The heroic epic of the Middle Ages briefly. Heroic epic of the late Middle Ages

The early epic of Western European literature combined Christian and pagan motifs. It was formed during the period of the disintegration of the tribal system and the formation of feudal relations, when Christian teaching replaced paganism. The adoption of Christianity not only contributed to the process of centralization of countries, but also to the interaction of peoples and cultures.

Celtic tales formed the basis of medieval chivalric romances about King Arthur and the knights round table, they were the source from which the poets of subsequent centuries drew inspiration and plots of their works.

In the history of the development of the Western European epic, two stages are distinguished: the epic of the period of the decomposition of the tribal system, or archaic(Anglo-Saxon - Beowulf, Celtic sagas, Old Norse epic songs - Elder Edda, Icelandic sagas), and the epic of the feudal era, or heroic(French - "Song of Roland", Spanish - "Song of Side", German - "Song of the Nibelungs").

In the archaic epic connection with archaic rituals and myths, cults of pagan gods and myths about totemic first ancestors, demiurge gods or cultural heroes is preserved. The hero belongs to the all-encompassing unity of the clan and makes a choice in favor of the clan. These epic monuments are characterized by brevity, formality of style, expressed in the variation of some artistic tropes. In addition, a single epic picture arises by combining individual sagas or songs, while the epic monuments themselves have developed in a laconic form, their plot is grouped around one epic situation, rarely combining several episodes. The exception is Beowulf, which has a completed two-part composition and recreates an integral epic picture in one work. The archaic epic of the early European Middle Ages took shape both in verse and prose (Icelandic sagas) and in verse and prose forms (Celtic epic).

Characters that go back to historical prototypes (Cuchulin, Conchobar, Gunnar, Atli) are endowed with fantastic features drawn from archaic mythology. Often, archaic epics are represented by separate epic works (songs, sagas) that are not combined into a single epic canvas. In particular, in Ireland, such associations of sagas are created already during the period of their recording, at the beginning of the Mature Middle Ages. Archaic epics to a small extent, episodic bear the stamp of dual faith, for example, the mention of the "son of delusion" in "The Voyage of Bran, son of Febal". Archaic epics reflect the ideals and values ​​of the era of the tribal system: for example, Cuchulain, sacrificing his safety, makes a choice in favor of the clan, and saying goodbye to life, calls the name of the capital Emain, and not his wife or son.

In contrast to the archaic epic, where the heroism of people fighting for the interests of their clan and tribe was sung, sometimes against the infringement of their honor, in the heroic the hero who fights for the integrity and independence of his state is sung. His opponents are both foreign conquerors and rampaging feudal lords, who inflict great harm on the national cause with their narrow egoism. There is less fantasy in this epic, there are almost no mythological elements, which are replaced by elements of Christian religiosity. In form, it has the character of large epic poems or cycles of small songs, united by the personality of a hero or an important historical event.

The main thing in this epic is its nationality, which is not immediately realized, since in the specific situation of the heyday of the Middle Ages, the hero of an epic work often appears in the guise of a warrior-knight, seized with religious enthusiasm, or a close relative, or assistant to the king, and not a man from the people. Depicting kings, their assistants, knights as heroes of the epic, the people, according to Hegel, did this "not from the preference of noble persons, but from the desire to give an image of complete freedom in desires and actions, which turns out to be realized in the idea of ​​royalty." Also, the religious enthusiasm, often inherent in the hero, did not contradict his nationality, since the people at that time attached the character of a religious movement to their struggle against the feudal lords. The nationality of the heroes in the epic during the heyday of the Middle Ages is in their selfless struggle for the cause of the whole people, in their extraordinary patriotic enthusiasm in defending their homeland, with the name of which on their lips they sometimes died, fighting against foreign enslavers and the treacherous actions of anarchist feudal lords.

3. "Elder Edda" and "Younger Edda". Scandinavian gods and heroes.

A song about gods and heroes, conditionally united by the name "Elder Edda" preserved in a manuscript that dates from the second half of the 13th century. It is not known whether this manuscript was the first or whether it had any predecessors. There are, in addition, some other recordings of songs that are also classified as Eddic. The history of the songs themselves is also unknown, and a variety of points of view and contradictory theories have been put forward on this score ( Legend attributes the authorship to the Icelandic scholar Samund the Wise. However, there is no doubt that songs originated much earlier and were passed down through oral tradition for centuries.). The range in the dating of songs often reaches several centuries. Not all songs originated in Iceland: among them there are songs that go back to South German prototypes; in the "Edda" there are motifs and characters familiar from the Anglo-Saxon epic; a lot was apparently brought from other Scandinavian countries. It can be assumed that at least some of the songs originated much earlier, even in the non-literate period.

Before us is an epic, but the epic is very peculiar. This originality cannot but be evident when reading the Elder Edda after Beowulf. Instead of a lengthy, leisurely flowing epic, here before us is a dynamic and concise song, in a few words or stanzas setting out the fate of heroes or gods, their speeches and actions.

Eddic songs do not constitute a coherent unity, and it is clear that only a part of them has come down to us. Individual songs seem to be versions of the same piece; thus, in songs about Helgi, about Atli, Sigurd and Gudrun, the same plot is interpreted in different ways. "Speech of Atli" is sometimes interpreted as a later extended revision of the older "Song of Atli".

In general, all Eddic songs are divided into songs about gods and songs about heroes. Songs about the gods contain the richest material on mythology, this is our most important source for the knowledge of Scandinavian paganism (albeit in a very late, so to speak, "posthumous" version of it).

The artistic and cultural-historical significance of the Elder Edda is enormous. It occupies one of the honorable places in the world literature. The images of the Eddic songs, along with the images of the sagas, supported the Icelanders throughout their difficult history, especially at a time when this small nation, deprived of national independence, was almost doomed to extinction as a result of foreign exploitation, and from hunger and epidemics. The memory of the heroic and legendary past gave the Icelanders the strength to hold out and not die.

Younger Edda (Snorr's Edda, Edda in Prose or simply Edda)- a work of the medieval Icelandic writer Snorri Sturluson, written in 1222-1225 and conceived as a textbook of skaldic poetry. It consists of four parts containing a large number of quotations from ancient poems based on plots from Norse mythology.

The Edda begins with a euhemeristic prologue and three separate books: Gylfaginning (c. 20,000 words), Skáldskaparmál (c. 50,000 words), and Háttatal (c. 20,000 words). The Edda survives in seven different manuscripts dating from 1300 to 1600, with independent textual content.

The purpose of the work was to convey to contemporary Snorri readers the subtlety of alliterative verse and to capture the meaning of words hidden under many kennings.

The Edda Minor was originally known simply as the Edda, but was later given its name to distinguish it from the Elder Edda. With the Elder Edda, the Younger is connected by many verses quoted by both.

Scandinavian mythology:

Creation of the world: originally there were two abysses - ice and fire. For some reason, they mixed up, and from the resulting frost arose the first creature - Ymir, the giant. After that, Odin appears with his brothers, they kill Ymir and create a world from his remains.

According to the ancient Scandinavians, the world is Yggdrasil ash. Its branches are the world of Asgard, where the gods live; the trunk is the world of Midgard, where people live;

Gods live in Asgard (not omnipotent, mortal). Only the souls of heroically dead people can enter this world.

Mistress lives in Utgard realms of the dead- Hel.

The appearance of people: the gods found two pieces of wood on the shore - ash and alder and breathed life into them. So the first man and woman appeared - Ask and Elebla.

The Fall of the World: The gods know that the world will end, but they do not know when it will happen, for the world is ruled by Fate. In "Volva's prophecy" Odin comes to the soothsayer Volva and she tells him the past and the future. In the future, she predicts the day of the fall of the world - Ragnarok. On this day, the world wolf Fenrir will kill Odin, and the serpent Ermungard will attack people. Hel will lead the giants, the dead against the gods and people. After the world burns, its remains will be washed away by water and a new life cycle will begin.

The gods of Asgard are divided into Aesir and Vanir. ( aces - the main group of gods, led by Odin, who loved, fought and died, because, like people, they did not possess immortality. These gods are opposed to vans (gods of fertility), giants (etuns), dwarfs (zwergs), as well as female deities - dises, norns and valkyries. Vans - a group of gods of fertility. They lived in Vanaheim, far from Asgard, the abode of the aesir gods. The Vanirs possessed the gift of foresight, prophecy, and also mastered the art of witchcraft. They were credited with incestuous relationships between brothers and sisters. The Vanir included Njord and his offspring - Frey and Freya.)

One- The first among aces, One god of poetry, wisdom, war and death.

Thor- Thor is the god of thunder and one of the most powerful gods. Thor was also the patron of agriculture. Hence, he was the most loved and respected of the gods. Thor is a representative of order, law and stability.

frigg- As the wife of Odin, Frigg is the first among the goddesses of Asgard. She is the patroness of marriage and motherhood, women cry out to her during childbirth.

Loki- God of fire, creator of trolls. It is unpredictable, and is the opposite of a fixed order. He is smart and cunning, and can also change appearances.

Heroes:

Gulvi, Gylfi- the legendary Swedish king, who heard Gifeon's stories about aces and went in search of them; after long wanderings, as a reward for his zeal, he got the opportunity to talk with three aces (High, Equally High and Third), who answered his questions about the origin, structure and fate of the universe. Gangleri - the name by which King Gylfi called himself, adopted for conversation by the Ases.

Groa- a sorceress, the wife of the famous hero Aurvandil, treated Thor after the duel with Grungnir.

Violectrina- Toru appeared before his escape.

Volsung- the son of the king of the francs Rerir, given to him by the aces.

Kriemhild wife of Siegfried.

Mann- the first person, the progenitor of the Germanic tribes.

Nibelungen- the descendants of the zwerg, who collected innumerable treasures, and all the owners of this treasure, which bears a curse.

Siegfried (Sigurd)

Hadding- a warrior hero and a wizard who enjoyed the special patronage of Odin.

Högni (Hagen)- the hero - the murderer of Siegfried (Sigurd), who flooded the treasure of the Nibelungs in the Rhine.

Helgi- a hero who has accomplished many deeds.

Ask- the first man on earth whom the aces made of ash.

Embla- the first woman on earth, made by aces from willow (according to other sources - from alder).

4. German heroic epic. "Song of the Nibelungs".

The Nibelungenlied, written around 1200, is the largest and oldest monument of the German folk heroic epic. 33 manuscripts have been preserved, representing the text in three editions.
The Nibelungenlied is based on ancient German legends dating back to the events of the period of the barbarian invasions. The historical facts to which the poem goes back are the events of the 5th century, including the death of the Burgundian kingdom, destroyed in 437 by the Huns. These events are also mentioned in the Elder Edda.
The text of the “Song” consists of 2400 stanzas, each of which contains four paired rhyming lines (the so-called “Nibelungen stanza”), and is divided into 20 songs.
The content of the poem is divided into two parts. The first of them (1 - 10 songs) describes the story of the German hero Siegfried, his marriage to Kriemhild and the perfidious murder of Siegfried. In songs 10 to 20 we are talking about the revenge of Kriemhild for the murdered husband and about the death of the Burgundian kingdom.
One of the characters most attractive to researchers is Kriemhild. She comes into action as a tender young girl who does not show much initiative in life. She is pretty, but her beauty, this beautiful attribute, is nothing out of the ordinary. However, at a more mature age, she achieves the death of her brothers and personally decapitates her own uncle. Did she go crazy or was she originally violent? Was it revenge for her husband or a desire for treasure? In the Edda, Kriemhild corresponds to Gudrun, and one can also marvel at her cruelty - she prepares a meal from the meat of her own children. In studies of the image of Kriemhild, the theme of treasure often plays a central role. Again and again the question is discussed as to whether Kriemhild was driven to action, the desire to take possession of the treasure or the desire to avenge Siegfried, and which of the two motives is older. V. Schroeder subordinates the theme of the treasure to the idea of ​​revenge, seeing the importance of the "gold of the Rhine" not in wealth, but in its symbolic value for Kriemhild, and the motive of the treasure is inseparable from the motive of revenge. Kriemhild is a worthless mother, greedy, a she-devil, not a woman, not even a man. But she is also a tragic heroine who has lost her husband and honor, an exemplary avenger.
Siegfried is the ideal hero of the Nibelungenlied. The prince from the Lower Rhine, the son of the Dutch king Sigmund and Queen Sieglinde, the winner of the Nibelungs, who took possession of their treasure - the gold of the Rhine, is endowed with all knightly virtues. He is noble, brave, courteous. Duty and honor are above all for him. The authors of the Nibelungenlied emphasize his extraordinary attractiveness and physical strength. His very name, which consists of two parts (Sieg - victory, Fried - peace), expresses national German self-consciousness at the time of medieval strife. Despite his young age, he traveled to many countries, gaining fame for his courage and power. Siegfried is endowed with a powerful will to live, a strong faith in himself, and at the same time he lives with passions that are awakened in him by the power of vague visions and vague dreams. The image of Siegfried combines the archaic features of the hero of myths and fairy tales with the demeanor of a feudal knight, ambitious and cocky. Offended at first by an insufficiently friendly reception, he is impudent and threatens the king of the Burgundians, encroaching on his life and throne. Soon he resigns himself, remembering the purpose of his visit. It is characteristic that the prince unquestioningly serves King Gunther, not ashamed to become his vassal. This reflects not only the desire to get Kriemhild as a wife, but also the pathos of faithful service to the overlord, invariably inherent in the medieval heroic epic.
All the characters in the Nibelungenlied are deeply tragic. Tragic is the fate of Krimhilda, whose happiness is destroyed by Gunther, Brynhilde and Hagen. Tragic is the fate of the Burgundian kings who perish in a foreign land, as well as a number of other characters in the poem.
In the Nibelungenlied we find a true picture of the atrocities of the feudal world, which appears before the reader as a kind of gloomy destructive principle, as well as a condemnation of these atrocities so common to feudalism. And in this, first of all, the nationality of the German poem is manifested, which is closely connected with the traditions of the German epic epic.

5. French heroic epic. "The Song of Roland"

Of all the national epics of the feudal Middle Ages, the most flourishing and varied is the French epic. It has come down to us in the form of poems (a total of about 90), of which the oldest are preserved in the records of the XII century, and the latest belong to the XIV century. These poems are called "gestures" (from the French "chansons de geste", which literally means "songs about deeds" or "songs about exploits"). They have a different length - from 1000 to 2000 verses - and consist of unequal length (from 5 to 40 verses) of stanzas or "tirades", also called "lasses" (laisses). The lines are interconnected by assonances, which later, starting from the 13th century, are replaced by exact rhymes. These poems were meant to be sung (or, more accurately, recited in a singsong voice). The performers of these poems, and often their compilers, were jugglers - itinerant singers and musicians.
Three themes make up the main content of the French epic:
1) defense of the homeland from external enemies - Moors (or Saracens), Normans, Saxons, etc.;
2) faithful service to the king, protection of his rights and eradication of traitors;
3) bloody feudal strife.

Of all the French epic in general, the most remarkable is the "Song of Roland", a poem that had a European resonance and is one of the pinnacles of medieval poetry.
The poem tells about the heroic death of Count Roland, Charlemagne's nephew, during the battle with the Moors in the Ronceval Gorge, about the betrayal of Roland's stepfather, Ganelon, which caused this catastrophe, and about the revenge of Charlemagne for the death of Roland and twelve peers.
The Song of Roland originated around 1100, shortly before the first crusade. The unknown author was not without some education (to the extent available to many jugglers of that time) and, no doubt, put a lot of his own into reworking old songs on the same topic, both in plot and stylistic terms; but his main merit lies not in these additions, but precisely in the fact that he retained the deep meaning and expressiveness of the ancient heroic tradition and, linking his thoughts with living modernity, found a brilliant expression for their expression. art form.
The ideological concept of the legend about Roland is revealed by comparing the "Song of Roland" with the historical facts that underlie this legend. In 778, Charlemagne intervened in the internal strife of the Spanish Moors, agreeing to help one of the Muslim kings against another. Crossing the Pyrenees, Charles took several cities and laid siege to Zaragoza, but after standing under its walls for several weeks, he had to return to France with nothing. When he was returning back through the Pyrenees, the Basques, irritated by the passage of foreign troops through their fields and villages, ambushed the Ronceval Gorge and, attacking the French rearguard, killed many of them; according to the historiographer Charlemagne Eginhard, among other noble persons, "Hruotland, Margrave of Brittany" died. After that, adds Eginhard, the Basques fled, and it was not possible to punish them.
A short and fruitless expedition to northern Spain, which had nothing to do with religious struggle and ended in a not particularly significant, but still unfortunate military failure, was turned by storytellers into a picture of a seven-year war that ended in the conquest of all of Spain, then - a terrible catastrophe during the retreat of the French army, and here the enemies were not Basque Christians, but all the same Moors, and, finally, a picture of revenge from Charles in the form of a grandiose, truly “worldwide” battle of the French with the combined forces of the entire Muslim world.
The epic song at this stage of development, expanding into a picture of an established social order, has turned into an epic. Along with this, however, many common features and devices of oral folk poetry have been preserved in it, such as constant epithets, ready-made formulas for “typical” positions, a direct expression of the singer’s assessments and feelings about what is depicted, the simplicity of the language, especially syntax, the coincidence the end of a verse with the end of a sentence, etc.
The main characters of the poem are Roland and Ganelon.
Roland in the poem is a mighty and brilliant knight, impeccable in fulfilling his vassal duty, formulated by the poet as follows:
The vassal serves his lord, He endures the winter cold and heat, It is not a pity to shed blood for him.
In the full sense of the word, he is an example of knightly prowess and nobility. But the deep connection of the poem with folk songwriting and folk understanding of heroism was reflected in the fact that all the knightly traits of Roland are given by the poet in a humanized form, freed from class limitations. Roland is alien to selfishness, cruelty, greed, anarchic willfulness of the feudal lords. He feels an excess of youthful strength, a joyful faith in the rightness of his cause and in his luck, a passionate thirst for a disinterested feat. Full of proud self-consciousness, but at the same time devoid of any arrogance or self-interest, he devotes his entire strength to serving the king, people, and homeland.
Ganelon is not just a traitor, but the expression of some powerful evil principle, hostile to any public cause, the personification of feudal, anarchist egoism. This beginning is shown in the poem in all its strength, with great artistic objectivity. Ganelon is depicted by no means as some kind of physical and moral freak. This is a majestic and brave fighter. When Roland offers to send him as an ambassador to Marsilius, Ganelon is not afraid of this assignment, although he knows how dangerous it is. But by attributing to others the same motives that are fundamental to himself, he assumes that Roland intended to destroy him.
The content of the "Song of Roland" is animated by its national-religious idea. But this problem is not the only one; the socio-political contradictions characteristic of the intensively developing in the X-XI centuries were also reflected with great force. feudalism. This second problem is introduced into the poem by the episode of Ganelon's betrayal. The reason for including this episode in the legend could be the desire of the singer-narrators to explain the defeat of the “invincible” army of Charlemagne as an external fatal reason. The "Song of Roland" does not so much reveal the blackness of the act of an individual traitor - Ganelon, as it exposes the fatality for home country that feudal, anarchist selfishness of which, in some respects, Ganelon is a brilliant representative.

6. Spanish heroic epic. "Song of my Sid".

The Spanish epic reflected the specifics of the history of Spain in the early Middle Ages. In 711 there was an invasion of Spain by the Moors, who within a few years took possession of almost the entire peninsula. The Spaniards managed to hold out only in the far north, in the mountains of Cantabria, where the kingdom of Asturias was formed. However, immediately after this, the “reconquista” began, that is, the reconquest of the country by the Spaniards.
The kingdoms - Asturias, Castile and Leon, Navarre, etc. - sometimes splitting up, and sometimes uniting, fought either with the Moors, or with each other, in the latter case, sometimes entering into an alliance with the Moors against their compatriots. Spain made decisive successes in the reconquista in the 11th and 12th centuries, mainly due to the enthusiasm of the masses. Although the reconquista was led by the highest nobility, who received the largest part of the lands conquered from the Moors, its main driving force was the peasantry, townspeople and petty nobles close to them. In the X century. a struggle unfolded between the old, aristocratic kingdom of Leon and Castile subject to it, as a result of which Castile achieved complete political independence. Submission to the Leonese judges, who applied ancient, extremely reactionary laws, weighed heavily on the freedom-loving Castilian chivalry, but now they have new laws. According to these laws, the title and rights of knights were extended to everyone who went on a campaign against the Moors on horseback, even if he was of very low origin. However, at the end of the XI century. Castilian freedoms suffered greatly when Alphonse VI ascended the throne, who had been king of León in his youth and now surrounded himself with the old Leonese nobility. Anti-democratic tendencies under this king were further intensified by the influx of French knights and clergy into Castile. The former sought to go there under the pretext of helping the Spaniards in their fight against the Moors, the latter - allegedly to organize a church in the lands conquered from the Moors. But as a result of this, the French knights seized the best allotments, and the monks - the richest parishes. Both of them, coming from a country where feudalism had a much more developed form, implanted in Spain feudal-aristocratic habits and concepts. All this made them hated by the local population, which they brutally exploited, caused a series of uprisings and for a long time instilled distrust and hostility towards the French in the Spanish people.
These political events and the relationship was widely reflected in the Spanish heroic epic, whose three main themes are:
1) the fight against the Moors, with the aim of reconquering their native land;
2) strife between the feudal lords, portrayed as the greatest evil for the whole country, as an insult to moral truth and treason to the motherland;
3) the struggle for the freedom of Castile, and then for its political primacy, which is regarded as a guarantee of the final defeat of the Moors and as the basis for the national-political unification of all of Spain.
In many poems, these themes are not given separately, but in close connection with each other.
The Spanish heroic epic developed similarly to the French epic. It was also based on short episodic songs of a lyrical-epic nature and oral unformed legends that arose in the squad environment and soon became the common property of the people; and in the same way, about the tenth century, when Spanish feudalism began to take shape and a sense of the unity of the Spanish nation first began to emerge, this material, having fallen into the hands of hooglar jugglers, through deep stylistic processing, took shape in the form of large epic poems. The heyday of these poems, which for a long time were the "poetic history" of Spain and expressed the self-consciousness of the Spanish people, falls on the 11th-13th centuries, but after that for another two centuries they continue an intensive life and die only in the 15th century, giving way to a new form folk epic legend - romances.
The Spanish heroic poems are similar in form and manner to the French. They stand from a series of stanzas of unequal length connected by assonances. However, their metric is different: they are written in folk, so-called irregular, size - in verse with an indefinite number of syllables - from 8 to 16.
In terms of style, the Spanish epic is also similar to the French. However, it is distinguished by a drier and more businesslike way of presentation, an abundance of everyday features, an almost complete absence of hyperbolism and an element of the supernatural - both fabulous and Christian.
The top of the Spanish folk epic is formed by the legends about Side. Ruy Diaz, nicknamed Cid, is a historical figure. He was born between 1025 and 1043. His nickname is a word of Arabic origin, meaning "lord" ("seid"); this title was often given to Spanish lords, who also had Moors among their subjects: Rui is a shortened form of the name Rodrigo. Cid belonged to the highest Castilian nobility, was the head of all the troops of King Sancho II of Castile and his closest assistant in the wars that the king waged both with the Moors and with his brothers and sisters. When Sancho died during the siege of Zamora and his brother Alphonse VI, who had spent his young years in Leon, entered the throne, between the new king, who favored the Leonese nobility, hostile relations were established between the latter, and Alphonse, using an insignificant pretext, in 1081 expelled Cida from Castile.
For some time, Sid served with his retinue as a mercenary for various Christian and Muslim sovereigns, but then, thanks to his extraordinary dexterity and courage, he became an independent ruler and won the Principality of Valencia from the Moors. After that, he made peace with King Alphonse and began to act in alliance with him against the Moors.
Undoubtedly, even during the lifetime of Sid, songs and tales about his exploits began to be composed. These songs and stories, having spread among the people, soon became the property of the Khuglars, one of whom wrote a poem about him around 1140.
Content:
The Song of Side, containing 3735 verses, is divided into three parts. The first (called the "Song of Exile" by researchers) depicts Sid's first exploits in a foreign land. First, he gets money for the campaign by pawning chests filled with sand under the guise of family jewels to Jewish usurers. Then, having gathered a detachment of sixty warriors, he calls at the monastery of San Pedro de Cardeña to say goodbye to his wife and daughters who are there. After that, he travels to Moorish land. Hearing of his exile, people flock to his banner. Cid wins a series of victories over the Moors and after each of them sends part of the booty to King Alphonse.
In the second part ("The Song of the Wedding") Cid's conquest of Valencia is depicted. Seeing his power and touched by his gifts, Alphonse reconciles with Sid and allows his wife and children to move to him in Valencia. Then there is a date between Sil and the king himself, who acts as a matchmaker, offering Sid as a son-in-law of the noble Infantes de Carrión. Seal, though reluctantly, agrees to this. He gives his sons-in-law two of his fighting swords and gives his daughters a rich dowry. A description of the magnificent wedding celebrations follows.
The third part (“The Song of Korpes”) tells the following. Sid's sons-in-law were worthless cowards. Unable to endure the ridicule of Sid and his vassals, they decided to take out the insult on his daughters. Under the pretext of showing their wives to their relatives, they equipped themselves for the journey. Having reached the Korpes oak grove, the sons-in-law got off their horses, severely beat their wives and left them tied to the trees. The unfortunate would have died if not for Cid's nephew Felez Muñoz, who tracked them down and brought them home. Sid demands vengeance. The King convenes the Cortes to judge the guilty. Sid arrives there with his beard tied up so that no one will insult him by pulling on his beard. The case is decided by a judicial duel ("God's court"). Sid's fighters defeat the defendants, and Sid triumphs. He unties his beard, and everyone marvels at his majestic appearance. Cid's daughters are being wooed by new suitors - the princes of Navarre and Aragon. The poem ends with a doxology to Sid.
In general, the poem is more historically accurate than any other of the Western European epics known to us.
This accuracy corresponds to the general truthful tone of the narration, usual for Spanish poems. Descriptions and characteristics are free from any kind of elation. Persons, objects, events are depicted simply, concretely, with businesslike restraint, although this sometimes does not exclude great inner warmth. There are almost no poetic comparisons, metaphors. There is absolutely no Christian fiction, except for the appearance of Sid in a dream, on the eve of his departure, the Archangel Michael. There is also no hyperbolism in the depiction of combat moments. Images of martial arts are very rare and are less violent than in the French epic; mass battles predominate, and noble persons sometimes die at the hands of nameless warriors.
The poem lacks the exclusivity of chivalrous feelings. The singer frankly emphasizes the importance for the fighter of booty, profit, and the monetary base of any military enterprise. An example is the way in which, at the beginning of the poem, Sid got the money needed for the campaign. The singer never forgets to mention the size of the war booty, the share that went to each soldier, the part sent by Sid to the king. In the scene of the lawsuit with the Infantes de Carrión, Cid first of all demands the return of swords and dowry, and then raises the issue of insulting honor. He always behaves like a prudent, reasonable owner.
In accordance with everyday motives of this kind, a prominent role is played by family themes. The point is not only what place the story of the first marriage of Sid's daughters and the bright ending of the picture of their second, happy marriage take in the poem, but also that family, kindred feelings with all their intimate intimacy gradually come to the fore in the poem.
Sid's look: Sid is represented, contrary to history, only as an "infanson", that is, a knight who has vassals, but does not belong to the highest nobility. He is depicted as full of self-consciousness and dignity, but at the same time good nature and simplicity in dealing with everyone, alien to any aristocratic arrogance. The norms of knightly practice inevitably determine the main lines of Sid's activity, but not his personal character: he himself, as free as possible from knightly habits, appears in the poem as a truly folk hero. And just as not aristocratic, but popular, all the closest assistants of Cid - Alvar Fañes, Feles Muñoz, Pero Bermudez and others.
This democratization of the image of Sid and the deeply democratic folk tone of the poem about him are based on the above-mentioned folk character of the reconquista.

PLAN

Archaic epic of the Early Middle Ages. Celtic sagas.

I have not heard the stories of Ossian,

Haven't tried old wine;

Why do I see a clearing,

Scotland bloody moons?

O. Mandelstam

1. Two stages in the history of the Western European epic. Common features archaic epic forms.

2. Historical conditions origin of the Irish epic.

3. Cycles of Old Irish sagas:

a) mythological epic;

b) heroic epic:

Ulad cycle;

Finn cycle;

c) fantasy epic.

4. The significance of the Old Irish epic for further development world literature.

1. In the history of the development of the Western European epic, two stages are distinguished: the epic of the period of decomposition of the tribal system, or archaic (Anglo-Saxon - "Beowulf", Celtic sagas, Old Norse epic songs - "Elder Edda", Icelandic sagas) and the epic of the period of the feudal era, or heroic ( French - "The Song of Roland", Spanish - "The Song of Side", Middle and Upper German - "The Song of the Nibelungs", the Old Russian epic monument "The Tale of Igor's Campaign"). In the epic of the period of the decomposition of the tribal system, there is a connection with archaic rituals and myths, cults of pagan gods and myths about totemic first ancestors, demiurge gods or cultural heroes. The hero belongs to the all-encompassing unity of the clan and makes a choice in favor of the clan. These epic monuments are characterized by brevity, formulaic style, expressed in the variation of some artistic tropes. In addition, a single epic picture is obtained by combining individual sagas or songs, while the epic monuments themselves have developed in a laconic form, their plot is grouped around one epic situation, rarely combining several episodes. The exception is Beowulf, which has a complete two-part composition and recreates an integral epic picture in one work. Archaic epic of the early European Middle Ages developed both in poetic ("Elder Edda"), and in prose (Icelandic sagas) and in poetic and prose forms (Celtic epic).

Archaic epics are formed on the basis of myth, characters dating back to historical prototypes (Cuchulain, Conchobar, Gunnar, Atli) are endowed with fantastic features drawn from archaic mythology (Cuchulain's transformation during the battle, his totemic kinship with a dog). Often, archaic epics are represented by separate epic works (songs, sagas) that are not combined into a single epic canvas. In particular, in Ireland, such associations of sagas are created already during the period of their recording, at the beginning of the Mature Middle Ages (“Bull-stealing from Kualnge”). The Celtic and Germanic-Scandinavian archaic epics represent both cosmogonic (“Divination of Velva”) and heroic myths, and in the heroic part of the epic, interaction with the world of gods or divine beings is preserved (Islands of Bliss, the world of Sid in the Celtic epic). Archaic epics to a small extent, episodic bear the stamp of dual belief, for example, the mention of the “son of delusion” in “The Voyage of Bran, the son of Febal”, or the image of the rebirth of the world after Ragnarok in the “Divination of the Velva”, where Balder and his unwitting killer are the first to enter blind god Hed. Archaic epics reflect the ideals and values ​​​​of the era of the tribal system, so Cuchulain, sacrificing his safety, makes a choice in favor of the clan, and saying goodbye to life, he calls the name of the capital of the Ulads Emain (“Oh, Emain-Maha, Emain-Maha, the great, greatest treasure !”), and not a spouse or a son.

1. The works of the archaic epic are characterized by the mythologization of the past, i.e. the narration of historical events connects with the magic of myths

2. The main theme of the epic cycles of this period is the struggle of man against the hostile forces of nature, embodied in the fabulous images of monsters, dragons, giants.

3. The main character is a fairy-tale mythological character endowed with wonderful properties and qualities (to fly through the air, to be invisible, to grow in size).

4. Epic generalization is achieved in works by means of mythological fiction.

Lecture: It is customary to attribute the mythological epics of the barbarian to the archaic epic. Irish, Scandinavian, etc.

They were formed within the framework of a long oral tradition. Records of the 11th - 13th centuries have come down to us. All archaic epics are characterized by such omen as a developed formula technique . The epic formulas testify to a long tradition. The connection with folklore is preserved. The fabulous and mythological element dominates the historical one, or so it seems to us, since we do not know the history of these countries well. Main semantic center - not so much feats as disintegration and collapse of tribal relations, tribal strife, which is interpreted as the cause of the collapse of the world and as this collapse itself . At this stage, epic consists of short songs or prose tales, sagas, which were composed, performed and preserved by professional storytellers (felida) and semi-professional squad singers. At an early formation, these songs and epics were subjected to cyclization. The oldest of the medieval epics: the Celtic epic. Feudal layers on it are invisible and insignificant. It is customary to attribute the Britons, Gauls, etc. Celtic expansion in Europe spans from the 6th to the 2nd century BC. Then, in mainland Europe, they were pushed back by the Romans and local barbarian tribes. Celtic culture, highly developed culture, is best preserved on the islands: Ireland, Britain, Highlands of Scotland. Ireland in the Middle Ages became the main center of Celtic culture. This culture was not destroyed either by the invasion of the Vikings and the Normans or by rather early Christianization. Irish monks have preserved their creativity.

Details (details). Skela - a story, a story, a legend, an epic. Still, there is some Christianization there. The most obvious evidence is the chronological correlation of the life of King Conchobar with the life of Christ. Even such a correlation is of a framework nature. In the story of the death of Conchabar, it is said that he believed in Christ even before the arrival of true faith. The story of Cuchulain's death also reveals motifs relating to the death of Christ, but this does not give reason to think that his death is modeled with the death of Christ. The records of Celtic legends that have come down to us date back to the 11th-12th centuries, but they were created in the first centuries of our era; they have existed in the manuscript tradition since at least the 7th century.

The structure of the Irish saga: this is a prose story with the inclusion of poetry, partly the poetic rates duplicate the prose, with the so-called rhetoric, short phrases that are omitted in most Russian translations (these are prophecy, predictions connected by alliteration, the content of which is lost). In color symbolism, red light is associated with that world, it is also the color of the goddess of discord Morgan. The red color for Cuchulainn is a sign of the presence of powerful otherworldly forces on the side of the enemy. A little further on, the bloody sword of Cuchulainn himself will be mentioned.

Skela structure: prose + poetry + rhetoric. In poetry, poetry often has rhyme, through them the speeches of heroes are transmitted, dialogues at a decisive moment for the hero. In prose - mostly descriptions and sometimes dialogues. Prose is the most ancient layer.

It is customary to distinguish three types of tales: about the gods (very few), tales about heroes (the Ulad cycle and the cycle of Finn, the leader of the Athenians, and there is also a royal cycle), fairy-tale sagas. This division is modern.

Plot division: swimming, kidnapping, matchmaking, destruction.

Hierarchical sign: main legend, anticipating the legend.

The division into plots opens the way for a religious and mystical understanding of the meaning of history, and clarifies a person's life (marriage, birth, hunting, etc.), from a functional point of view. The fantasy of the Celts is bottomless. This was especially evident in the legends about the introduction of the mortal world to the world of the immortals (such is the plot of imram - swimming). The plot of imram is the mortal's voyage to the land of eternal bliss (the voyage of Bran, the voyage of Mailduin, which was created under the influence of Homer's Odyssey). Bran's voyage contains a specific motif of time, which will be taken from the Celtic tradition by the European chivalric romance. In fairy tale spaces, time stops for the characters, while for others it continues to flow. Contact of mortals with the world of immortals always brings sadness, misfortune, death. Such a stable plot of love between a mortal and Sida (supernatural beings of both sexes who live under the hills). Takova love affair Cuchulain with Sida Fran. The Seeds were considered the creators of the love potion, another common motif in European literature. The Celtic epic gives a peculiar development of love: passionate love is an obsession, a disease. Among the Celts, the motif of a love spot is common, whoever saw it fell in love (mainly among women). This explains the belief in the supernatural power of love. The motif of love, which is stronger than death, first occurs in the Celtic epic, from there it ends up in a chivalric romance. So in the novel about Tristan and Isolde, which took shape in Britain in the 12th century, love in it is pre-courtly, it is the fruit of magic, sorcery, and it is invincible. The Celtic epic contains two probable sources of the legend of Tristan and Isolde at once, perhaps these are two stories of a parallel epic of the history of the archetype: the saga "The Expulsion of the Sons of the Oral" (a bloody feud occurs because of the quivering beauty of Deidra), the saga "The Persecution of Diarmuid and Graina" from Finn cycle. The active role of women in the Celtic epic, which is a close connection with matriarchy.

The heroic tales have survived in three versions: The Brown Cows book, the oldest around 1100; The Book of Leicester, mid-12th century. The events, which are narrated in the sagas of the Ulac cycle, are attributed by the narrators to the turn of our era. Archaeological legends show that it really corresponded to that time. The King of the Ulads, Kakhabar, Cuchulainn, and the events of the saga of the kidnapping of the bull are quite accurately set in time in the annals. At the same time, the archaic epic never reproduces the events of history as a kind of truth, the goal is a generalizing understanding of events. The essential is revealed through the actions of the heroes in the perspective of a long time, this is the reason for the presence of the main dimension of the epic (the absolute epic past). The absolute epic past needs an ideal epic hero, such a hero in the Irish epic is Cuchulainn (too young, too brave, too beautiful). His death is predetermined by his very best qualities. The Cuchulainn sagas tend to form a separate cycle. The main deed of the hero, giving meaning to all his other exploits, was undoubtedly the protection of the greatest treasure of the ulads, the sacred bull. This feat correlates with the name of the hero and fully reveals the image of the ideal hero, correlates with his name (the fact is that the name Kuchulin was given to him because at the age of 6 he kills the formidable dog of the blacksmith Kulin and takes an oath to protect his lands for the time being; Kuchulin - the dog of a kulan, a blacksmith). The name becomes the fate of Cuchulainn. All the heroism and courage that other wars lack is concentrated in one Cuchulainn. All the long land he fights at the ford with wars. A spell cast by Cuchulainn allows only one person to cross the ford. This is called the Irish Iliad: the struggle for the most beautiful woman, fighting for the finest bull. The structure itself is rather the opposite of the Iliad: there the anger of Achilles makes him withdraw from the battle, here it is the other way around: Cuchulain alone fights until he helps other wars. "The Struggle of Cuchulainn with Ferdiad". In a number of legends, the humanity of Cuchulainn is revealed, in the image of which there are also features of mythical demonism. According to one version, he is the son of a god. The description of Cuchulainn is contradictory: he is either a beautiful young man, or a small black man. On the one hand, he is marvelous and meek, as he appears before women, on the other hand, a dark, magical, distorted appearance that he did not revere. The distortion of Cuchulain before the battle is a plastic expression of military courage and rage, an internal, psychological change in the character, a mood for battle. Many features of the classic hero. Folklore fantasy is realistic fantasy.

The epic does not know how to reveal the inner change of the human soul, except in external manifestations.. The saga of Cuchulainn's death. It reveals a cognitive element that is similar to an internal monologue. It is generally accepted that the internal monologue appears only in the 19th century in the novel, modern authors strive to capture the stream of consciousness of the characters as accurately as possible, it is customary to associate with state of the art development of psychology. Archaic epic, by definition, should not know the internal monologue , but in the episode of the death of the faithful charioteer Cuchulain there are words that are torn off from ordinary words. From the point of view of semantics and structure, we observe the stream of human consciousness or the monologue of the soul. At least the last two lines of the inner speech of Laek, the charioteer, are later insertions made by the monk. Laek dies as a Christian on the day of the death of the epic hero Cuchulainn. The epic is characterized by anachronisms (erroneous, intentional or conditional attribution of events, phenomena, objects, personalities to another time, era relative to the actual chronology) : the character of the epic epic dies as a true Christian during the life of Christ and before his death. This anachronism is quite natural for the epic. Celtic heroic tales will become the main arsenal of the Brythonic cycle of chivalric romance and the French romance.

1. In the epic of the heyday of the Middle Ages, a hero is sung, fighting for the integrity and independence of his state. His opponents are both foreign conquerors and rampaging feudal lords, who inflict great harm on the national cause with their narrow egoism.

2. There is less fantasy in this epic, there are almost no mythological elements, which are replaced by elements of Christian religiosity. In form, it has the character of large epic poems or cycles of small songs, united by the personality of a hero or an important historical event.

3. The main thing in this epic is its nationality (nationality, patriotic motivation), which is not immediately realized, since in the specific situation of the heyday of the Middle Ages, the hero of an epic work often appears in the guise of a warrior-knight, seized with religious enthusiasm, or a close relative, or assistant to the king, not a man of the people. Depicting kings, their assistants, knights as heroes of the epic, the people, according to Hegel, did this "not from the preference of noble persons, but from the desire to give an image of complete freedom in desires and actions, which turns out to be realized in the idea of ​​royalty." religious enthusiasm, often inherent in the hero, did not contradict his nationality, since the people at that time attached the character of a religious movement to their struggle against the feudal lords. The nationality of the heroes in the epic during the heyday of the Middle Ages is in their selfless struggle for the cause of the whole people, in their extraordinary patriotic enthusiasm in defending their homeland, with the name of which on their lips they sometimes died, fighting against foreign enslavers and the treacherous actions of anarchist feudal lords.

4. Influence of knightly ideology and culture

5. Presence of repetitions and parallelism

6. Sometimes the drama intensifies, even leading to tragedy.

7. More flexible styling and graceful composition

Lectures:

In the heroic epic of the Middle Ages, signs can be found:

1. History confidently wins the foreground from mythology. National history either dominates or completely displaces it. In its purest form, this is manifested in the Spanish epic (only the “Song of my Sid” in 1140) in its entirety - it was born on late material. Its plot dates from the middle of the 11th century.

2. Significantly increases the importance of religious Christian motives.

3. Increased patriotic motivation. And the material motivation of the characters (“The Song of Side” - for the first time in the epic, accounting figures appear: in order to perform feats, you need to have money).

4. Increasingly distinct influence of knightly ideology and culture (this is what explains the transformation).

5. Signs of the removal of these works from folklore become more obvious: drama (growing to tragedy) intensifies, these epics are characterized by a more harmonious composition, a large epic form, in which these works have come down to us (the principles of cyclization are preserved, but generic cyclization is increasingly being replaced by national-ethical cyclization, they are formed into national cycles, tribal values ​​are replaced by feudal, state and family values).

French medieval epic- a product of young heroic feudalism. Its subject is the construction of the state of the Franks, then the empire of Charlemagne (742-814), with not only Charles himself, but also his predecessors and his descendants.

Building a Christian Empire. This is significant, given the persistence of pagan tribes in central Europe and given the powerful Arab expansion into southern Europe: the struggle between religions becomes a major topic.

The French epic is a political epic. There is no politics at all in archaic epics. The Spanish epic is also political. He has one dual theme: the reconquest (the liberation struggle of the peoples against the Moors) and the unification of Spain.

In the French epic, more than a hundred poems have come down to us, which were called "songs about deeds." They were preserved in the records of the 11th-14th centuries, but the editors of these records worked on old material (continents and oral traditions, chronicles, deeds of the Franks that have not come down to us). It is likely that these editors also worked on the material of the original poems that developed in the milieu, that is, in the 8th-9th centuries (Menendos Pedal's theory). The original plots throughout this time were subjected to various treatments. In the German adaptations of Roland we see how the role of the Bavarians increases, in the Oxford adaptations - the Normans.

Archaic and heroic epics of the Middle Ages were intended for performance (artists, players, histrions, jugglers). It is not known whether the enactment was intended in the full sense of the word. Jugglers were people of varying degrees of education. Most of the gestures are the fruit of the fantasy of jugglers. Part was written by clerics,

Tourol Abbe of Asbury is one of the possible authors of the Song of Roland.

Chanson de gesture was divided into three cycles:

1 - gestures of the king of France or the Royal cycle.

2 - gestures of good feudal lords (Gelyon Goranj - main character).

3 - gestures of evil feudal lords, rebellious barons.

The oldest is the royal cycle. All its features are also characteristic of the "Song of Roland". In the center is Charlemagne (in the "Song of Roland" there are two heroes Charles and Roland).

In reality, Charles became the Roman emperor in 800, but all the poems of the cycle initially designate him as an emperor, awake, always awake and dreaming of rest. Karl is the first among equals (primus inter pares). The word "peer" comes from pares - equal. Karla does not solve a single issue without her peers. His orders are in the form of a request. His goal is to serve sweet, sweet France and the faith of Christ. Motherland and faith are two imperatives that govern its activities. Unkind feelings determine his activity. The same goes for Roland.

Before his death, Roland does not remember his bride Ailda, he has another lover, whom he will measure his joys - Durondal Spata (Roland's sword). He will try in vain to break it against the rock. It cannot be hidden that the name of the bride is in the name of the sword.

"The Song of Roland".

The most famous and oldest in this cycle.

The core of the plot: the rearguard of the Franks, led by Ronald, is attacked by a horde of Saracens. The treacherous attack is the fruit of the revenge of Roland's stepfather.

The time of the creation of the poem is not exactly known. About ten versions of redactions have survived, which date back to the 14th century. Of these, the most ancient is the Oxford List (1170). Meanwhile, according to the version of Menendez Pedal, the original poem and the main political concept of the song dates back to the end of the 8th - beginning of the 9th century. Thus, the Spanish scholar greatly shattered the point of view that the "Song of Roland" is a direct product of the propaganda of the first crusades turn of the 11th-12th centuries (they lasted from 1095 to 1291). Menendez led to the fact that the ideology of the cross was formed much earlier. In the textbooks, the time of the creation of the "Song" is about 1100. The oldest story about the battle of Ronceval, which took place in August 778, is contained in the oldest biography of Charlemagne from 878 (Einhard). According to this description, the Basques wrote.

The chronicler of the son of Charlemagne in the middle of the 9th century does not consider it necessary to name the names of those who died in the battle, citing their common fame. Roland according to the version (Saga of Charles) was not only his nephew, but also the son of Charles's sister Gisla, one of the most famous women, who later became a nun. Charles received remission of his terrible sin as a result of intercession.

The death of Roland can be understood in this context as an atoning sacrifice for the sin of Charlemagne. Thus, without the betrayal of Ganilon, the revenge of Karl, this song captures the influence of hagiographic tradition with the main character Karl: sin, redemption, repentance. But the assessment of the people ordered otherwise: they chose Roland, chose him as their hero, despite the sinfulness of his origin. In other words, the Oxford version contains only one allusion (the mention of St. Egidius).

The first document that mentions this plot is Einhord, then an 11th century Latin manuscript containing a retelling of the Song of Roland. In this retelling, there is no embassy, ​​no betrayal, there is Trubin, Olivier, Roland dies, and revenge does not follow. Before the Battle of Hastings in 1066, a Norman juggler performed a song about Roland: by the middle of the 11th century, more than a hundred years before the Oxford list, the song about Roland already existed, which indicates its early origin.

Two storylines:

The struggle of two worlds: Muslim and Christian (the struggle of Charles with King Marsyriy). Outcome: baptism of the queen, victory over the king of the whole east, Boligamd (reminiscent of a late insert).

Ganilon's revenge on his stepson Roland. There is enmity between them even before the embassy. Death of Roland, execution.

The first plot is larger and has a general meaning. The second plot fills with vital details, it also connects the "Song of Roland" with the cycle of evil feudal lords. Giving advice to Carl, Ganilon advises appointing Roland. Ganilon is not in the most ancient plots. The line of Ganilon itself probably entered the story of Roland not earlier than 860, since Ganilon modern science associates with the Sansk archbishop Vinyl, who betrayed Charles the Bald, his trial took place in 859, there was no execution over him.

Two plots correspond to two conflicts in the song:

Between the Christian and the Muslim world, which develops from the point of view of a monologue: "non-Christ is not right, but a Christian is right." The valor of the Saracens is equal to the valor of the Christians, whose world is equal to the world of the Christians, they are supposed to know that they are wrong.

The motive of religious intolerance and the struggle of the two worlds should be compared with the Song of Side. In the Spanish epic there is no motif of filthy infidels, they knew the merit of the Moors. They are fighting not against a foreign religion, but for the liberation of their land. The Song of Sid is very delicate in this matter: it is tolerance in the truest sense of the word.

"Song of Roland" second conflict:

Between vassal loyalty and feudal right to strife, which leads to betrayal. The declaration of the vassals is put into the mouth of Roland: the vassal must suffer for the lord.

The noble feudal lord Ganilon does not consider himself a traitor, he directly and publicly announced his enmity with Roland at the beginning of the song: the right to strife is his legal right. Charles's peers in the court scene do not see him as a traitor, they justify Ganilon. Only with the help of God's judgment, the duel of the parties, it turns out that it is possible for Charles to punish Ganilon. God's judgment puts an end to the relationship between the vassal and the king and the right of the vassal to internecine strife (in the Song of Sid, too, only with the help of God's judgment).

Both conflicts are resolved in favor of Charles - the personification of the Christianization of Europe.

Side story: Roland-Olivier line. It was not in the original version, it appeared only in the 11th century. Plot conflict: "Olivier is wise, and our Roland is brave" or "Roland is hot, and Olivier is reasonable." Roland refuses to blow his horn three times. Archbishop Trubin will put an end to their dispute. Roland refuses to blow the horn, since his epic immensity conflicts with his vassal duty, and this determines the tragic guilt of the hero: he cannot allow political blasphemy to reach him and the soldiers at home, that he was afraid of the Moors. He cannot change his epic heroic nature. "Roland dies not so much under the blows of enemies, but under the weight of his heroic character." Olivier, offering to blow the horn, suggests the following denouement: he considers the pride of the Rolands to be the reason for the defeat of the soldiers. Roland himself is also aware of his guilt. Again, it is appropriate to compare Roland with Sid: Sid does not perform a feat for the sake of a feat. Sid is an excellent strategist and tactician. Roland is a heroic individualist, Sid is the leader of the team, a father to his wars, a zealous master of his territory.

The epic hero in The Song of Roland does not fit into the chivalrous and even feudal ideal, despite what he himself proclaims. Roland and peers are the war party, as long as they are nice to Karl, the war will not end. The conflict between Roland and Olivier is significant. The ideal of chivalry will be based on valor, equipped with wisdom and virtue, valor subordinate to the Christian canon.

The Song of Roland is a song of defeat. The scene of Roland's death is described as a rite, a ritual of the death of an ideal Christian warrior: he is not wounded, but his head hurts terribly (trumpeting, he tore the veins in his temples). Roland faints several times, he cries, the archpastor dies in his arms, goes to die.

Roland enters the depths of the Saracen land, climbs a hill, strikes three times with a sword, lies down on the grass, under a pine tree, with his head towards Spain, feeling how he is dying, remembers the battle, heroism, relatives and king, but he does not forget his soul either: confession, repentance and the rite of the glove (the overlord handed a glove to his vassal, performed the service - he returns the glove) - before his death, Roland stretches the glove up, passing it to God, and the archangel Michael transfers Roland's soul to paradise.

Carl at Dante's in Paradise. But in his time (Karl), the heroic idealization of the emperor in the squad environment begins in the squad environment, but another trend is noticeable in the monastic environment. In a poetic arrangement in 24, he is found in Purgatory (“Introduction of Vitin”). The chronicle of the 12th century, which is contained in the legend of Roland, condemns the life of Charles. Our chronicle does not condemn him, but consistently glorifies him. To the monks, the Oxford version treats him quite tolerantly.

Turpin personifies that ideal of the cross and the sword, which is dominated by the sword. It is in his singer that the antithesis is embedded: the traditional combination of heroism and irony. In general, it is sustained in heroic tones, but the comic beginning is not alien to it.

In the Spanish song "About my Side" there is a character similar to Turpin, clinics Girom. This is not borrowing or modeling: Fat in the song is an even more historical character than Turpin, who did not take part in the campaigns of Charles.

In the heroic epic, the historical fate of monasticism of that time is essentially idealized: a monk-warrior idealized by the people.

The composition in the song about Roland is very well thought out: symmetry, parallelism of parts, two revenges of Charles (on the Saracens and Ganilon, his trial), not a mechanical connection of parts, but the visible work of the editor. See the question of authorship in the comments (it still remains unresolved).

Medieval literature in its highest aesthetic expression is represented by the heroic epic - "The Tale of Igor's Campaign", "The Song of Roland", "The Song of the Nibelungs", "Shahnameh" by Ferdowsi, as well as the richest knightly poetry, in which West and East merged. Lyrics of troubadours, novels of trouveurs, lyrics by Saadi, Hafiz, Omar Khayyam, poem "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" by Shota Rustaveli, poems by Nizami.

In the Christian West, church literature also arose, the works of pious clerics, clergymen, who, in the dark cells of monasteries, by the light of a lamp, composed simple legends about miracles performed by saints, about miraculous icons, about the visions that appeared to the Christian righteous. In Rus' in the XII century, the “Walking of the Virgin through the torments” was widely read - a vivid and frightening description of the pictures of hell. The highest completion of this type of literature was Dante's famous poem "The Divine Comedy".

In addition to these pious literary creations, rude short stories circulated among the people, composed by the commercial and artisan people of the cities. In France, these short stories were called fablio (fable), in Germany - schwank. These were mocking tales about some unlucky peasant deceived by the devil (the townspeople-artisans looked down on the uncouth peasant peasant), about some selfish priest. Sometimes ridicule rose to the palace and great nobles. A vivid example of urban satirical poetry was the medieval “Poem about the Fox”, which told about the cunning and wretched Fox, from the tricks of which small people (chickens, hares) suffered. The poem ridiculed under the guise of animals and nobles, and nobles (bear Bren), and the clergy, up to the Pope.

Indeed, I would like to call the XII century in the history of world culture a century of genius. At this time, they create the best works poetry - heroic tales about Roland, Sihfried, Side Campeador, about our Russian prince Igor. At this time, blooms in lush color chivalric literature. Enriched with connections with the East in its Arab-Iranian cultural inflorescence, it puts forward on the world stage in the south of France, in Provence, troubadours, in its north, trouveurs, in Germany, minnesingers (singers of love). The novel by unknown authors "Tristan and Isolde" and the poem "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" by the Georgian poet Shota Rustaveli seem to represent this part of world culture especially vividly.

Let's start with heroic tales.

Song of Roland

Our king Karl, the great emperor.
He fought for seven years in the Spanish country.
All this mountainous land to the sea occupied.
He took by storm all the cities and castles,
He toppled their walls and destroyed their towers.
Only the Moors did not surrender Zaragoza.
Marsilius the non-Christ reigns omnipotently there.
Honors Mohammed, praises Apollo.
But he will not leave the Lord's punishment.
Oh!
"The Song of Roland"

The famous "Song of Roland" has come down to us in a manuscript of the middle of the 12th century. It was found by chance in the library of the University of Oxford and first published in Paris in 1837. Since that time, her triumphal procession through the countries of the world began. It is published and republished in translations and in the original, studied at universities, articles and books are written about it.

The lines cited in the epigraph require clarification. Karl is a historical person. The king of the Germanic tribe of the Franks (the very word "king" comes from his name). Through conquests, battles, campaigns, he founded a huge state, which included the lands of modern Italy, France, and Germany. In 800 he named himself emperor. He went down in history under the name of Charlemagne.

The event described in the poem took place in 778. Carl was then thirty-six years old. In the poem, he is already a gray-haired old man two hundred years old. This detail is significant: the poem had a nationwide audience and reflected the nation's ideas about the ideal sovereign - he must be wise and old.

Already from the first verses of the poem, two warring worlds appear before us: the Christian, whose representative is Charles, endowed with all positive qualities, and Marsilius the non-Christ, the ruler of the Moors, Gentiles, and therefore, of course, the character is extremely negative. His main fault is that he "honors Mohammed, praises Apollo." As you can see, the idea of ​​the author of the poem about Mohammedanism is the most superficial, as well as about ancient mythology. God of arts and sunlight Apollo, who gave so much to the imagination ancient Greek and the ancient Roman, forgotten.

His name is distorted, he is adjacent to Mohammed. Ancient culture, rich and luxurious, is buried, and only a faint echo of it sometimes reaches the ears of the peoples of Western Europe.

The opponents of Charles and his warriors are the Moors. Who are they? The ancient Greeks so called the inhabitants of Mauritania, according to the color of their skin (mauros - dark). Historically, these are the Arabs who captured Spain in 711-718 and founded several states in it. The Frankish king intervened in their internecine wars in 778, laid siege to Zaragoza, but did not take the city and was forced to return home. On the way back, in the Ronceval Gorge, the rearguard of his troops was ambushed. Moors and locals mountainous regions, the Basques, killed a detachment commanded by the nephew of Charles Hruotland, Margrave of Brittany. Here is everything that is known to science about this event, which was preserved for history by the ancient chronicles and the historian of Charlemagne Eginhard, the author of the book "The Life of Charles" (829-836).

Many historical events of a larger scale and greater historical importance than those described in the “Song of Roland” remained outside the memory of the people, were forgotten, lost in the course of time, while the facts are not so significant if we consider them “from cosmic” historical heights, are unexpectedly bright and multifaceted, and their light overcomes centuries, and sometimes millennia. It is unlikely that the Trojan War described by Homer was so grandiose. There were, of course, more important events. But humanity remembers and, as it were, sees with its own eyes what happened at a low hill called Ida and a small river called Scamander. What is the key to this strange circumstance? This is where art comes into play.

Worth a poet magic word designate a distant or near event, and it acquires eternal life. In the change of days, in the incessant movement of time, it seems to stop, freeze, while retaining all the freshness of the original. Captured moment! This is how the heroes of Homer's poems have come down to us and live with us, this is how the tragedy that broke out twelve centuries ago in the Ronceval Gorge has come down to us, how vividly and poetically are drawn to our imagination eight hundred years ago, captured by the "Tale of Igor's Campaign".

The Song of Roland ends with the words: "Thurold is silent." Turold? The author of the poem? Scribe? The man who brought together the poetic tales about the unfortunate fate of the young Roland that went among the people? Nobody knows. This name was mentioned only once at the end of the poem and was not repeated anywhere else. And so this unknown person left or, rather, came to eternity, like a vision, like a pale ghost, leaving us his soul - feelings, thoughts, ideals that his compatriots and contemporaries lived, presumably.

The poem is purely tendentious, that is, the author is not just a storyteller, but, above all, a propagandist who has set himself the goal of glorifying the cause. christian church and French patriotism. The name of the Christian God is constantly woven into the harsh tie of the story. Not a single step, not a single gesture of Karl, Roland, and all Christian soldiers can do without it. God helps Charles to prolong, contrary to all the laws of nature, the day in order to give him the opportunity and time to defeat and punish the enemy, God constantly instructs him in military campaigns and is, as it were, the initiator of the conquest of new lands by Charles.

In this regard, the ending of the poem is curious. After it was finished with the traitor Ganelon, who doomed Roland to death at the hands of the Moors, the Moors themselves were punished, in a word, when he, Charles, “poured out his anger and calmed his heart”, and went to a peaceful sleep, the messenger of God appears to him and gives a new task:

"Karl, gather an army without delay
And go hiking to the Birsk country,
In Enf, King Vivien's capital city.
He is surrounded by a pagan army.
Christians are waiting for help from you.
But the king does not want to go to war.
He says: "God, how bitter is my lot!"
He tears his gray beard, cries mournfully ...

The dignity of the poem lies in the lyrically colored ideas of the motherland, heroism, moral stamina. France is always accompanied by the epithet "sweet", "gentle". Roland and his warriors always remember that they are the children of France, its defenders, its plenipotentiaries. And these, I would say, feelings of civic responsibility inspire them, inspire them to exploits:

Let no shame befall France!
Friends, the right fight is behind us! Forward!

The death of Roland and his squad was a foregone conclusion. The traitor Ganelon is guilty. Offended by Roland, in order to take revenge on him, he decided on a monstrous atrocity, betrayed him to the enemy, not thinking that he was betraying his own.
"dear France" The self-will of the feudal lords, severely condemned by the author of the poem, had an effect. The people have always sharply shamed the civil strife of the princes, their self-interest, disregard for the interests of the state. The figure of Ganelon is a vivid personification of this betrayal, disastrous for the country. Princely strife also tormented our Rus' in the 12th century and was also severely condemned by the author of The Tale of Igor's Campaign.

But Roland is also to blame. Tragic fault! He is young, passionate, arrogant. He is devoted to his homeland, "sweet France." He is ready to give his life for her. But fame, ambition cloud his vision, do not allow him to see the obvious. The detachment is surrounded, the enemies are pressing. His wise comrade Olivier hurries him to blow his horn, to call for help. Not too late. You can also prevent a disaster:

“O friend Roland, blow the horn quickly.
At the pass, Karl will hear the call.
I guarantee you, he will turn the army."
Roland answered him: “God forbid!
Let no one talk about me.
That from fright I forgot my duty.
I will never disgrace my family."

And the battle took place. The author of the poem described the course of the battle for a long time, in detail, with naturalistic details. More than once he was denied a sense of proportion: he so wanted to belittle the "non-Christian Moors" and exalt the French dear to his heart. (Five Frenchmen kill four thousand Moors. There are three hundred and four hundred thousand of them, these Moors. Roland's head is cut open, the brain flows out of the skull, but he is still fighting, etc., etc.)

Finally Roland sees and takes his horn. Now Olivier stops him: it's too late!

That is no honor at all.
I called out to you, but you did not want to listen.

For all his friendly affection for Roland, Olivier cannot forgive him for his defeat and even assures that if he survives, he will never allow his sister Alda (Roland's betrothed) to become his wife.

You are to blame.
Being brave is not enough, you have to be reasonable.
And it is better to know the measure than to go crazy.
The French have been ruined by your pride.

Here, of course, is the voice of the author of the poem. He judges a presumptuous ardent young man, but with a kind, paternal court. Yes. he, of course, is guilty, this young warrior, but his courage is so beautiful, his impulse to give his life for his homeland is so noble. How to judge a dispute between two friends?

Smart Olivier. Roland is brave
And valor is equal to one another.

And he reconciles them:

The archbishop of the dispute heard them.
He plunged golden spurs into the horse.
He drove up and said reproachfully:
“Roland and Olivier, my friends.
May the Lord save you from strife!
No one can save us anymore…”

And friends die. The entire squad of Roland perishes. At the last moment, he nevertheless blew his horn. Carl heard the call and returned. The Moors were defeated, but Charles was inconsolable. Many times he lost consciousness from grief, cried. The surviving Moors converted to Christianity, among them Bramimonda herself, the wife of the Saracen king Marsilius. How could the poet-cleric fail to glorify his God with such a finale.

Historical and geographical knowledge of the poet was not great. He heard something about the ancient poets Virgil and Homer, he knows that they once lived a very long time ago, he put their names on the pages of his poem:

There was the emir Baligan gray-haired.
Virgil with Homer is older than he.

This "coeval" of Homer and Virgil gathers a great army to rescue Marsilius. "The pagan hordes are innumerable." Who is in them? Armenians and Uglichs, Avars, Nubians, Serbs, Prussians, "hordes of wild Pechenegs", Slavs and Russ. The author of the "Song of Roland" enrolled all of them in the camp of the pagans. They are all defeated by Charles' troops. The Christian faith triumphs, and the idols of Apollon and Mohammed suffer great reproach from their own adherents:

Apollo stood there, their idol, in the grotto.
They run to him, they vilify him:
Why did you, evil god, disgrace us
And threw the king to shame?
You reward faithful servants badly.”
They tore off the crown from the idol.
Then he was hung from a column.
Then they dumped and trampled for a long time.
Until it falls apart...
And Mohammed is thrown into a deep ditch.
Dogs gnaw him there and pigs gnaw him.

The poem has come down to us in the lists of the XII century, but it was created, apparently, long before that. Russ, as the author of the poem calls the inhabitants of Rus', adopted, as you know, Christianity at the end of the 10th century. In the XII century, the Frenchman could not help but know that Christianity was professed in Rus'. Daughter Kyiv prince Yaroslav the Wise Anna Yaroslavna, or Aina Russian, as the French call her, was married to the French king Henry I and even after his death she ruled the state for a while during the childhood of her son Philip I.

And she lived in the XI century, more precisely, in the years 1024-1075. A French poet of the twelfth century should have known this. However, it is difficult now to judge the degree of education of the inhabitants of Europe at that time, the ties of some peoples with others. From the Seine to the Dnieper, the path is not short, but for those times it was difficult and dangerous.

Song of the Nibelungs

Full of wonders the tales of bygone days
About the high-profile deeds of former heroes.
"Nibelungenlied"

These are the first lines of a famous heroic poem, born sometime in the thirteenth century, which excited the imagination of the medieval German for three centuries, and then was completely forgotten until the eighteenth century. Retrieved from the archives and shown to Frederick II, King of Prussia in the years when Europe arrogantly treated the Middle Ages, it received a disparaging assessment of the monarch as a barbaric work, not worthy of the civilized tastes of modern times, and was again consigned to oblivion. But already on April 2, 1829, Eckermann recorded in his Conversations with Goethe the poet’s statement: “...“ The Nibelungen ”is the same classic as Homer, here and there health and a clear mind.”

More than thirty lists of her on parchment and paper have been preserved, which indicates her great popularity in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. First published in typographical fashion in 1757, it became the property of broad circles readers and is now included in the circle of the best epic poems in the world. The scientific literature on it is endless.

The ancient author, who did not leave his name, called it a song. It does not look like a song in our current concept of the word: it has 39 chapters (adventures) and more than 10 thousand verses. Initially, however, it probably consisted of short poetic tales with assonant rhyme and was sung to the accompaniment of a musical instrument.

Years passed, centuries. The events, one way or another captured in these tales, became a thing of the past, the shpielmans who performed them added something, excluded something, began to look at something with different eyes, as a result, by the end of the 12th century or by the very beginning of the 13th, composed of individual songs into a huge epic tale, it included both a picture of the court customs of the Western European feudal lords of the 12th century, and vague reminiscences of distant antiquity. They guess the events of the Great Migration of Peoples of the 4th-5th centuries, the invasion of nomads from Asia led by Attila, the leader of the Huns. The formidable Attila, who once terrified the peoples of the Roman Empire, turned into the kind, weak-willed Etzel in the Nibelungenlied. So whitewashed him eight centuries that have passed since his
death in 453. But his name itself, in a slightly modified form, has been preserved.

The lands on which the events described in the poem or mentioned in it take place are quite extensive. This is Saxony and Swabia on the right bank of the Rhine, this is Adstria, Bavaria, Thuringia, this is the wide Spessart plateau, the current land of Reinald-Palatinate, this is Denmark, the island of Iceland is the kingdom of the heroine of the poem Brynhild, Franconia, the area between the Rhine and the Main, this is the Rhone, the river in France, this is the Netherlands - the possession of King Sigmund, Sihfried's father, and then Sihfried himself, this is Hungary and even Kiev land.

The Germanic tribes who created the first versions of the legend settled widely in Western Europe, the connections between them were not always preserved, and the main characters of the poem Sihfrid, Kriemhild, Gunter, Brynhilda and others migrated to the Icelandic sagas under one name or another.

But let's leave this interesting and not very simple topic to specialist scientists and turn to the poem itself, which was published in our country in translation from the German by Yu. B. Korneev.

We find ourselves in the world of court festivities, knightly tournaments, luxurious court toilets, beautiful ladies, youth and beauty. Such appearance the ruling classes of the feudal society of the XII century, as presented by the ancient shpilman. Christian Temples are not forgotten either, but religion is here as a household item, a traditional ritual, nothing more:

The squires and knights went to the cathedral.
Served as it has been done since ancient times.
Youths to men and elders at these celebrations.
Everyone looked forward to the festivities with gladness in their hearts.

Ordinary people as an entourage. He is curious, wondering, expresses admiration or sorrow, but does not play any active role in the events:

So far, for the glory of God, Mass was going on in the temple.
The crowd of ordinary people in the square grew.
The people brought down the wall: not everyone again
The rank of knighthood will have to be seen.

The young Siechfried is knighted. He is a queen. His parents - the Dutch ruler Sigmund and Sieglinda - do not have a soul in him. And yes, he is loved by everyone around him. He is bold and fame is already thundering about him, he is praised everywhere:

He was so lofty in spirit and so handsome in face.
That more than one beauty had to sigh for him.

We note here three circumstances that are very remarkable for understanding the ideals of that time.

The first quality valued in Siechfried is the height of his spirit. The latter was understood as courage, courage, moral stamina.

The second is his youth and handsomeness. Both have always been valued, at all times and among all peoples. Old age has always looked at young people with admiration and a little bit of envy, sighing for the time when she herself was the same.

The third point, which, of course, you need to pay attention to - as judges of male beauty, women are indicated here - sighing beauties. This is already a sign of a different, court environment. The clerics, who also created their own culture in the Middle Ages, would never refer to the opinions of women.

So, Siechfried is the main character of the Nibelungenlied, its first part. In the second, his wife, the beautiful Krimhilda, will come to the fore, turning from a timid, shy, simple-hearted and trusting maiden into a cunning and cruel avenger. But while she is still a young maiden for us, who did not know love and does not even want to know it:

“No, mother, you don’t need to talk about your husband.
I want to, not knowing love, I will proveve century.

Eternal theme, eternal delusion! This girlish dream was sung by the Russians in the charming romance "Don't sew me, mother, a red sundress." Mother reveals to her daughter the eternal truth: without a loved one there will be no happiness, years will pass, "amusements will get bored, you will miss." In an ancient German epic, seven centuries earlier, the same conversation took place in the ancient city of Worms between the beautiful Kriemhild and Queen Uta, her mother:

“Do not promise, daughter, so Uta answered her,
There is no happiness in the world without a dear spouse.
To know love, Kriemhild, your turn will come,
If the Lord will send you a handsome knight.

And the Lord sent her this handsome knight. It was Sihfried, the "free falcon" that she once dreamed about. But the dream already foreshadowed trouble: the falcon was pecked by two eagles. The poet does not want to leave the reader in the dark about the future fate of his heroes, and although the picture he paints at the beginning of the story is dazzlingly festive, formidable omens no-no cloud it.

Jun Sihfried, but he has already seen many countries and accomplished many feats. Here we are already entering the realm of the fairy tale. The exploits of Siechfried are full of miracles. He killed the fearsome dragon and bathed in its blood. His body became invulnerable, and only one place was left not washed with the blood of a forest monster, behind, under the left shoulder blade, just opposite the heart: a leaf fell on this place, and the dragon's blood did not wash this small piece of the young man's skin. This accident became fatal for Sihfried, but this is later, but for now, he, without suspecting anything, looks at the world with happy eyes and expects dazzling miracles from him.

One day, Siechfried was out riding his warhorse, alone, without his retinue. Climbing the mountain, he saw a crowd of Nibelungs. They were led by two brothers - Shilbung and Nibelung. They shared the treasures that were buried in the mountain. The brothers argued, quarreled, things went to a bloody denouement, but when they saw Sihfried, they elected him as an arbitrator. Let him judge fairly. And the treasure was great:

There was such a pile of precious stones,
That they would not have been taken away on a hundred carts from there,
And gold, perhaps, and more than that.
Such was the treasure, and the knight had to divide it.

And this treasure also became fatal in the fate of Siechfried and his future wife Kriemhild. People have long noticed that self-interest, an irrepressible thirst for wealth disfigures human souls, makes a person forget about kinship, friendship, love. Gold becomes a terrible curse for those who are blinded by its alluring brilliance.

The brothers were dissatisfied with the division of Siechfried. A quarrel ensued, twelve giants guarding the king brothers attacked the young knight, but he, raising his good sword Balmung, killed them all, and after them seven hundred other warriors and the two king brothers themselves. The dwarf Albrich stood up for his overlords, but the young man overcame him, took away his invisibility cloak, ordered him to hide the treasure in a secret cave, and left the conquered Albrich to guard it.

Such are the miraculous deeds of the young knight, full of supernatural powers. It was a fairy tale. It is unlikely that anyone in the days of the creation of the poem believed in such miracles, but it was beautiful, it carried away from the harsh and everyday reality and amused the imagination.

The fairy tale as a genre arose later than epic tales. Its origins are myths, but already when the myths lost their religious basis and became the subject of poetic imagination. Myth for ancient man was a reality, the ancient Greek, for example, did not have any doubts about the reality of the personality of Achilles, but the medieval composer of the chivalric novel knew that his hero and all his adventures were a figment of fantasy.

In the Nibelungenlied, historical reality, which reached the 12th century in legends, was combined with fiction, a chivalric romance, filled with fabulous element, which was already perceived as an elegant fantasy. We see in the poem a synthesis of two aesthetic systems - a legend with a historical basis and a fairy tale-fiction.

The young hero decided to marry. It's normal and natural. Parents are not averse, but the trouble is - he chose a bride in distant (at that time) Burgundy, and the Burgundians are arrogant and warlike, inspire fear in the elderly parents of the hero.

The eternal and wonderful care of the elders about the younger generation: how to preserve, how to protect young and careless children from the formidable forces of the real world, which always hostilely lies in wait for inexperienced souls!

Sieglinde cried when she learned about the matchmaking.
She was so afraid for her son,
What if there is no turning back for him?
What if Gunther's people will deprive her child of her life?

Siechfried, of course, does not think at all about the danger. Rather, he would even like to meet obstacles and obstacles on the way to happiness. There is so much energy and youth in him. In his youthful enthusiasm, he is ready to take the bride by force, "if her brothers do not give him good," and with her the lands of the Burgundians.

The old father "furrowed his eyebrows" - these speeches are dangerous. What if word of mouth gets them to Gunther's ears?

Siechfried had never seen Kriemhild yet. His love is in absentia. He believes in fame: its beauty is legendary. Apparently, for those times it was enough.

The fees are over. The poet did not forget to say that Queen Uta, together with the ladies invited by her, sewed rich clothes for her son and his retinue day and night, while the father provided them with military armor. Finally, to the great admiration of the whole court, Siechfried's soldiers and himself

... deftly sat on dashing horses.
Their harness flashed with gold trim.
To be proud of yourself was to face such fighters.

However, a grave foreboding of impending troubles will burst into the festive picture no-no. The poet warns the listener and reader in advance about the tragic fate of the hero. Therefore, the holiday of youth and beauty acquires a poignant sharpness of tragedy.

Sihfried is bold, courageous, but also impudent, arrogant, sometimes behaves defiantly, as if he is looking for reasons for quarrels and fights, like a bully. His father invites him to take an army with him, he takes only twelve warriors. Arriving in Worms, King Gunther answers the friendly words with impudence:

I won't ask if you agree or not
And I’ll start a fight with you, and if I get the upper hand.
I will take all your lands with castles from you.

It is not difficult to imagine the reaction of the Burgundians, everyone, of course, is outraged - a quarrel, a squabble, warriors grab swords, a battle is about to begin, blood will be shed, but the prudent Gunther goes to the world peace, Siechfried's anger subsides. Guests are warmly welcomed. Tournaments, war games amuse the yard. In everything, of course, Siechfried is different, he defeats everyone in sports, and in the evenings, when the "beautiful ladies" are engaged in "courteous" conversation, it becomes the subject of their special attention:

Those eyes did not take their eyes off their guest -
His speech breathed such sincere passion.

However, let's not forget about time. After all, this is feudalism, the time of "fist law", in the apt expression of Marx, when everything was decided by the sword, and Sihfried acted according to the right of the strong, which quite fit into the moral ideas of those times.

However, the main task of the author of the "Song" is to tell about the love of Siechfried and Kriemhild. Until they met. True, Krimhilda is watching him from the window of the castle, for "he is so good-looking that he awakened tender feelings in any woman." Siechfried is unaware of this and languishes in anticipation of meeting her. But it's still early. The time has not come. The author still needs to show the dignity of the hero in order to demonstrate his courage, courage, strength, and youth again and again.

Burgundy was besieged by Saxons and Danes. Forty thousand enemy troops. Siechfried volunteered with a thousand fighters to fight them. The author enthusiastically, enthusiastically describes the ups and downs of the battle. Here is his element:

All around the battle was in full swing, the steel of swords rang.
The regiments rushed into the fray, all angrier and hotter.

The Burgundians fight gloriously, but the best of all, of course, is their guest - the beautiful Sihfried. And the victory is won. Many died on the battlefield of the Saxons and Danes, many noble warriors were captured, but they were treated with chivalry: they were given freedom on parole not to leave the country without special permission. The captives, and among them two kings, thank the winners for "the gentle treatment and affectionate welcome."

Well, what about lovers? How do the events of their hearts develop? Looks like it's time for love. Gunther, Kriemhild's elder brother and king of the Burgundians, decided to arrange a magnificent celebration on the occasion of the victory. Queen Mother Uta bestows a rich dress on the servants. Chests are opened, luxurious clothes are taken out or re-sewn, and the holiday begins with a solemn entrance to the guests of the incomparable beauty Kriemhilda. She is "like a ray of crimson dawn from gloomy clouds." She is accompanied by a hundred girls and court ladies, needless to say, "in expensive clothes." They are all good looking, but...

As the stars fade at night in the glow of the moon,
When she looks down on the earth from above,
So the maiden overshadowed the crowd of her friends.

Kriemhilda is good, but the guest of the Burgundians, the brave Netherlander, the son of Sigmund, Sihfried, is not inferior to her in attractiveness. In love with his young heroes, the author literally weaves a wreath of the most enthusiastic praises for them:

Sigmund's surprisingly handsome son has grown up.
He seemed like a painting that he had painted
Artist on parchment with a skillful hand.
The world has not yet seen such beauty and stateliness.

So the meeting of young people took place. Now begins new page the history of Siechfried, his participation in the matchmaking of Kriemhilda's brother King Gunther, who wished to marry the overseas beauty Brynhilde. This last one lives on a remote island and rules the kingdom. This island is Iceland. Land of ice - this is how the word should be translated. Severe, snowy, steep plateau rising above the sea, it was later inhabited by people who came from Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Denmark. Courageous and strong people could settle in it, raise cattle and some garden crops, but cereals had to be imported from afar. Neither the land nor the climate allowed them to grow at home. There were few inhabitants. In those times to which the narrative of the Song refers, there were no more than 25 thousand of them, and even now their number hardly reaches 75 thousand.

We will not find any descriptions of this country in the "Songs". It is only said that this is an island and the sea around. But it is ruled by an extraordinary woman, a hero, as if personifying the severe courage of those who dared to live in this icy kingdom.

It cannot be said that the warriors admired such qualities of Brynhild as her belligerence, her masculine heroic strength, and even the gloomy Hagen, who later becomes her most faithful servant, is embarrassed and discouraged: “You are in love with the she-devil, my king,” says he told Gunther, and then the king’s companions: “The king fell in love in vain: she needs the devil in her husbands, not the hero.”

A woman should not be strong, weakness, modesty, shyness - these are her most beautiful adornments. So believed the medieval knights who served the ladies of their hearts. How wins in comparison with her in the first part of the "Song" Kriemhild, personifying pure femininity.

The image of Brunhild involuntarily evokes memories of many legends of ancient peoples about female warriors, usually living apart from men and hating them. The ancient Greeks created the myth of the Amazons. They lived somewhere off the coast of Meotida ( Sea of ​​Azov) or in Asia Minor. Sometimes they temporarily converged with men in order to have offspring, the born girls were left to themselves, while the boys were killed. Greek heroes Bellerophon, Hercules, Achilles fought them. Achilles killed the Amazon Penthesilea (she helped the Trojans). Their strange behavior, their feminine attractiveness excited the imagination. The best Greek sculptors Phidias and Polikleitos sang their beauty in marble. We have reached marble copies from Greek sculptures.

One of them captured the lovely appearance of a wounded Amazon. The sculpture is kept in the Capitoline Museum in Rome. A face full of sadness, vitality leaving the body. The girl is still standing, but her knees seem to give way, and she quietly sinks to the ground with her last, dying breath. The myths about the Amazons captured both the surprise and admiration of men for female warriors.

Siechfried enters the competition with Brynhild. Putting on an invisibility cloak, he fulfills all the conditions of Brynhild for Gunther (Gunther only imitates the required movements) - he throws a huge stone, catches up with him with a jump and accurately uses a spear. Brynhild is defeated. She, of course, is unhappy (“the face of the beauty blushed with anger ...”), but, perhaps, not with her defeat, but with the victory of Gunter, who is clearly not attractive to her. The author of the "Song" without pressure, perhaps relying on the reader's insight, hinted at one circumstance: when Gunther and company appeared before the Icelandic queen, she turned with a smile, of course, favorable, to the young Dutch hero Sihfried - in other words, Brynhild would like to see him as a contender for her hand. "Greetings, Siechfried, in my native land." To which Siechfried, not without irony, replies to her:

Before me, the first such speech holding,
You are kind to me beyond merit, madam.
My master is before you, and there is no trace of you with him
To his humble vassal to pay his regards.

This is where the tragedy begins. Brynhilde was deceived in her hopes. She loves Siechfried, and even more so now she hates Gunther. She is proud and does not show her annoyance, but her revenge is ahead of her. However, the author, who constantly explains to the reader all the motives for the behavior of his characters, even when such explanations are not necessary, because everything is clear anyway, is clearly slow-witted here. Does he understand the psychological background of events?

However, let's follow his story. Brunhild and Gunther's company arrive at Worms. The weddings of two couples are played: Gunther - Brynhilda, Sihfried - Kriemhilda. The second couple is happy, the first... Here comes the embarrassment. The young wife of Gunter ties her husband with a strong belt and hangs him on a hook so that he does not bother her with his harassment.

No matter how the humiliated husband resisted,
It was hung on a wall hook like a bale.
So that the dream of his wife did not dare to disturb with hugs.
Only by a miracle that night the king remained alive and unharmed.
The recent master now prayed, trembling:
“Remove the tight fetters from me, mistress…”
But he did not manage to touch Brynhild with prayers.
His wife quietly ate a sweet dream,
Until dawn illuminated the bedchamber
And Gunter did not lose his strength on his hook.

Again, Sihfried had to help the king to pacify the heroic wife, which he does by putting on an invisibility cloak and, under the guise of Gunther, entering her bedroom. The ancients willingly believed in miracles. Science took its first timid steps, and a host of mysteries of nature appeared before man. How to unravel them? How to overcome the incomprehensible, but real laws of the natural world? And then fantasy painted a fabulous, ephemeral world of supernatural possibilities, things, gestures, words acquired magical power. It was enough to say: “Sesame, open!” - and the entrance to the hidden opens, countless treasures appear to the eyes. It was enough for Sihfried to bathe in the blood of the dragon, and his body became invulnerable. It was enough for the insidious wife of the biblical Samson, Delilah, to cut off his hair, and all his enormous physical strength disappeared. The same thing happened to Brynhilde. Sihfried removed the magic ring from her hand, and she turned into an ordinary weak woman. Gunther found her reconciled and submissive.

But she was not allowed to remain ignorant. The secret has been revealed. The queens quarreled. The reason was female vanity. They argued at the entrance to the temple: who should enter first? One said that she is the queen and the championship is hers. The second is that her husband was not a vassal, that he was never a servant of anyone, that he was more courageous and noble than Gunther, etc., etc. which Siechfried once took from her bedroom as a victory trophy and presented to her, Kriemhild.

Thus began the tragedy. Brynhilde could not forget the insult. Envy of Kriemhild, to her happiness, jealousy (Brynhild did not stop loving Siechfried), hatred of her rival - all this now merged into a single burning desire to take revenge on both Kriemhild and Siechfried.

And her will is carried out by the gloomy, evil Hagen. Conspiracy is being made against young hero, cunning, treacherous, cowardly: to kill not in a duel, not in a fair battle, but treacherously, when he does not suspect anything. The author of the "Song" draws characters superbly. They are not unambiguous. Not everyone immediately supports the idea of ​​murder. Gunther is at first embarrassed: after all, Siechfried has done so much good for him. No no! In no case! But after a minute: "But how to kill him?" He already agrees. His younger brother Giselher also agrees, who had previously declared indignantly:

Will the illustrious hero pay with his life
For the fact that women sometimes quarrel over trifles?

Hagen becomes the soul of the conspiracy. What drives them? Why does he hate Siechfried so stubbornly, so fiercely? Is it only vassalage here? Rather, envy, hatred for a foreigner who surpasses everyone in strength, courage and moral virtues. The author does not speak directly about this, but it is clear from his story.

Of all the Burgundians, Hagen is perhaps the most intelligent, perspicacious and most vicious. He understands that it is impossible to openly defeat Siechfried, which means that he must resort to cunning, and he turns to Kriemhild herself. A naive, unsuspecting woman trusts him with the secret of her husband, points out and even cross-stitches the place on his clothes where his body was vulnerable. So she decided the fate of the creature dearest to her.

In the afternoon, during the hunt, when Siechfried bent down to the stream to drink, Hagen stuck a spear in him from behind just in the place that was marked by the unfortunate cross.

The knights fled to the dying hero. Gunther also began to shed tears, but Sihfried, who was bleeding, said: “The culprit of evil himself sheds tears for villainy.”

Times have changed, people's moral ideas have changed, but it seems that there has never been a greater crime in the eyes of everyone than betrayal. It has always been perceived as something monstrous, as the ultimate measure of injustice.

The treacherous murder of Siechfried further exalted him in the eyes of the reader. The death of the "ideal hero" of the Middle Ages!

He is impeccable physically and morally, he himself is the great jewel of the world. What is the measure to measure the depth of inhumanity and evil shown by his murderers? Here is the climax of the tragedy told by the medieval shpielman. There is no doubt that it shocked the poet's contemporaries and, of course, created that moral, psychological effect that the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle called "catharsis" - moral purification through fear and compassion.

The author of the "Song" will not stop there. He will tell in detail and in detail about the revenge of Kriemhild. It will be terrible, this revenge. An enraged woman will pour a sea of ​​blood on her relatives, who so insidiously took advantage of her gullibility, but she herself will die and will not arouse our sympathy: a person in revenge, even just and justified, cannot reach bitterness and inhumanity.