 during the construction of "glaciers for royal use." At that time, a copper jar with paper and parchment letters from the reign of Dmitry Donskoy and a small clay vessel, the so-called spherocone, containing mercury were found in the ground. Mercury salts (mercuric chloride) and arsenic ("mouse potion") are the most popular poisons of the Middle Ages.

The fifteenth century has come. If we move along the chronology of events, then we should say about the death of the nephew of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vitovt, which happened in Moscow. Brief information N. M. Karamzin has information about this event. His work "History of the Russian State" contains extracts from sources that have not survived to this day. Of these, it is known that in the 1440s a cousin of Grand Duchess Sofya Vitovtovna (the widow of Vasily I) Mikhail appeared in Moscow, and it was no coincidence that he appeared in Lithuania, engulfed in turmoil, there was a sharp struggle for power.

Unusual, or rather, sinful is the way in which they dealt with a noble Lithuanian in 1452: "Some abbot of Moscow poisoned Mikhail with poison in prosphora." He interfered with someone, someone was interested in the death of Prince Mikhail Vitovt, who was already living in exile in Russia. But who exactly is hard to say.

The second quarter of the 15th century was marked by a fierce and long struggle for the throne between the grandchildren of Dmitry Donskoy: Grand Duke Vasily II, on the one hand, and the princes - Galician and Zvenigorod Vasily Kosy, Dmitry Shemyaka and Dmitry Krasny - on the other.

A detailed "case history" of Dmitry Yuryevich Krasny, who died on September 22, 1441, got onto the pages of the annals. Her symptoms puzzled the chronicler with their uncertainty. In those days, many diseases were recognized quite accurately, and they had certain names. In this case, the description of Prince Dmitry's illness begins with the words: "There must be something wonderful in his illness." A severe but unknown illness first caused loss of appetite and sleep, then aggravated by nosebleeds. "Blood comes out of both nostrils, like techahu bars<...>his spiritual father Hosea<...>I will plug his nostrils with a piece of paper."

At some point, the prince felt a little better, which pleased his entourage, but soon fell into severe unconsciousness. When he woke up, he suffered for two more days and died. Apparently, blood appeared on the body of the prince along with sweat - in any case, this is briefly mentioned in the annalistic description of the course of the disease: "I think that blood is sweat."

Prince Dmitry Krasny (Beautiful) died very young, still unmarried, and there is no reason to believe that he suddenly developed some kind of fatal disease. The rapid course of the disease and its symptoms are typical for poisoning. And the subsequent fate of his brother, Prince Dmitry Shemyaka, makes us suspect evil will here.

The story of the death of the Zvenigorod prince Dmitry Yuryevich Shemyaka (Grand Duke of Moscow in 1445-1447) differs from other cases in that we know exactly all its participants. The reasons are also known. The main one is the struggle for the Moscow table, during which Dmitry Shemyaka managed to capture the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily II, blinded him (in retaliation for the blinding of his brother, Vasily Yuryevich, by the Grand Duke) and sent him into exile. Having regained power, Vasily the Dark (as Vasily II was now called) cruelly took revenge on the rebellious prince, who, after the defeat, found refuge in Veliky Novgorod.

None of the participants in this crime, of course, did not want publicity. And therefore, in the official chronicles of that time about the death of Dmitry Shemyaka, only general information: in the summer of 1453, "on July 23, the message came to the Grand Duke from Novgorod (Vasily the Dark then listened to the evening service in the church of Boris and Gleb. - Note. ed.) that Prince Dmitry Shemyaka died in vain in Novgorod<...>but he brought the clerk Trouble with that message, and from there he was a clerk. "The word" in vain "in those days meant a violent death, but the compilers of the chronicle did not specify what caused it.

However, along with the official Moscow "weather" codes of events, there were others that were created outside the capital and were negatively disposed towards the central government (and then too!). Veliky Novgorod also belonged to such oppositionists, where Shemyaka went, having been defeated in military clashes with Vasily the Dark. It was in one of the lists of the Novgorod IV chronicle under 1453 that it was written: "Prince Dmitry Yuryevich Shemyaka died of poison in Veliky Novgorod, June 17."

In other chronicles there are more detailed stories about this story, according to which the chain of participants in the crime is quite logically built - from the customer to the executor. The most detailed information is contained in the Ermolinskaya and Lvov Chronicles, which named the names and sequence of events: "The same summer, the Grand Duke Stefan the Bearded was sent to Novgorod with a death potion to kill Prince Dmitry."

Stefan Bradatiy - clerk of Vasily the Dark, one of the most educated people of his time (apparently, he was also versed in poisons). An intermediate link in this chain was either the bribed boyar of Dmitry Shemyaki Ivan Notov (or Kotov), ​​or the Novgorod posadnik Isaac, who was close to Prince Dmitry Yuryevich. But the further course of the operation is covered by all sources without discrepancies. The cook of Prince Shemyaka was bribed with a name quite characteristic for this situation - Toadstool. "Prince Dmitreev bribed the cook, named Toadstool, the same one will give him a potion in smoke" (this dish is called the same in all sources). Prince Dmitry fell ill on the same day and, having been ill for 12 days, died.

Incredible story! But even more incredible is the fact that it is precisely this death of Shemyaka that is confirmed by modern research methods. It turned out that the remains of the rebellious prince were partially mummified. This became clear at the end of the last century when studying the necropolis of St. Sophia Cathedral, where Shemyaki's burial was transferred from the Yuryev Monastery near Novgorod in the 17th century (cases of mummification of the remains in the necropolises of medieval Russia are extremely rare due to our rather humid climate). And what is especially important: the dried-up liver and one of the prince's kidneys have been preserved, that is, organs capable of accumulating in themselves (as, by the way, hair) harmful substances that enter the human body and persist for centuries.

Forensic chemists, having examined the preserved organs, found that Dmitry Shemyaka was poisoned with arsenic compounds. Its amount in the kidney reaches 0.21 mg per 100-gram sample (the natural background of arsenic in the human body is from 0.01 to 0.08 mg). By the way, it was arsenic poisoning, leading to severe dehydration of the body before death, that could cause the mummification of Shemyaka's body.

So five centuries later, scientists confirmed the authenticity of the information recorded in the annals, the compilers of which were not afraid to write the truth about the events of 1453. Apparently, it was not possible to hide this story even then, the rumors about the death of Dmitry Shemyaka spread quite widely. Proof of this is the fate of the cook Toadstool.

This man, apparently tormented by remorse, took the veil as a monk. But notoriety ran ahead. There is information about him in the Life of Pafnuty Borovsky (1394-1477), a contemporary of the events described: “A certain monk came to the monastery of the monk. The ascetic, seeing him, quietly said to his disciples: blood?" The disciples were surprised, but were afraid to ask the monk about the meaning of these words. However, the elder himself later explained them: "This monk, being a layman, poisoned the prince whom he served in Novgorod. Tormented by conscience, he accepted monasticism.

Wars, blinding, poisoning of rivals - all these terrible vicissitudes of the struggle for power in the middle of the 15th century were quite ordinary events of medieval life. And yet, Vasily the Dark, who died in 1462 from pulmonary tuberculosis (“dry disease”), received a brief but sharp posthumous assessment from one of his contemporaries: “Judas the murderer, your fate has come” (the inscription was preserved on one of church books middle of the 15th century).

The fate of women, even from the circle of the highest nobility, traditionally rarely attracted the attention of chroniclers. But there are quite detailed reports about the death of one of them in the Sofia and Lvov chronicles. It's about about the first wife of Grand Duke Ivan III, Princess Maria Borisovna of Tver: "In the summer of 6975 (1467) April 25, 3 o'clock in the morning, Grand Duchess Maria reposed<...>from a deadly potion. "A rare case when the cause of death is so firmly named. The chronicler noted the unusual condition of the body of the deceased, very quickly swollen to an incredible size, although the funeral took place the very next day after death (as was customary then), and the time of year, April - not the hottest in Russia.

Grand Duke Ivan III Vasilyevich, who was distinguished by a resolute and tough character, ordered an investigation, which found out that Maria Borisovna's belt was worn to a fortune teller ("woman") and that the wife of deacon Alexei Poluektov, Natalya, participated in this. The enraged prince alienated the deacon from himself: “Then, he was also in trouble with Oleksei and for many years, six years, was not with him (with the Grand Duke. - Note. ed.) in her eyes, barely pleading with him.

Why was the belt of the Grand Duchess worn to the witch? Perhaps for divination about health or childbearing. Be that as it may, but the young princess (she was not even 23 years old) died, poisoned by someone, as her relatives believed. It is no coincidence that the chronicler wrote: "from a mortal potion."

Almost five and a half centuries passed before science could confirm these words. In 2001, the tomb of the princess was opened, and scientists analyzed the trace element composition of the bones of her skeleton. In the bones, an incredible excess of the content of zinc (by 242 times!), Mercury (by 30 times), lead (by 45 times) and an increased amount of minerals such as zirconium, gallium, were found in the bones, because the human body contains the entire periodic table. The monstrous amount of poisonous substances that entered the body clearly made Maria Borisovna sick, unwell. It was her poor health that probably made her turn to the fortune-teller.

The youth of the princess and the unnaturally large amount of harmful substances that got into her bone tissue (to accumulate, for example, so much zinc, you need to work for many years in a serious metallurgical production), leave no doubt: the princess was poisoned.

Medical errors (and even more crimes) in those days were costly for doctors, people of a difficult and almost dangerous profession. The written sources of the Russian Middle Ages associate two cases of poisoning with foreign doctors. In the first case, the chronicles openly report that the doctor "Nemchin Anton" poisoned "Tsarevich Danyarov", who was in favor with Ivan III, "kill with a mortal potion for laughter." Apparently, between the noble patient and the doctor there was a quarrel, offensive to the doctor. Grand Duke Ivan, decisive as always, handed over the German Anton to the son of the serving Tatar prince Karakacha, and the Tatars "brought him to the Moscow River under the bridge in winter and stabbed him like a sheep."

The second case is much more complicated, it is connected with the family of Ivan III and the fate of his eldest son. Prince Ivan the Young, son from his first marriage to Maria Borisovna, suffered from gout, or arthritis. Chroniclers called this disease "kamchyug in the legs." Various craftsmen, architects and a doctor came to Moscow from Italy in 1489 with one of the Russian embassies - "Leon from Venice", a Jew by nationality. He assured the Grand Duke that he would cure his son, and if he did not cure, then he was ready to accept the death penalty. The reckless statement of the doctor testified to his complete ignorance of the character of the Moscow sovereign.

Doctor Leon, who was admitted to the patient, began to treat him with the traditional method, well known in Russia as well, - by applying vessels with hot water to swollen leg joints. "And the healer began to heal ... scratch the body with glass bottles, pouring hot water; and that's why he (Ivan the Young. - Note. ed.) heavy speed and die. "Is it possible to die quickly from gout? Today, doctors will answer unequivocally:" No. "Especially at the age of 32, like Ivan Molodoy. But the chroniclers noted that Leon also used some internal medicines:" drinking potion give him."

It is known how Sophia Paleolog sought to transfer her father's throne over time to her eldest son Vasily - bypassing the legitimate heir, Ivan the Young. Therefore, there is great suspicion that in this story the primary role belongs to the poison. Ivan III, after the death of his son Ivan the Young (it followed on March 7, 1490), took the doctor Leon into custody, and after "magnitudes ... ordered him to be executed by death, cut off his head."

In the legal practice of the Middle Ages, there were severe penalties not only for poisoners, but also for manufacturers of poisons. Most often they were mortal "articles". According to the "Charter" of Yaroslav the Wise (XI century), a wife who tried to poison her husband, but without a fatal outcome, was separated from her husband and imposed a large fine on her. The German monument of criminal law "Karolina" (XVI century) ordered male poisoners to be wheeled, and women to be drowned in the river, after subjecting them to severe torture. Under the Hungarian king Ladislav (end of the 13th century), for the preparation of poisons (if the manufacturer was caught for the first time), they took a fine of 100 libre. If the accused had no money, he was burned alive. The punishments are terrible, but they did not stop people who planned dark deeds.

But what about the 16th century? In Russian history, this time cannot be called calm. It was about him that the 19th-century poet A.N. Maikov wrote:

And that century was when the Venetian poison,
Invisible as a plague, sneaked
everywhere:
In a letter, in communion, to a brother
and to the dish...