DYNЪ OR B(Ъ)DYNЪ: ONCE MORE ON THE MYSTERIOUS WORD FROM THE LIFE OF PRINCESS OLGA

The article deals with a phrase from the Life of Princess Olga in the Prologue, where Olga bequeaths to be buried without fi lling a high grave and without organising either a trizna or a dynъ (with variants dyny, bdynъ, godina). This phrase attracted the attention of the researchers as early as the 19th century, but has not yet received a clear interpreta tion. The word b(ъ)dynъ, understood as a tombstone or a certain burial rite (in the latter case it is associated with the verb bъdѣti), is most often considered as the primary reading. The analysis of the variants found in the 58 manuscripts of the Prologue of the 14th – 17th centuries has shown that the forms dyny or dyna are rather primary, but the word dynъ is not known from other sources (unless we include the Vita of Constantine of Murom, where it is also corrupted). We have recently discovered it in a Bulgarian translation of the Life of Theodotus of Cyrene (probably of the Preslav school) with the Greek parallel στάδιον ‘competition, place of competition’. We believe that such a meaning can be at tributed to the word in the Life of Olga, where it refers to funeral games. The etymology of dynъ is not studied, but it is important that in all cases it is used along with trizna or its derivatives, so it is obvious that these two words represent some parts of the funeral rite.