The Legend of Tsar Seleucus in Bulgarian medieval literature (an example of the interaction between the written and oral traditions)

The article considers the history of the legend of Tsar Seleucus in Bulgarian medieval literature as an example of the interaction between the oral and written traditions. The story appears for the first time in the apocryphal Legend of the Cross by Presbyter Jeremiah (10th c.), where it is based on a retelling of the Bible book of Tobit, although action took place in the time of the Gospel. Then the mythical king Seleucus appears in the Bulgarian Apocryphal Chronicle (late 11th c.) and in the Russian apocrypha The Legend of Brotherhood, which re-tells The Legend of the Cross as a narration. The roll-call of the three sources forms a kind of "triangle" whose existence is inexplicable within the framework of one literary tradition. The article shows that the legend of Seleucus can serve as an example of convergence and 'circulation' of motives between written and oral traditions. Literary and religious motifs in it are interwoven with fairy tale and myth, creating new entities before and after the appearance of The Legend.