As we have already found out in the previous article ("Heroes of epics and their possible prototypes"), Russian heroic epics, unfortunately, cannot be recognized as historical sources. Fine folk history does not know the exact dates and ignores the course of events known to us from the chronicles. The storytellers consider it sufficient to tell their listeners the name of the main character of the epic, the place of action (sometimes real cities and rivers, sometimes fictional), and the time of the events of the epic - under the Kiev prince Vladimir Krasno Solnyshko. The texts of the epics were not recorded, perhaps the heroes of some of them were also heroes unknown to us. And only the heroes most beloved by the audience remained in the people's memory, finding more and more new opponents for themselves, fighting first with the Khazars and Pechenegs, then with the Polovtsy and Tatars. And although in our time one can only guess which of the real-life princes and their warriors could serve as a prototype for this or that epic hero, a number of attempts have been made to make such an identification. Some of them were described in the previous article, but today we will talk about the most "popular" and beloved of the heroes - Ilya Muromets, whose personality is of the greatest interest to both professional historians and readers.
The first mention of Ilya in a historical source
Quite a lot of work has been done by the researchers and very interesting results have been obtained. So, for example, it turned out that for the first time in a historical document the name of Ilya was mentioned in 1574. The headman of the Belarusian city of Orsha Kmita Chernobyl, complaining about the hardships of the border service and inattention to his needs, wrote to his superiors: "The hour will come, there will be a need for Ilya Muravlenin."
Since the Orsha fortress was then Lithuanian, we can conclude that in the second half of the 16th century Ilya Muromets was a national hero on the territory of all the lands of the former “Kievan Rus” - the Moscow state and the Ukrainian and Belarusian regions that had ceded to Lithuania. Because the headman of Orsha, demanding an increase in funding, would hardly have mentioned in his letter an "alien" or even a hostile hero.
The birthplace of the hero
It must be said that modern researchers are skeptical about the texts telling about the birth of Ilya in the famous village of Karacharovo, near Murom, where, allegedly, even direct descendants of this hero by the name of Gushchina live. It has long been proven that this village was founded in the 17th century, and, therefore, its natives cannot have anything to do with the events of long past centuries. And in this case, there are continuous discrepancies with geography. Ilya travels from Murom through Chernihiv to Kiev "by a straight road" - and as a result, he ends up at the Smorodina River: it is on its banks that the Nightingale the Robber is raiding near the Black Mud. But the epic Currant is the left tributary of the Dnieper, Samara (Sneporod). It flows through the territory of Donetsk, Kharkov and Dnepropetrovsk regions, south of the "straight" route to Kiev. Now, if we assume that the hero's homeland and the starting point of his journey was the city of Karachev in the modern Bryansk region, then Ilya's "canonical" route looks quite possible.
But there are lesser-known versions of the epic, according to which Ilya arrives in Kiev not through Chernigov, but through Smolensk, or through Sebezh, and even through Turov or Kryakov (Krakow). Sometimes Ilya is called not Muromets, but Muravets, Morovlin and Muravlyanin. This served as the basis for the assumption that the homeland of the hero could be the city of Morov in the Chernihiv region or Moravia (a region in modern Czech Republic). The fact is that in Russian sources up to the 16th century, the Moravian princes are clearly perceived as one of the Russians. And the Nikon Chronicle calls the Moravians precisely the Morovlians.
Now many historians are inclined to assume that the epics about Ilya Muromets originally appeared in Kiev, and only then gradually, together with immigrants from more southern lands, they penetrated to the northeast of Russia. Perhaps the descendants of these settlers eventually replaced in the texts the distant and already half-forgotten Moravia, Morov or Karachev with those close and well known to Mur and Karacharovo.
In defense of the "Murom" version, it should be said that VF Miller believed: in the image of Ilya Muromets, the features of two different heroes merged - the "north-western", who received strength from Svyatogor, and the "north-east" - the sick peasant of Murom, healed by the Kaliks. In this case, many contradictions disappear.
By the way, the epic about Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Robber is interesting because in its text there is a hidden indication of the time of writing. The fact is that the Novgorodians were the first to come to Zalesskaya Rus - from the northwest. And only then, in the impenetrable Bryn forests, the roads to Kiev and Chernigov began to be cleared. This happened around the middle of the XII century - during the reign of Vladimir Prince Vsevolod the Big Nest: it is on him that the author of "The Lay of Igor's Regiment" pins special hopes in protecting the Russian land from the Polovtsy. And from here, from Zalesskaya Rus, according to the storytellers, its main defender should come to Kiev.
Novgorod trace: the development of the image
Sometimes the Kiev hero Ilya, instead of traditional nomads, faces completely different opponents. One of the versions of the epic about the three trips of Ilya Muromets contains the following lines:
[quote] Ilya Muromets was surrounded
The people in the hoods are black -
Raven bedspreads, Long-brimmed robes -
Know the monks are all al priests!
Persuade the knight
Abandon the Russian Orthodox law.
For treason, the saddle
All promise great promise, And honor and respect …"
After the hero's refusal:
The heads are undressing here, Hoodies are thrown off -
Not black monks, Not priests are long-runners, Latin warriors are standing -
Giant swordsmen. [/Quote]
Before us is a fairly realistic description of the warriors of knightly orders, even the name of a specific order is given. And these are the opponents of the Lord of Veliky Novgorod. This plot could have appeared when “refugees” came to Zalesskaya Rus, originally inhabited by Novgorodians, from the lands of the southern principalities constantly ravaged by the Polovtsians. Having familiarized themselves with their "songs", the Novgorodians could compose their own - about the new adventures of the hero they liked.
Prototypes of Ilya Muromets
But who could serve as a historical prototype for the image of this hero? Various assumptions have been made. N. D. Kvashnin-Samarin, for example, identified Ilya Muromets with the hero Rogdai, who allegedly went alone against 300 opponents and whose death was mourned by Vladimir Svyatoslavich. In the Nikon Chronicle under 6508 (1000), you can read:
[Quote] "Repose Ragdai the Udaloy, as if you are running into three hundred warriors." [/quote]
N. P. Dashkevich, having found in the Laurentian Chronicle under 1164 a mention of a certain Ilya - Suzdal after in Constantinople, remembered the trip of the epic hero to Constantinople. D. N. Ilovaisky spoke about Bolotnikov's associate - the Cossack Ileyk Muromets (by the way, this is a direct indication of the time when such epics were written - the period of the Time of Troubles). But most researchers consider the image of Ilya Muromets to be collective.
Ilias von Reuisen
Traces of "our" Ilya Muromets can also be found in foreign literary sources. Two Western European epic poems (Ortnit and The Saga of Dietrich of Berne) have survived to our time, in which there is a hero called Ilya (Ilias) from Russia (von Reuisen). True, Russian researchers A. N. Veselovsky and M. G. Khalansky, although they came to the conclusion that the legends about Ilias got into the German epic from Russian epic songs, decided that the source for the poem "Ortnit" was the epic not about Ilya Muromets, but about Volga Vseslavich. In the adventures of this particular hero, there are close parallels with the plot of this Germanic poem. In addition, the authors did not exclude the possibility of the Germans using echoes of folk legends about the Scandinavian hero Helga - the beloved of the Valkyrie Hild (battle) Sigrun, who was killed by Odin's spear and became the leader of the Einheris (warriors of Valhalla). This is the brother of the famous Sigurd-Siegfried (the one who defeated the dragon and bathed in his blood). However, "Helgi" in those days is often not a name, but a title meaning "Prophetic Leader", "Leader led by spirits." And many kings, who went down in history, like Helgi, bore a different name. In Russian history there is a prince named "Helgi" twice - this is the famous Prophetic Oleg (Oleg and Olga are Russian versions of this name): the Slavs literally translated the title of the prince into their own language. In their assumptions, Veselovsky and Khalyansky were based on the fact that in various versions of these poems the hero is also called Iligas or Eligast (and there is literally one step from Eligast to Helga). Some have suggested that Ilias von Reuisen may be our Prophetic Oleg.
But back to the above German poems.
So, the first of them - "Ortnit", South German, from the Lombard cycle, was written in the first half of the XIII century (about 1220-1230).
Here Ilias is the uncle and mentor of the King of Lombardy Ortnita, with whom he makes a successful trip to Syria in order to get the daughter of King Mahorel. It is curious that in one of the versions of the epic about Dobrynya Nikitich's marriage there is a similar plot: to bring his wife, who at the first "date" "pulled" Dobrynya off the saddle (with the help of a lasso) helps … Of course, Ilya Muromets.
The poem "Ortnit" states that Holmgard was the main city of Russia. This agrees with the information of other, already historical sagas, which report that Novgorod was the best part of Gardariki during the times of Vladimir the Saint and Yaroslav the Wise and its main city.
The second poem, the hero of which is Ilias, is the Saga of Dietrich (Tidrek) of Berne, recorded in Norway around 1250 (genre - the saga of ancient times, the text indicates that it was composed according to ancient German legends and songs).
It is curious that some information and plot lines of this poem have something in common with the data given in the Novgorod Joachim Chronicle (not a very reliable source of the 18th century). Both this chronicle and "Saga …" date the life of "ancient prince Vladimir" (king Valdimar) to the 5th century. Consequently, the best knight of the prince - Ilya (Jarl Ilias) - should have lived in the 5th century.
So, in the "Saga of Dietrich of Berne", which served as one of the main sources for the "Song of the Nibelungs", tells about the events of the 5th century. AD - this is the era of the Great Nations Migration. The main characters of this work are the Gothic king Dietrich (Theodoric) and the leader of the Huns Attila, who, in fact, were not contemporaries: Attila died in 453, Theodoric was born in 454. Here Ilias is a Greek jarl, the son of King Gertnit, brother of the Vilkinian king Osantrix and the Russian king Valdimar. Sometimes Ilias von Reuisen is not a brother, but an uncle of the “Russian king Valdimar,” who by most researchers correlates with the prince Vladimir of Russian epics. But, perhaps, we are talking about the Danish king Waldemar I, who was born on the territory of Russia, - the great-grandson of Vladimir Monomakh. Ilias von Reuisen is called in the saga "a great ruler and strong knight", while it is claimed that he was a Christian (in the 5th century!).
This saga tells, among other things, about the joint campaigns of the Huns and the Goths against the king Valdimar. In one of the main battles with the Goths, Ilias, Jarl Valdimar, knocked down the best warrior of the opponents - Hildibrand, after which the Goths retreated. But six months later, the combined forces of Attila and Dietrich besieged Polotsk and took it after a 3-month siege. In the decisive battle, Dietrich of Berne dealt a mortal blow to Vladimir, the Russians were defeated, but Attila kept Ilias his hereditary possessions.
Remember Miller's opinion? Ilias von Reuisen is clearly the northwestern Ilya: the one who received his power from Svyatogor. Coming from a peasant family, Ilya from Murom is completely different from the jarl-warrior of German poems.
It is interesting that Saxon Grammar in the "Acts of the Danes" (in the part written on the basis of the epic tales of the Danes) also mentions the war with the Huns and Polotsk. In one of the battles on the territory of the future Rus (which Saxon calls Holmgardia), the Huns, according to him, suffered a heavy defeat: "Such heaps of the dead were formed that the three main rivers of Rus, paved with corpses, like bridges, became easily passable for pedestrians."
And here is the unexpected testimony of Paul Iovius Novokomsky from 1525. He claims that the Russian ambassador in Rome Dmitry Gerasimov was asked a question:
[quote] "Didn't the Russians have any news of the Goths passed from mouth to mouth from their ancestors, or some recorded memory of this people, who overthrew the power of the Caesars and the city of Rome a thousand years before us." / quote]
Gerasimov replied:
[quote] “The name of the Gothic people and the king Totila is glorious and famous with them and that for this campaign many peoples gathered together and mainly in front of other Muscovites … but they were all called Goths because the Goths who inhabited the island of Iceland or Scandinavia (Scandauiam) came instigators of this campaign.”[/quote]
In our time, one can only guess: indeed, even in the 16th century, was the memory of the grandiose campaigns of the Epoch of Migration of Nations preserved in Russia, or did Gerasimov just come up with all this in order to give more significance to both his person and the state he represented?
Some historians suggest that the plots of Russian epics could have come to Germany from the works of Titmar of Merseburg, which describes the war of the children of Vladimir Svyatoslavich, who died in 1015. Others believe that the information came from the people of the German wife of Prince Svyatoslav Yaroslavich (1027-1076) - Countess Oda of Staden (a relative of Emperor Henry III and Pope Leo IX). According to the third version, they learned about the epic Ilya and Vladimir in Germany through German merchants who were in Russia in the XI-XII centuries.
Death of Ilya Muromets
The storytellers are unanimous in their opinion: Ilya was not destined to die in battle, while a number of texts contain indications that Ilya was weighed down by this either a gift or a "curse." Only once does he find himself on the verge of death - when his own son, Sokolnik, born to a woman from the Alien world - Zlatigorka or, in another version, Goryninka (is she not one of those places from where the Serpent Gorynych flew to Russia?) Opposes him? … Sokolnik has been teased by his peers since childhood with “podzabornik” and “fatherlessness,” and therefore he hates his unknown father.
At the age of 12, Sokolnik, called "an evil Tatar", went to Kiev. Letting her son go on a campaign, his mother asks him not to engage in battle with the Russian hero Ilya Muromets, but her words lead to an unforeseen result: now Sokolnik knows his father's name and passionately wants to meet him “in the Field” - of course, not in order to conclude into a kindred embrace. He does not set off alone: he is accompanied by two wolves (gray and black), a white gyrfalcon, as well as a nightingale and a lark, which seem superfluous in this harsh company. However, it turns out that they:
[quote] They fly from hand to hand, Outside the whistles from ear to ear, Coaxing, traveling the good fellow. [/Quote]
In general, they entertain a teenager on the road - audio players have not yet been invented.
Sokolnik's power over animals and birds indicates his belonging to the witchcraft world and emphasizes hostility and alienation for Russia.
The border service in Russia, according to this epic, was not set up in the best way, since the heroes slept through a foreign knight, finding him only thanks to the news of a prophetic thrush or a crow - when Sokolnik, not noticing the outpost, already drove past them in the direction of Kiev (even, which is especially outrageous, “I didn’t put a penny in the treasury!”). We need to catch up, but who should we send for the violator, whose horse is like a fierce beast - fire blazes out of his mouth, sparks fly from his nostrils, and he himself plays with a huge club, like a swan's feather, and catches the arrows shot for fun on the fly?
On reflection, Ilya Muromets rejects the candidacies of "men Zalashaniev", seven brothers Sbrodovich, Vaska Dolgopoly, Mishka Turupanishka, Samson Kolybanov, Grishenka Boyarsky (different names are called in different versions of the epic) and even Alyosha Popovich. He sends Dobrynya Nikitich, who "knows he will come together with the hero, he knows to give the hero the honor." That is, he decides to first try to negotiate with the unknown hero in an amicable way. Sokolnik did not enter into negotiations, and it did not come to a duel:
[Quote] As the good fellow of the hero heard, I roared like a wild beast, From that brave roar
The earth was crumbling cheese, Water poured out of the rivers, The good horse Dobrynin was dumbfounded, Dobrynya himself was terrified on horseback, I prayed to God the Lord, Mother of the Most Holy Theotokos:
Take me away from imminent death, Lord! [/Quote]
In another version, Sokolnik took Dobrynya by the curls and threw him on the ground, and then sent him to Ilya with a mocking message in which he advised him not to be replaced … (not quite a decent word for the letter "G"), but to come with him to "get better."
Realizing the scale of the threat, Ilya Muromets goes to battle with a foreign hero, fights with him without interruption for three days, and, as a result, is defeated: he falls, but, according to one version, an appeal to the Mother-Raw Earth, according to the other - a prayer, gives him new strength. However, having found his cross on Sokolnik's chest, Ilya recognizes him as his son, and is very happy not only about this meeting, but also that he turned out to be not “filthy” (that is, not a pagan), but Orthodox, therefore, his campaign on Kiev can be recognized as a mistake and an absurd misunderstanding. Now, Ilya believes, having found a father, the son will become his successor and the main defender of his new homeland - Russia. But Sokolnik, until then considered himself an invincible fighter, is not at all happy with such a happy ending. The feeling of humiliation joins the former hatred, and that same night he tries to kill the sleeping Ilya - however, the knife hits the golden cross "weighing three pounds."
But there is another, even more sad version of this epic, according to which Ilya, having learned that his son is only 12 years old, sends him home to his mother, offering to gain strength and come to him when another 12 years have passed. In this case, Ilya, alas, himself could have provoked the ensuing tragic events. Because the young hero, offended by such neglect, is indeed going home, but only to kill the "dissolute" mother - for the fact that she once contacted the father who had brutally humiliated him. And then - again goes to Russia, and tries to kill the sleeping Ilya.
Further, the storylines of the two versions of the epic converge: deciding that the son, who deliberately tried to destroy his father, is not worthy of life, Ilya kills him, after which he goes to church to repent.
Perhaps it should be said that similar stories about the confrontation between a father and an unrecognized son are in the German epic (the Hildebrand saga) and in the Iranian legend about Rustam and Suhrab.
Ilya Muromets dies after a terrible battle with the dead, which is described in the epic about the Kama massacre. First, the Kiev heroes, as usual, defeat the Tatar army. And, being proud, they declare:
[Quote] Is that wrong for us?
We would have a staircase to heaven -
We would cut off all the power of heaven. [/Quote]
Or, alternatively:
[Quote] There would be a staircase to heaven, We would have captured all the power of heaven. [/Quote]
In some texts, such words are uttered by the participants in the battle, heated by victory, in others - by the younger heroes who were late for the battle, or were standing at the carts in combat outposts. Ilya tries to stop the braggart, but it's too late:
[Quote] Here Kudrevankov’s strength rebelled again:
Whom they beat and flogged in two - there were two Tatars, Good fellows gathered again, Fought and fought for six days and six nights, How many Tatars are they slashing - there is no loss. [/Quote]
Finally, “they were afraid of this silushka, they went away from her,” but not far: they turned to stone together with the horses at the neighboring mountain. Ilya Muromets alone made it to Kiev, where he also turned to stone - near the city walls.
Back to documents
Now let's return to more reliable sources and try to continue searching for traces of Ilya Muromets in historical documents.
Historians have at their disposal the famous testimony of Erich Lassota, the ambassador of the Austrian emperor Rudolf II, who in 1594 described the tomb of Ilya Muromets he saw in the chapel of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev:
[quote] “In another chapel of the temple outside there was the grave of Ilya Morovlin, a famous hero or hero, about whom many fables are told. This tomb is now destroyed, but the same tomb of his comrade is still intact in the same chapel.”[/Quote]
So, the tomb of the alleged Ilya Muromets in the side-altar of St. Sophia Cathedral was already destroyed at that time, but the local monks explained that the remains of the hero were transferred to the Anthony Cave of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. However, the stories about such a reburial should be considered legendary, because the mummified remains of the alleged hero are located in the Lavra cave. Consequently, this person was buried in this cave immediately after death. Otherwise, they would not have survived. This means that different people were buried in the side-altar of St. Sophia Cathedral and in the Lavra. Unless, of course, you decide that Lesotha's records can be trusted. After all, he didn’t talk about the Saint Sophia Cathedral yet. For example, about some magic mirror:
[quote] "In this mirror, through magical art, you could see everything you thought about, even if it happened at a distance of several hundred miles." [/quote]
But, if we compare these two versions, the information about the burial of Ilya Muromets in the Lavra cave seems more reliable. Firstly, the burial in the side-chapel of St. Sophia Cathedral was still "out of order" for Ilya. Secondly, in some versions of the epic about the death of Ilya Muromets, it is directly said about the "holy relics" of the hero:
[/quote] "And the relics and saints were made"
"And to this day his relics are incorruptible." [/Quote]
At the beginning of the 17th century, the relics of Ilya Muromets were seen by the Old Believer Ioann Lukyanov. He argued that the fingers of the hero's right hand were folded in a two-fingered sign of the cross, which, in his opinion, proved the correctness of the pre-Nikon church rites.
In 1638, a book was published by the monk of the Kiev-Pechersky Monastery Athanasius Kalofiysky, who claimed that Ilya Muromets died in 1188. The same author said that the people of Ilya in vain identified Ilya with the hero Chobotk or Chobitko (from Chobot - boot), who once the enemies were found putting on boots. Not finding another weapon, he fought back with the help of boots, for which he received his nickname.
In 1643, Ilya Muromets was numbered among the 70 saints of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. In the Prologue and Orthodox calendars, the memory of "the Monk Ilya of Muromets in the XII century, the former" is celebrated on December 19 (January 1, new style).
In 1988, a study of the alleged remains of Ilya Muromets was carried out by an interdepartmental commission of the Ministry of Health of the Ukrainian SSR. They were found to belong to a man who was between 40 and 55 years old at the time of death. Its height is 177 cm (this is the largest skeleton of the caves), the estimated time of death is XI-XII centuries. Defects of the spine, old fractures of the right clavicle, second and third ribs were revealed. In addition, this skeleton lacks feet - this is a mutilation and could have caused the tonsure of a monk. Death occurred as a result of a wound in the region of the heart, traces of a wound were also found in the region of the left hand - it seems as if, at the moment of death, he covered his chest with this hand. Let us recall the indication that Ilya was not destined to die in battle: perhaps the old crippled warrior was killed in his cell in 1169, when Andrei Bogolyubsky, having taken Kiev, gave it to his troops for a three-day plunder.
Or in 1203, in which Rurik Rostislavich again ravaged Kiev, plundering the St. Sophia Cathedral and the Tithe Church, and his Polovtsian allies “hacked all the old monks, priests and nuns, and the young matresses, wives and daughters of the Kievites were taken to their camps.
It is hardly possible to give an unambiguous answer to the question: does the investigated body belong to the beloved folk hero, or is someone else buried under his name? It's a matter of faith. But there is no doubt that the epics about Ilya Muromets entered the golden fund of world literature, the name of the beloved hero will forever remain in the people's memory.
