Valkyries of Russian epics, in which the legendary heroes fell in love and married

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

It was not easy for Russian heroes to marry. Not every girl can stand a hero by her side. So heroic hearts very often were kidnapped by raspberries and heroes - female warriors, whose disposition had to be literally won. The heroes did not tolerate weaklings near them. The hero could find his betrothed in an open field, or he could at a feast with the prince - judging by the song of the epics, the raspberries feasted there at the same table with the heroes.

Warrior maidens were such a familiar part of Russian folklore that Vladimir Dal writes the word "hero" in this sense. Afanasyev captures fairy tales in which a nameless maiden with her retinue guards the rejuvenating apples. Her entire army is fully recruited from girls. Together with them, the girl travels for fun through the fields. Actually, the raspberry means - the one that poles, travels through the fields in search of adventure.

Not all raspberries are nameless. Several heroines in epics and fairy tales are named by name.

The prototype of one of the most popular characters in epics, Dobrynya Nikitich, is considered a real person, the uncle and governor of St. Vladimir. In epics, he meets his future wife, Nastasya Mikulishna, after defeating the Serpent Gorynych. Nastasya beats him in a fair fight, and then grabs the yellow curls, pulls the hero from the saddle and hides … in her pocket. And only then he thinks what to do with it.

Nastasya decides to look at the prisoner properly and marry him if he pleases. Well, or cut off your head if the man is so-so. Fortunately, Dobrynya completely suits the girl, and she becomes his wife.

In another epic, Dobrynya is sent on a diplomatic mission to the Horde. Nastasya has been waiting for her husband for twelve years, but then receives false news of his death. The prince forces the hero to marry another hero, Alyosha Popovich. Dobrynya appears at the wedding, disguised as a buffoon. Nastasya immediately recognizes her husband and embraces him.

It is not known whether the wife of the real Dobrynya was a warrior, but he himself, I must say, had a fierce disposition. For example, it was he who incited Vladimir to rape Rogneda, the bride of Vladimir Yaropolk's brother, in front of her parents. In addition, it is believed that he converted Novgorodians to Christianity by force.

Sister Nastasya Mikulishna, Vasilisa, was in the epics the wife of the Chernigov boyar Stavr. At a feast at Vladimir Stavr, drunk, brags about the intelligence and strength of his wife. Expressions for comparing Vasilisa with the prince and his retinue, he picks up not the most flattering, and Vladimir puts Stavr "in the deep cellars."

Upon learning of this, Vasilisa embarks on a trick. She disguises herself as a Tatar youth, takes an army with her and, having appeared in Kiev, demands to pay tribute for twelve years and the princess as a wife. The latter was to get rid of the prince, since it was considered a dishonor to pass off a Christian woman as a Gentile.

The princess suspects that the young man is actually more of a woman, and shares her suspicions with her father. The prince arranges tests for Vasilisa for strength, intelligence and dexterity, and from each she comes out with honor. Vladimir has to play his daughter's wedding with a guest. At the feast "Tatar" sits with a sad face. The prince calls the guselniks, but their game does not suit the guest. Then Vladimir remembers that the boyar Stavr is a wonderful musician. Stavr is brought to the feast. Vasilisa calls him to look at her squad and opens up there. Having changed into a woman's dress, she returns with her husband to Vladimir, and he has to admit that Stavr did not boast in vain.

Just think, but Stavr also has a real prototype, only “in the cellar” it was concluded not by St. Vladimir, but by Vladimir Monomakh. But not for being rude, but for participating in the riots in Novgorod.

Nastasya and Vasilisa are not only popular heroines, but also the daughters of another epic hero, the hero Mikula Selyaninovich. True, their father did not differ in belligerence, content with the role of a plowman and the fact that from time to time he put the passing heroes in their place.

Ilya Muromets was also surrounded by raspberries. In one of the epics, he conceives a son Sokolnik out of wedlock with the hero Zlatigorka; in another, his wife Savishna, dressed in armor, goes to Kiev to rescue Ilya from Tugarin the serpent. Finally, in one of the epics, Ilya Muromets is trying to kill his illegitimate heroic daughter for dishonoring her mother (in other versions, this is done by his son). Muromets kills her without asking her name.

The story of the raspberry Nastasya Korolevichna, the wife of the hero Danube Ivanovich, is dramatic. Danube, together with Dobrynya Nikitich, goes to Lithuania to marry Apraksa, the daughter of the Lithuanian king, whom he himself served before, for Prince Vladimir. When the king meets the Danube, he dares, and he encloses him “in deep cellars,” but Dobrynya beats the Lithuanian squad, and the king has to give both the Danube and Apraks.

Apraksa has an older sister, Nastasya. Once the Danube seduced her and almost paid with his life, but the princess bribed the executioners, and the hero was able to flee to Kiev. Arriving for Apraksa, the Danube does not even look towards the former lover, and this hurts the woman. She leaves home to Polish.

On the way back to Kiev, the Danube notices a "heroic trace", catches up with an unknown hero and enters into a duel with him - in this respect, the epic heroes of Russia were no different from the knights from European ballads. Having already defeated the stranger, Danube takes out a knife to finish him off, but realizes that he sees Nastasya. They go to Kiev together to get married there.

In Kiev, Apraksa and Nastasya are playing a double wedding with their grooms. At the feast, Danube and Nastasya undertake to boast: he is brave, she is accurate in shooting from the hand. Danube puts a silver ring on his head to check his wife, and she shoots an arrow three times through the ring. Then Danube decides to shoot himself in the ring on Nastasya's head. She begs not to do this, because she is pregnant, but eventually gets up with a ring, and the Danube misses and kills his wife. Opening her belly, he sees that there was a wonderful child inside Nastasya - her legs were knee-deep in silver, her arms were elbow-deep in gold. Out of grief, the Danube throws himself on his own saber, and from his blood a river begins.

In fairy tales, Ivan Tsarevich often confronts a certain warrior maiden. She can perform under the name Marya Morevna, Usonsha the hero, the girl Sineglazka or Belalebed Zakharyevna. In one of the plots, Ivan Tsarevich marries Morevna and discovers that she is holding Koshchei the Immortal captive. Out of pity, the prince gives Koshchei a drink, and he regains his strength and escapes, kidnapping Mary herself. With the help of her three brothers, the prince frees his wife.

Many researchers believe that the image of raspberries in Russian epics and fairy tales is associated with contacts between Russians and Cumans. Polovtsian girls were supposed to know military affairs, and the wedding custom included a duel between the bride and the groom. Russian princes (and, perhaps, simple warriors too) quite actively took Polovtsian brides as their wives. In order for the marriage to be recognized by both peoples, at first they played it according to Polovtsian customs, then they baptized the bride and played a wedding according to the Russian rite.

What the raspberry-girls looked like is hard to say, because disputes about the appearance of the Polovtsians do not subside to this day … But the Russian princes were happy with everything.