Case file · Folklore / legend
Gyuryata Rogovich's tale of the people in the mountain
The Novgorodian Gyuryata Rogovich told the chronicler that his servant, sent to the Pechora and Yugra, heard of people shut inside mountains by the northern sea who cut a small window and begged for iron, speaking a tongue no one knew.
1096 CE · 65.12, 57.18 · status: legend
The account
The chronicler, writing under 1096, identifies them with the unclean nations that Alexander the Great walled up in the north, who would break out at the end of the world (Gog and Magog), quoting the Revelation of Pseudo-Methodius. The story reflects real silent trade with the peoples of the northern Urals, in which goods were exchanged without speech.
The sceptical view
A traveller's tale of silent barter dressed in apocalyptic legend.