Ilya Muromets
Encyclopedia
Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus was a medieval polity in Eastern Europe, from the late 9th to the mid 13th century, when it disintegrated under the pressure of the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240....
epic
Slavic mythology
Slavic mythology is the mythological aspect of the polytheistic religion that was practised by the Slavs before Christianisation.The religion possesses many common traits with other religions descended from the Proto-Indo-European religion....
hero
Hero
A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...
. He is celebrated in numerous byliny
Bylina
Bylina or Bylyna is a traditional Russian oral epic narrative poem. Byliny singers loosely utilize historical fact greatly embellished with fantasy or hyperbole to create their songs...
(folk epic poems
Epic poetry
An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
). Along with Dobrynya Nikitich
Dobrynya Nikitich
Dobrynya Nikitich is one of the most popular bogatyrs after Ilya Murometz from the Kievan Rus era. Many byliny center on Dobrynya completing tasks set him by the prince. Dobrynya is often portrayed as being close to the royal family, undertaking sensitive and diplomatic missions.As a courtier,...
and Alyosha Popovich
Alyosha Popovich
Alyosha Popovich , alongside Dobrynya Nikitich and Ilya Muromets, is a bogatyr . He is the youngest of the 3 main bogatyrs of Kiev Rus.The three of them are represented together at Vasnetsov's famous painting Bogatyrs....
he is regarded as the greatest of all the legendary bogatyr
Bogatyr
The bogatyr was a medieval heroic warrior of Kievan Rus' and the Novgorodian Republic, akin to a Western European knight errant.- Kievan Rus' :...
s (i.e., medieval knights-errant
Knight-errant
A knight-errant is a figure of medieval chivalric romance literature. "Errant," meaning wandering or roving, indicates how the knight-errant would typically wander the land in search of adventures to prove himself as a knight, such as in a pas d'armes.The first known appearance of the term...
of Kievan Rus). (The three of them are represented together in Vasnetsov's famous painting Warriors, as illustrated below.)
Although Ilya's adventures are mostly a matter of epic fiction, he is believed to have been an historical person: a 12th century warrior and, in older age, a monk named Ilya Pechorsky. Ilya is beatified as a minor Saint of Orthodox Church. His relics are preserved in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra
Kiev Pechersk Lavra
Kiev Pechersk Lavra or Kyiv Pechersk Lavra , also known as the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, is a historic Orthodox Christian monastery which gave its name to one of the city districts where it is located in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine....
.
Ilya in byliny
Murom
Murom is a historic city in Vladimir Oblast, Russia, which sprawls along the left bank of Oka River. Population: -History:In the 9th century CE, the city marked the easternmost settlement of the Eastern Slavs in the land of the Finno-Ugric people called Muromians. The Russian Primary Chronicle...
. He suffered serious illness in his youth and was unable to walk until the age of 33 (till then he could only lie
Lying (position)
Lying is a type of human position in which the body is more or less horizontal and supported along its length by the surface underneath....
on a Russian oven
Russian oven
.A Russian oven or Russian stove is a unique type of oven/furnace that first appeared in the 15th century. It is used both for cooking and domestic heating. The Russian oven burns firewood or wood manufacturing waste....
), when he was miraculously healed by two pilgrims
Pilgrims
Pilgrims , or Pilgrim Fathers , is a name commonly applied to early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States...
. He was then given super-human strength by a dying knight, Svyatogor
Svyatogor
Svyatogor is the name of a Kievan Rus' mythical bogatyr from bylinas. His name is a derivation from the words "sacred mountain"...
, and set out to liberate the city of Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
from Idolishche to serve Prince Vladimir the Fair Sun
Vladimir I of Kiev
Vladimir Sviatoslavich the Great Old East Slavic: Володимѣръ Свѧтославичь Old Norse as Valdamarr Sveinaldsson, , Vladimir, , Volodymyr, was a grand prince of Kiev, ruler of Kievan Rus' in .Vladimir's father was the prince Sviatoslav of the Rurik dynasty...
(Vladimir Krasnoye Solnyshko). Along the way he single-handedly defended the city of Chernigov from nomadic invasion (possibly by Polovtsi) and was offered knighthood by the local ruler, but Ilya declined to stay. In the forests of Bryansk
Bryansk
Bryansk is a city and the administrative center of Bryansk Oblast, Russia, located southwest of Moscow. Population: -History:The first written mention of Bryansk was in 1146, in the Hypatian Codex, as Debryansk...
he then killed the forest-dwelling monster Nightingale the Robber
Nightingale the Robber
Nightingale the Robber or Solovei the Brigand , also known as Solovey Odikhmantievich , was an epic robber from bylinas poetry of Kievan Rus'....
(Solovei-Razboinik), who could murder travellers with his powerful whistle.
In Kiev, Ilya was made chief bogatyr by Prince Vladimir and he defended Rus'
Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus was a medieval polity in Eastern Europe, from the late 9th to the mid 13th century, when it disintegrated under the pressure of the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240....
from numerous attacks by the steppe
Steppe
In physical geography, steppe is an ecoregion, in the montane grasslands and shrublands and temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biomes, characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes...
people, including Kalin, the (mythical) tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
of Golden Horde
Golden Horde
The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire...
. Generous and simple-minded but also temperamental, Ilya once went on a rampage and destroyed all the church steeples in Kiev after Prince Vladimir had failed to invite him to a celebration. He was soon appeased when Vladimir sent for him.
Legendary stature
Ilya Muromets's name became a synonym of an outstanding physical and spiritual power and integrity, dedicated to the protection of the Homeland and People and over time has become a hero of numerous movies, pictures, monuments, cartoons and anecdotes. He is the only epic hero canonized by the Russian Orthodox ChurchRussian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
.
Batu Khan
Batu Khan was a Mongol ruler and founder of the Ulus of Jochi , the sub-khanate of the Mongol Empire. Batu was a son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan. His ulus was the chief state of the Golden Horde , which ruled Rus and the Caucasus for around 250 years, after also destroying the armies...
, the founder of Golden Horde
Golden Horde
The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire...
(c. 1205–55); he saved Constantine the God-Loving, the tsar of Constantinople, from a monster (there were a number of Byzantine emperors named Constantine, none of them contemporaries of Prince Vladimir or Batu Khan, and the one most likely to be called "God-loving" was Constantine XI
Constantine XI
Constantine XI Palaiologos, latinized as Palaeologus , Kōnstantinos XI Dragasēs Palaiologos; February 8, 1404 – May 29, 1453) was the last reigning Byzantine Emperor from 1449 to his death as member of the Palaiologos dynasty...
, 1405–53).
Ilya as a saint
It is generally believed that Muromets's prototype was St Ilya Pechorsky, a minor saint of the Orthodox Church, beatified in 1643. According to hagiography, before taking his monastic vows Ilya was a warrior famous for his strength. His nickname was Chobotok, Old Russian for "Boot", given to him after an incident when Ilya, caught by surprise, fought enemies with his boot only.In 1988, Soviet archeologists exhumed Ilya's remains, stored in Kiev Pechersk lavra, and studied them. Their report suggested that at least some parts of the legend may be true: the person was tall, his bones carried signs of spinal disease at early age and marks from numerous wounds, one of which was fatal.
Ilya Muromets depictions
- Viktor VasnetsovViktor VasnetsovViktor Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov , 1848 — Moscow, July 23, 1926) was a Russian artist who specialized in mythological and historical subjects. He was described as co-founder of folklorist/romantic modernism in the Russian painting and a key figure of the revivalist movement in Russian art.- Childhood ...
's 1898 painting BogatyrBogatyrThe bogatyr was a medieval heroic warrior of Kievan Rus' and the Novgorodian Republic, akin to a Western European knight errant.- Kievan Rus' :...
s (center figure). - Reinhold GlièreReinhold GlièreReinhold Moritzevich Glière was a Russian and Soviet composer of German–Polish descent.- Biography :Glière was born in Kiev, Ukraine...
's 1911 Symphony No. 3 (Ilya Muromets) in B minor, op. 42 - Ilya Muromets is depicted on the 1913 Russian stamp.
- Viktor Vasnetsov's 1914 painting Ilya Muromets.
- Aleksandr PtushkoAleksandr PtushkoAleksandr Lukich Ptushko is a Soviet animation and fantasy film director, and Meritorious Artist of the RSFSR. Ptushko is frequently referred to as "the Soviet Walt Disney," due to his prominent early role in animation in the Soviet Union, though a more accurate comparison would be to Willis...
's 19561956 in filmThe year 1956 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 5 - The Ten Commandments opens in cinemas and becomes one of the most successful and popular movies of all time, currently ranking 5th on the list of all time moneymakers * February 5 - First showing of documentary films by...
film Ilya MurometsIlya Muromets (film)Ilya Muromets , known in the US as The Sword and the Dragon and in the UK as The Epic Hero and the Beast , is a Russian fantasy film directed by the noted fantasy director Aleksandr Ptushko, made at Mosfilm and released in 1956. It is based on the byliny tales of the bogatyr Ilya Muromets...
. - Konstantin VasilyevKonstantin VasilyevKonstantín Alexeyevich Vasilyev ; born September 3, 1942, in Maykop, died October 29, 1976 in a railway accident near Kazan) was a Russian illustrator, who left more than 400 paintings and drawings...
's 1974 and 1977 paintings. - Liz WilliamsLiz WilliamsDr Liz Williams is a British science fiction writer. The Ghost Sister, her first novel, was published in 2001. Both this novel and her next, Empire of Bones were nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award. She is also the author of the Inspector Chen series.Williams is the daughter of a stage...
' Nine Layers of Sky (2003) writes a modern day account of Ilya. - Vladimir Toropchin's animated feature, Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Robber, released on July 7, 2007, and it's sequel Three Bogatyrs and the Shemakhan Queen, released in 2010. http://3bogatirya.ru/