Bylina

Bylina (Russian: были́на) is a traditional epic, heroic narrative poetry of early East Slavs of Ruthenia, the tradition continued in Russia and Ukraine.

Bylinas are kind of poetry without rhyme (blank verse), but with a characteristic rhythm, a kind of free verse. The style of bylinas was imitated by many famous Russian poets.

There are quite a few bylina cycles. Bylinas may be roughly classified into the following series:

Of the older heroes (Volga Vseslavich, Mikula Selianinovich, Sviatogor)
Of Vladimir, prince of Kiev, tales of the Golden Age of Kiev, of Kievan Rus'. Here belongs the Ilya Muromets (Ilya of Murom) cycle, being among the most popular ones.
Of Novgorod (Vassili Buslaev, Sadko the merchant)
Of Moscow (of Yermak Timofeyevich, Ivan the Terrible)
Of the Ukrainian cossack history (in Ukrainian language, of invasions of Turks and Tatars, of haidamak uprisings)
Of cossack insurgents (Stenka Razin)
Of Peter the Great

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Bylina

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