A narrow range of Byzantine texts, primarily chronographic ones, containing classical themes and images, were translated in Russia starting from the 11^th century.These texts became the literary basis of secular and ecclesiastic art. Several iconographic motifs from mythological stories and the “Ascension of Alexander the Great” entered the art of pre-Mongol Russian. Byzantium was the main source of the antique elements in Old Russian culture. Some motifs were also adopted in Old Russia from Romanesque art, through close contact with Western Europe. The tradition of using ancient subjects for the decoration of churches in relief, which was widespread both in Byzantine and in Romanesque art, was continued in Russian monuments. Сlassical subjects on the walls of churches served as apotropaic images, but their symbolism could also include other aspects. Antique motifs are encountered even in the frescoes of monastery churches which followed a strict, ascetic iconographic programme in spite of the general orientation of Old Russian art towards the monastic culture of Byzantium. The author deals with the problem of specific samples. It is unlikely that objects of applied art could have served as models for church sculpture.

The paper studies the image of Saint Sergius of Radonezh as depicted in the saints’ lives (written by Epiphanius the Wise, Pachomius Logothetes, and Archbishop Nikon Rozhdestvensky) and in 20^th century literature (Boris Zaytsev’s essay ‘The Life of Saint Sergius’ and Ivan Shmelev’s short story ‘Kulikovo Field’). The main difference between the depictions of Sergius in the saints’ lives as opposed to the modern accounts lies in the authors’ historical perspective. The main goal of Epiphanius the Wise is to paint a detailed picture of the spiritual countenance of Sergius, his teacher and contemporary, while Archbishop Nikon focuses on the saint’s historical context. In contrast, Zaytsev takes a particular interest in Sergius’ personality and its ‘human’ manifestations; in parallels with his own life and time; and in moral lessons taught to us by Sergius’ life. In Shmelev’s short story, Sergius’ miraculous appearance in 1925 serves as an inspiring symbol of the inner unity of history and eternity. With peace and light he brings, Sergius counteracts the darkness and madness of life after the Revolution. For Zaytsev and Shmelev, Saint Sergius of Radonezh was a beacon that illuminated the difficult worldly life of contemporary man and directed him towards his main goal, salvation.

One of the most peculiar stories about the naming of the island, which the introductory chapters of The Book of Settlements (Landnámabók) open with, is the þáttr about Hrafna-Flóki, presented completely differently in the early editions of Sturlubók and Hauksbók. The dynamics of plot development, which are similar to those of a fairy tale, fragments that fully coincide in the different editions, the release of three sacrificial ravens and the three main actors (Flóki Vilgerðarson himself and his two companions who bear the rhyming names Þórólfr and Herjólfr) go back to the oral tradition. In the plot of the ‘magic helper’, Faxi, endowed with a name typical for a magic horse in the Old Norse tradition, direct structural and stylistic analogies can be traced in other hydronymic legends of Landnámabók. The þáttr of Flóki is an alternative socioetiological legend, ignored by Ari fróði Þorgilsson due to its inconsistency with his idealised image of the leader of the Norwegian settlers.

The article deals with the influence of archaic mythological motifs on the historiography, using the existence of different plots in the old Russian and the Middle Irish sources. The chronicle tradition of ‘calling the Vikings’ is usually considered as an element of pseudo-historic narratives of migratory tale, as are the motifs of ‘three brothers’ and ‘marriage with a daughter of the local ruler’. An analysis of Giraldus Cambrensis’ historical tracts shows that the development of these motifs is partly based on Irish historical records and finds support in the Irish Chronicles.

The first part of the article examines the background of the concept of ‘canard’, applied in France to popular non-periodical publications which reported incidents (often fictional), and to fictional news published in political daily newspapers. According to the testimony of various writers, including Balzac, such fictional news (‘canards’) in the first half of the nineteenth century was often associated with Russia. The second part of the article treats one of these ‘canards’, as reflected in two newspaper publications, ‘Press’ (Presse) and ‘Century’ (Siècle) in June 1844. These publications claimed that Emperor Nicholas I, who visited London at the end of May, went from there to Paris. The article shows why the Royal voyage to Paris could not have taken place and the reasons for the appearance of this ‘canard’ on the pages of the Paris newspaper.

In the work of the French writer Michel Tournier, the novel The Golden Drop (1985) stands out for the massive presence within its plot of various visual images – photographs, drawings, mannequins, etc.; the hero, a young Algerian immigrant in France, develops in relation to those images. Their interaction can be described ideologically in the sense of postcolonial theory or through the opposition of the “symbolic” Islamic culture and the “figurative” European one; however, the author of the novel outlines his own, original concept of a visual image associated with the personality of the subject, but escaping his control due to its serial multiplicity. In this specific aspect, Tournier practically works out the problem of the intradiegetic image – a visual image included in a narrative plot. Encountering visual objects, some of which depict himself, the hero of Tournier’s novel remains unchanged, does not undergo any “education”, does not acquire, as a result of his adventures, either an ideal image or an ideal sign-symbol. Arriving from afar, he still does not recognize himself as a participant in European history, indicated in the novel by allusions to the student revolution of 1968.