Written in Old East Slavic, it reflects a literary tradition about Kievan Rus' which differs from the Primary Chronicle.

The earliest extant copy of the NPL is the so-called Synod Scroll (Sinodálʹnyy),[3] dated to the second half of the 13th century.

[12] This is in sharp contrast with the Hypatian Codex (compiled c. 1425), wherein the list of knyazi ("princes") of Kiev starts with "Dir and Askold", followed by "Oleg", and then "Igor", and does not mention "Rurik" at all.

It describes the accession to the throne of the princes of Novgorod, the elections of major officials such as tysyatsky and posadnik, building of churches and monasteries, epidemics and military campaigns.

[4] The Academic (Akademícheskiy) copy of the NPL dates from the mid-15th century, came into the possession of Vasily Tatishchev, and was acquired in 1737 by the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg, where it is currently being preserved with registration number "17.8.36".

Historian Igor Froyanov analysed a scene from the Novgorod First Chronicle in which the Magi talk about the creation of man.

In the retelling of Melnikov-Pechersky, this legend sounds like this: Shaitan modeled the body of a man from clay, sand and earth; he came out with a pig, then a dog, then reptiles.

Finally, when Cham-pas got tired of arguing, he offered to divide the person, after the death of a person, the soul should go to heaven to Cham-pas, who blew it, and the body rots, decomposes and goes to Shaitan.The similarity of the legend with the words of the Magi under the year 1071 (presumably they were of Finnic origin) indicates that the worldview of the Magi of that period was no longer pagan, but was a symbiosis of Christianity with folk beliefs.