One of the most famous characters of Russian epics belonging to the Novgorod cycle is Sadko.
Prototype of an epic hero
Sadko’s personality cannot be called fictitious. There is a version that its prototype was the rich and very generous merchant Sotko Sytinich, who lived in Novgorod around 1167. He did a lot for his native Novgorod, in particular, with his money, according to legend, the Church of Boris and Gleb was built.
This version is refuted by a theory based on the fact that the epic about Sadko in a more or less similar version is described in French literature, moreover, the main character of the legendary epic was called Sadok. This gives historians and art critics the right to argue that, perhaps, the prototype of both stories was the same real person (or work). And given that the name Sadko and Zadok have Jewish roots, fans of this version are sure that we are talking about a Jewish merchant forgotten by history or a fairy tale that has not survived to our times.
And finally, the third version, put forward by Vsevolod Miller, finds an explanation for Sadko’s personality in the epics of the Finnish-Estonian tribes. The scientist bases his theory not on the personality of the main character, but on the very story associated with him and described in the legend.
Sadko's personality traits
Unlike the epic heroes, Sadko did not perform feats and did not defend the Russian land. He became famous as a merchant, so it can be argued that, in this way, the epics first glorified merchants as a social category that was gaining real political power at that time.
Sadko’s character deserves special attention. He is distinguished by his generosity, ability to part with acquired goods, ease, honesty and extraordinary musical abilities. The negative character traits of the hero include his unprecedented boasting and gambling nature, which almost cost him his life.
In addition, the epic notes Sadko’s luck, ability to be in the right place at the right time, as well as the eternal desire of the Russian people for “freebies,” since the hero did not earn his wealth through hard work, but won as a result of a banal dispute, turning from a simple guslar into a prominent and a wealthy person.
Epic about Sadko
Only one epic about Sadko has survived to this day, called “Sadko and the Sea King,” consisting of three parts. In the first part, Sadko is presented as a poor guslar who entertained a noble audience. He mastered the instrument so masterfully that he gained the favor of not only the Novgorod nobility, but also Vodyanoy himself, who lived in Lake Ilmen. Having managed to please his ears, the Tsar helped Sadko earn money from the dispute and become a rich, respected man.
In the second part of the epic, Sadko appears as a wealthy merchant, one of the richest on Novgorod land. But his trading activities were interrupted by a banal dispute, after which Sadko was forced to go by sea to trade in distant lands. The sea king demanded tribute from him, but he was not satisfied, neither bags of gold nor pearls - he needed a human sacrifice, which Sadko became. He took with him a harp, on which he began to play for the King of the Sea, but Saint Nicholas the saint, who appeared to him in the role of an elder, forbade him to do this, since the king’s dances caused the sea to ripple and the ships sank.
In the third part of the epic, the Sea King forced Sadko to marry. He chose, on the advice of the same Saint Nicholas, the maiden Chernava, who was the river on the banks of which he woke up after the wedding feast. The merchant's fleet immediately returned, increasing his wealth, and in honor of the saint, Sadko built a church in Novgorod.
There is a version in which, instead of getting married, Sadko manages to resolve the king’s dispute about what is more valuable – damask steel or gold. Sadko chose damask steel because it can be used to win in battle.
To summarize, it can be noted that the image of Sadko differs from other images of Russian epics. This means that the Russian people gradually learned to appreciate the contribution made to the development of the lands not only by the defenders of the fatherland, but also by those who did not have strength, courage, or heroic prowess. That is, Sadko can rightfully be called a “hero” of a new, calmer time, when the Russian lands, primarily the Novgorod principality, lived in relative peace.
A guslar named Sadko, who lives in the city of Veliky Novgorod, is not rich, but is very proud, and loves to go to feasts.
Many holidays pass this way, but soon they stop inviting him to feasts. This is how the first feast ends, the second and the third. The gloomy guslar goes to Lake Ilmen, where he sits down to play his gusli and plunges headlong into his music, not noticing how the water in the lake begins to sway. Soon he returns home.
After some time the story continues. Again he is not invited to visit and he again goes to the lake, where he again plays the harp, the water sways again and again he does not see it.
Again everyone forgets about him... But this time a miracle happens on Lake Ilmen, a deep-sea king appears from the recently quiet and peaceful waters from the very depths of the waters. He promises Sadko that he will help him because he played so well. The king offers to bet with the merchants that he can catch goldfish in the lake, and the king of the sea will help him with this.
Sadko does just that, gets the merchants drunk, calls them to the lake and catches three goldfish in front of them. The merchants realize that they were wrong and give him their jewelry.
Sadko is getting rich before our eyes and his people like him have the most beautiful chambers and it seems like all his fantasies have already been realized...
One day he invites all the nobles to his feast, everyone gets very drunk and begins to ask Sadko what the secret of his wealth is. Sadko did not say for a long time what the reason was, but in the end he gave in and told him. They didn’t believe him and he again argued with other merchants for thirteen thousand rubles.
Sadko decides to buy back all the goods from the merchants so that they terminate the contract.
He wakes up and gives orders to his squad by giving each an impressive amount of money. The vigilantes go to the shopping arcades and buy everything. He does the same thing himself.
But the next morning, when Sadko gives the squad a sum of money, he learns that the goods on the shelves are not decreasing, but are only increasing. As a result, he buys twice as much as yesterday and goes home with the hope that this was all possible goods.
And the next morning he goes to the market, but all his hopes were killed, since the goods were three times more than yesterday.
Sadko understands that it is not possible even for him to buy up all the available goods in the shopping malls, because goods are beginning to be replenished from abroad and that, despite the amount of money he has, the city of Veliky Novgorod with all its merchants is much richer than him.
Sadko understands that all this was a great lesson for him. The upset man says goodbye to his money and gives it to the happy merchants. And with the money that he has left, he builds ships, thirty of them.
Sadko decides that he most wants to see other lands. Through several Russian rivers he swims out into a beautiful sea where neither end nor edge is visible and, turning south, he arrives at the Golden Horde.
On those lands he was able to sell all his goods and earned so much money that he became rich again. He orders the squad to put all the money in barrels, and gets ready to go home to their native lands.
But the happiness will not last long, since on this path he is caught by a great storm that he has never seen before. Sadko begins to understand that this sea king is making a fuss because Sadko has not brought tribute for a long time. Sadko orders his squad to throw a barrel of silver overboard, but this does not help, and the sea riots even more. Then Sadko decides to throw a barrel of gold into the sea, as a tribute to the mighty king, but this does not help, and the water flows worse than before. And then Sadko understands that the king demands his head. Sadko and his squad cast lots, but every time it falls on Sadko. Well, what can you do, he resigned himself to his fate, and jumped, and before the jump he gave instructions to his squad. He gives all his savings and lands to churches, his wife, children and squad. He takes his favorite harp in his hands and jumps down from the side. The water calms down and the ships continue on their way.
Sadko gets tired of swimming and falls asleep on a small raft. He woke up in the domain of the sea king. The king asked the young guslar to play the gusli for him and the guslar began to play. The song was so catchy that the king danced so much that he had been dancing for several days, and the storm on the water became even more powerful and menacing than it had been before.
Many ships were wrecked then, many people died. And the people began to sing prayers to Mikola Mozhaisky, so that he would help in any way he could. Then the saint went down into the sea and quietly began to give instructions to the guslar, so that he would break all the strings, and when, in gratitude, the king offered him the hand of his beauties, that he should choose the very last one, the one called Chernavushka. Only the most important thing is no fornication at night.
Sadko did just that. Having fallen asleep in bed with Chernavushka, he woke up on the bank of Chernava. And not far from him stood his ships. No one believed how miraculously Sadko escaped. Guslyar built a church to Saint Mozhaisk and never sailed on ships again.
SADKO
Sadko the rich guest is the hero of the epics of the Novgorod cycle; Of the nine known variants recorded exclusively in the Olonets province, only two are complete. According to the most complete version (Sorokin), S. was at first a poor guslar who amused Novgorod merchants and boyars. Once he played the harp on the shore of Lake Ilmen from morning to evening and with his playing gained the favor of Tsar Vodyany, who taught S. to bet with rich Novgorod merchants that there were fish “golden feathers” in Ilmen Lake; with the help of Tsar Vodyany, S. won a mortgage, began trading and became rich. One day S. boasted at a feast that he would buy up all the goods in Novgorod; Indeed, for two days S. bought all the goods in the living room, but on the third day, when Moscow goods arrived, S. admitted that he could not buy goods from all over the white world. After this, S. loaded 30 ships with goods and went to trade; on the way, the ships suddenly stopped, despite the strong wind; S., guessing that the sea king was demanding tribute, threw barrels of gold, silver and pearls into the sea, but in vain; then it was decided that the king of the sea demands a living head; the lot fell on S., who, taking with him a harp, ordered himself to be lowered into the sea on an oak board. S. found himself in the chambers of the sea king, who announced to him that he had demanded him to listen to his play. To the sounds of S.'s playing, the king of the sea began to dance, as a result of which the sea became agitated, ships began to sink and many Orthodox people died; then Mikola the saint, disguised as a gray-haired old man, appeared to S. and ordered him to stop playing, breaking the strings of the gusli. Then the king of the sea demands that S. marry a sea maiden of his choice. On the advice of Mikola, S. chooses the girl Chernava; after the wedding feast, S. falls asleep and wakes up on the banks of the Chernava River. At the same time, his ships with the treasury are approaching along the Volkhov. In gratitude for his salvation, S. built churches to St. Nicholas of Mozhaisk and the Blessed Virgin Mary. In some versions, S. resolves the dispute between the sea king and the queen about what is more expensive in Rus' - gold or damask steel, and decides it in favor of damask steel; in another version, the role of Mikola is taken by the Pallet Queen. In one epic about S., in the collection of Kirsha Danilov, S. is not a natural Novgorodian, but a young man coming from the Volga, whom Ilmen-Lake helps to get rich, in gratitude for the bow given to him by Sadko from Ilmen’s sister, Volga: fish caught in large quantities turned into gold and silver money. S. himself does not perform heroic deeds: his trading activities are imputed to him as a feat; thus, S. is a representative of Novgorod trade, a merchant-hero. The oldest basis for the epic about S. was probably a song about the historical person Sadko Sytinets (or Sotko Sytinich), mentioned in the chronicle in 1167, as the builder of the church of St. Boris and Gleb in Novgorod. Various fairy-tale motifs are associated with the name of this person, partly going back to local legends, partly to international wandering fairy tales. Thus, in Novgorod and Rostov legends, the rescue of a man who was dying and floating on a board is mentioned; According to Russian folk beliefs, St. Nikola is known as an ambulance on the waters and is even called “sea” and “wet”. Stories that an underground or underwater king, having captured a hero into his kingdom, wants to keep him by marrying his daughter, are also very frequent in our fairy tales and in the fairy tales of other peoples. Thus, one Kyrgyz legend tells how one man, having dived into the water, found himself in the kingdom of the ruler of the waters, Ubbe, served there for several years, married the vizier’s daughter, and then, with the help of a magic green stick, returned to earth and became rich. The closest sources of the epic about S. have not been clarified. Academician A.N. Veselovsky points out the similarity of the epic about S. with an episode of the old French novel about “Tristan le Leonois”: its hero, who goes by the name Zadok, killed his brother-in-law, who attempted the honor of his wife, and escapes with her on a ship; a storm arises, which, according to the ship's elder, was sent down for the sins of one of the passengers; by lot, Zadok turns out to be the culprit of the storm; he throws himself into the sea, after which the storm subsides. The obvious similarity of the episodes of the French novel and the epic, as well as the coincidence of the names S. and Zadok, gives reason to assume that both the novel and the epic independently go back to the same source - a story or legend, in which this name was already found. S.'s name, Zadok, is of Jewish origin (Hebrew: Zadok the just), which indicates the likely influence of Jewish folk literature. Sun. Miller finds an explanation for the types of S. guslar and sea king in Finnish and Estonian legends: he equates the sea king of the epic with the sea king Ahto, who is also a hunter of music; He sees the prototype of the S. guslar in the musician and singer Veinemeinen. Wed. Sun. Miller "Essays on Russian folk literature" (Moscow, 1897); A. Veselovsky "Epic about S." ("Journal of the Ministry of Public Education", 1886, ¦ 12); Art. I. Mandelstam (ib., 1898, ¦ 2; refuting the theory of Vs. Miller, the author proves that those places of the Finnish epic that served as Vs. Miller, the basis for the rapprochement of the Water King with Ahto and S. with Veinemeinen are not borrowed from folk tales, but are insertions by Lönnrot).
Brief biographical encyclopedia. 2012
See also interpretations, synonyms, meanings of the word and what SADKO is in Russian in dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference books:
- SADKO in the Wiki Quotebook:
Data: 2008-11-15 Time: 07:00:19 Sadko the merchant is a character in the Russian epic “Sadko” - * - Oh, you Novgorod merchants! As I know the miracle-wonderful... - SADKO in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
- SADKO in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, TSB:
Soviet icebreaker ship. Built in 1912 in Newcastle (UK). Length 78 m, width 11.4 m. Displacement 3800 tons. On the "N." ... - SADKO in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron:
the rich guest is the hero of the epics of the Novgorod cycle; Of the nine known variants recorded exclusively in Olonets province, only two are complete. By … - SADKO
"SADO", icebreaking steamer. Built in 1912, displacement. 3800 tons. In 1935-38 he participated in 3 complex research expeditions. deep water districts... - SADKO in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
SADO, guslar and singer, hero of the same name. Novgorod epic, the plot of which was developed in Russian. art 19th century (poem of the same name by A.K. ... - SADKO in the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedia:
rich guest? hero of the epics of the Novgorod cycle; Of the nine known variants recorded exclusively in Olonets province, only two are complete. By … - SADKO in the Dictionary for solving and composing scanwords:
Novgorod... - SADKO in the Russian Synonyms dictionary:
guslar, ... - SADKO in the New Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language by Efremova:
adv. decomposition Correlates by value. with adj.: sad... - SADKO
guslar and singer, hero of the Novgorod epic of the same name, the plot of which was developed in Russian art of the 19th century. (poem of the same name by A.K. ... - "SADKO" in the Modern Explanatory Dictionary, TSB:
Soviet icebreaker ship. Built in 1912, displacement 3800 tons. In 1935-38, participated in 3 complex expeditions to explore deep-sea areas ... - SADKO in Ephraim's Explanatory Dictionary:
sadko adv. decomposition Correlates by value. with adj.: sad... - SADKO in the New Dictionary of the Russian Language by Efremova:
predic. decomposition About the sore... - SADKO in the Large Modern Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language:
predic. decomposition About the sore... - SADKO (FILM) in the Wiki Quote Book:
Data: 2008-11-25 Time: 11:27:44 * The old man deceived. There is no happiness beyond the seas! *—Where is Sadko? - No Sadok... * Woe to those... - RUSSIA, SECTION SECULAR MUSIC (XIX CENTURY)
At the beginning of the reign of Emperor Alexander I, along with the general rise in public life, the life that had completely fallen under Paul became especially revived... - RIMSKY-KORSAKOV NIKOLAY ANDREEVICH in the Brief Biographical Encyclopedia:
Rimsky-Korsakov (Nikolai Andreevich) - famous Russian composer, born in 1844 in Tikhvin; received his education in the naval cadet corps. Among … - MALYUTIN SERGEY VASILIEVICH in the Brief Biographical Encyclopedia:
Malyutin, Sergey Vasilievich - painter. Born 1859; studied at the Moscow School of Painting. In the 80s he began exhibiting landscapes... - BOGATYRS in the Brief Biographical Encyclopedia:
Bogatyrs. The word “bogatyr” in Russian is of Eastern (Turkic) origin, although, perhaps, the Turks themselves borrowed it from the Asian Aryans. In others...
It is believed that in the entire Russian epic there are only two authentic written epics that have preserved the ancient form of storytelling. One of them, and the most famous, is the epic about Sadko.
Until recently, it was considered an ancient Novgorod epic from around the 10th century. In this article you will find evidence that this ancient story about a strange man traveling between worlds came to us from such an antiquity that it may well have been true.
The epic about Sadko consists of three parts.
First- Sadko, the poor guslar, offended that he was no longer invited to play at rich feasts, goes to play on Lake Ilmen. The water king overhears this game and rewards him for it: he teaches him how to catch a fish with golden feathers in Lake Ilmen and how to make a bet with the Novgorod merchants that he will catch such a fish. He catches a fish, wins a bet - shops with goods - and becomes a rich merchant.
Second- Having become rich, Sadko makes a second bet with Novgorod merchants: he undertakes to buy up all Novgorod goods. In some cases he succeeds, but in most cases he fails. In both cases, he ends up with a huge amount of goods.
And the third one, standing apart. With the purchased goods, Sadko goes to sea to trade. The sea king stops his ships and demands him to come to him. Sadko ends up in the kingdom of the sea lord, where he amuses him with his playing of the harp. He chooses Chernavushka as his wife, thanks to which he returns home from the magical underwater world.
Please note that the action of the first two Novgorod parts differs in location from the main third. And, characteristically, it is the king of the sea that Sadko goes to visit, and not the king of the river or the king of the lake. There is no sea near Novgorod, which means that the real action is no longer taking place in Novgorod.
This is a very old story... and not entirely Novgorod
It can be assumed that in the epic about Sadko we have the remains of that mosaic structure, which is characteristic of very early epics.
In Russian epic, as we know, this mosaic has long been overcome: Russian epics, as a rule, are completely monolithic. But in this case, the structure of the epic is unusual for a Russian singer. A weak internal connection between parts leads to their disintegration. Perhaps in no other Russian epic do we have such a large number of variations and fluctuations. This clearly speaks of some other origin of the epic, going back thousands of years.
Let's remember history
We usually call the oldest period of Russian history the Kyiv period. We should not forget, however, that, as Academician Grekov says, “The Kiev state, or the Rurik power, was formed from the merger of two East Slavic states - Kyiv proper and Novgorod.” Of these, Novgorod should be recognized as the more ancient. Thus, the recognition of the Novgorod epic as one of the oldest in Russian epic in itself does not contradict historical data.
But the epic about Sadko is not only “Dokiev”, but also “Donovgorod”. The main components of this epic are much older than historical Novgorod. Let's remember the historical facts. In the 11th century, Novgorodians, attracted by rumors about the fabulous fur and fish riches of the “midnight countries,” as the north was called in the old days, began to populate the territory of the modern Arkhangelsk region.
Modern genetics divides the Slavs into three groups, genetically distinct from each other: southern, eastern and northern Slavs. These three groups are interconnected by language, customs, marriages, and culture. However, the Novgorodians belong to the Eastern Slavs, the people who lived in the north are, accordingly, the Northern Slavs. According to chronicle legends, it is known that the North has long been inhabited by the Chud, “Chudi of Navolotsk, white-eyed” tribes. Paganism and idolatry flourished among the “white-eyed miracle.” Christianity came here much later and was much weaker.
The signs of paganism are a worldview in which the Gods, as supreme beings, are at the same time the ancestors and relatives of people.
And you now understand that the Christian Novgorodians who came to the North in the 11th century encountered amazing myths, fairy tales telling that people are almost Gods, they are descendants of the Gods, they are relatives of the Gods. How the soul of the Novgorodians must have sounded like a harp when they heard the ancient songs, reminding them of the ancient times when the earth was inhabited by Human Gods and Noble People!
How they wanted to become a part of this fabulous life! We know that the Novgorodians came from the mouth of the Pinega River, but did not reach the upper reaches and in the area of the tributaries of the Vyya and Pinezhka, where the representatives of the ancient people who had been displaced by them gathered. It seems that the winners themselves were conquered by the ancient tales of a bygone people. A Novgorod “preface” was simply added to the northern story about Sadko.
Where is this epic actually written down?
To this day, about forty records of the epic about Sadko have been published, which fall into four groups: Olonets, White Sea, Pechora and Ural-Siberian.
Please note that these are northern territories, not Novgorod. These materials would be quite sufficient if the song were well preserved. But this is not the case. A large number of records are fragmentary and incomplete. This picture is quite unexpected, and we will have to try to find our own explanation for this. One can name only one singer who knew all the episodes of this epic in their complete form and gave a coherent and consistent presentation of the entire plot from beginning to end. This is the wonderful Onega singer Sorokin, who, in terms of the completeness and colorfulness of his songs, occupies one of the first places in the Onega tradition. His epics were recorded by A.F. Hilferding in 1871. Let me remind you that Onega is part of the Arkhangelsk region.
There is something in this story that never happened in other epics
The first is God’s benevolent attitude towards man
The tale of Sadko regarding his meeting with the sea king is so archaic that researchers talk about the ancient origin of this tale. Sadko meets - the only case in the entire Russian epic - the master of the water element, the sea king, the sea God. The sea king's attitude towards the hero is not at all hostile, but friendly - a very archaic trait.
The second is the presence of a ritual for interacting with God
The scene when the Sea God demands a sacrifice is deeply symbolic. The sea is dangerous because of those unknown forces that man does not know how to control and against which he was then completely powerless.
Two disasters beset the ancient northern navigator. One disaster is calm, in which ships can stand still on the open sea for days and weeks. Another disaster is a storm that threatens ships with destruction.
But the disaster that befalls Sadko’s ships is of a completely unusual nature: a terrible storm breaks out, but the ships do not move, but stand still, as if there was no wind.
The weather was strong on the blue sea,
The blackened ships on the White Sea stagnated;
And the wave hits, the sails are torn,
Breaks blackened boats,
And the ships are not moving from their place in the white sea.
This is a miracle, but a miracle that means that the intervention of those unknown and mysterious forces began to interfere in the fate of the sailors, which the sailors of those times were so afraid of. Sadko believes that his old patron, the sea king, to whom he has never paid tribute, is angry with him.
Sadko thinks what the sailors of his time thought: the sea needs to be pacified, a sacrifice must be made to it. Sacrifice to the sea, “feeding” the sea is an ancient maritime custom, it is known to all peoples whose life and well-being depended on the sea. There is no doubt that such sacrifices were actually made in pagan times: the materials cited by R. Lipets in her mentioned work on “Sadko” fully confirm this. An epic is a poetic recollection of a custom that once really existed.
There is no doubt that even human sacrifices were made. A straw effigy was subsequently thrown into the water as a substitute sacrifice, a memory of which was preserved until very recently.
Third - transition to another world
Think for yourself - the hero easily moves to another world, to the Underwater King. The epic about Sadko is the only one in the entire Russian epic where the hero, leaving home, finds himself in some other world, namely, in the underwater one. On the raft, Sadko falls asleep and wakes up in the underwater kingdom. We know that this method of getting into the “other world”, in this case the underwater one, has a prehistoric origin. We also know that in the most ancient epics the hero is also always the master of another world.
Fourth – the power of the Divine
The figure of the sea king is powerful and strong. He forces Sadko to play a dance song, and he dances to his playing. Sometimes sea maidens and mermaids lead their round dance to his playing. The dance of the sea king is of a special kind. This dance causes a storm. The sea king forces Sadko to play for three whole days. From his dance, waves rise, ships perish, people drown.
How Sadko began to play guselki yarovchaty,
How the king of the sea began to dance in the white sea,
How the king of the sea danced.
Sadko played for 24 hours, others played too,
Yes, Sadko and others also played,
And still the king of the sea dances in the white sea.
In the blue sea the water shook,
The water became confused with yellow sand,
Many ships began to be wrecked on the White Sea,
Many property owners began to die,
Many righteous people began to drown.
The idea that a storm comes from the dance of the owner of the water element, the sea king, dates back to pagan times. This is impossible in the Christian religion.
Fifth – marriage with a being of the non-human world
The sea king invites Sadko to choose any beauty - a princess - as his wife. But Sadko chooses Chernavushka. He is not seduced by the beauty of the sea princesses or mermaids, who sometimes lead their round dance to his playing. He chooses Chernavushka, and this moment is one of the most beautiful and poetic in the entire epic.
This advice also corresponds to the internal aspirations of Sadko himself. The entire underwater world with its unearthly beauty and beauties is the temptation of Chernobog, to which Sadko does not succumb. He does not forget about the human world for a minute.
Who is Chernavushka and how to understand her image? Her touching human beauty is clearly contrasted with the false beauty of mermaids.
But, despite her human appearance, she is not a person, she is also a mermaid. The epic about Sadko is one of the rare and exceptional epics in the Russian epic, in which the tradition of marriage with a creature from another, non-human world is still preserved.
What happens?
In the oldest, archaic part of the famous epic, the action takes place on the sea (which was not near Novgorod, but which has washed the northern part of Russia for many thousands of years).
The plot itself is a pagan story unthinkable for new Christians - the hero ends up in the Other World and marries the daughter of the Divine.
The action of the first parts is geographically distant from the main plot, which takes place at sea. The epic itself differs sharply in structure and content from the famous later Russian epics.
Consequently, this old tale has deep northern roots and is based on pagan ideas about the world and man's place in it. The epic is not the work of the eastern, but of the northern Slavs, who have their own ancient and not yet fully understood history.
This is such an old story that it may well be true, evidence of those ancient times when people and their capabilities were different.
Do you know that in northern mythology this story is told in different but recognizable ways? Among the ancient Germans, this is Siegfried, catching the treasure of the Nibelungs (Buslaev) in the form of a goldfish; among the Scandinavians it is the mythical singer and spellcaster Veinemeinen, who plays and sings to the sea god (Miller).
Studying epics, we get acquainted with the heroes of the Kyiv and Novgorod cycles.
If we talk about the most famous heroes, many will immediately name Father Ilya Muromets, the most important among his comrades Dobrynya and Alyosha.
But it’s hard to say about Sadko that he is a hero. A gussalian musician who became a merchant, and that says it all! It's been said, but not everything...
Writer Alexander Toroptsev, reflecting on the mysteries of Sadko, comes to the conclusion that such a man lived in the 10th century in Novgorod and built one of the first Orthodox churches in Ancient Rus' on the former sanctuary of Perun...
A. Toroptsev
Sadko's riddles
Sadko lived in the glorious city of Novgorod, which people built on the banks of the Volkhov River, flowing from the mighty Lake Ilmen. Already in the 9th-10th centuries the city was great and rich. Various people lived here: jacks of all trades and merchants, fishermen and hunters, warriors and princes. Sadko, although poor, was known throughout the city, because he played “guselki yarovchaty,” and they loved him for it, calling him to one house or another “for an honorable feast.”
Yes, suddenly one time he was not invited “to an honorable feast”, another time, a third. The psaltery player became sad, went to Lake Ilmen, sat down on the “white-flammable stone”, touched the cheerful strings of the psaltery, and his soul felt lighter.
Don’t call me, it’s worse for you, but I’ll have fun and be happy here!
Sadko played “guselki yarovchaty” well! I cheered up myself, and the world around me cheered up. The breeze ran through the waves of thick coastal grass, “the water in the lake swayed,” and from there, from under the water, the king of the sea himself stuck out his shaggy head. The ruler of the underwater kingdom was terrible to look at. He came ashore, dancing to the music, and said in a gurgling voice:
You made me happy, old man! And be rich for it!
Sadko would be glad to get rich, but how can he do this, even if he was not invited to the “feast of honors” for the umpteenth time! The King of the Sea, however, did not mince words.
“Go,” he said, “to Novgorod and do everything as I tell you.”
The guslar listened to the underwater shaggy ruler and went home: not happy, not sad. Everyone in Novgorod dreamed of getting rich, but suddenly the sea king deceived him?! Sadko is scary. I don’t want to lay my head down, but he’s not used to retreating either.
The next day they invited Sadko to a feast. He had a lot of fun with the merchants, and in the evening he told them loudly that there was a fish with golden feathers in Lake Ilmen.
There are no such fish! - shouted the tipsy merchants.
I saw it myself! - Sadko did not give up. - And I can show you the place where you can catch them.
Can not be! Can not be! - the merchants were noisy.
We bet it's a great one! - the guslar then suggested. “I will pawn my head to the wild man, and you - red goods for each fish on the bench.”
The debaters shook hands and went to catch a fish with golden feathers. They threw a silk net into Lake Ilmen, pulled the thin fish ashore, look, and there the fish is fighting - golden feathers! Sadko was happy: the shaggy sea king had not deceived him. And the merchants threw the net into Lake Ilmen two more times, and they caught two more wonderful fish. They had to give three stores of red goods to Sadko.
He got rich, became a noble merchant, and, as often happens in such cases with people who quickly get rich by someone’s good will, the guslar forgot about his benefactor, the king of the sea. And although he was a magical king, he was very touchy. He once waylaid Sadko with a rich caravan of ships in the blue sea, stirred up the heavy waves and began to sink ships with goods.
Sadko decided to appease him and threw a barrel of silver into the sea. But the wind howled even more strongly, and the menacing waves “rocked.” I had to throw a barrel of gold to the king of the sea. Only this turned out to be not enough - the waves raged even more. Sadko realized that the touchy king of the sea was demanding a human sacrifice, and according to the custom of those times, he cast lots - the lot fell on Sadko himself. What was left to do? Sadko wrote his will, took his spring gourds in his hands, and lay down on an oak board. The ships quickly sailed forward, the merchant, rocking on the steep waves, for some reason fell asleep and found himself at the very bottom in the white-stone chambers of the touchy sea king.
But... Where are the riddles and secrets? You can read about how Sadko escaped from underwater captivity in Novgorod epics. And that's true. It's time to move on to the secrets.
Here is the first one.
Did the merchant Sadko really live in Novgorod or is this all fiction, a fairy tale?
The Novgorod Chronicle says that in 1167 “Sadko Sytinits founded the church of the holy martyr Boris and Gleb under Prince Svyatoslav Rostislavovitsa...” Wasn’t he an epic merchant? But the epic says that Sadko “built the cathedral church of Mikola Mozhaisky,” who helped him escape from the abyss of the sea, and not of Saints Boris and Gleb, and that the church was built of an ordinary wooden one. So this is not the same Sadko? Maybe not the same one.
Not long ago, scientists carried out excavations in the vicinity of Novgorod on the site of the former sanctuary of Perun, a pagan deity. Here the remains of a wooden building were discovered, built immediately after the squad of Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich overthrew the pagan Perun in Novgorod. This means that some Sadko could have lived in the 10th century!
Yes, he never lived anywhere - this is a fairy tale, and in fairy tales everything is made up, - a lover of fairy tales may object, but we, in turn, can also ask him: “Who made it up?” - and let’s move on to the next riddle of the epic about Sadko.
Do we know for sure who was the first to come up with a story about a man who finds himself in an underwater kingdom? There are similar stories in the Indian poem “Garivansa” and in the Thracian myths about Orpheus. But if this is so, then wasn’t the Indian story (and it’s about 5 thousand years old!) taken as a model by the myth-makers of Thrace, and then by the storytellers of Novgorod epics?
Why do you need to know this? - the storyteller reader may ask again. Aren't fairy tales, epics, legends beautiful in themselves? Yes, they are wonderful! And you can read them and rejoice. But you can also think about it. Having solved, for example, only these two riddles of Sadko, a person will learn not only howpeople lived in the glorious city of Novgorod a thousand years ago and earlier, but also much more from the life of the entire planet, because not a single state, not a single city, not a single settlement existed on its own.
Many things were forgotten by people for a variety of reasons. Former friends became enemies, I didn’t want to remember them, a lot really slipped from my memory, but the good stuff still remained! And the kindest thing in any nation is a fairy tale, an epic, a legend. Let us recall, for example, the most quintessential Russian fairy tale, “The Frog Princess.” There is exactly this plot in the Indian book “The Great Mahabharata,” which Hindus began to write down at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC - before that they passed it on from mouth to mouth for many centuries. But how could two great nations create the same fairy tale? Or maybe it was composed by people more ancient than the Hindus and Russians? Yes, there are many mysteries in any folk tale...
The same epic about Sadko can tell (if all its secrets are unraveled) about the man who built one of the first Orthodox churches in Ancient Rus' on the former sanctuary of Perun. And the fate of the builder of this temple may suggest a solution to another difficult “Russian problem”: why yesterday the furious pagans, the Russian people, first accepted the cult of Perun under the pressure of Prince Vladimir, and then with tears and howls they parted with him, accepted - together with the same prince Vladimir - the Orthodox faith?..
Literature
Website of the writer Alexander Toroptsev http://atoroptsev.rf/
