Kulhavets (Gaister). Maria Bukriy

The world is narrow. It connects the fates of princes and blacksmiths, witches and foresters, Christians, Jews and pagans, peasants and warriors. It erases the border between Volhynians, Derevlians and Polyans, Tivertians, Northerners and Ulichs, White Croats and nomads of the Wild Field. It separates neighbors and connects the rulers of distant states with marriage ties.

At the dawn of the eleventh century, the state of the Grand Duke of Kiev Vladimir Svyatoslavich, like most states in Europe, is experiencing a period of its formation... The power-loving and womanizing ruler breaks the age-old customs of tribal principalities, concentrating control over a vast territory in the capital Kiev, and plants his numerous sons in its various lands - Rus', Verkhnyaya, Polotsk, Meryansk, etc.

Two peers do not quite agree with this: the son of the Cherven prince Vseslav, who from a born warrior becomes a craftsman-potter, and the descendant of Volodymyr from his unloved wife Rogneda, the lame Yaroslav, who is forced to gain political experience in the far corners of the Kyivan state...