Russian Fairy Tales Test Prep: Byliny
I. History & Background of Byliny
- singular: bylina - called starina (”old”) by performers - epic poems of legendary heroes - rediscovered in the mid-19th century; collectors took notes by hand while performers sang - performances were improvised; the singer would be accompanied on the gusli - byliny were passed from court minstrels to the peasantry
II. Cycles of Byliny
- Mythological Epics - Kievan Epics - Novgorodian Epics
Svyatogor, Kirill Chelushkin
Kievan Epics were quasi-historical and centered on Kiev, the ancient capital of Rus’. Vladimir, the Grand Prince of Kiev, held feasts at the Royal Court were byliny were performed (and perhaps told to him as royal bedtime stories). Grand Prince Vladimir is not the “hero” of these Kievan epics, but he is often an important part of the plot, and his presence establishes the setting. Over time, his name became shorthand for a generic ancient ruler.
Bogatyrs (1895), Elisabeth Boehm
The Bogatyrs are the heroes of Kievan byliny, equivalent to Camelot’s Knights of the Round Table, but with a roughed-up Viking edge. They protect Rus’ from outside threats, as well as defending widows, orphans, and the poor. In their leisure time, they enjoy romance and hunting.
The three best known bogatyrs are:
1. Ilya Muromets, the ideal Russian hero 2. Dobrynia Nikitich, the diplomatic one 3. Aliosha Popovich, the trickster
Ilya Muromets is the subject of more songs and has a more complete biography than any other bogatyr and/or epic hero.
- He appears as “Ilyas von Riuzen” in several German & Scandinavian sagas dating from the 12th and 13th centuries. - He is frequently referred to as an “old Cossack,” but “old” here is less indicative of age, but rather seniority/experience/earned respect (16th-17th centuries). - His relics were long believed to lie in a Kiev monastery and he appeared in many tales circulated via chapbooks in the 18th and 19th centuries. - In the 19th century, peasant performers started emphasizing his peasant background.
The enemy in Kievan epics is typically Genghis Khan and his offspring. Historians are not certain that the Tatar Yoke actually happened, but ALLEGEDLY, the timeline went something like this:
1223: Tatars suddenly appear in the southeast, defeat Rus’ at the river Kalka, and then vanish as suddenly as they had appeared. 1237-40: Tatars return and conquer Rus’, demanding tribute and military aid 1240: Kiev falls 1380: Dmitrii Donskoi victorious at Kulikovo Field 1480: Prince Ivan III renounces allegiance to Khan. His grandson Ivan IV (’The Terrible”) moves from Kiev to Moscow and takes the title ‘Tsar.’
Novgorodian epics are also quasi-historical. These epics also combine elements of everyday life, customs, and institutions in Novgorod (dating from the 12th-15th centuries) with folk beliefs, and magical motifs. They typically take place in and around the Novgorod Republic, which was an independent city-state from the 11th-14th centuries.
- “Lord Great Novgorod” carried on trade through river passages with the Baltic region in the west and the Caspian region in the east. They colonized much of the Russian North & western Siberia. - Novgorod belonged to a different cultural zone than the southern city of Kiev and shared many ethnographic features with nearby Scandinavia and with local Finnish groups. - While much of Russia was devastated by the Tatar invasion during the middle of the 13th century, the northwest (including Novgorod) remained largely untouched. - Novgorod was especially known for its merchants, craftsmen, fishermen, sailors, and minstrels (skomorokhs). - They had a democratic assembly called the veche, and were members of the Hanseatic League, an influential medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in central and northern Europe (founded 1356). - Another Novgorod institution was the artel (cooperative), in which all members of a merchant crew swore to observe strict rules of conduct while on a trading voyage, and to share the profits at the end.This practice is alluded to in the most famous Novgorodian epic, Sadko, the only Russian epic in which the main character makes a journey to the otherworld.