Brief description of the Russian heroic epic. Russian heroic epic

In the southern regions - in the Volga region and on the Don - they found themselves in a greatly altered and dilapidated state. Meanwhile, it should be assumed that the bulk of the stories were created within the Kyiv state, that is, in the places that are depicted in them. But on the territory

In Ukraine, epics have not been found. There are no Ukrainianisms in their language either. The source of each heroic song was some historical fact. In the epic, as in the folk tale, there is a lot of fiction. Bogatyrs are people of extraordinary strength, they gallop on mighty horses through rivers and forests, and lift weights on their shoulders that no man can bear. For example, this is how the hero is described

Syatogor in the epic “Svyatogor - the hero”, stated by L. N. Tolstoy:

...Did Svyatogor go for a walk in an open field,

He didn’t woo anyone, Svyatogor,

Who would you like to compare your heroic strength with?

And he senses great strength in himself,

He smells it - it spreads like a living thing through his veins...

This is how N.M. Karamzin describes the hero Ilya Muromets:

...He is like tender myrtle:

Subtle, straight and dignified.

His gaze is faster than an eagle's,

And the month is brighter than clear.

Who is this knight? - Ilya Muromets.

The epic is an old song, and not everything in it is clear; it is told in a leisurely, solemn tone. Many Russian epics talk about the heroic deeds of the people's heroes. For example, epics about Volga Buslaevich, the conqueror of Tsar Saltan Beketovich; about the hero Sukhman, who defeated his enemies - nomads; about Dobrynya Nikitich. Russian heroes never lie. Ready to die, but not leave their native land, they consider service to the fatherland their first and holy duty, although they are often offended by princes who do not trust them. The epics told to children teach them to respect human labor and love their homeland. They united the genius of the people.

However, epics do not always tell about heroes. A very interesting epic is “About Avdotya Ryazanochka,” who was not afraid of the Khan of the Golden Horde himself and rescued from captivity not only her relatives - her husband, son and brother, but the entire city of Ryazan.

The heroes did not liken their loved ones to either Venuses or Dianas, whom they had never seen. They drew comparisons from the nature of the things they saw.

For example, when they wanted to praise the one they liked, they said that she had:

Falcon eyes,

Sable eyebrows

Peacock gait;

Walking through the yard

Like a swan swims.

“The Song of the Prophetic Oleg”, “Songs of Stepan Razin” can be placed today on a par with “The Captain’s Daughter”, “The History of Pugachev” and other historical works. They are also of great artistic value. This is an expression of the historical self-knowledge of the people.

The Russian people realized their historical significance in their historical songs. The preservation of what is historically valuable in the epic (be it names, events, relationships) is the result of the conscious, historical attitude of the people to the content of the epic. The people in their creativity proceed from fairly clear historical ideas about time. Awareness of the historical value of what is being transmitted and the peculiar ideas of the people, and not just mechanical memorization, determine the stability of the historical content of the songs.

Although epics are huge in volume and children will not be able to immediately master this capacious material, this genre is still important for the development of children.

A special kind of epic songs, called epics, are one of the most valuable parts of the Russian song heritage that has come down to us from the distant past. These songs about military exploits and various exploits and adventures of heroes and other heroes reflect the historical reality of early feudal times in heroic-fantastic narratives.
When applied to this kind of songs, the term “epic” has been strengthened in science since the middle of the 19th century, replacing earlier names - “heroic tales”, “poems” or “epic songs”. In the everyday life of the peasantry in the 18th-19th centuries. The term “old times”, “starinka” was common, but the designation of these songs with the words “bylina”, “bylina”, “byl” was also known.
The historical and social content of epics attracted the attention of scientists from the very beginning of the development of Russian folklore and generated extensive scientific literature not only in Russia, but also in the West. This part of the Russian epic invariably delighted all connoisseurs of folk literature with its rich content, high ideological content, and poetic merits. As an artistic expression of national self-consciousness, as a depiction of the political and social life of the Russian people in the distant past, epics were rightly placed on a par with the greatest epic creations of other peoples - with the Iliad and Odyssey, with the Song of Roland, with the Scandinavian sagas , runes of “Kalevala”, etc. Writers, artists, composers constantly turned to epics as a rich creative source - N. A. Rimsky-"Korsakov, M. P. Mussorgsky, A. S. Arensky, A. T. Grechaninov, and in our time D. D. Shostakovich, N. I. Peiko, G. G. Galynin and others.

Despite the large research literature on epics, many of the questions raised in it have not found their final solution. This primarily relates to questions of genesis - the time of formation of the epic epic, the origin of its individual plots, the nature of its connections with historical reality, as well as the genre composition of the epic epic.
A careful study of the content of the epics led to the indisputable conclusion that their main core should have been formed during the period of a long and intense struggle that the Russian people had to wage at the dawn of their history with foreign conquerors who encroached on the freedom, integrity and independence of the young Russian state.
Many epics contain impressions of certain historical events and persons. Undoubted echoes of the very first meetings with the Tatars (the battle of Kalka in 1225, the Tatar invasions of Kiev in 1239-1240, etc.) are heard in the epics about Kalina the Tsar, Batyga, Idolishche - the leaders of foreign armies. Some names go back to history. Thus, the name Batygi undoubtedly repeats the name of Khan Batu; the name of Tugarin Zmeevich, with whom the hero Alyosha Popovich fights, obviously goes back to the name of the Polovtsian khan Tugorkan, who repeatedly attacked Kievan Rus; Changed names of other Polovtsian khans are also found in the epics - Konchak, Sharukan, Sugri (in the epics Konshik, Kudrevan and Shark the Giant, Skurla), etc. In the image of the epic Prince Vladimir, with whose name most of the events depicted in the epics are associated, they were undoubtedly refracted memories of the outstanding Kiev prince of the late 10th century, Vladimir Svyatoslavovich, and sometimes - this is not excluded - and memories of Vladimir Monomakh, the Kiev prince of the 12th century. The names of some epic heroes may also be associated with historical figures. The name of Dobrynya Nikitich, sometimes represented in epics as the nephew of Prince Vladimir, could have been inspired by memories of Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich’s closest associate - his uncle Dobrynya, and the image of Alyosha Popovich reflected memories of the Rostov “brave” (i.e., daredevil warrior) of the 13th century . Alexander Popovich, who is mentioned more than once in chronicle notes. In epics we often encounter various historical phenomena of the social, material and spiritual life of Russian society of the era of early feudalism captured in them.

All this gave rise to attempts to connect individual epic plots with specific historical events of feudal times1. According to the concept of a number of scientists, the epics that have reached us already mark a departure from the original, clearer connection with the specific historical reality that caused them, a departure due to the centuries-old existence of songs in the oral tradition. However, careful penetration into the very nature of social phenomena and images reflected in epics, as well as the study of similar creations of other peoples, led to a different understanding of the relationship of the Russian epic to the historical reality depicted in it. The historicism of epics was recognized as completely special, different from historical songs. These latter are always based on specific historical material, while epics reflect historical reality in broad artistic generalizations, collecting and combining impressions from many events characteristic of an entire era, a certain historical period, thus creating their general picture, not amenable to precise, specific chronologization.
Also, the images of characters, whose names, perhaps, are inspired by the names of certain figures, do not go back to the latter as their prototypes, but depict typical manifestations of various human properties, ideas about which are drawn from the historical experience of the people. The position that the historicism of epics does not consist in the reproduction of individual specific events, but in the expression of popular ideals determined by a certain historical era, formed the basis of V. Ya. Propp’s major work “Russian Heroic Epic”. In the studies of B. N. Putilov we also find the position that “an epic is an artistic generalization (in certain forms) of the historical experience of the people of an entire era. In this generalization, the “historical ideals of the people” are in the foreground.”

The study of the features of the political and social situation, customs, ideas and historical realities reflected in the epics made it possible to clarify the time of formation of the epic, attributing it to the period of early feudalism (approximately the 10th-16th centuries).
In addition to impressions from historical reality itself, the sources of some epics were the so-called international stories, known in a number of countries. The presence of such stories in world folklore is due either to the similar historical destinies of peoples or to cultural ties. Various types of plots - heroic, everyday, fairy tales - were used to create song narratives about the same characters about whom epics had already been composed, inspired by impressions of historical events. Thus, (for example, the international story about a meeting in battle between father and son who did not know each other formed the basis of the epic “Ilya Muromets and Son”, and “the story of a husband who came to his wife’s wedding - the basis of the epic about the failed marriage of Alyosha Popovich on the wife of Dobrynya Nikitich. International in the Russian epic are also such plot situations as the hero’s struggle with monsters (for example, a snake), the hero’s travels with matchmaking far beyond the borders of his native places. These plot situations are characteristic of the epic creativity of the primitive communal system and, obviously, inherited by the Russian epic of the Kiev period from the folk art of the pre-state era.

Individual mythological ideas are also found in the epic epic. This was used by scientists of the so-called “mythological school”, who mistakenly interpreted a number of epic images as later processing of mythological images. In fact, in the epic epic we are dealing only with individual stable survival phenomena.
Thus, the composition of the epic epic is complex and diverse in its content and origin. This was predetermined not only by the difference and diversity of sources, but also by the long time of formation and subsequent everyday life of epics.
Individual songs that have survived in the records of the 17th century and represent a completely established form of storytelling, known to us from later records, suggest that the genre of epics was already defined in the early Middle Ages1. The composition of the epic is heterogeneous in terms of historical content. It is possible to note both earlier and later subjects; In the course of their existence, epics absorbed the impressions of the people from later historical military and social events, from the entire historical situation of modern times. In addition, it is clear that the content of the epic was influenced by local conditions.

The differences in plots and poetic images force researchers to identify several groups within the epic epic. The most numerous and diverse is the heroic one, which forms the main core of the epic. The epics of this group are devoted to the theme of protecting the homeland and civilians. Some of them tell about the rescue of the capital city of Kyiv by heroes from an enemy invasion. These are epics about the attack on Rus' by Kalin, Batygi, Kudrevanka-Skurla, Mamai, or simply the “unfaithful king” and the “infidel hordes.” The winning heroes here are Ilya Muromets, sometimes together with Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich or with a troupe of other heroes (led by Samson - the “godfather” of Ilya Muromets; Vasily Ignatievich, young heroes Ermak and Mikhail Danilovich, Sukhman. “Each separate plot on the theme of the repelled enemy invasion is marked by peculiar features.At the same time, there is a similarity in the development of the theme of these epics, some commonality in construction, which arose, obviously, as a result of a broad artistic generalization, typification of the facts of historical reality.
Another group of heroic epics develops the theme of the liberation of the capital city of Kyiv from the foreign rapists who captured it. These are the epics about Ilya Muromets and Idolishche, about the victory of Alyosha Popovich over Tugarshyum Zmeevich.

Close in theme to these stories are the epics about the fight between Dobry and Nikitich with the snake, which use historical events from the period of the struggle of the Russian people with nomads, as well as ancient fairy-tale-heroic stories about the struggle of heroes with monsters.

The main heroic cycle also includes stories about the single combat of a Russian hero, most often Ilya Muromets, with a foreign “prayer.” In some of them, the defeated enemy turns out to be the son of Ilya Muromets - an ancient international motive for the meeting of a father with an unknown and unrecognized son in battle.
Epics about Dobrynya Nikitich and Vasily Kazimirovna, telling about the liberation of the Kiev prince from the “tribute-duties” paid to the Tatars, epics about meetings in a combat situation with close relatives who were once taken captive (epics about Kozarin and the princes from Kryakov) also reflect the theme of the fight against foreign invaders.
In most of these tales, the enemies with whom the Russian heroes are fighting are called Tatars, although some of the plots apparently developed earlier and reflected impressions of the clashes of the Russian people with the Pechenegs and Polovtsians.
The idea of defending the homeland is also embodied by stories about the princely campaigns of Volga-Volkh against the Indian (or Turkish) kingdom, Gleb Volodyevich against Korsun and Prince Roman against the Liviks (or Lithuanian princes), undertaken by them in order to prevent the planned raid on Russia (the first of these stories ) or for reprisals for the complete destruction of Russian possessions and for the liberation of captured Russian ships and Russian people (two other plots).
In addition to the fight against the external enemy, the heroic cycle reflects the fight against anarchist elements within the country - with robbers (epic stories about Nightingale the Robber and about the meeting and reprisal of Ilya Muromets with the robbers of the village). They are also based on impressions of living historical reality.

In all the mentioned epics of the heroic cycle, memories of the extreme intensity of the military struggle, the enormous number and strength of the enemies, and the difficulty of victory were refracted. And if in the generalized images of epics it is difficult, and often completely impossible, to establish certain traces of individual historical events, then the general nature of the struggle of the Russian people with the enemies of the homeland and the civilian population, the entire military situation of the Russian early Middle Ages are reproduced historically truthfully. With exceptional skill and strength, the national self-awareness that has grown stronger in the struggle is vividly embodied: the struggle is intense and difficult, but the Russian people invariably win. The images of heroic heroes embody the people's ideals of true valor. The patriotic idea of defending the fatherland contains the main pathos of the heroic epic. Another trend is also very noticeable - a reflection of the social mood of the people. The noble image of the hero is often particularly highlighted by the fact that the epic includes the motif of the conflict between the hero and the prince and his boyars. The hero, offended by the unfair treatment towards him, leaves Kyiv, and the prince finds himself helpless before the enemy. But in the face of impending danger, the hero forgets all grievances and remains faithful to his duty. These are many epics about Ilya Muromets and Kalina, about Vasily Ignatievich and Batyga. Social motives were also fed by historical reality, generalizing the real facts of popular disturbances that took place already in the early feudal period. This tendency of the epic, which appeared already at the initial stage of its formation, becomes even more acute due to the further growth of class contradictions.
In addition to the theme of military exploits, the theme of heroic labor occupies a special place in the Russian epic. It is revealed in individual epics, along with the main story about the military activity of the hero: in the epics about Ilya Muromets, in the episode of his use of force on hard peasant work - clearing forest land for arable land, as well as in the story about the road he laid through impassable forests and swamps. The wonderful epic about Mikul Selyaninovich is entirely dedicated to the glorification of peasant labor. It created a monumental image of a peasant hero, artistically summarizing the power of the people, generated by the pond and manifested in labor.
Standing apart, outside of these groups, are the epics about Svyatogor, in the center of which is the image of a hero of enormous, monstrous strength. The strength of Svzhtogor is such that the earth can barely support him. He never takes part in the fight against foreign enemies, and does not perform any feats in the name of his homeland. His strength remains useless and ultimately destroys the hero himself (the epic “Svyatogor and the Earth’s Thrust”). The origin of this image is unclear.
Existing concepts are contradictory.

There are numerous and varied epics of other groups: social and everyday, novelistic and magical fairy tales. They depict various incidents in the family and personal life of heroes, as well as social relations in large ancient Russian cities, rivalries, competitions in strength, dexterity or wealth among representatives of different social strata.
Many of the mentioned epics (like most epics with military themes) are included in the “Kiev”, “Vladimirov cycle”. The same heroes act in them - Ilya Muromets (epics about his three trips), Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich (epics about Dobrynya’s marriage, his departure and Alyosha Popovich’s attempt to take possession of his wife). Other epics introduce new heroes unknown to the military cycle. They feature Duke Stepanovich, Churila Plenkovich, Stavr Godinovich, Ivan the Guest Son, Danube Ivanovich, Ivan Godinovich, Potok (or Potyk), Danila Lovchanin. Some of these epics have something in common with military epics, both in individual episodes of the plot and in their ideological orientation: epics about procuring brides in foreign lands for Prince Vladimir and for himself (about the Danube, about Potyk, about Ivan Godinovich); epics about the rivalry and competition of the hero with Prince Vladimir (about Duke, about Ivan the guest's son, about Stavr). In some of them, social motives that were already palpable in military epics are strengthened (for example, about the arbitrariness of Churila, which is condoned by Prince Zladimir, and about Danil Lovchanin).

The epics, which reflect the life, customs and social relations of old Novgorod, are sharply separated from the epics of military themes - in their general character, in the names and images of the heroes, as well as in the plot content - in which the life, customs and social relations of old Novgorod are reflected. Such are the stories about Vasily Buslaev and Sadko. They do not express those two main tendencies that characterize the Kiev cycle as a whole, despite all the plot diversity: there is no theme of the fight against foreign invaders and robbers, there is no opposition between the folk hero-hero, the valiant defender of the homeland, the insignificant helpless prince and the boyars - traitors and intriguers. The ideological meaning of epics about Sadko and Vasily
Buslaev - in depicting the opportunities that open up to a person thanks to his personal qualities - talent, courage, strength.

The poetic features of epics are determined by their ideological and artistic purposefulness, their heroic specificity. They were supposed to captivate listeners with images of the physical strength, courage and prowess of heroes performing various feats and fighting the enemies of their homeland and people. Hence the general elevated and majestic structure of the epics.
The general character of epics as works glorifying heroes is associated with the peculiarities of their construction. In the center there is usually one person, whose actions, fate and qualities the story is dedicated to. In most cases, the epic immediately begins the story, starting with the immediate beginning of the action. The plot line is clearly defined, the story is clear, simple and at the same time great tension. Most often, the story is told about one event (repelling an enemy invasion, victory over a foreign hero, competition, etc.). If several events are spoken about, then they follow in chronological sequence and are united by the figure of the hero. Such, for example, is the epic about the marriage of Prince Vladimir (“Danube”). In it, the events associated with the Danube procuring a bride for the prince are followed by a story about the hero procuring a bride for himself. When the epic becomes more complex, the introduced side episodes are always organically connected with the main idea and are also arranged in chronological order. A classic example is the epic about Nightingale the Robber. In it, before his main, main feat, Ilya Muromets performs a number of others, and this enhances the overall impression of the hero’s power and courage.
The action of the epic always unfolds in a forward direction. Even where it is given in two plans, the transition from one narrative line to another is usually associated with forward movement. The epic is full of action and has almost no static descriptions. Well-known, for example, descriptions of a hero’s equipment for traveling or his combat with an enemy consist of a list of the hero’s sequential actions, each time introducing some new important detail.

There are no descriptions of the characters in epics. The characters' characters are revealed in their actions. For a more vivid depiction of the heroic appearance of the hero, some special motives and episodes are introduced - underestimation of the hero by those around him or by the enemy himself, preliminary deliberate belittlement of the hero’s significance, an episode of temporary defeat due to some accident or oversight of himself. The hero's patriotism is especially highlighted due to the inclusion in the epic of an episode of conflict with the prince (despite the insult inflicted on the hero, he remains faithful to the duty of the defender of the Motherland).
Some features of the composition are associated with the awareness of epics as works that reflect the historical past, what really happened. In epics, specific geographical indications are usually given (from where and where the hero is traveling or where the action takes place), the time to which the action is timed (most often this is a conventional epic time - the reign of Vladimir). Epics often close with special endings that affirm the significance of the content of the work. With these features, the epic is opposed to fairy tales with their beginnings, marked by deliberate geographical and historical uncertainty (“Once upon a time,” “In a certain kingdom, in a certain state,” etc.) and usually humorous endings, emphasizing the fictionality of the “fairy tale.” .

The artistic language of epics, theirs. style and images are also determined by the content of the epic, its ideological orientation. The specificity of the epic style - the style of heroic song - is hyperbole. Everything in the epics is depicted in exaggerated sizes: the strength of the hero himself, his weapons, the properties of his horse. Hyperbolism in the depiction of the hero has its source in the people’s feeling of their strength, the artistic generalization of which was the image of the hero. At the same time, his heroic power is combined with high moral qualities. This is the image of the main hero of the Russian epic, Ilya Muromets, who embodied the ideal combination of physical power and spiritual greatness. The enemy is also depicted with hyperbolic features, but his image is of a grotesque nature (monstrously terrible appearance, disgusting greed, etc.) and is accompanied by magnifying and contemptuous (names and comparisons (idol, Tatar; his hands are “rakes”, his head is “beer cauldron”), while the hero-hero is given diminutive names that have an affectionate meaning (Ileyushka, Ileiko, Dobrynyushka, Alyoshenka).
Techniques of hyperbolization reinforce the idea of the difficulty of the fight (the countless forces of the enemy army, the duration of the battle, etc.). Short story epics also use hyperbole to depict beauty, wealth, and resourcefulness.
Of the other artistic means that characterize the epic style, a particularly important role is played by the so-called permanent epithets, which highlight not temporary features associated with a certain moment, but “ideal” ones, that is, those assumed to be the most typical. Their widespread use in epic is due to the tendency towards a generalized image and serves the purpose of typification. In this regard, there are cases of illogical use of constant epithets (“filthy Tatar” and “dog Kalin-Tsar” in the speeches of the Tatars themselves). The same tendency towards generalization is associated with “commonplaces” - established standard formulas for certain episodes (for example, formulas for a feast, saddling a horse, a hero’s race, battles with the enemy), as well as the constancy of some comparisons and parallelisms. Among the artistic means of the epic style, various types of repetitions are also distinguished, enhancing the meaning of both individual words and entire verses.
Epic verse is free tonic, that is, based on a special distribution of stress, but does not fit into the framework of the metric forms of literary foot meters. Rhyme in epics is most often imprecise, usually arising on the basis of rhythmic-syntactic and morphological parallelism.

The earliest records of epics date back to the 17th-18th centuries. These are, firstly, records found in ancient handwritten literature in separate slips and in different collections. These entries were apparently made for the purpose of entertaining reading: in collections they were usually placed on a par with stories, fairy tales, descriptions of travel, etc. and themselves bore the names of “tales”, “tales”, “histories” or “histories”. Some of them were undoubtedly records of oral epics, although transmitted in the form of prose works. Others are retellings of epic stories, preserving their general composition and, to some extent, the phrasing and rhythmic structure of the epics. Finally, there are also texts with traces of obvious literary processing. As they were discovered, these records were published and subjected to research. Currently, all 45 found texts are combined in one collection, “Epics in Records and Retellings of the 17th and 18th Centuries.”
Most of these texts are copies of unknown and probably older manuscripts. Thus, they provide important material for the study of the epic epic of at least the 16th-17th centuries, i.e., the time when its creative and productive period ended and the epic as a genre was finally formed.

By the 18th century These include the first printed texts of epics and their fragments in various songbooks (for example, M. D. Chulkova, N. I. Novikova, I. I. Dmitriev). XVIII century marked “also by experiments in the use of epics in fiction, which indicates a fairly significant acquaintance of Russian society in the 18th century. with the epic epic and about interest in it. Finally, by the 18th century. The first large collection of epics, compiled in Western Siberia and known as the “Collection of Kirsha Danilov,” also applies.
The significance of this collection in the history of collecting and studying the epic is extremely great. With him, a large number - namely twenty-six - epic stories immediately came into scientific circulation. Moreover, the texts included in the collection undoubtedly reproduce a living oral tradition, while from individual entries in the above-mentioned handwritten collections and lists only in relation to a few can one assume accuracy of transmission in the form in which they existed. The most important part of Kirsha Danilov's collection was the musical lines of chants that precede each of the texts included in it.

In the extensive literature on the Collection, not all questions raised are completely resolved. The question of the place where the Collection was compiled has been covered differently; it has not been established what caused its compilation, who was its compiler and collector of the material. The most convincing assumptions are that the birthplace of the Collection was Western Siberia, Trans-Urals; that the time of its creation is the 40-60s; that the compiler was a certain Kirsha Danilov, whose name, according to the editor of the first (abridged) edition - A.F. Yakubovich - was on the initial page of the manuscript, which was subsequently lost; that Kirsha Danilov was, perhaps, one of the participants in the singing group of buffoons, that this group was the bearer of a certain repertoire. In recent years, new materials have been discovered concerning the origin of the manuscript of the Collection, stored in the GPB3 archive.
An important stage in the history of collecting epics was the years between 1830 and 1860. By this time, extensive collecting work on folklore began, headed by P. V. Kireevsky. Many major writers and public figures took part in it, including A. S. Pushkin, the Yazykov brothers, V. I. Dal, P. I. Yakushkin, M. P. Pogodin and others, who conveyed their records and recordings of their correspondents. During these same years, separate texts of epics began to appear in various periodicals - records of other collectors.

The publication of the collected materials planned by Kireyevsky was not carried out during the lifetime of the organizer of this case due to the complexity of the enterprise itself and censorship conditions. Kireyevsky managed to publish only some of the spiritual poems and a few epics. The rest of the epics collected by him and his correspondents were included in the first five volumes of the ten-volume edition “Songs collected by P. V. Kireevsky,” published in the early 60s of the last century under the editorship of P. A. Bessonov. The latter, apparently, sought in these five volumes to collect everything that had already been recorded in the field of epic epic, and included in them not only records from the Kireevsky collection, but also publications from songbooks of the 18th-19th centuries, periodicals of the first half of the 19th century century, as well as from the Collection of Kirsha Danilov.
The significance of these volumes for the history of epics lies mainly in the wide geographical coverage of the places of recording: the publication represents Siberia, the Urals, the Volga region, and some regions of central and northern Russia. For certain localities (for example, Central Russian), the records of Kireevsky’s collection were the first evidence of the presence of epic traditions in them.
But like previous publications of epics (with the exception of the Collection of Kirsha Danilov), “Songs collected by P.V. Kireevsky” introduced Russian society only to the texts of epics, leaving aside their musical embodiment. An exception is the publication by M. Stakhovich of the epic tune about Dobrynya Nikitich.
In the same 60s of the 19th century, when the first five volumes of “Songs collected by P. V. Kireevsky” were published, P. N. Rybnikov, exiled to Petrozavodsk, discovered exceptionally rich sources of the apos in the Olonets region, in the Onega region. Collection of P. N. Rybnikov, published simultaneously with the “Songs” of P. V. Kireevsky, significantly surpassed this last edition in the number of texts: it contained 165 epics proper.Among them were not only many variants of already known plots, often representing more perfect examples of them, but also a whole series of new subjects, not yet known.Thus, the publication of P. N. Rybnikov’s collection was a huge event.

It is also important to note that the collecting work of P. N. Rybnikov expressed a fundamentally new approach to folklore, which developed under the influence of revolutionary democrats. The very telling of epics was perceived by Rybnikov as a creative act of reproducing folk art that had developed in the past. In the “Collector's Note”, attached to the third volume of the edition, he gave wonderful characteristics of the performers, imbued with deep interest and respect for the people, shared his observations on how the individual traits of the storytellers were reflected in the storytelling itself, spoke about the living existence of epics, in particular about singing them.
Rybnikov intended to publish the collected materials, arranging them by regions of existence, and within the regions - by performers. This arrangement of material was supposed to reveal the uniqueness of the life of the epic among the people and the peculiarities of the artistic skill of individual storytellers. But the editor of the publication, P. A. Bessonov, arranged the material according to plot, as in the “Songs” of P. V. Kireevsky, and just as in this publication, he cluttered up the “Songs collected by P. N Rybnikov” with his comments, which do not have "of scientific significance. A. E. Gruzinsky tried to implement P. N. Rybnikov’s idea in the second edition2, but since he was not yet aware of the collector’s archive, many errors and inaccuracies crept into the publication3. Neither one nor the other edition has yet found places recorded at the request of Rybnikov, two epic tunes.

The work of collecting epics in the Onega region was continued 10 years later by A.F. Hilferding. This trip of the Slavic scholar in the summer of 1871 was preceded by his trip in the late 1850s. on the South Slavic countries, connected with his works on the history and ethnography of the Slavs. Interested in the results of P. N. Rybnikov’s work, he wanted, in his own words, “to listen to at least one of those wonderful rhapsodes that P. N. Rybnikov found here.” He managed to listen to 70 storytellers within 48 days and record 322 texts of epic works from them.
The significance of A. F. Hilferding’s work is extremely great. He identified a number of previously unknown performers of epics, recorded new versions of already known plots, and made repeated recordings from storytellers taken into account by P. N. Rybnikov. Preparing the material for publication, he distributed it according to localities and performers, prefacing the texts with notes about each storyteller. In the article “Olonets province and its folk rhapsodes,” he reported many observations on the life of the epic in the North, noting some characteristic moments of its existence, and put forward new problems for science in the study of epic poetry.
The recording method of A.F. Hilferding itself represents a new significant step forward and a new achievement in the field of collecting epics. He consistently followed the principle of recording from singing and thus transmitted the epic texts in the form in which they existed, which was not always possible for P. N. Rybnikov, although the latter sought to check the text recorded from the words “by singing.” The collection contains two samples of epic tunes, one of which (the tune of the epic “Volta and Mikula” by T. G. Ryabinin) was apparently recorded in St. Petersburg by M. P. Mussorgsky. The material collected by A.F. Hilferding was published in 1873 in one volume and then reprinted several times in three volumes (4th edition in 1949-1951).
After the work of P. N. Rybnikov and A. F. Gilferding, the Onega region becomes a place where folklorists constantly flock to study the existing epic tradition and record epics5. At the same time, in the middle, in the second half of the 19th century. and in the 900s, epics began to be collected in other places in Russia - in different parts of Siberia, in the Russian North and in southern Cossack settlements. New areas that still preserve epic traditions come to the attention of scientists; increasingly, melodies are also recorded along with the texts of epics.

Of the largest facts of collecting epics in these years, we note the records in Altai of the Barnaul local historian S.I. Gulyaev, A.V. Markov on the Zimny and Tersky shores of the White Sea, A.D. Grigoriev in Pomorie, on Pinega, Kuloy and Mezen, N E. Onchukova on Pechora, A. M. Listopadov on the Don.
The recordings of S.I. Gulyaev, which he produced over a number of years (starting from the 40s and ending with the beginning of the 70s of the last century), were published in parts in different publications. In Soviet times, all these scattered recordings, along with those stored in the archives were collected into a single collection, published in 1939, then again in 1952. The records of S.I. Gulyaev discovered a large center of the epic tradition in Southern Siberia. The collections of A. V. Markov, A. D. Grigoriev and N. E. Onchukov introduced into scientific use abundant materials from areas lying to the north and northeast of the previously discovered northern centers of the epic epic1. Editions of their collections include, in addition to texts, observations on the state of the epic tradition in the surveyed places and on the peculiarities of living existence, and editions of the recordings of A. V. Markov and A. D. Grigoriev also include samples of chants. In this regard, the publication of recordings by A.D. Grigoriev, who was the first to use phonographic recording to record the melodies of epics, is especially rich. Samples of epic tunes are also presented in the collection of Don songs by A. M. Listopadov and S. Ya-Arefin. The records on the Don introduced a special type of southern versions of epics, widespread mainly among the Cossacks. In addition to these large collections of epics, there are smaller collections and individual records produced at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. in different places of the North, South and Siberia2.
During the Soviet era, new folklore expeditions were organized. But their goal was not so much to survey new areas as to repeat records in the same places. Scientists were faced with the task of tracing those changes and shifts that could have occurred over the decades separating our time from the initial period of collecting work. The study of these changes was supposed to help reveal the laws of development of the epic.

Of the largest enterprises that set these tasks, the expedition of 1926-1928 should be especially highlighted. State Academy of Art Sciences in Moscow (GAKhN), headed by the brothers Yu. and B. Sokolov. At the same time, similar work was carried out by A. M. Astakhova in a complex expedition of the Peasant Section of the State. Institute of Art History (GIIII) in 1926-1929. in Zaonezhye, on Pinega, Mezen and Pechora. Subsequently, the collection of epics and the study of the epic tradition in the North continued in 1931-1935. the folklore commission of the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences (later the Folk Art Sector of the Institute of Russian Literature of the USSR Academy of Sciences) together with the Karelian Scientific Research Institute of Culture. Repeated work was carried out in the 30s and 40s. and other institutions and individual collectors in different places of the North - on the Winter Coast of the White Sea, in the area of the city of Onega, on Pechora. The epic tradition was also examined in areas not affected by the previous collection. By the way, a number of recordings were made in different parts of Eastern Siberia and the Far East.
In post-war moves - in connection with the acute question of destinies; folklore in general - the interest of folklorists in thorough examinations of those areas where a living epic tradition has been preserved for a long time is increasing. In the 50-60s. again on Mezen, Pechora, on the shores of the White Sea, epics are sought and written down in the footsteps of not only the early collectors, but also the later ones. Systematic work was carried out during these years by the Department of Folklore of Moscow University in the Onega region and Kartopol region6. All this work of Soviet folklorists provided enormous material for studying the processes occurring in the epic epic, and for illuminating its fate in the later period of its existence.

The epic epic has reached our time in two main forms - firstly, in the form of a plot-based but detailed narrative with specific poetics and, secondly, in the form of short epic songs, or conveying the classical plot very lapidarily, with a number of details included in it development, or containing individual episodes and scenes from the life of heroes. * The first type of epic was evidently determined by the end of the productive period of the epic’s life, as evidenced by the material that has reached us from the 16th-17th centuries. This type, thus representing the original form, is preserved in records made in the North, in central Russia and in different regions of Siberia. The epic was brought to most of these places at different times by colonization flows coming from the ancient Rostov-Suzdal, Novgorod and Moscow lands, where the epic heritage of Kievan Rus was adopted and then continued to develop and be enriched with new stories.
The fate of this heritage was different depending on the time when the epics were brought to one place or another, and on the living conditions that were created locally. Some areas had a richer epic repertoire - not only in terms of the number of preserved ancient stories, but also in the variety of different versions, editions, and variants. In other places, the composition of the epic tradition turned out to be poorer, many ancient plots were missing, the genre itself was not sufficiently developed, and its existence had previously begun to decline.

The composition and main features of the style of epics of the first type are described in section 3 of our article.
The second type of epics, sharply different from the first, was discovered in the second half of the 19th century. in the south, in Cossack settlements on the Don, lower Volga, along the Ural River and in the Caucasus along the Terek. The songs of this type were initially perceived against the background of the all-Russian tradition as distorted remnants, “pathetic fragments” of old epics. Closer study of these songs in recent years has led to a reconsideration of their artistic quality. In the songs that preserved integral plots, unique artistic merits were revealed - a harmonious composition, the dynamism of a number of scenes, dramatic tension, which to some extent brings them closer to ballads, vivid images, expressive details. An analysis of songs containing only individual episodes and scenes from the life of heroes showed that they cannot be considered as excerpts of classical epics, but that these are special song plots depicting heroes in various circumstances, scenes rich in visual details and very consonant with the Cossack life and the Cossacks’ worldview . These works should not be confused with those fragments of classical epics that were recorded in places where epics of the first type existed and which were the result of the process of losing one or another epic from the memory of the people.
They are distinguished from epics of the first type not only by the special nature of the texts about epic heroes, but also by the different nature of their execution. For the most part, they were and are sung by a polyphonic choir, like historical songs, while epics of the first type were usually performed by one singer to special tunes of the declamatory style. But this will be discussed in more detail in the relevant musicological articles in our publication.

The peculiar features of the southern epics, both textual and musical, prompted A. M. Listopadov, a well-known collector and researcher of the Cossack epic tradition, to apply a special name to them (“epic songs.” The formation of this type of songs about heroes dates back, obviously, to the 16th century -XVII centuries and was caused by the historically established living conditions and activities of the Cossacks: their strong military organization, constant campaigns and movements in formation did not create a favorable environment for the cultivation of the ancient leisurely “telling” of a single storyteller and, on the other hand, contributed to the formation of choral, drill, marching heroic songs, similar to the historical and everyday Cossack songs. Basically, this process was completed by the 18th century, as evidenced by the presence of songs of this type among the ugly Cossacks who returned to their homeland in the 20th century, whose ancestors had been located since the 18th century, as is known, in voluntary exile in Turkey, where they took the epic tradition that had already developed by that time.

To what has been said about the territorial distribution of epics of the main types, it should be added that the epic repertoire of the Volga region and central Russia partly has a kind of “intermediate” character between the North and the South. Here you can also find some common epics in the classical form of an extended narrative and a fairly large number of works of the “epic songs” type. This is due to the nature of the settlement - at different times and by people from different places in Russia - the regions of interest to us.
Back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. collectors suggested that the living epic tradition would soon die out in the places where they recorded. This forecast, however, was not fully confirmed. Repeated examinations of the state of the epic tradition in the 20s and 30s. showed that if in some places the beginning of the process of extinction is really noticeable, i.e. the forgetting of individual plots, the impoverishment of the epic repertoire, the disappearance of the feeling of the epic style, the “proseization” and modernization of vocabulary and images, etc., then in others the epic still lived creative life. Collectors of the 20s - 30s. excellent performers, experts in the epic epic and many facts of living existence were identified. New records and observations of the 40s - 60s, already testifying to the undoubted process of extinction of the epic tradition, convincingly showed all its complexity and unevenness. The picture of the state of the epic epic in different places turned out to be different, depending on local conditions and the strength of the tradition in the past - from the complete cessation of the life of the epic to some manifestations of living existence and the presence (albeit in a small number) of good masters who remember and cultivate the epic. At present, the process of the extinction of the epic epic in living tradition is really close to its complete completion.
But even after its final disappearance from living traditions, the epic epic, being preserved in records and publications, will remain for centuries in the treasury of folk poetic culture as its enduring value.

The Russian heroic epic (epis) is a wonderful heritage of the past, evidence of the ancient culture and art of the people. It has been preserved in living oral history, perhaps in its original form of plot content and the main principles of form. The epic got its name from the word “byl”, which is close in meaning. This means that the epic tells about what once really happened, although not everything in the epic is true. The epics were written down from storytellers (often illiterate), who adopted them according to tradition from previous generations. Epics have been recorded only in Russia, mainly in the North and Siberia. In the southern regions - in the Volga region and on the Don - they found themselves in a greatly altered and dilapidated state. Meanwhile, it should be assumed that the bulk of the stories were created within the Kyiv state, that is, in the places that are depicted in them. But epics have not been found on the territory of Ukraine. There are no Ukrainianisms in their language either. The source of each heroic song was some historical fact. In the epic, as in the folk tale, there is a lot of fiction. Bogatyrs are people of extraordinary strength, they gallop on mighty horses through rivers and forests, and lift weights on their shoulders that no man can bear. For example, this is how the hero Syatogor is described in the epic “Svyatogor - the hero”, set out by L. N. Tolstoy:

...Did Svyatogor go for a walk in an open field,

He didn’t woo anyone, Svyatogor,

Who would you like to compare your heroic strength with?

And he senses great strength in himself,

He smells it and it spreads like life through his veins...

This is how N.M. Karamzin describes the hero Ilya Muromets:

...He is like tender myrtle:

Subtle, straight and dignified.

His gaze is faster than an eagle's,

And the month is brighter than clear.

Who is this knight? - Ilya Muromets.

The heroes did not liken their loved ones to either Venuses or Dianas, whom they had never seen. They drew comparisons from the nature of the things they saw. For example, when they wanted to praise the one they liked, they said that she had:

Falcon eyes,

Sable eyebrows

Peacock gait;

Walking through the yard

Like a swan swims.

Historical songs are a separate genre of folklore. Their artistic originality remains insufficiently studied. In pre-revolutionary science, they were often recognized as a degradation of the heroic epic, similar to epics, and in this regard, their advantage was considered to be the motifs, images and stylistic devices common to epics (as if residual phenomena).3 “Song about the prophetic Oleg”, “Songs about Stepan Razin” can be placed today on a par with “The Captain’s Daughter”, “The Story of Pugachev” and other historical works. They are also of great artistic value. This is an expression of the historical self-knowledge of the people. The Russian people realized their historical significance in their historical songs. The preservation of what is historically valuable in the epic (be it names, events, relationships) is the result of the conscious, historical attitude of the people to the content of the epic. The people in their creativity proceed from fairly clear historical ideas about time. Awareness of the historical value of what is being transmitted and the peculiar ideas of the people, and not just mechanical memorization, determine the stability of the historical content of the songs.

Although epics are huge in volume and children will not be able to immediately master this capacious material, this genre is still important for the development of children.

It is vain to think that this literature was only the fruit of popular leisure. She was the dignity and intelligence of the people. She formed and strengthened his moral character, was his historical memory, the festive clothes of his soul and filled with deep content his entire measured life, flowing according to the customs and rituals associated with his work, nature and the veneration of his fathers and grandfathers.

Folklore plays an important role in raising children. Dividing it into genres allows, at a certain age, a child to enrich his spiritual world, develop patriotism, respect for the past of his people, study of its traditions, and assimilation of moral standards of behavior in society.

Folklore develops a child’s oral speech, influences his spiritual development and his imagination. Each genre of children's folklore teaches certain moral standards. So, for example, a fairy tale, by likening animals to people, shows a child the norms of behavior in society, and fairy tales develop not only imagination, but also ingenuity. Proverbs and sayings teach children folk wisdom that has been tested for centuries and has not lost its relevance in our time. An epic epic is a heroic narrative about events that took place in ancient times. And although epics are not so easy for children to understand, they are still aimed at instilling respect for the past people, at studying the traditions and behavior of people during the existence of the Mongol-Tatar yoke, at the patriotism of the Russian people, who, despite everything, remained faithful to their homeland and defended her in every possible way. Song lyrics also have an impact on raising children. It is mainly used when the child is still very young. For example, lullabies are sung to a baby to calm him down and put him to sleep. Song lyrics also include ditties, jokes, pesters, tongue twisters, and counting rhymes. They are specifically aimed at developing hearing and speech in children, since they use a special combination of sounds.

Thus, the introduction of a child to folk culture begins in childhood, where basic concepts and examples of behavior are laid down. Cultural heritage is passed on from generation to generation, developing and enriching the child’s world. Folklore is a unique means for transmitting folk wisdom and educating children at the initial stage of their development.

Bogatyrs are the main characters of epics. They embody the ideal of a courageous person devoted to his homeland and people. The heroic hero fights alone against hordes of enemy forces.Among the epics, a group of the most ancient stands out. These are the so-called epics about “elder” heroes related to mythology. The heroes of these works are the personification of unknown forces of nature associated with mythology. Such are Svyatogor and Volkhv Vseslavevich, Danube and Mikhailo Potyk.In the second period of their history, the ancient heroes were replaced by heroes of modern times - Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich. These are the heroes of the so-called Kyiv cycle of epics. Under cyclization refers to the unification of epic images and plots around individual characters and places of action. This is how the Kiev cycle of epics, associated with the city of Kiev, developed.

Most epics depict the world of Kievan Rus. The heroes go to Kyiv to serve Prince Vladimir, and they protect him from enemy hordes. The content of these epics is predominantly heroic and military in nature.

Another major center of the ancient Russian state was Novgorod. Epics of the Novgorod cycle– everyday, novelistic. The heroes of these epics were merchants, princes, peasants, guslars (Sadko, Volga, Mikula, Vasily Buslaev, Blud Khotenovich).

The world depicted in epics is the entire Russian land. So, Ilya Muromets from the Bogatyrskaya outpost sees high mountains, green meadows, dark forests. The epic world is “bright” and “sunny”, but it is threatened by enemy forces: dark clouds, fog, thunderstorms are approaching, the sun and stars are dimming from countless enemy hordes. This is a world of opposition between good and evil, light and dark forces. In it, heroes fight against the manifestation of evil and violence. Without this struggle, the epic peace is impossible.

Monumental images of heroes and grandiose achievements are the fruit of artistic generalization, the embodiment in one person of the abilities and strength of a people or social group, an exaggeration of what actually exists, that is, hyperbolization and idealization. The poetic language of epics is solemnly melodious and rhythmically organized. His special artistic means - comparisons, metaphors, epithets - reproduce pictures and images that are epically sublime, grandiose, and when depicting enemies - terrible, ugly.

In epics, fabulous miracles are performed: the reincarnation of characters, the revival of the dead, werewolves. They contain mythological images of enemies and fantastic elements, but the fantasy of epics is different from that of fairy tales. It is based on folk historical ideas.

The famous folklorist of the 19th century A.F. Hilferding wrote:
“When a person doubts that a hero can carry a forty-pound club or kill an entire army on the spot, the epic poetry in him is killed. And many signs convinced me that the northern Russian peasant singing epics, and the vast majority of those who listen to him, certainly believe in the truth of the miracles that are depicted in the epic. The epic preserved historical memory and was perceived as history in the life of the people.”

There is a lot of fantasy and fiction in epics. But fiction is poetic truth. The epics reflected the historical conditions of life of the Slavic people: the aggressive campaigns of the Pechenegs and Polovtsians in Rus', the destruction of villages full of women and children, the plunder of wealth. Later, in the 13th–14th centuries, Rus' was under the yoke of the Mongol-Tatars, which is also reflected in epics. During the years of people's trials, they instilled love for their native land. It is no coincidence that the epic is a heroic folk song about the feat of the defenders of the Russian land.

However, epics depict not only the heroic deeds of heroes, enemy invasions, battles, but also everyday human life in its social and everyday manifestations and historical conditions.

The epics about Sadko and Vasily Buslaev include not just new original themes and plots, but also new epic images, new types of heroes who do not know other epic cycles. Novgorod heroes, unlike the heroes of the heroic cycle, do not perform feats of arms. This is explained by the fact that Novgorod escaped the Horde invasion; Batu’s hordes did not reach the city. However, the Novgorodians could not only rebel (V. Buslaev) and play the gusli (Sadko), but also fight and win brilliant victories over the conquerors from the West.Vasily Buslaev appears as the Novgorod hero. Two epics are dedicated to him. One of them talks about the political struggle in Novgorod, in which he takes part. Vaska Buslaev rebels against the townspeople, comes to feasts and starts quarrels with “rich merchants”, “men (men) of Novgorod”, enters into a duel with the “elder” Pilgrim - a representative of the church. With his squad, he “fights and fights day until evening.” The townspeople “submitted and made peace” and pledged to pay “three thousand every year.” Thus, the epic depicts a clash between the rich Novgorod settlement, eminent men and those townspeople who defended the independence of the city.

One of the most poetic and fabulous epics of the Novgorod cycle is the epic “Sadko”. Sadko is a poor psaltery player who became rich thanks to skillful playing of the gusli and the patronage of the Sea King. As a hero, he expresses infinite strength and endless prowess. Sadko loves his land, his city, his family. Therefore, he refuses the countless riches offered to him and returns home.

Bylinas are a poetic heroic epic of Ancient Rus', reflecting the events of the historical life of the Russian people. The ancient name for epics in the Russian north is “old times”. The modern name of the genre – “epics” – was introduced in the first half of the 19th century by folklorist I.P. Sakharov on the basis of the well-known expression from “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” - “epics of this time.”

The time of composition of epics is determined in different ways. Some scientists believe that this is an early genre that developed during the times of Kievan Rus (X-XI centuries), others - a late genre that arose in the Middle Ages, during the creation and strengthening of the Moscow centralized state. The genre of epics reached its greatest flourishing in the 17th–18th centuries, and by the 20th century it fell into oblivion.

Bylina, according to V.P. Anikin, these are “heroic songs that arose as an expression of the historical consciousness of the people in the East Slavic era and developed in the conditions of Ancient Rus'...”.

Bylinas reproduce the ideals of social justice and glorify Russian heroes as defenders of the people. They reveal social moral and aesthetic ideals, reflecting historical reality in images. In epics, the basis of life is combined with fiction. They have a solemn and pathetic tone, their style corresponds to the purpose of glorifying extraordinary people and majestic events of history.

The famous folklorist P.N. recalled the high emotional impact of epics on listeners. Rybnikov. For the first time he heard a live performance of the epic twelve kilometers from Petrozavodsk, on the island of Shui-Navolok. After a difficult swim on the spring, stormy Lake Onega, settling down for the night by the fire, Rybnikov imperceptibly fell asleep...

The main characters of epics are heroes. They embody the ideal of a courageous person devoted to his homeland and people. The hero fights alone against hordes of enemy forces. Among the epics, a group of the most ancient stands out. These are the so-called epics about “elder” heroes, associated with mythology. The heroes of these works are the personification of unknown forces of nature associated with mythology. Such are Svyatogor and Volkhv Vseslavevich, Danube and Mikhailo Potyk.

In the second period of their history, the ancient heroes were replaced by heroes of modern times - Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich. These are the heroes of the so-called Kyiv cycle of epics. Cyclization refers to the unification of epic images and plots around individual characters and places of action. This is how the Kiev cycle of epics, associated with the city of Kiev, developed.

Another major center of the ancient Russian state was Novgorod. Epics of the Novgorod cycle - everyday, novelistic. The heroes of these epics were merchants, princes, peasants, guslars (Sadko, Volga, Mikula, Vasily Buslaev, Blud Khotenovich).

Each hero has a certain, dominant character trait. Ilya Muromets personifies strength; he is the most powerful Russian hero after Svyatogor. Dobrynya is also a strong and brave warrior, a snake fighter, but also a hero-diplomat. Prince Vladimir sends him on special diplomatic missions. Alyosha Popovich personifies ingenuity and cunning. “He won’t take it by force, but by cunning,” they say about him in epics. Monumental images of heroes and grandiose achievements are the fruit of artistic generalization, the embodiment in one person of the abilities and strength of a people or social group, an exaggeration of what actually exists, that is, hyperbolization and idealization. The poetic language of epics is solemnly melodious and rhythmically organized. His special artistic means - comparisons, metaphors, epithets - reproduce pictures and images that are epically sublime, grandiose, and when depicting enemies - terrible, ugly.

In different epics, motifs and images, plot elements, identical scenes, lines and groups of lines are repeated. Thus, through all the epics of the Kyiv cycle there are images of Prince Vladimir, the city of Kyiv, and heroes. Bylinas, like other works of folk art, do not have a fixed text. Passed from mouth to mouth, they changed and varied. Each epic had an infinite number of variants.

In epics, fabulous miracles are performed: the reincarnation of characters, the revival of the dead, werewolves. They contain mythological images of enemies and fantastic elements, but the fantasy is different from that of a fairy tale. It is based on folk historical ideas. The famous folklorist of the 19th century A.F. Hilferding wrote:

“When a person doubts that a hero can carry a forty-pound club or kill an entire army on the spot, the epic poetry in him is killed. And many signs convinced me that the northern Russian peasant singing epics, and the vast majority of those who listen to him, certainly believe in the truth of the miracles that are depicted in the epic. The epic preserved historical memory. Miracles were perceived as history in the life of the people.”

There are many historically reliable signs in the epics: descriptions of details, ancient weapons of warriors (sword, shield, spear, helmet, chain mail). They glorify Kyiv-grad, Chernigov, Murom, Galich. Other ancient Russian cities are named. Events also unfold in Ancient Novgorod. They indicate the names of some historical figures: Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh. These princes were united in the popular imagination into one collective image of Prince Vladimir - “Red Sun”.

However, epics depict not only the heroic deeds of heroes, enemy invasions, battles, but also everyday human life in its social and everyday manifestations and historical conditions. This is reflected in the cycle of Novgorod epics. In them, the heroes are noticeably different from the epic heroes of the Russian epic. The epics about Sadko and Vasily Buslaev include not just new original themes and plots, but also new epic images, new types of heroes who do not know other epic cycles. Novgorod heroes, unlike the heroes of the heroic cycle, do not perform feats of arms. This is explained by the fact that Novgorod escaped the Horde invasion; Batu’s hordes did not reach the city. However, the Novgorodians could not only rebel (V. Buslaev) and play the gusli (Sadko), but also fight and win brilliant victories over the conquerors from the West.

Vasily Buslaev appears as the Novgorod hero. Two epics are dedicated to him. One of them talks about the political struggle in Novgorod, in which he takes part. Vaska Buslaev rebels against the townspeople, comes to feasts and starts quarrels with “rich merchants”, “men (men) of Novgorod”, enters into a duel with the “elder” Pilgrim - a representative of the church. With his squad he “fights and fights day until evening.” The townspeople “submitted and made peace” and pledged to pay “three thousand every year.” Thus, the epic depicts a clash between the rich Novgorod settlement, eminent men and those townspeople who defended the independence of the city.

The hero's rebellion is manifested even in his death. In the epic “How Vaska Buslaev Went to Pray,” he violates prohibitions even at the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, swimming naked in the Jordan River. There he dies, remaining a sinner. V.G. Belinsky wrote that “Vasily’s death comes directly from his character, daring and violent, which seems to be asking for trouble and death.”

One of the most poetic and fabulous epics of the Novgorod cycle is the epic “Sadko”. V.G. Belinsky defined the epic “as one of the pearls of Russian folk poetry, the poetic apotheosis of Novgorod.” Sadko is a poor psaltery player who became rich thanks to skillful playing of the gusli and the patronage of the Sea King. As a hero, he expresses infinite strength and endless prowess. Sadko loves his land, his city, his family. Therefore, he refuses the countless riches offered to him and returns home.

So, epics are poetic, artistic works. They contain a lot of unexpected, surprising, incredible things. However, they are fundamentally truthful, conveying the people's understanding of history, the people's idea of duty, honor, and justice. At the same time, they are skillfully constructed, their language is unique.
Artistic originality of epics

The epics were created in tonic (also called epic, folk) verse. In works created in tonic verse, the poetic lines may have a different number of syllables, but there should be a relatively equal number of stresses. In epic verse, the first stress, as a rule, falls on the third syllable from the beginning, and the last stress on the third syllable from the end.

Epic tales are characterized by a combination of real images that have a clear historical meaning and are conditioned by reality (the image of Kyiv, the capital Prince Vladimir), with fantastic images (the Serpent Gorynych, the Nightingale the Robber). But the leading images in epics are those generated by historical reality.

Often an epic begins with a chorus. It is not related to the content of the epic, but represents an independent picture that precedes the main epic story. The outcome is the ending of the epic, a short conclusion, summing up, or a joke (“then the old days, then the deed,” “that’s where the old days ended”).

The epic usually begins with a beginning that determines the place and time of action. This is followed by an exposition in which the hero of the work is highlighted, most often using the technique of contrast.

The image of the hero is at the center of the entire narrative. The epic greatness of the image of the epic hero is created by revealing his noble feelings and experiences; the qualities of the hero are revealed in his actions.

Tripleness or trinity in epics is one of the main depiction techniques (there are three heroes at the heroic outpost, the hero makes three trips - “Three trips of Ilya”, Sadko is not invited to the feast three times by the Novgorod merchants, he casts lots three times, etc. .). All these elements (threefold persons, threefold action, verbal repetitions) are present in all epics. Hyperboles used to describe the hero and his feat also play a large role in them. The description of the enemies (Tugarin, Nightingale the Robber), as well as the description of the strength of the warrior-hero, are hyperbolic. There are fantastic elements in this.

In the main narrative part of the epic, the techniques of parallelism, stepwise narrowing of images, and antithesis are widely used.

The text of the epic is divided into permanent and transitional passages. Transitional passages are parts of the text created or improvised by narrators during performance; permanent places - stable, slightly changed, repeated in various epics (heroic battle, hero’s rides, saddling a horse, etc.). Storytellers usually assimilate and repeat them with greater or less accuracy as the action progresses. The narrator speaks transitional passages freely, changing the text and partially improvising it. The combination of permanent and transitional places in the singing of epics is one of the genre features of the Old Russian epic.

The work of the Saratov scientist A.P. is devoted to elucidating the artistic originality of Russian epics and their poetics. Skaftymov “Poetics and genesis of epics”. The researcher believed that “the epic knows how to create interest, knows how to excite the listener with anxiety of expectation, infect the listener with the delight of surprise and capture the winner with ambitious triumph.”

D.S. Likhachev in his book “The Poetics of Old Russian Literature” writes that the time of action in epics refers to the conventional era of the Russian past. For some epics it is the idealized era of Prince Vladimir of Kyiv, for others it is the era of Novgorod freedom. The action of the epics takes place in the era of Russian independence, glory and power of Rus'. In this era, Prince Vladimir reigns “forever”, the heroes live “forever”. In epics, the entire time of action is assigned to the conventional era of Russian antiquity.

Literature from the 18th century for children. (Inquirer Savvaty, Simeon Polotsky, Karion Istomin).

Children's literature in Russia XV-XVIII centuries

The entire history of ancient Russian children's literature can be divided into four periods:

1) the second half of the 15th - the first half of the 16th century, when the first educational works appeared;

2) the second half of the 16th - beginning of the 17th century, when 15 printed books for children were published;

3) 20-40s. XVII century, when regular poetry begins;

4) the second half of the 17th century - the period of the development of different genres and types of children's literature.

Great development in the 17th century. receives poetry. Poems of that time, addressed to children, were, from a modern point of view, still quite primitive. But it was with them that children's poetry began.

It was a rare children's handwritten or printed book without poems. There were especially many of them in the second half of the 17th century, when large works were written, which we now call poems. Poems set out rules of behavior and conveyed various information about the world. Most of the poems are anonymous. However, some authors were already known then, others have been identified now. The very first children's poet in Rus' should be considered the director of the Moscow Printing House, Savvaty. The reference book was responsible for the content and literacy of the book. Therefore, the most educated people were appointed to this position. Currently, more than ten poems by Savvaty are known, written by him specifically for children. Among them is the first poem in the book of the Moscow press, placed in the ABC edition of 1637. It consists of 34 lines. The poem simply, warmly and clearly tells the reader about the book he is holding in his hands, praises literacy and book wisdom, and gives various advice on how to study and how to read. According to the composition, this is an intimate conversation with a child on a topic that is interesting and important to him. The author convinces the child not to be lazy in learning, to be diligent, and to obey the teacher in everything. Only in this case can he learn “wisdom writing” (literacy), become one of the “wise men” and become a “true son of light.” Later, in the second half of the 17th century, this poem was widely distributed through handwritten books.

Another poem by Savvaty, “A Brief Reprimand about Laziness and Neglect,” consisting of 124 lines, was also very famous. It creates a negative image of a student, capable, but lazy and careless. Savvaty tries to instill in children respect for literacy, an enthusiastic attitude towards education and contempt for ignorance. The author leads the reader to the conclusion that teaching is light, and ignorance is darkness. Savvaty uses persuasion as the main educational means, and comparison and likening as a literary device. For example, he says that a diamond is precious because of the play of light, color, and paints, and a person is precious because of his education and “his understanding.”

In another large poem, consisting of 106 lines, called “Vacation ABC,” the image of a positive student is created who heeded the advice of his teacher, studied diligently, and therefore the teacher taught him everything that he himself knew and could. This is like a parting word to a child on graduation day.

The most important poet of the 17th century. was Simeon of Polotsk. His real name is Petrovsky. In 1664, at the invitation of the Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Simeon moved to Moscow, where he opened a school and began to take an active part in literary and social life. Simeon of Polotsk took part in the creation of the primer of 1664. He also compiled the entire primer of the 1667 edition, which was republished in 1669. The preface written by Simeon for this primer is an outstanding pedagogical treatise of the 17th century.

But the primer of 1679 is of greatest interest. It contains two poems for children: “Preface to young men who want to learn” and “Admonition.” The first of them talks about the book, praises literacy, and calls on children to study well, for those who work in youth will be at peace in old age. Of all labors, reading and learning bring the greatest pleasure and benefit. The second poem is placed at the end of the book. He wrote poetic prefaces to the books he published for children, “Testament” and “The Tale of Baarlam and Joasaph.” In them he talks about the content of the books, draws attention to the most important thing, trying to interest children and prepare them for perception. The most important books of Simeon of Polotsk are “Reef. Mologion”, which has 1308 large format pages, and “Vertograd multicolor”, consisting of 1316 pages. The books were intended, according to the author, “for the benefit of young and old,” who could “look for words in them” and read “to teach their age.” The books contain many poems that are accessible to children, including greeting poems from children to parents, relatives and patrons.

Poems about nature, minerals, animals, plants, entertaining legends, etc., were also available to children. For example, the poem “Arc” (“Rainbow”) or poems about earth and water. Being a teacher by profession and an outstanding The poet of his time, Simeon of Polotsk, made a significant contribution to the creation of literature for children.

The first Russian writer and poet whose work was entirely dedicated to children was Karion Istomin. In all his works, Karion Istomin glorified science, “enlightenment,” yagi. He believed that everyone should study: children of all classes, boys and girls, people of all nationalities. Science, according to Karion Istomin, should save people from want and grief. Although in most of his poems Istomin directly addressed the princes, he intended them for the entire Russian people.

During Karion Istomin’s lifetime, three of his books for children and a complete set of textbooks were published. Another children's book by Karion Istomin, The Big Primer, had 11 poems. In addition, he wrote more than ten books of poetry. So, the book “Polis” talks about everyone, the seasons, parts of the world, different countries. The poetic book “Domostroy”, consisting of 176 lines, figuratively sets out the rules of behavior using vivid examples. The main content of the rules boils down to the requirement to study the “free sciences”, etc.