Marion Chilton Harrison

“ Múrom is a real place still, with forests round it and a river full of fish. The peasants in the old days owned the land in common, so each village was like a little kingdom. Ilyá hates the dog, King Kálin, because he slays the villagers.
Svyatogór’s name means Holy Mountain. He is very strong and huge, like a mountain, but he is clumsy and rather boastful. He boasted he could lift anything, but he soon found he couldn’t. At the end he stops boasting, and is good to young Ilyá, and gives him all his strength, so that makes up.
The hero who really can do everything is Volgá. ”

“ In one of the pictures you see Volgá, the prince, come to beg Mikúla to leave his plough and join his warriors. Mikúla was sad, but a man must leave even his work to defend his country. Mikúla is my favourite of all the heroes.
The peasant heroes, Mikúla and great Ilyá, are very proud and independent, and sometimes not very respectful to the King; they seem to think they are as good as he is, and so they were. It is their country [xi] they love, and their beautiful city of Kiev and its Church, and in those old days they had not learned that the King stands for the country. ”

“ We all know and honour our French Allies, and most of us try to speak French. We are proud to read in history how our William the Conqueror came over from France and brought with him many good laws and customs, and, best of all, beautiful French words that have now become English—why, the very word beauty came to us from France. But Russia is much further away than France, and very few of us learn to speak Russian, or even to read it. ”

“ Ilyá looked at this writing and said:
“If I ride straight, I shall cease to live; this way I can neither ride nor walk nor fly. Nightingale the Robber sits in his nest upon the seven oaks, and the robber-dog will seize me at the seventh mile.” ”

“ One day Ilyá set off on his good horse for a ride. He rode a long way through the open plain till he came to the Burning Stone. Three lengths beyond the stone there were three paths leading this way and that from the Burning Stone, and upon the stone was written:
“Who goes by the first path will be killed.
Who goes by the second path will find marriage.
Who goes by the third path will become rich.”
He stopped to consider:
“By which path shall I go? Why should a bold hero want to be rich? Why should I want to marry? I will take the way to be killed.” ”

“ And again, when he was at Kiev with his body-guard of good comrades, Volgá the Chief said:
“My good brave comrades, why should we not send to the country of the Tartars to find out what the Cham is thinking of? For the Cham may be thinking of something. And what if he were thinking of riding [5] into Holy Russia? Now, whom shall we send? If we send an old man he will go slowly, and we shall have long to wait. If we send a middle-aged man he will tarry and drink by the way; and if we send a boy he will stop and play. It seems as if Volgá will have to go himself!” ”

“ Again they all mounted their good steeds and rode on. The ploughman’s mare went on at a trot, but Volgá’s horse had to gallop to try to get up to the ploughman’s mare, and Volgá’s horse was left behind. Volgá began to wave his cap, and he shouted:
“Stop, good ploughman. If that mare of yours were a horse, I would give five hundred for that mare.”
The ploughman answered him:
“Stupid is Volgá, the son of Svyátoslav. I took the mare as a foal from the dam, and I paid five hundred for that mare when she was a foal. If the mare were a horse, she would be priceless!” ”

“ Then Ilyá took Nightingale the Robber and tied him to his Circassian stirrup and made him walk beside the horse towards Kiev town. Presently they came to the house of Nightingale the Robber. It was a big house in a large yard, and round the yard was a high iron fence with spikes on the railings, and upon every spike was set the head of a hero; for Nightingale the Robber killed all that passed that way.
Nightingale’s children caught sight of their father and called out:
“Look! father is bringing a man.” ”

“ When his comrades slept Volgá slept not. Sometimes he turned himself into a grey wolf and ran and leaped in the dark forest and killed moose-deer and bears and wolves. Martens and panthers were his favourite prey, and he spared neither hares nor foxes. And at other times he turned himself into a bright falcon, flew far away over the blue sea and killed geese and white swans, and the little grey ducks he spared not. [3]
One day when he was at Kiev he called his body-guard:
“My good brave comrades,” said he, “listen to your big brother, your Chief. Bring a rope of silk and make a snare. ”

“ And the heroes said:
“There is no sun in the heavens. Not one hero in Holy Russia. Old Cossack, Ilyá of Múrom! O that we might take thee out of this bitter captivity! Fair Sun, Prince Vladímir, makes us turn pale.”
Then Ilyá mounted his good horse and rode to [54] Kiev town. He rode not into Kiev town, but he rode to the deep dungeon.
He got down from his good horse, took off the Circassian saddle, took off the braided bridle and let his brown horse go where God willed. ”

“ When Volgá was seventeen he called his friends and companions together and formed a bodyguard of thirty youths save one, and Volgá himself was the thirtieth. He was their Chief, and took them with him on his journeys. He provided for them all and gave them abundance of food and drink, and of sugar sweetmeats many kinds. And warm clothes, too, he gave them, fur coats made of the skins of marten and sable and of panther. ”

“ But though the heroes lived so long ago, they are never forgotten. The Russian children in the village schools learn about Volgá and Ilyá as soon as they can read, and old minstrels in far away villages beyond lake Onéga and even in Siberia sing the Byliny, the songs of What-has-Been to the peasants as they sit round the fire at night. ”

“ He stooped down from his [16] horse and grasped the wallet with his hand, but he could not lift it.
“Many years have I journeyed upon this earth,” said he, “but never have I come upon so strange a thing. Such a wonder have I never seen. A little wallet, a bag, that will not be pushed away, that cannot be moved out of the way, and that cannot be lifted up!” ”

“ She caught sight of Ilyá in the oak tree and would have him to come down and talk to her. When her husband suddenly woke up she put Ilyá into her husband’s pocket to hide him. Svyatogór stood up and put his wife back into the glass chest and lifted it on to his shoulder again. He called up his horse and got upon his back and set off to ride, but soon the horse stumbled, and Svyatogór was vexed and asked why he was stumbling.
“This morning,” said the horse in a human voice, “I was carrying a hero and a hero’s wife, but now I am carrying two heroes as well as the hero’s wife.” ”

“ Upon the horse he put a saddle-cloth, and upon the saddle-cloth he laid a cloth of felt; now the saddle-cloth was of silk, and upon the saddle-cloth he laid another cloth, and then the Circassian saddle. But the Circassian saddle did not hold firmly, and Ilyá fastened it by twelve girths of silk, and he drew them up with steel pins. And he fixed on stirrups of steel and buckles of red gold—not for show, but for heroic strength. Drawn up are the girths of silk, and they break not; steel and iron bend, but break not; and the buckles of red gold may get wet, but they rust not. ”

“ Young Volgá ordered five strong young men out of his brave body-guard to pull the plough out of the ground, to shake the earth from the ploughshare, and throw the plough behind the broom bush. The five strong young men rode up to the plough of maple wood, they turned the plough about by the shaft, but could not pull the plough out of the ground, or shake the earth from the ploughshare, and throw the plough behind the broom bush. ”

“ Quickly saddle your good horses and mount them. From my beloved godson has flown a sharp arrow through my glorious white tent. From my tent it took the roof, [69] and the arrow crept into my white breast, made a small prick, not a large one. The cross at my neck preserved me, Samson, the cross at my neck weighing forty stone. Had that cross not been upon my breast, my tempestuous head would have been torn off.”
Then all those heroes of Holy Russia quickly saddled their good horses and rode through the open plain, towards Kiev town, to the Tartar army. ”

“ Far the best way to get to know people is to learn their language, but it is not quite so easy to learn to read Russian as it is to read French, because the Russians use different letters. You will see Russian letters in the pictures1 ”