Frame and filling elements

Nicholas Zharkikh

Shortened text of the section. Full text in ukrainian version

Let us now consider the content of FEL.

At this point I want to emphasize the difference between the "fabulous history" and "fantastic story." Fantastic I call a "story", which was invented from scratch and does not reflect any realities of the past. Fabulous story based on some real facts, giving them unrealistic color or diluting its with fantastic episodes.

Fabulous history consists of a supporting structure (frame), which generally corresponds to historical realities, and filling structures – details that need to convince the reader of the veracity of the written. We do not have the right rely on such details (while writing a science, not a historical novel).

This approach has long been used, for example, in the reconstruction of the history of the Jews on the basis of the Old Testament, or the extraction of historical data with folklore.

FEL geography looks like this:

Map of geographical names in "Fabulous emergence of Lithuania"

The numbers on the map indicated by (in order of mention in the FEL): 1 – Jurbork; 2 – Kunosov (Kaunas) 3 – Lake Spera; 4 – Kernave; 5 – Drutsk; 6 – Novgorodok; 7 – Grodno; 8 – Brest; 9 – Drogichin; 10 – Melnik; 11 – Oshmiany; 12 – Eyshishki; 13 – Grovzhishki; 14 – Gorodets (Sharkovshchina district, Vitebsk region); 15 – Polotsk; 16 – Tver; 17 – Lutsk; 18 – Pinsk; 19 – Turov; 20 – Koydanovo; 21 – Mozyr; 22 – Chernigov; 23 – Starodub; 24 – Karachev; 25 – Lake Zhosli (Zhaslyay, Żasliai); 26 – Devyaltov (modern Deltuva near Vilkomir-Ukmerge); 27 – Kiev; 28 – Vladimir; 29 – Vilnius; 30 – Gedroyty (Giedraičiai); 31 – Golshany; 32 – Raygorod (Rajgród); 33 – Pskov; 34 – Lviv; 35 – Lavrashev monastery; 36 – Tilsit; 37 – Ragneta (Ragnit, under Soviet occupation – Neman); 38 – Bryansk; 39 – Ovruch; 40 – Zhytomyr; 41 – Belgorod; 42 – Vyshgorod; 43 – Cherkasy; 44 – Kanev; 45 – Putivl; 46 – Sleporod; 47 – Pereyaslav; 48 – Ryazan; 49 – Troki; 50 – Vilnius.

For obvious FEL fabrications belongs to the majority of the names of the princes and their genealogy. It is, after all, very well demonstrated by "Nemonos" edition FEL, in which many names replaced by others, including a completely unknown in "Erdivil" edition – and nothing, the quality and credibility of the fable not affected. Therefore, the "genealogical constructions" are possible only in terms of – as the author of FEL imagined this genealogy, and in any case it is impossible to count them for some kind of reality.

Fabulous genealogy of the first Lithuanian princes