This letter dates c.1160-1190 CE. The images come from https://gramoty.ru/birchbark/document/show/novgorod/1026/

Translated from the Old Slavic by Jacob Bell. After edition in V.L. Janin, A.A. Zaliznjak, and A.A. Gippius, eds., Novgorodskie gramoty na bereste, Vol. XII (Moscow: Rossiiskaia akademiia nauk, 2015), 125-26. This translation CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

From Nežila to Semka…I took your slave girl. If the slave girl has trouble walking, bring her to my… From Nežila to Semka.

Discussion Questions

  1. What can this source tell us about slavery in medieval Novgorod?
  2. How could we use this letter to talk about how medieval people understood disability?