Bylina "Sadko" summary and analysis

Epics from ancient times sang the courage and bravery of warriors, patriotism and love for the motherland. This oral folk art reflected the life of Ancient Russia in the 9th-13th centuries. We come close to the topic "Epic" Sadko ": summary, main characters." Here the gusler acts as a true patriot of his land, a deeply religious person, whose soul cannot be deceived and cannot be bought for any gingerbread. The king of the seas will be exactly the tempter who is ready to give all his treasures for such a talented fellow.

Epic "Sadko": a summary for children

Sadko, a young gusler, lived in Veliky Novgorod. This is how the epic "Sadko" begins. The summary tells that he was very handsome, but poor, proud and proud by nature. He earned his living by playing the harp in a very lively and soulful way. From one merry feast he got to another. But one day the turning point came when they stopped calling him.

One day passed, then a second, a third, and then the young man, abandoned by everyone, went to Ilmen-lake, found a white-combustible stone near the shore, sat down on it, spread the harp and played as if his soul was crying in anguish and loneliness. From such a game, the water in the lake began to sway strongly, but the musician did not pay anyone attention to this and returned back to the city.

king of the sea

Now every day he began to come ashore and play his instrument. And one day Sadko saw how the waters of Lake Ilmen became agitated and parted from his music. The King of the Sea himself appeared on its surface, who addressed the musician with laudatory words.

For such beautiful sounds, he wanted to reward him with countless golden treasury. The tsar prompts Sadko to bet with local merchants that he will catch fish with golden feathers, and promises to throw it into his net.

This dialogue is very interestingly described by the epic "Sadko". The summary, however, continues with the fact that when the merchant people cheered up at one of the feasts, Sadko, taking advantage of the moment, proposed a dispute and boasted that he would catch a miraculous, wonderful fish “golden feathers” in the lake.

But no one believed these tales, so the three merchants easily agreed to bet. The wrangler threw a net three times and pulled out one goldfish. Discouraged, the merchants gave away the disputed three shops of the best goods. Over time, Sadko became a real rich man and began to receive "great profits."

Sadko promises to buy all the goods

His life has changed a lot, he dabbled in real luxury and realized any of his fantasies. He had white-stone chambers, he began to throw luxurious feasts and invite all the eminent Novgorod nobility. The drunken merchants each time began to boast about who had a good horse, who had a beautiful wife, and who had an endless treasury.

Sadko, however, was always silent, but until a certain time, but then, when he was offered something to boast about, he said that he was too rich and that he could buy all the goods in the shops of Novgorod. As soon as the merchant Sadko uttered these words, the guests, offended by such exorbitant pride, immediately struck a bet with him.

This is how the epic "Sadko" is gaining its intriguing turn. The summary continues with the fact that the next day Sadko orders that his team be given a lot of money and sends it to all the city's trading shops to buy up all the goods in a row. And he himself went to the living room to also buy everything indiscriminately.

Sadko lost a bet

However, the next morning the merchants again delivered goods, only twice as much. And the squad again bought everything. And so every morning the shops were replenished with goods more than before. It was then that the inveterate debater received a good lesson and admitted that they did not keep up with Moscow and overseas goods, and that the Novgorod merchant would really be richer than anyone.

But the epic “Sadko” does not end there, the summary further tells that Sadko bet thirty thousand to the merchants, but decided to build thirty ships for the rest of the money he had left and set sail on a journey to see the world with his own eyes. He sails through the Volkhov, Ladoga and Neva, and then enters the open sea and after a while arrives at the Golden Horde. There he sells his goods for a good price, and again he has a lot of money in his treasury. He fills barrels with gold and silver and goes home to Novgorod.

Far travel and storm

But on the way back, an unprecedented storm raged, and the ships are about to go to the bottom. The masts are bent, the sails are torn. Sadko begins to wonder who is doing him such intrigues, because he understands to whom he has not paid tribute for so long. Then he takes a barrel of silver and throws it into the sea, but the elements do not calm down, and the ships do not move because of the strong wind. Then Sadko orders to throw off the barrel of gold, but even then the storm does not subside. And then he realizes that the Sea King wants to get a "living head." A lot was cast on the ship, which twice fell on Sadko himself. And then he gives his final orders. He bequeaths all his inheritance to the churches of God, to the wife of a young, impoverished brethren, and to brave warriors.

In the kingdom of the sea

And so, saying goodbye to everyone, taking his native harp, he sets off to sea on a raft. The storm immediately subsided, and the ship went on its way. Sadko dozed off and woke up already in the sea possessions in the mansions of the white-stone Tsar of the Sea, who did not hide his joy and said that the harpman had not paid tribute to him for a long time, so he himself went as a present.

Saint Nicholas of Mozhaisky

The king of the seas immediately asked him to play the harp, and the musician, waving his hand, struck the ringing strings. Cheerful dance music began to play. Real dancing began at the bottom of the sea. For three days the merchant played without interruption, during which time a huge number of ships sank, banks and villages were flooded.

The poor earthly people prayed to St. Nicholas of Mozhaisk (Nicholas the Wonderworker). And then a holy elder appears near the harpist. He poked him on the shoulder and sternly but kindly explained that it was time to end the dance. Sadko answered him that he had an order and that he was unable to disobey the King of the Seas. Then St. Nicholas prompted him to break the strings. He also warned that if the Tsar offered to marry, then let him choose the very last, Chernavushka, from the hundreds of proposed brides, and not go to bed with her in marriage, otherwise he would forever remain at the bottom of the sea.

native land

Sadko did just that, with one stroke he tore the strings and broke the harp. The storm subsided immediately. The appeased Tsar, in gratitude, offered him to choose any bride from his daughters. In the morning the harpman comes to the bride and sees three hundred extraordinary beauties, but he remembers the words of the holy elder and chooses the girl Chernavushka. After the wedding feast, he calls her his betrothed and goes with her to the bedchamber. He did not even touch her with his finger, fell asleep on the marriage bed in a deep sleep, and when he woke up, he was already on his native bank of the Chernava River in Novgorod. On the Volkhov River, he saw his whole and unharmed ships, quietly sailing to the shore. There were his wife with children and friends who tearfully remembered Sadko, and then, seeing him alive and unharmed, they could not believe their eyes. Everyone started hugging and kissing. Sadko unloaded all the wealth from the ships. And the first thing he took up was the construction of a cathedral church in honor of St. Nicholas of Mozhaisk. The will of the saint was done.

So ended the epic "Sadko" a very brief summary of the entire plot. After that, the harpman no longer sailed the seas, but began to live peacefully in his Novgorod.

Epic "Sadko": summary and author

This epic may have different interpretations. According to the hypothesis of some historians, the basis of this ancient epic was a song about a Novgorod merchant named Sodko Sytinets, who is mentioned in the annals of 1167 as the builder of the church of Boris and Gleb in Novgorod. Surely the image of Sadko eventually transformed into the Indo-European image of the mythical bridegroom of the daughter of the lord of the seas and oceans.

Opening the topic “Sadko”: summary, author”, it should be noted that the author of epics and songs is the people. However, Rimsky-Korsakov's famous opera Sadko (1897) was based on this work. And in 1952, the magnificent fairy tale "Sadko" directed by A. Ptushko was filmed.