What do we know about our Heroes?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

If you ask the average person in our country to name the names of Russian heroes, you will almost certainly be named Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich. But further - a hitch. Thanks to popular culture, only these three have become widely known. Meanwhile, there were much more heroes in Russia, but not everyone knows about them. Let's try to rectify the situation and tell in this collection about the "unknown" Russian heroes.

But first, we propose to pass a small test that will help you not only remember the epic heroes, but also expand your ideas about the heroes and the time of their existence.

Well, now a small promised review:

Svyatogor

One of the most ancient heroes of the Russian epic epic. Svyatogor is a giant hero so big and strong that even Mother - Cheese Earth could not withstand him. However, Svyatogor himself, according to the epic, could not overcome the "earthly cravings" contained in the bag: trying to lift the bag, he went with his feet into the ground.

Mikula Selyaninovich

The legendary plowman-hero, with whom you cannot fight, because “the whole family of Mikulov loves Mother - Cheese Earth”. According to one of the epics, it was Mikula Selyaninovich who asked the giant Svyatogor to pick up the bag that had fallen to the ground. Svyatogor could not do this. Then Mikula Selyaninovich lifted the bag with one hand and said that it contained "all the burden of the earth." Folklore says that Mikula Selyaninovich had two daughters: Vasilisa and Nastasya. And they became the wives of Stavr and Dobrynya Nikitich, respectively.

Volga Svyatoslavich

Volga is one of the most ancient heroes in Russian epics. Its hallmarks were the ability to shape-shifting and the ability to understand the language of birds and animals. According to legends, Volga is the son of a snake and Princess Martha Vseslavievna, who miraculously conceived him by accidentally stepping on a snake. When he saw the light, the earth shook and a terrible fear fettered all living creatures. An interesting episode of the meeting between Volga and Mikula Selyaninovich is described by epics. While collecting taxes from the cities of Gurchevets and Orekhovets, Volga met the plowman Mikula Selyaninovich. Seeing a mighty hero in Mikul, Volga called him with him to the squad to collect taxes. Having driven away, Mikula remembered that he had forgotten the plow in the ground. Two times Volga sent the warriors to pull that plow, the third time he and his squad did not overcome the whole. Mikula pulled out that plow with one hand.

Sukhman Odikhmantievich

Hero of the Kiev epic cycle. According to the legend, Sukhman goes to hunt a white swan for Prince Vladimir. During the trip, he sees that the Nepra River is struggling with the Tatar force, which is paving Kalinov's bridges on it in order to go to Kiev. Sukhman beats up the Tatar force, but during the battle he gets wounds, which he covers with leaves. Sukhman returns to Kiev without a swan. Prince Vladimir does not believe him and orders him to be imprisoned in a cellar for boasting, and sends Dobrynya Nikitich to find out if Sukhman said the truth, and when it turns out that the truth, Vladimir wants to reward Sukhman; but he removes the leaves from the wounds and bleeds out. The river Sukhman flowed from his blood.

Danube Ivanovic

One of the most popular heroic images in Russian epics. Unlike the three main characters of the epic (Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich), Danube Ivanovich is a tragic character. According to legend, during the wedding, Danube and Nastasya Korolevichna, who was also a hero, begin to brag, Danube - bravery, and Nastasya - accuracy. They arrange a duel and Nastasya shoots three times a silver ring lying on the head of the Danube. Unable to admit the superiority of his wife, Danube orders her to repeat the dangerous test in the opposite version: the ring is now on Nastasya's head, and Danube is shooting. The arrow of the Danube hits Nastasya. She dies, and the Danube finds out, “having spread her womb”, that she was pregnant with a wonderful baby: “knee-deep in silver, up to the elbows with little hands in gold, frequent stars on the head along the braids”. The Danube throws himself on his saber and dies next to his wife, from his blood the Danube River originates.

Mikhailo Potyk

One of the minor heroes. He is known only in the Northern Russian epics as a handsome man and a snake-fighter. There are several legends about him. According to one of them, while hunting, Mikhailo met a swan, which turned into a girl - Avdotya the White Swan. They got married and took an oath that if someone dies earlier, the survivor will be buried with the deceased in the same grave. When Avdotya died, Potyka, along with her corpse, was lowered into the grave, on a horse in full armor. A serpent appeared in the grave, which the hero killed, and with his blood he raised his wife. According to other epics, the wife gave Potyk a drink and turned him into stone, and she herself fled with Tsar Koschei. The hero's comrades, Ilya, Alyosha and others, save Potyk and avenge him by killing Koshchei and quartered the unfaithful White Swan.

Hoten Bludovich

A hero in Russian epics, acting in one epic as a matchmaker and groom. The story of Hoten and his bride is practically the Old Russian story of Romeo and Juliet. According to legend, Mother Hotena, a widow, at one feast wooed her son to the beautiful Chayna Sentinel. But the girl's mother answered her with an insulting refusal, which was heard by all the feasting. When Hoten found out about this, he went to the bride and she agreed to marry him. But the girl's mother was categorically against it. Then Khoten demanded a duel and beat the nine brothers of his bride. Chyna's mother asks the prince for an army to cope with the hero, but Hoten defeats him too. After that, Hoten marries the girl, taking a rich dowry.

Nikita Kozhemyaka

Formally, it does not belong to the heroes, but is a hero-snake fighter. According to legend, the daughter of the Kiev prince was carried away by a snake and held in captivity by him. Having learned from the snake itself that he is afraid of only one person in the world - Nikita Kozhemyak, she sends a letter with a dove to her father with a request to find this hero and encourage him to fight the snake. When the envoys of the prince entered Kozhemyaka's hut, busy with his usual business, he was surprised to break through 12 skins. Nikita refuses to the first request of the prince to fight the snake. Then the prince sends elders to him, who also could not persuade Nikita. For the third time, the prince sends the children to the hero, and their cry touches Nikita, he agrees. Having wrapped himself in hemp and smeared with resin to become invulnerable, the hero fights with the snake and frees the prince's daughter. Further, as the legend says, the snake, defeated by Nikita, begs him for mercy and offers to share the land with him equally. Nikita forges a plow of 300 poods, harnesses a snake into it and makes a furrow from Kiev to the Black Sea; then, having begun to divide the sea, the serpent drowns.

Vasily Buslaev

Also formally not a hero, but a very strong hero, representing the ideal of valiant and boundless prowess. From childhood, Vasily was a daredevil, did not know any constraints and did everything just the way he liked. At one of the feasts, Vasily bets on the fact that he will fight at the head of his squad on the Volkhov bridge with all the Novgorod men. The battle begins, and Vasily's threat to beat all opponents to the last one is close to being realized; only the intervention of Vasily's mother saves the Novgorodians. In the next epic, feeling the weight of his sins, Basil goes to atone for them in Jerusalem. But the pilgrimage to holy places does not change the character of the hero: he demonstratively violates all the prohibitions and on the way back dies in the most absurd way, trying to prove his youth.

Duke Stepanovich

One of the most original heroes of the Kiev epic epic. According to legend, Duke arrives in Kiev from "Rich India", so, apparently, they called the Galicia-Volyn land. Upon arrival, Duke begins to brag about the luxury of his city, his own wealth, his clothes, which his horse brings from India every day, and finds the wine and rolls of the Kiev prince tasteless. Vladimir sends an embassy to Duke's mother to check Duke's bragging rights. As a result, the embassy admits that if you sell Kiev and Chernigov and buy paper for the inventory of Dyukov's wealth, then that paper will not be enough.