Russian/Slavic Folklore, Culture & (Pre)History

[Deleted]

A fascinating episode by TRT (Turkish Radio Television) exploring the martial traditions of the Cossacks.

In this video Martial Artist Nehar Eren lives among the Cossacks of the Dnieper River in the Ukraine (Thankfully with English subtitles). 


The Cossacks 

[Deleted]

I'd imagine Robert E. Howard and Harold Lamb would have loved stuff like this...


The Cossack leaned upon the saber by Alexey Ryumkin and Natalya Ryumkina Russian Siberian song (Trans-Baikal Territory)

Here's a transliteration and translation of the lyrics:

Russian transliteration:

Kazak na sablyu opiralsya,
V glubokoy goresti stoyal,
On dolgo s miloy da proshchalsya,
Vzdykhaya, on zhe yey skazal:
«Ne plach', krasavitsa, slezami
V kruchine zloy ne posobit'.
Klyanus' ya chest'yu i ustami,
Klyanus' vovek ne izmenyu.
Pushchay moy dobryy kon' spotknotsya,
Letya vo vrazheskiy okop.
Uzdechka zlataya porvotsya,
I stremya lopnet pod nogoy"
Moy dobryy kon' ne spotykatsya,
Letya vo vrazhiy stan streloy,
Uzdechka zlataya ne rvotsya,
Sablya blestit nad golovoy!

English translation:

The cossack leaned upon the saber
He stood in deep sorrow
He said goodbye to his darling for a long time,
Sighing, he told her:
"Do not cry, beauty, with tears
Nothing will help in this sadness.
I swear by my honor that I will never betray you.
May my good horse stumble
Flying in an enemy trench.
The golden bridle will tear
And the stirrup will burst under the foot "
My good horse doesn't stumble
Flying like an arrow into an enemy camp
The golden bridle is not torn,
Saber glistens over my head!

[keith]

Thanks, Hun! That was good reading! I like Cossack songs, and there's a website "Songs of Ukraina - with Ruthenian Poems," online that's worth a look. I'd provide a link if I were sure how. Florence Randal Livesay is the translator. "The Song of Baida" is in the contents.

I first learned about Baida (Prince Dymytro Vyshnevetsky) in Dorothy Dunnett's novel THE RINGED CASTLE, which takes Dunnett's indefatigable Renaissance man, Francis Crawford of Lymond, to Russia and mercenary service with Tsar Ivan the Terrible. Vyshnevetsky, or Baida, is Lymond's ally at times and rival at others. Their relationship is volatile to say the least. (Lymond is fictional, Baida a real historical personage, famous for his raids on the Turks.) The novel contains a translation of "The Song of Baida."

In the market place of the Khanate,
Baida drinks his mead,
And Baida drinks not a night or an hour,
Not a day, or two!

And so he drinks and sways,
And looking at his valet, says,
"O youthful valet,
Will you remain faithful to me?"

The Turkish Sultan sends for Baida,
And with flattery speaks to him.
"Baida, so young, so glorious,
Become a loyal knight to me,
Take my daughter's hand!
You will reign supreme throughout the land!"

"Oh Sultan! Your religion is accursed,
And your daughter is a wretch."
The Sultan summons his guards.
"Take Baida, tie him securely,
And hang him on a hook by his ribs."
Baida hangs not one night nor an hour,
Nor a day or two.

Baida hangs and reflects,
Thinking of his young valet
And his jet-black horse.
"Oh young and faithful valet!
Lend me a supple bow
And a quiver of arrows,
For I see three pigeons
I will kill for the Sultan's daughter!"
When Baida fired, he shot the Sultan,
And his queen in the nape of the neck,
And the princess in the head.

"Take that, O Sultan,
For chastising Baida!
You should have known better
How to punish him,
You should have cut off his head,
And buried his body,
Taken and ridden his jet-black horse,
And given your affection to the boy!"

[Deleted]

Jan 22, 2020 7:07:08 GMT -5 keith said:

Thanks, Hun! That was good reading! I like Cossack songs, and there's a website "Songs of Ukraina - with Ruthenian Poems," online that's worth a look. I'd provide a link if I were sure how. Florence Randal Livesay is the translator. "The Song of Baida" is in the contents.

I first learned about Baida (Prince Dymytro Vyshnevetsky) in Dorothy Dunnett's novel THE RINGED CASTLE, which takes Dunnett's indefatigable Renaissance man, Francis Crawford of Lymond, to Russia and mercenary service with Tsar Ivan the Terrible. Vyshnevetsky, or Baida, is Lymond's ally at times and rival at others. Their relationship is volatile to say the least. (Lymond is fictional, Baida a real historical personage, famous for his raids on the Turks.) The novel contains a translation of "The Song of Baida."

In the market place of the Khanate,
Baida drinks his mead,
And Baida drinks not a night or an hour,
Not a day, or two!

And so he drinks and sways,
And looking at his valet, says,
"O youthful valet,
Will you remain faithful to me?"

The Turkish Sultan sends for Baida,
And with flattery speaks to him.
"Baida, so young, so glorious,
Become a loyal knight to me,
Take my daughter's hand!
You will reign supreme throughout the land!"

"Oh Sultan! Your religion is accursed,
And your daughter is a wretch."
The Sultan summons his guards.
"Take Baida, tie him securely,
And hang him on a hook by his ribs."
Baida hangs not one night nor an hour,
Nor a day or two.

Baida hangs and reflects,
Thinking of his young valet
And his jet-black horse.
"Oh young and faithful valet!
Lend me a supple bow
And a quiver of arrows,
For I see three pigeons
I will kill for the Sultan's daughter!"
When Baida fired, he shot the Sultan,
And his queen in the nape of the neck,
And the princess in the head.

"Take that, O Sultan,
For chastising Baida!
You should have known better
How to punish him,
You should have cut off his head,
And buried his body,
Taken and ridden his jet-black horse,
And given your affection to the boy!"

Thanks Keith, looks good.

Is this the website? I think they have a slightly different translation on this site.
digital.library.upenn.edu/women/livesay/ukraina/ukraina.html

The book can also be found at the Internet Archive:
archive.org/details/songsofukrainawi00liveuoft/page/n7

[Deleted]

Here's another one from the same youtube channel:


The Black Raven (Russian cossack song)

Translation:
Black raven, stray friend, you fly through the fields
You brought us a white hand with a ring.
The girl came out on the porch, and swayed slightly
I saw the ring and found out whose hand the raven brought
This is the hand of my dear, it means he was killed in the war
He lies dead, not buried in the ground, his body thrown away
And a merciful man came to this field
He buried two hundred forty people in one grave.
And he set up an oak cross and he wrote on it
"Here lie with Don heroes, glory to Don Cossacks!"

Transliteration:
Chernyy voron, a ty drug zalotnyy, ty letayesh' po polyam
Ty prinos nam chernyy voron ruku beluyu s kol'tsom
Oy, vyshla vyshla na krylechko, pokachnulasya slegka
Po kolechku ona ugadala ch'ya u vorona ruka
Eto ruka moyego milogo, znat' ubit on na voyne
On ubityy, v zemlyu ne zarytyy, telo brosheno vdali
I prishol na eto pole milostlivyy chelovek
On zaryl v odnu mogilu dvesti sorok chelovek
I postavil krest dubovyy i na nom on napisal
"Zdes' lezhat s Donu geroi, slava donskim kazakam!"



This youtube channel is full of Russian folk songs and Siberian throat singing:
www.youtube.com/channel/UCD2VuGlPSfBDFGKhxviv1Zg

[jeffalbertson]

[keith]

Jan 22, 2020 10:03:53 GMT -5 @hunnu said:

Jan 22, 2020 7:07:08 GMT -5 keith said:

Thanks, Hun! That was good reading! I like Cossack songs, and there's a website "Songs of Ukraina - with Ruthenian Poems," online that's worth a look. I'd provide a link if I were sure how. Florence Randal Livesay is the translator. "The Song of Baida" is in the contents.

I first learned about Baida (Prince Dymytro Vyshnevetsky) in Dorothy Dunnett's novel THE RINGED CASTLE, which takes Dunnett's indefatigable Renaissance man, Francis Crawford of Lymond, to Russia and mercenary service with Tsar Ivan the Terrible. Vyshnevetsky, or Baida, is Lymond's ally at times and rival at others. Their relationship is volatile to say the least. (Lymond is fictional, Baida a real historical personage, famous for his raids on the Turks.) The novel contains a translation of "The Song of Baida."

In the market place of the Khanate,
Baida drinks his mead,
And Baida drinks not a night or an hour,
Not a day, or two!

And so he drinks and sways,
And looking at his valet, says,
"O youthful valet,
Will you remain faithful to me?"

The Turkish Sultan sends for Baida,
And with flattery speaks to him.
"Baida, so young, so glorious,
Become a loyal knight to me,
Take my daughter's hand!
You will reign supreme throughout the land!"

"Oh Sultan! Your religion is accursed,
And your daughter is a wretch."
The Sultan summons his guards.
"Take Baida, tie him securely,
And hang him on a hook by his ribs."
Baida hangs not one night nor an hour,
Nor a day or two.

Baida hangs and reflects,
Thinking of his young valet
And his jet-black horse.
"Oh young and faithful valet!
Lend me a supple bow
And a quiver of arrows,
For I see three pigeons
I will kill for the Sultan's daughter!"
When Baida fired, he shot the Sultan,
And his queen in the nape of the neck,
And the princess in the head.

"Take that, O Sultan,
For chastising Baida!
You should have known better
How to punish him,
You should have cut off his head,
And buried his body,
Taken and ridden his jet-black horse,
And given your affection to the boy!"

Thanks Keith, looks good.

Is this the website? I think they have a slightly different translation on this site.
digital.library.upenn.edu/women/livesay/ukraina/ukraina.html

The book can also be found at the Internet Archive:
archive.org/details/songsofukrainawi00liveuoft/page/n7

[keith]

Yes, that's the website! And the translation of "The Song of Baida" is a bit different there. The version in Dunnett's THE RINGED CASTLE was translated from the Ukrainian especially for the novel, by a bloke named Yaroslav Baran.
REH wrote at least one poem very much in the Cossack style and spirit -- "A Song of the Don Cossacks."

Wolf-brother, wolf-lover.
Over the river the kites hover
Where witch-light glimmers
And tall grass shimmers --
What dead things shall their eyes discover?
What, when the sabers sing in the gloaming,
What, when the grey wolves cease their roaming?
Wolf-brother, wolf-lover,
We are sworn to slay each other.

Gray light glances
Along our lances --
Both of us sons of our Volga mother.
Kites shall feast when ranks burst asunder
And the roar of the red tide hurls us under.
When the white steel glints and the red blood spurts --
Death in the camps and death in the yurts.
When the crimson shadows of twilight fall
We shall be feasts for the white jackal.
Wolf-brother, wolf-lover,
We be sons of the self-same mother,
Though between us flows a red-stained tide.
Horse and man
Ride we far,
You for the Khan,
I for the Czar,
Wolf-lover, Tartar-brother, ride!

Interestingly, since the poems on the Livesay website are both Ukrainian AND Ruthenian, I took the view in my series of blog posts on Red Sonya that she was actually Ruthenian in origin, not Russian. Probably a distinction without a difference, since "Ruthenia" is a Latinized version of Russia and was applied to the region of western Ukraine under the sway of the Grand Ducky of LIthuania at the time. (I think.) Sonya rode with a Cossack band for a while as a hetman's adopted daughter after her village was raided by Turks and her sister kidnapped, later to become the Sultan Suleiman's favourite.
That would have made Baida a contemporary of Red Sonya's, though younger -- about thirteen at the time of the siege of Vienna.

[Deleted]

Jan 25, 2020 5:50:01 GMT -5 keith said:

Yes, that's the website! And the translation of "The Song of Baida" is a bit different there. The version in Dunnett's THE RINGED CASTLE was translated from the Ukrainian especially for the novel, by a bloke named Yaroslav Baran.
REH wrote at least one poem very much in the Cossack style and spirit -- "A Song of the Don Cossacks."

Wolf-brother, wolf-lover.
Over the river the kites hover
Where witch-light glimmers
And tall grass shimmers --
What dead things shall their eyes discover?
What, when the sabers sing in the gloaming,
What, when the grey wolves cease their roaming?
Wolf-brother, wolf-lover,
We are sworn to slay each other.

Gray light glances
Along our lances --
Both of us sons of our Volga mother.
Kites shall feast when ranks burst asunder
And the roar of the red tide hurls us under.
When the white steel glints and the red blood spurts --
Death in the camps and death in the yurts.
When the crimson shadows of twilight fall
We shall be feasts for the white jackal.
Wolf-brother, wolf-lover,
We be sons of the self-same mother,
Though between us flows a red-stained tide.
Horse and man
Ride we far,
You for the Khan,
I for the Czar,
Wolf-lover, Tartar-brother, ride!

Interestingly, since the poems on the Livesay website are both Ukrainian AND Ruthenian, I took the view in my series of blog posts on Red Sonya that she was actually Ruthenian in origin, not Russian. Probably a distinction without a difference, since "Ruthenia" is a Latinized version of Russia and was applied to the region of western Ukraine under the sway of the Grand Ducky of LIthuania at the time. (I think.) Sonya rode with a Cossack band for a while as a hetman's adopted daughter after her village was raided by Turks and her sister kidnapped, later to become the Sultan Suleiman's favourite.
That would have made Baida a contemporary of Red Sonya's, though younger -- about thirteen at the time of the siege of Vienna.

Thanks Keith.

[keith]

I've been looking at a movie on YouTube - THE SWORD AND THE DRAGON. It's based on the legends of the hero Ilya Muromets, who was paralysed for the first part of his life because of a curse put on his grandfather, but cured by some holy pilgrims, he became a gigantically strong bogatyr (hero-knight) who served the Prince of Kiev. He fought the land's enemies, the Golden Horde, to a standstill by himself, as well as killing villains like the monster-bandit Nightingale and a three-headed flying serpent. In the Ilya Muromets saga the Golden Horde is ruled by a Khan named Kalin, who is legendary himself but nevertheless is the villain of the movie because hey, it's a fantasy. And the costumes and settings have an authentically Russian look.

Pity it's a legend. Kiev could use someone like Ilya today.

[Deleted]

Feb 3, 2020 8:55:54 GMT -5 keith said:

I've been looking at a movie on YouTube - THE SWORD AND THE DRAGON. It's based on the legends of the hero Ilya Muromets, who was paralysed for the first part of his life because of a curse put on his grandfather, but cured by some holy pilgrims, he became a gigantically strong bogatyr (hero-knight) who served the Prince of Kiev. He fought the land's enemies, the Golden Horde, to a standstill by himself, as well as killing villains like the monster-bandit Nightingale and a three-headed flying serpent. In the Ilya Muromets saga the Golden Horde is ruled by a Khan named Kalin, who is legendary himself but nevertheless is the villain of the movie because hey, it's a fantasy. And the costumes and settings have an authentically Russian look.

Pity it's a legend. Kiev could use someone like Ilya today.

Thanks Keith.

I think I'll watch the movie tonight, there's nothing on TV anyway.

Interesting that Kalin Khan is leader of the Tugars. The Tugars are the bad guys in R. F. Tapsell's Novel The Year of the Horsetails. I dunno if you've read it, it is a fantastic book.



Here's a link to great review by our Morgan Holmes (docpod):
www.castaliahouse.com/the-year-of-the-horsetails/

I gotta feeling the Tugars in this saga probably pre-date the Golden Horde. I'd imagine earlier renditions were inspired by the Kipchak/Cuman tribes known as Polovtsi by the Slavic speakers. The Pechenegs could also be another candidate.

[trescuinge]

This takes me back. I happened across The Year of the Horsetails 40 years ago in the college library and read it instead of my course books.

[keith]

Feb 3, 2020 12:40:50 GMT -5 @hunnu said:

Feb 3, 2020 8:55:54 GMT -5 keith said:

I've been looking at a movie on YouTube - THE SWORD AND THE DRAGON. It's based on the legends of the hero Ilya Muromets, who was paralysed for the first part of his life because of a curse put on his grandfather, but cured by some holy pilgrims, he became a gigantically strong bogatyr (hero-knight) who served the Prince of Kiev. He fought the land's enemies, the Golden Horde, to a standstill by himself, as well as killing villains like the monster-bandit Nightingale and a three-headed flying serpent. In the Ilya Muromets saga the Golden Horde is ruled by a Khan named Kalin, who is legendary himself but nevertheless is the villain of the movie because hey, it's a fantasy. And the costumes and settings have an authentically Russian look.

Pity it's a legend. Kiev could use someone like Ilya today.

Thanks Keith.

I think I'll watch the movie tonight, there's nothing on TV anyway.

Interesting that Kalin Khan is leader of the Tugars. The Tugars are the bad guys in R. F. Tapsell's Novel The Year of the Horsetails. I dunno if you've read it, it is a fantastic book.



Here's a link to great review by our Morgan Holmes (docpod):
www.castaliahouse.com/the-year-of-the-horsetails/

I gotta feeling the Tugars in this saga probably pre-date the Golden Horde. I'd imagine earlier renditions were inspired by the Kipchak/Cuman tribes known as Polovtsi by the Slavic speakers. The Pechenegs could also be another candidate.

[keith]

Haven't read THE YEAR OF THE HORSETAILS. Must do so.

[keith]

Little more about the Russian byliny that concern Ilya Muromets!
The original stories credit his good heroic steed with the ability to ride above the earth between the treetops and the sky. That must be a holdover from the legends of some Russian god like Kupala, transferred to a (more or less) mortal hero. Ilya's steed isn't given that power in the movie THE SWORD AND THE DRAGON, as it would have been a little too over the top for the movie makers, I guess, though it does have a three-headed dragon and a hero who turns to stone at the end of his career.

THE SWORD AND THE DRAGON lacks any appearance of Ilya's temporary pal and companion, the ancient giant Svyatogor, who is in the original legends. Svyatogor was a hold over from a previous, primal age, so strong he bore his own strength like a heavy burden. He rode a magnificent heroic steed himself, the only one that could carry him, and he could only ride on the hard stone crests of the mountains, because the softer, moister lowland earth couldn't support him and he would have sunk into it. Ilya met him and they travelled together until they found a huge coffin that was destined for the one whose stature it fitted. Ilya tried it, but he was too small, and then Svyatogor lay down in the coffin and found it was perfect for him. Laughing, he told Ilya to apply the lid to complete the test, but Ilya, suspicious of the magic coffin, advised strongly against it. The giant (they never seem to be bright) grabbed the coffin lid and pulled it over himself. It promptly sealed to the coffin with iron bands.

He'd left his huge sword on the ground, and he begged Ilya to split open the coffin with it and free him. Ilya tried, and managed to make a narrow split in the wood, but no more. He tried to break the iron bands, but as soon as he did, several more sprang into being around the coffin. It was no good. Svyatogor told his friend to leave hin to his fate, but first, to bend down at the split in the coffin lid so that Svyatogor could breathe some of his immense strength into Ilya. He did, and became even stronger than he had been. Svyatogor offered to breathe on him again, but Ilya said, "No, elder brother, my strength sufficeth me now. Had I all your strength, Moist Mother Earth could not support me."

So he took Svyatogor's great sword and went away, and as the story says, "Svyatogor's burning tears flow through the coffin evermore."

There's great stuff in Russian legends.