"The Tale of Kozhemyak" as a work of ancient Russian literature

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

About a thousand years ago, the first manuscripts in Russia began to appear, the authors of which were mainly monks - a small army of literate people. One of them, "The Tale of Bygone Years", contains a description of the history of the Slavs, the author's attitude to what was happening.

Reflection of life events

Nikita Kozhemyaka, a young young craftsman, who was mentioned in The Tale of Bygone Years, strangled him in a single duel with a Pecheneg enemy. "The Tale of Kozhemyak" is a story about an evil Snake who regularly took a young beautiful girl from every house and devoured her. The turn has come to give the royal daughter to the Serpent.

"The Tale of Kozhemyak" reflects the events that took place in those days in the life of the Slavs and hostile Khazar steppes. A fairly common phenomenon was the capture of the Slavs by the Khazars with their subsequent resale into slavery.

The serpent is just a robber and invader, symbolizing the Khazars. Even in the finale, "The Tale of Nikita Kozhemyak" recalls the real relationship with these people. The division of land and water equally between Kozhemyakoy and Serpent depicts the customs serviceKhazars on the shores of the Caspian Sea. With such a metaphor, the author conveyed a constant threat to the Slavs from the Khazar tribes. Since the long wars of the Slavs with the Khazars ended in victory for the first, one should think that the "Legend of Kozhemyak" reflects precisely the final relationship, that is, the victory in the 10th - early 11th centuries.

Heroes

In general, the heroes are mentioned for the first time since the time when Prince Vladimir began to attract willing northern people to protect the Slavic borders. There were about two or three thousand of them. True, they began to sing heroic strength and prowess much later, during the time of the Tatar-Mongol yoke; then the word "bogatyr" ("bogatyr") came into the Russian language.

Battle with the Pechenegs

"The Tale of Bygone Years" has preserved two legends: about a young man who beat a Pecheneg strongman, and about Belgorod jelly. In the first one (“The Tale of Kozhemyak”), it is about how the duel of two strongmen was to play a decisive role in the confrontation between the Rus and the Pechenegs. These were the events of 992. Only after finishing the war with the Khazars, Vladimir returned to his homeland, but then the hated Pechenegs appeared on the other side of the Dnieper. Before starting the fight, we decided to fight one on one. If the Russian warrior wins, the war will be canceled; if the Pecheneg wins, it will last three years. Opponents stood on opposite banks of the Trubezh River. A duel was supposed to take place, but there was no brave man in the camp of Vladimir, ready to fight with the Pecheneghero. Vladimir began to grieve, but a warrior approached him with the words that the youngest son remained at his house, who is so strong that once out of anger he tore in half the skin that crumpled in his hands.

When asked if he could defeat the Pecheneg, the young man asked to test himself by leading him to a fight with an angry bull. They urgently delivered the young man to the regiment and set on him a bull, enraged with a red-hot iron. The young man let the bull come closer and pulled out a piece of skin along with meat from its sides. The fight has begun. Compared to the huge and terrible Pecheneg warrior, the Russian youth lost a lot. However, as soon as both warriors grappled, the young man strangled the Pecheneg to death. Frightened enemies fled, and on the site of the battle, Vladimir founded the city of Pereyaslavl. So it is said in the Russian chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years". "The Tale of Kozhemyak" is one of her heroic pages.

Since then, Nikita Kozhemyaka has become the hero of many legends, who, as proof of his mighty strength, at once tears several folded bull skins. Time passed, and the plot of the duel between Kozhemyaki and the Pecheneg was mythologized - now it was a fight with the Serpent. Such artistic revisions were not isolated. In the Bessarabian version, Stefan Voda also fights with the Serpent (in the original interpretation - with the Turk).

"The Legend of Kozhemyak". Brief Narrative

The royal daughter, taken by the Serpent to his cave, was not eaten by him, like other girls, due to her indescribable beauty. The serpent, instead of eating her, took her as his wife. Learning from himthat only a certain young man Nikita Kozhemyaka is stronger than the Serpent, the girl conveys this information to her father by writing a note and tying it to the neck of the dog that followed her. And then the king issues an order to find Kozhemyaka and ask him to go to battle with the Serpent. Seeing that the royal messengers had come to him, Kozhemyaka, out of fear, tore the twelve skins that he crumpled in his hands. Dejected by the fact that because of this he would suffer a huge loss, the young man at first refused to save the princess. Then the orphans who were left without parents because of the cursed Serpent were brought to him. The young man, touched by their grief, after some preparations, goes to the Serpent and kills him. This is the legend of the youth Kozhemyak, who defeated the Serpent.

Second option

Another retelling contains a different version of events. The defeated Serpent asks Kozhemyaka for mercy and reworking the land, to which Nikita agrees. Harnessed to a plow, the Serpent begins to plow the earth from the city of Kyiv to the Caspian Sea. After dividing the land, the Serpent decides to divide the sea as well. Having driven the snake to the depth, Kozhemyaka drowns it there, thereby freeing the people from the villain. According to legend, the boundaries laid by the Serpent are still visible to this day. People don't touch them, they leave them in memory of the invincible Nikita Kozhemyak.

Differences between epics and chronicles

"The Tale of Nikita Kozhemyak" (in the Ukrainian version - about Kirill Kozhemyak) is a chronicle. Although this is a hero not only of chronicles, but also of epics. There are significant differences and similarities between the chronicle and the epic. General:

1. The enemy demands to put up a young man for a duel, but he is notlocated.
2. It is not a strong man-hero who enters the duel, but a youngster-young man.
3. The boy is reported by his father.
4. The enemy is always a hero of great strength and huge size.
5. The enemy triumphs in advance, but is beaten.

Differences:

1. The epic hero is a professional fighter, and the hero of the chronicle is a simple artisan. He wins only thanks to his overworked hands.
2. In the annals, an event is always tied to a historical context. This is not in the epic.