Bogatyrs- Slavic GroupCollective"Three Bogatyrs"

The Byliny

In the villages along the White Sea and the Onega River, old singers called skaziteli kept the bogatyri alive for centuries. Each singer held dozens of byliny in memory: long narrative songs performed without accompaniment, in a rolling declamatory rhythm. A bylina begins at Prince Vladimir's court, at a feast. Someone arrives with news of a threat. A bogatyr rises from the table.

P. N. Rybnikov documented hundreds of these performances in the 1860s, and A. F. Gilferding followed in 1873, recording the Onega singers who preserved the tradition in its richest form. By then, central Russia had forgotten the songs. The north remembered.

At Vladimir's Court

Prince Vladimir the Red Sun holds court in Kiev. The byliny never settle whether he is Vladimir I, who baptized Rus' in 988, or Vladimir Monomakh a century later. He is both and neither: the prince who feasts and commands, around whose table the bogatyri gather.

Three names recur above all others. Ilya Muromets, the peasant's son from Murom, paralyzed for thirty-three years before pilgrims gave him the strength of twelve men. Dobrynya Nikitich, of noble blood, dragon-slayer and diplomat. Alyosha Popovich, a priest's son who wins through cunning where the others win through force.

The court holds them together but does not keep the peace. In one bylina, Vladimir imprisons Ilya for three years. When Kalin-Tsar marches on Kiev with a vast army, there is no one to send against him. Ilya's patriotism overcomes his anger: he rides out alone and breaks the army. In another, Alyosha tries to marry Dobrynya's wife Nastasya Mikulichna while Dobrynya is away on a quest that has lasted twelve years. Dobrynya returns disguised as a musician at the wedding feast and reveals himself when Nastasya recognizes his ring.

The Petrification

The byliny say the age of heroes ended not with defeat but with boasting. After routing a vast enemy host, the bogatyri declared they could fight any army, even one sent by God. A force appeared that could not be killed. Each fallen enemy split into two fresh warriors. The more the bogatyri fought, the more they faced. They fled to the mountains and turned to stone.

The rocky formations of the Russian landscape are their bodies. The songs the northern singers kept are their voices.