The image of Prince Vladimir Krasno Solnyshko of Russian epics, so often and hastily identified with the Baptist of Rus, bears a number of archaic features. These are the features of a non-military leader of the chronicle times. These are the features of a sacred, sacred ruler, a living idol of primitiveness.
There are especially many parallels between the epic Vladimir and the “king of the Rus” in Ibn Fadlan: “In his very high castle there are always four hundred men from among his heroes, his companions … These four hundred people sit under his throne … On the throne with him are forty girls-concubines, and sometimes it is combined with one of them in the presence of the Companions. He does not step down from the throne … The Tsar of the Rus has no other business but to combine with girls, drink and indulge in entertainment. He also has a deputy, the commander of the army, who attacks the enemies.”[6, p. 51].
Here, first of all, the multiplicity of four of the environment of the "tsar" - his concubines and vigilantes, is striking.
… Bowed on all four sides, And the prince with the princess on an individual. [1, cc 106, 206, 218, etc.]
Likewise, in the center of the square hall, the kings of ancient Ireland feasted. In India, the ideal city was a square with the royal palace in the center [7, pp. 148-149, 168].
The ruler is the embodiment of the sacred idea of the Center, and as such must be motionless. Back in the sixties V. V. Cherdyntsev wrote: Vladimir "never … does not participate in battles, sits in Kiev and, in fact, is the main" sydney "of our folk poetry" [10, p. 26]. I. Ya. Froyanov and Yu. I. Yudin, connecting this with the ritual immobility of the sacred king Fraser [8, c 45; 9, c 165-172]. Accordingly, the "Tsar of the Rus" never "descends from the throne" and "has no other business how to combine with girls and drink." Indeed, it is possible to write about Vladimir as a "defense organizer" only by closing one's eyes to the epics themselves. In those rare cases, when Vladimir tries to somehow interfere in military affairs, he receives a sharp rebuff from Ilya Muromets:
And you are Vladimir the prince and Svyatoslavevich, take you away to your princess Apreksenya, And you give her everything, but you still don't care about us [1, c 316]
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This is by no means rude to an unloved ruler, but a simple emphasis on his functions. Aprakseya epics - the female embodiment of Power and the Earth, i.e. Volosts, Countries of Vladimir. Her image finds many Indo-European counterparts, from India to Ireland [7, pp. 84-85]. Celtic heroines of this series are especially bright and numerous: Medb from Connaught and Medb from Leinster, a woman named Power, who became the wife of Njal of the Nine Hostages, Guenever, wife of Arthur and Hermutrud, queen of the Picts [9, cc 152-154]. Apraxeus can become the subject of a special study, but for now we note that the Irish namesake queens, both Guenever and Germutrude are credited with the same, to put it mildly, frivolous character that the epics give Apraxea. Sacred marriage with the female incarnation of the Country is indeed the duty of the ruler. The supreme ruler of many lands could have several such spouses, perceived by the Muslim as concubines.
With "drinking", too, not everything is simple - the Izhevsk researcher S. Kozlovsky showed that the intoxicated drink was the embodiment of luck, grace, and Vladimir Krasno Solnyshko, having the monopoly right to "bring the cup", became their distributor, acting as a priest [4, p. 123]. With the priesthood of the ruler R. S. Lipets connects the epic orders of the prince to bring him this or that animal or bird "I live, not bloody" [5, c 220-221]
As the embodiment of the Sacred Center, the spouse of the female incarnation of the Country and the priest, the prince was inviolable - "and you, kings-princes, are not beaten or executed." In Saxon Grammar we find an episode when Jaromir, ruler of Rügen, attacks two soldiers of another Slavic tribe. He kills one, the other swings, but sees that he raised his hand to the prince and falls on his face, throwing his spear back. "So great is the respect of this people for people clothed with high dignity" - concludes Saxon [2, c124]. Among the Pomorians, the prince's court is sacred, everyone who steps into it is inviolable [2, c 212] - and in epics. Alyosha Popovich does not kill Tugarin, who has raised his hand against him, in the princely court, “does not bloody the white-stone chambers,” but calls him “in the field”. "In the field" takes away from the prince's court and Muromets Nightingale the robber for execution [1, cc 108, 220, 226].
The military affairs of Kiev is not in charge of Prince Vladimir, who has no military functions, but Ilya Muromets - the very "deputy" of Ibn Fadlan … He "commands the army" and "attacks the enemies" - the epic "Tatars".
It is striking that the image of the prince described by the epics and Ibn Fadlan is already too archaic for the times of the latter. From modern Greek sources, we know that Ibn Fadlan's contemporary Igor Rurikovich himself went to the enemies at the head of the army, and, judging by his death, was by no means considered inviolable among the Slavic neighbors [3, p. 57]. Most likely, the source of Ibn Fadlan was the epic songs heard from the Russians. The similarity of their data with the epics allows - along with many others - to consider the latter as the remnants of the tribal epic of the Vikings-Rus, which significantly shifts the historical basis of the epics deeper. The picture of social relations reflected by them is archaic already for the middle of the 10th century, and a vivid, though not the only proof of this is the figure of the epic Vladimir - not the leader of the squad, like his chronicle namesake with his father and grandfather,but the sacred king of the primitive era.
LIST OF USED SOURCES AND REFERENCES
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Lipets R. S. Epic and ancient Russia. Moscow: Nauka, 1969.
Journey of Ahmed Ibn Fadlan to the Itil river and the adoption of Islam in Bulgaria. M.: Mifi-service, 1992.
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