Bessudnova, Marina Borisovna. «German Narva» and the «Dead Narova» in a new polemics rounds

The study was carried out supported with the grant of the Russian Science Foundation No. 23-18-00166, the project «Hanseatic-Russian “unusual trade” under conditions of Baltic conflicts of the late 15^th –16^th centuries».

The subject of research in this article is the Middle German expression in doder Narwe. The author translates it as «German (Teutonic) Narva», rejecting the translation «dead Narva/Narova», proposed by A. Suvalep in 1936 and currently supported by P. V. Lukin. As arguments, firstly, there is a reference to a number of lexical features of the Middle Low German dialect, formed under interaction of different dialects with its characteristic diversity of way of writing words. Secondly, the author submits to set the meaning of the expression under discussing, based on the event context, that could be restored through the use of Hanseatic correspondence. The expression in doder Narwe is used in documents with regard to robbery case of Novgorod and Reval merchants committed on the Narva /Narova River in 1407 by the Swedish trade agents of the Vyborg’s bailiff Thorn Bunde initiated by Berndt von dem Wrede, whose goods were place in arrest at the Hanseatic mission in Novgorod. In this regard, it became necessary to clarify the jurisdictions boundaries of the German or Russian sides, and that was difficult to do due to the fact that the riverbed was not delimited at that time. The translation of «dead Narva/Narova» and its identification with the Luga river tributary called Mertvitsa river don’t fit into this situation in any way, whereas the expression «in the German (Teutonic or Order) Narova» seems quite appropriate, since it is used in connection with the German (Teutonic) Order jurisdiction in Livonia.

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