The Tale of Igor's Campaign in the context of "Prince Igor"

The Nyamiha or Nemiga (Belarusian: Няміга, [nʲaˈmʲiɣa]; Russian: Немига, [nʲɪˈmʲiɡə] ) is a river in Minsk. Today it is contained within a fabricated culvert. It discharges into the Svislach.

The first mention of the river in historical chronicles is connected with the disastrous Battle on the Nemiga River, which took place on the riverbank in 1067 when the forces of the prince of Kievan Rus' defeated the forces of Polatsk princedom. The medieval epic The Tale of Igor's Campaign refers to the "bloody river banks of Nyamiha," with lines that detail the battle:

Apollon Nikolayevich Maykov (Russian: Аполло́н Никола́евич Ма́йков, 4 June [O.S. 23 May] 1821, Moscow – 20 March [O.S. 8 March] 1897, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian poet, best known for his lyric verse showcasing images of Russian villages, nature, and history. His love for ancient Greece and Rome, which he studied for much of his life, is also reflected in his works. Maykov spent four years translating the epic The Tale of Igor's Campaign (1870) into modern Russian. He translated the folklore of Belarus, Greece, Serbia and Spain, as well as works by Heine, Adam Mickiewicz and Goethe, among others. Several of Maykov's poems were set to music by Russian composers, among them Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky.

Maykov was born into an artistic family and educated at home, by the writer Ivan Goncharov, among others. At the age of 15, he began writing his first poetry. After finishing his gymnasium course in just three years, he enrolled in Saint Petersburg University in 1837.