Harald Hardrada - Chapter 9: 1054

Tale of Bygone Years

Yaroslav, Great Prince of Rus', passed away. While he was yet alive, he admonished his sons with these words:

“My sons, I am about to quit this world. Love one another, since ye are brothers by one father and mother. If ye abide in amity with one another, God will dwell among you, and will subject your enemies to you, and ye will live at peace. But if ye dwell in envy and dissension, quarreling with one another, then ye will perish yourselves and bring to ruin the land of your ancestors, which they won at the price of great effort. Wherefore remain rather at peace, brother heeding brother. The throne of Kiev I bequeath to my eldest son, your brother Izyaslav. Heed him as ye have heeded me, that he may take my place among you. To Svyatoslav I give Chernigov, to Vsevolod Pereyaslavl', to Igor' the city of Vladimir, and to Vyacheslav Smolensk.”

Thus he divided the cities among them, commanding them not to violate one another's boundaries, not to despoil one another. He laid upon Izyaslav the injunction to aid the party wronged, in case one brother should attack another. Thus he admonished his sons to dwell in amity. Being unwell, he came to Vyshgorod, and there fell seriously ill. Izyaslav at the moment was in Novgorod, Svyatoslav at Vladimir, and Vsevolod with his father, for he was beloved of his father before all his brethren, and Yaroslav kept him constantly by his side. The end of Yaroslav's life drew near, and he gave up the ghost on the first Saturday after the feast of St. Theodore. Vsevolod bore his father's body away, and laying it upon a sled, he brought it to Kiev, while priests sang the customary hymns, and the people mourned for him. When they had transported the body, they laid it in a marble sarcophagus in the Church of St. Sophia, and Vsevolod and all his subjects mourned him. All the years of his age were seventy six.

Yaroslav loved religious establishments and was devoted to priests, especially to monks. He applied himself to books, and read them continually day and night. He assembled many scribes, and translated from Greek into Slavic. He wrote and collected many books through which true believers are instructed and enjoy religious education. For as one man plows the land, and another sows, and still others reap and eat food in abundance, so did this prince. His father Vladimir plowed and harrowed the soil when he enlightened Rus' through baptism, while this prince sowed the hearts of the faithful with the written word, and we in turn reap the harvest by receiving the teaching of books. For great is the profit from book-learning. Through the medium of books, we are shown and taught the way of repentance, for we gain wisdom and continence from the written word. Books are like rivers that water the whole earth; they are the springs of wisdom. For books have an immeasurable depth; by them we are consoled in sorrow.

Harald

When Yaroslav died I realized that the greatest success for a King is to be able to pass down the kingdom to his son and to die in his own bed.