The Story of Onfim (a Medieval Child)
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- Опубліковано 26 сер 2024
- Hello there guys and welcome back to another installment of Trey the Explainer!
Humans have not changed much over thousands of years.
In this video, I will discuss the nature of time, history, and humanity. We will be examining the fantastical world of a medieval child that existed 800 years ago. His name was Onfim...
We will also look at other examples of graffiti and artwork from past peoples around the world.
I hope you enjoy! Special thanks to Ida @ncdraw for telling me about Onfim ;)
Music Used:
I Don't See the Branches, I See the Leaves by Chris Zabriskie
Chris Zabriskie - What Does Anybody Know About Anything
God Be With You Till We Meet Again - Chris Zabriskie
But Enough About Me, Bill Paxton - Chris Zabriskie
Elf Meditation by Kevin Macleod
Most of the images used belong to the Wikimedia Commons or the Novgorod Birch Bark database: gramoty.ru/birc...
Citations:
Yanine, Valentine (2009). "The Dig at Novgorod". In Thomas Riha (ed.). Readings in Russian Civilization, Volume 1: Russia Before Peter the Great, 900-1700. U of Chicago P. pp. 47-59. ISBN 978-0-226-71843-9.
Chambers, John H. (16 October 2008). Everyone's History. Xlibris. ISBN 978-1-4628-2167-9.
Franklin, Simon (2010). Writing, Society and Culture in Early Rus, c.950-1300. Cambridge UP. ISBN 978-1-139-43454-6.
Freeze, Gregory (2002). Russia: A History, new edition. Oxford UP. ISBN 978-0-19-162249-6.
Kent, Allen; Lancour, Harold; Daily, Jay E. (1979). "Slavic Paleography". Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science. 27. CRC. ISBN 978-0-8247-2027-8.
Łukaszewicz, Adam. (2013) Polish Epigraphical Mission in the Tomb of Ramesses VI (KV 9) in the Valley of the Kings in 2010. Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 22 (Research 2010), 161-170. ISSN 2083-537X
Lindstedt, I., 2014: New Kufic Graffiti and Inscriptions from Jordan, Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 25: 110-114, here p. 111 (www.academia.e....
Imbert, F., 2011: L’Islam des pierres: l’expression de la foi dans les graffiti arabes des premiers siècles, Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée 129: 57-78, here pp. 62-63, referring to an unpublished graffito (www.academia.e....
The writing on the wall - AD79eruption. (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2021, from sites.google.c...
Novgorod Birch Bark database: gramoty.ru/birc...
Древнерусские берестяные грамоты. (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2021, from gramoty.ru/birc...
Onfim: Bro, check out this drawing of me as a fire-breathing monster!
Danilo: Broooo, sick.
That made me emotional for some reason
I misread it as my name and was like "what you said about me"
That’s his fursona
@Digonto It's very likely that they died during the Mongol invasion of the Kievan Rus, the population dropped from 7.5 million to 500,000
"This is an inscription that I wrote with my own hand; my hand will wear out but the inscription will remain."
wow
A person i would had love to meet
this person knew that time swallows all
In Pompeii there is a graffiti that says: "Learn this: while I am alive, you, hateful death, are coming."
It’s as if the person writing that was a time traveler and knew what would happen to their writing
@@therealspeedwagon1451 That's some mental gymnastics... Maybe he was just a philosopher pondering about life in general.
Idk why Onfim makes me so emotional. He was a kid, just like us. He drew what he saw. He drew his hopes, his dreams, his friends, his family. He was creative. He lived. and he died. I’m glad that his doodles remain.
@Marcos Moutta Of course, but that’s what’s so beautiful about it. As he explained early in the video, often when we are taught about people that lived centuries or millennia ago, we forgot that they were people just like us.
@@mitvulfe prolly seen some stuff what usual kids don’t see
The emotional part is because we know he's dead. We don't know when he died or how but he's no longer on this earth and still he lives on in memory because of his doodles.
because you have very little awareness of reality, including that there are hundreds of millions of kids alive today that would each make more sense to be sad about. they're starving, dying of treatable illnesses, abandoned or sold as slaves or brides by their parents, mining or making bricks, or being beaten to death by relatives or raped. you would not get sad about hearingthat there once was a boy in novgorod who had a normal life if you were to any degree genuinely conscious of the fact that tens or hundreds of millions of children are living nightmares (as have billions in the past).
well we dont know FOR SURE that he died ^-^
Gaius and Aulus really got to me. The fact that, nearly 2000 years later, their friendship is literally set in stone for all of us to see is really magical. They really are, in regards to history, friends forever.
Thing is for all we know they fell out afterwards over something trivial. Still, it is amazing that the text captures them at that particular moment in time as close friends. Most people won't be remembered at all 200 years from now nevermind 2000+.
“Friends”
@@Kimeraaidoru_gurifon_CH stepfriends???
@@caldw615 well, Gaius and Aulus wrote that graffiti in the same year Pompeii was destroyed by Vesuvius, so its actually pretty likely that they both died in the event. I like to think they were buried together under the ash, cementing them as friends forever, (no pun intended)
@@SnowMexicann plot twist: they are both men
Legend says Onfim's teacher is still waiting for him to turn his homework in.
only a few centuries late, I'm sure he'll offer half credit if he turns it in tomorrow
@@doesnt_exist_ “the best i can do is a C”
I think that Onfim actually turned in his homework to his teacher, but then someone (or Onfim himself) disposed of the homework.
So’s mine lmao
Heey 👀😺
I can imagine people finding my high school homework and just saying "judging from the writing this looks like a 5-7 year old"
Bro same my handwriting is so shitty even when I'm already an adult
Yeah, as someone with an awful handwriting I wonder how old would people think I am by looking at it lol. I know my handwriting has been described as "very manly" before despite the fact I was assigned female at birth so I wouldn't be surprised if they were completely wrong about my age as well
the thought of future historians uncovering my handwriting and thinking it's from a different writing system entirely due to how fucking bad it is entertains me.
peak shit hand writing is when the teacher asks you what the word says, but even you couldn't read it it
@@miglek9613 "Assigned female at birth" Can't you just say despite the fact that I'm a woman?
Some facts about Onfim I've found:
- his name derives from the Ancient Greek Antimos/Anthimus meaning "flower-like, flourishing"
- his age has been narrowed down recently, he was most likely 6-7 years old
- there are several kids' letters that were found but only the Onfim's ones were signed
- kids of that time would learn writing on wax at first then switch to birch bark, so either kids would start learning as toddlers or Onfim was a smart guy (both are impressive tbh)
- At least one of the letters is probably not his but Danilo's due to small differences in writing
- the letters showcase various writing styles Onfim was practicing (common, official and church) what is VERY impressive because they were completely different between each other, some historians even consider them as separate "languages"
- the learning method that Onfim used had been established in Ancient Greece and existed until the 19th century
- there are 3 monuments of Onfim in Novgorod, one of his drawings and two statues (one of which at the place where the letters were found)
Thank you! Genuinely fascinating!
What's the "learning method" you're referring to?
@@Redpilled_Retribution I had to dig deep for this one
The literacy training method consisted of 3 parts. First kids would learn the whole alphabet letter by letter, around 40 letters depending on the time period (and back then they had names, not the "ei-bee-see" stuff) until they can identify every letter. Then they would learn all syllables possible regardless of whether they exist in the language (so 400+ of them). Then they would read words, first by syllables until eventually they can read normally. And that was only the speaking part. In our case Onfim was learning writing along with that but generally that wasn't obligatory, only about 10% of the students could write when the system was changed. As you can see the method wasn't perfect compared to the modern ones, it would take an absurdly long time (more than a year) to become literate.
@@annapmark536 very interesting, thank you
I guess it served as an okay start for a teaching method, considering it was invented so far back
@@annapmark536 interesting
Rest in peace Onfim, you would have loved Minecraft.
LMAO
Oh, dude, he'd go nuts on there. Crazy kid
😭 He would enjoy the game
Minecraft would be enjoyed by rest of medieval, I believe.
Lol 😂
Onfim is like everyone who has ever done homework: bored. I love his little imaginary creature! It’s adorable!
It's wholesome when we manage to find the a few stories about ordinary people like Omfin or whoever's the 2 Roman friends were this really fills me with Joy and also intrigues me of how relatable those Jokes still are today like the one viking Graffiti in Haga Sofia or the Haha Funny Penis meme in Pompeii this quite Humanizes the people of past and we see them as people and not as long forgotten faceless ghosts of the ancient world man...time is weird place when i die i want to be remembered like that by Some random drawing in a Can or with maybe a diary I guess I don't want to die and become just a Forgotten piece of dust but as someone who said "I've been here before you remember me" -Aléx dias 2021
@@vernedictb.valentine2057 is it the runes? also the dank memetry of Romans especially the dick drawings as proto-memes still shows that humans does not change, only adapts lmao
He’s back at last
awesome joke😂 homework sucks lol
i don’t like the eldritch horror though
“For a brief time, I existed, and for a brief time, I mattered.”
So deep
@@OHOE1 u
“For a brief time, I existed, and for a brief time, I mattered.” Well, you're half right! 😂
@@OHOE1 in soviet Russia, toaster forks you
@@MitchGriff709 😏
Love the fact that some random medieval kid is better recorded than historically powerful emperors
I remember hearing about this Roman emperor, whose only evidence of his existence was a single coin with his face on it minted during his rule.
It's an interesting contrast between the powerful and the mundane. If you're powerful but have many enemies, the moment you fall is the moment all records of you ever existing will be destroyed; but if your someone who just scratches something randomly on a surface, it will be overlooked and left to be discovered in the future.
@@AndyHappyGuy Silbannacus. No known records except two coins.
@@tromboneman3037 be funny if it was just some random guy that minted a couple of coins with his face on it and now everyone thinks they're some emperor we know nothing about
@@AndyHappyGuy who was he?
Can you imagine how happy Onfim would be to see 8:00, when the images that he drew begin moving in a way that would look like magic to him! Imagining the reaction of a kid from over a thousand years ago seeing this blows my mind.
that’s exactly what i thought! i wish i could take my phone back in time with me and show him
The funny thing is is that humans have been figuring out how to make images move since pre-history. There’s a theory that the extra features (heads, legs, etc.) on some early human cave paintings were intended to project motion under the shifting light of a fire.
Point being that humans have been ingenious, creative buggers for an extremely long time and we’re unlikely to stop being like that.
Personally, I find it cool! It’s neat to be able to look back in history and realize that humanity has changed so much over the millennia, yet there’s a lot that hasn’t changed about us at all.
this made me start crying so much thanks for this comment :’)
I'm your 400th liker here & bye.
Even now kids are astounded when they use a filter to animate their drawings
Judging from my own primary school sketches I think the „I am the wild beast“ is just supposed to be the creature saying that it’s a wild beast rather than Onfim calling himself „the wild beast“.
I thought that, too.
same.
Me same
Then again, he drew himself A LOT. Way more than I did, at least.
I mean, my five year old cousin has claimed to be “Wolf” so I wouldn’t be surprised if a kid centuries ago called himself “The wild beast”.
The fact that someone threw Onfims little drawings into the trash breaks my heart and makes me want to print them out and hang them on my fridge
Same...
Tbf I threw out my own drawings from childhood and don't remember most of them. Life moves on.
Well, they had ice cellars for fridges, imagine the drawings being kept there and then lost with the cellar when something happened to the building.
Its entirely possible his parents collected some of his drawings and kept them as sentimental keepsakes of his childhood but its impossible to keep everything your child makes.
As someone who was once a kid who doodled on every paper I got, Im sure he had many more that were kept and eventually were lost to time
This was surprisingly emotional to me, I know it sounds silly but I really hope Onfim grew up and had a fulfilling and exciting life, and stayed friends with Daniel.
honestly this video was fucking beautiful, still think this vid from time to time, and the whole concept of sonder and past humanity, really makes me cherish how impactful our lives are
It's very wholesome.
10:40 personal theory: Onfim didn’t fight in "the battle on the ice", but his father did, he later told Onfim about the experience, feeling bored one day while doing homework, Onfim decided to draw his father on a horse fighting in the battle. Which is the drawing at 8:23
Maybe, but I like to imagine Onfim fought in the war like his dreams
"Yeah Onfim, I killed many bandits in my youth. I used to be an adventurer, then I took an arrow in the knee"
@@Plastofam A fellow man of culture I see
Maybe he was Onfin jr. and the name on the paper is actually his father Onfim!
I was thinking something similar. Like he had definitely heard about the battle as it was recent and probably still on a lot of peoples minds, and that penetrated his imagination.
I like to imagine onfim was in history class when he drew his doodles and his teacher scolded him by saying
" What historical value do these scribbles hold...None , NONE I SAY"
Then gives him a taste of the birch and tells him with a snap, "Now back to work!" Then starts in on mathematics.
Nxkfkfkfn that would be funny
histories like Onfim's are why I love history and anthropology so much. People are just people. And I hope spirits are real, just so Onfim can see how many adults stare at his drawings, animate them, study them, as their own children, unaware of it, do the same in the living room
“These fucking people are studying my doodles from 1st grade…”
@Obi Diaz yes he is somewhere..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................in the dirt
Onfim's drawings brought a huge smile to my face and warmed my heart. Children never change!
@@ronjayrose9706 well yeah. of course.
I feel the same
One of the greatest things I've ever encountered was a child's doodles on the inside cover of a 15th century manuscript. It's in the collection of Oxford University, and I was fortunate enough to see it in person. A four-legged rectangular creature and a stick figure with a triangular body and L-shaped legs. Clearly a young student was using the manuscript for their studies and grew bored, and the evidence of it exists to this day. Just amazing.
That's incredible
I've heard about Onfim before, and I always liked seeing how he got bored and drew on his homework like I used to do, but something about this video just made me cry lol. Just... the idea of this kid that died 800 years ago still living on through something as mundane as doodles... makes me really emotional
Lol you hella soft, onfim wouldn't have cried
@@megadong2398 go touch grass
@@piefrolic6786 I'm completely right but okay pie eater
@@megadong2398 "I'm so fucking cool man"
You, probably
@@vbnmorbus I'm glad you agree
If there is an afterlife, I can only imagine how much Halfdan was laughing when people thought his graffiti had some religious importance.
"Religious significance" in archaeology is just code for "we have no clue what this thing is".
@@shayposting It's the "sexual selection" of archaeology.
@@gazeboist4535 that and "ceremonial use"
It's entirely possible, in that instance, that he would die again from cringe.
"Aw man, they found my self-insert fanfic about the Battle On The Ice!"
I hope that the two pompeian bros are still friends in the afterlife
You know what is cool about Onfim? It is actually easy to read his handwriting if you are able to read cyrillic.
That's so neat!!
I barely can :(. Despite my degree in linguistics
I speak russian and i got cant read it
Хз почему вам сложно. Я знаю украинский, белорусский и русский языки и вроде как понятно что написано
@@userNEREMAR , ну все-таки начертания букв в оригинальных грамотах отличаются довольно сильно от современной кириллицы. Правда в изданиях не всегда приводят оригинал, и тогда, конечно, проще :)
In the part where Onfim wrote, "Lord please help your servant Onfim", lol its like what some kids do when they are about to take a difficult exam or quiz and is under the watchful eyes of a very strict teacher. To ease the anxiety a little bit and probably take a little bit of revenge on the teacher, they draw themselves as the protagonist while the teacher is drawn as some sort of monster they are battling with. We really don't know and will never know what kind of situation he was in when he draw this picture, but it would really be cute and somewhat amusing if it was exactly how I think it is... 🙂😊
I hope Onfim achieved his dream of becoming a great warrior and lived a good , healthy life .
Lol "I hope Ofnir ended up killing people"
@@guidoferrari5415yes
@@guidoferrari5415 problem?
This makes me realize that there probably were knights with dad personalities.
Well most of them had to put up with the tough guy persona
@@dv9239 I know a lot of them suffered from night terrors.
@@saber2802 Did you know that one of the things knights used to do was talk about their experiences? Geoffroi de Charney cautioned in the book Livre de Chevalerie ''when they would be secure from danger, they will be beset by great terrors'' and suggests that knights talk to other knights about their experiences. Basically, knights accidentally figured out that people suffer from PTSD and talking about it would make it less severe
@@nix.i I can kind of imagine after the war was done, two knights of opposing sides would bond a bit over the hell they just witnessed.
At 9:10 I could sort of make it out, 1st line is the greetings ( or "bowing"?) Поклоно?? Second line = НФИМА (onfim) Ko = to?? , 3rd line= Danil
I see "I can't draw hands" goes back a LONG way.
Lol
peasants back then worked the fields for so long they just developed pitchfork hands to make it easier. Much like people today develop noodle hands to type faster.
Just an ancient artist being relatable
My sister used to draw almost exactly hands like this
Now we just need to find a "I can't draw feet" so we can make a yee olde Rob Leifeld joke
Anyone else cry, but in a good way when they learn about this sort of thing? It's like, I feel like we're connected across thousands of years by our shared humanity and my heart is overflowing. It's beautiful.
Agreed ❤❤
Yeah
The love letter at 7:06 made me tear up almost immediately. I don't know why. I just hope Nikita and Ulyanitsa were happy and lived a long life together
I personally hope Ignato had a good life, sounded like a stand up dude
@@johnfraire6931 I want Ignate to be my witness too, anyone know where I can hit him up?
Its funny to imagine a bunch of historians arguing over centuries old children drawings.
I bet that kid is having a ball in whatever afterlife he’s in, watching them argue loll
@심William A.C. Swift LMAO I can imagine that
I love how Trey talks about everything he likes
He has a pretty diverse and interesting range of topics, his content can really surprise me sometimes
Aww thank you ☺️ I’m happy you appreciate my diverse topics. I like making videos on subjects I feel really passionate about and interest me. I think that’s when I’m at my best.
I’m so happy you enjoyed the video :’)
@@TREYtheExplainer I do agree! I've been watching you for a two or three years now and it's always amazing!
@Oliver Kennedy I would love to see his take on the 2020 Spino
He actually explains it
Ancient graffiti is one of my favorite things, and what makes this particular story better is that Onfim was just some kid, and his work proved that kids learned how to write, and doodled on their papers too. His art style is so recognizable, Onfim our beloved.
Agreed❤
"My heart aches for all the people I have loved and have died long before my birth, never to learn of my affections".
Man, this and the boy with hugging the dog in pompeii... They get to me
Things like these really do humanise the people from the past and it’s really funny how relatable they are, it’s a weird feeling...
I find it sad that most people view ancient people as "different". I was even angry when I found out that people believe neanderthals to have been stupid stereotypical cavemen. The fact is that people for tens of thousands of years have been essentially the same. Sure different culture and education, but the hardware is the same and all humans are human.
@@numbdigger9552 it is quite depressing, but until we hear these stories it’s very hard to see them as people because of how our brains work, I think it’s similar to how if a disaster or a crime happens where many people die, numbers are much less emotionally impactful than if things about someone’s life are shared, like, for example, we know that holocaust was awful and millions of people were killed, but reading Anna Frank’s diary is a hundred times more emotional than just knowing statistics and certain global events, until you know their stories, they’re just numbers... there’s also a point to be made that following events of mass death, the victims or even in this case people from history need to be humanised by sharing things about their lives...
@@walterl322 i personally have always seen ancient people as just the same as us. However your disaster analogy is a good one, since only once i saw schindler's list, i understood how much disasters mean, how these aren't just numbers, but individuals.
@@numbdigger9552 I should have probably picked a different analogy, I didn’t really think it over before writing it... I didn’t mean to be insensitive, but yeah, I still think that it applies... Like, when you learn about their lives you start realising that they were real people...
@Great White honestly it is kinda disturbing, but if you just see a number, it’s hard to imagine that the number represents real people so you need to hear about those people... I usually have hard time making a point and I’m not good with words and if I was insensitive, I’m really sorry, that wasn’t my intention
The Pompeii graffiti is priceless and so surprisingly modern. It stuns us at how modern and relatable they are when their authors wouldn't have thought twice about it. It's amazing.
people are always people, I think a lotta of us modern people like to imagine ancient peoples as these emotionless humor-less primitive machines.
OhvShoot, in a few thousand years, Historians are likely gonna discover all my fanart and ventart and Assume stuff about me 😳
Future historians, if yall reading this, no, I do not live with Colorful, talking ponies 👀
@Bring Peter Griffin to Super Smash Bros that sort of art is fairly modern internet driven concept
@@greenergrass4060 not really, there are little to No medium to connect with people of past say 1000+ years ago. But 1000 years from now in future the historians from that era will have loads and loads of archives, footage from billions of cameras which we have in today's world, your daily updates on social media etc. To look and study each individual character of past(21st century humans). It will help the people in future to connect with us in more personal level which we find impossible to do with people in past except few tiny number of cases.
@@MetalboxwithKanon I hope future archaeologists would enjoy the hentai filled hard drives I have buried in the mountains.
I love the way you humanize history.
I remember being in school and first learning ancient people made graffiti dicks "I was here" type grafitti. It really made me see them in a different, more relatable life.
I especially love the inscriptions and poems for ancient pet graves. The backdrop may change, but man is the same
I experience sonder almost every day. Working at a grocery store and seeing the regulars, hearing their stories, it really makes you appreciate how complex humans are and always have been. I explore long abandoned farm houses with my friend and I love to imagine the people who lived there, what they used to do, what their lives were like. What led them to leaving everything behind? It’s so beautiful and mysterious
I still remember overhearing part of a conversation outside a grocery store. The one line that stuck out to me was “You’re allergic to Christmas trees?”
@@tweer64😂
"Weep, you girls" one made me choke-
He left out the last bit of that graffiti: "Goodbye, wondrous femininity!"
Man really had to publicly flex on the fact that he turned gay lol
Made the lads of Pompeii choke too 🥴
he threw the first brick at stonewall
@@atomicfireball2302 Actually, it seemed more like he was lamenting the fact that societal expectation was for him to "grow up" and start sharing his affection with other men. Ancient Rome and Greece treated women mostly as property and thought that men loving women was "childish," since only another man could ever be considered an intellectual equal.
I can imagine an older Onfim being like "oh God these old drawings are so cringe" and throwing them away. I did the same thing when I was about 10 or 11 (we had a wicker basket literally bursting with pages of childhood art and had to decide which ones to keep and which ones to throw away). If only we realize how precious even a simple doodle can be
That's reasonable.
Oh, God, I did it the same some years ago... 😭😭😭😭😭😢😣
yeah I made this realization quite early in my life, that I should not be ashamed of what I did because I wasn't "good enough yet", and was probably doign the best I can anyways.
so I kept around my old stuff from when I was 10 or 11 consciously, knowing one day I'll look back at them and be humored.
@@dewinmoonl I wish I had realized that too. I think emptying that wicker basket with drawings in it was my parents idea, kind of strange because they usually valued our art (keeping it in binders and portfolios and stuff) but I'm pretty sure we held on to at least some of it. No idea where it is though.
But I definitely remember getting rid of some of my ugly "trying to draw anime" artwork in middle school and I REALLY regret that because it would have been hilarious to look at now. Also humbling and insightful to see how I've grown as an artist
@@EAPori haha yeah. It's getting much easier with digital medium now. I throw a lot of papers away but if I liked it I'd take a photo. It was a pretty wholesome exchange, have a great one internet stranger.
The disrespect of this feeling of Sonder was one of the reason why I left the study of archeology. there was one time we were practising in a small group how to catalogue findings, and behind my chair was a dusty cardboard box. the professor asked to get a little bronze jewelry from the box, so I opened it and inside there was a skull and lots of bones, just thrown in there like it's nothing. I asked the prof if it was real, and he angrily remarked "why wouldn't it be real, what a stupid question" (the prof was an other reason why i left) and all i could think about for the rest of the day is that, whoever that person was he/she lived a full life, had dreams and memories, perhaps even children, died then was buried, sat in the ground for thousands of years perhaps yet still managed to stay intact, and where is he now? is a dusty box in the storage room of a university, thrown away, left and forgotten
That's an egregious violation your professor committed
Im sure keeping those things unprotected like that is not normal for the field.
It's not quite as severe, but I get that sonder feeling when I visit estate sales or antique stores. Seeing old worn tools and trinkets that meant something to somebody, children's artwork, 'best grandpa' mugs, old stereos that played favorite songs... just being sold off. Or worse- taken to the dump because it didn't sell. I'm a sentimental sod, so it kinda gets to me, heh.
@@jackpijjin4088 oh my goodness, same
8:39 I think he might've just been proud of his drawing, so he signed it.
Just rewatched this, if he could somehow see his legacy, he'd probably be grimacing. I mean, If my only legacy was some homework doodles from when I was ~6 and archeologists were studying it, I'd probably feel that way.
It's weird, Onfim perhaps lived to 80 and had children and yet people will always think of him as a child.
That's the secret to the fountain of eternal youth; that those who come after you will remember you in the prime years of your life.
@@IaMaPh1991 .........
Or he died prematurely from dysentery
Who knows, some of the people seeing these drawings he made as a child may in fact be directly descended from him.
It is quit likely he has living decendents. If that is the case many of the people that watched this video are his decendents.
The Two Bros confirms that "I Love You, Man" states of drunkenness aren't restricted to the modern age.
And it's thought that those two bros were sleeping off a hangover together, dying peacefully in their sleep as Vesuvius froze them in position for us to see today.
That is considering how ancient alcoholic drinks are.
@@robertcorbell1006 bros until the end. Fuck yeah that's relationship goals right there.
One of the oldest things on this planet is the friendship between two men
@@nickrustyson8124 hell yeah
I love Onfim’s drawings. They’re full of life and remind me that time is a flat circle and nothing has ever changed ever. my 5th brother died from the plague. My chamber pot smells.
“I was here” one of the most universal messages in human cultures
“what are you drawing Onfim?”
“I’m drawing a knight on a horse killing an enemy by using a pole to stab him until he bleeds out and dies”
“impressive”
How come I see you everywhere I really like your pfp also correct me if I’m wrong but is that the carnivores allosaurus but heavily edited
I drive a chevrolet movie theatre
Implying our modern culture would be any less brutal.
This knight actually looks pretty much St. George-ish.
thats just how kids are
Well now I want a movie epic about the battle on the ice featuring Onfim
Right?!? HBO drama series about Onfim’s life story
@@TREYtheExplainer Man this video was more Wholesome than what I expected it fills me with Joy,Happiness and Humanity to see that the Ancient weren't just Faceless Ghosts we know they were they but we don't knew who they ware man...wherever Omfin and Danillo is I hope he's happy looking down how people know he Existed and still remembered also Halfen the Viking of Hagia Sofia probably had a life of Adventures and riches as a Viking and died as a warrior or Danius and Allus who were best bros and other examples this puts a smile in my face
It won’t be Hollywood. They don’t know how to emote or handle child characters any better than a psychopath would.
Well, there's Alexander Nevesky. Just imagine that Omfin is the big guy who valiantly defends the cartload of vodka.
Oh it would be nice to watch a movie about 'the battle on the ice' , through the lens of a boy who aspired to be a warrior.
Maybe Onfim did grew up, Achieved his Goals, but became Jaded in war. Maybe he realized all this violence is far from the glorious battles he envisioned as a child...oh yeah!
Lol. Never thought I'd hear about Onfim on an English language channel. Very cool. I spent like five years in Uni studying the birch gramotas as they were discovered and Onfim was my favorite.
If I knew Russian I'd do everything in my power to go there and study them, holy crap 🤩
@@teresarivasugaz2313you need to know Old Russian, the Novgorodian dialect of it and on top of that some Church Slavonic. Just knowing Russian will bring you nowhere
Seeing a child's drawings from so long ago is magical.
This is so sad, especially because we don't know if he lived enough to achieve his dreams and be a knight.. I'm sobbing because of a child that lived 800 years ago
For some reason I doubt you sobbed lol
However long he lived, Onfim has been dead for centuries. If you feel that way, pray for his soul (we Orthodox, which Onfim almost certainly was, pray for souls who have fallen asleep) and do something to make your life and the lives of those around you wonderful today.
He didn’t become a knight. This was the middle ages, after all. Social progression in a single generation was practically unheard of. If he did fight as a footman or horseman in the Battle On The Ice, the knyaz may have made him a boyar or at least have allowed his sons to be squires and thus have a shot at actually becoming knights. He seems to have been a merchant’s son, so he might have been wealthy enough to fight in the battle as a mounted warrior.
Yeah if they’re old enough to be writing, they likely made it past the childhood death bottleneck and would likely have lived a normal length life.
Im going to be positive and say he did. Onfim became a knight and got married and had little onfims
Guys, I have some bad news. I'm afraid Onfim is no longer with us.
RIP Onfim.
Damn. When did he die?
@@anomalocaristheabnormalshr3248 It's very likely that he died during the Mongol invasion of the Kievan Rus
@@Fer-od1fc damn. Sucks.
@@anomalocaristheabnormalshr3248 he died when he passed away 😔
@@Fer-od1fc
Mongols… it’s always the mongols.
this is one of my favorite videos of yours. the humanization of people from history has always been very important to me. not just ancient people, but even people from fairly recent history. my great grandmother was classmates with anne frank and also hid in an attic from the nazis. her story was happier, she survived and lived a nice life, but no one outside of my family remembers her.
wow!! that's. wow. is there any way you could tell the story? or write some sort of memoir about it with what your family remembers? memory is a very powerful and imprtant thing and i'm happy that at least your family remembers it :)
@@hwimilkSorry I never saw this til now! My great grandmother Eli went to school with Anne Frank as I said and had a similar but happier story. She hid with a nice Christian woman who eventually adopted her after the war. She ended up marrying my great grandfather Ernest who had escaped the holocaust. They converted to Christianity but still honored their Jewish heritage and family. A lot of my family died including most of Eli’s family and Ernest’s first fiancé who they named my grandmother after. My great grandfather wrote a book about it, it’s called The Last Jew of Rotterdam by Ernest Cassutto. They both passed before I was born but I’m very proud of my family history :)
It is indeed a beautiful and saddening feeling when you become fully aware of the humanity of people from history. Billions of souls staring back at you. Gone and forgotten.
Imagine being remembered by your middle school drawings.
“This blue spikey creature held great cultural significance many people worshiped this being as the god of speed and fertility” lmao
Oof... That's why I burned most of them...
@@KougajiCalling lol, I'm now considering burning everything I've ever written.
@@suzannax I burned a lot of that too... Egads...
@@elizabethbentley2582
"The sketches of penises are further proof of the creature's link to fertility."
Dang it’s so strange to see that kids draw humans the same way, no matter what time they lived in
Right?? Exactly what I was thinking
I was also thinking the same lol, remembering the drawings from my children. My children are still preteens- and their drawings a bit more accurate, but the drawings in this vid were spot on like what they drew when they were younger.
When I was a child I always thought that 2000 plus years ago everyone was so serious but this video shows that humans don't change and this is good and bad
Rest in peace my boy Onfim, now you are truly a free, wild beast
this video literally made me cry, the lives of historical people always gets me so emotional. i really really hope onfim became a knight like he dreamed of and lived a happy life
it makes me so emotional!! also, i kept wondering how he would feel about us, centuries later, finding his works?? do you think he'd be proud?? embarrassed?? not care that much?? it's just really fascinating to think. anyway, i stan onfim
WE MUST PROTECT ONFIM
I hope he just lived a good life as a regular townsperson. Being a knight wasn’t much fun in reality, with all that death and gore.
we are living in history 😳 just like we look back, whatever it may be will look back on us
He probably died of polio or something just saying
His handwriting was clearly that of an 8-10 year old. Wow, so thats how future generations will roast me
Eh could be worse. They could say 5 or 6 year old
That reminds me when one of my high-school teacher saw a painting I made during a shooltrip and guessed it was from pre-elementary school... fortunately, I know my drawing skills and didn't take it bad XD
@@krankarvolund7771 oooff
I saw someone draw with their teeth better than I can with hands. 😞 🤦
This story always gets me as a teacher. I fucking love kids and I genuinely teared up when you brought his drawing to life. Thanks, Trey.
You're a teacher with that kind of language?? 🙄
Edit: And your name is CaptainPoopyShoes??
@@albtcklemperors and rulers had worse vocab before. And yet ruled and lead more men than U ever will. Some people just don't deserve to type, like U
@@albtckl grow up man teachers are people too, we don’t always present ourselves professionally
I love hearing about especially funny stories in history. My favorite so far has to be this one from ancient china (no i don't remember which dynasty), where these two guys lived across a lake from each other. One of them was a very pompous poet, who sent the other guy a letter with one of his poems that contained something along the lines of "the eight winds cannot move me." You know, pompous poetry stuff. Well, the guy who received that letter sent a return letter that basically said, in giant letters, "FART." Once the poet received the letter, he stormed over to the other guy's house to tell him off. And the guy said to the poet, "The eight winds cannot move you, yet one fart sends you across the lake."
ancient twitter
😂😂😂 hilarious
@@root-beeryesss
gaius and aulus, top lads
Just bros being bros. Like, totally straight guys
@@blacktiger974 u cant possibly know that. Homosexuals were comman at the time, but your asumsion can be correct.
@@billyguns6975 I actually agree with you, my comment was ironic
@@blacktiger974 altough its nice and ponder what and who these people were. What they eat, slept etc....As Trey said human minds havent change and how relatable some of them can be, at the same time being in different cultures and time periods. Hope everyone has nice day/night and good luck in what every you are working hard on ;) The human mind is diverse!!!
@@billyguns6975 The wording suggests they actually just were very good friend, but it's possible there was more to it.
Plot twist: Onfim was actually a 30 year Rus viking who was sent back to school to learn to write.
This reminds me of “Phillip Fry Age 20” from Futurama
Hey when you're a noble you've got to know these things. Father couldn't have an illiterate son!
Thats strangely still wholesome in a way
Idk if Vikings were around by then but that would be epic
Novgorod at the time was a major power centre for the Kievan Rus wasn't it?
Onfims's story, and many more, are beautiful in a way that shows us how little humans have changed through the ages. My favorite one is that guy writing a complaint in a tablet stating that his crops will die without the needed water and warning taht this is not their first complaint lol.
this was truly beautiful. whenever I think of the past and the distant future, and the fact that I will never see both of them, I feel this indescribable anguish that makes me want to be an immortal being witnessing everything. such a weird and even painful feeling
History's going to be so interesting in a thousand years because based on whether the internet survives or not we're going to either have EVERYTHING or we'll have basically nothing because so few people really write hand-written letters anymore.
I want to believe archeologists will need to make servers so that they can find out what is on our devices
Trump's tweets will be seen as weped over lost media.
Thats the one problem I think about with digitisation, what will be our Spynx, our Rosetta
there r some archives of digital media tho and as long as people in the future are able to access whatever hard drives survive I'm sure the internet won't be entirely lost
Paper (once exposed to bacteria and air) doesn’t survive past a few decades max anyway.
It was really adorable how you animated Onfim’s doodle trotting onto the painting depicting an epic historic battle.
And may the two best bros bro on for eternity.
Everyone dies two deaths. Once when you're body gives out, and the second is when your name and is last uttered.
We all expect people like Caesar to be remembered for as long as humans exist. But how many other Gaius and Aulus didn't write their names in stone? How many common men won't be remembered because they, by happenstance didn't write graffiti?
How many BFFs will be forgotten!
As long as the had fun in their life, that's all that matters.
Cesar will be forgotten, eventually, just like the other gaius and aulus
@@laureal3659 ha! Humanity would either sail the stars or die on this ball of water and dirt. But a name like caesars' would remain. Carved on marble, inked on paper and etched in stone.
@@ChocorocK marble disappear, ink and paper even more. If it's not during the space conquest it will be later. Maybe an even more important figure will appear and be worshiped, maybe the planet will be bombed, nothing is eternal that's the only truth we know in this world
I think that Onfim was born after a war of sorts, and his father may have been a knight. Many peasant children from my understanding did not get proper education. Onfim, however, seems very well versed and quite literate for a boy his age at the time. Maybe he saw his father as honorable and wanted to do some of the things he may have heard or seen his father do, and perhaps did become a knight in his later years. The other theory, is that the plea to lord to help Onfim implies he was ill maybe, with something he knew would take him.
This is just my speculation however
There's a letter from a father to his son from like, the 1100s in England, where the son is away studying at Oxford and is asking for more money. The father responds "I hear you've been slacking off and reading fewer books than the other students, and that you hang out and get drunk instead of studying, so no, I'm not giving you more money" and I think it hits this same vibe of connecting on an emotional level with people who can seem so distant in time and place. College kids will always get drunk and dissapoint their parents, kids will always fantasize about being cool beasts. It's such a wonderful realization. Anyways, fantastic video as always, Trey, thank you for making it.
I need someone to be the Gaius to my Aulus....
Yes. Friends like that are rare nowadays. Gaius and Aulus are long dead but their friendship was eternalized by their inscription 👬🏻
One can only dream for a bromance like that.
I already have my Aulus. Lucky me.
Maybe one of them also wrote about, "Weep oh girls..."
Not nearly as old or cool but I have a textbook from the 1870s and a girl wrote her name on it and the year. We found her, learned about her life. And 150 years later, someone states away has her middle school history textbook.
This was fantastic. I'm graduating with a Classics degree and on several occasions we've studied papyri - recently I was in a seminar where the professor would often show us letters from Ptolemaic Egypt. There was a boy named Theo, I believe, writing a rather whiny letter to his father. Also a man writing a somewhat sexy letter to his girlfriend. I understand the "sonder" you talked about because I, too, felt it while studying those papyri.
So how did Ptolemaic Egyptians write sexy letters?
Onfim's writings are the most blessed writings I have ever seen, that story genuinely made me cry.
God bless Onfim.
you know he's dead right? either Onfim or god
@@almendratlilkouatl 😐
Seeing his unique but universal art style, not unlike mine or my sisters' at that age, put a tear in my eye. It's more a tear of joy though it's tinged with sadness, and sonder is certainly a part of it. It's just so incredible to get such a glimpse of this one kid's life, but it also reminds me that there are billions of other stories just like his, that may never be told but still have some trace, however minute, on this world. So glad I am gonna study archaeology so I can be one of the people with the privilege to explore these stories and make some sort of contact with the people to whom they belong.
yeah the classic :-| face was just . . . so universal even now. stick figures were always a thing . . .
@@dewinmoonl ikr it's always : ( or :-| or :D lol and i love that
It's even more impactful when you realize amidst all the other events in that time period that is mostly defined by war, political intrigues, pestilence, and whatnot, there is this kid that was very much not unlike us when we were his age, blissfully innocent and hopeful of what his tomorrow could have for him.
I dont know why but Onfims writings and drawings make me really emotional.
I really hope he lived a great life
This is probably my favorite video so far. It was excellently written and thought provoking. Keep up the good work!
Aww thank you so much :') I am so happy you enjoyed it!
As a Russian, I'm proud to see this little fella recognised
A Russian being proud of their history? Impossible!
@@Pyro-Moloch You'd be surprised how patriotic Russians can be.
As an Íslendingar, I'm proud to see Hálfdan get recognized. My name is Þórsteinn and my great uncles name is literally Hálfdan
@@10gamer64 I see you didn't catch my sarcasm. I grew up in Russia, they're all obnoxiously patriotic, while their history consists of rulers constantly waging wars and suppressing freedoms of their people. Russia is a cursed country where good times never happened and never will. Which makes all this patriotism incredibly annoying.
@@Pyro-Moloch Sounds like you have quite the Russia phobia in you, Russia has seen great success with it’s history, what about the Soviet liberation of Auschwitz? Russia is a unique country and it’s history is completely intertwined with the world’s. Russian has made innovations in space exploration, radios, science, and math. The language is one of the most spoken and has a culture that is instantly recognizable, all countries have done bad things. America slaughtered the Native Americans and was one of the last countries to abolish slavery, and even then many Black people have undergone horrible scrutiny, to the point where some have even immigrated to the Soviet Union in hopes to not be discriminated against.
The most wholesome graffiti was the message to the defecator
*DEFECTOR Defecator is something completely different!!!!!
@@ASHERUISE No he's serous it is in fact a defecator. There was grafitti in an ancient public bathroom
@@ASHERUISE lol, why on earth would someone writing graffitti in a public toilet assume that everyone who saw his writing were "defectors"?!? But hmm... what COULD you assume that every person using a public toilet would be doing, I wonder???
That graffitti was the Roman version of the classic "Here I sit, broken-hearted..." verse, thats scratched into every public toilet wall, in the English-speaking world.
I have a feeling the message was supposed to be similar to when my dad would always say "Hope everything comes out alright."
@@ASHERUISE lmao how embarrassing for you
If anyone wants a great, detailed historical record of someone's ancient life, I recommend The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon. It's a diary written by a Japanese court lady 1000 years ago. It's kind of incredible how so much of it reads like an old Tumblr blog.
i like to imagine Onfim and Danilo were best friends and went on tom sawyer-esque adventures together
I laughed more then I should have at history's first yelp review.
Imagine going on an epic quest to a distant land of mystery in order to see the wonders of the ancients and being like...
"Well, this is kind of lame..."
It straight up sounds like an actual internet review. I guess humanity doesn’t change
I'd argue that the complaint tablet to Ea-nasir is more deserving of that title, it's literally the oldest known written complaint.
I came to this video, and I only liked this comment!
The only thing thats changed is technology
Gotta say, classic Halfdan. Always pulling stunts like that.
I LOOOVE these kinds of stories.
History about leaders like Cleopatra is cool and all... but I much prefer learning how ordinary people once lived.
I am after all and ordinary person, so it's nice to learn about people I can relate too.
your closing sentiments remind me of Roy Batty's speech at the end of Blade Runner, "...all those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain."
The boy ignored his work and doodled on it instead, I love it, I used to do the same when I was a kid, my mom was all too used to hear the teachers say "Ma'am your son has been drawing dinosaurs on his books again"
Best thing you could be drawing! I was too obedient at school for that, but I wish I could say the same. I did do a lot of drawing, mainly dragons.
If I have a child and does that I would ask him if he wants to be a paleontologist...I wanted to, so..
@@Ahonya666 so did I, alas, there was no place to study that close to home
I think if more people felt sondor, we may be able to make life better for everyone.
I am not alone, thank God I stumbled across this stranger who has the same opinion of me, this is sonder he probably came up with this opinion by himself and through life experiences similar to mine, this proves that I'm not alone and that other humans really do have the same thinking power i was blessed upon
Really rules out the whole war thing once you accept you’re no more special than anyone else ❤️ (that doesn’t take away how special you are but reinforces the value of others)
What's the point of feeling sonder of you are apolitical ?
@Great White that's what an apolitical person would say
@@matthias2756 It really doesn't. That's a very naive way of thinking, although I commend you on your innocence.
Across the vastness of time and space, despite ever present entropy trying to shake things up, humans haven't changed in thousands of years... That thought alone is humbling. An Egyptian living 5,000 years ago had thoughts and dreams almost no different from what we think dream of today
that means atrocities will go on as well, unless humans are genetically modified someday to be superior
Onfim you're an absolute legend mate.
I unironically love this medieval child's artstyle. There's a charm to it all that is so authentic.
Humanity has not changed in its nature in the last 5000 years, and all these writings and doodles show it. I see this child's drawings and my maternal instincts come out, because those doodles are not any different than any kid's drawings from nowadays. I love to see how, regardless of time, we can connect so closely to people from the past. It is an absolutely magical feeling, and I thank people like this channel's owner so much for bringing that feeling and knowledge to so many of us
You are right! Even though these drawings are many hundreds of years old they really don't look any different from a child's drawing of today. It really brings home the adage of "One man's trash is another man's treasure.".
I mean we are literally looking at people's trash from the past who didn't give a crap about said trash! But it's thanks to them doing that we get a rare glimpse into the lives of common folk just like us. Getting a small glimpse into Onfim's life however long... or brief it may have been 😔.
The internet is going to change that. It already has started.
@@bibtebo if anything the internet has only made us even more interconnected at the cultural level
@@bibtebo im pretty sure it made it more obvious. Some of those messages could’ve be straight up shitposts from someone’s tumblr if they weren’t carved on stone like 2000 years ago.
@@tinhead_junk Honestly they probably were
Reading that boys notes gave me the attachment I only feel with my friends, it feels like I met him and got to know him. I hope he had a good life
Always thought medieval russia was an incredibly underrated place. Glad to see you cover even a small aspect of it.
This one goes out to all the bros across time we never met.
@@jacklanders6449 there will be future bros long after me and you are dead as well. Broship never dies.
Cheers to that bro 🍻🥂
This made me weirdly emotional, it makes me happy that in some ways the lives of the people that came before us and our own will continue to live in the humanity of others.
Thank you for this beautiful video
Idk, it's also kinda sad.
You'll either have to be a Hitler or a Gandhi for people to remember you as a person.
I love learning about Onfim. It really shows how 'human', humans in history were. Everyone had humanity in them, even though that can be muddled through historical documents and long wars and hardships. It brings happiness to my heart.
Pompeii is truly a gift from the ancient world. Maybe centuries or millennia from now we may unearth an entire civilization hidden under layers of earth. There are plenty of places on Earth not fully explored like the Amazon and Sahara. It's very likely that some ancient cities are waiting to be discovered.
Not only a gift, it's a kind of (unintended) sacrifice for modern historiography...
There was graffiti of a Romans from 2000 years ago down in what is now Ethiopia. I believe they were on vacation/trade mission.
3:20 0/10 didn't include that one quote telling a guy to stop eating out woman in the streets
What even?! XD
@@fluffynator6222 "theophilus, don't perform oral sex on girls against the city wall like a dog" that's one of the graffiti found on the streets of Pompeii, and the best in my humble opinion
@@Tsuruchi_420 Meanwhile:
"Epaphra! You are bald!"
@@fluffynator6222 the number of likes you have is befitting of the nature of your post, thus I shall only compliment by replying with ^
*EDIT : my comment is now obsolete as some foo added additional likes to the 69 you had
@@Tsuruchi_420 This really says that while humans have always been the same, ancient Roman dogs were doing things a bit differently.
9:38 that made me laugh so much because when I was studying for the university entrance exams and was very bored, I used to write something like "god help me from this pit of boredom" on my textbook and go back to solving problems. I'd like to think that's what Onfim was doing too.
This truly is oddly heartwarming.
Your massive interest and your videos on history and archeology make it all so much more interesting and make me want to go into history but I know I wouldn't last, so I'm just happy with your videos