Byzantium - Rus - Russia

Continuity and discontinuity as the twin illusions of cultural history provide the unifying theme of the 19 articles, reproduced from academic journals between 1982 and 2000. Franklin uses the metaphor of translation to explore the relationship between Byzantium and the early Rus, partly to suggest the adaptation of the Greek alphabet to Slavic, but also because he believes all cultural borrowing entails some degree of mistranslation, deliberate or not. Among his topics are some apocryphal sources of Kievan Russian historiography, Greek in Kievan Rus', and Russian literary demonism and Orthodox tradition. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)