Heroic epic as a literary genre. Epic heroes: images and characteristics Objectives of the epic in literature

Heroic E. as a genre (or group of genres), that is, a heroic narrative about the past, containing a holistic picture of the people. life and representing in harmonious unity a certain epic world and heroic heroes. Heroic eloquence exists in both book and oral form, and most of the book monuments of egyptianism have folklore origins; The very features of the genre developed at the folklore stage. Therefore, heroic E. is often called folk E. However, such an identification is not entirely accurate, since the book forms of E. have their own stylistic and sometimes ideological specifics, and ballads, historical legends and songs, folk novels, etc., are certainly classified as folk E. items can be considered heroic E. only with significant reservations. In the classical forms of history, historical (or pseudo-historical) persons and events are glorified, although the depiction of historical realities itself is subject to traditional plot schemes; sometimes ritual-mythological models are used. The epic background is usually the struggle of two epic tribes or nationalities. In the center there is often a military event - historical (the Trojan War in the Iliad, the battle on Kurukshetra in the Mahabharata, on Kosovo Polje in Serbian youth songs), less often - mythical (the fight for Sampo in the Kalevala). Power is usually concentrated in the hands of an epic prince (Vladimir - in epics, Charlemagne - in the "Song of Roland"), but the bearers of active action are heroes, whose heroic characters, as a rule, are marked not only by courage, but also by independence, obstinacy, even fury (Achilles - in the Iliad, Ilya Muromets - in epics). Obstinacy sometimes leads them to conflict with the authorities (in the archaic epic - to fight against God), but the directly social nature of the heroic act and the commonality of patriotic goals for the most part ensure a harmonious resolution of the conflict. In E., primarily the actions (deeds) of the heroes are depicted, and not their emotional experiences, but its own plot story is supplemented by numerous static descriptions and ceremonial dialogues. The stable and relatively homogeneous world of E. corresponds to a constant epic background and often measured verse; The integrity of the epic narrative is preserved by focusing on individual episodes.

Heroic E. as a genre (or group of genres), that is, a heroic narrative about the past, containing a holistic picture of the people. life and representing in harmonious unity a certain epic world and heroic heroes. Heroic eloquence exists in both book and oral form, and most of the book monuments of egyptianism have folklore origins; The very features of the genre developed at the folklore stage. Therefore, heroic E. is often called folk E. However, such an identification is not entirely accurate, since the book forms of E. have their own stylistic and sometimes ideological specifics, and ballads, historical legends and songs, folk novels, etc., are certainly classified as folk E. items can be considered heroic E. only with significant reservations. In the classical forms of history, historical (or pseudo-historical) persons and events are glorified, although the depiction of historical realities itself is subject to traditional plot schemes; sometimes ritual-mythological models are used. The epic background is usually the struggle of two epic tribes or nationalities. In the center there is often a military event - historical (the Trojan War in the Iliad, the battle on Kurukshetra in the Mahabharata, on Kosovo Polje in Serbian youth songs), less often - mythical (the fight for Sampo in the Kalevala). Power is usually concentrated in the hands of an epic prince (Vladimir - in epics, Charlemagne - in the "Song of Roland"), but the bearers of active action are heroes, whose heroic characters, as a rule, are marked not only by courage, but also by independence, obstinacy, even fury (Achilles - in the Iliad, Ilya Muromets - in epics). Obstinacy sometimes leads them to conflict with the authorities (in the archaic epic - to fight against God), but the directly social nature of the heroic act and the commonality of patriotic goals for the most part ensure a harmonious resolution of the conflict. In E., primarily the actions (deeds) of the heroes are depicted, and not their emotional experiences, but its own plot story is supplemented by numerous static descriptions and ceremonial dialogues. The stable and relatively homogeneous world of E. corresponds to a constant epic background and often measured verse; The integrity of the epic narrative is preserved by focusing on individual episodes.

FAIRY TALE AS A GENRE. one of the main genres of oral folk poetry, an epic, predominantly prosaic work of art of a magical, adventurous or everyday nature with a fictional focus. S. refers to different types of oral prose, hence the discrepancy in defining its genre features. S. differs from other types of artistic epic in that the storyteller presents it, and listeners perceive it primarily as a poetic invention, a play of fantasy. This, however, does not deprive S. of its connection with reality, which determines the ideological content, language, and the nature of plots, motives, and images. Many S. reflected primitive social relations and ideas, totemism, animism, etc. 1. ORIGIN OF THE TALE. - In the early stages of S. culture, saga and myth are found undivided and initially probably have a production function: the hunter lured the frightened animal with gestures and words. Later, pantomime with words and singing is introduced. Traces of these elements have been preserved by S. of later stages of development in the form of dramatic performance, melodious elements of the text, and broad layers of dialogue, which are more abundant in S. the more primitive it is. At a later stage of the pastoral economy, pre-natal and early-natal social organization and animistic worldview, S. often receives the function of a magical rite to influence not the beast, but the souls and spirits. S. are obliged to either attract and entertain, especially among hunters, forest and all other spirits (Turks, Buryats, Soyats, Uriankhians, Orochons, Altaians, Shors, Sagais, residents of Fiji, Samoa, Australians), or they are used as spells (in New Guinea, among the Altaians, Chukchi), or S. is directly included in religious rites (among the Malays, Gilyaks, Iranian Tajiks). Eg. the famous motif of magical flight is played out by the Chukchi in their funeral rites. Even Russian S. was included in the wedding ceremony. Thanks to this cult meaning of S., many peoples have regulations for telling fairy tales: they cannot be told during the day or in the summer, but only at night after sunset and in winter (Baluchis, Bechuanas, Hotentots, Witotos, Eskimos). 2. TYPES OF FAIRY TALES.- the oldest species; it goes back partly to the primitive Natursagen, partly to the later influence of literary poems of the Middle Ages (like the novel about Renard) or to the stories of northern peoples about the bear, wolf, raven, and especially about the cunning fox or its equivalents - the jackal, hyena. 2) S. magical, genetically going back to various sources: to decayed myth, to magical stories, to rituals, book sources, etc. 3) S. novelistic with everyday, but unusual subjects:. Among them there are varieties of S. anecdotal(about poshekhontsy, cunning wives, priests, etc.) and erotic. Genetically, novelistic S. often has its roots in a feudal society with clear class divisions. 4) S. legendary,

33 Epic: types and genres

The scale of the creative challenge	Kinds	Genres
Large forms	Epic
Novel	Family-everyday Social-psychological Philosophical Historical Fantastic Utopian novel Educational novel Love novel Adventure novel Travel novel Lyric-epic (novel in verse)
Epic novel
Epic poem
Medium forms	Tale	Family-household Social-psychological Philosophical Historical Fantastic Fairy-tale Adventure Story in verse
Poem	Epic Heroic Lyrical Lyric-epic Dramatic Heroic-comic Didactic Satirical Burlesque Lyrical-dramatic (romantic)
Small forms	Story	Essay (descriptive-narrative, “moral-descriptive”) Novelistic (conflict-narrative)
Novella
Fairy tale	Magic Social-everyday Satirical Socio-political Lyrical Fantastic Animalistic Scientific-educational
Fable
Feature article	Fiction Journalistic Documentary

Epic – an epic work of national problematics, monumental in form.

Novel - a large form of epic, a work with a detailed plot, in which the narrative is focused on the destinies of several individuals in the process of their formation, development and interaction, unfolded in artistic space and time sufficient to convey the “organization” of the world and analyze its historical essence. Being epic of private life, the novel presents individual and social life as relatively independent elements, not exhaustive and not absorbing each other. The story of individual fate in the novel takes on a general, substantial meaning.

Tale – the average form of epic, a work with a chronicle plot, as a rule, in which the narrative is focused on the fate of an individual in the process of its formation and development.

Poem– a large or medium-sized poetic work with a narrative or lyrical plot; in various genre modifications it reveals its synthetic nature, combining moral descriptive and heroic principles, intimate experiences and great historical upheavals, lyrical-epic and monumental tendencies.

Story - a small epic form of fiction, small in terms of the volume of life phenomena depicted, and hence in terms of the volume of text, a prose work.

Novella – a small prose genre comparable in scope to a short story, but differing from it in its sharp centripetal plot, often paradoxical, lack of descriptiveness and compositional rigor.

Literary fairy tale - an author's artistic prose or poetic work, based either on folklore sources, or purely original; The work is predominantly fantastic, magical, depicting the wonderful adventures of fictional or traditional fairy-tale characters, in which magic, miracle plays the role of a plot-forming factor, and serves as the main starting point for characterization.

Fable – a small form of epic of a didactic nature, a short story in verse or prose with a directly formulated moral conclusion, giving the story an allegorical meaning. The existence of the fable is universal: it is applicable to different occasions. The artistic world of fables includes a traditional range of images and motifs (animals, plants, schematic figures of people, instructive plots), often colored in tones of comedy and social criticism.

Feature article - a type of small form of epic literature, different from short stories and short stories in the absence of a single, quickly resolved conflict and greater development of descriptive images. The essay touches not so much on the problems of developing the character of an individual in its conflicts with the established social environment, but rather on the problems of the civil and moral state of the “environment” and has great cognitive diversity. Epic

(Greek éżpos - word, narration, story),

1) literary genre, distinguished along with lyrics and drama; represented by such genres as fairy tale, legend, varieties of heroic epic, epic, epic poem, story, short story, short story, novel, essay. E., like drama, is characterized by the reproduction of an action unfolding in space and time - the course of events (see Plot) in the lives of the characters. The specific feature of E. is the organizing role of the narrative. the speaker (the author or narrator himself) reports events and their details as something past and remembered, simultaneously resorting to descriptions of the setting of the action and the appearance of the characters, and sometimes to reasoning.

34 LYRIC GENRES:
Oh yeah(Greek "Song") - a monumental solemn poem glorifying a great event or a great person; There are spiritual odes (arrangements of psalms), moralizing, philosophical, satirical, epistle odes, etc. An ode is tripartite: it must have a theme stated at the beginning of the work; development of the theme and arguments, as a rule, allegorical (second part); the final, didactic (instructive) part. Examples of ancient ancient odes are associated with the names of Horace and Pindar; The ode came to Russia in the 18th century, the odes of M. Lomonosov (“On the day of the accession to the Russian throne of Empress Elisaveta Petrovna”), V. Trediakovsky, A. Sumarokov, G. Derzhavin (“Felitsa”, “God”), A. .Radishcheva (“Liberty”). He paid tribute to the ode of A. Pushkin (“Liberty”). By the middle of the 19th century, ode lost its relevance and gradually became an archaic genre.

Hymn- a poem of laudatory content; also came from ancient poetry, but if in ancient times hymns were composed in honor of gods and heroes, then in later times hymns were written in honor of solemn events, celebrations, often not only of a state, but also of a personal nature (A. Pushkin. “Feasting Students” ).

Elegy(Phrygian "reed flute") - a genre of lyrics dedicated to reflection. Originated in ancient poetry; originally this was the name for crying over the dead. The elegy was based on the life ideal of the ancient Greeks, which was based on the harmony of the world, proportionality and balance of being, incomplete without sadness and contemplation; these categories passed into modern elegy. An elegy can embody both life-affirming ideas and disappointment. Poetry of the 19th century continued to develop elegy in its “pure” form; in the lyrics of the 20th century, elegy is found, rather, as a genre tradition, as a special mood. In modern poetry, an elegy is a plotless poem of a contemplative, philosophical and landscape nature.
A. Pushkin. "To sea"
N. Nekrasov. "Elegy"
A. Akhmatova. "March Elegy"

Read A. Blok's poem "From Autumn Elegy":

Epigram(Greek “inscription”) - a small poem of satirical content. Initially, in ancient times, epigrams were inscriptions on household objects, tombstones and statues. Subsequently, the content of the epigrams changed.
Examples of epigrams:

Yuri Olesha:

Sasha Cherny:

Epistle, or message - a poem, the content of which can be defined as a “letter in verse.” The genre also came from ancient lyrics.
A. Pushkin. Pushchin ("My first friend, my priceless friend...")
V. Mayakovsky. "To Sergei Yesenin"; "Lilichka! (Instead of a letter)"
S. Yesenin. "Letter to Mother"
M. Tsvetaeva. Poems to Blok

Sonnet- this is a poetic genre of the so-called rigid form: a poem consisting of 14 lines, specially organized into stanzas, having strict rhyming principles and stylistic laws. There are several types of sonnet based on their form:

• Italian: consists of two quatrains (quatrains), in which the lines rhyme according to the scheme ABAB or ABBA, and two tercets (tercets) with the rhyme CDС DСD or CDE CDE;
• English: consists of three quatrains and one couplet; the general rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG;
• sometimes French is distinguished: the stanza is similar to Italian, but the terzets have a different rhyme scheme: CCD EED or CCD EDE; he had a significant influence on the development of the next type of sonnet -
• Russian: created by Anton Delvig: the stanza is also similar to the Italian, but the rhyme scheme in tercets is CDD CCD.

This lyrical genre was born in Italy in the 13th century. Its creator was the lawyer Jacopo da Lentini; a hundred years later Petrarch's sonnet masterpieces appeared. The sonnet came to Russia in the 18th century; a little later, it receives serious development in the works of Anton Delvig, Ivan Kozlov, Alexander Pushkin. Poets of the “Silver Age” showed particular interest in the sonnet: K. Balmont, V. Bryusov, I. Annensky, V. Ivanov, I. Bunin, N. Gumilev, A. Blok, O. Mandelstam...
In the art of versification, the sonnet is considered one of the most difficult genres.
In the last 2 centuries, poets rarely adhered to any strict rhyme scheme, often offering a mixture of different schemes.

• vocabulary and intonation should be sublime;
• rhymes - accurate and, if possible, unusual, rare;
• significant words should not be repeated with the same meaning, etc.

A particular difficulty - and therefore the pinnacle of poetic technique - is represented by wreath of sonnets: a cycle of 15 poems, the opening line of each being the last line of the previous one, and the last line of the 14th poem being the first line of the first. The fifteenth sonnet consists of the first lines of all 14 sonnets in the cycle. In Russian lyric poetry, the most famous are the wreaths of sonnets by V. Ivanov, M. Voloshin, K. Balmont.

Read “Sonnet” by A. Pushkin and see how the sonnet form is understood:

Text	Stanza	Rhyme	Contents(topic)
1 The stern Dante did not despise the sonnet; 2 In him Petrarch poured out the heat of love; 3 The creator of Macbeth 1 loved his game; 4 Camoes 2 clothed them with sorrowful thoughts.	quatrain 1	A B A B	History of the sonnet genre in the past, themes and tasks of the classic sonnet
5 And today he captivates the poet: 6 Wordsworth 3 chose him as an instrument, 7 When, far from the vain light of 8 Nature, he draws an ideal.	quatrain 2	A B A B	The meaning of the sonnet in European poetry contemporary to Pushkin, expanding the range of topics
9 Under the shadow of the distant mountains of Tauris 10 The singer of Lithuania 4 was cramped in size 11 He instantly concluded his dreams.	terzetto 1	C C B	Development of the theme of quatrain 2
12 Our maidens did not yet know him, 13 As for him, Delvig forgot 14 Hexameters 5 sacred melodies.	terzetto 2	D B D	The meaning of the sonnet in Russian poetry contemporary to Pushkin

In school literary criticism, this genre of lyricism is called lyric poem. In classical literary criticism such a genre does not exist. It was introduced into the school curriculum to somewhat simplify the complex system of lyrical genres: if the clear genre features of a work cannot be identified and the poem is not, in the strict sense, an ode, a hymn, an elegy, a sonnet, etc., it will be defined as a lyric poem . In this case, you should pay attention to the individual characteristics of the poem: the specifics of the form, theme, image of the lyrical hero, mood, etc. Thus, lyric poems (in the school understanding) should include poems by Mayakovsky, Tsvetaeva, Blok, etc. Almost all lyric poetry of the 20th century falls under this definition, unless the authors specifically specified the genre of the works.

Satire(Latin “mixture, all sorts of things”) - as a poetic genre: a work whose content is the denunciation of social phenomena, human vices or individual people - through ridicule. Satire in antiquity in Roman literature (satires of Juvenal, Martial, etc.). The genre received new development in the literature of classicism. The content of satire is characterized by ironic intonation, allegory, Aesopian language, and the technique of “speaking names” is often used. In Russian literature, A. Kantemir, K. Batyushkov (XVIII-XIX centuries) worked in the genre of satire; in the 20th century, Sasha Cherny and others became famous as the author of satires. Many poems from “Poems about America” by V. Mayakovsky can also be called satires ( "Six Nuns", "Black and White", "Skyscraper in Section", etc.).

Ballad- lyric-epic plot poem of the fantastic, satirical, historical, fairy-tale, legendary, humorous, etc. character. The ballad arose in ancient times (presumably in the early Middle Ages) as a folk ritual dance and song genre, and this determines its genre features: strict rhythm, plot (in ancient ballads they told about heroes and gods), the presence of repetitions (entire lines or individual words were repeated as an independent stanza), called refrain. In the 18th century, the ballad became one of the most beloved poetic genres in Romantic literature. Ballads were created by F. Schiller ("Cup", "Glove"), I. Goethe ("The Forest Tsar"), V. Zhukovsky ("Lyudmila", "Svetlana"), A. Pushkin ("Anchar", "Groom") , M. Lermontov ("Borodino", "Three Palms"); At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, the ballad was revived again and became very popular, especially in the revolutionary era, during the period of revolutionary romance. Among the poets of the 20th century, ballads were written by A. Blok ("Love" ("The Queen Lived on a High Mountain..."), N. Gumilev ("Captains", "Barbarians"), A. Akhmatova ("The Gray-Eyed King"), M. Svetlov (“Grenada”), etc.

Note! A work can combine the characteristics of some genres: a message with elements of elegy (A. Pushkin, “To *** (“I remember a wonderful moment ...”)), a lyrical poem of elegiac content (A. Blok. “Motherland”), an epigram-message, etc. .d.

(Greek dráma, literally - action), 1) one of the three types of literature (along with epic and lyric poetry; see literary genre). D. belongs simultaneously to theater and literature: being the fundamental basis of the performance, it is also perceived in reading. D. was formed on the basis of the evolution of theatrical art: the prominence of actors combining pantomime with the spoken word marked its emergence as a type of literature. Its specificity consists of: plot, i.e. reproduction of the course of events; dramatic tension of the action and its division into stage episodes; continuity of the chain of characters' statements; absence (or subordination) of a narrative beginning (see Narration). Intended for collective perception, D. always gravitated towards the most pressing problems and in the most striking examples became popular. According to A. S. Pushkin, the purpose of D. is “... to act on the crowd, on the multitude, to engage their curiosity” (Complete collection of works, vol. 7, 1958, p. 214).

D. is characterized by deep conflict; its fundamental basis is the intense and effective experience by people of socio-historical or “eternal”, universal human contradictions. Drama, accessible to all types of art, naturally dominates in D. According to V. G. Belinsky, drama is an important property of the human spirit, awakened by situations when the cherished or passionately desired, demanding fulfillment, is under threat.

Conflicts filled with drama are embodied in action - in the behavior of the heroes, in their actions and accomplishments. Most drama is built on a single external action (which corresponds to Aristotle’s principle of “unity of action”), based, as a rule, on the direct confrontation of heroes. In this case, the action is traced from beginning to end, capturing large periods of time (medieval and eastern drama, for example, “Shakuntala” by Kalidasa), or is taken only at its climax, close to the end (ancient tragedies, for example, “Oedipus the King” by Sophocles , and many works of modern times, for example, “Dowry” by A. N. Ostrovsky). Classical aesthetics of the 19th century. tends to absolutize these principles of constructing drama. Following Hegel, viewing drama as the reproduction of colliding volitional acts (“actions” and “reactions”), Belinsky wrote: “The action of drama should be focused on one interest and be alien to side interests... There should not be a single person in a drama who is not necessary in the mechanism of its course and development" (Complete collection of works, vol. 5, 1954, p. 53). At the same time, “... the decision in choosing a path depends on the hero of the drama, and not on the event” (ibid., p. 20).

However, in Shakespeare's chronicles and Pushkin's Boris Godunov, the unity of external action is weakened. A.P. Chekhov does not have it: several storylines are unfolding here simultaneously. Often the decisive role is played by internal action, in which the heroes do not so much do something as experience persistent conflict situations, clarify their positions, and think intensely. Internal action, already present in ancient tragedies and characteristic of W. Shakespeare's Hamlet, dominates drama in the late 19th and mid-20th centuries. (G. Ibsen, M. Maeterlinck, A. Chekhov, M. Gorky, B. Shaw, B. Brecht, modern “intellectual” D.). The principle of internal action is polemically put forward in Shaw's work "The Quintessence of Ibsenism."

The most important formal properties of D.: a continuous chain of statements that act as acts of behavior of the characters (i.e., their actions), and as a consequence of this - the concentration of what is depicted in closed areas of space and time. The universal basis of the composition of D.: scenic episodes (scenes), within which the depicted, so-called real, time is adequate to the time of perception, the so-called artistic. In folk, medieval and eastern drama, as well as in Shakespeare, in Pushkin's Boris Godunov, and in Brecht's plays, the place and time of action change very often. European D. 17-19 centuries. is based, as a rule, on a few and very extensive stage episodes that coincide with the acts of theatrical performances. An extreme expression of the compact development of space and time is the “unity” known from the “Poetic Art” of N. Boileau, which survived until the 19th century. (“Woe from Wit” by A. S. Griboyedov).

Intended for “play” on stage and concentrating the action on closed areas of space and time, drama, as a rule, gravitates towards the conventionality of images, as Pushkin said (“of all types of writings, the most implausible... dramatic writings...” - Complete collection of works, vol. 7, 1958, p. 37), as well as E. Zola and L. N. Tolstoy. A readiness to recklessly indulge in passions, a tendency to sudden decisions, sharp intellectual reactions and a vivid lapidary expression of thoughts and feelings are inherent in D.'s heroes to a greater extent than people in real life and characters in narrative works. According to the French actor Talma, the playwright and the actors unite “... in a cramped space, in the span of some two hours, all the movements, all the excitement that even a passionate being can often only experience in a long period of life” (“Talma on the stage art", M., 1888, p. 33).

The main subject of the playwright’s search is significant and vivid mental movements that completely fill the consciousness, which are predominantly the reactions of characters to the situation of a given moment: to spoken words, to someone’s movement, etc. Thoughts, feelings and intentions, vague and vague, not related to the situation of a given moment, are reproduced in dialogue with less specificity and completeness than in a narrative form.

In previous eras - from antiquity to the 19th century. - the named properties of D. fully corresponded to general literary and general artistic trends. The transformative, idealizing or grotesque principle in art dominated over the reproducing one, and the forms of the depicted deviated from the forms of real life. In this regard, D. not only successfully competed with the epic genre, but was also perceived as the “crown of poetry” (Belinsky). In the 19th-20th centuries. D. gave way to other artistic forms and, above all, to the novel, where man’s confrontation with the world and his psychology are reproduced more subtly, broadly, and freely. The desire of art for life-likeness and naturalness, which resulted in a “decline” of drama (especially in the West in the first half of the 19th century), at the same time radically modified its structure: under the influence of the experience of novelists, the traditional conventions and hyperbolism of dramatic images began to be reduced to a minimum ( Ostrovsky, Chekhov, Gorky with their desire for complete everyday and psychological authenticity of images). However, the new drama also retains elements of “improbability”: the discrepancy between the forms of real and dramatically realized existence is inevitable. Even in Chekhov’s seemingly extremely realistic plays, many of the characters’ statements are conventionally poetic and declamatory: V. Nemirovich-Danchenko called them “poems in prose.”

Used by 20th century playwrights. narrative fragments and active editing of stage episodes often give their work a documentary flavor. And at the same time, it is in these scenes that the illusion of the authenticity of what is depicted is openly destroyed and tribute is paid to the direct demonstration of convention (direct appeal of characters to the public; reproduction on stage of what the characters remember or dream of; song and lyrical fragments intruding into the action).

In the figurative system of D., the speech characteristic invariably dominates. However, the text of the drama should be oriented towards both spectacular expressiveness (facial expressions, gestures, movement) and the delivery of monologues and dialogues, and also correspond to the possibilities of stage time, space and theatrical technique (construction of mise-en-scène). Hence the indispensable advantage of drama, addressed to the actor and director, is its scenic quality, which is ultimately determined by the conflict or drama of the action (see Artistic Conflict).

D. as a type of literature includes many genres. Throughout D.'s history there is tragedy and comedy; The Middle Ages were characterized by mystery plays, miracle plays, moral plays, and school plays. In the 18th century. The drama genre was formed (see below), which later became dominant. Melodramas, farces, and vaudevilles are also common. In modern foreign drama, tragicomedy has acquired an important role.

D. 19-20 centuries sometimes it includes a lyrical beginning (the so-called lyrical dramas of J. Byron, Maeterlinck, A. Blok) or a narrative one (Brecht called his dramas epic); in the middle of the 20th century. "Documentary" dramatizations are being distributed, thoroughly and accurately reproducing real events, historical documents, and memoirs ("Dear Liar" by J. Kilty, "The Sixth of July" by M. Shatrov, plays based on "The Diary of Anne Frank"). But no matter how diverse the forms of D., it retains its generic specificity.

1 The concept of the heroic epic.

• “Epic” - (from Greek) word, narrative,

• one of three types of literature telling about various events of the past.

• The heroic epic of the peoples of the world is sometimes the most important and only evidence of past eras. It goes back to ancient myths and reflects human ideas about nature and the world.

• Initially it was formed in oral form, then, acquiring new plots and images, it was consolidated in written form.

• The heroic epic is the result of collective folk art. But this does not at all diminish the role of individual storytellers. The famous “Iliad” and “Odyssey”, as we know, were written down by a single author - Homer.

"The Tale of Gilgamesh" Sumerian epic 1800 BC.

Table I tells about the king of Uruk, Gilgamesh, whose unbridled prowess caused a lot of grief to the inhabitants of the city. Having decided to create a worthy rival and friend for him, the gods molded Enkidu from clay and settled him among wild animals. Table II is devoted to the martial arts of the heroes and their decision to use their powers for good, cutting down a precious cedar in the mountains. Tables III, IV and V are devoted to their preparations for the road, travel and victory over Humbaba. Table VI is close in content to the Sumerian text about Gilgamesh and the celestial bull. Gilgamesh rejects Inanna's love and reproaches her for her treachery. Insulted, Inanna asks the gods to create a monstrous bull to destroy Uruk. Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill a bull; Unable to take revenge on Gilgamesh, Inanna transfers her anger to Enkidu, who weakens and dies.

The story of his farewell to life (VII table) and Gilgamesh’s cry for Enkidu (VIII table) become the turning point of the epic tale. Shocked by the death of his friend, the hero sets out in search of immortality. His wanderings are described in Tables IX and X. Gilgamesh wanders in the desert and reaches the Mashu Mountains, where scorpion men guard the passage through which the sun rises and sets. “Mistress of the Gods” Siduri helps Gilgamesh find the shipbuilder Urshanabi, who ferried him across the “waters of death” that are fatal to humans. On the opposite shore of the sea, Gilgamesh meets Utnapishtim and his wife, to whom in time immemorial the gods gave eternal life.

Table XI contains the famous story about the Flood and the construction of the ark, on which Utnapishtim saved the human race from extermination. Utnapishtim proves to Gilgamesh that his search for immortality is futile, since man is unable to defeat even the semblance of death - sleep. In parting, he reveals to the hero the secret of the “grass of immortality” growing at the bottom of the sea. Gilgamesh obtains the herb and decides to bring it to Uruk to give immortality to all people. On the way back, the hero falls asleep at the source; a snake rising from its depths eats the grass, sheds its skin and, as it were, receives a second life. The text of Table XI known to us ends with a description of how Gilgamesh shows Urshanabi the walls of Uruk he erected, hoping that his deeds will be preserved in the memory of his descendants.

"Mahabharata" Indian epic of the 5th century AD.

“The Great Tale of the Descendants of Bharata” or “The Tale of the Great Battle of the Bharatas.” The Mahabharata is a heroic poem consisting of 18 books, or parvas. As an appendix, it has another 19th book - Harivanshu, i.e. “Genealogy of Hari”. In its current edition, the Mahabharata contains over one hundred thousand slokas, or couplets, and is eight times larger in volume than Homer's Iliad and Odyssey taken together.

The main tale of the epic is dedicated to the history of irreconcilable enmity between the Kauravas and Pandavas - the sons of two brothers Dhritarashtra and Pandu. According to the legend, numerous peoples and tribes of India, northern and southern, are gradually being drawn into this enmity and the struggle it causes. It ends in a terrible, bloody battle, in which almost all participants on both sides die. Those who won the victory at such a high cost unite the country under their rule. Thus, the main idea of ​​the main story is the unity of India.

Medieval European epic

• "Song of the Nibelungs" is a medieval Germanic epic poem written by an unknown author in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. Belongs to one of the most famous epic works of mankind. Its content boils down to 39 parts (songs), which are called “adventures”.

• The song tells about the marriage of the dragon slayer Sieckfried to the Burgundian princess Kriemhild, his death due to Kriemhild's conflict with Brünnhilde, the wife of her brother Gunther, and then about Kriemhild's revenge for the death of her husband.

• There is reason to believe that the epic was composed around 1200, and that its place of origin should be sought on the Danube, in the area between Passau and Vienna.

• In science, various assumptions have been made regarding the identity of the author. Some scholars considered him a shpilman, a wandering singer, others were inclined to think that he was a clergyman (perhaps in the service of the Bishop of Passau), and others that he was an educated knight of low birth.

“The Song of the Nibelungs” combines two initially independent plots: the tale of the death of Siegfried and the tale of the end of the House of Burgundy. They form, as it were, two parts of an epic. Both of these parts are not entirely consistent, and certain contradictions can be noticed between them. Thus, in the first part, the Burgundians receive a generally negative assessment and look rather gloomy in comparison with the bright hero Siegfried, whom they killed, whose services and help they so widely used, while in the second part they appear as valiant knights courageously meeting their tragic fate . The name “Nibelungs” is used differently in the first and second parts of the epic: in the first they are fairy-tale creatures, northern treasure keepers and heroes in the service of Siegfried, in the second they are the Burgundians.

The epic reflects primarily the knightly worldview of the Staufen era ( The Staufens (or Hohenstaufens) were an imperial dynasty that ruled Germany and Italy in the 12th – first half of the 13th centuries. The Staufens, especially Frederick I Barbarossa (1152–1190), attempted extensive external expansion, which ultimately accelerated the weakening of central power and contributed to the strengthening of the princes. At the same time, the Staufen era was characterized by a significant, but short-lived cultural upsurge.).

Kalevala

• Kalevala - Karelo - Finnish poetic epic. Consists of 50 runes (songs). It is based on Karelian folk epic songs. The arrangement of “Kalevala” belongs to Elias Lönnrot (1802-1884), who connected individual folk epic songs, making a certain selection of versions of these songs and smoothing out some of the irregularities.

• The name "Kalevala", given to the poem by Lönnrot, is the epic name of the country in which Finnish folk heroes live and act. Suffix lla means place of residence, so Kalevalla- this is the place of residence of Kalev, the mythological ancestor of the heroes Väinämöinen, Ilmarinen, Lemminkäinen, sometimes called his sons.

• In Kalevala there is no main plot that would connect all the songs.

It opens with a legend about the creation of the earth, sky, stars and the birth of the Finnish protagonist, Väinämöinen, by the daughter of air, who arranges the earth and sows barley. The following tells about the various adventures of the hero, who meets, among other things, the beautiful maiden of the North: she agrees to become his bride if he miraculously creates a boat from the fragments of her spindle. Having started work, the hero wounds himself with an ax, cannot stop the bleeding and goes to an old healer, to whom he tells a legend about the origin of iron. Returning home, Väinämöinen raises the wind with spells and transports the blacksmith Ilmarinen to the country of the North, Pohjola, where he, according to the promise given by Väinämöinen, binds for the mistress of the North a mysterious object that gives wealth and happiness - the Sampo mill (runes I-XI).

The following runes (XI-XV) contain an episode about the adventures of the hero Lemminkäinen, a warlike sorcerer and seducer of women. The story then returns to Väinämöinen; his descent into the underworld is described, his stay in the womb of the giant Viipunen, his acquisition from the latter of the three words necessary to create a wonderful boat, the hero’s sailing to Pohjola in order to receive the hand of the northern maiden; however, the latter preferred the blacksmith Ilmarinen to him, whom she marries, and the wedding is described in detail and wedding songs are given, outlining the duties of the wife and husband (XVI-XXV).

• Further runes (XXVI-XXXI) are again occupied by the adventures of Lemminkäinen in Pohjola. The episode about the sad fate of the hero Kullervo, who out of ignorance seduced his own sister, as a result of which both brother and sister commit suicide (runes XXXI-XXXVI), belongs in the depth of feeling, sometimes reaching true pathos, to the best parts of the entire poem.

Further runes contain a lengthy story about the common enterprise of the three Finnish heroes - obtaining the Sampo treasure from Pohjola, about Väinämöinen's making of the kantele, by playing which he enchants all of nature and lulls the population of Pohjola to sleep, about the taking away of the Sampo by the heroes, about their persecution by the sorceress-mistress of the North, about the fall Sampo at sea, about the good deeds rendered by Väinämöinen to his native country through the fragments of Sampo, about his struggle with various disasters and monsters sent by the mistress of Pohjola to Kalevala, about the hero’s marvelous playing on a new kantela, created by him when the first one fell into the sea, and about his return to them the sun and moon, hidden by the mistress of Pohjola (XXXVI-XLIX).

The last rune contains a folk apocryphal legend about the birth of a miraculous child by the virgin Maryatta (the birth of the Savior). Väinämöinen gives advice to kill him, since he is destined to surpass the Finnish hero in power, but the two-week-old baby showers Väinämöinen with reproaches of injustice, and the ashamed hero, having sung a wondrous song for the last time, leaves forever in a shuttle from Finland, giving way to the baby of Maryatta, the recognized ruler of Karelia .

• Other peoples of the world have developed their own heroic epics: in England - “Beowulf”, in Spain - “The Song of My Sid”, in Iceland - “The Elder Edda”,

• in France - “The Song of Roland”, in Yakutia - “Olonkho”, in the Caucasus - “Nart epic”, in Kyrgyzstan - “Manas”, in Russia - “epic epic”, etc.

• Despite the fact that the heroic epic of peoples was composed in different historical settings, it has many common features and similar features. First of all, this concerns the repetition of themes and plots, as well as the common characteristics of the main characters. For example:

• Epic(ancient Greek ἔπος - “word”, “narration”) - a heroic narrative about the past, containing a holistic picture of people’s life and representing in harmonious unity a certain epic world and heroic heroes. .

  Medieval epic

  Medieval epic- a heroic folk tale that was created by wandering singers or people during the Middle Ages. The epic was intended to be sung with the accompaniment of a harp or viola (small violin).

  GENERAL FEATURES OF THE HEROIC EPIC OF THE MATURE MIDDLE AGES

  During the Mature Middle Ages, the development of the traditions of folk epic literature continued. This is one of the significant stages in its history, when the heroic epic became the most important link in medieval book literature. The heroic epic of the Mature Middle Ages reflected the processes of ethnic and state consolidation and the emerging seigniorial-vassal relations. The historical themes in the epic expanded, displacing the fairy-tale-mythological ones, the importance of Christian motifs increased and patriotic pathos intensified, a larger epic form and a more flexible style were developed, which was facilitated by some distance from purely folklore samples. However, all this led to a certain impoverishment of the plot and mythopoetic imagery, so subsequently the chivalric romance again turned to folklore fiction. All these features of the new stage in the history of the epic are closely interconnected internally. The transition from epic archaics to epic classics, in particular, was expressed in the fact that the epics of nationalities that had reached the stage of clear state consolidation abandoned the language of myth and fairy tales and turned to developing plots taken from historical legends (while still continuing to use, of course, old plot and language clichés dating back to myths).

  Clan and tribal interests were pushed aside by national interests, albeit still in their infancy, therefore in many epic monuments we find pronounced patriotic motives, often associated with the fight against foreign and other religious conquerors. Patriotic motives, as is specific to the Middle Ages, partly appear in the form of contrasting Christians with “infidel” Muslims (in Romanesque and Slavic literatures).

  As said, the epic at the new stage depicts feudal strife and seigniorial-vassal relations, but due to the epic specificity, vassal loyalty (in the “Song of the Nibelungs”, “Song of Roland”, “Song of My Sid”), as a rule, merges with loyalty to clan, tribe, native country, state. A characteristic figure in the epic of this time is the epic "king", whose power embodies the unity of the country. He is shown in a complex relationship with the main epic hero - the bearer of folk ideals. Vassal loyalty to the king is combined with a story about his weakness, injustice, with a very critical depiction of the court environment and feudal strife (in the cycle of French poems about Guillaume of Orange). The epic also reflects anti-aristocratic tendencies (in songs about Dietrich of Bern or in “Song of My Sid”). In epic-heroic works of the XII-XIII centuries. At times, the influence of the courtly (knightly) novel also penetrates (in “The Song of the Nibelungs”). But even with

  idealization of courtly forms of life, the epic mainly preserves folk-heroic ideals and heroic aesthetics. The heroic epic also displays some tendencies that go beyond its genre nature, for example, hypertrophied adventurism (“Raoul de Cambrai” and others), material motivations for the behavior of the hero who patiently overcomes adverse circumstances (in “The Song of My Sid”), drama , reaching the point of tragedy (in “The Nibelungs” and in “The Song of Roland”). These various trends testify to the hidden possibilities of the epic kind of poetry and anticipate the development of the novel and tragedy.

  The stylistic features of the epic are now largely determined by a departure from folklore and a deeper processing of folklore traditions. In the process of transition from oral improvisation to recitation from manuscripts, numerous enjambements appear, i.e. transfers from verse to verse, synonymy develops, the flexibility and variety of epic formulas increases, sometimes the number of repetitions decreases, a clearer and more harmonious composition becomes possible (“Song of Roland").

  Although broad cyclization is also familiar to oral creativity (for example, in the folklore of Central Asia), the creation of large-scale epic works and their arrangement in cycles is mainly supported by the transition from oral improvisation to a handwritten book. Apparently, bookishness also contributes to the emergence of “psychological” characteristics, as well as the interpretation of the heroic character in terms of a kind of tragic guilt. However, the interaction between folklore and book literature actively continues: in the composition and especially the performance of many epic works, the participation of shpilmans and jugglers was great during this period.

  Heroic epic

  The question of the origin of the heroic epic - one of the most difficult in literary science - has given rise to a number of different theories. Two of them stand out: “traditionalism” and “anti-traditionalism.” The foundations of the first of them were laid by the French medievalist Gaston Paris (1839-1901) in his major work “The Poetic History of Charlemagne” (1865). The theory of Gaston Paris, called the “cantilena theory,” boils down to the following main principles. The primary basis of the heroic epic were small lyrical-epic cantilena songs, widespread in the 8th century. Cantilenas were a direct response to certain historical events. For hundreds of years, cantilenas existed in... oral tradition, and from the 10th century. the process of their merging into large epic poems begins. The epic is the product of long-term collective creativity, the highest expression of the spirit of the people. Therefore, it is impossible to name a single creator of an epic poem; the recording of poems itself is a more mechanical process than a creative one,

  Close to this theory was the point of view of Gaston Paris's contemporary Leon Gautier, author of the work "The French Epic" (1865). There was only one position where scientists decisively disagreed: Paris insisted on the national origins of the French heroic epic, Gautier spoke of its Germanic origins. The largest "anti-traditionalist" was Gaston Paris's student Joseph Bedier (1864-1938). Bedier was a positivist, he recognized only a documentary fact in science and could not accept the theory of Gaston Paris simply because no historically attested information about the existence of cantilenas has been preserved. Bedier denied the position that the epic existed for a long time in the oral tradition, being the result of collective creativity. According to Bedier, the epic arose precisely when it began to be written down. This process began in the middle of the 11th century, reaching its peak in the 12th century. It was at this time that pilgrimage, actively encouraged by the church, was unusually widespread in Western Europe. The monks, trying to draw attention to the holy relics of their monasteries, collected legends and traditions about them. This material was used by wandering singers-storytellers - jugglers, who created voluminous heroic poems. Bedier's theory was called "monastic-jugglery."

  The positions of “traditionalists” and “anti-traditionalists” were to a certain extent brought together in his theory about the origin of the heroic epic by Alexander Nikolaevich Veselovsky. The essence of his theory is as follows. The beginning of epic creativity was small songs - lyrical-epic cantilenas, born as a response to events that excited the people imagination. After a while, the attitude towards the events described in the songs becomes calmer, the severity of emotions is lost and then an epic song is born. Time passes, and the songs, in one way or another, are close to each other, and finally the cycle turns into an epic poem. While the text exists in the oral tradition, it is the creation of a collective. At the last stage of the formation of the epic, the decisive role is played by the individual author. The recording of poems is not a mechanical act, but a deeply creative one.

  The fundamentals of Veselovsky’s theory retain their significance for modern science (V. Zhirmunsky, E. Meletinsky), which also dates the emergence of the heroic epic to the 8th century, believing that the epic is the creation of both oral collective and written individual creativity. Only the question of the fundamental principles of the heroic epic is corrected: they are considered to be historical legends and the richest arsenal of figurative means of the archaic epic.

  It is no coincidence that the beginning of the formation of the heroic (or state) epic dates back to the 8th century. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476), over the course of a number of centuries there was a transition from slaveholding forms of statehood to feudal ones, and among the peoples of Northern Europe there was a process of final decomposition of patriarchal-tribal relations. Qualitative changes associated with the establishment of a new statehood definitely made themselves felt in the 8th century. In 751, one of the largest feudal lords in Europe, Pepin the Short, became king of the Franks and founder of the Carolingian dynasty. Under the son of Pepin the Short, Charlemagne (reign: 768-814), a huge state was formed, including a Celtic-Roman-Germanic population. In 80b, the pope crowned Charles with the title of emperor of the newly revived Great Roman Empire. In turn, Kara completes the Christianization of the German tribes, and seeks to turn the capital of the empire, Aachen, into Athens. The formation of the new state was difficult not only because of internal circumstances, but also because of external ones, among which one of the main places was occupied by the ongoing war between Christian Franks and Muslim Arabs. This is how history powerfully entered the life of medieval man. And the heroic epic itself became a poetic reflection of the historical consciousness of the people.

  The focus on history determines the decisive features of the difference between the heroic epic and the archaic epic. The central themes of the heroic epic reflect the most important trends in historical life, a specific historical, geographical, ethnic background appears, mythological and fairy-tale motivations are eliminated. The truth of history now determines the truth of the epic.

  Heroic poems created by different peoples of Europe have much in common. This is explained by the fact that a similar historical reality was subjected to artistic generalization; this reality itself was comprehended from the point of view of the same level of historical consciousness. In addition, the medium of image was an artistic language that has common roots in European folklore. But at the same time, the heroic epic of each individual nation has many unique, nationally specific features.

  The most significant of the Heroic poems of the peoples of Western Europe are considered to be: French - “The Song of Roland”, German - “Song of the Nibelungs”, Spanish - “Song of My Cid”. These three great poems make it possible to judge the evolution of the heroic epic: “The Song of the Nibelungs” contains a number of archaic features, “The Song of My Sid” shows the epic at its end, “The Song of Roland” is the moment of its highest maturity.

  French heroic epic.

  The epic work of the medieval French is distinguished by its rare richness: about 100 poems have survived to our time alone. They are usually divided into three cycles (or “gestures”).

  Royal cycle.

  It tells the story of the wise and glorious King of France Charlemagne, his loyal knights and treacherous enemies.

  The cycle of Guillaume de Orange (or "faithful vassal").

  These poems are tied to the events that took place after the death of Charlemagne, when his son Louis the Pious was on the throne. Now the king is depicted as a weak, indecisive man, unable to rule the country. Contrasted with Louis is his faithful vassal Guillaume de Orange - a true knight, courageous, active, a loyal supporter of the country.

  Doon de Mayans cycle (or "baronial cycle").

  The heroic poems included in this cycle are associated with the events of the 9th-11th centuries. - a time of noticeable weakening of royal power in France. The king and the feudal lords are in a state of unabated hostility. Moreover, the warlike feudal lords are opposed by a king, treacherous and despotic, immeasurably far in his merits from the majestic Charlemagne.

  The central place in the royal cycle is occupied by the Song of Roland. The poem has survived to this day in several manuscript copies, the most authoritative of which is considered the “Oxford Version,” named after the place where it was found - the library of Oxford University. The recording dates back to the 12th century; the poem was first published in 1837.

  While studying the question of the origin of the poem, Alexander Veselovsky drew attention to the following fact. In the 8th century The French won a resounding victory over the Moors, who at that time were stubbornly moving deeper into Europe. The battle took place in 732 at Poitiers; the French army was led by Charlemagne's grandfather, Charles Martel. A few decades later, in 778, Charlemagne himself set off on a campaign to Spain, occupied by the Arabs. The military expedition turned out to be extremely unsuccessful: Charles not only achieved nothing, but, returning back, lost one of his best troops, which was led by the Margrave of Brittany. The tragedy occurred in the Pyrenees, in the Roncesvalles Gorge. The attackers were Basques, the indigenous inhabitants of those places, who by that time had already converted to Christianity. Thus, the great poem reflected not the resounding victory of 732, but the tragic defeat of 778. Veselovsky noted about this: “Not every story, not everything historically interesting should have been interesting, suitable for an epic song ... between the history of the chronicle and epic history usually has nothing in common" 6 .

  Tragedy, and not the exultation of victory, is necessary for the epic. It is necessary because it is tragedy that determines the height of the heroism of the poem. Heroic, according to the ideas of that time, is unheard of, incredible, excessive. It is only in those moments when life and death seem to come together that the hero can show his unprecedented greatness, Roland is betrayed by his stepfather Gwenelon; and the act of a traitor knows no justification. But, according to the poetics of the epic, Roland needs death - only thanks to it does he ascend to the highest level of his glory.

  But if the fate of the hero is decided in a tragic way, then the fate of history is decided in the light of poetic idealization. So the question arises about the truth of history and the truth of the epic, or the specifics of epic historicism.

  The epic is tied to history. But unlike the chronicle, it does not strive to convey exact facts, dates, and destinies of historical figures. An epic is not a chronicle. An epic is a story created by a folk poetic genius. The epic builds its own model of history. He judges history on the highest level, expresses its highest tendencies, its spirit, its ultimate meaning. Epic is history in the light of its heroic idealization. The most important thing for an epic is not what exists, but what should exist.

  These features are reflected in a vivid form in “The Song of Roland.” The heroic poem of the French, associated with the events of historical life in the 8th century, speaks not only about what really happened then, but even more about what was about to happen.

  Opening the poem, we learn that Charlemagne liberated Spain from the Moors, “taking this entire region to the sea.” The only stronghold left by the Moors is the city of Zaragoza. However, there is nothing like this in the historical life of the 8th century. did not have. The Moors dominated the territory of Spain. And the campaign of 778 itself did not shake their positions at all. The optimistic beginning of the poem is consolidated in its final scenes: it tells about the brilliant victory of the French over the Moors, about the complete liberation from the “infidels” of their last stronghold - the city of Zaragoza. The forward march of history is inexorable. What seemed to the folk singer to be kind, fair, and lofty must be confirmed in life. This means that the heroic tragedy of individual destinies is not in vain. A great defeat is followed by a great victory.

  In a heroic poem, images are usually divided into three groups. In the center is the main character, his comrades in arms, the king, who expresses the interests of the state. The other group are bad compatriots: traitors, cowards, initiators of unrest and strife. And finally, enemies: these include invaders of the native land and people of other faiths; very often these qualities are combined in one person.

  An epic hero is not a character, but a type, and cannot be equated with the historical person whose name he bears. Moreover, the epic hero has no prototype. His image, created through the efforts of many singers, has a whole set of stable characteristics. At a certain stage of epic creativity, this poetic “model” is associated with the name of a specific historical person, protecting its already inherent qualities. Despite the paradox, the statement about the “secondary nature of the prototype” is true regarding the epic. The defining quality of an epic hero is exclusivity. Everything he is usually endowed with - strength, courage, audacity, obstinacy, fury, self-confidence, stubbornness - is exceptional. But these features are not a sign of the personal, unique, but of the general, characteristic. It takes place in the world and is of a public nature and the emotional life of the hero. Finally, the tasks solved by the hero are related to the achievement of goals facing the entire team.

  But it happens that the hero’s exclusivity reaches such heights that it goes beyond the boundaries of what is permissible. The hero’s positive, but exceptionally strong qualities seem to take him beyond the boundaries of the community and contrast him with the collective. This is how his tragic guilt is outlined. Something similar happens to Roland. The hero is brave, but exceptionally brave; the consequence of this is his actions, which lead to great disasters. Charlemagne, instructing Roland to command the rearguard, invites him to take “half the army.” But Roland resolutely refuses: he is not afraid of the enemy, twenty thousand warriors are enough. When a countless army of Saracens is approaching the rearguard and it is not too late to let Charlemagne know about this - it is enough to just blow the horn, Roland resolutely refuses: “Shame and disgrace are terrible for me - not death, courage - that’s why we are dear to Charlemagne.”

  The French detachment perishes not only because they were betrayed by Gwenelon, but also because Roland was too brave and too ambitious. In the poetic consciousness of the people, Roland’s “guilt” does not in any way cancel out the greatness of his feat. The fatal death of Roland is perceived not only as a national disaster, but also as a universal catastrophe. Nature itself mourns and cries: “A storm is raging, a hurricane is whistling. It’s pouring rain, hail is lashing the size of an egg.”

  Note that during the development of the epic, the main feature of the hero also changed. In the early forms of the epic, such a feature was strength, then courage and courage came to the fore, as a conscious readiness to accomplish any feat and, if necessary, to accept death. And finally, even later, such a trait becomes wisdom, rationality, naturally, combined with courage and courage. It is no coincidence that in “The Song of Roland” the image of Olivier, Roland’s brother-in-arms, is introduced as a later insertion: “Beware of Olivier, Roland is brave, and one is equal in valor.” Entering into an argument with Roland, Olivier asserts: “Being brave is not enough - you must be reasonable.”

  The main and only calling of the hero is his military work. Personal life is excluded for him. Roland has a fiancée, Alda, who is endlessly devoted to him. “Unable to bear the news of the death of her lover,” Alda died in those minutes when the fatal news came to her. Roland himself never remembers Alda. Even in her dying minutes, her name did not appear on the hero’s lips, and his last words and thoughts were addressed to the battle sword, to dear France, to Charles, to God.

  The duty of faithful vassal service is the meaning of the hero’s life. But vassal loyalty is valid only when service to an individual is service to the collective, the military community. Homeland. This is how Roland understands his duty. In contrast, Gwenelon serves Charlemagne, but does not serve France and its general interests. Exorbitant ambition pushes Gwenelon to take an unforgivable step - betrayal.

  In "The Song of Roland", as in many other poems of the French heroic epic, one of the most important places is occupied by the image of Charlemagne. And this image does not so much reflect the characteristic features of a particular historical person, but rather embodies the popular idea of ​​a wise sovereign, opposing external enemies and internal enemies, those who sow unrest and discord, embodying the idea of ​​wise statehood. Karl is majestic, wise, strict, fair, he protects the weak and is merciless towards traitors and enemies. But the image of Cala the Great also reflects the real possibilities of royal power in the conditions of the still emerging statehood. Therefore, Charlemagne is often more of a witness, a commentator on events, than their real participant. Anticipating Roland's tragedy, he cannot prevent it. Punishing the traitor Gwenelon is an almost insoluble problem for him; so strong are his opponents, the feudal lords. In difficult moments of life - and Karl has so many of them - he expects help only from the Almighty: “For Karl’s sake, God performed a miracle and stopped the sun in the sky.”

  To a large extent, the poem reflects the ideas of Christianity. Moreover, religious tasks are closely merged with national-patriotic tasks: the Moors, with whom the French are waging a mortal war, are not only enemies of “dear France”, but also enemies of the Christian Church. God is the assistant of the French in their military affairs, he is the adviser and leader of Charlemagne. Charles himself owns a holy relic: the tip of the spear that pierced the crucified Christ. A prominent place in the poem is occupied by the image of Archbishop Turpin, uniting the church and the army. With one hand the holy shepherd blesses the French, with the other he mercilessly strikes the unfaithful Saracens with a spear and sword.

  The narrative structure and figurative means of “The Song of Roland” are very characteristic of a heroic epic. The general dominates over the individual in everything, the common dominates over the unique. Constant epithets and formulas predominate. There are a lot of repetitions - they both slow down the action and speak about the typicality of what is being depicted. Hyperbole reigns supreme. Moreover, it is not the individual that is enlarged, but the whole world appears on a grandiose scale. The tone is leisurely and solemn.

  The Song of Roland is both a majestic requiem for fallen heroes and a solemn hymn to the glory of history.

  German heroic epic.

  The central poem of the German heroic epic is the "Song of the Nibelungs". It has reached our time in 33 copies, the latest of which date back to the 13th century. First published in 1757. The heroic poem of the Germans artistically comprehends a huge layer of historical material. Its oldest layer dates back to the 5th century. and is associated with the processes of the great migration of peoples, with the fate of the Huns and their famous leader Attila. Another layer is the tragic vicissitudes of the Frankish state, which arose in the 5th century. on the ruins of the Western Roman Empire and existed for four long centuries. And finally, the morals and customs of the 11th-12th centuries, reflecting the formation of courtliness among European chivalry: rumored love, tournaments, magnificent festivities. This is how the poem combines the distant and the near, deep antiquity and the present day. The poem is also rich in its connections with poetic sources: these are epic songs included in the “Elder Edda” and “Younger Edda”, a folk book about the horned Siegfried, German medieval poetry, motifs dating back to myths and fairy tales.

  The poem consists of 39 adventures (or songs) and is divided into two parts, each of which has a dominant semantic motif. The first part of the poem (I-XIX adventures) can be conditionally called a “song about matchmaking”; the second (XX-XXIX adventures) - “a song about vengeance.” It is assumed that these two epic songs existed separately for a long time in the oral tradition, and the loan was combined into a single work. This should explain that some of the heroes bearing the same name personify different epic types in each separate part of the poem. (Kriemhild of the first part is the type of a faithful and loving wife; the second is a merciless avenger; Hagen is first a type of treacherous vassal; then a brave warrior, inspired by high heroism).

  The poem is distinguished by its harmonious compositional unity. It is achieved not only by a sequential chain of events, but also by the unity of tone of the poem. Already its first lines predict future troubles: joy always comes next to grief and from the beginning of centuries “man pays with suffering for happiness.” This main motif never ceases in the epic narrative, reaching the highest tension in the final scenes: the catastrophe depicted here is like the destruction of the world itself!

  The first part of the poem develops in line with the well-known poetic model of “noble matchmaking.” The action begins with the hero's wedding trip. The valiant knight Siegfried, having fallen in love with the sister of the Burgundian kings Kriemhild, according to rumors, arrives from the Netherlands to Worms. King Gunther is ready to give his sister to Siegfried as a wife, but on one condition: the future son-in-law must help Gunther himself get a bride - the Icelandic hero Brunhild ("task in response to matchmaking"). Siegfried agrees to Gunther's terms. Using an invisibility cloak, Siegfried, under the guise of Gunther, defeats Brynhild in a competition, and then tames the heroine on the marriage bed ("marriage competition, "marriage duel", "taming of the bride"). Siegfried receives Kriemhild as his wife, and Brunhild becomes Gunther's wife. Ten years pass. Gunther invites his sister and Siegfried to visit. In Worms, the queens quarrel, defending Siegfried's primacy over Gunther, and Gunther's faithful vassal Hagen, believing that the honor of his king is tarnished, insidiously kills Siegfried. deception during matchmaking and subsequent revenge").

  The central character of the first part of the poem is Siegfried. He came to the heroic epic from fabulous miracles: it was he, Siegfried, who destroyed “seven hundred Nibelungs” in battle, becoming the owner of a wondrous treasure; he defeated the dwarf wizard Albrich, taking possession of his invisibility cloak; he finally struck the terrible dragon with his sword, bathed in its blood and became invulnerable. And only one place on the hero’s back, where the linden leaf fell, remained unprotected. Prince Siegfried is a generalized image of an epic hero, embodying popular ideas about the virtues of a true warrior: “The world has never seen a stronger fighter than him.”

  The scenes telling about Siegfried's dying minutes are the highest moments of his heroic fate. But not because it was at this time that he performed incredible feats, like, for example, Roland. Siegfried is an innocent victim. He nobly trusted Hagen, just as Kriemhild naively trusted the latter, embroidering a cross on her husband’s clothes, which indicated the only vulnerable spot on his body. Hagen assured Kriemhild that he would defend this place, but he insidiously did the opposite. Hagen's worthlessness should reveal Siegfried's nobility. The glorious hero loses his strength not only from a mortal wound that stains the green carpet of grass with blood, but also from “anguish and pain.” Hagen cruelly violates the principles of community life that are sacred to the people. He kills Siegfried treacherously, in the back, violating the oath of allegiance given to Siegfried earlier. He kills a guest, he kills a kinsman of his kings.

  In the first part of the poem, Kriemhild is depicted first as a loving wife, then as a widow mourning the untimely death of her husband for thirteen years. Kriemhild endures the insult and grief in her heart almost with Christian humility. And although Oka thinks about revenge, he postpones it indefinitely. Kriemhilda expresses her attitude towards the murderer Hagen and his patron Gunther as a stoic martyr: “For three and a half years, Kriemhilda did not say a single word to Gunther, she never raised her eyes to Hagen.” In the second part of the poem, Kriemhild's role changes noticeably. Now the heroine’s only goal is merciless revenge. She begins to implement her plan from afar. Kriemhild agrees to become the wife of the powerful Hun king Etzel, lives in his domain for thirteen long years and only then invites the Burgundians to visit. The terrible bloody feast organized by Kriemhild takes hundreds of lives, Kriemhild's brothers and her young son, born from Etzel, Hagen, die. If in the archaic epic the exorbitant cruelty of the hero did not receive a moral assessment, then in the heroic epic this assessment is present. The old warrior Hildenbrant punishes the treacherous avenger. The death of Kriemhild is also a decree of fate itself: with her deeds the avenger signed her own death warrant.

  The central character of the poem and Hagen. In the first part of the story, he is a loyal vassal. However, Hagen's faithful but thoughtless service is devoid of high heroism. Pursuing the only goal - to serve his overlord in everything, Hagen is convinced that everything is allowed to him: deceit, deception, betrayal. Hagen's vassal service is an undue service. In the second part of the poem, this idea is illustrated by the fate of the noble knight Rüdeger. A vassal of Etzel, he was sent by his king as a matchmaker to Kriemhild. And then Rüdeger vowed to serve the future queen without fail. This vassal Oath becomes fatal. Later, when Kriemhild carries out her bloody plan for revenge, Ruedeger is forced to fight to the death with the Burgundians, relatives of his daughter's Groom. And Rüdeger dies from the sword, which he himself once gave to the Burgundians as a sign of friendship.

  Hagen himself in the second part of the Poem appears in a different role. A brave and powerful warrior, he anticipates his tragic fate, but he fulfills it with unprecedented courage and dignity. Now Hagen becomes a victim of deceit and deception; he died from the same weapon that his “double” used in the first part of the poem.

  In the German heroic epic there is still no theme of a single homeland. And the heroes themselves have not yet gone beyond the boundaries of family, clan, and tribal interests in their deeds and thoughts. But this not only does not deprive the poem of its universal human sound, but rather strengthens it.

  The world depicted in the poem is grandiose, majestic and tragic. A grateful reader of the poem, the German poet Heinrich Heine, wrote about this world like this: ““The Song of the Nibelungs” is filled with enormous, powerful power... Here and there red flowers peek out of the crevices, like drops of blood, or long plush falls down like green tears. About the gigantic passions colliding in this poem, you, little good-natured people, can have even less idea... There is no tower so high, no stone so solid as the evil Hagen and the vengeful Kriemhild” 7 .

  The German poem "Kudruna" is different in tone. Wilhelm Grimm once noted that if the "Song of the Nibelungs" can be called the German "Iliad", then "Kudruna" can be called the German "Odyssey". It is believed that the poem was written down in the first third of the 13th century; first published in 1820.

  The main idea of ​​the poem is expressed in a motif close to the Christian commandment: “No one should repay another with evil for evil.”

  The plot develops according to the type of folklore motif: “Obtaining a bride and obstacles along the way.” In the first part of the poem, this theme is explored through the example of the fate of Kudruna's future mother, the royal daughter Hilda, who shows exceptional willpower in defending her right to become the wife of her beloved Hegel. Kudruna herself will be betrothed to the glorious knight Herwig. However, in his absence, the girl is kidnapped by another seeker of her hand - Hartmut. Kudrun spends thirteen long years in captivity and, despite all the hardships of life, shows perseverance, fortitude, maintaining human dignity. Finally freed from captivity and uniting her life with her beloved Herwig, Kudruna does not take revenge on her offenders. She does not become bitter, like Kriemhild, but shows kindness and mercy in everything. The poem ends happily: peace, harmony, worthily won happiness: four couples immediately enter into a joyful marriage. However, the reconciling ending of the poem indicated that the epic was losing its high heroism, approaching the ordinary, everyday level. This tendency was clearly manifested in the Spanish poem “The Song of My Cid.”

  Spanish heroic epic.

  “The Song of My Cid” - the largest monument of the Spanish heroic epic - was created in the middle of the 12th century, has survived to this day in a manuscript of the 14th century, and was first published in 1779. “The Song” reflects the most important trends in the historical life of Spain. In 711, the Arabs (Moors) invaded the Iberian Peninsula and for several years occupied almost its entire territory, creating the state of the Emirate of Cordoba. The indigenous people did not put up with the conquerors, and soon the reconquest of the country began - the reconquista. It continued - now flaring up, now dying down - for eight long centuries. The reconquest reached a particularly high intensity at the end of the 11th-12th centuries. At this time, on the territory of what is now Spain, there were already four Christian states, among which Castile stood out, which became the unifying center of the liberation struggle. The reconquista also brought forward a number of capable military leaders, including a major feudal lord from the noble family of Rui Diaz Bivard (1040-1099), nicknamed the Cid (lord) by the Moors. The hero of the poem is associated with this name, who is depicted, however, as a man of humble origins. The poem emphasizes that Sid gains fame, wealth, and recognition from the king thanks to his personal qualities. Sid is a man of true honor and valor. He is a loyal vassal, but not a silent one. Having quarreled with the king, Sid tries to regain his favor without losing his dignity. He is willing to serve, but not willing to worship. The poem defends the ideas of an equal union between the vassal and the king.

  The epic hero is opposed by his sons-in-law - the Infanta de Carrion. Usually the "bad countrymen" were endowed with epic greatness, such as Gwenelon in the Song of Roland. The infantas are depicted as small and insignificant people. The scene with the lion is typical. If the infantas were mortally afraid when they saw the mighty beast, then the lion, in turn, seeing Sid, “was ashamed, hung his head, and stopped growling.” Narrow-minded and cowardly, the infantas pale next to the mighty Sid. Envying Sid’s glory and not daring him to do anything... Then, annoyingly, they mock their wives, Sid’s daughters: they brutally beat them and leave them to their fate in a deep forest. Only a lucky chance helps the innocent victims to escape.

  However, there is something in the image of Sid that is not typical for an epic hero like Roland. Sid is not an exceptional hero, and military service is not the only destiny of his life. Sid is not only a knight, but also an excellent family man, a faithful husband and a loving father. He cares not only about his army, but also about his family and loved ones. A large place in the poem is a description of Sid's affairs and troubles associated with the first marriage of his daughters. Sid cares not only about military glory, but also about booty. Sid knows the value of money. When getting them, he is not averse to cheating. So, for example, he pawns a box of sand on a large deposit to the moneylenders, assuring that it contains priceless jewelry. At the same time, he does not forget to ask those fooled for stockings for this “service”.

  The heroic pathos of the poem is muted not only by the new features of the epic hero. There are no grandiose disasters in the poem. In the finale, Sid does not die. The hero successfully achieves his goal, and his weapon is not revenge, but a fair trial, an honest duel. The poem’s gait is leisurely and majestic; She confidently leads to the hero’s happy earthly triumph.

  Epic of the South Slavs.

  By the 14th century the epic creativity of the peoples of Western Europe comes to an end. The only exception to this rule is the epic of the southern Slavs: the peoples of Yugoslavia, the Bulgarians. Their epic songs, which originated in the Early Middle Ages, existed in the oral tradition until the 19th century, and the first recordings were made in the 16th century.

  The epic creativity of the southern Slavs is based on the central problem of their historical life: the heroic struggle against the Turkish yoke. This theme received its most complete expression in two sets of epic songs: the “Kosovo cycle” and the cycle about Marko Korolevich.

  The first cycle poetically interprets one specific but decisive event in the history of the struggle of the Slavs with the Turks. We are talking about the Battle of Kosovo, which took place on June 15, 1389. The battle had the most tragic consequences for the southern Slavs: the defeat of the Serbian army, the leader of the Serbs, Prince Lazar, was killed, the Turks finally established their dominance on the Balkan Peninsula. In the poetic interpretation of folk singers, this battle became a symbol of the tragic loss of loved ones, freedom, and the Motherland. The course of this battle itself is not covered in detail in the songs. Much more detail is said about what preceded the battle (premonitions, predictions, fatal dreams) and what followed it (mourning for defeat, grief for fallen heroes).

  The poetic story in this cycle is quite close to the real story. There are almost no fantastic motifs in epic songs, and hyperbole is noticeably muted. The main character, Milos Obilic, is not an exceptional warrior. This is a peasant son, one of many representatives of the Serbian people. And the main feat of Milos - the murder of the Turkish Sultan in his own tent - is a historically reliable fact.

  In the Epic Songs of the "Kosovo cycle" the traditional figure of the "bad compatriot" is depicted. This is how Vuk Brankovic is depicted. personifying the destructiveness of feudal egoism and self-will. However, the traditional motive of rivalry between good (Milos) and bad (Vuk) heroes is absent. The songs of the “Kosovo cycle” are imbued with a deep lyrical feeling: the national tragedy is presented in them in inextricable unity with the tragedy of individual destinies.

  The song “Girl from Kosovo Field” is typical in this regard. The song tells how a girl searches on a battlefield strewn with the bloody bodies of the best warriors for her fiancé Toplica Milan and matchmakers Ivan Kosančić and Milos. All three died. And the girl laments and sobs for the fallen. And she knows that she will never see happiness again. And her grief is so great that even a green branch dries up as soon as the unfortunate woman touches it.

  The cycle about Prince Marko has its own characteristics. The songs here are not grouped around a specific event. The history of the struggle of the Slavs with the Turks is presented here in a centuries-old spread, and in the center of the cycle is a specific hero, however, he lived, on an epic scale, “a few, three hundred years, no more.”

  The historical Marco was the owner of a small estate and served the Turks. It is believed that in Marco's domain the attitude towards the peasants was relatively humane. Hence the good rumor about him in people's memory. There are relatively few songs specifically dedicated to Marco, but he appears as a participant in events in more than two hundred stories. Marco organically combines the features inherent in a person of the highest nobility and the peasantry. Marko is the son of Tsar Vukashin, but the life that surrounds the hero is often typically peasant. Marko is heroic, fair, honest, but he can be both treacherous and cruel. He knows military affairs very well, but can also do peasant labor. The life of Marko Korolevich can be traced in songs from the day of his birth until the hour of his death. And this life is presented in the light of both high heroism and ordinary everyday affairs. Thus, the fate of the epic hero reflected the fate of his people.