- Sadko
Sadko ( _ru. Садко) was a legendary
hero of a Russian "bylina " (epic tale) with the same name, a merchant and "gusli " musician fromNovgorod .ynopsis
Sadko played the "
gusli " on the shores of a lake. The SeaTsar appeared to express his gratitude. On the Tsar's advice, Sadko made a bet with the local merchants about a certain fish in the lake; then he caught it, and the merchants had to pay the bet, making Sadko a rich merchant.Sadko traded on the seas with his new wealth, but one day, his ships stopped in the sea and would not move. He and his sailors tried to appease the Sea Tsar with gold, but finally Sadko had to jump into the sea. He played the "gusli" for the Sea Tsar, who offered him a new bride. On advice, he took the last maiden in a long line, and lay down beside her.
He woke up on the shore and rejoined his wife.
Motifs
In some variants, Sadko is chosen to jump overboard by throwing lots between the men. This motif is a widespread device, appearing, for instance, in
Child ballad 57 "Brown Robyn's Confession ". [Francis James Child, "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads", v 2, p 15, Dover Publications, New York 1965]Adaptations
This tale attracted the attention of several authors in 19th century with the rise of the
Slavophile movement and served as a basis for a number of derived works, most notably the poem "Sadko" byAlexei Tolstoy and theopera "Sadko" composed by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, who also wrote the libretto. In 1953,Aleksandr Ptushko directed a film based on the opera entitled "Sadko". A shortened and heavily-modified American version of this film entitled "The Magic Voyage of Sinbad" was spoofed onMystery Science Theater 3000 . (The original version of the film is available on DVD from RusCiCo).ee also
*
Sadko (musical tableau) References
External links
* [http://www.artrusse.ca/Byliny/sadko.htm "Sadko"] the "bylina" in English
* [http://russian-crafts.com/tales/sadko.html Prose version] , in English
* [http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/russian/oldpetersrussiantales/sadko.html "Sadko"] as collected byArthur Ransome in "Old Peter's Russian Tales".
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