Bylinas of the Russian People

Not so long ago, literally a few centuries ago, people passed their knowledge from mouth to mouth, from generation to generation. In Russia, the main and highly respected storytellers were singers and narrators. They traveled through towns and villages, telling tales of the heroic feats of bogatyrs and important events of old. Their song narratives were called stArinY in the people. Later, they were named bylinas. Bylyna tells us in a special, melodic language about ancient times, sings the strength and courage of the bogatyrs, and conveys the way of life of Ancient Rus.
Today, many folklorists collect and study bylinas. In our book – the most famous bylinas of the Kyiv and Novgorod cycles: about Volga Vseslavyevich, Mikula Selyaninovich, Alyosha Popovich, Dobrynya Nikitich, Ilya Muromets, and Sadko. They were retold for children by Irina Karnaukova, and the illustrations for the book were drawn by the famous artists S. Bordyug and N. Trepenok.