Artistic features of epics. Write down the descriptions repeated several times in epics
Epics are built according to a specific plan.
Most epics begin with a beginning. It usually talks about the location of the action or where the hero went and from (see the first six lines of the epic “Ilya Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber”).
Events in epics are presented in strict order, sequentially. The narration is told slowly, without haste. Since the epics lived in oral transmission, the performer told them to focus the attention of the listeners on places that were especially important, in his opinion. For this purpose, repetitions are widely used in epics, usually three times. Thus, in the epic about Ilya Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber, the description of the strength of the Nightingale the Robber is repeated three times.
To add melodiousness to the epic, to make its presentation more expressive and musical, individual words are often repeated in epics.
For example:
The straight path is blocked,
The path was blocked up and walled up.
In the capital in the city of Kyiv,
From the affectionate prince from Vladimir.
Repetitions occur not only in the text of the same epic. Different epics describe similar actions and phenomena in the same way, for example, saddling a hero’s horse, a feast at Prince Vladimir’s, enemy strength, a battle between heroes and enemies, etc.
Such similar descriptions found in different epics (and fairy tales) are called commonplaces.
Sometimes epics end with a special ending - a conclusion from the entire content of the epic:
Now the old days, now the deeds,
that is, this is how it was in the old days, this is reality.
The main character of the epics is a Russian hero. To more clearly imagine the strength of the hero, the technique of hyperbole (exaggeration) is used. For example, this is how the battle between a hero and an enemy force is described. If the hero waves his right hand, a street will form among the enemy camp, and an alley will form with his left hand. The hero's club (sword) weighs forty or even ninety pounds.
If the hero falls asleep, then “heroic sleep for twelve days” (days). His horse matches the hero: “the horse’s first leap is many miles away, but the second leap cannot be found.” To emphasize the strength of the Russian hero, his enemy is depicted hyperbolically. The countless forces of the enemy “a gray wolf... cannot outrun a day, a black crow cannot fly around a day.”
In epics, as well as in oral works in general folk poetry, every word is precise and expressive. Over the centuries, folk singers and poets have perfected their language poetic works, achieving the most accurate and vivid, expressive disclosure through the word of the most essential qualities heroes and their actions. Thus, epithets in oral poetry are very rich and varied - colorful definitions, indicating the most essential feature of people, objects, and phenomena of life.
Often the same epithets constantly characterize certain heroes, objects, phenomena of life, nature, etc. Therefore, they are called constant epithets. In epics, for example, there are such constant epithets: stout, good fellow, great strength, glorious capital Kyiv-grad, tight bow, silk string, red-hot arrows.
Comparisons are often used in epics:
The forces are caught up in black and black,
Black, black, like a black crow.
Volga walks like a pike fish in the blue seas,
Volgo flies like a falcon bird under the covers,
Prowl like a wolf in open fields.
Negative comparisons are used:
It is not the damp oak that bends to the ground,
Not paper leaves are spread out,
The son bows to his father...
Wanting to emphasize some shade of the meaning of the word, which, in the opinion of the folk singer, is important for understanding the narrative, epic storytellers widely use synonyms: “Volga began to grow and mature”; “And yell and plow and become peasants,”; “Here it seemed to Ilya that he was in trouble, for great annoyance...”
Nouns with diminutive and affectionate suffixes play an important role in the language of epics. They express the people's assessment of the heroes of epics. Bogatyrs are often called pet names: Ilyushenka, Dobrynyushka Nikitich, Mikulushka Selyaninovich, etc. Suffixes endearing meaning are also used in words denoting objects belonging to the hero. He has “hot arrows”, “saddle”, “bridles”, “felts”, “sweating bands”, etc.
The epic is chanted. Obeying the melody, the narrator puts emphasis on certain words, while other words, without stress, seem to merge into one word (“mother-earth”, “pure field”). In this regard, sometimes a word has different stresses in the same one. epic (“Nightingale-Nightingale”, “young”, “young”, “young”).
In ancient oral folk poetry there are epics that tell about the peaceful, working life of the Russian people. These are everyday epics. The most important of them is the epic about Volga and Mikula. It glorifies people's labor. In Ilya Muromets, the people sang the praises of the peasant warrior, the hero - the defender of the homeland. In the image of Mikula, he glorified the peasant cultivator, the hero - the breadwinner of the country.
The epics were created in tonic (also called epic, folk) verse. In works created in tonic verse, the poetic lines may contain different quantities 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 the epic begins with lead singer. It is not related to the content of the epic, but represents an independent picture that precedes the main epic story. Exodus- this is the ending of the epic, a short conclusion, summing up, or a joke (“then the old days, then the deeds”, “that’s where the old times ended”).
The epic usually begins with the beginning, which determines the place and time of action. Following it is given exposition, in which the hero of the work stands out, 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.
Triplicity 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 places. Transitional places 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 genre characteristics ancient Russian epic.
The work of the Saratov scientist A.P. Skaftymov, “Poetics and Genesis of Epics,” is devoted to elucidating the artistic originality of Russian epics and their poetics. 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.” 1
D. S. Likhachev in the book “Poetics ancient 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. 2
3. The epic "Ilya Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber"
Ilya Muromets - main character Kyiv cycle epic The most important of them: “The Healing of Ilya of Muromets”, “Ilya and the Nightingale the Robber”, “Ilya and Sokolnik”, “Ilya in a quarrel with Prince Vladimir”, “Ilya and Kalin the Tsar”, “Ilya and the Foul Idol”. The most ancient epics are considered to be about the battle of Ilya Muromets with the Nightingale the Robber and about the battle with Sokolnik (his son).
Back in the 19th century, scientists wondered who was behind the epic image of the enemy of the Russian hero - Nightingale the Robber. Some saw him as a mythical creature - the personification of the forces of nature, the tree-climber, while others expressed the opinion that this image was borrowed from the folklore of other peoples. Still others held the view that Nightingale is a common person engaged in robbery. For his ability to whistle loudly, he was nicknamed Nightingale. In the epic narrative, the Nightingale the Robber is depicted as a creature living in the forests with his entire brood.
The epic tells about the military exploits of Ilya. He leaves home, from the village of Karacharovo, near Murom, to the capital city of Kyiv to serve Prince Vladimir. Along the way, Ilya accomplishes his first feat. At Chernigov he defeats the enemy army that besieged the city.
Is it near the city of Chernigov?
The forces are caught up in black and black,
And he is black and black, like a black crow.
So no one walks here like infantry,
No one rides here on a good horse,
The black raven bird does not fly,
Let the gray beast not prowl.
And Ilya, “a burly, good fellow,” began to trample this great force with his horse and stab him with a spear. And he defeated this great force. For this, the Chernigov men invited him to Chernigov as a governor, but the hero did not agree, since he was going to serve the entire Russian land.
He is warned that the road to Kyiv is turbulent and dangerous:
The path has been blocked up, walled up,
Like that one of Gryazi or Black,
Yes, whether it’s near the birch tree or the gag...
The Nightingale the Robber sits with oak cheese,
The Nightingale the Robber sits Odikhmantyev 1 son. 2
Ilya’s opponent is depicted in the epic in a hyperbolic way, his formidable power is exaggerated. This is a robber villain. He “whistles like a nightingale”, “shouts like an animal”. Because of this, “the ant grasses are entangled, all the azure flowers are crumbling, the dark forests are all bowing to the ground, and what people there are are all lying dead.”
However, Ilya was not frightened by the warning of the Chernigov men. He chooses the "straight road". Ilya’s good heroic horse, hearing the Nightingale’s whistle, “rests and stumbles on the baskets.” But the hero is fearless. He is ready to accomplish his second feat. The duel is described laconically, in the epic tradition. Ilya takes a tight “explosive” bow, pulls a “silk bowstring”, puts on a “hardened arrow” and shoots. He fastens the defeated Nightingale to a “damask stirrup” and takes him to Kyiv. This is the hero’s first visit to Kyiv; no one here knows him yet. The prince himself turns to Ilya with questions:
"Tell me, you're crazy,
Portly good fellow,
Somehow, well done, they call you by your name,
Call him, the daring one, after his fatherland?
The prince does not believe Ilya’s story, he doubts that it is possible to travel along that road where many forces have been gathered and the Nightingale the Robber rules. Then Ilya leads the prince to Nightingale. But the robber recognizes only the power of Ilya over himself, seeing in him a worthy opponent and winner, he honors him above the prince. To Vladimir’s order to demonstrate his art, Nightingale replies:
“It’s not with you today, Prince, that I’m having lunch,
It’s not you that I want to listen to.
I dined with the old Cossack Ilya Muromets,
Yes, I want to listen to him." 3
Then Ilya Muromets orders him to whistle “half the whistle of a nightingale” and “half the cry of an animal.” But the Nightingale disobeyed and whistled with all his might. “The poppies on the towers were crooked, and the knees in the towers scattered from him, Nightingale’s whistle, that there are little people, they are all lying dead.” And Vladimir the Prince “covers himself with a marten fur coat.” Only Ilya remained on his feet. With the words: “You are full of whistling and like a nightingale, you are full of crying and fathers and mothers, you are full of making widows and young wives, you are full of letting little children become orphans!” he chops off the Nightingale's head.
Ilya’s feat was filled with special meaning for his contemporaries, who advocated the unification of Russian lands, for the integrity of ancient Russian state. The epic affirms the idea of serving Rus', of committing national feat in her name.
The epic "Ilya Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber" has features characteristic of the artistic originality of epics. This is a story genre. Events are depicted in development, characters in action. The epic is characterized by unique expressive and graphic means: triple repetitions (in the description of the silushka near Chernigov, the hero’s whistle), hyperbole (image of the Nightingale the Robber, the heroic horse of Ilya), similes, metaphors, epithets (dark forest, ant-grass, azure flowers), diminutive suffixes, etc. The epic intertwines fantastic and real images(Nightingale - Ilya).
4. Epic "Dobrynya and the Serpent"
Dobrynya Nikitich - the second most important hero of epics Kyiv cycle. He replaced the ancient Danube, but he is not only a hero-snake fighter, but also a hero-diplomat. In a number of epics, Dobrynya carries out various diplomatic assignments for Prince Vladimir.
In the epic "Dobrynya and the Serpent" he commits feat of arms- defeats the Serpent, who brought a lot of grief to the Russian land. The plot of the epic comes from ancient fairy-tale folklore. The epic begins with a story about how her mother does not tell Dobrynya to go to the Puchai River to swim:
Mother told Dobrynyushka,
Yes, Nikitich’s mother punished him:
"Don't go too far into the open field,
To that mountain and Sorochinskaya,
Don't trample on the young snakes,
Don't help out the full Russians,
Do not swim, Dobrynya, in the Puchai River -
The Puchai River is very fierce,
The middle stream cuts like fire." 2
Fairy tales usually begin with this fabulous prohibition. Just like in the fairy tale, Dobrynya does not listen to her mother’s advice and swims far away. At this moment the Serpent swoops down on him:
There is no wind, but a cloud has blown over,
There are no clouds, but it’s like rain,
But it’s not raining, but only it thunders,
Thunder rumbles and lightning whistles.
How the Serpent Gorynishche flies
And you twelve about trunks. 3
The battle of the hero with the Snake is depicted briefly: Dobrynya hit the Snake, knocked off all his “trunks” and made him promise not to fly to Rus' anymore. Returning to Kyiv, Dobrynya learns that the Serpent again flew through Kyiv and carried away Prince Vladimir’s niece, Zabava Putyatichna.
Dobrynya goes to long journey to the Snake Caves. But, unlike fairy tale hero, who fights the monster for the sake of his personal interests (the liberation of the bride), he represents a new hero who stands for public interests in the struggle for the integrity of Rus' and its borders. The fairytale motive of the struggle for a woman becomes the motive of the struggle for the Russian Polonyanka. In the epic, Dobrynya is presented as the liberator of the Russian land. The epic sings the glory of the hero, who freed not only Vladimir’s niece, but also many other prisoners languishing in the Snake’s dungeon:
Then Dobrynya went into the hole,
In those holes and deep ones.
There sit forty kings, forty princes,
Forty kings and princes,
But simple power is of no use.
Then Dobrynyushka Nikitinich
He spoke to the kings and he to the princes
And to those kings and princes:
“You go there now, the church has been brought.
And you, young Zabava daughter Putyatichna,
For you, I have now wandered like this,
Let's go to the city of Kyiv,
And this is to the affectionate prince, to Vladimir." 4
Dobrynya expresses his heroic qualities in all epics, jealously guards the dignity of the Russian warrior, he is reasonable in his speeches, restrained, tactful, a caring son and a faithful husband. All epics reveal these features of his appearance.
5. Epic "Volga and Mikula"
The epic "Volga and Mikula" refers to Novgorod cycle epic Already the first researchers drew attention to the acute social resonance of the epic, where the image of the peasant plowman Mikula Selyaninovich is clearly contrasted with the image of Prince Volga Svyatoslavich, the nephew of the Kyiv prince Vladimir. At the same time, other assumptions were made according to which the epic recreated the images of not just a peasant and a prince, but two pagan gods: the god of agriculture - Mikula and the god of hunting - Volga. This is the interpretation of the famous 19th-century mythologist Orest Miller, who saw Mikul Selyaninovich as the “patron of agriculture in Rus'.” At the same time, Vsevolod Miller drew attention to everyday features in the epic, reflecting the characteristics of agricultural labor in the north:
Ratai yells in the field, urges,
The bipod of the ratai creaks,
The idiots are scribbling on the pebbles,
It turns out roots and stones,
Yes, he keeps throwing great stones into the furrow.
“This is an accurate picture of northern plowing,” wrote V.F. Miller. 2
The plot of the epic is based on the meeting of Prince Volga and his squad with the plowman-peasant Mikula. The epic opens with a story about Volga’s birth and his maturation:
How Volga began to grow and mature here,
Volga wanted a lot of wisdom:
He walks like a pike fish in the deep seas,
Like a falcon bird he can fly under the covers,
Like a gray wolf, prowl through the open fields.
Volga gathered himself a brave squad. The nephew of the Kyiv prince received three cities as a gift from Vladimir: Gurchevets, Orekhovets, Krestyanovets. He goes to collect tribute and in an open field he sees the plowman Mikula, who, working in the field, shows remarkable strength: “he twists out stumps and roots, knocks large stones into the furrow.” The plowman asks the prince how far he is going, and having learned where he and his retinue are going, he tells him what kind of robber people live in these cities. Volga, seeing his strength, invites the plowman to go with him “as comrades.” The plowman agrees, his participation in the trip is necessary - the fight against robbery alone is beyond the strength of the princely squad.
Mikula asks the prince’s warriors to pull his plow out of the ground and throw it under a broom bush. However, it turns out that neither the squad nor Volga can do this work. And only Mikula’s heroic strength allows him to effortlessly, with one hand, pull the bipod out of the ground.
This is where some variants of the epic end. According to others, Volga and Mikula come to the cities in which the prince appoints Mikula as governor, the townspeople ambush Volga, and Mikula saves his life.
Mikula is folk hero. He, like a heroic hero, expresses best qualities a simple person. The epic affirms respect for the hard work of the tiller, in which one must also show strength and heroism. Mikula’s strength is in connection with the land, the common people.
This epic is characterized by its artistic features. The element of the folk language is amazing. It is characterized by repetitions and epithets. With the help of epithets, a special poetic world is created. For example, the unusual plow that Mikula plows with:
Orata's bipod is maple,
The damask boots on the bipod,
The bipod's snout is silver,
And the horn of the bipod is red and gold. 3
Using epithets, a portrait of the hero is created:
And Oratai’s curls are swaying,
What if the pearls are scattered;
The screaming eyes and clear eyes of a falcon,
And his eyebrows are black sable. 4
Storytellers describe the hero's clothes: boots made of green morocco, a feather hat, a caftan made of black velvet.
Mikula allegorically reveals his folk roots. To Volga’s question: “What is your name, do they call you after your fatherland?” Oratay-Oratayushko said:
Oh, Volga Svyatoslavovich!
I’ll plow up like rye and put it in stacks,
I’ll put them in stacks and drag them home,
I’ll drag you home and thrash you at home,
And I’ll make beer and give the peasants a drink,
And then the men will begin to praise me:
Young Mikula Selyaninovich!" 5
Artistic means in epics are aimed at most vividly capturing the characters and their actions, the setting, and expressing attitudes towards them.
6. Epic "Sadko"
The events in the epic unfold in the city of Novgorod. It splits into two parts (Sadko receives wealth and Sadko from the Sea King). The main character is guslar Sadko. At the beginning of the epic, the Novgorod boyars neglected him and stopped inviting him to feasts. Offended, Sadko goes to Lake Ilmen, sits on the “white-flammable stone” and begins to play “Yarovchaty Guselki”. The Sea King liked his game:
How the water in the lake began to stir,
The king of the sea appeared,
I left the lake from Ilmen,
He himself said these words:
“Oh, you, Sadke Novgorodsky!
I don’t know how to greet you
For your joys for the great,
For your tender game." 1
The Sea King decided to help Sadko and give him untold wealth. He told him to make a bet with the Novgorod merchants that he would catch a fish in the lake - a golden feather. The king will send this fish to Sadko in the net.
Guslyar did just that and won three shops of red goods in a dispute with merchants, became rich, erected magnificent chambers, decorating them with marvelous paintings:
Sadka arranged everything like heaven:
There is sun in the sky and sun in the chambers,
There is a month in the sky and a month in the chambers,
There are stars in the sky and stars in the chambers. 2
Sadko “invited noble guests to his honorable feast,” who at the feast ate, got drunk and all boasted with boasts." Sadko boasted of buying up all the goods in Novgorod, argued with him about the wealth. But the bet lost: no matter how much he bought goods in Novgorod shops, in the morning more and more people brought from all over Rus' appeared in them. And Sadko realized that he was not the rich merchant of Novgorod - his glorious Novgorod was richer. And if at the beginning of the epic the people's consciousness was on the side of the poor guslar, then Sadko the merchant, who imagined , that he is richer and stronger than the entire trading city, deprived of the sympathy of the people. The epic forces him to recognize the victory of Novgorod. It clearly expresses the idea of \u200b\u200bthe trading power of the great city of northern Rus'.
In the second part of the epic, Sadko, a rich merchant, equips ships and sets off with his comrades to trade overseas:
The weather was strong on the blue sea,
The blackened ships stagnated on the blue sea:
And the wave hits, the sails are torn,
Breaks blackened boats;
But the ships do not move from their place on the blue sea. 3
This is how landscape is introduced into the epic. The ships are at sea - the Sea King does not let Sadko in and demands a ransom from him. First, the shipbuilders try to pay off with a barrel of pure silver, red gold, but the wave hits everything, tears the sails, and “the ships still do not move from their place on the blue sea.” Sadko guesses that the Tsar of the Sea demands “a living head in the blue sea.” They cast lots three times as to who should go to the Sea King. And no matter how hard Sadko tried, the lot fell on him. Taking only the harp, Sadko rushes into the depths of the sea.
The image of the underwater kingdom in the epic is real, the landscape is realistic:
In the blue sea at the very bottom.
Through the water I saw the red sun baking,
Evening dawn, morning dawn.
Saw Sadko: in the blue sea
There is a white stone chamber...
Before us is more likely not fantasy, but certain share conventions. The King of the Sea himself is also depicted. The epic gives only one detail of his portrait: “the king’s head is like a heap of hay.” The singers use the technique of hyperbolization: the king’s head is compared to a heap of hay, which indicates its significant size and introduces an element of comedy.
How Sadko began to play guselki yarovchaty,
How the king of the sea began to dance in the blue sea,
How the king of the sea danced.
Sadka played for a day, and others played too,
Yes, Sadke and others also played,
And still the king dances in the blue sea. 5
Grateful for the fun, the Sea King began to persuade Sadko to marry one of his thirty daughters. Meanwhile, in the blue sea, the waters shake, ships break, and righteous people drown.
In reality, an Orthodox person, in search of deliverance from misfortunes, always turns to Christian saints, which is reflected in the epic: “the people began to pray to Mikola of Mozhaisk.” It is no coincidence that the image of the Christian intercessor Mykola, the patron saint of all navigators and sailors, is introduced into the epic. This reveals the general Christian idea of Russian folklore:
The saint appeared before Sadko on seabed:
He turned around and looked at Sadke Novgorodsky:
There's a gray-haired old man standing there.
Sadka Novgorodsky said:
"My will is not my own in the blue sea,
It was ordered to play guselki yarovchaty."
The old man says these words:
"And you rip out the strings,
And you break off the pins.
Say: “I didn’t have any strings,
And the pins weren’t useful,
Nothing else to play:
The spring gooseneck broke." 6
Saint Mikola teaches the unlucky guslar how to return to Novgorod. He must choose as his bride the last daughter of the Sea King, the girl Chernavushka. Having listened to wise advice, the next morning Sadko found himself on land, and the girl he chose turned out to be a Novgorod river. In gratitude, Sadko built the cathedral church of Mykola Mozhaisky.
In the Novgorod Chronicle, under 1167, the name of a certain Sadko Sytinets is mentioned, who founded the church. The epic Sadko coincides with a real historical figure.
V. G. Belinsky wrote about Novgorod epics that all the rest of Russian fairy-tale poetry is visible in front of them. A new and special world is visible, which served as the source of the forms and very spirit of Russian life, and consequently of Russian poetry. About “Sadko” he writes: “The whole poem is imbued with extraordinary animation and is full of poetry. This is one of the pearls of Russian folk poetry.”
Control questions for self-training of students
- History of Russian epics (a practical overview of opinions and the time of the composition of the epic).
- Scientific schools in Russian folklore about the origins of epics (mythological school, borrowing theory, historical school).
- The problem of historicism of Russian epics (to use the plots of the epics “Volkh Vseslavyevich”, “Ilya and Svyatogor”, “Dobrynya and Marinka”, “Ilya Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber”, “Ilya’s Quarrel with Vladimir”).
- Socio-political structure, economy, culture and way of life of Rus' in the depiction of epics (work on texts).
a) main:
1. Anikin, V.P. Russian oral folk art [Text]: Textbook. / V. P. Anikin. – M.: Higher. school, 2009. – 735 p. (30 copies).
2. Karpukhin, I. E. Russian oral folk art [Text]: Educational and methodological manual. / I. E. Karpukhin. – M., Higher. school, 2005. – 280 p. (75 copies).
3. Shafranskaya, E.F. Oral folk art [Text]: a textbook for higher education. Ped. educational institutions / E.F. Shafranskaya. – M.: Publishing center “Akadenmiya”, 2008. – 352 p. (1 copy)
b) additional:
1. Anikin, V. P. Theory of folklore. Course of lectures [Text] / V. P. Anikin. – M.: KDU, 2004. – 432 p. (1 copy).
2. Buslaev, F. I. Folk epic and mythology [Text] / F. I. Buslaev. – M.: Higher. school, 2003 – 400 p. (6 copies).
3. Zhirmunsky, V. M. Folklore of the West and East [Text] / I. M. Zhirmunsky. – M.: OGI, 2004. – 464 p. (1 copy).
4. Meletinsky, E. M. Hero fairy tale[Text] / E. M. Meletinsky. – M. – St. Petersburg. : Academy of Culture and Tradition Studies, 2005. – 240 p. (1 copy).
5. Morokhin, V. N. Methodology for collecting folklore [Text] / V. N. Morokhin. – M.: graduate School, 1990. – 86 p. (5 copies).
6. Pomerantseva, E. V. Russkaya oral prose[Text] / E.V. Pomerantseva. - M.: Education, 1975.- 271 p. (10 copies).
7. Propp, V. Ya. Russian fairy tale [Text] / V. Ya. Propp. – M.: Labyrinth, 2005. – 384 p. (3 copies).
8. Propp, V. Ya. Poetics of folklore [Text] / V. Ya. Propp. – M.: Labyrinth, 1998. – 352 p. (8 copies).
9. Propp, V. Ya. Morphology of a fairy tale [Text] / V. Ya. Propp. – Leningrad: Academia, 1928. – 152 p. Or any other edition (2 copies), or: [ Electronic resource] – 1 electron. optical disk (CD-POM).
10. Propp, V. Ya. Historical roots of a fairy tale [Text] / V. Ya. Propp. – M.: Labyrinth, 2002. – 336 p. (5 copies).
11. Propp, V. Ya. Russian heroic epic [Text] / V. Ya. Propp. – M.: Labyrinth, 1999. – 640 p. Or any other publication (3 copies).
12. Putilov, B. I. Excursions into the theory and history of the Slavic epic [Text] / B. I. Putilov. – St. Petersburg. : Nauka, 1999. – 288 p. (1 copy).
13. Savushkina, N.I. Russian folk drama / N. I. Savushkina. - M.: Publishing house Mosk. state University, 1988. - 232 p. (2 copies)
c) Information support for the FEB discipline: Fundamental electronic library “Russian literature and folklore: http:///feb-web.ru/ Open Russian Electronic Library: http://orel/rsl/ru/ Student Digital library: yttp://studlib/ru/ Folklore and post-folklore: structure, typology, semiotics: www/ruthenia/ru/folrlore/avantext/html/ Russian folklore in modern records: http://www.folk.ru/
Topic 3. HISTORICAL SONGS
The purpose of the lecture is to familiarize future culturologists with oral folk art as one of the foundations of Russian national culture.
Course objectives:
1. To help the student understand the basic patterns of the functioning of folklore as part of the national spiritual culture in the process of its emergence and development.
2. Develop skills in working with scientific literature, teach students active use scientific apparatus in the process of theoretical understanding of the patterns of development of folklore.
3. Reveal the significance of folk poetry as one of the foundations of Russian national culture, its artistic and ethical value.
4. To promote awareness of the possibilities of using the moral potential of folk poetry in subsequent cultural educational activities future specialists.
Plan
1. Song "Avdotya Ryazanochka".
2. Historical songs about Ermak and Ivan the Terrible. "Pravezh".
3. Songs about Stenka Razin. "Esaul reports on the execution of Razin."
1. Song "Avdotya Ryazanochka".
Historical songs depict events related to Russian history. In the 13th–15th centuries they were thematically connected with the Tatar-Mongol invasion and the people’s struggle against foreign yoke. These include songs about Avdotya Ryazanochka, Shchelkan, and Tatar captivity. They are patriotic in nature.
The song "Avdotya Ryazanochka" reflects an episode of the Tatar-Mongol invasion, the capture of Ryazan. Ryazan was destroyed, its inhabitants were killed and driven into slavery:
Yes, he ruined Kazan 1, a city under the forest,
Ruined Kazan city to nothing
He knocked out all the boyar princes in Kazan,
And the princesses and boyars -
I took all those alive.
He captivated many thousands of people,
He led the Turkish to his land... 2
The song tells how King Bakhmet of Turkey took all the surviving inhabitants away from the city. Avdotya was the only one left in Ryazan, and she went to Bakhmet to help her loved ones out of trouble. Her path was difficult and difficult. The conquerors left three great outposts on the roads:
The first great outpost -
He let rivers and deep lakes flow;
Another great outpost -
The open field is wide,
He became robber thieves;
And the third outpost is dark forests,
He unleashed fierce beasts.
And Avdotya went into the Turkish land.
She was not walking along the path, not the road,
Yes, the rivers are deep, the lakes are wide
She swam pilaf
And small rivers and wide lakes
She swam pilaf
And small rivers, wide lakes,
Yes, she wandered through the ford. 4
Finally Avdotya came to the king. He was amazed by the woman’s unheard-of courage, her love for loved ones, her patriotic feeling of love for native land. In Avdotya’s conversation with the king, elements of allegory, a kind of riddle, appear. Bakhmet says:
"Yes, she knew how to speak to the king,
Yes, know how to ask the king for a full head,
Yes, which little head will not be acquired for more than a century."
This sounds like a riddle, and Avdotya Ryazanochka answers him that she will have a husband, and a father-in-law, and a son, and a daughter-in-law, and a mother-in-law, but there will be no beloved brother. The king, amazed by her wisdom, not only presented her with a golden treasury, but also returned all the captured Ryazan residents. And everyone returned home and built the city of Ryazan in a new place. And this is a valid fact.
The plot of the song, and possibly the image of Avdotya, is fictional. Fiction is based on epic and fairy tale traditions. Associated with them are visual means, a hyperbolic depiction of the enemy (description of Avdotya’s path), and solving a riddle. In the song, the life story of Avdotya and her family appears as an expression of a folk national tragedy.
2. Historical songs about Ermak and Ivan the Terrible. "Pravezh"
Other songs tell about events in the personal life of Ivan the Terrible, his struggle with treason. One of these songs is the song about Grozny’s murder of his son.
These songs present the contradictory image of the king in different ways, which is also revealed in everyday life. So, in the song “Pravezh” (in Ancient Rus' this was the name of the trial, accompanied by physical punishment), the tsar witnesses the reprisal in the square of a good fellow, who is beaten on his right, standing on a “white flammable stone naked, barefoot and shoeless.” The description of the poor fellow is repeated three times, which intensifies the tragic moment of the massacre:
Well done, he won’t shake himself,
His russian curls won’t tangle,
There are only burning tears from the eyes.
This picture is seen by the king passing by. He stops and asks the question: “Why are you torturing the good fellow?” And, having received an answer, he does not agree with the court’s decision to punish the young man for the theft of a gold treasury and a “colored” dress, which he did not steal himself, but recaptured from robber thieves. The king believed the young man. He was also satisfied with the answer that he carried all this wealth to the drinking houses and gave water to all the tavern’s naked people: “And I gave all the tavern’s naked people to drink, and dressed all our barefoot people in colored clothes.” The king made a fair decision:
“Oh, you goy, kissing burghers!
Pay him fifty rubles for each blow,
And for dishonor, pay him five hundred rubles! ". 1
And this decision was truly fair, since the young man did not spend this wealth on himself, but gave it to the people. The Tsar was not only formidable, but also Orthodox (he judged truthfully). These epithets are repeated several times in the song.
3. Songs about Stenka Razin. "Esaul reports on the execution of Razin"
In the 17th century, songs told about the events of the Time of Troubles (foreign intervention) and about peasant uprising under the leadership of Stepan Razin. The songs, first of all, reflect the image of Razin himself with the real features of the historical prototype. According to the traditions of oral poetic creativity he is depicted as a good fellow: light brown curls, a beautiful face with falcon eyes and sable eyebrows, a caftan belted with a wide belt, velvet pants, morocco boots. In songs, people call him a good fellow, a daring Cossack, a daring chieftain. Epithets emphasize the people's love for Razin. The songs of this cycle are characterized by the use of constant epithets: open field, dark forests, clear eyes, white hands. The image of Razin influenced contemporary folklore. These songs are filled specific content. In the descriptions of individual episodes of the uprising, they are close to the truth of life. The songs tell about campaigns, about the capture of cities, about defeats and failures. The people mourn the death of Razin.
In the song "Esaul reports on the execution of Razin" one feels sympathy and heartache:
It was at dawn, brothers, at morning,
At the rising of the red sun,
At the end of the bright month.
It was not a falcon that flew across the sky
Yasaul was walking around the kindergarten...
We no longer have Ataman,
There is no Stepan Timofeevich,
Nicknamed Stenka Razin.
We caught a good fellow
White hands tied,
Taken to stone Moscow
And on the glorious Red Square
They cut off the riot's head. 1
Special place In Razin folklore, songs about Razin’s “son” occupy a place, i.e. about his scout, the ataman's envoy. They were distributed everywhere, including in the Volga region, and differed artistic expression, capacity and dynamism. It is believed that historical background songs about "son" are real facts. Thus, in the song “Son” by Razin in Astrakhan” it is sung:
Like in the city in Astrakhan
A little unknown man appeared here.
Walks cleanly and carefully around Astrakhan,
Smur kaftan, black jacket wide open, walking,
Plat Persian sash in right hand carries...
This kid bows to no one,
He doesn’t hit either the headquarters or the officers,
He won't go to trial with the Astrakhan governor. 2
And even when they catch the “son” and bring him to the governor, he also behaves independently:
"I am not from St. Petersburg, not from Kazan and not from Astrakhan,
Tomorrow my father will visit you."
Historical songs about Peter I and Pugachev. "Peter I will be recognized in the Swedish city", "The trial of Pugachev. Panin"
Historical songs were also dedicated to the reformer of Russian life, Peter I. In the songs, Peter is shown outstanding commander. They express the sympathy of the people for his activities. In the songs, he is an ideal king, caring for the welfare of his subjects, a brilliant commander, and organizer of military victories. Thus, the song “Peter I is Recognized in the Swedish City” talks about one episode of the reign of Peter I. The Tsar secretly goes to the Swedish kingdom under the guise of a merchant. The song says that no one knows or knows about this. In order to appear as a rich merchant, he fills his ships with pure silver, decorates them with pure gold, and takes with him “very little money.” Peter orders to call himself not a sovereign, but an overseas merchant.
However, he is recognized in the “glass state” (Stockholm). The Swedish Queen shouts to her subjects:
"Oh, you goy, my Swedish generals!
Lock your gates tighter
You catch the white king quickly!"
Talking about this event, the song emphasizes Peter’s courage and resourcefulness:
He guessed all the Swedish plans,
He quickly rushed into the peasant’s yard:
"Take it, take it, peasant, plenty of money,
Take me to the edge of the blue sea."
On the ships the king escapes from pursuit. Enemies try to capture him, but to no avail. In an effort to catch the Russian Tsar, the Queen sends chases twice. And the pursuers ask Peter to take them with him, since there is no way back for them:
"Take us, take us, white king, with you,
Won't you take us with you, father?
We, the bitter ones, will never be alive in the world."
After the king’s refusal, “the whole pursuit was thrown into the blue sea.” 1
The people call Peter “our father.” This appeal shows the people's love for the autocrat.
Historical songs much less about Pugachev, because in the minds of the people he was a legitimate king, and not a free Cossack robber. It was impossible to write robber songs about him. In Pugachev's songs, people idealized the image of Pugachev, saw him as a protector, a hero, portrayed him as rebellious, proud even in difficult times. life situations. This is shown in the song "The Trial of Pugachev. Panin", in which the ataman behaves proudly, independently, answering the question of the royal nobleman Panin:
Count Panin judged the thief Pugachev here:
Tell me, tell me, Pugachenko, Emelyan Ivanovich,
How many princes and boyars have you hung?
Outweighed your brothers seven hundred and seven thousand.
Thank you, Panin, for not getting caught:
I would add some rank,
The use of constant epithets also characteristic of epics: dark forests, blue rivers, red sun. Many of them are well known to us - we often meet them in Russian folk tales. But some epithets require additional clarification.
Meeting the expression in the epic red girl, we understand that it is not the color red that is meant, but the beauty of the girl. And here open field- this is a foreign land. This was also the name for the space outside the city, village or forest. In the old days, people called the southern steppes where Russian soldiers fought with nomads. Proverbs related to this have survived to this day: “Alone in the field is not a warrior”; “Whose field is his will”; “You can’t cover the whole field with one horse”; “Do not boast while going into the field, but boast when returning from the field.”
Using hyperbole (exaggeration) - also a feature of epics. Russian heroes are extraordinary characters. They have enormous physical strength and incredible, amazing abilities and capabilities. The enemies with whom the heroes fight are also endowed with incredible power: Tugarin Zmeevich, Nightingale the Robber, Idolishche Poganoe, Kalin the Tsar.
Reality and fiction in epics are closely intertwined. For example, in the epic “Sadko in the Underwater Kingdom” a description of Veliky Novgorod and the life of Novgorodians is given - this is reality. But when Sadko falls into the possession of the sea king, this is fiction.
Bogatyr epics tell about the military exploits of glorious Russian heroes: Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich, Alyosha Popovich and others. They talk about the fight against the enemies of the Russian land. Historical and everyday epics talk about heroes folk tales: Svyatogor, Sadko, Vasily Buslaev, Mikula Selyaninovich. They convey the love of the Russian people for the land and agricultural labor.
Construction of an epic, the use of constant epithets and other artistic means in it
In literature, epics are also called epic songs, that is, songs that tell about some events united by the same heroes.
Usually the epic begins with a short introduction - the beginning which indicates the time and place of epic events.
For example:
Like in the glorious city of Kyiv,
At the affectionate prince Vladimir
There was a feast - an honorable feast...
After the beginning comes the main part - narration about the feat. The action in the epic always develops slowly, until it comes climax – the highest tension in the turn of events. Denouement actions - defeat the enemy. The epic always crowns ending. Here is her example:
A special epic poetic world is created by special artistic means. One of the main features of epics is their frequent repetitions. In the epic about the feat of Ilya Muromets, for example, the description of the terrible whistle of the Nightingale the Robber is repeated four times. This makes the robber force seem more powerful, and therefore the victory of Ilya Muromets - more significant. Descriptions of ominous omens and prophetic words are also repeated.
The epics use repetitions and individual words, and several lines. When in the description of the road along which Ilya Muromets traveled to Kyiv, we encounter the repetition of the word staked(that is, the road has become impassable, impassable), the hero’s path seems even more difficult to us:
The straight path is blocked,
The path has been blocked up, walled up...
Often repetitions create a special melodiousness, smoothness and musicality of epic speech:
Yes, by the glorious river, by Smorodina...
He takes his white hands into his white hands...
Another remarkable feature of epics is permanent epithets: wild head, playful legs, white hands, sugar lips, burning tears. The field is always clean, the grass is green, the sea is blue, and the sun is red. It is interesting that in all works of oral folk art the sun is called red, even if a cloudy autumn day is mentioned. The sea is also always blue, even if a storm is depicted: the blue sea has turned black. The girl is characterized by the epithet red, and the fellow is kind. Bogatyr - Holy Russian, mighty. Mother Holy Rus', mother of the damp earth - this is how the heroes of epics affectionately call their homeland.
The enemy in epics is characterized by negative epithets: vile, evil, damned, godless. He is often called a dog, a thief.
And here are also the constant epithets that we often find in epics: honey drink, white stone chambers, damask sword, spring goosenecks, silk bowstring, straight road, taut torn bow, slanted window, brick floor.
In epics they are also often used hyperboles – exaggerations. Hyperboles enlarge the image and help show the strength and exploits of the heroes more clearly and expressively. The strength of heroes is always extremely exaggerated. For example, Ilya Muromets easily, like a swan feather, lifts a club weighing ninety pounds and with one wave of his hand brings down entire hordes of enemies to the ground. And the heroic horse of Ilya Muromets gallops “higher than a standing tree, slightly lower than a walking cloud.” Dobrynya Nikitich plays the harp in Kyiv, and this tune is heard in Constantinople.
The hero is faced with countless hordes of enemies, whom “a gray wolf cannot outrun in three days, and a black crow cannot fly around in a day.”
And even suffixes play a big role in creating poetic world epics and determine the narrator’s attitude towards epic heroes. Diminutive suffixes are used in the names of favorite characters: Ilyushenka, Dobrynyushka, Alyoshenka. And derogatory-increasing suffixes are awarded to the names of their opponents: Idolishche, Serpent.
The epics were created using such bright and varied artistic means.
Epic heroes
Main characters all epics are Russian heroes. Each hero is a bright and memorable image. Each of them has their own name and their own biography.
In the epic narrative, the hero usually appears at first as an ordinary person. At the princely feast, among the princes, boyars and merchants, he does not stand out for his nobility, wealth, or special strength. But there always comes a time when it is discovered that the Russian hero has fantastic strength that allows him to defeat his enemies.
For example, one of the epics about Ilya of Muromets tells how Ilya changed into the dress of a beggar wanderer. Idolishche Poganoe did not recognize the hero in such a guise, he shouted, became angry, pulled out a sharp sword, threw it at the beggar. Here Ilya Muromets showed his strength - he cut off the head of the Poganous Idol.
The discrepancy between ordinary human size and the ability to wield a multi-pound club is never explained in epics. And heroic power, while there is no need for it, also does not manifest itself in any way. And the enormous physical strength of the heroes, and the wonderful weapons that they always have at hand in right moment, - all this is directed towards one main goal- fulfilling his great duty of protecting the Fatherland.
All military affairs of Russian heroes are connected with Kiev. But they were born and raised in different parts of the Russian land. Ilya Muromets - near the city of Murom, in the village of Karacharovo, Dobrynya Nikitich - in Ryazan, Alyosha Popovich - in Rostov.
Russian heroes have their own moral code. They defend the weak, unfairly offended people. But sometimes epic heroes appear not only powerful, but also merciful, even towards their enemies. They can be gullible and simple-minded.
Let us remember the epic about Dobrynya Nikitich and the Serpent Gorynych. Defeated in the first battle, the Serpent Gorynych asks the hero for mercy and promises not to fly to Holy Rus', but he immediately breaks his promise and kidnaps Zabava Putyatichna.
Why did Dobrynya believe him? Because in Rus', violation of the treaty was considered a great shame and was severely punished. A well-known proverb has survived to this day, which reminds us: “An agreement is more valuable than money.” It never occurred to Dobrynya that the Serpent might not keep his promise. And even when the hero caught the enemy in this, he invites the Snake to give up the girl voluntarily in order to avoid bloodshed. But the Serpent refuses. The difficult battle lasted three days and three nights, and then Dobrynya finally dealt with the evil Snake.
In epics, Ilya Muromets personifies wisdom and life experience- He is the eldest at the heroic outpost. The main qualities of Dobrynya Nikitich are education and good manners. Alyosha Popovich is the youngest of the heroes. His most important and striking features are sharpness, cunning, and intelligence.
The epic “Ilya Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber” is one of the works of the epic cycle about the exploits of the most revered hero among the Russian people. The epic tells of two heroic events in which Ilya Muromets participates: the battle with the enemy army - the “strong woman”, who was “black and black”, and the victory over the Nightingale the Robber.
Story
The work has no author's affiliation and is an example of a folk epic. The time of creation of the epic can be determined approximately - it was composed by the people in orally in the period before the 14th century. The epic has undergone many changes throughout its history, acquired new characters, and been enriched poetic images. The first mentions of Ilya Muromets as a defender of Russian lands were discovered in the 16th century in correspondence between one of the subjects of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and his king. The hero in it is called Ilya Muravlenin. Twenty years later, a traveling foreigner mentioned in his notes that he saw the relics of the Russian hero Ilya Morovlin in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. This indicates that at that time the epic, like its main character, was already widely known among the people.
Analysis of the work
Content Description
The action of the epic begins with Ilya Muromets getting ready to set off: after standing for “matins in Murom,” he wants to be in time “for the capital Kyiv-grad” for mass. In front of Chernigov he encounters an enemy army, which he defeats. The Chernigov “peasants” ask him to become a governor in the city, but Ilya Muromets refuses and travels further along the dangerous straight road to Kiev, despite warnings about the Nightingale the Robber living there - he destroys travelers with a “nightingale whistle” and “animal cry.”
The hero wounds and captures the robber, and then, arriving in Kyiv, leaves him tied up in the princely court. Prince Vladimir does not believe the story that the guest traveled along the direct road to Kyiv and defeated the Nightingale the Robber. Surprised that the formidable enemy was indeed captured, the prince asks him to whistle demonstratively. When he causes destruction in the city with his whistle, Ilya Muromets takes him out into the open field and executes him.
Main characters
The two main characters of the work personify one - absolute good, the other - evil. Ilya Muromets is fearless and reasonable. Warned of the danger that lurks along the way, he does not turn away from it, but boldly enters into battle with the robber and defeats him. The hero appoints himself as the defender of the Russian land and people from enemies and carries out his service responsibly and skillfully. The image of Ilya Muromets is partially copied from fairy tales, fictional characters, but also has a historical prototype - St. Elijah of Pechersk Chebotka. Many features of the hero speak of his connection with the mythical Perun and Veles.
The origin of the image of the enemy of the main character Nightingale the Robber is not entirely clear. If we talk on a grand scale, then he replaces in the epic another famous villain, an offender of the Russian people, the snake. However, it can also be assumed that this is not a mythical image, but an ordinary robber, distinguished by his outstanding power to whistle.
There is another hero in the work - Prince Vladimir. Judging by the time of action, Vladimir the Red Sun is depicted. The prince is shown to be quarrelsome and not very reasonable person. He suddenly becomes angry at the suspicion that the words of Ilya Muromets may contain mockery of him, and asks the robber to whistle, although he has heard a lot about the destructive power of his whistle. The image of the prince is described in the mocking tonality of describing kings, traditional for folk epic.
Analysis of the structure of the work
The action of the epic develops progressively and sequentially. Much attention is paid to details and conversations, descriptions of characters and circumstances of actions. The action itself is conveyed in laconic and precise, but figurative expressions: “pulled a silken string,” “put a red-hot arrow,” “shot,” and “knocked out the right eye.”
The epic conveys the people's dream of a faithful defender, formidable for the enemy, faithful and fair for his own. Ilya Muromets is equally independent from the requests of the people, if they do not meet his main goal - to defend the entire Russian land, and not individual cities, and from the attitude of the prince towards him - he is polite and respectful towards him, but is not afraid to argue and defend his human dignity.
The work is written in a kind of “epic” style, with repetitions and a leisurely flow of the plot. All heroes have bright strong personality, the motives of their actions are explained by the direct speech of the heroes, and not by the narrator. Direct speech itself is poetic and replete with figurative expressions.
The epic "Ilya-Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber" is one of the best samples epic epic. The characters and plot are reflected in some non-Slavic epics.
Elements of epic composition. We need to take the text of the epic and look for what of these elements is there.
As a rule, an epic begins with a beginning. In very rare cases, the beginning is preceded by a chorus.
Sometimes the beginning of an epic is an exposition that precedes the beginning.
The exposition prepares and enhances the drama of the plot.
However, the beginning appears as an exposition in epics very rarely. As a rule, the beginning is the plot of the plot. The most common type of epic beginning is the picture of a feast at Prince Vladimir.
The second type of beginning is the description of the hero’s departure. For example, Ilya Muromets travels to Kyiv from Murom, Dobrynya Nikitich from Ryazan, Dkzh Stepanovich from Galich, etc.
The third type of beginning is the depiction of the enemy’s attack on Russian soil.
V. Ya. Propp notes: “The events of classical epics always take place in Rus'. The events of a fairy tale can be localized “in a certain kingdom”, “in a certain state”
The beginnings of the epics immediately strive to emphasize the historical authenticity of their content.
After the beginning of the epic, the action develops. The image of the heroic protagonist is of primary importance, which determines the features of the plot. “The epic develops according to the principle of maximizing the main character,” writes D.S. Likhachev, “and therefore the action of the epic is concentrated around the hero and his fate.” The images of heroes, along with general ones, also have certain individual features. This is also reflected in the specifics of epic plots. So, for example, social conflict is most acutely expressed in epics, the hero of which is Ilya Muromets (for example, the epics “Ilya in a quarrel” With Vladimir" and "Ilya and the Tavern Goli").
The plots of epics differ in their specific content, but they are also characterized by some common, typological features. One of these genre-typological features is the one-dimensionality, or one-linearity, of plot development. As a rule, one storyline develops, connected mainly with the disclosure of its main image - the hero-hero. So, for example, the plot structure of the epic “Ilya Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber,” recorded from T. G. Ryabinin, has this form. In the morning, Ilya Muromets left “either from the city of Muroml, from that village or from Karachirov,” intending to make it to Kyiv in time for lunch. However, this path to Kyiv turned out to be very difficult. According to the hero, his “path has slowed down.” Near Chernigov, Ilya Muromets defeats the “great strongwoman” and liberates the city from the enemy. The people of Chernigov ask him to be their commander, but he does not agree and, being true to his decision, continues his journey to Kyiv. On the way he is met by the Nightingale the Robber, from whose whistle, according to the Chernigov men,
Then all the grass ants are entangled,
All the azure flowers are falling asleep,
The dark forests all bow to the ground,
And as for the people, they are all lying dead.
But Ilya Muromets defeats the Nightingale the Robber and brings him to Kyiv. He tells Vladimir about what happened on the way. The prince does not believe that Ilya Muromets could defeat the “great powerhouse” of the enemy standing near Chernigov and the Nightingale the Robber. But upon entering the courtyard, he is convinced with his own eyes that Ilya Muromets really won and brought the Nightingale the Robber to Kyiv. The epic ends with the message that Ilya Muromets took the Nightingale the Robber “to an open field” and “cut off his violent head.”
The culmination of the plot of the epics is the description of a battle or other competition between a hero and an enemy. In the epic, the description of the battle (competition) of the hero with the enemy is always very brief, victory is always given to the hero very easily, the enemy is always defeated by the hero himself without any outside help.
As in any epic work, the plot in the epic ends with a denouement, which to some extent emphasizes the reality and historical authenticity of the epic.
The most important compositional principle of epics is principle of opposition (contrast or antithesis), which manifests itself primarily in the construction of the plot of epics. The basis of the epic plot, as a rule, is the clash of heroes with their opponents. This is often reflected in the very name of the epics (“Dobrynya and the Serpent”, “Ilya Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber”, “Vasily Ignatievich and Batyga”, etc.). However, the epic heroes and their foreign enemies are contrasting primarily in their spiritual appearance and moral qualities. A hero, as a rule, is kind, fair, honest, peace-loving, noble and modest. Conversely, his opponent is angry, dishonest, warlike, self-confident and treacherous.
Reception antitheses, opposition is also used when creating an external portrait of the hero and his opponent. If, for example, Ilya Muromets is a man of ordinary height, then his opponent is of terrifying size.
The epics use compositional secretion technique Main character. This is often accomplished at the very beginning of the epic.
in the epic “Ilya in a quarrel with Vladimir” the opening tells that Vladimir called all the princes, boyars and heroes to a feast.
Yes, he forgot to call, but what’s better,
And what is the best and the best hero,
And the old Cossack Ilya Muromets.
It was Ilya Muromets who would later become the main hero of the epic.
Everyone is sitting at the table, silent,
All the fellows quieted down.
In the epic, everything is subordinated to the creation of the image of a hero.
In the epic “Nightingale the Robber”, the people of Chernigov, despite the fact that Ilya defeated an entire army and liberated their city, still do not believe that he can cope with Nightingale the Robber, and do not advise him to go along the road, where he meets and destroys everyone with his whistle the all-powerful monster Nightingale the Robber. Prince Vladimir, until he has seen this with his own eyes, does not believe the message of Ilya Muromets that he defeated the Nightingale the Robber.
the initial underestimation of the hero’s strength is necessary for his greater triumph later. In order to defeat such a terrible enemy as the enemy, the hero must have incredible physical strength. For these purposes, the technique of g is very widely used in epics. hyperbolization. The epic speaks about the strength of the main Russian hero Ilya Muromets with the following hyperbolic expression:
From the ground the pillar (would) be up to the sky,
There was a gold ring in the pillar,
I would take Svyatorussk by the ring and turn it!
Hyperbolization is the most important principle of creating epics. They exaggerate the strength of not only the heroes, but also their opponents. And the greater this strength of the opponents, the more significant the victory of the heroes over them turns out to be, the more glorification they deserve.
A significant role in the epic is played by dialogues that dramatize the plot, help to more fully characterize the characters, reveal their thoughts and experiences.
an example showing the significant role of dialogue in the epic. Kalin the Tsar invites the overwhelmed Russian hero Ilya Muromets to come to terms with his position, sit with him “at the same table”, eat his “sugar food”, drink “honey drinks”, “keep the golden treasury” and become a traitor to the Motherland, Prince Vladimir:
Don't serve Prince Vladimir,
Yes, serve the dog Tsar Kalin.
To which Ilya Muromets defiantly answers:
And I won’t sit with you at the same table,
I won’t eat your sugary foods,
I will not serve you the dog Tsar Kalin,
And I will stand for the capital city of Kyiv,
And I will stand for the church for the Lord,
And I will stand for the prince for Vladimir
This dialogue with extraordinary power conveys the drama of the situation, deeply reveals to us the greatness of the image of the main Russian hero, speaks of his courage, courage, and boundless devotion to the Motherland.
An important compositional role in epics is played by the technique of repetition of individual episodes, speech of heroes, etc. Most often, this repetition is three times, but it can also be two times.
It is sometimes argued that the purpose of epic repetitions is to achieve slowness of action. However, slowing down the action is not an end in itself, but only a means to achieve some other goals. The main purpose of such repetitions is to most clearly express a thought that is especially important for the epic, to focus the listener’s attention on some very significant episodes in terms of meaning, certain actions of the heroes, etc.
Directly related to repetitions in epics are the so-called “ common places" “Commonplaces” are stable verbal formulas that are repeated almost verbatim by storytellers in one or different epics in similar narrative episodes or descriptive pictures. Common places are the hero's boasting at a feast, drinking wine, saddling a horse, describing the terrible appearance of the enemy or the large number of his troops; The description of how the hero enters the princely chambers is very consistent: Most often, “common places” in epics are used when depicting a feast at Prince Vladimir, expressing the enemy’s threats, showing enemy strength, describing the hero’s saddling of a horse, showing his ride, battle With enemies, etc.
“Common passages” facilitate the creation of epics: in certain cases, the narrator does not create the text again, but uses ready-made formulas that perform important ideological and artistic functions in the epic.
Construction of an epic (composition),
chorus
The main part of the epics is a story about a feat.
The action develops slowly until its peak, the highest tension - the CLIMAX.
The denouement of the action occurs instantly, depicting the defeat of the enemy.
The epic, as a rule, is crowned with an ending, for example:
One of the indispensable artistic means of epics is REPEATS. Individual words, lines, descriptions of events are repeated - the arrival and reception of guests, fights, laments, ominous omens and prophetic dreams. Thus, in the epic “Ilya Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber,” a description of the Nightingale’s terrible whistle occurs four times, and these repetitions make the robber’s power seem even more powerful. Ilya Muromets’s road to Kyiv seems even more difficult when we encounter the repetition of the word “sealed”:
The straight path is blocked up, the path is blocked up, walled up...
Repetition creates a special melodiousness and smoothness of epic speech:
In his own he takes in his white hands... Yes, near the nice river near Smorodina...
retardation - slowing down of action as a result of a detailed description, for example, saddling a horse or repetition of situations, for example, an ambassador's exact repetition of the prince's instructions.
Epic stories are characterized by HYPERBOLES, which seem to enlarge the image, helping to show the strength and feat of the heroes more clearly and expressively. The strength of the hero is incredibly exaggerated: for example, Ilya Muromets easily, like a swan feather, lifts a club weighing 90 pounds. Ilya’s heroic horse gallops “higher than a standing tree, just below a walking cloud.” Enemies are also depicted in an exaggerated manner in epics. Usually the hero is faced with countless hordes that “a gray wolf cannot outrun in three days”, “a black crow cannot fly around in a day.”
With the help of EPITHETS, a special - epic, heroic - poetic world was created. Bogatyr is defined as Holy Russian, mighty; Prince Vladimir - like a gentle, glorious, bright sun, red sun. The enemy is called filthy, evil, damned, godless. The word being defined is often used with the same epithet. Such epithets are called CONSTANT. For example: a violent head, a zealous heart, a damask sword, quick legs, hot blood, burning tears.
Even suffixes play a big role in depicting the poetic world of epics; they also determine the attitude of the performer towards his heroes. Diminutive suffixes were awarded to favorite heroes - Ilyushenka, Dobrynyushka, Alyoshenka; their opponents are derogatory and magnifying - Idolishche, Serpent.
Epic "Ilya Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber"
The epic “Ilya Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber” is a complex work. It contains several main episodes: Ilya’s liberation of Chernigov from the enemy force that besieged him, after which the residents of the city ask Ilya to be their governor, but he refuses, as he is going to serve in Kyiv; meeting with Nightingale the Robber, who closed the road from Chernigov to Kyiv for 30 years; arrival in Kyiv, where Prince Vladimir does not believe Ilya that he brought the Nightingale the Robber, then the hero shows the Nightingale and tells him to whistle: the boyars fall dead from the whistle, and the prince and princess “crawl.” To prevent Nightingale the Robber from causing more harm, Ilya kills him.
(Ilya and Nightingale the Robber)
He performs his first feat on the way from home to Kyiv. This feat is the destruction of the Nightingale the Robber. The story of this meeting is often preceded by a story about how Ilya was healed of a serious illness in his parents’ house. The epic about the healing of Elijah can be performed as an independent song, but very often it is combined with a song about the meeting with the Nightingale the Robber.
Ilya Always is thought of as old, even in cases where there is no epithet “old”. His old age is an expression of his wisdom, experience and calm strength. Ilya Muromets cannot be imagined as young at all. The epithet “good fellow” is applied to him, but the word “well done” in these cases does not mean age, but daring and strength.
It was not the white dawn that broke, It was not the red sun that rolled out: A good fellow rode out here, A good fellow, Ilya Muromets, on his heroic horse.
His head turned white, his beard turned grey.
Before accomplishing his exploits, Ilya Muromets “sat as a sitter”, “sat as a sedun” for 30 years. He sits on the stove because he is sick and paralyzed. It is sung about him that he “had neither arms nor legs,” that is, he could not move them. “I was sick for thirty years, sitting in a place of rot” (Mark 91). Often he sits on the stove where the sick sit or lie in the village. “I haven’t gotten up from the oven for thirty years” (Cyr. IV, 1). At what age this disease happened to him, nothing is reported about this. Sometimes he is portrayed as old from the very first lines, sometimes (rarely) it is reported that he was crippled from birth. The listener is transported into the setting of a real Russian peasant hut, which is very rare in an epic, but very common for a fairy tale. We understand why people prefer prose in this case. The epic verse of the epic was developed on high heroic subjects. Here we have an everyday picture from the everyday life of a peasant family.
Parents go to work. Their work is clearing the forest for sowing, which is typical for northern arable farming, during which the forest was burned or cut down, and the stumps were uprooted. “And as thirty years passed, in summer itself, in the days of haymaking, and then father and mother left with their family to clear the reap, and they left him alone at home” (Rybn. 190). So, with varying degrees of detail and realism, it is reported in many records.
Ilya is left alone. Strangers come to the house. These wanderers are described very differently. These are “passing people”, “an old beggar man”, “two wandering calicoes, fermented people”, two old men, an orphan, in one case - two young men, etc. These are beggars who have not yet exposed their unusualness in any way. They knock on the window and ask for a drink or alms. These wanderers were undoubtedly created not without the influence of a legend, where wonderful wanderers knock first on the rich, who drive them, and then on the poor, who receive them. But something different happens here. Ilya cannot get up, cannot give them something to drink.
Hey you, good people! I can’t give you something to drink: I have neither arms nor legs.
“I can’t get up,” “I can’t control my arms or legs,” is Ilya’s answer.
I would be glad to give you all the alms I saved... I can’t leave the stove with the bricks.
“Stand up, stand up, good fellow,” “Get your frisky legs off,” “Get your frisky legs off the stove,” - this is how the wanderers suggest with particular insistence. Ilya overcomes himself, and a miracle happens: “The quick little scissors stretched out” (Mark 42). Ilya, who has not left his seat for thirty years, begins to walk. “Ilya put his feet up, opened the wide gates and let the little boy into his house” (Rybn. 51). On some occasions he expresses his glee. His gait immediately turns out to be heroic. He steps so that the “beams scream” and the viburnum floor beneath him sinks.
Now Ilya goes for water or kvass and brings it to the wanderers. But they “turn him away,” that is, they do not drink it themselves, but offer him a drink, or, having drank a little, offer him to drink the rest. A second miracle occurs: Ilya not only recovers, but feels a surge of enormous, inhuman strength. “How do you feel inside yourself, Ilya?” Ilya beat his forehead, the Kalik congratulated: “I hear a great strength within me” (Rybn. 51). “Now, good people, I have a body within me” (Rybn. 139). The wanderers give him a second drink, and now his strength is so great that if
There was a pillar from the ground to the sky, There was a gold ring to the pillar, I would take it by the ring and turn it around the Holy Russian.
Wanderers are afraid of such power. They give him a third drink, and his strength is reduced by half. We already know that physical strength does not yet determine the hero in the Russian epic. A hero must be strong, but heroism is determined by what the strength is directed towards. In one of the options, Ilya, when asked how he feels, answers:
If there was now a ring of vile power, I would let it strike.
The moment Ilya receives power is the moment the peasant Ilya turns into a hero. Ilya’s seat in this regard acquires special significance: he becomes a hero, a hero wretched a man of the people. Here the aesthetics of the epic and the aesthetics
fairy tales are the same. The poorest, the very last of the peasants, the sick, the ailing, becomes the savior of his people.
Wonderful wanderers disappear, are lost from sight. In some versions, at the moment of disappearance, they pronounce a foreshadowing, a prophecy. They say:
Death is not written for you in battle.
In an open field, death is not written for you. Don’t be afraid, drive through an open field.
The words of the wanderers are only an artistic form to express the consciousness of Ilya himself. He cannot say about himself: “Death in battle does not exist for me,” this would contradict the entire poetics of epics. They mean that Ilya has forever excluded the question of his death. This question was resolved for him once and for all, and it was resolved when Ilya realized that he was a hero. This complete absence of fear of death, its complete exclusion from his consciousness, makes him immortal in the eyes of the people.
It is characteristic of Ilya, as a peasant hero: his first impulse, his first thought after recovery and gaining strength belongs to his parents, who are in the field doing hard work. Peasant labor, the peasant essence is so inextricably linked with Ilya’s entire being that he immediately goes to the field to help his parents. The parents are overjoyed, but their joy gives way to fear and horror when they see how he works. To clear the field, he uproots the oak trees and throws them into the water. “The dubya then tears up the raw earth from the mother earth with all its roots” (Mark 67). “And the dubye began to tear up the roots” (Onch. 19). At first, the father thinks that Ilya will be a good peasant worker, that he “will be a great worker.” But soon the parents understand that Ilya is no longer a worker in the field, that with such strength his calling lies elsewhere; his mother, seeing how he works, says:
Apparently, the child will not be our nurse; it will apparently begin to ride across the clean field.
The father says the same thing: “This son of mine will apparently ride in an open field, he will pole in an open field, and he will have no opponent” (Mark 67). Sometimes his father himself invites him to go to Kyiv, but more often he blesses Ilya to leave at his own request with instructions that are extremely interesting for us. In the shortest and most apt form, the father’s instruction is expressed as follows:
And you should have pity on the Christian in the field, And don’t spare all the Tatars in the field.
Ilya himself clearly defines the purpose of his departure. His goal is to devote himself to serving Kyiv and Vladimir. He realized himself as a hero not only in strength, but also in his life’s work. He goes “to bow to the Kyiv prince,” “to pledge himself to the prince for Vladimir,” “I’m going to stand up for Kiev,” etc. We already know that the idea of serving Kiev and Vladimir is one of the main ideas of the early Russian epic. This is the idea of popular and state unity in an era of feudal fragmentation.
This is how this epic ends. Its individual components come from fairy tales and legends. A seat on the stove, a drink that gives strength, a farewell to parents - all these are fairy-tale motifs. In some versions, Ilya chooses or finds himself a horse, as is the story of the fairytale Ivanushka. But although the components are mostly of fairy-tale origin, the epic itself is by no means a fairy tale. Ilya sets off straight from the hut or from the field not for the sake of adventure, but to defend his homeland and to serve it.
The continuation of this epic is the epic about Ilya Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber.
The epic about the Nightingale the Robber is, in some of its components, earlier than the epics about Dobrynya, Alyosha and Ilya that we have already considered; in others, on the contrary, it turns out to be later. In general, it can be considered more recent, since the decisive importance is not the archaic elements, not the presence of a mythological monster in it, but those motives that testify to the overcoming of the most ancient heritage and give it a completely new content. We consider this epic as the last about the battle of heroes with monsters.
There comes a moment in the development of the epic when the heroic battle with the monster can no longer fully satisfy the artistic needs of the people. Fighting these kinds of monsters begins to lose its heroic character. She begins to acquire an adventurous and entertaining character. This is exactly what is observed in the epic about Nightingale the Robber. Its plot, the narrative, is extremely entertaining for the people.
In this epic, Ilya accomplishes not one feat, but two. One feat involves defeating a non-human monster, the Robber Nightingale. This feat belongs to a waning tradition and has its roots in the past. Another feat is that Ilya liberates Chernigov from the enemies besieging him, and this feat already indicates the future development of the epic; it is the first of Ilya’s actual military exploits. People call this epic “the first trip,” and this name should be considered more correct. In the epic about Ilya and the Nightingale the Robber, Ilya already fully demonstrates his heroic qualities. True, the epic about the Nightingale is of an adventure nature, and this can explain that not in all versions the details of the song are subordinated to the main idea. There are options in which Ilya does not go to serve Kyiv; his goal is to, after standing for matins in Murom, be in time for early mass in Kyiv. Sometimes it is mentioned that he travels on Easter Day. He wants to take the straight road to make it on time. Since he travels on Easter Day, he sometimes makes a vow not to bloody his hands along the way, not to take out arrows, not to bleed a sword, etc. How far this commandment will actually be observed will become clear later.
Ilya goes to Kyiv as quickly as possible. Elijah's horse is never winged. This is not a magical horse that flies through the air. Ilya's horse is a heroic horse, not a fairy tale one, although he is sometimes equipped with external fairytale attributes.
Events develop not as Ilya and the listener of the song expect, but completely differently, and this surprise is one of the artistic features of the epic.
Rushing towards Kyiv, Ilya, completely unexpectedly for himself, sees an obstacle, and from this, in fact, the action begins to develop. He drives up to Chernigov to inquire about the direct route to Kyiv, but then he sees that
Near Chernigov the silence is black and black, black and black, like a black crow.
Quite often, Ilya directly runs into the Nightingale the Robber. We must recognize this form of song as defective and incomplete. Externally, the Chernigov adventure easily falls out of the song, but internally it forms a necessary part of the narrative and cannot be dropped without damaging the ideological and artistic integrity of the song. The name of the city is subject to some fluctuations (Bezhegov, Beketovets, Turgov, Orekhov, Obalkov, Kidosha, Chizhenets, Smolyagin and others, in the written tradition - Sebezh), but Chernigov predominates. The enemies who besieged the city are of the most uncertain nature. Most often they are called “power”. Sometimes, but not too often, they are called Tatars, even less often - Lithuanians, sometimes both together:
He arrived in the city of Beketovets, And the damned filth of Lithuania drove over, Here the filthy Tatars overpowered those men of Beketovets.
These enemies are not Tatars. We will see below how specifically and historically correctly the Tatars are depicted in the epic. The force that besieged Chernigov does not threaten the state as a whole. Vladimir in Kyiv often does not even know what happened in Chernigov. We also cannot allow this episode to reflect any of the internecine wars, because, as we know and as Dobrolyubov emphasized, appanage wars are not reflected at all in the epic. The significance of this episode is that the hero of the song is no longer only a snake fighter, but a deliverer from the enemy army. That is why the main national hero of the epic, Ilya Muromets, is made the hero of the song. Ilya cannot remain indifferent to the fate of Chernigov.
A heroic heart is irritable and indefatigable: The heart will run wilder than a little fire.
The peaceful, pious intention to defend matins in Murom and mass in Kyiv is relegated to the background. Ilya Muromets very easily refuses the commandment not to bloody weapons.
How forgive me, Lord, for such guilt! I will no longer lay down the great commandments.
Or more ironically:
Every person makes a covenant, but not every covenant fulfills.
This means that church morality crumbles to dust when it comes to what represents the highest morality of the people, about saving their native land.
The fight is always described very briefly and in purely “epic” terms.
How he began to beat the filthy Tatars, trample them with a horse and stab them with a spear, he nailed the filthy ones in one hour, did not leave the filthy ones for seed.
Such brevity in the description of the battle is typical for this song. We will have a more detailed description of the battles in the epics about repelling the Tatars from Kyiv.
Having liberated the city, Ilya enters Chernigov. Sometimes he finds all the townspeople in the church, and they do not even suspect that the city has already been liberated.
He stopped by the city of Smolyagin, How are the men and Smolyagin people? Everyone goes to the cathedral church From the first to the last. They repent and take communion, say goodbye to the white light, and prepare for war in an open field.
While the Chernigov residents prayed in despair, Ilya saved the city due to the fact that he did not hesitate to neglect the church commandment. When the singer sings that Chernigov residents, instead of thinking about defense, “repent and receive communion, prepare for the death penalty” (Rybn. 189), then this is not only a description of the confusion that has gripped the city, but also sounds like an expression of regret for the Chernigov residents who They found nothing better than to pray and repent. Despair and despondency reign in the city, sometimes described extremely vividly. Ilya tells the people of Chernigov the good news. They don’t believe it, go out to the city wall, look into a fist or a pipe and really see a field strewn with corpses.
The Chernigov episode ends with a detail that is very important for understanding the meaning of this episode, as well as for understanding the psychology of Ilya Muromets. Chernigov residents offer Ilya voivodeship, but Ilya always refuses him.
The people of Chernigov found themselves helpless in the face of the enemy, not because they lacked courage. They were preparing for defense, they were ready to die as one for their hometown, they did not think about surrendering the city to the strongest enemy, preferring death. They were inactive because there was no government that could lead the popular movement. Therefore, the Chernigov men offer Ilya voivodeship, that is, power. The keys of the city are brought to him on a golden platter.
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