The annal, according to its nature, belongs to the literary-historical genre in the complex of the medieval Southern Slav literature and in the Russian literature, while from a functional and semantic aspect it is a term that means “years descriptions”15F. The basics of the annal goes back to the Byzantine chronicles, whose formation of a separate genre form dates back to the early Christian period. #1There the stories are given in a chronological order from the time of “genesis” of the world, through the legendary history from the Middle East to the birth of Jesus Christ. Further on, the Old Greek history sublimated through the motives and legends, the history of Constantine the Great (324-327) follow, continuing with the history of Byzantine, represented in more than one case all the way to modernism of the chronicle author16F. Also in the Middle Aged South Slav literatures – in Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, as well as in Russia, translations of the most famous Byzantine chroniclers: Joan Malala (VI cen.), Georgi Sinkel (VIII cen.),
patriarch Nikiphor (VIII-IX cen.), Georgi Amartol (IX cen.), Theophan Ispovednik (IX cen.), Simeon Logotet – Metaphrast (X cen.), Joan Skilica (XI cen.), Joan Zonara (XI-XII cen.), Georgi Kedrin (XI-XII cen.), Constantine Manasij (XII cen.) etc. have been made. The writers used different sources: The Holy Bible, holy fathers, the works of the antique writers and the Early Middle Age writers, the folklore and so on defines their mosaic structure.
The chronicle as a historical work expresses the best characteristics of the Christian historiography. In its content, data of church history intertwines with the history of the state, as well as Bible data and world history. Basically, their philosophical conception is the idea of the commission and predestination, that overlaps with the intertwined idea of the continuation the world-historical process, constant development and improvement of human society (for an example, the development from paganism to Christianity)17F. The idea of the divine lordship power is clearly expressed in these works. That way, following the biblical content in some works, the authors represent the historical characters as saints, as long as they are canonized by the church, and certain historical events are shown hagiographically or in a miraculous form.
The Byzantine chronicles content different presentations about world history. Depending upon how the events are presented, depending on their form, they can be short and extensive. The short structural form came into existence in the VI century, while the historical material is treated as a short list of rulers starting from Adam and all the way to the writer of the chronicle and of the important events, mostly wars, covered without a commentary. The extensive structure of the chronicle is known as “worldly” and has a complex content composition. The Byzantine chronicle in both structural forms became the basis for the development of the original as well as the translated historical-chronicle production in the Slav environment, among which Macedonia.
The necessity of knowing the general history of the world, as well as the necessity of identification of its own (national) historically developed process entails the approval and development of the chronicle works in the genre system of medieval Slav literature. Slav translation of the Byzantine chronicles appeared in the period between the IX – X century when general completion of the literary-genre system took place18F. The first works with historographic problems were with defined genres because the writers adopted theoretical knowledge about the constituted genre propositions – composition, style and language. The writers of the chronicles were often paying attention to certain particularities in the presentation, and sometimes were adding big parts of other works. Because of that, the chronicle with such a variety of subjects and the way of their interpretation, became very interesting texts in among Byzantine readers. Also, Slav historical-chronicle texts, in reference to their nature and character, were very much like the Byzantine, following the ideas and structural modulations of the chronicle production.
Since the beginning of the creation of the Slav literacy the first historical work written in Slavonic language “Histories” or “The Chronological Table” appeared whose author was a student#2 of Methodius – Constantine Prezviter. This chronicle belongs to the short story type of Byzantine chronicles. The author has made a list with the names and years of ruling of different biblical characters and worldly rulers, starting with Adam and ending with the contemporary of the author, in other words, until the rule of the Byzantine Vasilevs – Lev VI Philosopher (896-911)19F. The chronicle was made in accordance with – The Short Chronograph of the Constantinopole Patriarch Niciphor. Besides this source, the chronicle contains additional materials from different sources or written by Constantine himself, as a result of his studies. The example with “Histories” indicates the response of the strong Byzantine influence in the field of short chronicles.
The further development of medieval Slav chronicle leads to the knowledge that that path was at the same time evolutionary, but also very gradual. In the following periods, besides the creation of original texts, a compilation of Byzantine chronicles and Southern Slav historical events was made. The biggest production, again, was noticed in the field of translation of Byzantine chronicles. The development of Southern Slav chronography marked the production of works that reflected certain events, often without a connection between them, a process that did not result in creation of a universal worldly chronicle extensively presenting the events that could influence Macedonian Middle Age society. In that respect, we underline “The Anonymous Chronicle” from the XV century as the best creation, that followed the coming of the Turks from Asia Minor on the Balkan Peninsula and the wars from 1296-1417 with some mistakes in the chronology and data connected with the names of the participants in the events. So, “The Anonymous Chronicle” is a fully worldly creation that reflects exceptionally important events of the life on the Balkan and contains a true historical value of the events. But, beside its importance as better documentation and authentic presentation, it does not go beyond the limits of short chronicles. Actually, the missing continuity between some works with historiogrphical character and appropriate perception of different historical periods or events reflected in them was the main quality from Byzantine historiography. Therefore, the break through and the production of the historiographical works in the Macedonian medieval literature are not seen in a continuous and synchronized order that should result with the creation of global universal chronicle.
The historical-chronological works, identified in our medieval literature, are characterized by absence of monoliths within the genre, and the works differ according to their form, idea and composition. But, beside the certain amount of discontinuity, the Macedonian chronological production, although not so rich, shows an interesting variety within the genre. Thus, the historical-chronological production is marked where events from the history of the church and the state are treated presented through the level of the historical awareness of the intelligence, anticipating its impact over the people who are interested in obtaining historical knowledge. This chronological literature continuous the tradition of the short chronicles, but in a new form, connected with panegyric literature. In our chronicle tradition the occurrence of the literary form annal story is noticed. Its content usually treats one historical event, not a chain of events, and in the interpretation the public relation towards the presentation and the knowledge of the historical and spiritual value of the nation is noted. The apocrypha chronicle appears as an independent chronicle cycle as a more informative form in expressing the historical idea of the period of the Byzantine lordship (XI-XII century). Evident is the connection with folklore tradition, while their construction differentiates them as apocalyptic stories of biblical motives formed as certain episodes of current historical events. The production of the literary-historical works in Macedonian medieval literature is explained by the influence of the rich Byzantine chronicle tradition, the domestic historiographical sources, and with intuitive compositions that draw closer, or are distant from certain models thanks to the characteristic procedure of genre blending from the medieval genre system within one creation20F.
The historical-chronicle literature in the genre system of the Slav medieval literature is very important as a phenomenon in both forms – the translated and the self-reliant, original. The translated appears as an indicator of the cultural field of the medieval feudal society and its interests. At the same time, what is translated and how it is translated the development of our intellectual environment in different periods can be seen, as well as the educated field of writers and readers, the new ideological phenomena that brings forth literary atmosphere of the specific time. This translated historical-chronological literature shows the interests and tastes of the ruling class and its interest for worldly non-religious matters significant for learning about the past of the world. Through this translated historiographical literature, the Southern Slav reader was indirectly connected with Byzantine literature, and with some earlier cultures. The contact with the East and the Hellenistic culture was made through the translations from Greek language of the historical stories, apocrypha, and histories. In their first version they come from India, Palestine, Egypt. The connection with the ancient culture, again, is seen through the original Byzantine literature that accepts the ancient traditions in relation with the genre or contains data about the ancient21F. Through the Byzantine chronicles the Slav writers in the Middle Age come into the ancient world, while in the original works they add a number of ancient ideas in different forms. Furthermore, they meet with the Old Greek poets, philosophers and scientists.
On the other hand, again as original literature, the historical-chronicle literature points out not only the interest toward certain events of the history of nations, but also expresses important national tendencies mixed with national assignments with dominate personal feelings and perceptions, and thus, historical narratives receives a typical artistic treatment. The original in literature is expressed in the contents; seen from different aspects as problematical, as a literary tendency, an expression of defined ideas, as an atmosphere of relevant time. In the original production the contradictions and the basic tendencies in the Macedonian social system, expressed through the collision of relevant ideas, and connecting various cultural levels are apparent.
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15. Ilija Velev, Macedonian Literature in XIV century, Skopje 1996, pg. 255.
16. Svetlina Nikolova, Chronicle, – In: Old Bulgarian literature – Encyclopaedia, Sofia 1992, pg. 498.
17. Djordje Trifunovic, Serbian Alphabet Book of Medieval Literary Terms, Belgrade 1990, pg. 365.
18. Ilija Velev, Macedonian…, pg.257.
19. Vera Antic, From Medieval Literature, Skopje 1976, pg.43-49.
20. Ivan Bozilov, Historical… , pg. 26.
21. Donka Petkanova, Old Bulgarian literature IX-XVII century, Sofia 1992, pg. 25.