List of questions for the exam / test for the course "History of Foreign Literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance" 1. Epic creativity of the early Middle Ages (Celtic epic, ancient Germanic epic) 2. General characteristics of medieval culture 3. Factors in the formation of medieval culture 4. Heroic epic of the XII century. 5. Lyrics of the Provencal troubadours 6. Knightly romance of the Middle Ages, its main cycles 7. Urban literature of the Middle Ages 8. General characteristics of the Renaissance. Early Italian Renaissance 9. Dante's work before the Divine Comedy 10. Dante's Divine Comedy 11. Petrarch's work 12. Boccaccio's work 13. Boccaccio's Decameron 14. French Renaissance 15. Gargantua and Pantagruel by F. Rabelais 16. Northern Renaissance. Reformation. Erasmus of Rotterdam 17. Spanish Renaissance. Creativity of Cervantes 18. "Don Quixote" by Cervantes 19. Creativity of Lope de Vega (one of the comedies, "Fuente Ovehuna") 20. General characteristics of the English Renaissance 21. Thomas More and utopianism 22. General characteristics of Shakespeare and the Elizabethan era 23. "Twelfth night" 24. "Romeo and Juliet" 25. "Hamlet" 26. "Macbeth" 27. "Othello" 28. "King Lear"

Lecturer: Zhukov A.P.

1. Epic creativity of the early Middle Ages (Celtic epic, ancient Germanic epic)

The Celts, who were later forced out to the British Isles, played a large role in the creation of world literature. The Celts are one of the branches of the Gauls tribe, then they founded Ireland. These are no less warlike than the Germans tribes. But at the same time, they have a developed literary tradition, it has been preserved due to their peripheral position. The Celtic epic has come down to us in abundance. It is represented by the so-called sagas.

A saga is any prose narrative work, oral or written, realistic or fantastic, historical or non-historical.

Originality: the archaic epic of the ancient Irish is formed in prose, this is an isolated case.

The state and statehood are developing slowly, the features of the tribal system of ancient times have lingered: matriarchy, the people's assembly, blood feud, the cult of tribal gods and blood kinship. Families, clans, tribes. All the time they fought, wandered. Cattle breeding leaves its mark on the epic.

Almost all sagas tell about cattle theft. The main epic: "Theft of the bull from Kualnge." This is a huge epic - a compilation of many sagas.

The manners were wild. Until 697, women participated in battles on an equal basis with men. Then a decree appeared on excommunication of them from the church in the event of a battle. Then they began to use ferocious dogs, accustomed to gnaw out a person's throat.

There were three groups of people who created literature. Druids - at first they were judges, creators, keepers of mythical and heroic traditions. Then they shared their functions with the filids. Initially, these were historians - keepers of the histories of families, clans, were engaged in topography, jurisprudence and predictions. Bards are lyric poets. The meaning of the word has not changed. The legendary bard Ossein, the son of one of the war chiefs, is better known to us as Ossian. Both a warrior and a poet. His work has not come down to us, but in the 18th century a certain James MacPherson allegedly found a parchment with Ossian's songs and translated it. It turned out that it was his fake.

In fact, two huge manuscripts have come down to us. The oldest is the "Book of the Brown Cow" late 11th - early 12th century. The second is the Book of Leinster, mid-12th century. Over 100 sagas.

Combination of colorful, dreamlike fantasy with realistic details. Along with people, there are seeds - in the Western European version - fairies.

4 main cycles:

1. Mythological (ideas about ancient Ireland). The works originated before the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, and were recorded later by the monks.

2. Uladsky - the most ancient (Kuchulin's Cycle).

3. Finn cycle (Osianna)

4. Mixed - mostly stories about the journey of heroes to the next world.

Ulad cycle (modern Ulster). The connecting figure is King Conchobar. He probably created the Ulad state. He turns into an epic king. It is a standard that does not evolve or change. This is an ethical, moral, heroic example. His nephew is Cuchulainn, one of his favorite heroes, as he fought for the independence of his homeland. Cuchulainn is a semi-mythical character because his father is the god of light. He has the qualities of both a man and a fabulous creature. In battle, his body grows three times, one eye goes into the skull, the second into the center of the forehead, hair is called blood, he can almost fly. He doesn't get his name right away. The name then had to be earned. At birth, they were given a nickname, Cuchulainn - Senta. At the age of 7 he accomplished a feat. Uncle Conchobar went to the blacksmith Kulan, who had a killer dog. The boy got bored, went to the blacksmith, killed this dog. Kulan forced Cuchulain to serve him for three years.

Ulad is constantly at war with Queen Medb. Once she and her husband began to count wealth. She has one less bull, she wants to buy from the Ulads, otherwise by force. The bull is extraordinary. The messengers were careless, they blabbed, although the bull was sold. War. Magic disease - Ulad's men lie in bed and cannot get up. Only Cuchulain is not ill. But he can't win everyone. Comes up with a trick with the bridge. Cuchulainn has a twin brother, Ferdiad. Medb demands to beat him. Cuchulain also perishes because of a disgraceful song.

Fenya cycle. Fenya is a military-religious organization that has come down to us. Now they are terrorists. King Fin, son of Osein. Within the framework of this epic, love sagas appear. Fin is the prototype of King Mark. Sagas about wonderful voyages and about love. The beginning of a love chivalric romance. The Irish are excellent sailors, they say that they were the first to reach America. Two motifs come into modern literature. The motif of the blessed islands, where time flies much faster.

The most significant work of Anglo-Saxon poetry is the Poem of Beowulf. This work has come down to us in more or less complete form in a single manuscript written at the beginning of the 10th century. The poem is divided into 2 parts, interconnected only by the personality of the protagonist Beowulf. The poem is extremely complex. At present, the composition of the poem is usually attributed no earlier than the beginning of the 8th century, and it is regarded as a book epic written by a Christian cleric.

The central episodes of the first part of the poem - about the battles of Beowulf with Grendel and his mother - have a number of parallels in folk tales, as well as in Icelandic sagas; the story of the second part about the battle of Beowulf with the dragon presents analogies with other Germanic legends. It is also significant that Beowulf is not an Anglo-Saxon hero; the action of the poem is not confined to England and takes place in the first part in Denmark or Zealand, in the second - in southern Sweden. Beowulf is not a historical person, but in the poem one can find echoes of actual historical events - strife and wars of the North German peoples among themselves or with their West German neighbors, however, in the form of brief episodes or even just random hints.

In the edition that has come down to us, the poem bears traces of rather significant changes by the Christian scribe, who threw out the names of pagan gods and too obvious allusions to Germanic mythology, and also made a number of inserts that are easily distinguishable in a work that has a generally pre-Christian character. This editor of the poem calls Grendel a descendant of Cain, sea monsters a fiend, regrets the paganism of the Danish king; in various places of the poem, the names of Abel, Noah, the biblical tradition of the flood are mentioned. Even Beowulf himself is turned into a kind of Christian saint, a snake fighter who sacrifices his life in order to rid the country of a fire-breathing dragon, and delivers purely Christian instructions. Like all works of Anglo-Saxon poetry, it is written in ancient Germanic alliterative verse, which is distinguished by its particular sophistication and abundance of literary and poetic techniques (stringing synonyms, metaphors, indirect speech instead of direct speech).

Beowulf is a brave, generous, always ready to help people hero. He fearlessly enters into single combat with the bloodthirsty monster Grendel, who for a long time devoured those close to the Danish king Hrothgar. Having defeated Grendel, Beowulf also defeats his fierce mother, who came to the palace to avenge the death of her son. For this, Beowulf had to sink to the bottom of a terrible swamp, where a fierce monster lived. Thanks to the selfless prowess of Beowulf, Denmark was spared from mortal danger. The second part of the poem tells about the new, this time the last feat of Beowulf. Becoming the king of the Geats, the aged Beowulf kills a ferocious dragon that devastated the country with fire. However, the dragon managed to inflict a mortal wound on Beowulf with his poisonous tooth. Beowulf dies, mourned by the brave squads.

Unlike many epic heroes who act in the interests of their kind-tribe (such as the Irish Cuchulainn), Beowulf is the protector of humanity, but humanity itself is represented by friendly tribes of the Danes and Gauts. According to his mission, Beowulf resembles the Scandinavian Thor, but, unlike Thor, his activities are devoid of a cosmic-mythological character. The image of the mother of the enemies of the epic hero is extremely characteristic of the archaic epic of various peoples (for example, the Turkic-Mongolian, Finno-Ugric, in a relic form - the Celtic).

Beowulf's function in monster fighting. He is the protector of the earthly world. He is a god-loving warrior, blessed by a higher power to fight infernal forces: Grendel and his mother are the descendants of Cain, the dragon is a greedy werewolf, treasure keeper.

Beowulf is not a historical figure; in any case, he was not a Gautian king, as evidenced by his name, which does not alliterate with the names of other Gautian kings and is not mentioned in other sources of Gautian genealogy.

Beowulf acts as a saint, protecting, however, the people under God walking from evil forces not with a prayerful word, but with a dash of courage (here, apparently, we can observe the formation of the ideologeme of chivalry: a knight, like a Christ-loving warrior, fulfilling his vow, given to God, by fighting destructive to the enemies of Christ). Beowulf says: "I will be glad to work in the military." The people whose peace is guarded by Beowulf walk under God. But the fact that he walks under God does not in itself protect him. Beowulf is a weapon in the hand of God. However, for the people he is also Fate, which is very significant. Initially, Beowulf embodies Fate, but later a disastrous differentiation occurs and the hero finds his end. As they say: the ways of the Lord are inscrutable.

The death of a hero is tragic. This is the fate of all epic heroes. He dies fighting the dragon, but dies victorious.

Topic 3.

ARCHAIC EPOS OF THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES
(CELTIC SAGAS, SONGS OF "Elder Edda")

Faces of alien forces descend into the soul
II speak with obedient lips.
So prophetic will rustle with sheets
The tree of universal life Yggdrazil...

Vyach. Ivanov

PLAN

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

Section 1. Celtic sagas:

2. Historical conditions for the emergence of the Celtic epic.

3. Cycles of the Celtic epic:

a) mythological epic;
b) heroic epic:

Ulad cycle;
- Finn's cycle;

c) fantasy epic.

Section 2. Songs of the Elder Edda

4. Songs of the "Elder Edda" as a monument to the archaic epic:

a) the history of the discovery of the collection of songs;
b) disputes about the origin of Eddic songs;
c) genres and style of Eddic poetry;
d) the main cycles of the Elder Edda songs.

5. Genre typology of the mythological cycle:

a) narrative songs (songs);
b) didactic songs (speeches);
c) dialogical type of songs (speeches);
d) eschatological divinatory songs;
e) dramatic-ritual bickering songs.

6. Features of the heroic cycle of songs:

a) the question of the origin of the heroic epic;
b) the heroes of the songs of "Elder Edda";
c) the growth of the lyrical beginning and the emergence of the genre of heroic elegy.

7. Significance of archaic epics in the history of world literature.

PREPARATION MATERIALS

1. 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 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. 19 The archaic epic of the early European Middle Ages took shape both in verse (“Elder Edda”), and in prose (Icelandic sagas) and in verse 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 Cuchulainn, 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 lands Emain (“Oh, Emain-Maha, Emain-Maha, great, greatest treasure! ”), and not a spouse or son.

CELTIC SAGA

1. The center of Celtic culture, starting from the 1st century BC. n. e., became Ireland. The Celts, ousted by the Roman legions from Europe, most of which they conquered in the III-IY centuries. d.n. e., were forced to look for a new homeland and sent their ships to the shores of Ireland. In Europe, Gaul was the center of Celtic culture; here the most archaic part of the Celtic epic was formed, which existed until the 13th-10th centuries. in oral form. Recordings of the Celtic sagas have been carried out since the 9th century, although sometimes it is possible to refer to earlier editions. The reason for writing down the Celtic sagas was the desire of the island monks, who for a long time maintained dual faith 20, to save not only their material but also their spiritual culture from the devastating raids of the Vikings.

In the genesis of the Celtic epic, a certain role was played by etymological myths aimed at explaining the meaning and origin of this or that toponym. The saga "Ailment of the Ulads" explains the origin of the name of the capital of the Ulads, Emain Maha, and of the magical ailment to which all the Ulads are subject once a year due to the curse of the Sid Mahi: once a year, all the Ulads lie stricken with a magical disease for nine days, and the land of the Ulads becomes easy prey for the hostile tribe of Connachts. For this reason, in the saga "Bull-stealing from Kualnge", Cuchulainn, not subject to illness as the son of the god of light, Lug, takes a position at the ford in order to challenge his opponents to battle one by one. A tired son is replaced for a day at the ford by his divine father, who has taken on a human form. The etymological and etiological reasons that form the content of the Celtic saga are reflected in the introductory formulas “Why is Art called lonely? - It is not difficult to say", or - "How did the expulsion of the sons of Usnekh happen? "It's easy to say."

2 . Philides, the keepers of secular learning and lawyers, took part in the composition of the sagas. Lyric poetry was developed by bards, and magical incantation formulas belonged to druid priests. It was this part of the epic that was preserved especially poorly, firstly, because of its sacredness, and secondly, because of its antagonism in relation to the new religion - Christianity. Although attempts are being made to reconstruct the Druid calendar. M. M. Bakhtin deciphers the etiology of the “love spot” (birthmark) adopted by the Druids - the discovery of a secret sign of fate in order to doom a person to eternal love. 21 Of course, the discovery of a love spot is only a part of love magic, fragmentary preserved in later sources.

3 . The Irish sagas are a prose epic with poetic inserts at the moments of psychological climax. Initially, the sagas “had a prosaic form, as a result of which they are often called sagas (by analogy with the prose stories of the Scandinavian peoples). But very early, the philides began to insert verse passages into them, conveying in verse only the speech of the characters in those places where the story reaches significant dramatic tension. The verses convey the speech of the heroes, for example, Deirdre's weeping for the deceased lover or the divination of the druid Cathbad before the birth of Deirdre. Fantastic plots of the Celtic sagas; the mythological characters acting in them (fomorians, sids) and wonderful objects (the horned spear of Cuchulainn, the inexhaustible cauldron of Dagd, the wonderful spear of the god of light Lug, the Phall stone, which determines the true king, the sword of Nuadu), together with fragments of poetic speech, determine the genre originality of the Celtic saga, its differences from the classic Icelandic saga, prosaic in content and form, minimally stylized, sparing in means of expression. Therefore, the Irish themselves prefer to call their epic works skele. The Irish skela is laconic in its descriptions, and the poetic inserts are rich in parallelisms, repetitions, metaphors, and epithets. Celtic names are chosen for heroes on the basis of onomatopoeia or etymology. Thus, the name Deirdre is like a shudder and awe to remind of the gloomy prediction that accompanied her birth (“The Expulsion of the Sons of Usneh”), and the name of the Sida Sin conveys, as she herself says, “Sigh, Whistle, Storm, Harsh Wind, Winter Night Cry , Sobbing, Groaning” 23 (“Death of Muikhertakh, son of Erk”).

4 . The mythological epic in the form of an allegory depicts the capture of Ireland by the Celts (tribes of the goddess Danu), their battle with the indigenous population (fomorian demons). The most common plots of heroic sagas are: military campaigns, hostility between Irish tribes (Ulads and Connaughts, for example), cattle rustling, heroic matchmaking. Fantastic sagas tell about the love of a mortal and a sid, sailing to the Land of Bliss. In the heroic sagas there are many images that are mythological in origin. An archaic feature is the activity of a woman in the Celtic sagas, her endowment with magical knowledge and power (women are able to impose geyse prohibitions on men (for example, Greine puts all the guests and her fiancé Finn to sleep at a wedding feast in order to escape with Diarmuid, “The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Graine” ), they inhabit the Isles of Bliss, it is to them that the secret belongs eternal life- the fruits of the apple tree from the true Emain, which bring immortality, described, for example, in the saga "Swimming of Bran, son of Febal."

5 . The heroic cycle of the Celtic epic took shape mainly in Ulad, one of the five pyatins of Ireland, identified by the tribe of Ulads on the stone of Division (stone of Usnech). The epic king in the sagas of the Ulad cycle is Conchobar, the epic hero is his nephew Cuchulainn. Conchobar is gradually ousted from the epic by an active, acting hero. The heroic image of Cuchulain expresses the originality of the Irish epic. According to one version, Cuchulin, the son of the god of light Lug, was supposed to receive the name Setant at the behest of his divine father, but after killing the dog of the blacksmith Kulan, he served him for seven years instead of the dog and received a new name Cuchulain (Blacksmith's Dog), according to another - Cuchulain - the son of a god, raised by King Conchobar, is a foundling, a cuckoo, who grew up in someone else's nest, and his name is based on onomatopoeia - Kukulain - a different transcription of the hero's name. The features of primitive demonism are recognizable in the portrait of Cuchulainn, in his magical transformation during the battle, in a wonderful weapon. The character of Cuchulainn is endowed with significant tragic potential: the hero is entangled in conflicting prohibitions and makes a choice in favor of the family, thereby dooming himself to death in the Death of Cuchulainn saga. Based on the plots of the sagas about Cuchulain, one can compose his epic biography: a miraculous birth, education as a blacksmith in the forest, training in martial arts from the hero Skatakh in other world, equivalent to the state of the hero’s temporary death during the initiation rite and rebirth in a new, more perfect quality and new status, youthful deeds, heroic matchmaking to Emer, then - an appeal to misbehavior: love for Fand, the murder of Ferdiad’s brother-in-arms in a duel, the tragic guilt for betrayal and death, and as a result - the death of the hero. Cuchulainn is deprived of the mischief and self-will inherent in archaic heroes, before his death he makes a choice in favor of the well-being and prosperity of the family, and saying goodbye to his relatives, he pronounces the name of the great capital of the Ulads - "Emain-Mahi". As indicated in the conclusions to the section "Celtic epic" in the textbook "History of foreign literature. Middle Ages and Renaissance" / M. P. Alekseev, V. M. Zhirmunsky, S. S. Mokulsky, A. A. Smirnov. (M., 1987), despite the mythical features inherent in Cuchulainn: “... in the image of Cuchulainn, ancient Ireland embodied its ideal of valor and moral perfection. He is generous to his enemies, responsive to any grief, polite to everyone, always a defender of the weak and the oppressed.

6 . In the second part of the heroic epic of the Celts, the cycle of Finn, the heroic beginning is even more clearly combined with the fantastic and love-romantic. If Cuchulainn and Conchobor still have real historical prototypes, then the wizard and seer Finn is a completely fictional character, most likely dating back to the subjects of druidic magic. In the saga “The Persecution of Diarmuid and Graine”, both the remnants of matriarchy and involvement in pagan cults are clearly expressed, in particular, the reciprocity of the life of a person and his totemic twin (boar and Diarmuid), the cult of sacred trees (apple tree, hiding in the crown of which Diarmuid watches a chess game), a prophetic principle contained in creatures of a different element (in lolos, after eating which Finn became a seer) or a source that brings wisdom, knowledge of the future and poetic inspiration. Finn's cycle was developed first in the form of sagas and then in the form of ballads.

SONGS OF "Elder Edda"

1 . The German-Scandinavian archaic tradition was most fully preserved not on the continent, but in Iceland, where the most favorable conditions developed for the preservation of the archaic folk-poetic tradition, moreover, in the forms of not only heroic, but also mythological epos proper. Songs that arose in ancient times were recorded in the 12th-13th centuries, when writing became widespread in Iceland. The most archaic works of the Old Norse epic have come down to us in a handwritten collection called the Royal Code and found in 1643 by the Icelandic bishop Brynjolf Sveinson. As the authors of the textbook “History of Foreign Literature. Middle Ages and Renaissance” (M., 1987): “Most of the heroic songs of the Edda date back in their plots to the epic poetry of the continental Germans, while the mythological songs have no parallels among the Germans and Anglo-Saxons, perhaps because these peoples were subjected to more early and deep Christianization" 25 .

2 . Sveinson identified the records of ancient myths he found about gods and heroes with the book of the Icelandic skald Snorri Sturluson "Edda" (later called "Younger Edda") and called the collection of ancient songs "Elder Edda" (or poetic, since Snorri's "Edda" was prose). Snorri's "Edda" contains four main sections, one of which ("The Vision of Gyulgvi") actually cites in prosaic retelling the ancient Germanic-Scandinavian myths about gods and heroes. Identifying the names of gods and heroes, Sveinson drew an analogy between his find and Snorri's Edda. The “Elder Edda” and “Edda” by Snorri were also characterized by the unity of artistic means of expressing the content and the system of poetic tropes. In the section “Language of Poetry”, which concludes the Edda, Snorri gives the main stylistic devices and paths of Scandinavian poetry: heiti (a poetic synonym) and kennings (two-part metaphor), for example, heiti of the sun - a circle, radiance, kenning of a ship - a horse of the sea, kenning the seas are the home of the eels.

3 . At the beginning of the 19th century, against the background of the general interest of the Romantics in archaic culture and mythology, the first explanations of the origin of the archaic epic appeared. Romantic science considers the Eddic songs as the fruit of spontaneous folk art, an expression of the folk spirit. The English mythologist M. Muller develops the concept of “language illness”, believing that myths arose as comments on the meanings of words that gradually lost their original meaning, since its history, i.e. myth, was already contained in the nomination of an object or phenomenon. Muller points out that the names of the gods then became adjectives and this transformation required an explanation (M. Muller. Comparative Mythology. - M., 1863, English ed. -1856). 26 It is curious that the supporter of the structuralist approach to myth, K. Levi-Strauss, examining the language of myths of primitive peoples, comes to the conclusion that the most archaic myths should have consisted of one word - mytheme - "the word of words" 27 . The positivist school insists on the concept of individual authorship of songs, considering the Eddic poetry "artificial", and not folk, which arose no later than the Viking Age, i.e. in the 9th - 12th centuries .., and the names of archaic gods are regarded as a later romantic addition or decoration. The position of modern researchers (M. I. Steblin-Kamensky, E. M. Meletinsky, V. V. Ivanov, V. N. Toporov) is syncretic in relation to the two concepts presented: Eddic songs originate from folklore, but are subjected to the author's stylistic processing and reflect, thus, the transition from folklore to literature.

4. "Elder Edda" includes 10 mythological and 19 heroic songs. As narratives, in the form of a mythological ballad, myths are presented in the "Song of the Hold" and in the "Song of Hymir". Songs of the didactic type are called "speeches" in the Elder Edda. In the song “Speech of the High One”, a set of didactic rules, wisdom and knowledge of spells and runes (ancient magic and sacred writing) Odin conveys to the listener in the form of teachings and aphorisms, and through him to people. Leading artistic techniques in songs are repetition and parallelism. Dialogic songs are also called "speeches" and act as a way of systematizing myths in the form of questions and answers, first of all, in this way, cosmogonic myths are represented. In form, dialogic song-speech is a competition in wisdom between the gods and giants ("Speeches of Vaftrudnir") or a dispute for the bride ("Speeches of Alvis"). The systematization of myths is also carried out in divination songs: for example, in the first part of the Velva Divination (the most famous song of the Elder Edda, which opens the collection), cosmogonic myths are retold, and in the second part, eschatological myths. “The most complete picture of Scandinavian mythology is provided by Volupsa (“Divination of the Velva”), a song about the origin and impending death of the world, which opens the Edda” 28 . The purpose of bickering songs (Loki's Bicker, Harbard's Song) was to make people laugh, not ridicule. Throughout the songs of this type, the same epic situation is preserved, and the dialogue is the basis of the song. In Loki's Quarrel, Loki appears at the feast of the gods and in every possible way reproaches and scolds the aces, accusing the gods of being "effeminate", and the goddesses of debauchery. The angry gods come up with a terrible punishment for Loki, which will last until Ragnarok comes, then Loki will free himself from the chains and himself will lead the ship of the dead from the other world of Hel. Squabble songs can be defined as epic-dramatic works, proto-comedies. 29

5 . The heroic songs of Elder Edtsa are no less archaic than the mythological ones. The problem of correlation between myth and epic in heroic songs finds different solutions in science. The natural philosophical concept identifies the heroes of the epic as symbols and allegories of natural phenomena (the moon, the sun, or thunderstorms). Supporters of the positivist school demythologize the epic, believing that its heroes have historical prototypes, and the figures of the gods represent later romantic additions. The neo-mythological school is looking for the origins of epic plots and the origin of epic heroes in the sphere of myth, but not natural, but ritual, based on the concept of archetypes by K.-G. Cabin boy. If we turn to the main archetypes identified by Jung (shadows, child-mothers, anima-animus, persona-self, wise old man-old woman), then we can, following E. M. Meletinsky, identify them as stages in the formation of a personality or, according to Jung, individuation. 30 Shadow, anti-I archetypally expresses the pre-human principle in man. In the Velsunga saga, during Sinfjötli's military initiations, father and son put on wolf skins and become wolves, and then regain human form. 31 Brynhild acts as an invincible heroic maiden, thereby showing the identification of the anima-animus archetype: the unconsciously present beginning of the opposite sex in a person. Faced with the need to choose between personal security and the integrity of the clan, the hero of the archaic makes a choice in favor of the clan, thereby realizing the dual archetype of the person (outward-oriented, socially adapted beginning) and the self (internal, individual beginning).

In the “Younger Edda”, Odin, in the form of a wise old man, appears on the edge of the pit dug by Sigurd before the duel with the dragon, and advises digging two pits so that the dragon’s poison flows into one, and the hero hides himself in the other so as not to harm himself. The actual overcoming of the split personality, the transition from one archetypal stage to another: from a beast to a man, from a child to a warrior in the course of initiation, through marriage trials to gaining sexual identity, through social adaptation to a balance between public and individual, and finally, to gaining true wisdom - the path of formation, development and formation of a personality, corresponding to the previously given concept of the "biography" of the hero of the archaic epic, offering the identification of archetypes through specific epic events typical of the archaic epic.

6 . The heroic songs of the "Elder Edda" are distinguished by the careful development of the images of heroes (Sigurd, Gunnar, Gudrun, Brynhild). Particularly indicative is the image of Brynhild, shown as torn by contradictions, in all the complexity of emotional experiences (“A Brief Song about the Death of Sigurd”, “Brynhild's Journey to Hel”). Gunnar is also subject to reflection (“A short song about the death of Sigurd”), and the depth of Gudrun’s experiences (“The First Song about Gudrun”, “The Second Song about Gudrun”) is also shown. The tendency to show the state of mind of the character contributes to the growth of the lyrical element, and this leads to the emergence of the genre of heroic elegy (“Brynhild's trip to Hel”, “The first song about Gudrun”), during which the same epic situation persists, acting as a background to the dialogue or lyrical outpourings of the heroine, and the epic events pass before the reader in the form of a flashback, the memories of the lyrical subject about the past. In the new genre of heroic elegy, as the authors of the textbook “The History of Foreign Literature. The Middle Ages and the Renaissance” (M., 1987), “the traditional epic plot… serves as material for lyrical and dramatic processing” 32 .

The songs about heroes are characterized by intensity of passions and expressiveness. Their originality is determined by the combination of epic and lyrical beginnings.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ARCHAIC EPOS IN HISTORY
WORLD LITERATURE

The Irish archaic epic, with its lofty and tragic heroism, depiction of the destructive and irresistible power of love passion, played a leading role in the genesis of the chivalric romance, being perceived, first of all, through the legend of Tristan and Isolde, processed by Mary of France (le "On Honeysuckle"), Chrétien de Troyes ("Clijes"), Beroul and Thomas. From the Celtic tradition, images of wonderful magical helpers came to the chivalric romance (the fairy Morgana (archaic Morrigan)), rescuing the wounded King Arthur on the island of Avvalon (Isle of Apples), the wizard Merlin, the sword in the rock, the love drink, the magical love spot). And then, at the turn of the XYIII - XIX centuries, Ossian's Songs (1763) by J. MacPherson (1736-1796), issued by him as a collection of old ballads from the Finn cycle, had a significant impact on the formation of romanticism, including Russian. They are associated with the appearance in romantic literature of specific “Ossian motifs” (northern, harsh landscapes, wild rocks, cold stormy sea, formidable and gloomy warrior heroes, as well as the cult of love that overcomes death, the destructive power of love charms and posthumous revenge).

Interest in German-Scandinavian epic poetry awakens in world literature in the era of pre-romanticism and romanticism and does not dry out to this day. The colossal creation of Richard Wagner (1813-1883) - the opera tetralogy "Ring of the Nibelung" (moreover, Wagner himself acted as both the author of the libretto and the composer) (1848-1874), including four operas ("Gold of the Rhine", "Valkyrie", "Siegfried" , "The Death of the Gods"), is a romantic interpretation of not only the heroic epic "Nibelungenlied", but also the archaic songs of the "Elder Edda". creative way Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) began with an appeal to Norse mythology, which found expression in the play Warriors in Helgeland (1857). Moreover, the playwright enhances the tragic disunity of the mythological characters Sigurd and Brynhild, extending it beyond the earthly world: Brynhild in the Elder Edda, having climbed Sigurd's funeral pyre, goes after him to the kingdom of the dead Hel ("Brynhild's Journey to Hel") in order to unite with his lover forever, in Ibsen's play, Sigurd managed to become a Christian and a completely different afterlife awaits him than the pagan Jordis (as Ibsen calls Brynhild), who is seen after death at the head of the train of the dead, carrying fallen soldiers to Valhalla.

V. Nabokov (1899-1977) showed constant interest in archaic epics, the Celtic sagas are included in the subtext of Lolita (1955), along with other sources, and the German-Scandinavian epic tradition is updated in Nabokov's late English-language novels Pale Flame (1962). ), "Ada" (1969). Of particular interest is the novel by the American writer J. Gardner (1933-1982) "Grendel" (1971), which is based on the modernist method of focalization. The events of the archaic epic "Beowulf" are shown and interpreted from the point of view of Grendel, which gives an unusual and highly polemical perspective to what is happening. Of the interpretations of the German-Scandinavian epic, I would like to note the short story by the Argentine writer, poet, essayist and philosopher H.-L. Borges (1899-1986) "Ulrika" (1975), built on the game of contradictions between the "Elder Edda" and "The Song and the Nibelungs". In an original way, motifs from Celtic mythology are included in the subtext of the novel by modern American writers: J. Updike (1932-2009) "Brazil" (version of the legend of Tristan and Isolde) and C. Palahniuk "Invisible Monsters" (1999, another translation option - "Invisibles ").

A fantasy style that gained particular popularity after the release of J. R. Tolkien's (1892-1973) trilogy "The Lord of the Rings" (1954-1955, the first Russian translation of the first volume called "Watchmen" - 1983), as well as after its successful film adaptation , stimulates the emergence of the widest interest in archaic epics and their diverse, but, unfortunately, not always serious and congenial primary sources of interpretation.

TERMINOLOGICAL DEVICE
TO SECTION "CELTIC SAGA":

EPIC STYLE FORMULA- a stable stylistic device, repeated with variations in the heroic epic.

SAGA(from the Old Norse segga - to say, to tell) - a prose, that is, a told story. The epic of Iceland took shape in the form of sagas. The saga is about the past. It is extremely objective and prosaic, its stylization is minimal, and the narrative is concise and realistic.

SKELA- the Irish title of a separate work of an archaic epic, emphasizing its genre originality, in comparison with the Icelandic saga.

ETIOLOGY- explanation of the reason ETIOLOGICAL MYTHS- myths explaining the cause of a particular phenomenon, and ETYMOLOGICAL- its origin.

TOPONYMIC MYTHS- myths explaining the origin of the name of a particular place.

HERO KING- the central opposition in the heroic and, to some extent, in the archaic epics, associated with the distribution of activity between the king (in the archaic epic, the tribal leader) and the hero and the characteristics of the relationship that develops between them.

GOD-DEMIURG- the creator of the world, separating chaos from space or transforming chaos into space.

TOTEMIC ancestor- the ancestor of the tribe, who mastered for him a certain "own" territory within certain boundaries. It is endowed with the features of a person and an animal, less often a plant that patronizes the tribe.

CULTURE HERO- a mythological character who teaches people about agriculture, crafts and arts.

UPPER, LOWER and MIDDLE WORLDS- vertical organization of space. The upper world belongs to the gods, the middle one is inhabited by people, the lower one - by ancestors and chthonic monsters. As a rule, it finds external spatial expression in the image of the world tree.

HORIZONTAL SPACE ORGANIZATION- division of space in archaic models of the world into sacred centers and profane periphery; the center of the world is sacred, inhabited by gods and people, its outskirts, especially the north, belong to demons, forces hostile to man. In the Celtic epic, ice demons - fomors.

SACRAL- sacred.

profane- worldly, secular, not initiated into some secrets. In the Early Middle Ages, a layman was a monk who was not literate.

GENESIS- the origin, the emergence of a phenomenon in the history of literature, for example, the genesis of the genre of the novel, dating back to antiquity and the Mature Middle Ages.

TO SECTION "SONGS OF "SENIOR EDDA"":

ARCHETYPE- a key concept in the teachings of K. -G. Jung on the collective unconscious. First scheme, image background. It is realized in varieties: the archetype of the shadow (“anti-I”), corresponding to the pre-human, bestial principle; anima-animus, expressing the unconscious principle of the opposite sex in a person; self-persons, where the self is the inner "I" of a person, the person is the external, socially oriented beginning of the human personality, the wise old man (old woman) as the embodiment of knowledge about the world, the true meaning hidden behind the bustle of everyday life.

MYTH- in recent times is defined not terminologically, but according to a set of criteria, of which two are identifying:

a) the cyclic concept of time;
b) pre-personality (dispersion) of the hero's personality.

RITUAL- verbal and game actions designed to transform the outside world. The cosmogonic ritual reproduces in whole or in part the act of creation of the world.

COSMOGONY MYTHS- Myths about the creation of the world.

REFLECTION- the moment of the contradictory state of the hero's soul, the need for preference and making a choice.

HEROIC ELEGY- an expression in the lyrics of sadness about the death of the hero and the exaltation of the feats accomplished by him during his lifetime.

ANTITHESIS- a compositional technique based on the opposition of parts of the work is realized through the contrast of images, situations, landscapes.

PARALLELISM- identical, but not excluding variations, the construction of stanzas in the lyrics, plot episodes in the epic.

WORKS OF ART:

To the section "Celtic sagas":

1. From the stories of ancient Icelandic witchcraft and the Hidden People. - M., 2003.

2. Irish sagas. - M. - L., 1961.

3. Icelandic sagas. Irish epic. - M., 1973.

4. Faces of Ireland. Book of legends. - M. - SPb., 2001.

5. Abduction of a bull from Kual'nge. - M., 1985.

5. Poetry of Ireland. - M., 1988.

6. Traditions and myths of medieval Ireland. - M., 1991.

1. Beowulf. Elder Edda. Song of the Nibelungs. - M., 1975.

2. Poetry of skalds. - L., 1979.

3. Scandinavian ballad. - L., 1978.

4. Elder Edda. -SPb., 2001.

5. World tree Yggdrasil. Saga of the Velsungs. - M, 2002.

6. Snorri Sturluson. Younger Edda. - L., 1956.

EDUCATIONAL LITERATURE:

To the section "Celtic sagas":

Main:

1. Bakhtin M. M. Lectures on the history of foreign literature. Antiquity. Middle Ages. - Saransk, 1999.

2. Bondarenko GV The mythology of the space of medieval Ireland. - M., 2003.

3. Guyonvarch K.-J., Leroux F. Celtic civilization. SPb. -M., 2001.

4. Ivanov VV The origin of the name Kuchulin. // Problems of Comparative Philology, M. - L., 1964, p. 451-461.

5. Smirnov A. A. Celtic literature.//Smirnov A. A. From the history of Western European literature, M .: L., 1965.

6. Steblin-Kamensky M. I. The world of the saga. The formation of literature. - L., 1984.

Additional:

1. Kendrick T. D. Druids. - St. Petersburg, 2007.

2. Celtic mythology. Encyclopedia. Myths. Beliefs. Legends. Deities. Heroes. - M., 2003.

3. Mythology of the British Isles. Encyclopedia. Myths. Beliefs. Legends. Deities. Heroes. - M., 2003.

4. Levin Yu. D. Ossian in Russian literature. - L., 1980.

5. Leroux F. Druids. - SPb., 2001.

6. Steblin-Kamensky M.I. Culture of Iceland. - L., 1967.

7. Typology and interconnections of the literatures of the ancient world. - M., 1971.

To the section "Songs of the Elder Edda":

Main:

1. Grintser P. A. Epos of the ancient world // Typology and interconnections of the literatures of the ancient world. - M., 1971.

2. Gurevich A. Ya. "Edda" and the saga. - M, 1979.

3. Meletinsky E. M. "Edda" and early forms of the epic. - M., 1968.

4. Steblin-Kamensky M.I. Old Norse Literature. - M., 1979.

Additional:

1. Averintsev S. S. Analytical psychology K. -G. Jung and patterns of creative fantasy // On modern bourgeois aesthetics. - M., 1972. - Issue. 3.

2. Zhirmunsky V. M. Folk heroic epic: Comparative historical essays. - M.-L., 1962.

3. Scandinavian mythology. Encyclopedia. Myths. Beliefs. Legends. Deities. Heroes. - M., 2004.

4. Jung K.-G. Problems of the soul of our time. - M., 1993.

5. Jung K.-G. Archetypes of the collective unconscious // History of foreign psychology 30-60s. XX century. Texts. - M., 1986.

WORK WITH SOURCES:

To the section "Celtic sagas"

Exercise 1.

Read the fragment of the saga "Wooing to Emer" and answer the questions:

1. Why is the appearance of Cuchulainn different from that of an ordinary person?
2. What is the meaning of the plug-in design “until the fighting ardor took possession of it”? Why is fighting ardor incompatible with the gift of wisdom?

Cuchulain excelled them all in deeds in swiftness and dexterity. The women of Ulad loved Cuchulain very much for his dexterity in exploits, for his agility in jumping, for the superiority of his mind, for the sweetness of his speech, for the beauty of his face, for the charm of his eyes. There were seven pupils in his royal eyes, four in one eye and three in the other. There were seven fingers on each hand, seven on each foot. He possessed many gifts: first of all, the gift of wisdom (until fighting ardor took possession of him), then - the gift of exploits, the gift of playing different games on the board, the gift of counting, the gift of prophecy, the gift of insight.

Courtship to Emer // Icelandic sagas. Irish epic. - M., 1973. S. 587.

Task 2.

Read a fragment from the article by E. M. Meletinsky "Celtic epic" and answer the questions:

1. Why is the saga "Bull-stealing from Kualnge" called the "Irish Iliad"?
2. What is the heroism and tragedy of the image of Cuchulainn?
3. Why doesn't Cuchulainn triumph in mourning Ferdiad? Why, in mourning Ferdiad, does Cuchulainn foresee his own death?

The main hero of the Ulads and the main character of the Irish epic is Cuchulain (more correctly, Cuculaine), who lived, according to the chronicle, in the 1st century BC. n. e. Before receiving a real name, which is totemic in nature (Kukulain - "Dog of the Kulan"), he was called Setanta. The Setantii were one of the Celtic tribes of ancient Britain. The name of his father-in-law (Forgal Manach) may contain a memory of the Menakii tribe who migrated to Ireland from Gaul. The miraculous weapon of Cuchulainn - gae bolga - brings to mind the Gallic Belgian tribe. Thus, some of the ancient elements of the tales of Cuchulainn seem to lead back to pre-Irish common Celtic origins. However, if the continuous epic tradition goes back to the beginning of our era, the main core of the Ulad cycle was probably formed between the 3rd-8th centuries. (before the Scandinavian invasion), and its development in book form (including the interpolation of Christian motifs) continued in the 9th-11th centuries. The cycle continued after that. Some ballads on the plots of legends about settlements even date back to the 15th century.

The theme of the war between the Ulads and the Connachts is most fully developed in the most extensive of the sagas of this cycle - "The Bull Steal from Kualnge", which is sometimes called the "Irish Iliad". The reason for the war here is the abduction, at the behest of Medb, of a beautiful brown bull of divine origin, belonging to one of the Ulads. Possessing this bull, Medb hoped to surpass the wealth of her husband Ailil, who owned a beautiful white-horned bull. Medb started the war at a time when all the Ulads, with the exception of Cuchulainn, were stricken with magical morbid weakness. Cuchulainn took up position at one ford and forced the enemy warriors one by one to engage him in battle. This situation is a kind of technique for highlighting the main character, it forms the frame of the narrative and determines the compositional structure of the saga, which is in principle the opposite of Homer's Iliad. In the Iliad, Achilles' departure from battle makes it possible, without disturbing the continuity of the epic narrative and the integrity of the epic, to show the exploits of other heroes and include many plots. In The Stealing of the Bull from Kualnge, a significant part of the epic material is introduced in the form of insertions, interpolations, stories of characters, etc. Hence the well-known compilability of the Irish Iliad, which does not reach the level of an organically unified large epic form.

So, the compositional core here is a series of duels between Cuchulainn and enemy heroes. Only Cuchulainn's teacher Fergus (who had transferred to Medb's service) managed to avoid such a battle. He persuaded Cuchulainn to voluntarily flee from him, so that another time he, in turn, would flee from Cuchulainn and drag the whole army with him.

Only for three days the emaciated hero is replaced at the ford by the god Lug in the form of a young warrior. The militant fairy Morrigan also offers her help to Cuchulain, and when Cuchulain rejects her, she, turning into a cow, attacks him herself. Thus mythological beings intervene in the struggle, but its outcome is entirely determined by the heroism of Cuchulainn.

His brother Ferdiad also has to fight Cuchulain (they once underwent military training together with the sorceress Skatakh), a mighty hero with horny skin, like Siegfried of German legends. Medb forced him to oppose Cuchulain by the power of druidic spells.

During a night's rest after battles, the heroes exchange food and healing potions in a friendly manner, their drivers lie side by side, their horses graze together. But on the third day, Cuchulain uses to him alone the well-known fighting technique of the "horned spear" (mentioned above gae bolga) and kills Ferdiad. After the death of a friend, however, he falls into despair:

Why do I need all the hardness of the spirit now?
Longing and madness took possession of me
Before this death that I caused
Over this body that I slew.
(Translated by A. Smirnov)

The duel with Ferdiad is the climax of the story. Soon the term of the magical illness of the Ulads passes, and they enter the battle. Fergus, fulfilling his promise, flees from the battlefield, dragging the troops of the Connachts with him. A brown bull from Kualnge kills a white-horned bull and rushes through the land of the Connachts, bringing terror and devastation until it crashes on a hill. The war thus becomes aimless, and the warring parties make peace: the Ulads capture a lot of booty.

There are a lot of poetic inserts in The Stealing of the Bull from Kualnge and there are a number of episodes that are not directly related to the main action. Among these episodes is Fergus's story about Cuchulain's heroic childhood: at the age of five he could fight against fifty other children, and at six he killed a terrible dog that belonged to the blacksmith Kulan, and had to "serve" a certain term instead of a dog, for which he received the name of the Dog Kulan. The heroism of the first feat and the naming, apparently, reflect ancient custom initiatory trials (initiation) of warriors.

Other sagas (“The Birth of Cuchulainn”, “Wooing to Emer”, “Cuchulin's Illness”, “Death of Cuchulainn”, etc.) also contain various archaic motifs of the heroic fairy tale, attached to Cuchulainn and, as it were, constituting in their totality his poetic biography. Cuchulain turns out to be either the son of the god Lug, from whom Dekhtire conceived by swallowing an insect with a sip of water; or her son Dekhtira from her unintentional incestuous relationship with her brother, King Conchobar (the motif of brother and sister incest is characteristic of the mythological epic about the "ancestors", the first kings, etc.).

Kuchulin is brought up by a blacksmith (just like the German Siegfried; the heroes of the Nart epos of the Caucasian peoples even get "hardened" on a blacksmith's forge). The sorceress Skatakh Kuchulin, as already mentioned, is undergoing military training along with other heroes. During this period, Cuchulain enters into a relationship with the heroic maiden Aife. Subsequently, their son Conloach is looking for his father and, not knowing him, enters into battle with him and dies by his hand. The theme of the battle between father and son is an international epic story known to Greek, German, Russian, Persian, Armenian and other epics. Heroic courtship is as much an obligatory moment in the hero's poetic biography as a miraculous birth and first feat. In order to win the hand of Emer, Cuchulainn performs a number of difficult tasks assigned to him by her father. Already married to Emer, Cuchulain enters into a love affair with the sida (fairy) Fand. This motif is characteristic of the Irish epic, but is also known to others (cf. the Old Norse songs about Helgi below). The Seeds do not so much patronize the hero as they themselves need his protection; and Cuchulainn goes to the other world to slay their enemies.

One of the most beautiful sagas about Cuchulainn is the saga of his death. Cuchulainn falls victim to his own nobility and the cunning of his enemies. Not daring to break the vow not to refuse anything to women, Cuchulainn eats the dog meat offered to him by the witches and thereby violates the totemic taboo - the ban on eating his animal "relative". Cuchulainn cannot allow the Connacht druids to sing an "evil song", that is, a witchcraft spell directed against his family and tribe, and therefore throws a spear forward three times, from which, according to the prediction, he should die. The spear kills first his driver and horse, and then the hero himself. After his death, another Ulad hero, Konal the Victorious, avenges the murder of his friend. And the women of the Ulads see the spirit of Cuchulain soaring in the air with the words: “Oh, Emain-Maha! Oh, Emain-Maha - the Great, the greatest treasure!

The heroism of the image of Cuchulain, in principle a typical epic hero, expresses the originality of the Irish epic. This originality is revealed when comparing him with the heroes in other epics, for example, in Homer's. Cuchulainn is devoid of the plasticity of Achilles. In his appearance there are features of archaic demonism, expressing the magical basis of his power. He is sometimes described as a small black man (although among the ancient Celts blonds were considered a model of beauty), he has seven fingers, several pupils; his transformation at the moment of fighting fury is fantastically and hyperbolically depicted (as in the Scandinavian warriors - barserks or heroes of the Yakut epic). He wins with miraculous weapons. However, Cuchulain's heroism is deeply human. It reveals the tragic possibilities arising from the heroic character. This is very clear in the saga of his death. As a man still largely primitive society, he is entangled in contradictory prohibitions and magical prescriptions, as a heroic person, he makes a choice between them in favor of the clan-tribe, thereby dooming himself to death.

E. M. Meletinsky. Celtic epic. // History of world literature: In 8 volumes / USSR Academy of Sciences; Institute of world literature. them. A. M. Gorky. - M .: Nauka, 1983-1994. T. 2. - 1984. - S. 460-467.

Task 3.

Read an excerpt from Vladimir Solovyov's critical article "Lermontov" and answer the questions:

1. To what Celtic conception of the bard do Thomas Learmonth's abilities and fate correspond?
2. Find the old Scottish ballad "Thomas the Rhymer" and establish a correspondence between its content and the retelling of the legend of Thomas Lermont that Vl. Solovyov?
3. What in the work and fate of M. Yu. Lermontov is correlated with the abilities and mysterious fate of his distant Scottish ancestor? (To answer the question, remember the poems by M. Yu. Lermontov "Desire" and "Prophet").

In the border region of Scotland with England, near the monastic town of Melrose, Ersildon Castle stood in the 13th century, where the famous in his time and later even more famous knight Thomas Lermont lived. He was famous as a sorcerer and seer, who from his youth was in some mysterious relationship with the kingdom of the fairies and then gathered curious people around a huge old tree on the hill of Ersildon, where he prophesied and, by the way, predicted the Scottish king Alfred III his unexpected and accidental death. At the same time, the owner of Ersildon was famous as a poet, and he retained the nickname of a poet, or, in that time, a rhymer - Thomas the Rhymer; his end was mysterious: he disappeared without a trace, leaving after two white deer, sent for him, as they said, from the realm of the fairies. A few centuries later, one of the direct descendants of this fantastic hero, a singer and soothsayer, who disappeared into the poetic kingdom of fairies, was brought by fate to the prose kingdom of Moscow. Around 1620, “an eminent person, Yuri Andreevich Lermont, came from Lithuania to the city of Bely from the Shkotsky land and asked for the service of the great sovereign, and in Moscow, with his desire, he was baptized from the Calvin faith into the pious. And Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich granted him eight villages and wastelands of the Galician district, Zablotsky volost. And by decree of the great sovereign, the boyar Prince I. B. Cherkassky agreed with him, and he, Yuri, was assigned to teach the newly baptized Germans of the old and new exits, as well as the Tatars, in the Reitar system. From this captain Lermont in the eighth generation comes our poet, connected with the Reitar system, like this ancestor of the 17th century, but much closer in spirit to his ancient ancestor, the prophetic and demonic Thomas the Rhymer, with his love songs, gloomy predictions, mysterious dual existence and fatal end.

Vl. Solovyov. Lermontov // http://rodon.org/svs/l.htm. See also paper

Ireland, where the Roman legionaries penetrated, was in ancient era a remote periphery of the Celtic world, but in the Middle Ages it became the main center of Celtic culture.

Invasions of the Scandinavian Vikings in the VIII-X centuries. and the Anglo-Norman conquest in the 11th century. did not have a significant impact on the original Irish culture. Until the final political subordination to the British (in the 16th century), essential features of the tribal system were preserved in Ireland. The rather early Christianization of Ireland (in the 5th century) also changed little. Among the Irish monks there were many zealots of their native antiquity, who copied and protected the manuscripts containing records of the ancient Irish sagas * (in Irish - scela). These sagas are one of the main parts of the Celtic cultural heritage.

Irish sagas- samples of a prose epic with poetic inserts (syllabic, mostly seven-syllable verses in the form of short stanzas, of four lines, connected in pairs by rhyme or assonance; sometimes alliteration is used). The prose form is found in the epic of some peoples (for example, in the Nart legends in the Caucasus), and the mixed (poetic-prose) form is quite widespread.

In the Irish sagas there are a number of common places, traditional formulas (descriptions of appearance and clothes are especially characteristic in this respect), which indicates their folklore origins. In the descriptions, the style of the sagas is rich in retarded details, in dramatic places it is lapidary and impetuous. In verse, most of the speech of the characters is transmitted, especially at the moment high voltage(this is typical for the mixed form in the epic). Poems often use parallelisms that decorate epithets and other stylistic devices.

Cycles:

1. Mythological cycle of sagas

This is a special cycle, since its sagas are sometimes considered as cosmogonic myths of the Celts, that is, myths about the creation of the world, although in this case we are not talking about such grandiose stories as the birth of the universe, like Babylonian and Scandinavian legends, but only about the design of the current image of Ireland and the tribes that inhabited it. The mythological cycle is the least well preserved of all four cycles. The most important sources are "Old Places" and "Book of Captures". Other sagas of the cycle - "Angus' Dream", "Wooing to Etain" and "(Second) Battle of Mag Tuired", as well as one of the most famous Irish sagas "The Tragedy of Lear's Children".

2. Ulad cycle of sagas

The Ulad cycle is complex around the beginning of the Christian era, most of the action takes place in the areas of Ulster and Connacht. This cycle consists of a series of heroic stories concerning the life of Conchobar mac Ness, king of Ulster, the great hero Cuchulainn son of Lug, their friends, lovers and enemies. The cycle is named after the Ulads, a population of the north-eastern part of Ireland, and the action of the stories takes place around the royal court in Emine Mah, near the modern city of Armag. The Ulads are closely associated with the Irish colony in Scotland, and part of Cuchulainn's training takes place there.

The cycle consists of stories of births, childhood and training, courtship, battles, feasts and deaths of heroes and depicts a military society in which war is a sequence of single skirmishes, and wealth is measured mainly in the number of livestock. These stories are usually written in prose. The central product of the cycle is Bull-stealing from Kualnge. Other important texts of the Ulad cycle are − Tragic death of Aife's only son, Feast of Brikren and Destruction of Da Derg's House. The famous part of this cycle is The expulsion of the sons of Usneh, better known as the tragedy of Deirdre and the source of plays by John Sing, William Yeats and Vincent Woods.

In some respects, this cycle is close to mythological. Some of the mythological characters appear in the Ulad, in the same form of magic that changed the form. Although some characters, such as Medb or Ku Roi, we may suspect that they were once deities, and Cuchulainn often displays superhuman perfection, the characters are mortal and rooted in a specific time and place. If the mythological cycle corresponds to the Golden Age, then the Ulad cycle corresponds to the Age of Heroes.

3. Cycle of Finn, or Ossian

These sagas also tell about heroes, but if in the sagas of the Ulad cycle the heroes are mostly loners, then this cycle of sagas is dedicated to the comradeship of warriors and their pleasure from being in the "chosen society of beautiful young warriors." The central saga in this group of stories is "The Persecution of Diarmuid and Graine", dedicated to love and the tragic death of lovers. Perhaps such a change of mood in the sagas is due to the fact that the heyday of the cycle coincides with the spread in Europe of courtly poetry of troubadours and trouveurs, as well as novels of the Arthurian type.

4. Royal or historical cycle

The sagas of the last, royal, cycle tell not so much about kings as about the kingdom as an idea, about the dynasties of different regions of Ireland, the change of royal houses and their destinies. This cycle includes stories about such kings as Conaire the Great, Conn of the Hundred Battles, Cormac Mac Art, Niall the Nine Hostages or Domnal Mac Aed.

Monuments

Three kinds of monuments : songs of the Edda. Elder (poetic) Edda - 36 canonical songs about gods and heroes. The main part is composed in antiquity. Songs were formed even among the continental Germans. Mention of the Rhine, German landscapes, Sigurd (Siegfried).

The second kind - skaldic poetry. Skalds are warrior poets. It is written in a special language. Such metaphors that could not be immediately understood. These figures were called kenings. The more the skald knew them, the more talented he was considered. The ship is the rider of the storm, the warrior is the spear of battle, the shaft of battle. The best kenings were based on mythology.

Third kind - sagas(ancestral sagas), there is no fiction in them. They are about exceptional people. Curious psychological studies. Royal sagas. The most famous is Snorre Sturlson's Circle of the Earth. There are also sagas of an entertaining nature - the so-called false sagas.

1. Songs of the Elder Edda preserve the ideas of the ancient Germans. This manuscript was written around the 10th century. Edda was written in the 12th century, and then lost. Found only in 1643 in Copenhagen, no name. Before it was found, there was an Edda by Snorre Sturlson. Prose created to help the skalds. In this "Edda" the main kenings were deciphered. The main part: a prose story about Old Norse mythology. The prose of this book is transposed from the Elder Edda. Hence the name. They just started calling Edda the youngest. Some believe that Edda comes from a word meaning poetics. The second interpretation is the farm where Snorre wrote to Edda. The third - in one of the dialects Edda means great-grandmother. The Edda songs are very small, focused on the bottom of the episode. Associations with other songs. Lots of listings. prospective content. There is much more content encoded in these songs.

Songs about gods and heroes - 2 parts. The songs contain a lot of material on mythology. The ancient Greeks have life-affirming myths. The Scandinavians are sad. The gods are immortal. The gods will die protecting this world. The gods are not lenient like the Greeks. Among the ancient Germans, they are only SLIGHTLY better than people, they exist in alliance with them, because this is the only way to delay Ragnarok. It is the eternal winter before the end of the world. The main gods are divided into two camps: the ases, who are supreme, and the baths, more ancient, the gods of nature. They are in a constant struggle, but the idea of ​​Ragnarok united them. The giants jotuns (turses) are more ancient than the gods, but they are the bearers of evil. Perhaps it was they who created the world. There are also zwergschnauzers and Albs/alves - dwarfs. Tsvergs are skilled craftsmen, they keep treasures, and elves are darker, more neutral. Ases and baths gave each other hostages.

Elder Edda

Songs about gods

1. 1. the prophecy of the velva is the history of the world from its creation and the golden age to its impending death and rebirth.
2. 2. lofty speeches - Most of it is teachings in worldly wisdom. But it also contains Odin's stories about how he was deceived by some woman, how he got the honey of poetry and how he sacrificed himself by hanging himself on the world tree in order to gain knowledge of the runes.
3. 3. Vaftrudnir's speeches
4. 4. Grimnir's speeches
5. 5. Quarrel Locke and others.

Songs about heroes

1. 1. Song of Völund
2. 2. Song of Helgi son of Hjörvard
3. 3. On the death of Sigurd and others

Younger Edda

1. 1. Prologue
2. 2. Gylvi's vision
3. 3. The language of poetry

2. Skaldic versification already fully developed in the era to which the oldest monuments of skaldic poetry belong. Therefore, it is impossible to trace how it arose. It is most likely, however, that the skaldic verse developed from the eddic as a result of the complication of the latter, and not as a result of any external influence. The basis of both verses is alliteration. All the elements of the skaldic verse are also present in the Eddic. However, while Eddic verse is the most simple and free form, Skaldic verse is the most strict and restrictive form. It is most likely, therefore, that skaldic versification is one of the manifestations of that hypertrophy of form which is characteristic of skaldic poetry in general.

In contrast to Eddic versification, alliteration in skaldic versification is more strictly regulated; Internal rhymes are strictly regulated (in Eddic verse they occur only sporadically), the number of syllables in a line (in Eddic verse it is not regulated at all), the number of lines in a stanza (in Eddic verse it is not strictly regulated).

The main genre of skaldic poetry is a laudatory song. For three and a half centuries, from the middle of the X century. and until the end of the 13th century, the Icelanders supplied the rulers of Norway, and sometimes other Scandinavian countries and even England, with laudatory songs. Many of them have been preserved (but usually not completely).

The main form of the skaldic song of praise is the drape. In the middle part of the drape, there were always several inserted sentences (the so-called "stev", i.e. chorus), which divided this middle part into several segments. Etymologically, the name "drapa" apparently means "a song broken into pieces by choruses" (drápa from drepa "to break"). The stem could be of various shapes, it could be completely unrelated to the main content of the drape. The presence of a steve is the only thing that distinguishes a drapa from the so-called "flokk", that is, a song of praise consisting of a series of stanzas not broken by a steve. The drape was considered a more magnificent and solemn form than the flock.

3. The most peculiar and most famous of the Icelandic sagas- these are those that tell about the events of the first century after the settlement of Iceland, i.e. "sagas about the Icelanders", or "ancestral sagas".

The style of "ancestral sagas" was defined as "pure", "unconditional" or "absolute" prose. First of all, it is characterized by the absence of any ornaments or figures, even epithets, not to mention metaphors. Thus, the style of "ancestral sagas" is characterized by a minimal deviation from the language of live speech. This prosaism undoubtedly bears a certain resemblance to that rejection of rhetoric and figurativeness which, with the advent of the realistic novel, has become a characteristic feature of realistic literature in general. the predominance of syntactic structures that are as simple as possible in construction and elementarily interconnected, the inconsistency of the syntactic connection, the random alternation of the past tense with the present and direct speech with indirect speech, the predominance of the simplest, elementary words and at the same time a large idiomatic expression, an abundance of stereotyped expressions, demonstrative and personal pronouns and adverbs of place and time, the repetition of the same word in the same sentence, etc. - these are features characteristic of natural and lively speech in general, and in particular for oral narration.

But the prosaic style of "ancestral sagas" is, of course, a consequence of the fact that they are the product of unconscious authorship. In a work that is a syncretic truth, the author's activity was directed, of course, not so much to the content or transmitted facts in themselves, but to the form, that is, to how these facts were told, to their dramatization and concretization in scenes and dialogues, etc. But since this authorial activity was unconscious, the form remained unconscious, and consequently not delimited from content. The prosaism of the "ancestral sagas" is this non-delimitation of form from content, minimal independence of form, minimal stylization. From this, however, it by no means follows that there is no art in the style of the "ancestral sagas". On the contrary, there is that high art in it, which is possible only with unconscious authorship and the essence of which lies in the fact that it is imperceptible. Thus, if the prosaism of the style of realistic literature of the new time is a form realized against the background of the form opposite to it, then the prosaism of the "ancestral sagas" is a form that was not realized as such and not delimited from the content.

The Irish are a people of Celtic origin. In the middle of the 1st millennium BC. Celtic tribes inhabited a significant part of Europe, in the 6th century BC. they captured the British Isles, subjugating the local tribe of the Picts. Subsequently, under the onslaught of the Germans and Romans, the Celts were pushed back to the southwest of the British Isles. The largest center of Celtic culture was the island of Ireland.

In the pagan era, the druid priests were the keepers of ancient traditions in Ireland. After the introduction of Christianity in the 5th century, the druids disappeared, and their role largely passed to the filids - the so-called magicians, poets, singers and soothsayers and bards, who later picked up the lyrical component of the druid tradition. The Philides preserved and improved the ancient stories in oral form, and the Irish Christian monks, being literate, eventually began to write down folk traditions about gods and heroes.

Actually the mythological epic is poorly preserved. Its remnant, apparently, can be considered a legend about the wars waged by the gods of the tribe of the goddess Danu (the supreme pantheon of the Celtic-Irish deities) against other mythological creatures that they met when they landed in Ireland.

Heroic tales proper are much better preserved (mainly in two manuscripts of the 12th century - "The Book of the Brown Cow" and "The Leinster Book"), permeated, however, with mythological motifs.

The richest fantasy (mythological, and then fabulous) is extremely characteristic of the Irish epic as a whole. Ideas about heroes as reincarnations of gods (and related motifs of a miraculous birth) and about the magical basis of heroic strength are signs of a very archaic stage of the epic. However, along with this, in the Irish epic we find developed heroic characters and distinct memories of historical events. True, epic wars are mostly tribal skirmishes caused by tribal feuds, cattle rustling, and the abduction of women.

The oldest cycle of the Irish epic is Ulad (Ulad is the current Ulster), which includes about a hundred legends. The epic king in the sagas of the Ulad cycle is Conchobar, the epic hero is his nephew Cuchulainn. Conchobar is gradually ousted from the epic by an active, acting hero. Time of action - 1st centuries. AD: Conchobar, according to the ancient Irish chronicles, lived from 30 BC. era to 33 AD The division of Ireland into 5 regions, which is still mentioned in the sagas, was destroyed in 130. The epic capital of the Ulads - Emain Macha - was destroyed in 332.

The Ulad cycle began to take shape in the pre-Irish period, the main core took shape in the 3rd-4th centuries. (before the Scandinavian invasion), record - in the 9-11 centuries. The oldest manuscript containing the tales of Cuchulainn, the Book of the Brown Cow, named after the material from which its binding is made, was written around 1100.

The historical background of the Ulad cycle is the hostile relations of the Ulads with Connaught and other kingdoms of Ireland.

The theme of the war between the Ulads and the Connaughts is most fully developed in the most extensive of the sagas of this cycle - "The Bull Steal from Kualnge", which is sometimes called the "Irish Iliad". The reason for the war here is the abduction, at the behest of the Queen of Connachts, Medb, of a beautiful brown bull of divine origin, belonging to one of the Ulads. Possessing this bull, Medb hoped to surpass the wealth of her husband Ailil, who owned a beautiful white-horned bull.

Some fabulous-romantic narratives, in which the image of Cuchulainn is absent, also adjoin the Ulad cycle. This, for example, is a saga that tells about how the Ulads forced the wife of the Ulad Krunkha, the wonderful sida Maha, to run in a race with horses. Her husband boasted of her quick run, thereby violating the ban. The saga is close in plot scheme to the universally widespread fairy tale about the wonderful wife.

“The Death of the Sons of Usnekh” tells how, in accordance with the prediction of the wise Cathbad, a bloody feud occurred between the villages because of the girl Deirdre. Conchobar raised her to make her his concubine, but she fell in love with Naisi, the son of Usnekh, and fled with him. Conchobar lured the sons of Usneh to Emine Mahu by treachery and killed them. Deirdre did not come to terms with the violence and committed suicide.

The love tale of Deirdre and Naisi belongs to that tradition of Celtic tales of "love is stronger than death" from which the famous story of Tristan and Iseult grew.

The second most important is the Finn cycle, which has developed in the south of Ireland. Finn's cycle was creatively developed during the period of external invasions up to the enslavement by the English, first in the form of sagas, and then in the form of ballads, which became widespread not only in Ireland, but also in Scotland. Finn was the leader of the Fennians, a special military organization independent of royal power and operating throughout Ireland, except for Ulster (Ulad). The Fennia lived mainly by hunting products. They were supposed to protect the population from external attacks (a reflection of the era of Scandinavian raids) and maintain law and order. The Fenni obeyed four taboos: to take wives not for a rich dowry, but for personal qualities, not to commit violence against women, not to refuse food and valuables, to retreat before at least ten warriors. These taboos are largely moral in nature.

Outside the Ulad cycle and the Fenni cycle, there remains a significant number of sagas in which the action is often timed to "reigns" and attached to the personalities of various Irish kings mentioned in the chronicles (more often the 6th and 7th centuries). These sagas are not heroic - they are original legends and traditions, saturated with mythological fantasy. In addition, they reflect the complex ideas of the ancient Celts about the transmigration of souls and the afterlife. The favorite themes of these sagas are: the love of a mortal and the sid (as in "The Disease of Cuchulain", cf. "The Disappearance of Kondla, son of Kond of a hundred battles", "Love for Etain", "Death of Muirhertach, son of Erk") and the mortal's voyage to the "land of bliss ” (“The Disappearance of Kondla”, “The Sailing of Bran, the Son of Febal”, “The Sailing of Mail-Duin”, “The Adventures of Cormac in the Promised Land”, etc.). So, in one of the sagas, it is told how Sida Etain, the wife of the god Mider, because of the envy of another Sida, turns into an insect, and then is reborn in the form of an earthly woman, becomes the wife of Eochaid, the High King of Ireland, and inspires withering love in his brother, and then again returns to the god Mider.

In the remarkable saga about the death of King Muirkhertakh (according to the chronicles, he died in 526 or 533; the saga dates back to the 11th century according to the language), Sida Sin, avenging his father, makes Muirkhertakh fall in love with himself, distracts him from his family and church, completely deprives him of his will , amuses him with the game of ghosts, and when the king violates the ban, calling her name (a motif from fairy tales about the “wonderful wife”), causes him to burn in an abandoned palace. This poetic saga is remarkable in that love passion is depicted in it as a destructive disease generated by witchcraft.

In the sagas about sailing to the “land of bliss”, Celtic pagan images are intertwined happy country fairies (complicated by the idea of ​​Greek Elysium and Christian paradise) with vague ideas about distant lands, with motifs of fairy tales. In "The Voyage of Mail Duina", in this miniature "Irish" Odyssey ", there are traces of acquaintance with the motifs of the real Odyssey, with the images of the Cyclops and Kirk.

Durov. com: Foreign Literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

Foreign Literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

1. Celtic epic. An analysis of one of the Irish sagas.

1. Celts

 Lived in: Scotland, Wales, Ireland. Ireland is the center of culture.

 Social system - tribal community (no guest, “preceding” person)

 Religion - Druidism. Druids became the first priests, wrote down the first traditions (V-VII)

 Different tribes: Britons, Gauls, Celts-Bers

 Good warriors, but weapons and organization are worse than those of the Romans and Germans

 Legacy: Spain (Galicia), Brittany, Ireland

2. Features of mythological legend  Primitive syncretism (Veselovskiy's theory)

There was no division of arts, there were no genres, art merged sound, rhythm, word

This is work, knowledge of the world and influence on it, a ritual

 art sacred

Belief in the "correctness" of art, which can affect the world

The process was led by the leader-druid

Sacred ban on writing, although the Celts knew the alphabet

 myth- the formulation of this legend in the word

Myth is as secret as art

The myth is sacred, devoid of authenticity, the boundary between the profane and the sacred is constantly crossed

Past, present and future are separated but coexist. Learned from ancestors, but unborn children already existed → death is natural, it is not significant event is a journey to the land of the dead. There are no emotional and psychological moments. Initiation - a meeting with the past, the transfer of experience; the new name is a full member of the community. Antiquity = absolute truth, the strength of traditions, they keep the world

The role of a person is small, the main thing is events, there are no ethical assessments

3. Irish sagas:

Sagas are prose narratives with poetic inserts. Unique because at this time everywhere is not prose, but epic. Handwritten - from VII, did not reach. We arrived - from XII.

 heroic sagas (=early sagas, VII)

 Ulster (=Ulster) cycle

Title ←Ulster, one of the 5 kingdoms in Ireland

The central figure is King Conchobar, main character– Cuchulainn: a mythological hero (birth, transformations, magical power - a horned spear throws his toes out of the water) and an earthly person (noble and courageous). It embodies the ideal of valor and moral perfection: generous, sympathetic, etc.

Each of the sagas of the Ulad cycle contains one or more episodes related to Cuchulain → together they create the hero's biography ("The Abduction of the Bull from Kualnge")

 cycle about Finn - in the south of Ireland. The Fenni are a special tribe of free warriors.

 fantastic sagas (seafaring cycle)

Theme - a story about the voyage of a mortal man to a wonderful otherworldly land of beautiful women and eternal youth

5. Style Features:

 clear, precise

 elegant, decorated with many rhetorical figures

6. Literary features:

 the epic hero is unambiguous, expresses the absolute truth. It is like a monument - an epic distance (temporal, spatial), otherwise - a novel.

 the epic exists outside of a specific time and space

 the hero is sacred: 7 pupils, naturally multi-colored hair, beautiful as an epic hero

 imperceptible hyperbolization - threw a spear from under the water

 many battle scenes

7. Verbal Features:

 rhythmically organized artistic speech ← a clear poetic rhythm and a fuzzy prose rhythm are softly combined

 mnemonic devices → formulas, modularity. But these are not stamps, because. their inner meaning usually changes

 amorphous composition, shapeless, may change during transmission

Irish Heroic Epic III–VIII

 Christianization V did not affect Celtic society

 Initially, the keepers of the legends are the elders of the clans, they are also priests, singer-casters, sorcerers, healers and judges, then: druids (priests-casters) + singer-storytellers.

singers-storytellers = bards (lyrical poetry, with music - laudatory and disgraceful songs) + filids (advisers to princes and "wise men" + narrators of epic legends)

 stories - “skeletons” - sagas (from Scandinavia) - prose with inserts of verses, transmitted orally → only the plot was preserved, each narrator invented common places himself

 the first entries - VII-VIII - by monks, there are no more filids. Ireland independent of Rome → weak Christianization → more signs of paganism than in any other medieval European epic