Russian epic "Svyatogor"

Bylina "Svyatogor and Mikula Selyaninovich" - a famous work of the ancient Russian epic. She talks about the famous hero-giant.

Bogatyr Svyatogor

Bylins about Svyatogor refer toEast Slavic mythology. This is one of the most ancient cycles of the Russian epic epics. It is outside the popular Novgorod and Kiev cycles. At the same time, they intersect with them in some epics, dedicated to Svyatogor's meetings with Ilya Muromets.

According to the widely spread plot of the epic, Svyatogorwas very heavy. So much that he could not stand the earth. At the same time, he could not overcome the terrestrial thrust and left his feet to the ground. According to another legend, Ilya Muromets together with Svyatogor take turns trying on a coffin made of stone. It they suddenly meet on their way. In this epic Svyatogor is a hero, to whom the coffin fell just right.

However, being in the coffin, he finds out that notcan get out of it, even the lid does not rise. Just before his death, Svyatogor manages to transfer part of his strength to Ilya Muromtsu through breathing. So the most famous epic defender of the Russian land becomes even stronger.

Description Svyatogor

As a rule, in the epics Svyatogor is described ashuge giant, hard power. Its growth is higher than trees in the forest. In the very holy Russia he visits only occasionally. In general, he prefers to live in the high Holy Mountains practically alone.

When he does get out of his dwelling, it becomes known to the whole district. The earth under him wobbles, the trees swing, and the rivers simply come out of their shores.

Svyatogor is the personification of the most ancient Russian hero, the pre-Christian hero of the Slavic epic, which is the personification of the power of the Russian people and their divine destiny.

It is noteworthy that the father of the epic Svyatogor was "dark," that is, a blind man. And this is a clear sign that he belonged to the beings of the other world.

Giant Force Svyatogor

In the summary, the epics about Svyatogor are oftenthere is a plot in which he feels in himself gigantic forces. To prove this, he boasts that he is able to turn heaven and earth if there were two rings: one in the sky and the other in the earth. This was heard by another famous epic hero named Mikula Selyaninovich. He then threw a bag on the ground in which the whole "earthly burden" was.

In the epic "Svyatogor and Mikula Selyaninovich", a shortthe content of which is given in this article, our hero makes unsuccessful attempts to somehow move this bag without getting off his horse, but fails. Then he dismounts and tries to raise the bag with both hands. But instead of lifting it over his head, he himself sinks to the ground almost to his knees, because he can not overcome the earth's cravings. So he ends his life, unable to confirm in practice the words about his strength and power.

There is another option of howepic "Svyatogor and Mikula Selyaninovich". Completely read it, you can find another ending to this story. In it, Svyatogor remains alive, and Mikula, having compassion on him, reveals the secret of his unbearable soup.

Bylin with Ilya Muromets

In the epics about Svyatogor, the content of which is given in this article, the most famous Russian epic hero Ilya Muromets is often found.

The plot is well-known in which Ilya Murometsfinds a real heroic bed almost in the open field, under an oak tree. It is 10 fathoms long and 6 meters wide. The tired Russian epic hero falls asleep on it for three whole days.

In this epic Svyatogor and Ilya of Murom meeton the third day, when Ilya wakes a horse. From the north side there is a noise, which alarmed the animal. It is the horse who advises the hero to hide behind an oak tree.

The appearance of Svyatogor

At that moment Svyatogor appears. He sits on a horse, and in his hands holds a crystal chest. In it, his beautiful wife. Svyatogor himself lies down to rest on the bogatyrskoy bed. While he is sleeping, his wife notices Ilya of Murom. She seduces him into love and puts him in the pocket of the giant's husband, so that he quietly continues his journey with them.

In this epic Svyatogor and Ilya go tofurther travel, and one of them does not suspect the existence of another. With Svyatogor his horse begins to talk, which complains that it is very hard for him, because until now he was carrying only one hero with his wife, and now two heroes. This manages to uncover the insidious plan of Svyatogor's wife.

The giant giant quickly finds Ilyayourself in your pocket. He carefully and in detail asks how he got there. Having learned about the unfaithfulness of his wife, Svyatogor, not at all regretting, kills her. He joins the brotherhood with Ilya. Together they continue their journey.

Stone at the Crossroads

Near the North Mountain heroes meet the famousstone at the crossroads, which later was repeatedly met in other heroic byliny. It says that in the coffin as a result will be only one who is destined to lie there.

The heroes begin to try on a stone coffin. For Ilya, it turns out to be great, but Svyatogor is placed just. As soon as Svyatogor falls into it, the lid immediately closes behind him. Raise it, he is no longer able to, can not get out and ends his life in this coffin. Passing part of his mighty strength, as well as his sword to Ilya Murometsu, he asks Ilya to cut the hated coffin. But all is vain. With each blow, the coffin is only covered with a powerful iron hoop.

Wedding of Svyatogor

Another popular story of the epic of Svyatogor is his marriage. In this epic Svyatogor and Mikula talk about how to know the future, their future destiny.

Mikula gives the hero a good advice - to go to the North Mountains. They are also called Siversky. There, according to him, there lives a prophetic blacksmith who can give answers to all these questions.

Svyatogor comes to the blacksmith who ispredicts that soon he will be married. His bride will be from a distant seaside kingdom. Svyatogor goes there and looks for the sick Pomerka Film, as the blacksmith foretold, she lies on the gnoeishche (so in ancient Russia called dung). Svyatogor puts about 500 rubles around her, beats her in the chest with a sword and leaves.

From all that is happening, the girl wakes up andcomes to the senses. At the pestilence she lay for 30 years, so her awakening is given with difficulty. During this time, her whole body was covered with an ugly bark. But as soon as she leaves, it turns out that underneath it there was a written beauty. Rumors of the beauty of a beautiful stranger reach the very Svyatogor. He immediately returns to this overseas kingdom and takes her as his wife.

Only after the wedding Svyatogor discovers thaton the breast of his young wife has a scar. He learns the trace from his sword and realizes that it is this woman who was predestined by him foretelling.

Traditions about Svyatogor

In the analysis of the ancient Russian epic much attention is paid to the analysis of the traditions dedicated to Svyatogor. Their detailed study leads the researchers to three fundamental conclusions.

First, they highlight the motive for raising sums. This plot is very common not only in Russian legends, but also in other peoples in legends about the heroes and giants. For example, about Volga, Anika, Samson, Kolyvan. So, in Yugoslavian ancient poetry, the analogue of Svyatogor is the King's son, Marko. In the Caucasus, this situation happens to the people's hero Soslan.

Suma corresponds to a stone in other legends,for example, in epics about the flow. This, in turn, coincides with the history of the life of the exploits of Alexander of Macedon. About how the inhabitants of the paradise capital give him as a tribute for one stone. However, it turns out that this stone can not be weighed, nor measured in any way.

In symbolic interpretation, this sum corresponds to human envy. A similar legend occurs in the ancient Scandinavian peoples - in an episode about the dispute between Tor and the giant.

A cheating wife

Secondly, the researchers of the Old Russian epicdetail the situation with the marriage of Svyatogor and his unfaithful wife. Parallel motives they see in Persian authors in a book called "Tuti-nama". This is a well-known collection of short stories of humorous, didactic and even erotic content, which was extremely popular in ancient India.

Often episodes with a wedding and a married coupleinfidelity, similar to the history of Svyatogor, can be read in Buddhist tales. Many authoritative researchers tend to believe that this episode is of Eastern origin.

The episode of the marriage of the hero Svyatogor is considered by most literary critics and historians to folk tales, which were based at that time on popular medieval tales.

This is especially noticeable if we analyze these storieson the part. So, the trip to the sorcerer-smith on the north reminds an episode from the epic "Kalevala". The wife, who for a long time lies on the sapwood, is also found in the old Russian story, in which Tsarevich Firgis is the protagonist.

At the moment it was possible to collect a lot ofparallels, in order to examine in detail the personality of Svyatogor, but still there is a lot of vague and incomprehensible in it. For example, it was unsuccessful to find the absolute prototype of the strong man Svyatogor. There are only a few hypotheses. For example, they could be Saint Christopher, with whom Svyatogor compares Wilhelm Wollner.

Folklorist Ivan Zhdanov believes that the real prototype of Svyatogor was the biblical strongman Samson. Literary critic Alexei Veselovsky puts forward a similar version.

But the historian of Russian literature, Mikhail Khalanskynotes the similarity of the stories about Svyatogor with Russian folk epics. Most likely, his name is an epithet, which comes from the names of places in which he lived, - Holy Mountains.

Magic power

His opinion on this issue expounds andthe famous researcher of Russian fairy tales and folklore Vladimir Propp. He believes that Svyatogor personifies a primitive force that can not be applied in ordinary ordinary life.

That is why it is doomed to failure and subsequent death.

Coming from Chernigov

There is also a version that the epics about Svyatogor and Mikula Selyaninovich, like other epic stories about this hero, originally formed in Chernigov.

The fact is that in one of the epics Svyatogorappears as a hero who defends the Chernigov prince named Oleg Svyatoslavovich. On this basis archaeologist Boris Rybakov proposes the version that the epic was originally formed precisely in the surroundings of the prince of Chernigov. And this means that it could reflect much earlier legends, for example, the epic of the beginning of the tenth century.