Slavic/Russian Epics

I don't believe I have ever studied the Slavic peoples in school, other than the people from 20th century Russia. For those of you who are also unfamiliar with this group, it includes not only Russian people, but Ukranian, Czech, and Polish people as well as a variety of other groups. Russia appears in the school curriculum briefly at the beginning of the 20th century and disappears at the end of it. No one else shows up ever, because apparently none of them ever did anything important, except helping us in WWII, and coming up with communism:

I say this ironically, of course (meaning, don't get mad at me). Slavic culture, like any culture, is a rich tradition full of interesting things, which is why I was excited to learn about it, and am sad I don't know more about it to start with. Turns out, though, that it is dang hard to research about, partially because so many Americans don't care, and partially because the Slavs didn't really write much down until the 1700s-1800s. Still, I was able to find out a few things.

The Slavic civilization arose rather later than some of the civilizations we have talked about, and really wasn't much of a "civilization" at all, at least when compared with something like the Roman Empire. The Slavs were, rather, a collection of separate tribes that happened to share cultural and linguistic factors. The first instance of the use of the name "Slav" arose about the 6th century AD, in writings by the Romans. It is thought to be the native Slavic word meaning approximately "people who speak our language." About this time, the Slavs' territory expanded greatly to cover much of eastern Europe. The picture shows the probable distribution during the 6th and 7th centuries. From here they continued to differentiate into the Slavic nations we are more or less familiar with today.

One oral tradition that I was able to find information on was that of the Bylina, which is a type of Russian epic narrative poem that originated in about the 10th century AD. I find it fascinating how many ancient cultures had forms of poetry, and I sometimes wonder why it seems to predate prose in many cases. I suppose it is because poetry is much easier to remember and pass on in it's original form, while prose stories are much more likely to change with each telling.
Bylina means "true happening," since apparently Bylina poems were supposed to tell of true events, usually about historical people like Ivan the Terrible or Stenka Razin. They did not rhyme, and their meter was subtle enough that they often sounded like they were free verse, unlike the rather rigid meter of the Latin poetry that I spoke about in my response to Alyssa's post. A line in a Bylina typically has two or three stressed syllables. One is usually the third syllable from the beginning and another is the third syllable from the end. Bylina were performed up until modern day, although the art is currently dying out because of the availibility of print and other resources.

Here is an English translation of the beginning of a Bylina called Sadko (with a picture!):
In Novgorod, in famous Novgorod,
There lived Sadko the merchant, the rich guest.
But formerly Sadko had no property,
He only had his maple gusli.
Sadko used to go and play at feasts.
The first day they didn't invite Sadko to a feast of honor,
The second they didn't invite him to a feast of honor,
And the third they didn't invite him to a feast of honor.
Because of this Sadko grew sick at heart.
Sadko went to Ilmen Lake,
He sat down on a white grieving stone
And played his maple gusli...

Sadko ends up making a deal with the Sea Tsar, breaking the deal, being dragged to the otherworld to play his gusli for the Sea Tsar, gaining a bride, and returning home. It sounds like a really cool story. Someone even wrote an opera of it.

I looked for the Russian version, so I could look more at the language, but had a hard time finding a version online. If any of you guys can find a Russian version of a Bylina, you should post the link in your comments.