#trylogia

I have often thought - initially in the context of Jan/Bohdan - that, when Jurko is set free and Bohdan learns how it all happened, Bohdan becomes haunted by a question he wants to but cannot suppress: What if he had been in Bohun’s place? Would Jan have let him go? Would he at least have wanted to...? For any potential Jan/Bohdan scenario I’ve imagined that Bohdan was very sure that this was a purely hypothetical question, as in his case Jeremi would never have agreed to let Jan decide. But if one imagines a past relationship between Bohdan and Jeremi, maybe it isn’t that purely hypothetical anymore and there is indeed some room for doubts: Would Jeremi really have gone through with the execution or would he have tried to find some way out…? And would this way out have been one Bohdan would have been willing to accept or would it have been so unbearably shameful that even he (a person with, as I think, a very well-functioning sense of self-preservation, who, despite his courage, has no wish to become a martyr) would have come to the point of preferring death? His natural instinct, of cause, would have been to, quite literally, talk himself out of the hangman’s noose, to win over his adversary or at least distract him long enough with negotiations to facilitate an escape, and this way avoid the decision… Unfortunately I don’t think that any such thing would have worked with Jeremi, so in the end Bohdan would have had to decide if he was prepared either for betrayal of his cause or to make the Jamukha request*, and I think he knows it.

The situation where this question suddenly comes close to changing from hypothetical to very much practical and real, however, is not at the end of OiM, but at Berestechko. The khan had already arrested Bohdan. He could easily have handed him over to his enemies. The scenario that has lived in a corner of Bohdan’s mind ever since Bohun’s capture and release might finally come true, now. And there’s no way he can’t be fully aware that this is the moment he must make up his mind if, should it come to the worst, he’d go Jamukha’s way or not. Just as Jeremi is probably aware that the time might be near when he has to decide how much of a Temüjin he’s willing to be: Would he try to avoid Bohdan’s execution? Would he still go through with it if Bohdan was unwilling to humiliate himself enough to make avoiding it possible? Would he, for once, let an enemy die with dignity instead of his usual way? Even though his usual way would certainly be what at least part of the army would demand? Last but not least: Would he take revenge on the khan for bringing him into this situation…? (And for bringing Bohdan into this situation?)

I’m not completely sure yet what both Bohdan and Jeremi think they would do - and even less sure if what they think is what they’d really do. But I find the question interesting enough that I’m posting it for the tiny chance that someone else finds it intriguing enough to want to think about it too.

I have to add that I’m in no way settled on Bohdan being Jamukha and Jeremi being Temüjin in this scenario. In the first two scenes that came to my mind, external circumstances arrange it this way, but just from personality, I think Jeremi would even be a closer equivalent to Jamukha. For Bohdan it’s a question if, finding himself in a Jamukha-like situation, he’d react in a Jamukha-like way. For Jeremi I’m almost 100% sure that asking for a honourable death is what he would do if he was captured, and that he has decided on this a long time ago. And also that Bohdan would grant this request if things developed so far. I do, however, like to imagine that Bohdan is very determined to never let it come to this in the first place - all while, of course, frequently boasting and joking with his Cossacks that soon they would catch him and then they could have their revenge…

So, to share one more thought for this post: One of my favourite headcanons is that Bohdan during the siege of Zbarazh is constantly thrown around like a ship in a storm between hope of victory with all its elation, and pure, horrible dread - either because he knows that Jan is in there and might get killed (for the Jan/Bohdan-scenario) or because they might capture Jeremi. I even like the idea that the khan’s betrayal in this case might not really have been betrayal, but that Bohdan himself found a way to suggest the idea to him, just so that he could get a pretext for negotiating and avoiding this danger…

Unbelievable? Very, yes. But only in so far as the Bohdan/Jeremi scenario has no historical believability whatsoever and is a pure thought experiment. Once one does the "suspension of disbelief" for long enough to go with the premise… the rest doesn’t seem so crazy to me anymore.

So, anyone who has thoughts on this?