A short story about Ilya Muromets. Where did the epic heroes live

Bogatyr Ilya Muromets is perhaps one of the most popular heroes of the Russian epic. Moreover, this character is well known to absolutely all generations. This was partly facilitated by the creation of a modern series of Russian cartoons telling about the feats of arms of Ilya Muromets.

In 1643, he was canonized as a saint, and his miraculous relics are in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. But very little accurate information about the life of Ilya Muromets has been preserved. Everyone remembers the legend that he was born into a peasant family and could not walk until the age of 30. In folk tales, even the name of his father was sometimes found - peasant Ivan Timofeevich - and the information that the boy's alleged illness was a punishment for the behavior of his grandfather - he was a pagan, did not recognize Christianity and once cut the icon.

And a miraculous healing happened when "passable kaliki" came to the house - wanderers singing spiritual verses and epics. They are asked the boy to bring water, but he said that he could not do this, because he could not walk. After repeated requests from wanderers, he suddenly felt strong and for the first time stood on his feet.

Ilya was born, presumably, between 1150 and 1165. The birthplace is called the village of Karacharovo, located near Murom. Yet In the 17th century, Ilyinskaya Street and others appeared in Murom, the names of which were somehow associated with the exploits of the hero. And next to the village of Karacharovo in the same century, the Ilyinsky temple was erected with the holy well of Elijah Muromets, destroyed in the 1930s.

In the 19th century there was a historical school for the study of epics, they tried to pick up a suitable character in the annals for each historical hero, - said Korolev. - So, Dobrynya Nikitich is the uncle of Prince Vladimir, Alyosha Popovich is the Rostov boyar. But no one was found near Ilya, and the only clue was the nickname, because in the early versions he was called not Muromets, but Morovyanin, so the search began - Murov, Morov. There was an ancient Russian city of Moroviysk, and they tried to cling to it.

But this is a fantasy of the Ukrainian side - it is generated by the desire to drag everything into its territory. This is a national complex of a small people who are trying to increase the significance of their own history. One of their ideas: to make any historical, cultural and literary character who has visited Little Russia or was born there a Ukrainian. In general, in the 19th century the concept of a Ukrainian did not exist. As for Ilya Muromets, this is another attempt to make a noble countryman for himself, to tear him away from Russia

historian Alexander Korolev

One of the oldest written references to Ilya Muromets as a Russian hero dates back to 1574, but as early as the beginning of the 13th century, the hero Elijah the Russian was in the ancient German epic, in connection with which Smolensk, Kyiv, Polotsk were mentioned. At the end of the 16th century, the Orsha headman Philon Kmita of Chernobyl used the image of Elijah in a letter to the Trinity castellan Ostafiy Volovich. He complained that he was in need, and compared himself with Russian heroes - including Ilya Muromets - who were also often treated with disdain until their help was required.

In the Russian epic, the first exploits of Ilya Muromets were associated with the work of a tiller: he cleared the land from huge roots and stones, helping people to cultivate it and get a harvest.

After that, he is going to go on a journey to perform other feats. But first he asks for the blessings of his parents. This plot is very common in Russian epics - many tales about Ilya Muromets begin precisely with the episode of the blessing of the parents, and sometimes separate epics are dedicated to him.

One of these epics, recorded in 1903 in the village of Kletskaya (now the Volgograd region), is given in Listopadov's collection Songs of the Don Cossacks.

As it is said in epics, Ilya Muromets went to Kyiv. He, leading other heroes, fought against the enemies of Russia, defending its borders. For example, the chronicles say that the Russian heroes, in particular, drove the Polovtsy beyond the Don and beyond the Volga, in the steppes of the North Caucasus and the South Urals.

One of the epics says that after the feats of arms, the heroes returned to Kyiv, where they dispersed to monasteries and became monks. Among them was Ilya Muromets, who took tonsure in the Caves Monastery. In the short life of the Monk Elijah, his nickname is indicated - Chobotok, that is, "boot". According to legend, once enemies came to the monastery, and Ilya was putting on his shoes at that moment. He managed to put on only one boot, and the second began to defend himself. As a result, with this boot, he dispersed the enemies.

The exact circumstances of the hero's death are also difficult to establish. According to one version, he was wounded by a sharp weapon in the chest during the battle.It is believed that he died around 1188, at about the 45th year of his life. Judging by the surviving written evidence, at first the relics of Ilya Muromets were buried in the Church of St. Sophia in Kyiv, but over time they were transferred to the Near (Antoniev) caves of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.

According to the historian Alexander Korolev, Ilya Muromets is an epic character, and they started talking about his grave only at the beginning of the 17th century.

At the heart of my book is the history of a literary image, but given that this image has prototypes, it is a symbiosis of many people who have had some kind of influence over the centuries on this image. There are material things, for example, a grave in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra - there is an indication on it that the monk was from Karacharov. In fact, in general, this is a literary character, but it is based on stories about many heroes, - said Korolev. - As for the grave in Kyiv -this is a late innovation, and until the beginning of the 17th century this grave was indicated as the burial of another person. Then the popularity of Ilya Muromets came to Great Russia, and in order to draw attention to the Lavra, such work was carried out. Everything is very conditional.

Despite the fact that the reliability of many legends has not been proven, Ilya Muromets became a real national hero. He is revered as the patron of the Russian army, the Cossacks treat him with special trepidation.

Here, on the Don, on the southern outskirts of the Russian state, in a constant, anxious struggle against hostile peoples, the ideal of courage, courage and enterprise for the Cossack - the defender of the motherland and its borders were the heroes: Dobrynya-Donchak, Ilya Muromets ("old Cossack"), Duke Stepanovich, Vasyushka Buslaevich. And behind them are the Cossack heroes - Stepan Razin, Emelyan Pugachev, Nekrasov, Bulavin, Ermak Timofeevich, Ivan Matveevich Krasnoshchekov. A significant part of the epics was long preserved in the memory of the Cossacks and has come down to our days; the majority, it must be assumed, disappeared without a trace, forgotten and lost, with no hope of recovery, Listopadov wrote in the preface to the collection Songs of the Don Cossacks.

Dozens of epics are collected in his book, where Ilya Muromets is mentioned. For example, in 1908 he recorded bylin "Oh, how glorious it was in the city" in the village of Raspopinskaya, where Kyiv is mentioned.

A similar text about the Smorodinka River existed at the beginning of the 20th century in the village of Maryanskaya, but both Kyiv and the village of Karacharovo are mentioned there. In 1911, Listopadov in Maryanskaya wrote down an epic about a hero, which began with the words:

According to Alexander Korolev, Ukraine, unlike Russia, cannot boast of such a rich folklore heritage associated with Ilya Muromets, and this, in his opinion, only confirms the groundlessness of statements about the Chernihiv origin of the hero.

Some researchers are still skeptical about the reality of Ilya Muromets - his biography seems too fabulous to scientists, - says Sergey Khvedchenya, Doctor of Geographical Sciences, researcher at the Institute of History of Ukraine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv).

However, the materials collected by the researcher made it possible not only to completely restore the biography of the Holy Russian hero, but also to answer controversial questions about the life of Ilya Muromets, which baffled many researchers.

Elijah's healing

According to the epics, God sent Elijah to his parents in his old age. Until the age of 30-33, he, who was distinguished by a heroic physique, "sat on the stove," because "there was no walking at his feet," until he was healed by "passing stones", after the visit of which the hero immediately entered the military service. Studies of the remains of St. Elijah from the city of Murom, which were carried out in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra by scientists, fully confirmed the epic version of the life of Ilya Muromets.

Elijah's height was 177 cm - for that time he was a very tall man (the height of other saints from the Lavra was 160-165 cm). Well-developed tuberosities were found on the bones of the mummy - this means that a person had a well-developed muscular system during his lifetime. An x-ray examination revealed changes characteristic of acromegaly - a disease that disrupts the proportional growth of bones and internal organs), - such people have disproportionately large limbs, a large head, "an oblique fathom in the shoulders." Studies have shown that the hero also had spondylarthrosis - a disease similar to sciatica and preventing movement. A good chiropractor can, by adjusting the vertebrae, quickly put a person on his feet. The cross-country Kaliki were, most likely, chiropractors who restored Ilya's mobility.

Fight with the Nightingale the Robber

The most famous feat of Ilya Muromets is the battle with the Nightingale the Robber, who seized the direct road to Kyiv and did not give anyone a pass - "neither on horseback nor on foot." The liberation by the epic hero of the way to Kyiv (1168) is confirmed by historical facts. During the arrival of Ilya in Kyiv, the throne was occupied by Prince Mstislav, who set the task of organizing the protection of trade caravans, which were mercilessly plundered by the Polovtsy. Most likely, the prince entrusted this to Ilya Muromets, who is in the prince's squad.

Nightingale, it seems, was a robber who hunted thefts on the road, and he was nicknamed Nightingale for his ability to whistle well. Ilya Muromets, having defeated the whistler, cleared the straight road, which was of great economic importance. If a straight road is five hundred miles, then a roundabout way is “a whole thousand”. Cleansing the straight path from robbers was equated by the people with a feat.

Elijah's departure to the monastery

If the feats of arms of Ilya were widely reflected in epics, then little is known about the monastic period of his life. Most likely, the wound forced him to leave for the monastery of the hero. The holy relics of St. Elijah testify to severe injuries - a fracture of the right collarbone and two right ribs after being hit with a battle club. Scientists have established that the hero-monk died in battle! At the end of the XII century. attacks on Kyiv became more frequent, and the monks had to defend their monastery. The Holy Russian hero died from a wound in the area of the projection of the heart, penetrating into the chest cavity. Death, apparently, came instantly.

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Biography, life story of Ilya Muromets

One of the heroes most often mentioned in ancient Russian epics and legends, Ilya Muromets, lived in the 11th century. It was to this period that the information in the first written evidence of its existence belonged. Modern scientific research believed that this name was hiding Ilya Chebotok, a saint whose relics were kept in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.

Childhood and youth

The estimated year of birth of the hero is 1063rd. Until recently, there were only assumptions about the place of birth. The most popular of them is that the epic hero was born in the village of Karacharovo near Murom, or in Karachev near Moroviysk. The second option seemed to many closer to the truth because of the geographical location of the village of Morovsk located on the site of this settlement. It is located next to the road from Chernihiv to Kyiv. In addition, the local folk epic contained approximately the same information as the written sources about Ilya Pechersky, whose relics were used to form modern ideas about Ilya Muromets. They also talked about parents - father Ivan Timofeevich and mother Efrosinya Yakovlevna.

According to the ideas about the hero, the epic hero was 1 meter 77 centimeters tall with a very large muscle mass. Its presence was determined by the characteristic growths on the bones. X-ray of the remains revealed the presence of acromegaly and spondyloarthrosis. The first causes a disproportionate growth of internal organs and bones, and the second disrupts the functioning of the musculoskeletal system. This confirmed the veracity of the information in written sources relating to the Middle Ages. They described the appearance of the epic hero, where, in addition to high growth for those times, large limbs were noted. In addition, spondyloarthrosis was treatable even in those days in exactly the same way as today - all you needed was a good chiropractor. Representatives of this particular profession, most likely, put the hero on his feet. In ancient Russian writings, it was mentioned about the visit by wanderers - "Kaliki". These were chiropractors who cured 30-year-old Ilya.

CONTINUED BELOW

Warrior career

At the age of 30, having recovered from his illness, he entered the Chernigov princely squad, taking part in the defense of Chernigov. Having received combat experience, he went to Kyiv. He was taken into the squad, according to the chronicles, after he was able to budge the “immovable stone”. As part of the squad, he accomplished his most famous feat.

We are talking about a fight with the Nightingale the Robber. In the middle of the XII century, Kyiv's trade with other cities was disrupted due to the constant attacks of the Polovtsy on caravans. This forced them to direct them by other roads, which almost doubled the path - up to “a whole thousand,” according to ancient Russian writings. Prince Mstislav, who occupied the throne at that time, ordered to organize the protection of trade caravans, the duties of which, most likely, were assigned to Ilya Muromets. His victory turned out to be so significant that the memory of it has existed, right up to our days.

Monastery

After being wounded, Ilya could no longer serve in the squad. In one of the battles, he received a fracture of two ribs and a collarbone. All injuries were on the right side, and their nature indicated that the blows were inflicted with a fighting club. As a result, the hero would be forced to leave for the monastery, where he lived until his death, approximately in 1118. Moreover, it was not natural. This was mentioned in the annals of 1638 by the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Athanasius Kalnofoysky. He indicated the date of his death as "four hundred and fifty years before." According to modern research, another half century should have been added to this period. A mistake on the part of the author, who worked with poorly preserved tombstones, is not ruled out. Other sources testified to the frequent attacks of the Polovtsy on Kyiv at the end of the 11th century, and not in the first quarter of the 12th century. Not only the princely retinue, but also the civilian population, including monks, took part in their reflections. This explained the presence of a stab wound in the heart area on the hero's body. His death was not natural. Most likely, he died from it within a few minutes at the age of 40 to 55 years.

Ilya Muromets is the most famous and beloved of the Russian heroes. In epics, he has been found since ancient times, and although this is a character of the “younger” cycle of epics, he partially intersects with the most ancient Slavic hero-deity - Svyatogor.

Interestingly, Ilya Muromets was first mentioned in written sources by Philon Kmita-Chernobyl, a governor from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 16th century, who fought against Russian troops, and by Erich Lasota, an Austrian diplomat and traveler of the same time.

Lyasota, a Catholic by faith, also mentions the relics of St. Ilya of Muromets in the Orthodox Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.

Did Ilya Muromets exist in reality?

This hero is known in ancient records as Ilya Morovlyanin, Murovlyanin, Murovets. His historical prototype is considered by many to be a real-life strong man who lived in the 12th century in Murom. His nickname was Chobotok - for the fact that once he fought off enemies with a chobot, that is, a boot.

At the end of his life, Chobotok became a monk under the name of Elijah, and according to legend, his relics are in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. Part of the relics is kept in Murom. Chobotok was a man of remarkable strength and enormous growth, for which he was known far beyond the borders of his city. Moreover, there are people who consider themselves descendants of Ilya Muromets.

For example, the Murom family of the Gushchins, many of whose members were also tall and strong. Sometimes so big that in the 19th century they were forbidden to participate in fisticuffs. In the village of Karacharovo, which is now a district of Murom, there is a church, which, according to legend, Ilya personally built, dragging oak trunks from the water, and the house of one of the Gushchins, on the site of which, according to local legend, once stood the hut of Ilya Muromets.

Who was the epic Ilya?

In the epics, Ilya Muromets appears as a peasant of enormous stature, who until the age of 33 lay in a hut on a bed and could not move due to illness. Once, “passable Kaliki” came to him and asked for water. He told them that he could not move. They repeated their request and forced him to get up. He brought water from the well, which the Kaliki offered him to drink. He drank the water and recovered, while feeling overwhelming strength.

"Kaliki" said that now he must serve Prince Vladimir. Ilya went to Kyiv, but first he met a huge stone with an inscription along the way. Moving this stone aside, as it was written on it, he found armor, weapons and a horse under it. Who the "Kaliki" were is not entirely clear. In pre-revolutionary publications, it was indicated that this was Christ and the two apostles, but in the Soviet years this information was cut out of the texts.

However, such an interpretation of the “kaliks” is most likely a late “doctrinal” insertion, and the essence of these characters is completely different. In addition to Russian epics, Ilya Muromets appears in German legends of the 13th century as a mighty Russian knight.

Plots about Ilya Muromets show him as a warrior-defender, a kind of "policeman" in Kievan Rus, as well as a fighter against the Tatar-Mongols:

Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Robber.
Ilya Muromets and the robbers.
Ilya Muromets and Kalin Tsar.
Ilya Muromets and Idolishche Poganoe.
Ilya Muromets and Batu the Tsar.

Favorite hero of the Cossacks

Most of the legends about Ilya Muromets come from the Russian North - Siberia, Olonets and Arkhangelsk provinces. They tell about the hero's service in Kyiv and his relationship with Prince Vladimir, which was by no means always friendly. Outside of this region, only some plots are common that do not tie Ilya to Kyiv and Prince Vladimir.

But in these stories, Ilya fights with all sorts of robbers. He also meets with the Cossacks (“Ilya Muromets on the Falcon-ship”), such legends arose, apparently, among the Volga Cossacks. In general, Ilya Muromets is quite popular among the Cossacks, being an exponent of the freedom-loving people's spirit.

Facts about Ilya Muromets contain a lot of interesting information and can be used in preparing a report about Ilya Muromets.

Ilya Muromets: interesting facts

Ilya Muromets- the legendary hero of the times of Russia, the hero of the Russian epic. It was first mentioned in written works in the 16th century.

The hero Ilya Muromets was born between 1150 and 1165 in the city of Murom.

In 1988, a scientific study of the surviving relics of St. Ilya of Muromets was carried out. The remains belong to a strong man who died at the age of 45-55, enough tall - 177 cm, he was a very tall man for his time.

On the skeleton of Ilya, scientists found traces of many battles- broken ribs, multiple fractures of the clavicles, traces of a sword, spear, saber.

There was such a story among the people that allegedly the grandfather of Ilya Muromets was a pagan, and once cut an Orthodox icon with an ax. Since then, a curse has fallen on his family and all boys must be born crippled. A grandson was born 10 years later Ilya - he could not walk. Numerous attempts to cure him were unsuccessful. At the age of 33, the prophetic elders came to the parental home, they asked Ilya to give water. He explained that he could not get up, but the guests insistently repeated their request, which already sounded like an order. And the sick Ilya suddenly got to his feet for the first time ... It is not known exactly, and science is not yet able to explain the fact of the healing itself. Scientists confirm only the fact that the hero really had an extremely serious disease - tuberculosis of the bones, which led to paralysis of the legs.

From the moment of miraculous healing, the hero Ilya Muromets performs many feats. The most famous feat of the hero is the battle with the Nightingale the Robber, who occupied the direct road to the capital of Russia, and did not allow free passage. Nightingale hunted for raids and theft on the road, and the nickname stuck to him for his ability to whistle loudly. Ilya Muromets defeated the whistler in a duel and cleared the way. Clearing the way from the robbers did not go unnoticed and was equated by the people with a real feat.

In ancient German poems there is a mention of the Russian hero Ilya. The legend says that in one battle the hero Ilya almost fell, but miraculously saved his life and vowed to settle in the monastery. Ilya approached the walls of the Lavra, threw off all his armor, but did not drop his sword to the ground. He became a monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. Once the enemy approached the walls of the monastery, and then the hero again raised his sword and felt that his legs refused to serve him. At that moment, the enemy dealt a fatal blow to his chest, and Ilya's strength left and he could no longer defend himself. The hero died at the age of 50.