What is said in the epic of the Holy Mountain Bogatyr. Image and legends

The meaning of the word SVYATOGOR in the Brief Biographical Encyclopedia

SVYATOGOR

Svyatogor is a hero of the Russian epic epic, standing outside the Kyiv and Novgorod cycles and only partially in contact with the first in the epics about the meeting of Svyatogor with Ilya Muromets. Svyatogor in the epic is a huge giant, “higher than a standing forest”; it is hardly carried by the mother of cheese the earth. He does not go to Holy Rus', but lives on the high Holy Mountains; During his journey, the mother earth shakes, forests sway and rivers overflow their banks. Once, feeling colossal strength within himself, he boasted that if there were a ring in the sky and another in the earth, he would turn heaven and earth upside down. Mikula Selyaninovich (var. - elders) heard this and threw his handbag to the ground, which Svyatogor tries in vain to move while sitting on a horse, and then, getting off the horse and holding the handbag with both hands, sinks into the ground up to his knees and here, without overcoming " earthly cravings" contained in her handbag, ends her life. According to another story, Ilya Muromets, on the way, under an oak tree, in an open field, finds a heroic bed 10 fathoms, 6 fathoms wide. He falls asleep on it for three days. On the 3rd day a noise was heard from the north side; the horse woke up Ilya and advised him to hide in an oak tree. Svyatogor appeared on horseback, holding a crystal casket on his shoulders, in which was his beautiful wife. While Svyatogor was sleeping, his wife seduces Ilya into love and then puts him in her husband’s pocket. IN further path the horse tells Svyatogor that it is hard for him: until now he was carrying the hero and his wife, now he is carrying two heroes. Svyatogor finds Ilya and, having asked how he got there, kills his unfaithful wife, and enters into a brotherhood with Ilya. On the way near the Northern Mountain, the heroes meet a coffin with the inscription: “Whoever is destined to lie in the coffin will lie in it.” The coffin turned out to be too big for Ilya, but the lid slammed shut behind Svyatogor and he tried in vain to get out of there. Having transferred part of his strength and his sword to Ilya, he orders the coffin lid to be cut, but with each blow the coffin is covered with an iron hoop. The third episode is the marriage of Svyatogor; he asks Mikula how to find out his fate. Mikula sends him to the Northern Mountains, to the prophetic blacksmith. To Svyatogor’s question about the future, he predicted his marriage to a bride who had been living in a seaside kingdom for 30 years in a dungeon. Svyatogor went there and, finding the sick woman on a pus, put 500 rubles near her, hit her in the chest with a sword and left. The girl woke up; the bark that covered it came off; She turned into a beauty and Svyatogor, hearing about her beauty, came and married her. After the wedding, Svyatogor saw a scar on her chest, found out what was wrong and realized that you couldn’t escape fate. Analysis of these three plots led researchers to the following conclusions: 1) The motif of lifting a handbag is common in the epics of other peoples and in tales about other heroes: Anika, Kolyvan, Volga, Samson. In Yugoslav poetry, the role of Svyatogor is played by Prince Marko; The same thing is said in the Caucasus about the Nart Soslan. The handbag corresponds to the stone in the epics about the Stream, which coincides with the medieval story about Alexander the Great, to whom the inhabitants of the paradise country give a stone as tribute; This pebble, which can neither be weighed nor measured, symbolizes the human eye = envy in the symbolic interpretation of the Jewish sage. A parallel one is the ancient northern legend about Thor’s dispute with a giant. 2) Parallels for the second motive, about Svyatogor’s unfaithful wife, are indicated in the Persian collection Tuti-Nameh, in tales of 1001 nights, in Indian Buddhist tales. This is probably an episode of Eastern origin. 3) The episode about the tomb of Svyatogor is indicated by parallels in apocryphal legends about Aaron and Moses, undoubtedly Jewish origin. Tales and stories about like a coffin known among the Little Russians, Koshubs, Italians, Gypsies, Magyars, ancient Egypt. 4) The episode about Svyatogor’s marriage, known only from experience, dates back to folk tales, based on medieval stories that “do not delay God’s judgment” (compare the story in the “Roman Acts” translated into Russian in the 17th century). In its details - a trip to the northern sorcerer-blacksmith - this visit is reminiscent of an episode of "Kalevala". Marriage to a girl lying on a rotting spot occurs in an old Russian story about Tsarevich Firgis. Despite the mass of parallels collected to illuminate the personality of Svyatogor, it remains poorly explained. The prototype of the Russian Svyatogor the strongman cannot be considered found, although many hypotheses have been proposed: Wolner compares him with Saint Christopher, who, according to legend, carried Christ across the water; Zhdanov argues, with greater probability, that the prototype of Svyatogor was the biblical Samson. Veselovsky believes, on the contrary, that the traits of Svyatogor passed onto the epic Samson the hero; in another place he also points to possible source- "Alexandria", which says "about the great man whom Alexander was surprised to see": he was lying on high mountain 1000 steps long and 200 wide, which resembles a bed. S. Khalansky notes the possible influence of Caucasian legends about giants and sledges and the similarity of the Ossetian Mukkara with Svyatogor. Sun. Miller framed the question of the influence of Caucasian fairy tales on Russian ones and their connection with each other more convincingly. The name Svyatogor can be considered an epithet created from his place of residence - the Holy Mountains. See Hilferding "Onega epics"; Rybnikov (I); Or. Miller "Ilya Muromets"; Wollner "Untersuchengen"; Khalansky "Great Russian epics of the Kyiv cycle"; Vsevolod Miller "Excursions"; Zhdanov "On the history of epic poetry"; Veselovsky "South Russian epics" (IV); "Journal of the Ministry of Public Education", 1888, May; Petrov "Proceedings of the Kyiv Theological Academy", 1878, May; Machal "O bohatyrskem epose slovanskem" (I). V.P.

Brief biographical encyclopedia. 2012

See also interpretations, synonyms, meanings of the word and what SVYATOGOR is in Russian in dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference books:

SVYATOGOR
SVYATOGOR V Encyclopedic Dictionary Brockhaus and Euphron:
the hero of the Russian epic epic, standing outside the Kyiv and Novgorod cycles and only partially in contact with the first in the epics about the meeting...
SVYATOGOR in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
SVYATOR, the name of the Russian hero. epics, a hero possessing supernatural powers. a force that, however, does not find a goal worthy of it (“Svyatogor tries on ...
SVYATOGOR in the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedia:
? the hero of the Russian epic epic, standing outside the Kyiv and Novgorod cycles and only partially in contact with the first in epics about ...
SVYATOGOR in the Russian Synonyms dictionary:
hero, hero...
SVYATOGOR in Lopatin's Dictionary of the Russian Language:
Svyatogor, -a (epic ...
SVYATOGOR in the Spelling Dictionary:
Svyatogor, -a (epic ...
SVYATOGOR in Modern explanatory dictionary, TSB:
the name of the hero of Russian epics, a hero with supernatural...
MOUNTAIN in the Directory of Characters and Religious Objects Greek mythology:
. The mythological functions of G. are diverse. G. acts as the most common variant of transformation of the world tree. T. is often perceived as an image...
MIKULA SELYANINOVICH
Mikula Selyaninovich - epic hero-peasant. The variant of the name - Vikula - is explained by the transition of the labial nasal "m" into the labial non-nasal in ...
KOLYVAN in the Brief Biographical Encyclopedia:
Kolyvan is the name of a hero mentioned in Russian epics. The personality of Kolyvan is presented in the Russian epic only in vague outlines. In the epic ("Collection...
BOGATYRS in the Brief Biographical Encyclopedia:
Bogatyrs. The word “hero” in Russian is of eastern (Turkic) origin, although, perhaps, the Turks themselves borrowed it from the Asian Aryans. In others...
FOLKLORE in the Literary Encyclopedia.
KLYUEV in the Literary Encyclopedia.
SLESAREV VASILY ANDRIANOVICH in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
(1884-1921) Russian aircraft designer. One of the founders of the Aerodynamic Laboratory at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute. In 1913 he designed the twin-engine bomber aircraft "Svyatogor" (built in ...
MIKULA SELYANINOVICH in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
bogatyr-plowman, hero of Russian epics “Volga and Mikula Selyaninovich”, “Svyatogor and Mikula...
KRASIN in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
linear icebreaker of the USSR Arctic Fleet. Built in 1917; until 1927 it was called "Svyatogor", then named after L. B. Krasin. Displacement…
KORVIN-PIOTROVSKY VLADIMIR LVOVICH in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
(1891-1966) Russian poet. OK. 1920 emigrated to Germany, in 1939 he moved to France (during the war years - in the Resistance movement); ...

Svyatogor - V Slavic mythology one of the most mysterious characters. Mentioned in the Russian epic epic. Svyatogor can hardly be called a hero, because, in fact, he does not perform any feats. Something majestic, harsh and even tragic emanates from his appearance. He looks like a lonely wanderer - without a home, without relatives, without companions and even without native land: she “doesn’t wear it”, can’t stand it. It is tied only to the Holy Mountains:

It is not my duty here to travel to Holy Rus',
I'm allowed to drive through the mountains here
yes on high...

In another option: information from the site http://site

On those high mountains,
On that Holy Mountain,
There was a wonderful hero,
That in the whole world he is marvelous,
He did not go to Holy Rus',
Mother earth did not wear it.

He is the owner of colossal strength, comparable to giants, but he has nowhere to use it.

He goes to the field, makes fun of himself,
He throws the damask palliu
Higher than the standing forest,
Below the cloud and the walker,
This paliya flies away
High and in the sky;
When the palia da descends,
He picks it up with one hand...

And in another version - even more expressively:
“Svyatogor has no one to measure his strength with, but his strength flows through his veins like a living thing. It’s heavy from the strength, like from a heavy pregnancy.”
Like Volkh, Svyatogor came from ancient mythology: ideas about mountain giants who embodied the greatness of the mountains were associated with it. But, unlike Volkha, Svyatogor did not find his place in the new life, did not stand next to the Kyiv heroes who defended Rus' from external enemies. He remained a character of the old world and was doomed to death. The epics about Svyatogor contain some deep philosophical meaning, which is probably different generations solved differently. Epics about Svyatogor are epics about how a hero gives up his life; and he dies not in battle, but in a dispute with some unknown, irresistible force. This power is not human, it is embodied in objects that Svyatogor cannot cope with. One day a hero runs into a “small saddlebag” in a field.

I wanted to kick this one up
handbag - Let this handbag not move;
Svyatogor fell from his good horse,
He takes the purse with one hand
- This handbag won’t move;
How he takes both hands,
He strained himself with heroic strength,
Knee-deep into the mother earth
- This bag won’t move,
- It won’t move and won’t rise.

In the version, which is probably most consistent with the interpretations of Ancient Rus', the denouement is as follows: “Svyatogor is sunk into the ground up to his knees, and not tears are running down his white face, but blood is flowing. Where Svyatogor got stuck, he couldn’t get up, and that’s where he ended.” What is this handbag? In the texts of the 19th-20th centuries known to us, there are such explanations: “In the purse... the earthly cravings,” “burden from mother damp earth,” “all earthly cargo is piled up.” This means that the hero dared to compete in strength with all the great earthly might and was defeated. Already in Ancient Rus' they understood: the earth does not need to be raised or turned over - it must be developed and protected. But the hero of old times, called for global affairs, turned out to be incapable of this. And therefore he is doomed. In another epic, the death of Svyatogor occurs differently. information from the site http://site
Svyatogor accompanied Ilya Muromets runs into an empty coffin. The heroes try it on - it turns out to be big for Ilya Muromets, and for Svyatogor it is just the right height.

Svyatogor says to Ilya Muromets:
“Are you Ilya and my little brother!
Cover the oak lid,
I’ll lie in a coffin, I’ll love you.”
How Ilya closed the oak lid,
And Svyatogor says these words:
“Oh, Ilyushenka and Muromeu!
It’s very hard for me to lie in a coffin,
I can’t breathe and feel sick.
Open the oak lid,
Give me some fresh air."
How the lid won't lift
Even the crack doesn't open,
Svyatogor says these are the words:
“You break the lid with a saber and rebuild it.”
Ilya Svyatogor obeyed,
He takes his saber sharply,
Strikes the oak coffin,
- Where will Ilya Muromei strike?
Here the iron hoops become.
Ilya began to beat up and down,
All iron hoops become.
Saint speaking? these are the words:
“Apparently, this is the end for me, the hero,
You bury me in the damp earth.”

In the introduction to the chapters on Russian heroes, we already said that in epics we rarely see “natural” pictures of life, and more often fantastic pictures or, one might say, conventional, implausible pictures predominate. But through this convention and phantasmagoria, the most difficult life situations are revealed to us with amazing power and poignancy.
It is obvious that Svyatogor’s meeting with his death-coffin is predetermined and cannot be averted. Moreover, attempts to escape only bring death closer. Ilya Muromets fulfills Svyatogor’s requests in order to rescue him from the grave, but every action of Ilya actually only brings him closer tragic ending and makes the salvation of Svyatogor impossible. When Svyatogor realizes that his end is near, he decides to express his last will: he wants to transfer enormous power to Ilya Muromets - the only inheritance that can remain from him. According to one option, Ilya needs to bend over to the coffin, and Svyatogor breathes in his face. According to others, he will transmit power through saliva. However, Ilya refuses everything.

Ilya says these are the words:
"I have a head with gray hair,
I don’t need your strength,
My own strength is enough for me.
If I have more strength,
Mother earth won’t carry me.”

In this epic there is a change of generations of heroes: the old hero in the person of Svyatogor is leaving forever - not yet truly connected with the world of people's life, far from the interests and concerns of the Russian land, ponderous, not knowing what to apply exorbitant force to; he is replaced by young heroes, whose strength is directed towards serving people, defending justice, and defending Rus'. They are embodied in the epic by Ilya Muromets. He is no longer young in age and wise by experience, but he belongs to a new heroic generation. And, of course, it is no coincidence that it fell to Ilya’s lot great role- to lead Svyatogor into another world and even, unwittingly, contribute to its end.

Excerpt from the fairy tale film Ilya Muromets (Svyatgor)

Svyatogor is connected with the earth, with its dark chthonic forces: he lies on the ground or on a mountain (sometimes like a mountain himself) and, as a rule, sleeps; he lies down in the ground in a stone coffin. The owner of chthonic power, he is unable to either control it (hence the motives for boasting and meaningless demonstration of strength: Svyatogor allows Ilya Muromets to hit him three times with all his heroic strength, comparing these blows to a mosquito bite), nor find a heroic military use for this power (like Ilya Muromets and other Russian heroes guarding the border) or economically productive (like Mikula Selyaninovich). Svyatogor is isolated from other heroes epic epic(Ilya Muromets is needed only to be present at the death of Svyatogor and, as it were, to learn the disastrous lessons of excessive and unfocused force), does not perform any feats. Unlike other heroes, Svyatogor is motionless, tied to one locus (Holy Mountains). The holy mountains, as well as their inhabitant and owner, are contrasted in the epics of Holy Rus'. In one of the versions of the epic, Svyatogor informs his father that he was far away in Holy Rus', but did not see or hear anything, but only brought a hero from there (it is characteristic that Svyatogor’s father is “dark,” that is, blind, a sign of a creature another world). Matching place name and mythological character(Holy Mountain: Svyatogor), the lack of distinction between the figure and the place is deeply archaic. Svyatogor’s connection with the mountain may not be primary. Moreover, this mountain should be understood not as the highest holy place, but as an obstacle on the way, an undeveloped, wild place. In this sense, Svyatogor is on a par with the same useless chthonic heroes of Russian fairy tales as Gorynya, Dubynya and Usynya: it is no coincidence that in one of the epics Svyatogor is called Gorynych, which correlates him with both Gorynya and the Serpent Gorynych. In the reconstruction Svyatogor is a chthonic creature, possibly open hostile to people. In later versions, Svyatogor spares Ilya Muromets, transfers his power to him (although he invites Ilya to breathe his spirit a third time or lick the bloody foam, which would lead to Ilya’s death), realizes his doom and shows a kind of submission to fate. In this “improvement” of the image of Svyatogor, an external factor also played a role - the epithet “saint”. But this epithet itself, like the whole name of Svyatogor, is apparently the result of a folk etymological “straightening” of the original name, close to names like Vostrogor, Vostrogot, belonging to a mythological bird associated with mountains (“Vostrogor - from bird to all birds, bird” ; “The bird of Vostrogoth will tremble, and the whole mountain of Faorot will tremble,” etc.). Other forms, such as the Russian “vertik” (a creature of a bird-snake nature, a vampire), make it possible to assume that these names and the name of Svyatogor are connected with the Iranian deity Veretragna, one of whose incarnations is the falcon; Wed also the Raroga bird. In this context, not only the name of Svyatogor, but also his individual features (boasting, super-strength, death associated with stone or earth, the presence of another hero who did not succumb to the same death) find exact parallels in the Iranian myth about the stone (stone-handed) hero Snavidka, who died from boasting (cf. “Yasht” XIX 43-44).

Svyatogor Svyatogor is a hero of the Russian epic epic, standing outside the Kyiv and Novgorod cycles and only partially in contact with the first in the epics about the meeting of Svyatogor with Ilya Muromets. Svyatogor in the epic is a huge giant, “higher than a standing forest”; it is hardly carried by the mother of cheese the earth. He does not go to Holy Rus', but lives on the high Holy Mountains; During his journey, the mother earth shakes, forests sway and rivers overflow their banks. Once, feeling colossal strength within himself, he boasted that if there were a ring in the sky and another in the earth, he would turn heaven and earth upside down. Mikula Selyaninovich (var. - elders) heard this and threw his handbag to the ground, which Svyatogor tries in vain to move while sitting on a horse, and then, getting off the horse and holding the handbag with both hands, sinks into the ground up to his knees and here, without overcoming " earthly cravings" contained in her handbag, ends her life. According to another story, Ilya Muromets, on the way, under an oak tree, in an open field, finds a heroic bed 10 fathoms, 6 fathoms wide. He falls asleep on it for three days. On the 3rd day a noise was heard from the north side; the horse woke up Ilya and advised him to hide in an oak tree. Svyatogor appeared on horseback, holding a crystal casket on his shoulders, in which was his beautiful wife. While Svyatogor was sleeping, his wife seduces Ilya into love and then puts him in her husband’s pocket. On the further journey, the horse tells Svyatogor that it is hard for him: until now he was carrying a hero and his wife, now he is carrying two heroes. Svyatogor finds Ilya and, having asked how he got there, kills his unfaithful wife, and enters into a brotherhood with Ilya. On the way near the Northern Mountain, the heroes meet a coffin with the inscription: “Whoever is destined to lie in the coffin will lie in it.” The coffin turned out to be too big for Ilya, but the lid slammed shut behind Svyatogor and he tried in vain to get out of there. Having transferred part of his strength and his sword to Ilya, he orders the coffin lid to be cut, but with each blow the coffin is covered with an iron hoop. The third episode is the marriage of Svyatogor; he asks Mikula how to find out his fate. Mikula sends him to the Northern Mountains, to the prophetic blacksmith. To Svyatogor’s question about the future, he predicted his marriage to a bride who had been living in a seaside kingdom for 30 years in a dungeon. Svyatogor went there and, finding the sick woman on a pus, put 500 rubles near her, hit her in the chest with a sword and left. The girl woke up; the bark that covered it came off; She turned into a beauty and Svyatogor, hearing about her beauty, came and married her. After the wedding, Svyatogor saw a scar on her chest, found out what was wrong and realized that you couldn’t escape fate. Analysis of these three plots led researchers to the following conclusions: 1) The motif of lifting a handbag is common in the epics of other peoples and in tales about other heroes: Anika, Kolyvan, Volga, Samson. In Yugoslav poetry, the role of Svyatogor is played by Prince Marko; The same thing is said in the Caucasus about the Nart Soslan. The handbag corresponds to the stone in the epics about the Stream, which coincides with the medieval story about Alexander the Great, to whom the inhabitants of the paradise country give a stone as tribute; This pebble, which can neither be weighed nor measured, symbolizes the human eye = envy in the symbolic interpretation of the Jewish sage. A parallel one is the ancient northern legend about Thor’s dispute with a giant. 2) Parallels for the second motive, about Svyatogor’s unfaithful wife, are indicated in the Persian collection Tuti-Nameh, in tales of 1001 nights, in Indian Buddhist tales. This is probably an episode of Eastern origin. 3) The episode about the tomb of Svyatogor is indicated by parallels in apocryphal legends about Aaron and Moses, undoubtedly of Jewish origin. Legends and stories about such a coffin are known among the Little Russians, Koshubs, Italians, Gypsies, Magyars, and in ancient Egypt. 4) The episode about the marriage of Svyatogor, known only to those who have visited it, goes back to folk tales based on medieval stories that “do not delay the judgment of God” (compare the story in the “Roman Acts” translated into Russian in the 17th century). In its details - a trip to the northern sorcerer-blacksmith - this visit is reminiscent of an episode of "Kalevala". Marriage to a girl lying on a rotting spot occurs in an old Russian story about Tsarevich Firgis. Despite the mass of parallels collected to illuminate the personality of Svyatogor, it remains poorly explained. The prototype of the Russian Svyatogor the strongman cannot be considered found, although many hypotheses have been proposed: Wolner compares him with Saint Christopher, who, according to legend, carried Christ across the water; Zhdanov argues, with greater probability, that the prototype of Svyatogor was the biblical Samson. Veselovsky believes, on the contrary, that the traits of Svyatogor passed onto the epic Samson the hero; in another place he points to a possible source - “Alexandria”, which says “about a great man whom Alexander was surprised to see”: he was lying on a high mountain 1000 steps long and 200 wide, which resembles a bed S. Khalansky notes the possible influence of Caucasian legends about giants and sledges and the similarity of the Ossetian Mukkara with Svyatogor. Sun. Miller framed the question of the influence of Caucasian fairy tales on Russian ones and their connection with each other more convincingly. The name Svyatogor can be considered an epithet created from his place of residence - the Holy Mountains. See Hilferding "Onega epics"; Rybnikov (I); Or. Miller "Ilya Muromets"; Wollner "Untersuchengen"; Khalansky "Great Russian epics of the Kyiv cycle"; Vsevolod Miller "Excursions"; Zhdanov "On the history of epic poetry"; Veselovsky "South Russian epics" (IV); "Journal of the Ministry of Public Education", 1888, May; Petrov "Proceedings of the Kyiv Theological Academy", 1878, May; Machal "O bohatyrskem epose slovanskem" (I). V.P.

Biographical Dictionary. 2000 .

Synonyms:

See what “Svyatogor” is in other dictionaries:

In East Slavic mythology, an ancient hero. In the Russian epic epic, “the damp mother earth” cannot bear heaviness, but he himself cannot overcome the earthly pull contained in his bag; Trying to lift the bag, he sinks his feet into the ground. V. Ya. Propp believed... ... Encyclopedia of Mythology

The name of the hero of Russian epics, a hero with supernatural power... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Ah, husband. Art. Russian ed. Report: Svyatogorovich, Svyatogorovna; decomposition Svyatogorich.Derivatives: Svyatogorka; Holy; Mountain. Origin: (From saints (cf. saint) and mountains (cf. mountain). Name Russian. epic hero.) Dictionary of personal names... Dictionary of personal names

Heavy bomber aircraft designed by V. A. Slesarev. Built in 1914 1915 at the V. A. Lebedev plant in Petrograd. A three-post biplane with two engines (162 kW each) in the fuselage, driving two pusher propellers with a diameter of ... Encyclopedia of technology

Nicholas Roerich. Svyatogor. 1942

Ivan Bilibin. Ilya Muromets and Svyatogor.1900

On the further journey, the horse tells Svyatogor that it is hard for him: until now he was carrying a hero and his wife, now he is carrying two heroes. Svyatogor finds Ilya and, having asked how he got there, kills his unfaithful wife, and enters into a brotherhood with Ilya. On the way near the Northern Mountain, the heroes encounter a coffin with the inscription: “Whoever is destined to lie in a coffin will lie in it.” The coffin turned out to be too big for Ilya, but the lid slammed shut behind Svyatogor, and he tried in vain to get out of there. Having transferred part of his strength and his sword to Ilya, he orders the coffin lid to be cut, but with each blow the coffin is covered with an iron hoop.

Svyatogor
Andrey Mazin

Svyatogor is older than many gods. Many are familiar with this mighty giant from the epic where he meets Ilya Muromets and hides him and his horse in his pocket.
There is a lot of mystery in the image of Svyatogor.
Why, for example, does he live in a mountainous place, get stuck in the ground, as if in a marshy swamp, and cannot lift his bag, where all the “earthly cravings” are hidden? Why doesn’t he guard the borders of Holy Rus', like Ilya and other heroes, or plow the land, like Mikula Selyaninovich?
For what reason does he live alone, and not with other giants - Gorynya, Dubynya and Usynya?
What does the mention in one of the versions of the epic mean about his “dark” father? And how did it happen that he, powerful and invincible, suddenly loses his strength in a stone coffin he accidentally found?

Svyatogor is the son of Rod, the brother of Svarog, and the Svarozhichi were his nephews. His father is called “dark,” that is, blind, erroneously: Rod is primordial, omnipresent, all-seeing. Svyatogor was born in order to stand guard over the world of Reveal and not to let dark monsters from Navi come here.

Dubynya
Andrey Klimenko

The entrance there was at the foot of the pillar on which the sky was supported. The pillar itself (or the World Tree) was located in the holy mountains, where the giant’s name comes from. It is not an easy task to stand on the border of Light and Darkness.
Other giants, the Gorynychi - Gorynya, Dubynya and Usynya - were born by the dark, blind ruler Viy out of envy and in opposition to Svyatogor. Viy, partially familiar to us from Gogol’s story, appointed his three sons to guard the exit from Navi so that the souls of the dead could not escape from there. So, standing on the other side of the border, they were enemies of Svyatogor.
The enormous weight of Svyatogor prevented him from leaving his post and moving to other places. Yet one day, according to Mokosh’s prediction, he was forced to leave the Holy Mountains. The goddess predicted to the giant that he would marry the serpent maiden. The giant was upset, but decided to find his betrothed - maybe she’s not so scary after all? He went to distant seas, moved from one island to another. And finally I saw a snake. Svyatogor decided that it was better to die a bachelor than to marry such a monster. He turned around and hit her with his sword. Then he threw a golden altyn to atone for what he had done and, bursting into burning tears, wandered away.
Meanwhile, Svyatogor’s blow had a magical effect on the snake: it freed itself from the spell cast on it and became, as before, the beautiful girl Plenka. The beauty raised the golden altyn. It turned out to be irredeemable, and she gave it to the townspeople. They put the coin into circulation and soon became incredibly rich. They did not forget their benefactor - they generously gifted Film, and she used the money she received to equip a caravan and set off in search of a savior.
Whether she wandered long or short, she found Svyatogor and told him her story. The giant did not immediately believe that this beautiful girl was the same snake that he had killed. Then he waved his hand: you never know what miracles happen in the world! He married Plenka, as Mokosh predicted, and soon their daughters were born - Plenkini.

Konstantin Vasiliev Gift of Svyatogor

This story also became known in Greece: either he brought it there Aryan people Dorians, or Balkan Slavs. Only the Greeks began to call Svyatogor, in their own way, Atlas (or Atlas). His wife Plenka was considered the oceanid Pleione. Their daughters were named Pleiades. These girls became stars, and Perseus, showing their father the head of Medusa the Gorgon, turned Atlas into a rock. These mountains in Africa are still called Atlas.

There are many more stories about Svyatogor, it’s impossible to tell them all. Let us recall just one of them. The giant got tired of defending the gods, whom he had not really seen, and he decided to build a stone staircase to heaven and look at them himself. Rod did not deprive him of strength and Svyatogor coped with the work: he reached the very throne of the Most High in heaven. God did not scold him for his self-will, but praised him for his work and said that he would fulfill any desire of the giant. Svyatogor asked for immeasurable strength and more wisdom than any of the gods.

Svyatogor.1895
Andrey Ryabushkin

Eh, if I knew that any desire also has a downside, I would probably be careful not to ask for intelligence and strength.

“You will be stronger than the Svarozhichi, but the stone will overpower you,” the Most High answered him. “You will become wiser than the gods, but man will deceive you!”

The giant just grinned in response, not believing what was said. Surely he, who built a staircase to heaven from rocks, should be afraid of some pebble! Well, what about the small human race, the bugs under our feet, what can they do to them?

And everything turned out according to the word of the Almighty. And the stone coffin, in which Svyatogor jokingly lay down, became his last refuge, and the hero Ilya Muromets outwitted the giant.
Or maybe it’s for the better: the time of the giants has passed, the era of people has begun. And Svyatogor is tired of eternal life, it was time for him to rest. Only with his last breath did he manage to transfer part of his strength to his hero.

It is known about Ilya that he performed many feats for the glory of Holy Rus', and in his old age he came to the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery and became a monk there. He spent days and nights in his cell, atonement for his sins, voluntary and involuntary. That’s why he didn’t notice how the killer crept up to him and dealt a treacherous stab in the back. However, there is not a word about this in the epics. Scientists-anthropologists who examined the remains of Ilya Muromets learned about this. They determined that since childhood the hero’s left leg was shorter than his right - that’s why he lay “thirty years and three years” on the stove until the wandering magicians breathed mighty power into him.

Svyatogor- a hero of the Russian epic epic, standing outside the Kyiv and Novgorod cycles and only partially in contact with the first in the epics about s.

Epics about Svyatogor

Svyatogor in the epic is a huge giant, “higher than a standing forest”; it can hardly be carried by mother earth. He does not go to Holy Rus', but lives on the high Holy Mountains; During his journey, mother cheese shakes the earth, the forests sway and the rivers overflow their banks.

Once, feeling colossal strength within himself, he boasted that if there were a ring in the sky and another in the earth, he would turn heaven and earth upside down. He heard this and threw the handbag in which it was enclosed to the ground. Only a plowman could lift the purse. Svyatogor tries in vain to move the handbag while sitting on a horse, and then, getting off the horse and holding the handbag with both hands, sinks into the ground up to his knees and here, unable to overcome the “earthly pull” contained in the handbag, he ends his life. In another version of the epic, Svyatogor does not die, but Mikula reveals to him the secret of the handbag.

According to another story, Ilya Muromets, on the way, under an oak tree, in an open field, finds a heroic bed 10 fathoms long and 6 fathoms wide. He falls asleep on it for three days. On the third day, a noise was heard from the north side; the horse woke up Ilya and advised him to hide in an oak tree. Svyatogor appeared on horseback, holding a crystal casket on his shoulders, in which was his beautiful wife. While Svyatogor was sleeping, his wife seduces Ilya into love and then puts him in her husband’s pocket. On the further journey, the horse tells Svyatogor that it is hard for him: until now he was carrying a hero and his wife, now he is carrying two heroes. Svyatogor finds Ilya and, having asked how he got there, kills his unfaithful wife, and enters into a brotherhood with Ilya. On the way near the Northern Mountain, the heroes meet a coffin with the inscription: . The coffin turned out to be too big for Ilya, but the lid slammed shut behind Svyatogor, and he tried in vain to get out of there. Having transferred part of his strength and his sword to Ilya, he orders the coffin lid to be cut, but with each blow the coffin is covered with an iron hoop.

Episode three - ; he asks Mikula how to find out his fate. Mikula sends him to the Northern Mountains, to the prophetic blacksmith. When Svyatogor asked him about the future, he predicted his marriage to a bride who had been living in a seaside kingdom for 30 years in a rotting place. Svyatogor went there and, finding the sick woman lying on the floor, placed 500 rubles near her, hit her in the chest with a sword and left. The girl woke up; the bark that covered it came off; she turned into a beauty, and the hero, hearing about her beauty, came and married her. After the wedding, Svyatogor saw a scar on her chest, found out what was wrong and realized that you couldn’t escape fate.