Features of the literary ballad genre. Ideal female images in medieval Rus' of the XI-XV centuries

Avdotya Ryazanochka Avdotya Ryazanochka is the heroine of an ancient epic. This simple woman lived with her family in Ryazan and once left the city on business. In her absence, the city was attacked by the Tatar troops, who plundered and burned it, beat the princes and boyars, and drove the surviving inhabitants into captivity. Historically, events usually correlate with the attack of Batu Khan's troops in December 1237 or the ruin of Ryazan in the 15th century by Khan of the Great Horde Akhmat. However, in the interval between these two dates, there were many other attacks on this city.

In one Onega epic tells about the bold act of Avdotya Ryazanochka, about her female fidelity. Avdotya managed to get out of Tatar captivity not only her relatives, people close to her: brother, son and husband (in other editions of the epic - son, daughter-in-law and mother), but the whole Ryazan is full. Some researchers attribute this dangerous journey to the Horde by the times Tatar-Mongol yoke, to the sacking of Ryazan in December 1237, although in some versions "King Bakhmet of Turkey" is mentioned.

It seems to us that this legendary event could have taken place both in the 13th century and in the 14th century. Probably, the replacement of Batu with Bakhmet could have occurred in the second half of the 15th century after the attack on Ryazan by Khan of the Great Horde Akhmat.

The Ryazan Principality was constantly invaded by predatory detachments of the Tatar-Mongolian Golden Horde that had begun to disintegrate. One of these detachments raided in exile, that is, unexpectedly, lightly, as a result of which the defenders of the city could not offer any serious resistance to the enemies, especially since the Ryazan army at that time set out on a campaign. The steppe marauders who attacked the city robbed and took away all the surviving population in full.

As the song about Avdotya Ryazanochka says, Turkish Khan Bakhmet:

He mined the old Kazan-city under the forest.
He de stood under the city
With its force-army.
There was a lot of this time, time.
Yes, I ruined Kazan-city undergrowth,
Ruined Kazan-de-city in vain.

Yes, and the princess-boyar
He took those alive in full.

He led the Turkish to his land.

The city, which was devastated, is called Kazan in the text for some reason. But Kazan, which became part of the Muscovite state from the second half of the 16th century, was never subjected to enemy invasions. Apparently, here we are dealing with the epic replacement of one city by another, which is common for northern storytellers:

But Kazan was burned like a fire,
But Ryazan was taken to the full;
I traveled through Turkey and Sweden,
Kazan, and Ryazan, and Vostrakhan.

The epithets "old" and "undergrowth", found in the song, are more consistent with Ryazan (with the epithet "old" Ryazan is also mentioned in the song "Polish Ataman": "Collection of Kirsha Danilov", No. 53). In the name of Tsar Bakhmet, perhaps, there are echoes of the name of Khan Akhmet, who devastated Ryazan in 1472. The name of this king Turkish and the Turkish land apparently reflects the influence of the folklore of the 17th-18th centuries with the Turkish theme strongly developed in it.

Unexpected news of the sack of Ryazan found Avdotya Ryazanochka at a time when she was on the other side of the Oka River, preparing hay for the winter in the flood meadows of the Oka. Avdotya, like any Russian woman, quickly took matters into her own hands. Having wept her tears, and knowing that hardly anyone would help her in these circumstances, she began to think about how to improve the situation in which she found herself by a tragic accident. Having little hope for a favorable outcome of her idea, she nevertheless got ready for the road, having prepared, just in case, funeral white shirts for her relatives. Avdotya got to the Khan’s headquarters for a very long time and trampled down more than one pair of bast shoes, overcoming several enemy outposts-barriers on her way:

The first great outpost -
He let in rivers, deep lakes;
Another great outpost -
Clear fields are wide,
Became thieves-robbers;
And the third outpost - dark forests
Unleashed fierce beasts.

Finally, the Ryazan wife came to where the Turkish (Tatar) was full. There she was greeted unfriendly, but with undisguised curiosity.

What do you want, Russian woman? - said the king-king Bakhmet, not a little surprised at the arrival of Avdotya Ryazanochka.

I want to return my relatives to the empty land, Ryazan, the eastern king, ”answered Avdotya Ryazanochka.

Tsar Bakhmet says to her:

You, Avdotya, are Ryazanochka's wife!
When you knew how to go the way and the way, -
So know how to ask for heads
Of the three united.
But you don’t know how to ask for little heads, -
So I will cut off your wild head to the shoulders.

Listen to me, oh great and wise ruler, and decide the matter in truth. I am still a very young woman, and I can get married again. So I will have a husband. And if I have a husband, then I will give birth to a son. Only sibling no one will return me, no one will give me, so free my brother.

You speak the truth, Ryazanka Avdotya. Since you are so wise, then do the same. I give you three days and two nights so that you can find your relatives in my kingdom. But that is not all. Pick any flower from my tent, and until it withers for three days, no one will touch you, but wither, then your last hour will come to you.

Avdotya came out of the tent, not herself, twirled, grieved. She shook her head from side to side, fell on the grass, wailed, shedding tears:

My Russian Mother Earth, do not let your daughter disappear in a strange side. Help me, mother, parent!

The Russian Land did not give her offense. Sunny, golden flower, put right into Avdotyushka Ryazanochka’s hands, and the flower is called immortelle, it won’t wither not only for three days and three nights, but it won’t wither for three hundred and thirty and three days, and maybe even three thousand three hundred and three years with three months, with three weeks, with three days.

And the sun is going down, and the cavalry is rushing to Avdotya Ryazanochka, preparing to fulfill the Khan's command. Yes, how Russian Polonyaniki ran out of the most extreme yurts, and among them a son with a husband and a brother, Yes, and there were Yelets, Bryanet, not enough, Moscow, but more than all Ryazan, Oka. The Tatar horsemen galloped up to Avdotya Ryazanochka to knit, so, and the flower in her hands burns with the sun, does not fade in any way. That's it!

Though you are a khan, even a tsar-king, but the word must be restrained, reassured, so that forests and seas and steppes with tulips and poppies are praised. And the tsar-myr, the sovereign of the east, had to give everything away, to let go to Ryazan, to sow the Russian land, to settle in.

Since then, Ryazan has again settled down and settled down, and again it began and beautified, because Avdotya Ryazanochka:

Built Kazan-city anew,


But here in Kazan Avdotino's name was exalted.

In another version, it is directly said about Ryazan:

Yes, since then Ryazan has become glorious,
Yes, since then Ryazan has become rich,
Is it here in Ryazan that Avdotino's name was exalted
And yes, that was the end of it.

The woman's mind turned out to be wise and cheerful: Avdotya brought the whole of Ryazan with her.
And everyone praised Avdotya Ryazanochka with glory.

Returning home, Avdotya found that the city had been burned, and her relatives were neither among the survivors nor among the dead. Realizing that her family members are in captivity, she makes an unheard-of decision at that time - to go to the Horde to help them. Not only that, before the headquarters of the Khan, located on the territory modern Kazakhstan. she needs to go several thousand kilometers, on this way there are a lot of rivers, robbers, wild animals.

After a long journey, the woman reaches the khan's headquarters on foot and seeks a meeting with him. Struck by her courage, the khan allows her to choose only one of her relatives, and she makes a choice not in favor of her son or husband, which would be more understandable, but in favor of her brother. When asked by the khan how to explain her choice, the woman said that she was still young enough to get married again and give birth to new children, but she would never be able to return her brother.

The Khan allowed her to search for her relatives, however, he limited it in time to a period until a freshly picked flower withered in her hands. If she does not have time to find her loved ones before this time, she will lose her head. The woman went out into the steppe and plucked an immortelle flower that never withers. According to some epics, the khan, struck by her courage and wisdom, released with Avdotya not only her relatives, but also other captured Ryazanians, and even rewarded her. Returning, these people rebuilt the city of Ryazan in a new place.

A simple and weak woman succeeded in what princes and skillful warriors could not do with the help of weapons. The bylina about Avdotya Ryazanochka has several variants, in which both the name of the khan and the name of the city change. In the future, a lot of legends appear in folklore using this plot, where in leading role there are already other women. But the main participants are always the Woman, the Khan and the Immortelle flower.

Avdotya Ryazanochka

Glorious old King Bahmet Turkish
He fought on the Russian land,
He mined the old Kazan-city undergrowth,
He de stood under the city
With your force-army,
There was a lot of time this time,
Yes, and ruined Kazan-city undergrowth,
Ruined Kazan de city in vain.
He cut down all the princes-boyars in Kazan,
Yes, and the princess-boyar -
He took those alive in full.
He captivated the people many thousands,
He led the Turkish land to his land,
He set up three great outposts on the road:
The first great outpost -
He let in rivers, deep lakes;
Another great outpost -
Clear fields are wide,
Became thieves-robbers;
And the third outpost - dark forests,
Unleashed fierce beasts,
Only in Kazan in the city
There was only one young wife, Avdotya Ryazanochka.
She went to the Turkish land
Yes, to the glorious king, to the Turkish Bakhmet,
Yes, she went full to ask.
She walked not by the way, not by the road,
Yes, you are deep rivers, wide lakes
Those she sailed,
And you are small rivers, wide lakes
Yes, whether she wandered along the ford.
Did she pass the great outpost,
And those clean fields are wide,
The thieves-robbers of those opalden passed,
How about noon fierce thieves
Those sleeping holding.
Yes, she passed the second great outpost,
Yes, dark, you are dense forests,
Those fierce beasts passed midnight,
Yes, at midnight the beasts are fierce
Those sleeping holding.
Came to the Turkish land
To the glorious king Bakhmet of Turkey,
Yes, in his chambers are royal.
She lays down the cross according to the written
And bows, you know in a learned way,
Yes, she beat the king with her brow, bowed low.
- Yes, you, sir king de Bakhmet of Turkey!
You ruined our old Kazan-city under the forest,
Yes, you are our princes, the boyars knocked them all out,
You took our princesses, the boyars of those living in full,
You took many thousands of people full of people,
You brought Turkish into your land,
I am a young woman, Avdotya Ryazanochka,
I remained alone in Kazan.
I came, sir, to you myself, yes,
Wouldn't it be possible to release some of the captives to me?
Would you like your own kind-tribe? -
Turkish king Bahmet says:
- You are a young wife, Avdotya Ryazanochka!
How I ruined your old Kazan under the forest,
Yes, I killed the boyar princes,
I took the princess-boyar and those living in full,
Yes, I took many thousands of people full of people,
I brought Turkish into my land,
He set up three great outposts on the road:
The first great outpost -
Rivers, deep lakes;
The second great outpost -
Clear fields are wide,
Became fierce thieves-robbers,
Yes, the third outpost of the great -
Dark forests - you are dense,
I unleashed fierce beasts.
Yes, tell me, wife Avdotya Ryazanochka,
How did you pass these outposts? -
The answer is kept by wife Avdotya Ryazanochka:

I am these great outposts
Passed not by way, not by road.
Like I am rivers, deep lakes
Those I sailed,
And those clean fields are wide,
Thieves, robbers,
Those I have gone through,
Opalden thieves-robbers,
They rested holding.
Dark forests are those of fierce beasts,
Those de I passed at midnight,
Ferocious beasts,
Those sleeping holding.-
Yes, those speeches fell in love with the king,
Says the glorious King Bahmet Turkish:
- Oh, you, young wife Avdotya Ryazanochka!
Yes, she knew how to speak with the king,
Yes, know how to ask the king for a full de head,
Yes, which little head will not be amassed for more than a century.–
Yes, the young wife Avdotya Ryazanochka says:
- And you, the glorious king Bakhmet of Turkey!
I'll get married and get a husband,
Yes, I will have a father-in-law, I will call the father,
If you are a mother-in-law, I will call you mother.
And I'll be known as their daughter-in-law,
Yes, I will live with my husband, yes I will give birth to a son,
Yes, I will sing, I will feed, I will have a son,

Yes, I will marry my son and take my daughter-in-law,
Yes, will I be known as a mother-in-law.
Yes, I will live with my husband,
Let me give birth to a daughter.
Yes, I will sing, I will feed, I will have a daughter,
Let me call you mother.
Yes, I will give my daughter in marriage,
Yes, I will have a son-in-law,
And I will be known as mother-in-law.
And don’t make me that little head,
Yes, dear beloved brother.
And I’ll never see my brother forever and ever.-
Did the king like those speeches,
He said to the wife this is the word: -
Oh, you young wife Avdotya Ryazanochka!
You knew how to ask the king if the head is full,
Yes, you won’t make money for a century.
When I ruined your old Kazan-city undergrowth,
I knocked out the boyar princes,
And I took those living princesses to the full,
He took many thousands of people full of people,
Yes, they killed my dear beloved brother,
And the glorious Turkish Pasha,
Yes, I won’t make a brother for me forever and ever.
Yes, you, young wife Avdotya Ryazanochka,
You take your captive people,
Yes, take them to Kazan to the last.
Yes, for your-you words for suave,
Yes, you take yourself a golden treasury
Yes, in my Turkish land,
Do you just take as much as you need.-
Tuto's wife Avdotya Ryazanochka
She took the people captivated,
Yes, she took the golden treasury
Yes, from that land of Turkish,
Yes, as much as she needed.
Yes, she brought de captive people,
Yes, to that empty Kazan,
Yes, she built Kazan-city anew,
Yes, since then Kazan has become glorious,
Yes, since then Kazan has become rich,
Is it here in Kazan Avdotino's name was exalted,
Yes, that's how it ended.

The heroism of a small defenseless woman who came to the Horde, famous for bloody raids, devastation and cruelty, made the Tatar tsar imbued with respect for her, and her wisdom subdued the storm of Russian lands.

This epic is remarkable in that not a male warrior, but a female worker "won the battle" with the Horde. She stood up for her relatives, and thanks to her courage and intelligence, "Ryazan went out of the crowd."

PS: The famous historical ballad "Avdotya Ryazanochka" by the compiler does not refer to 1237 (the ruin of Ryazan by Batu), but following the recent article by A. O. Amelkin - to the events of 1505 in Kazan, when the vassal of Ivan III, who first conquered in 1487 Kazan, Khan Mohammed-Emin unexpectedly imprisoned the Russian ambassador, killed many Russian people who lived in this city, and even violated Russian borders, laying siege to Nizhny Novgorod. S. N. Azbelev points out that in the historical ballad the action takes place in Kazan and only the nickname of the heroine connects her with Ryazan. This detail allows the researcher to join the point of view of A. O. Amelkin. Nevertheless, if we accept the researcher's hypothesis about the dating of songs about Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible to the 15th century with interest, then this rendering of the song about Avdotya Ryaznochka seems unconvincing to us. Let us pay attention to the fact that in the few surviving versions of this song (the academic edition gives three lyrics of the song), the city where the heroine comes from is consistently called "old Kazan". This is a clear echo of the written formula "Old Ryazan" (modern Ryazan stands several tens of kilometers from the city devastated by Batu); the epithet "old" in relation to Kazan is not registered in writing. The stable nickname of the heroine Ryazanochka leaves, in our opinion, no doubt that the content of this ballad should be associated with the historical events of the Russian city of Ryazan, and not the Tatar Kazan.

38 Artistic originality of the ballad genre.

Folk ballads - these are lyrical-epic songs about tragic events in family and everyday life. In the center of ballads there is always a person with his moral problems, feelings, experiences. The hero of ballads differs from heroes-heroes who perform a feat, from fairy tale characters. This is a nameless person, experiencing, suffering and sometimes dying in difficult life circumstances. If there are heroic principles in epics, optimistic ones in fairy tales, then tragic pathos expressed in ballads.

"The ballad puts the focus on individual human destiny. Events of national significance, ethical, social, philosophical problems are reflected in ballads in the form of specific destinies of individuals and private family human relations." Russian ballads depict the era of the Middle Ages , the heyday of the genre falls on the XIV-XVII centuries. The plots of ballads are diverse, but ballads on family and everyday topics are more widespread. In these ballads, the main characters, as in fairy tales, are the "good fellow" and the "beautiful maiden." Often they tell about unhappy love and tragic events.

Exist two points of view on the origin of ballad songs. Some researchers (A.N. Veselovsky, N.P. Andreev) believed that ballads originated in "prehistoric" times. As evidence, they referred to the fact that the ballad songs preserved the oldest motifs of incest, cannibalism, transportation across the river as symbols of the transition from one state of life to another, the conversion of a person into a plant and animal, etc. Others (for example, V.M. Zhirmunsky) claimed that ballads originated in the Middle Ages. The second point of view in relation to Russian ballad songs seems to be more acceptable. The content of the ballad songs speaks for itself. As for the most ancient motifs, they testify to the connection between medieval song folklore and previous ideological and historical traditions.

Poetics. Ballads belong to the epic genre of poetry. The story in them is conducted from the third person, as if from the outside, from the narrator. The main sign of the epic nature of a ballad is the presence of a plot in them, but the plot does not appear the same as in other genres: in ballads, as a rule, only the climax and denouement are presented within the figurative image; the rest is only mentioned in general view. In a ballad, we are always talking about an event, which in itself is a continuation of the previous ones, but one can only guess about them. This makes the ballad story mysterious and at the same time contributes to the fact that it highlights the most necessary for the realization of the plan. The ballad avoids multiple episodes. Ballads have long been noticed plot dynamism. In them, the reception of an unexpected development of the action is frequent.

Poem. The verse of the ballad is closely connected with the melodic structure of singing, and the melodies include the features of the solemn chant inherent in the epic, and a piercing tonality. The intonation of misfortune and grief from such a combination of majestic sadness. The verse of a ballad is more mobile than that of an epic, it is closer to the verse of historical songs and differs from it only in strong emotional impulses as a result of a sharp emotional-intonational movement. The verse becomes especially expressive in the most dramatic moments of singing. In these cases, he takes properties from bitter weeping. In the genre that arose at the stage of transition from the "classic" epic epic to the new, a transition of archaic song forms to new ones, in which there are already lyrical qualities, is noticeable.

Between the world recreated in the ballad and its creator (and, consequently, the reader) arises space-time distance. The ballad space, emphatically "otherworldly", fundamentally different from everyday reality, is not just removed from the perceiving individual. It is qualitatively designated as belonging to another aesthetic and ethical system associated with folklore ideas, as V.G. Belinsky, pointing to the "fantastic and folk legend" underlying the ballad plot . Closed space(!)

Ballad lyricism is the result of the impact on the subject of some epic event, the reaction of the soul, experiencing its discovery of the ballad world.

Unmotivated Evil(ignoring the need for motivation). Over the life of ballad heroes, their feelings "a tragic fate weighs" (V.M. Zhirmunsky). That is why the hero of the ballad often seems to even voluntarily go to his death, resignedly accepts death.

The specifics of the conflict: behind the characteristically ballad situations of family drama, social inequality, captivity, captivity, etc. really due to the specific circumstances of the Middle Ages, a higher and eternal plan emerges, to which the folk ballad gravitates, striving to reduce various conflicts and conflicts to the most general, generic, unchanging confrontations: love-hate, good-evil, life-death. The main conflict in the ballad Man and Fate, Fate, Man before the court of Higher powers. Conflict is always tragic and inexplicable.

Ballad Function: the need to master the tragic sphere of being. The ballad genre responded to the needs of the individual to experience feelings and states that she was deprived of in everyday reality.

As a genre, the ballad of the old formation has remained a unique phenomenon in the history of folklore, and many properties of the genre have influenced the formation of song genres of a time closer to us.

Addition

Russians folk ballads- works of rich vital content, high artistic perfection, wonderful art of the word. This is manifested primarily in the mastery of the plot: on the one hand, in the selection of situations of great emotional power, and on the other, in the precise characterization of the characters in their actions. In the ballads, in a summary of the episode, limited in time and place of action, the tragedy of the position of an innocently dying person, usually a woman, is skillfully revealed. The tragic in a ballad is, as a rule, terrible. This is often a crime, an atrocity committed against a close or dear person, which creates a particularly acute tension. Prince Roman deals with his wife with terrible cruelty; the sister recognizes the bloody shirts of her brother, who was killed by her "robber husband." A significant role in the course of the action is played by the unexpected, for example, the sister's recognition of her brother's shirts, the involuntary poisoning of her son's mother. The episode, which serves as the plot center of the ballad, has no exposition, but sometimes receives a brief motivation in denunciation or slander, which then drive the characters' actions. prophetic dream, sign) or predicting events. The tragic in the plots of ballads is manifested not only in the actions of the characters (murder, torture), but also in the peculiarities of their mental states. The tragic fate of a person in a feudal society, the suffering and death of victims of despotism, as well as a tragic mistake, deceit, slander, which "lead to the death of people. The tragic consists in the late repentance of a mother or husband who killed an innocent son or wife, in the late recognition by a brother dishonored sister.The ballad differs from other folklore genres by the depth of the psychological image, the ability to reveal complex and intense experiences, including the state of mind of the killer, his remorse and remorse. strong passions and desires. Avdotya Ryazanochka goes to the camp to the enemies in order to free the captives; girl escapes from captivity: freedom to her dearer than life; unable to escape from her pursuers, she throws herself into the river; defending the right to love, the girl prefers to die, but not to be forcibly married. In reckless anger, a husband can destroy his beloved wife. Characters are possessed by such feelings as horror, despair, severe suffering, unbearable grief. Their experiences are most often expressed in action, in deeds. In the ballad “Well Done and the Princess,” the king’s anger at the young man, at the servants, is expressively conveyed, and the change state of mind king is peculiarly motivated. Feelings are transmitted in their external expression. In the ballad “Prince Roman Lost His Wife,” the daughter learns about the death of her mother: As the princess fought on the damp ground, She cried in a loud voice. And further: She beat her hands on the oak table. Experiences are also expressed in the speech of the characters, in monologues and dialogues. It often takes a peculiar form. Sophia, who loves Vasily, stands on the kliros in the church. She wanted to say: "Lord, forgive me." Meanwhile, she said: "Vasilyushko, Vasily, my friend, touch me, Touch me, move over, Let's hug and kiss." Works of the ballad type are more realistic than other poetic genres, since in the latter there is neither such a thorough psychological development of images, nor so many opportunities for showing everyday details. The realism of ballads consists in the vitality of conflicts, in everyday typification of characters, in the plausibility of events and their motivation, in everyday details, in the objectivity of the narrative, in the absence of fantastic fiction. The latter is present only occasionally in the denouement of events and is used to morally condemn the villains. This is the motif of intertwining trees on the grave of the perished, which serves as a symbol of true love. The motive of turning a girl into a tree is also usually in the denouement of events. The originality of the ballad is manifested primarily in its difference from other genres. The ballad is a poetic genre, but its verse, although sometimes close to the epic, differs in that it is shorter, usually two-strike, while the epic verse is usually three-strike. The similarity with the epic verse is manifested in the presence of a pause approximately in the middle of the line. Traveled // Mitriy Vasilievich In the open field, // on a good horse, Sitting // Domna Alexandrovna In a new hillock, // under a slanted little window, Under a crystal // under a piece of glass. She thought, // thought, She blasphemed him, // blasphemed him. In epics, and often in historical songs, the positive hero triumphs, but in ballads he dies, and the villain does not receive direct punishment, although sometimes he grieves and repents. Heroes in ballads are not heroes, not historical figures, but usually simple people; if these are princes, then they are bred in their personal, family relationships, and not in state activities. The ballads are close to epics and historical songs in epic, narrative, plot, but their plots are less developed and usually come down to one episode. They reveal the relationship of characters in more detail than the plot situation in lyrical songs. Ballads differ from them in the absence of lyricism, which appears only in later works and testifies to the destruction of the genre. However, ballads interact with other genres. They contain epic formulas, epithets: They lead the cross in a written way, Bow in a learned way In the early ballads, epithets are not uncommon: a good horse, a feast of honors, oak tables, a damask sword. But the structure of a ballad is different from that of an epic. There are fabulous motifs in the ballads: predictions, transformations. In the ballad "The Prince and the Old Women" the princess is revived with living water; in the variant of the ballad "Slandered Wife", the snake that the young man wanted to kill promises to help him in gratitude for the rescue, but her words turn out to be slander. Unlike epics and historical songs, the meaning of which is patriotic and historical ideas, the meaning of ballads is in expressing moral assessments of the behavior of characters, in deep humanism, in protecting the free expression of feelings and aspirations of the individual.

Scientists note the difficulty of classifying the folk ballad genre, since it does not have a clear form of performance, does not have a stable everyday use (ballads are performed mainly from time to time, sometimes on famous holidays), and "the rhythmic structure of the ballad opens up scope for the most peculiar musical possibilities" 19 . Apparently, the ballad is determined by its own genre specificity, and the researchers establish common features of the ballad genre. The ballad is set to depict the world of private people, "the world of human passions interpreted tragically"20. "The world of the ballad is the world of individuals and families, scattered, disintegrating in a hostile or indifferent environment"21. The ballad focuses on the disclosure of the conflict. “For centuries, typical conflict situations have been selected and cast in ballad form”22. The ballads contain “sharp, irreconcilable conflicts, good and evil, truth and untruth, love and hate, positive and negative characters are opposed, and the main place is given to the negative character. Unlike fairy tales, it is not good that wins in ballads, but evil, although negative characters suffer a moral defeat: they are condemned and often repent of their actions, but not because they realized their inadmissibility, but because at the same time as those whom they wanted to destroy and the people they love are dying.”23 The conflict is revealed dramatically, and, it should be noted, the drama literally permeates the entire ballad genre. “The artistic specificity of the ballad is determined by its dramatic nature. The composition, the way of depicting a person, and the very principle of typification of life phenomena are subject to the needs of dramatic expressiveness. The most characteristic features of the composition of the ballad are: one-conflict and conciseness, discontinuity of presentation, an abundance of dialogues, repetitions with an increase in drama ... The action of the ballad is reduced to one conflict, to one central episode, and all the events preceding the conflict are either stated extremely briefly .. or completely absent...” The images of ballad characters are also revealed according to the dramatic principle: through speech and actions. It is the attitude to action, to the disclosure of a personal position in conflict relations that determines the type of the hero of the ballad. “The creators and listeners of ballads are not interested in personalities. They are primarily concerned with the relationships of the characters among themselves, transferred, epically copying the world of consanguinity and family relations. The actions of the heroes of the ballads have a universal meaning: they determine the entire plot basis of the ballad and have a dramatic tense character, setting the stage for a tragic denouement. "Events are conveyed in the ballad in their most intense, most effective moments, there is nothing in it that would not relate to action." “The action in a ballad, as a rule, develops rapidly, in leaps and bounds, from one peak scene to another, without connecting explanations, without introductory characteristics. The speeches of the characters alternate with narrative lines. The number of scenes and characters is reduced to a minimum ... The whole ballad often represents, as it were, a preparation for the denouement.

Scientists note the incompleteness of the ballad genre, almost any ballad can be continued or expanded into a whole novel. "Mysteriousness or innuendo, arising from the compositional properties of the ballad, is inherent in the ballads of all peoples". As a rule, the ballad has an unexpected and cruel denouement. The heroes do things that are impossible in ordinary, everyday life, and they are prompted to do such actions by an artistically constructed chain of accidents, usually leading to a tragic ending. "Motives of unexpected misfortune, irreparable accidents, terrible coincidences are common for a ballad". The presence of these features allows us to assert that "ballads have such a specific character that one can speak of them as a genre." Currently, there are four theories for defining the genre of the ballad. 1. Ballad is an epic or epic-dramatic genre. The supporters of this position include N. Andreev, D. Balashov, A. Kulagina, N. Kravtsov, V. Propp, Yu. Smirnov. "Ballad is an epic (narrative) song of a dramatic nature". The source of the emotionality of the narration is the dramatic beginning, the author's presence in the ballad is not expressed, which means that the lyrics as a generic feature of the genre are absent. The lyrical beginning is understood as a direct expression of the author's attitude to reality, the author's mood. 2. Ballad - a lyrical form of poetry. At the moment of the development of science, such a point of view should be considered abandoned. Its origin dates back to the 19th century. It was believed that the ballad in its literary form reflects the folk form and easily correlates with such lyrical genres as romance and elegy. Pavel Yakushkin, one of the well-known collectors of folk poetry, wrote: “The ballad so easily turns into an elegy and, conversely, an elegy into a ballad, that it is impossible to strictly distinguish between them”33. They differ only in the number of options presented more in the ballad34. Such a theory does not withstand serious criticism, much earlier V.G. Belinsky wrote about the belonging of the ballad, which arises in the Middle Ages, to epic works, although in general it should be considered, according to the critic, in the section of lyric poetry35. 3. Ballad - lyrical-epic genre. This point of view is shared by A. Veselovsky, M. Gasparov, O. Tumilevich, N. Elina, P. Lintur, L. Arinstein, V. Erofeev, G. Kalandadze, A. Kozin. Until recently, this theory was considered classical. There is every reason to believe that it arises from the assumption about the lyrical warehouse of the ballad, which was widespread in the 19th century. Scientists note the peculiar lyricization of the folk ballad: “If for epics the main path of transformation is the transition to prose, in the form of a wide range of prose forms ... then for the ballad, the main path of transformation is the transition to lyrics, in the form of, perhaps, a wider set of lyric -epic and lyrical forms"36 . Considering such lyrical-epic ballads of the 18th - 19th centuries, researchers come to the rightful conclusion that leading start in the structure of the genre is precisely the lyrical. Unfortunately, in the definition of a specific manifestation of the lyrical principle, the very term lyricism, general, mostly non-genre grounds are given. We are talking about a special emotional perception, lyrical empathy of listeners to the content of ballads, their sympathy for the suffering and death of heroes. Also, as a drawback of this concept, one should point out the lack of works devoted to the genre evolution of the ballad: perhaps the ancient form of ballad songs is not constant, changes over time and does not quite correspond to the modern form of ballads. 4. Ballad - epic-lyrical-dramatic genre. This approach to the definition of a ballad is now entering the leading positions. Supporters of this concept are M. Alekseev, V. Zhirmunsky, B. Putilov, A. Gugnin, R. Wright-Kovaleva, A. Mikeshin, V. Gusev, E. Tudorovskaya. "A folk ballad is an epic-lyrical song with pronounced dramatic elements"37. In principle, Russian folklore studies have been moving towards such a definition for a long time and independently, but it is possible to establish connections with the analytical works of German poets and collectors of folk poetry of the 18th-19th centuries, who created the type of romantic ballad. I.V. Goethe believed that "the singer uses all three main types of poetry, ... he can start lyrically, epicly, dramatically, and, changing forms at will, continue ...". In the definition of a ballad as a symbiosis of three poetic genera, I.G. Herder added another mythological element. The dramatic beginning is one of the leading elements that form the ballad genre. The dramatic presentation of the series of events, the dramatic conflict and the tragic denouement determine not the lyrical, but the dramatic type of emotionality of the ballad genre. If the lyrics in folklore mean the subjective attitude of the author to the events depicted, then the dramatic beginning is the attitude of the characters to the events taking place, and the ballad genre is formed in accordance with precisely this approach39. The last group of scientists believes that the dramatic beginning is an indispensable feature of the genre and has an equal role with the epic and lyrical. In a particular song of the epico-lyric-dramatic type, they can be involved to varying degrees, depending on the needs of the historical time and the ideological and artistic setting of the work. Such a position, in our opinion, seems to be the most promising and fruitful in relation to the study of the folk ballad genre. Unfortunately, we have to admit that there are only a few works devoted to the origin and development of the Russian folk ballad genre. V.M. Zhirmunsky, in his article "The English Folk Ballad" in 1916, proposed dividing ballads into genre varieties (epic, lyrical-dramatic or lyrical)40, thereby removing the question of the problem of the evolution of the ballad genre as such. In 1966, the study “The History of the Development of the Russian Folk Ballad Genre” by D.M. Balashov, in which the author, using specific material, shows the thematic nature of the change in the ballad in the 16th-17th centuries, and in the 18th century notes signs of the destruction of the genre as a result of the development of an extra-ceremonial lyrical lingering song and "the absorption of the epic fabric of the ballad by lyrical elements"41. N.I. Kravtsov summarized all the available experience and proposed to approve four groups or cycles of ballads in the educational literature: family, domestic, love, historical, social42. In 1976, in the scientific work "Slavic Folklore", the scientist noted the evolutionary nature of these groups43. In 1988 Yu.I. Smirnov, analyzing East Slavic ballads and forms close to them, presented the experience of an index of plots and versions, where he subjected reasonable criticism to the artificiality, conventionality of dividing ballads into fantastic, historical, social, etc. “Such an artificial division breaks the natural connections and typological relationships between the plots, as a result of which forms related or close to them are separated and are considered in isolation”44. The scientist clarifies the rules for constructing an evolutionary chain45 in relation to ballad material, highlighting five derivatives of the genre (from a drawn-out or “vocal” song intended for choral performance to literary ballad songs common among the people)46. In general, there is a general picture of the evolution of the folk ballad genre from epic to lyrical form. In this work, private and practical questions about the ways and reasons for modifying the genre elements of the ballad are solved, connections between disparate plots are established, and the genre specificity of specific texts is determined. In our work, we use the method of text reconstruction, the foundations of which were laid in the works of the historical-typological school of V.Ya. Propp and B.N. Putilov. With regard to the ballad genre, it has its own specifics and is realized in the following aspects. It is assumed that the ballad genre is organized in certain cycles that contribute to the maximum disclosure of all genre features of the ballad. The cyclization of the ballad genre is primarily a plot-variative realization of one conflict. In the ballad cyclization, the dramatic element will be fundamental, which in practice consists in creating a) variants of a dramatic situation (early cycles), then ending the conflict; b) versions of a dramatic situation, conflict. A variant of a ballad cycle is a song that repeats a given conflict model, but aims to reveal it as fully as possible in the plot. Version is qualitative change text, the creation of a new conflict on the basis of a developed cycle or a separate ancient ballad (“Omelfa Timofeevna rescues her relatives” and “Avdotya-Ryazanochka”, “Tatar full” and a cycle about Polonian girls). Cycles are studied in their direct interaction, internal evolutionary connections, it is also traced how the very principles of folk cyclization change over time. The study of the composition of the cycle involves a genre analysis of the plot-variative series of songs. Particular attention is paid to the study of the main components of the genre specificity of the ballad. The type of cyclization and formulary, the type of hero and the level of conflict, the nature of the folk / author's assessment and the dialogic / monologue speech of the characters, the use of folklore and intra-genre traditions, the type of convention and the reflection of the aesthetics of the artistic / direct case are analyzed, the role of formal plot logic, the category of miraculous and symbolic is established. . The features of the poetic language and artistic techniques of the style of ballads are studied. The impact on specific plots of the tradition of adjacent ballad forms and ritual, epic, lyrical, historical songs, as well as spiritual poems is especially noted. All the results of the analytical work are brought into line with the requirements of historical time, this is how the approximate time of demand for ballad cycles is determined. Ultimately, the typological features of the ballad genre are established on each historical stage. The nature and features of the genre changes of the ballad in its generic and artistic aspects are revealed, general principles her evolution. The ballad cycles are considered in their direct connection and are more or less accurately dated. As a result of the analysis of the ballad material in the Russian region, it is established that the ballad is a flexible, mobile unit of epico-lyrical-dramatic character, which has certain stable typological features at each historical stage of its development from the end of the 13th - beginning of the 14th centuries. to the 18th - 19th centuries Initially, the lyrics are involved in the form of tradition and do not have a significant role in the genre structure of the ballad. Gradually, the lyrical beginning changes the genre appearance of the ballad, which ultimately leads to the lyricization of the genre or its transformation into literary analogues. The ballad worldview, as it were, prepares the ground and contributes to the emergence of personal and historical artistic consciousness, which led to the development of forms of extra-ceremonial lyrical and historical poetry. Subsequently, the ballad genre cannot fully reflect the conflicts of the new era. Competing with historical and lyrical songs in the 16th-17th centuries, strengthening the role of the lyrical element in its genre structure, the ballad gradually, as it were, dissolves into the lyrical element, which is more in line with the reflection of all the depth and inconsistency of the new era. At best, what remains of a genuine ballad is an external form, a kind of ballad style of presentation or ballad plot (a type of petty-bourgeois ballads). The original genre of the folk ballad was conserved in the 19th and 20th centuries. The most famous, topical ballad plots for a particular locality are preserved. They are given a lyrical form, they are lyrically processed, but certain stable typological features remain unchanged (cf. a similar process that began earlier in epic creativity). Such ballad songs are gradually disappearing as the literacy of the population grows, the distribution of books and the disappearance of the ballad narrators and performers themselves.

Russian folk ballads are works of rich vital content, high artistic perfection, and wonderful art of the word.

This is manifested primarily in the mastery of the plot: on the one hand, in the selection of situations of great emotional power, and on the other, in the precise characterization of the characters in their actions. In the ballads summary episode, limited in time and place of action, skillfully reveals the tragedy of the situation of an innocently dying person, usually a woman.
The tragic in a ballad is, as a rule, terrible. This is often a crime, an atrocity committed against a close or dear person, which creates a particularly acute tension. Prince Roman deals with his wife with terrible cruelty; the sister recognizes the bloody shirts of her brother, who was killed by her robber husband.

A significant role in the course of the action is played by the unexpected, for example, the sister's recognition of her brother's shirts, the involuntary poisoning of her son's mother.

The episode, which serves as the plot center of the ballad, has no exposition, but sometimes receives a brief motivation in a denunciation or slander, which then drives the actions of the characters. Motivation is sometimes combined with mystery, which arises as a result of prediction (prophetic dream, omen) or prediction of events.

The tragic in the plots of ballads is manifested not only in the actions of the characters (murder, torture), but also in the peculiarities of their mental states. The tragic fate of a person in a feudal society, the suffering and death of victims of despotism, as well as a tragic mistake, deceit, slander, which "lead to the death of people. The tragic consists in the late repentance of a mother or husband who killed an innocent son or wife, in the late recognition by a brother dishonored sister.
The ballad differs from other folklore genres in its depth of psychological depiction, the ability to reveal complex and intense experiences, including the state of mind of the killer, his remorse and remorse.

Ballad characters are characterized by strong passions and desires. Avdotya Ryazanochka goes to the camp to the enemies in order to free the captives; the girl flees from captivity: freedom is dearer to her than life; unable to escape from her pursuers, she throws herself into the river; defending the right to love, the girl prefers to die, but not to be forcibly married. In reckless anger, a husband can destroy his beloved wife. Characters are possessed by such feelings as horror, despair, severe suffering, unbearable grief.

Their experiences are most often expressed in action, in deeds. In the ballad “Well Done and the Princess,” the king’s anger at the young man, at the servants, is expressively conveyed, and the change in the king’s state of mind is motivated in a peculiar way. Feelings are transmitted in their external expression. In the ballad “Prince Roman lost his wife,” the daughter learns about the death of her mother:
As the princess fought on the damp earth, She cried in a loud voice.
And further:

She beat her hands on the oak table.

Experiences are also expressed in the speech of the characters, in monologues and dialogues. It often takes a peculiar form. Sophia, who loves Vasily, stands on the kliros in the church.

She wanted to say: "Lord, forgive me." Meanwhile, she said: "Vasilyushko, Vasily, my friend, touch me, Touch me, move over, Let's hug and kiss."
Works of the ballad type are more realistic than other poetic genres, since in the latter there is neither such a thorough psychological development of images, nor so many opportunities for showing everyday details. The realism of ballads consists in the vitality of conflicts, in everyday typification of characters, in the plausibility of events and their motivation, in everyday details, in the objectivity of the narrative, in the absence of fantastic fiction. The latter is present only occasionally in the denouement of events and is used to morally condemn the villains. This is the motif of intertwining trees on the grave of the perished, which serves as a symbol of true love. The motive of turning a girl into a tree is also usually in the denouement of events.
The originality of the ballad is manifested primarily in its difference from other genres. The ballad is a poetic genre, but its verse, although sometimes close to the epic, differs in that it is shorter, usually two-strike, while the epic verse is usually three-strike. The similarity with the epic verse is manifested in the presence of a pause approximately in the middle of the line.

Traveled // Mitriy Vasilyevich

In an open field, // on a good horse,

Sat // Domna Alexandrovna

In the new burner, // under the slanted end,

Under the crystal // under the glass.

She thought, / thought,

blasphemed him, blasphemed him.

In epics, and often in historical songs, the positive hero triumphs, but in ballads he dies, and the villain does not receive direct punishment, although sometimes he grieves and repents. Heroes in ballads are not heroes, not historical figures, but usually ordinary people; if these are princes, then they are bred in their personal, family relationships rather than in government activities.

The ballads are close to epics and historical songs in epic, narrative, plot, but their plots are less developed and usually come down to one episode. They reveal the relationship of characters in more detail than the plot situation in lyrical songs. Ballads differ from them in the absence of lyricism, which appears only in later works and testifies to the destruction of the genre.

However, ballads interact with other genres. They contain epic formulas, epithets:

They lead the cross in a written way, they bow in a learned way

Epithets are not uncommon in early ballads: a good horse, a feast, oak tables, a damask sword. But the structure of a ballad is different from that of an epic.

There are fabulous motifs in the ballads: predictions, transformations. In the ballad "The Prince and the Old Women" the princess is revived with living water; in the variant of the ballad "Slandered Wife", the snake that the young man wanted to kill promises to help him in gratitude for the rescue, but her words turn out to be slander.

Unlike epics and historical songs, the meaning of which is patriotic and historical ideas, the meaning of ballads is in expressing moral assessments of the behavior of characters, in deep humanism, in protecting the free expression of feelings and aspirations of the individual.

Question 24. The difference between non-ritual lyrical songs and lyrical ritual ones. The problem of classification of non-ritual lyrics.

The lyric song has been around for a long time. Folklorists came to the conclusion that the genre of lyrical song was finally formed by the 16th-17th centuries. Lyrical songs are divided into ritual (more ancient) and non-ritual. Ritual song is associated with a certain rite, and non-ritual - with the life, leisure of the peasants.

It is difficult to imagine that before the XVI century. there was no lyric song. After all, a way out was needed for emotional emotions: remember Yaroslavna's lament from the Tale of Igor's Campaign. But the texts of lyrical songs, similar to those recorded in the 18th-19th centuries, did not survive from antiquity, perhaps they were some kind of choruses, separate couplets that were part of syncretic formations.

In antiquity, when the personality had not yet emerged from the masses, its emotionality was expressed collectively: choral cliques, exclamations of joy and sadness in a ritual action or round dance. They remain stable during the composition of the song text. Choruses are short formulas expressing the general schemes of the simplest affects in the form of parallelism: feelings are unconsciously compared with some similar act outside world[ibid: 213].

According to Veselovsky, meaningless phrases, being the "embryo" of the poetic, will later become the actual song, which will pass from generation to generation [ibid: 160]. The source of the lyrical song, its birthplace was the choir, the round dance, and the features of “choirism” remained in the style and techniques of the later song [ibid: 156]. V.Ya. also speaks about the connection between individual feelings and collective ones. Propp [Propp 2001: 224].

According to the context in which the song existed, researchers determine the features of the song genre. If in a round dance, then the songs are called round dance (they are divided into circular, running, street [Veselovsky 1989: 236)), if the songs accompanied the dance - dance songs, if the song was part of the game process and contained some kind of accompaniment of the game - play songs, where typesetting songs stood out (calling to join the players) and collapsible (containing the requirement to disperse with a farewell kiss) [ibid: 237–239].

Songs are divided into groups based on social affiliation: peasant, barge, workers, soldiers, robbers, prison.

The question of the classification of folk songs is not easy for a number of reasons, since oral form existence and traces of ancient syncretism led to the fact that in folk lyrics many works of an intermediate type were formed: lyric-epic, lyrical-dramatic and lyrical-choreographic. In modern folklore, there are two main approaches to the classification of folk lyrics. One - genre - divides the traditional song repertoire into four main genres: spell songs, game songs, praise songs and lyrical songs. Each genre has internal varieties.

According to the thematic principle, folk non-ritual lyrics are divided into everyday songs (love, family, songs about the share, comic), songs of social content (soldiers, robbers, prison, barge, coachman, etc.).

Question 25

One of the compositional forms of repetition in the broadest sense of the word is open A. N. Veselovsky poetic parallelism. The widespread use of the principle of compositional parallelism in a traditional lyrical song is due to the specifics of its content, the presence in it, on the one hand, of symbolic images from the natural world and, on the other hand, of real, human images. In songs built on the principle of parallelism, such a natural sequence is always observed: first, a natural, symbolic picture is given, and then follows a picture-image from human life. Taken together, these two paintings represent something whole in ideological-emotional and artistic respects, but in their meaning they are far from being equivalent. A. N. Veselovsky wrote about this: “ General scheme We know the psychological parallel: two motives are compared, one prompts the other, they clarify each other, and the advantage is on the side of the one that is filled with human content.

The most common compositional device in folk lyrics is the stepped narrowing of images. Most often, it is used in the introductory-narrative part of the song of the compositional form "descriptive-narrative part plus monologue (dialogue)". Through this technique, a picture is created in which the images follow each other in the direction of their spatial narrowing. Noting this trick B. M. Sokolov rightly wrote that “the last, most “narrowed” image in its scope, just from the point of view of the artistic task of the song, is the most important. On it, in fact, the main attention is fixed. One can even say more than that: the stepwise descent of previous images has its own artistic function revealing the final image, standing on the narrowest lower step of the row, in order to fix the greatest attention on it.

The poetic symbolism of folk songs already attracted the attention of scientists of the 19th century. Soviet folklorists are also studying it. Of greatest interest in this regard are the works N. P. Kolpakova and T. M. Akimova.

N. P. Kolpakova quite rightly writes: "Two main cycles of human emotions - joy and sorrow with their numerous thematic divisions - constitute the main content of folk lyric songs." That is why she divides all the symbolism of Russian folk lyrical songs into two groups: a) the symbolism of happiness and b) the symbolism of grief.

The same phenomena from the life of people can be expressed in the most various symbols- images of nature. In this regard, N. P. Kolpakova notes: “Gossip is symbolized by braiding grass, tangled roots, withering grasses, a shattered palisade and, finally, howling blizzards (Sobolevsky, IV, No. 773; V, No. 317, 417, 422, 634)” . Symbols of unhappy love, separation from the beloved, along with other natural phenomena, can be an open field (Kireevsky, No. 1243), a blue sea (Sobolevsky, 4, No. 447), fog (Sobolevsky, 5, No. 50) and a bad weather wind ( Kireevsky, No. 1637). Sometimes all these symbols can be found in one song.

In the composition of folk lyrical songs, the method of chain construction was sometimes used, based on poetic associations between images. S. G. Lazutin he explained the essence of this technique in this way: "... The individual pictures of the song are connected with each other" chain ": the last image of the first picture of the song is the first image of the second picture, the last image of the second picture is the first image of the third, etc.

So the whole song gradually from one picture, with the help of its last image, "chains" to the next, until it reaches the most important picture, expressing the main content of the song. The images seem to grow from one another. Each subsequent one is a continuation and concretization, a poetic development of the image that preceded it.

Question 26. The main differences between traditional Christian lyrics, songs of lyrical origin and folklore romance.

Avdotya Ryazanochka

With the invasion of Batu and the ruin of Ryazan in 1237, two outstanding artistic images created by the genius of the people are connected - Yevpaty Kolovrat and Avdotya Ryazanochka. The legend about Avdotya Ryazanochka, composed, apparently, in the middle of the 13th century, has been preserved in the oral song tradition, it has been preserved and carried through the centuries by the people's memory. One of the songs about Avdotya Ryazanochka was recorded on August 13, 1871 at Kenozero by A.F. Hilferding from the sixty-five-year-old peasant Ivan Mikhailovich Lyadkov. Known for "Avdotya Ryazanochka" and arranged by the wonderful Russian writer Boris Shergin.

According to its genre features, as well as its content, "Avdotya Ryazanochka" can be attributed both to ballads (it has a plot), epics (it "sounded" like an epic), and historical songs (it is historical in its essence, although specific historical realities were not preserved in it).

But its main advantage lies in the fact that it is in this work of oral folk art that the heroic image of a Russian woman is created.

The song begins with a picture of the Tatar invasion.

Glorious old King Bahmet Turkish

He fought on the Russian land,

He mined the old Kazangorod undergrowth.

He de stood under the city

With your force-army

There was a lot of this time, time,

Yes, and ruined Kazan "the city of undergrowth,

Ruined Kazan-de-city for nothing.

He cut down all the princes-boyars in Kazan,

Yes, and the princess-boyar

He took those alive.

He captivated the people many thousands,

He led the Turkish to his land.

There are at least two anachronisms here. The first one is “Turkish king” and “Turkish land”, the second one is “Undergrowth Kazan”. These are late replacements for the Tatar tsar and the Tatar land and Ryazan. The ancient song was a response to the invasion of the hordes of Batu and the ruin of Ryazan in 1237. Ryazan was the first to take the blows of the invasion, suffered a terrible defeat - this event was described in the book "The Tale of the Devastation of Ryazan by Batu", where, along with accurate chronicle details, folk songs also found a place. The story ended with a story about the revival of Ryazan: Prince Ingvar Ingorevich "renew the land of Ryazan, and put up churches, and protect monasteries, and comfort strangers, and gather people." IN folk song the same feat is performed by a simple “young woman” Avdotya Ryazanochka (by the way, the name “Ryazanochka” speaks of the places where the events took place). But she does it in a completely different way. There is a lot of fantastic, extraordinary in the song. On the way back, the enemy king sets up “great outposts”: deep rivers and lakes, “wide open fields, thieves-robbers” and “dark forests” filled with “fierce beasts”. Avdotya Ryazanochka was left alone in the city. She goes to the "Turkish land" - "full to ask." She manages to almost miraculously overcome obstacles. “She lays the cross according to the written one, And bows, you know, in a learned way,” and turns to Bakhmet:

I stayed in Kazan alone,

I came, sir, to you myself, yes,

Would it not be possible to release a captive to me to the people,

Would you like your kind-tribe?

Further dialogue between the "king" and the "young woman" develops in the spirit of the old epics. The tsar marveled that Avdotya passed all the “great outposts”, overcame all obstacles and was not afraid to appear before him, and the tsar gave her a task:

“- Oh, you, young wife Avdotya Ryazanochka!

Yes, she knew how to speak with the king,

Yes, know how to ask the king for a full de head,

Yes, which little head will not be amassed for more than a century. ”-

The “young woman” copes with this task, showing the properties of a fairy-tale or epic “wise maiden”.

“And don’t make me that little head,

Yes, dear beloved brother.

And I’ll never see my brother forever and ever.”

Here is the key to solving a difficult problem: all relatives can be "acquired" - except for a sibling. Avdotya's answer is not only correct, but also, it turns out, affects Bakhmet himself: he admits that his beloved brother died during the invasion of Rus'. The Tatar tsar was surprised by a courageous woman from the land of Ryazan, her ability to speak, reason, he let go of all the husbands of Ryazan: “Yes, you, young wife Avdotya Ryazanochka,

You take your captive people,

Yes, take them to Kazan to the last.

He let go on the condition that a song about Avdotya be composed and the Horde would be mentioned in it in a good way. The heroism of a simple defenseless woman who came to the Horde, famous for bloody raids, devastation and cruelty, made the Tatar king imbued with respect for her, and her wisdom subdued the storm of Russian lands. Not a male warrior, but a female worker "won the battle" with the Horde. She stood up for her family, and thanks to her courage and intelligence

“Yes, she built Kazan-city anew,

Yes, since then Kazan has become glorious,

Yes, since then Kazan has become rich,

Is it here in Kazan that Avdotyino's name was exalted ... "

The image of Avdotya-Ryazanochka is the immortal image of a woman-savior, ready to overcome any obstacles for the sake of her neighbors, to go through any trials, showing complete selflessness and fearlessness in the face of danger. She combines the wisdom of a woman and the courage worthy of a warrior, and embodies the ideas of the people about women's feat, about women's heroism, and about the possibility of defeating the enemy not by physical strength, but by spiritual strength, dedication and love.

Avdotya Ryazanochka

King Bakhmet of Turkey approached the mulberry,

And he ruined the old Kazan-city under the forest,

And he captivated the people, full of forty thousand,

He took the whole full to his land.

Only one wife, Ryazanochka, remained in Kazan,

The wife missed, she burned:

She was filled with three little heads -

Dear dear brother,

wedding husband,

Dear father-in-law.

And the woman thinks with her mind-reason:

"I will go to the land of Turkey

To redeem even single little heads

The roads are good for ransoms.

King Bahmet of Turkey,

Coming from Kazan from the city,

He let in all the rivers, deep lakes,

On the roads he placed all the robbers,

In the dark forests unleashed fierce beasts,

So that no one can pass or pass.

The wife went the way and the road:

Small streams ford wandered,

Deep rivers floated,

Walked around the wide lake,

(About noon, fierce animals and hold the railings).

She went through the way and the way,

I came to the Turkish land

To the king of Bahma of Turkey,

Bowed low to him

“You, father, king Bakhmet of Turkey!

When you ruined the old Kazan-city under the forest

You captured the people by forty thousand,

I got three heads -

Dear dear brother,

And the husband of the wedding,

Dear father-in-law.

And I came to you to redeem even a single little head

On the roads, at least for good ones for ransoms.

The king answered her, kept the answer:

“You, Avdotya-wife Ryazanochka!

How did you get through the way and the way?

I had all the rivers, deep lakes,

And robbers were placed along the roads,

And in the dark forests wild beasts were let loose,

So that no one can pass or drive through.

The answer is given to him by Avdotya the wife of Ryazanochka:

“Father Tsar Bakhmet of Turkey!

This is how I went along the path and the road:

Small rivers ford wandered,

And deep rivers swam swimming,

Clean fields of robbers about midnight passed

(Oh midnight the robbers hold the railings),

Dark forests of fierce beasts about noon has passed

(About noon fierce beasts of the railing hold),

I have gone the way and the way."

Tsar Bakhmet of Turkey says to her:

“You, Avdotya-wife Ryazanochka!

When you knew how to go the way and the way,

So know how to ask for heads

Of the three united

But you don’t know how to ask for heads,

So I will cut off your wild head up to the shoulders.

Stand still, the woman thought

The woman thought for a moment and wept:

“You, father, Tsar Bakhmet of Turkey!

I was not the last wife in Kazan,

I was not the last wife, the first.

I'm going to get married, so I will have a husband,

I will call my father-in-law father;

I will live my dear son,

So I will have a son;

I will live my dear daughter,

I will sing, I will feed, I will give in marriage,

So I will have a son-in-law.

I will not see a single little head -

I have a dear brother,

Yes, not to be seen for a century and for a century.

Sit down, the king thought about it,

The king thought for a moment and wept.

“You, Avdotya-wife Ryazanochka!

When I busted your side of Kazan-city

undergrowth,

Then my dear brother was killed.

You will not see a century and for a century.

For your reasonable speeches,

For your words for good

You take as much as you need

Who is in kinship, in nepotism, in the brotherhood of the gods.

The woman began to walk in the Turkish land,

Choose full to your land.

She chose the whole Turkish land,

Brought de full to your Kazan city

undergrowth,

Settled Kazan-city in the old way,

As before, yes still.