Bylina

Russian epic poem

For other uses, see Bylina (disambiguation).

Dobrynya Nikitich rescues Zabava Putyatichna from the dragon Gorynych, by Ivan Bilibin

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Былины

A bylina (Russian: былина, IPA: [bɨˈlʲinə]; pl. былины, byliny) is a type of Russian oral epic poem.[1][2] It originates in the Kievan Rus', but only survived in some northern parts of European Russia and Siberia.[3]

Byliny deal with all historical periods of what are today's Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, with the oldest being set in the heyday of the Kievan Rus', the 10th to 12th centuries.[1] Byliny narratives are loosely based on historical fact, but greatly embellished with fantasy or hyperbole.[4]

In a strict academic sense, byliny can be defined as a specific verse meter known from certain Russian sung epics, ballads and humorous songs.[5]

## Etymology

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The word bylina derives from the past tense of the verb to be (Russian: был, romanized: byl) and implies 'something that was'.[6] The term most likely originated from scholars of Russian folklore (folklorists); in 1839, Ivan Sakharov, a Russian folklorist, published an anthology of Russian folklore, a section of which he titled "Byliny of the Russian People", causing the popularization of the term.[7][8] Later scholars believe that Sakharov misunderstood the word bylina in the opening of the Igor Tale as "an ancient poem." The folk singers of byliny called their songs Russian: старины, IPA: [ˈstarʲɪnɨ], starines; sg. старина starina) or starinki and Russian: старинки), meaning 'stories of old' Russian: старый, romanized: staryj).[4]

## History

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According to a 1972 article by Ukrainian-American historian Russell Zguta, byliny undoubtedly originate in the Kievan Rus' (see the so-called "Kievan cycle", placed in that context).[3] Zguta describes the byliny as rooted in the heroic tales sung in a stately, sober manner by the Kievan gusliari or court poets.[3] With the  Christianisation of the kingdom, both the gusliari and the Western-inspired, much more flamboyant Kievan skomorokhi or minstrel-entertainers were pushed out of Kiev by the puritan clerics.[3] The two groups and traditions melted into one, with the new resulting skomorokhi bards, who entertained a much lowlier public than the former court poets, embellishing the gusliari repertoire with humour and fantastic elements.[3] They had to flee to the more permissive regions to the north and north-east, such as  Novgorod and  Vladimir, where their byliny survived until modern times.[3] This is, in Zguta's opinion, the reason why this type of heroic epic disappeared from the folklore of the area it originates from, i.e. the medieval territories which would become Ukraine, instead being adopted and preserved further to the north and north-east, in the future territories of Russia.[3]

## Research history

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The older theory adhered to the views expressed by Vsevolod Miller (1948–1913) that byliny as an old genre originated in the Russian North.[9][failed verification] According to Miller, the prototype of the Old Russian byliny were sacred northern legends, read according to a certain "bylinic technique", passed "from generation to generation, by the teacher to the student".[10] Regarding the time of the origin of the byliny, Leonid Maykov wrote:

> All the content of byliny, including the most old traditions, is presented in such an edition, which can be dated only to the ancient historical period. The content of byliny was developed at a very early period, perhaps even before the formation of the Old Russian state.

> — Leonid Maykov.[11]

Finally, according to Orestes Miller, the great antiquity of byliny is proved by the fact that they depict a defensive policy, not an offensive one.[10]

Anthologists played an important role in the narration and preservation of byliny. After Sakharov, there were numerous other anthologists who contributed to its development, particularly during the 18th century. For example, Kirsha Danilov produced a compilation of 70 byliny. His sources were believed to be miners living in the Perm area. The works of these folklorists provided insights into the transition of the Russian literary tradition from one that was focused on religious subjects to secular literature. The first transcriptions of byliny are attributed to Richard James, an Englishman who traveled to Russia from 1617 to 1619.[12] The texts that he was able to record are now preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford

There was also a known German translation of the byliny and this was published anonymously in 1819.[13] Overall, interest in these epic poems continued to the point that comprehensive and wide-ranging materials were sourced from virtually all of Great Russia. Although these were preserved, according to Kahn et al., only those byliny from "northern Russia, the areas of Arkhangelsk, Olonetsk, the Onega region, and parts of Siberia" were actively preserved into the 20th century.[14]

## Collections

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Byliny have been collected in Russia since the 17th century; initially they were published for entertainment in prose paraphrases. The Cossack Kirsha Danilov compiled the most notable of the early collections in the Ural region for the mill owner Prokofi Demidov in the middle of the 18th century.[15] In the middle of the 19th century, Pavel Rybnikov traveled through the region of Lake Onega and rediscovered that the bylina tradition, which was thought to be extinct, still flourished among the peasants of northwest Russia. A storm stranded Rybnikov on an island in Lake Onega where he heard the sound of a bylina being sung; he persuaded the singer to repeat the song and wrote down his words. He proceeded to collect several hundred bylina, all of which he recorded from spoken paraphrase, and published them from 1861 to 1867 in several volumes entitled Songs Collected by P. N. Rybnikov.[16]

Another influential collector, Alexander Gilferding, published one collection entitled Onega Bylinas Recorded by A. F. Gilferding in the Summer of 1871. He improved upon Rybnikov's work by transcribing the byliny directly from the sung performance rather than the spoken retellings. He noticed that the rhythm differed between the sung and spoken versions, and asked the performers to pause for a longer period of time between lines to allow him time to record the words from the song itself. He also organized his collection by singer rather than subject and included short biographical sketches of the performers with their collected songs, thus focusing on the singer's role in the composition of the song.[17] Following the work of Rybnikov and Gilferding, many more scholars searched for byliny everywhere in northern Russia, and obtained byliny from the shores of the White Sea and the rivers flowing to the north.[18]

## Classifications

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There are several ways to categorize byliny, and scholars disagree on which classification to use. Scholars from the mythological school differentiate between byliny about 'older' and 'younger' heroes. The 'older' heroes resembled mythological figures, while the 'younger' heroes resembled ordinary human beings. The historical school classifies byliny based on the principality in which the story took place, as in Kievan, Novgorodian, and Galician-Volhynian cycles. The mythological byliny of giants and the like probably originated long before the Kievan state was founded, and cannot be classified easily by principality. Scholars of the historical school often consider mythological byliny separately. Other scholars group byliny based on content, including heroic, fairy tale type, novella type and ballad-byliny. Most scholars prefer classification based on principalities.[19]

## Structure

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Because of their nature as performed pieces, byliny singers employ basically linear and easy to follow structure.[20] Byliny structure typically includes three basic parts, introduction, narrative portion and epilogue. The introduction sometimes includes a verse to entice the audience to listen. Introductions often describe heroes at a feast being given a task or setting out on a mission. The narrative portion relates the adventure with exaggerated details and hyperbole to make the story more exciting. The epilogue refers to the reward for the mission, a moral or a reference to the sea, since byliny were often performed to attempt to calm the sea.[21] To help listeners grasp the story, singers used 'tag lines' to preface speeches or dialogues, setting up for the audience who is talking to whom.[20]

## Common themes

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Scenes common to byliny include a hero taking leave of his mother, saddling a horse, entering a council chamber, bragging, departing over the wall of a city, going on a journey, urging on his horse, in battle, dressing in the morning, exchanging taunts with an enemy, becoming blood brothers with another hero, and asking for mercy. Singers may use their telling of these scenes in many of their songs, incorporating different elements in song after song. Themes in many bylina include the birth and childhood of a hero, father and son fighting, battling a monster, the imprisoned or reluctant hero returning in time to save his city, matchmaking or bride taking, a husband arriving at the wedding of his wife, and encounters with a sorceress who turns men into animals.[22] Christian beliefs mixed with pre-Christian ideas of magic and paganism in byliny, for instance, saints would appear to defend mortals against darkness.[23]

## Major characters and prototypes

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Mikula Selyaninovich and Volga Svyatoslavich with his druzhina

Major bylina characters are Russian epic heroes known as bogatyrs.

Russian name | English name | Prototype

|
|

Илья Муромец | Ilya Muromets | Saint Ilya Pechersky [ru], monk of Kiev Pechersk Lavra
Добрыня Никитич | Dobrynya Nikitich | Dobrynya, Kievan voivode.
Алёша Попович | Alyosha Popovich | Rostov boyar Alexander (Olesha) Popovich.
Святогор | Svyatogor | East Slavic pre-Christian folk tales.
Микула Селянинович | Mikula Selyaninovich | Personification of the Russian peasants.
Князь Владимир | Prince Vladimir [ru] | Vladimir the Great
Вольга Святославич | Volga Svyatoslavich[24] | Prince Oleg
Евпатий Коловрат | Evpaty Kolovrat | Ryazan nobleman with the same name.
Садко | Sadko |
Никита-кожемяка | Nikita the Tanner |
Василий Буслаев | Vasily Buslayev |
Дюк Степанович | Duke Stepanovich |
Змей Горыныч | Zmey Gorynych | Slavic variation of the European dragon.
Солове́й-Разбо́йник | Nightingale the Robber |

## References

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1. ^ a b "bylina: Russian poetry". Bylina | Epic, Folklore & Oral Tradition | Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 28 April 2015. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
2. ^ Alexander, Alex E. (1973). Bylina and fairy tale: The origins of Russian heroic poetry. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 13\. ISBN 978-3-11-139685-9.
3. ^ a b c d e f g Zguta, Russell (1972). "Kievan 'Byliny': Their Enigmatic Disappearance from Kievan Territory". Journal of the Folklore Institute. 9 (2/3 (Aug. – Dec., 1972)). Indiana University Press: 185–193\. doi:10.2307/3814165. JSTOR 3814165. Retrieved 21 April 2025.
4. ^ a b Oinas, Felix J. (1978). "Russian Byliny". Heroic Epic and Saga: an Introduction to the World's Great Folk Epics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 236.
5. ^ Honko, Lauri (2011). Textualization of Oral Epics. Walter de Gruyter. p. 318\. ISBN 978-3-11-082584-8. Retrieved 21 April 2025.
6. ^ Bailey, James; Ivanova, Tatyana (1998). An Anthology of Russian Folk Epics. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe. p. xx.
7. ^ Alexander, Alex E. (1973). Bylina and Fairy Tale; the Origins of Russian Heroic Poetry. The Hague: Mouton. p. 13.
8. ^ Alexander, Alex E. (September 1975). "Bylina and Fairy Tale: The Origins of Russian Heroic Poetry". Slavic Review. 34 (3). Jack V. Haney (reviewer). Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies: 648–649\. doi:10.2307/2495628. JSTOR 2495628.
9. ^ Chadwick, H. Munro; Chadwick, Nora K. (2010). The Growth of Literature. Cambridge University Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-1-108-01615-5.
10. ^ a b Miller, Orest. Historical School of Folklore Studies Archived 3 December 2018 at the Wayback Machine (in Russian).
11. ^ About the bylins of the Vladimir cycle. St. Petersburg: printing house of the Department of Foreign Trade, 1863, p. 139.
12. ^ Chadwick, H. Munro; Chadwick, Nora (1986). The Growth of Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 134. ISBN 0-521-31017-2.
13. ^ Chadwick & Chadwick, p. 134.
14. ^ Kahn, Andrew; Lipovetsky, Mark; Reyfman, Irina; Sandler, Stephanie (2018). A History of Russian Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 48\. ISBN 978-0-19-966394-1.
15. ^ Oinas (1978), pp. 236–237.
16. ^ Bailey & Ivanova (1998), pp. xv–xvi.
17. ^ Bailey & Ivanova (1998), pp. xvi–xvii.
18. ^ Oinas (1978), p. 237.
19. ^ Oinas (1978), p. 240.
20. ^ a b Bailey & Ivanova (1998), pp. xxvi–xxvii.
21. ^ Oinas (1978), pp. 247–249.
22. ^ Bailey & Ivanova (1998), pp. xxvii–xxviii.
23. ^ Warner, Elizabeth (2002). Russian Myths. Austin: University of Texas Press, pp. 18–20.
24. ^ Chadwick, H. Munro; Chadwick, Nora K. (2010). The Growth of Literature. Cambridge University Press. p. 30\. ISBN 978-1-108-01615-5.

## External links

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Look up  bylina in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

* A collection of folk byliny in Russian

*[pl.]: plural
*[sg.]: singular form