Many thanks to Sergei Soloview and Victor Fet for their information on Russian history and nobility.

 

Yes, even before your replies I had realised that I was about 400 years too late in mentioning the date of 1280, and that Rurik, wherever he came from --- if anywhere --- dates to the 9th century. I should learn to check with Wikipedia before, and not after, sending my posts.

 

In fact, I found another site which sets out a useful comparison of European nobilities, here:

 

 

so I realise that Russian nobility differed significantly from other nobilities. It has always struck me also that English nobility is/was quite unlike the Scandinavian variety.

 

Actually the blue and yellow shield of Nattochdag must date from before 1280, though almost certainly not to the 9th century. It all gets lost in the mists of legend. The whole Baltic area becomes a sort of Zembla.

 

Since the Nabokovs hailed from Novgorod, which is as it were the first stop on the eastward-roving Viking route, I still wonder if VN introduced the Nattochdag name into PF as some sort of allusion to a far-distant rumoured Swedish ancestry --- perhaps his own.

 

I have a copy of VN's translation of The Song of Igor's Campaign, and gather that its authenticity is disputed, but I haven't looked at it recently. VN was obviously interested in some of these aspects of the legendary past.

 

Victor points out the Wiki article which attempts to deal with the origins of Russia and its name --- I seem to have read yet another which recounts how strongly the origin of the name Rus is disputed, a dispute first occasioned by a lecture given by a German scholar in 1748. Rather too soon after the Great Northern War, and subsequent Russo-Swedish conflicts. The argument seems to have continued since then.

 

I did get in touch some years ago with an American DeRemee descendant of the Swedish Nattochdags, and asked him if he'd read Pale Fire, but he answered that he'd only read Lolita. He was polite but only seemed mildly interested.

 

Charles