Heroes of fairy tales and epics of Pushkin's works. Russian epics - heroes and characters
Among hundreds of Russian fairy tales, there are several dozen so-called fantastic ones. It is in them that the images of the heroes of ancient myths are preserved. A simple listing of fairy-tale heroes speaks about this: the Sun, the Moon, the Moon, the Sun’s sister, Morozko, Baba Yaga, Dashing One-Eyed, Koschey the Immortal and Death itself - after all, these are the ancient “big” gods. Of course, time has introduced a lot of new things into their appearance and characters. The sun, for example, in a number of fairy tales is named allegorically: Pig-golden bristles, Duck-golden feathers, Golden-horned deer, Golden-maned horse, Beloved Beauty, etc.
There are even more “small” gods in such tales: these are ghouls and devils, a demon and a goblin, a sea king and witches, a merman and a snake queen. And the animals, birds, fish, which the Russians worshiped in ancient times, are all represented in fairy tales: bear, wolf, fox, hare, goat, rooster, duck, chicken, raven, heron, crane, eagle, falcon, pike, ruff, crayfish and other. The idea of the three-dimensionality of the world is indirectly given in fairy tales about the three kingdoms. The enemies of the Cimmerian plowmen turned into a terrible Serpent with three or more heads.
Time has created a new genre in Russian folklore - epics and new heroes - heroes. Bogatyrs are no longer gods, although this word has “god” at its root. They are simple people, but possessing extraordinary physical strength, dexterity, and courage, performing fantastic feats for the glory of their Motherland. There are “senior” and “junior” heroes. The elders include Volkh (Volga) Vseslavievich, Svyatogor, Mikula Selyaninovich, Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich. Volkh Vseslavyevich is the son of a snake, he has the ability to transform. Mikula Selyaninovich is a double of the “divine plowman” - King Koloksai, who learned to cultivate the land. Svyatogor is a hero who does not yet know where to use his exorbitant strength. Ilya Muromets is the main hero of the Kyiv cycle. He is the chieftain of thirty heroes standing at the outpost guarding the border of Kievan Rus. In the epic “Ilya Muromets and Sokolnik”, recorded in the Arkhangelsk village of Ust-Tsilma, almost all of them are named. I will quote only a small part of that epic:
There were thirty heroes with a hero.
The chieftain was the old Cossack Ilya Muromets,
Thanks to Samson and Kolybanovich,
Dobrynya Mikitich lived as a clerk,
Alyosha Popovich lived as a cook,
Mishka Toropanishka lived in the grooms...
If you ask the average person in our country to name the names of Russian heroes, they will almost certainly name Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich. But then there’s a hitch. Thanks to popular culture, only these three have become widely known. Meanwhile, there were many more heroes in Rus', but not everyone knows about them. Let's try to correct the situation and tell about the “unknown” Russian heroes in this collection.
One of the most ancient heroes of the Russian epic epic. Svyatogor is a giant hero so big and strong that even Mother Earth could not withstand him. However, Svyatogor himself, according to the epic, could not overcome the “earthly pull” contained in the bag: trying to lift the bag, he sank with his feet into the ground. 
The legendary plowman-hero, with whom you cannot fight, because “the entire Mikulov family loves Mother - the Cheese Earth.” According to one of the epics, it was Mikula Selyaninovich who asked the giant Svyatogor to pick up a bag that had fallen to the ground. Svyatogor could not do this. Then Mikula Selyaninovich raised the bag with one hand and said that it contained “all the burdens of earth.” Folklore says that Mikula Selyaninovich had two daughters: Vasilisa and Nastasya. And they became the wives of Stavr and Dobrynya Nikitich, respectively. 
Volga is one of the most ancient heroes in Russian epics. His distinctive features were the ability to shapeshift and the ability to understand the language of birds and animals. According to legends, Volga is the son of a snake and Princess Marfa Vseslavyevna, who miraculously conceived him by accidentally stepping on a snake. When he saw the light, the earth shook and terrible fear gripped all living creatures. An interesting episode of the meeting between Volga and Mikula Selyaninovich is described by epics. While collecting taxes from the cities of Gurchevets and Orekhovets, Volga met the plowman Mikula Selyaninovich. Seeing a mighty hero in Mikul, Volga invited him to join his squad to collect taxes. Having driven away, Mikula remembered that he had forgotten the plow in the ground. Twice Volga sent his warriors to pull out that plow, but the third time he and his entire squad did not overcome it. Mikula pulled out that plow with one hand. 
Hero of the Kyiv epic cycle. According to legend, Sukhman goes to get a white swan for Prince Vladimir. During the trip, he sees that the Nepra River is fighting the Tatar power, which is building Kalinov bridges on it to go to Kyiv. Sukhman beats the Tatar forces, but during the battle he receives wounds, which he covers with leaves. Sukhman returns to Kyiv without the swan. Prince Vladimir does not believe him and orders him to be imprisoned in a cellar for boasting, and sends Dobrynya Nikitich to find out whether Sukhman told the truth, and when it turns out that he was telling the truth, Vladimir wants to reward Sukhman; but he removes the leaves from the wounds and bleeds. The Sukhman River flowed from his blood. 
One of the most popular heroic images in Russian epics. Unlike the three main characters of the epic (Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich), Danube Ivanovich is a tragic character. According to legend, during the wedding, Danube and Nastasya Korolevichna, who was also a hero, begin to boast, Danube about her courage, and Nastasya about her accuracy. They arrange a duel and Nastasya shoots the silver ring lying on the head of the Danube three times. Unable to recognize his wife’s superiority, Danube orders her to repeat the dangerous test in the opposite way: the ring is now on Nastasya’s head, and Danube shoots. The Danube's arrow hits Nastasya. She dies, and the Danube finds out, “spreading her womb,” that she was pregnant with a wonderful baby: “knee-deep legs in silver, elbow-deep arms in gold, frequent braids on the head.” Danube throws himself on his saber and dies next to his wife; the Danube River originates from his blood. 
One of the minor heroes. He is known only in northern Russian epics as a handsome man and a snake fighter. There are several legends about him. According to one of them, Mikhailo met a swan while hunting, who turned into a girl - Avdotya Swan White. They got married and swore an oath that if someone died first, the survivor would be buried with the deceased in the same grave. When Avdotya died, Potyka, along with her corpse, was lowered into the grave, on horseback in full armor. A serpent appeared in the grave, which the hero killed, and with his blood he resurrected his wife. According to other epics, the wife drugged Potyk and turned him to stone, and she fled with Tsar Koshchei. The hero’s comrades, Ilya, Alyosha and others, save Potyk and avenge him by killing Koshchei and quartering the unfaithful White Swan.
A hero in Russian epics, acting in one epic as a matchmaker and groom. The story of Khoten and his bride is practically the ancient Russian story of Romeo and Juliet. According to legend, Khoten’s Mother, a widow, wooed her son to the beautiful China Sentinel at one feast. But the girl’s mother answered her with an insulting refusal, which was heard by all those feasting. When Khoten found out about this, he went to his bride and she agreed to marry him. But the girl’s mother was categorically against it. Then Khoten demanded a duel and beat his bride's nine brothers. China's mother asks the prince for an army to defeat the hero, but Khoten defeats him too. After this, Khoten marries the girl, taking a rich dowry. 
Formally, he does not belong to the heroes, but he is a hero-snake fighter. According to legend, the daughter of the Kyiv prince was carried away by a snake and kept captive by him. Having learned from the serpent himself that he is afraid of only one person in the world - Nikita Kozhemyak, she and the dove send a letter to her father asking him to find this hero and encourage him to fight the serpent. When the prince's envoys entered Kozhemyaka's hut, busy with his usual business, he was surprised to tear through 12 skins. Nikita refuses the prince’s first request to fight the snake. Then the prince sends the elders to him, who also could not persuade Nikita. For the third time, the prince sends children to the hero, and their crying touches Nikita, he agrees. Wrapping himself in hemp and smearing himself with resin to become invulnerable, the hero fights with the snake and frees the prince’s daughter. Further, as the legend says, the snake, defeated by Nikita, begs him for mercy and offers to share the land equally with him. Nikita forges a plow weighing 300 pounds, harnesses a snake to it and draws a furrow from Kyiv to the Black Sea; then, having begun to divide the sea, the serpent drowns. 
Also not formally a hero, but a very strong hero, representing the ideal of valiant and boundless prowess. Since childhood, Vasily was a daredevil, knew no restrictions and did everything only as he pleased. At one of the feasts, Vasily bets that he will fight at the head of his squad on the Volkhov Bridge with all the Novgorod men. The fight begins, and Vasily's threat to beat every last one of his opponents is close to coming true; Only the intervention of Vasily’s mother saves the Novgorodians. In the next epic, feeling the severity of his sins, Vasily goes to Jerusalem to pray for them. But the pilgrimage to holy places does not change the character of the hero: he defiantly violates all prohibitions and on the way back he dies in the most ridiculous way, trying to prove his youth. 
One of the most original heroes of the Kyiv epic epic. According to legend, Duke arrives in Kyiv from “Rich India,” which, apparently, was the name of the Galicia-Volyn land. Upon arrival, Duke begins to boast about the luxury of his city, his own wealth, his clothes, which his horse brings daily from India, and finds the wine and rolls of the Prince of Kyiv tasteless. Vladimir, in order to check Duke’s boasting, sends an embassy to Duke’s mother. As a result, the embassy admits that if you sell Kyiv and Chernigov and buy paper for an inventory of Dyukov’s wealth, then there won’t be enough paper.
The tales of the famous Russian poet are a symbiosis of folk fairy tale traditions and literary innovation. It is believed that A.S. Pushkin used previously heard fairy tales as a basis, which were reworked in his artistic system.
We present to you a list of names of fairy tale heroes, if you don’t remember them. then write it down!
Tales of A. S. Pushkin | characters names:
- "The Dead Princess and the Seven Knights"
Among the positive heroes of this tale were the king, the princess, the prince Elisha, and seven heroes.
A magical attribute is a mirror.
Among the negative ones is the Queen. - "The Tale of Tsar Saltan"
The positive heroes in this fairy tale were Tsar Saltan, his wife the Tsarina, their son Prince Guidon, and the fairy-tale character the Swan Princess.
The negative characters were the cook, Baba Babarikha, and the weaver. - "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish"
Positive role in the fairy tale by A.S. Pushkina went to the old man and the goldfish.
Negative - a grumpy old woman. - "The Tale of the Priest and His Worker Balda"
Balda was a positive hero.
Negative - Pop, Devils. - "The Tale of the Golden Cockerel"
The golden cockerel played a positive role in this tale.
Neutral roles went to the sons of the king, the astrologer, the governor, and the old sorcerer.
Negative - Queen of Shamakhan and King Dadon.
In the poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila,” the poet collected almost all the heroes of Russian fairy tales and settled them in the fabulous Lukomorye. However, in fact, it talks about real historical figures: Prince Vladimir, his daughter Lyudmila and the devoted knight Ruslana.
As you can see, it is not by chance that the singer endowed his heroes with worthy names, and if you pay attention to the meaning of the name, you will see a truly Russian origin.
Names of heroes of Pushkin's fairy tales 2nd, 3rd grade.
Russian epics are a reflection of historical events retold by the people, and as a result, have undergone strong changes. Each hero and villain in them is most often a real-life personality, whose life or activity was taken as the basis of a character or a collective image that was very important for that time.
Heroes of epics
Ilya Muromets (Russian hero)
Glorious Russian hero and brave warrior. This is exactly how Ilya Muromets appears in the Russian epic epic. Having served Prince Vladimir faithfully, the warrior was paralyzed from birth and sat on the stove for exactly 33 years. Brave, strong and fearless, he was cured of paralysis by the elders and gave all his heroic strength to the defense of the Russian lands from the Nightingale the Robber, the invasion of the Tatar yoke and the Foul Idol.
The hero of the epics has a real prototype - Ilya of Pechersk, canonized as Ilya of Muromets. In his youth, he suffered paralysis of the limbs, and died from a spear blow to the heart.
Dobrynya Nikitich (Russian hero)
Another hero from the illustrious troika of Russian heroes. He served Prince Vladimir and carried out his personal assignments. He was the closest of all the heroes to the princely family. Strong, brave, dexterous and fearless, he swam beautifully, knew how to play the harp, knew about 12 languages and was a diplomat when deciding state affairs.
The real prototype of the glorious warrior is the governor Dobrynya, who was the uncle of the prince himself on his mother’s side.
Alyosha Popovich (Russian hero)
Alyosha Popovich is the youngest of the three heroes. He is famous not so much for his strength as for his pressure, resourcefulness and cunning. A lover of boasting about his achievements, he was guided on the right path by older heroes. He behaved in two ways towards them. Supporting and protecting the glorious troika, he falsely buried Dobrynya in order to marry his wife Nastasya.
Olesha Popovich is a brave Rostov boyar, whose name is associated with the appearance of the image of the epic hero-hero.
Sadko (Novgorod hero)
A lucky guslar from Novgorod epics. For many years he earned his daily bread by playing the harp. Having received a reward from the Tsar of the Sea, Sadko became rich and set off by sea to overseas countries with 30 ships. Along the way, his benefactor took him to him as a ransom. According to the instructions of Nicholas the Wonderworker, the guslar managed to escape from captivity.
The prototype of the hero is Sodko Sytinets, a Novgorod merchant.
Svyatogor (hero-giant)
A giant and hero with remarkable strength. Huge and powerful, born in the Mountains of the Saints. As he walked, the forests shook and the rivers overflowed. Svyatogor transferred part of his power in the writings of the Russian epic to Ilya Muromets. Soon after this he died.
There is no real prototype of the image of Svyatogor. It is a symbol of enormous primitive power, which has never been used.
Mikula Selyaninovich (plowman-hero)
The hero and the peasant who plowed the land. According to the epics, he knew Svyatogor and gave him a bag to lift full of earthly weight. According to legend, it was impossible to fight with the plowman; he was under the protection of Mother Damp Earth. His daughters are the wives of the heroes, Stavr and Dobrynya.
The image of Mikula is fictitious. The name itself is derived from Mikhail and Nikolai, common at that time.
Volga Svyatoslavich (Russian hero)
Hero-bogatyr of the most ancient epics. He possessed not only impressive strength, but also the ability to understand the language of birds, as well as to turn into any animal and turn others into them. He went on campaigns to Turkish and Indian lands, and then became their ruler.
Many scientists identify the image of Volga Svyatoslavich with Oleg the Prophet.
Nikita Kozhemyaka (Kyiv hero)
Hero of Kyiv epics. A brave hero with enormous strength. Could easily tear apart a dozen folded bull hides. He snatched the skin and meat from the angry bulls rushing towards him. He became famous for defeating the snake, freeing the princess from his captivity.
The hero owes his appearance to the myths about Perun, reduced to everyday manifestations of miraculous power.
Stavr Godinovich (Chernigov boyar)
Stavr Godinovich is a boyar from the Chernihiv region. He was known for his good playing of the harp and his strong love for his wife, whose talents he was not averse to boasting to others. In epics it does not play the main role. More famous is his wife Vasilisa Mikulishna, who rescued her husband from imprisonment in the dungeons of Vladimir Krasna Solnyshka.
There is a mention of the real Sotsk Stavr in the chronicles of 1118. He was also imprisoned in the cellars of Prince Vladimir Monomakh after the riots.
