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Bylina (Russian: были́на; pl. Byliny (Russian: были́ны); sometimes named Stariny (Russian: Старины)) is a traditional epic, heroic narrative poem of the early East Slavs of Kievan Rus. This poetic tradition continued in Russia and Ukraine.
Bylina comes from the Russian "byl'" (быль), a word which signifies a story of real events, as opposed to a fictional one and a cognate of the English verb to be.
Bylinas are a kind of poetry without rhyme (blank verse), but with a characteristic rhythm, a kind of free verse. Most bylinas were preserved in northern regions of Russia, and their style was imitated by several famous Russian poets.
There are quite a few bylina cycles. Bylinas may be roughly classified into the following series:
- Of the older heroes (Volga Vseslavich, Mikula Selianinovich, Sviatogor)
- Of Vladimir, prince of Kiev, tales of the Golden Age of Kiev, of Kievan Rus'. Here belongs the knights-errant (bogatyr) cycle concerning Ilya Muromets, Alyosha Popovich and Dobrynya Nikitich, being among the most popular bylina.
- Of Novgorod (Vasily Buslaev, Sadko the merchant)
- Of Moscow (of Yermak Timofeyevich, Ivan the Terrible)
- Of the Ukrainian cossack history (in Ukrainian language, of invasions of Turks and Tatars, of Haidamak uprisings)
- Of Cossack insurgents (Stenka Razin)
- Of Peter the Great
See also
Links
- Russian Bylinas of Kiev cycle - in Russian
- Russian Bylina "Stavr Godinovich" - in English
References
- Bylina and Fairy Tale: The Origins of Russian Heroic Poetry., Review author[s]: Jack V. Haney Slavic Review © 1975
- The Question of Genre in Byliny and Beowulf, by Shannon Meyerhoff, 2006
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 31 December 2008, at 11:25.
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