Volga Svyatoslavich (also Volkh Vseslavievich ) - a hero , a character of Russian epics . The main distinguishing features of this hero are the ability for werewolf and the ability to understand the language of birds, fish and animals.
The identification of Volga and Volkh is not generally accepted in folklore. [1] Perhaps these are different persons who, in the late period of the existence of the epic, began to merge in the consciousness of storytellers due to the similarity of names.
Content
The origin of the image
In the epic figure of Volkh Vseslavievich there are many archaic features, therefore he is considered one of the oldest characters in Russian folklore. V.F. Miller believed that initially it was an image of a thundercloud, as indicated by the concussion described in the epic in nature at the birth of the Volga (thunder) and werewolf, that is, a constant and rapid change in the shape of the cloud under the influence of air movement.
The origin of the name of this hero from the word " sorcerer " (by converting a household name into a proper name) was supposed.
Based on the epic information about Volga, modern scholars of the mythology of the ancient Slavs even reconstruct (rather controversially) the ancient Slavic god Volkh .
Proponents of the “historical school” [2] in the study of epics believe that the prototype of the epic Volga was Prince Vseslav Polotsky .
Key stories
1. The birth of a hero
Volga is the son of a snake and Princess Martha Vseslavievna, who conceived him miraculously, accidentally stepping on a snake. Then he was very angry, but when he saw Martha Vseslavievna, he fell in love. The shudder of the earth and the terrible fear of all living creatures at the moment when Volga saw the light, point to it as the personification of some elemental force. Volga grows by leaps and bounds, and soon becomes a powerful hero, possessing not only the art of fighting enemies, but also reading books and turning around different animals.
This story preserves the oldest ideas about animals as the ancestors of man and about the possibility of the birth of a great hunter and magician directly from the animal father
2. Campaign in the Indian Kingdom
The central moment of the epic about Volga is his campaign in the distant kingdom: the Indian, the lands of the Turkish Sultan Suleiman, etc. He is gaining a squad. To supply her with everything necessary, he turns to the wolf and the falcon, feeding the warriors hunting game. The success of the campaign is caused by the wisdom of Volga. He spoils the ermine with bowstrings of enemies' bows, bites the throats of horses with a wolf, and so on. So that the squad could overcome the impregnable walls, he turns the soldiers into ants , and in the walls of the city returns them their human appearance. The winner marries the wife of the murdered king, and gives his warriors local girls who are left alive. He himself becomes king.
Bylina about the campaign was preserved in 11 records.
3. Meeting with Mikula Selyaninovich
Meeting with a wonderful plowman, surpassing Volga in "tricks-wisdom." During the collection of taxes from the cities of Gurchevets and Orekhovets, I met Volga the plowman Mikula Selyaninovich. Mikula complained about the tax collectors of the city of Gurchevets, fighting with a peasant simple at exorbitant prices, and told how he punished them for greed with a whip. Seeing a mighty hero in Mikul, he called Volga with him in a squad to collect taxes. After driving off, Mikula remembered that he had forgotten the plow in the ground. Two times Volga sent the vigilantes to pull that plow, for the third time he himself and the squad did not defeat the whole. Mikula with one hand pulled out that plow. Arriving in the cities of Gurchevets and Orekhovets, they fought and collected taxes.
Volga Svyatoslavich and Prince Oleg
At one time, it was customary to identify Volga Svyatoslavich with the Prophetic Prince Oleg , who reigned after Rurik . Identification is based on the similarity of names, the correspondence of Oleg’s annalistic epithet “Prophetic” (indicating his cunning and wisdom) with Volga’s qualities. In addition, Oleg’s campaign on Tsaregrad was correlated with Volga’s campaign in India , and in the birth of Volga from a snake they found a semblance of Oleg’s death from a snake. Vladimir Propp rejects this attempt to find Volga’s historical prototype as absolutely fantastic [3] [ why? ] .
According to V.F. Miller , memories of the prophetic Oleg and Vseslav Polotsky joined with an initially purely mythical basis over time. According to Wollner , about Volga and Volkh, initially there were two separate songs, which were then mixed with each other. A.N. Veselovsky brings one of the epics about Volga closer to The Walk of Karl, and thus he compares Volga himself with Charlemagne . Volga is also called Buslaevich, which, according to Miller, together with the news of his scholarship was transferred to him from Vasily Buslaevich Novgorod.
A. A. Shakhmatov [4] , B. A. Rybakov [5] , I. L. Andronikov [6] , Z. I. Vlasov [7] and some other researchers identified Volga Svyatoslavich and Drevlyansky prince Oleg Svyatoslavich .
Screen version
In 2010, the cartoon “ Volga and Sultan's Wife ”, directed by Hayk Khanjyan, was released [8] .
Notes
- ↑ Nosov N. N. On the Origin of the Epic Names of the Volkh and Volga // Russian Speech . - 2011. - No. 2 . - S. 78-88 . - ISSN 0131-6117 .
- ↑ Historical school of folklore
- ↑ Vladimir Propp. Russian heroic epic. M., 2006, p. 71
- ↑ Shakhmatov A.A. Mstislav Luty in Russian poetry // Collection of the Historical and Philological Society, published in honor of Professor N. M. Sumtsov. - Kharkov, 1909. - T. XVIII. - S. 82-91.
- ↑ Rybakov B.A. Ancient Russia: Tales, epics of the annals. - M.: Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1963. - S. 53-58.
- ↑ Andronikov I. L. Selected Works. - M.: Fiction, 1975. - T. 1. - S. 385-386.
- ↑ Vlasova Z. I. Buffoons and folklore. - St. Petersburg: Aletheya, 2001 .-- S. 177-179.
- ↑ Volga and Sultanova's wife (Russia, 2010) - YouTube
Literature
- Nosov N. N. On the origin of the epic names of Volha and Volga // Russian Speech . - 2011. - No. 2 . - S. 78-88 . - ISSN 0131-6117 .