SADKO

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'Sadko' () was a legendary hero of a Russian ''bylina'' (epic tale) with the same name, a merchant and ''gusli'' musician from Novgorod.

Contents

Synopsis

Motifs

Adaptations

References

External links

Synopsis

Sadko played the ''gusli'' on the shores of a lake. The Sea Tsar appeared to express his gratitude. On his advice, he made a bet with the local merchants about a fish in the lake; then he caught it, and they had to pay the bet, making him a rich merchant.

He traded on the seas with his new wealth, but one day, his ships stopped in the sea and would not move. They 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 laid 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 motifs is a wide spread device, appearing, for instance, in Child ballad 57 ''Brown Robyn's Confession''.^[1]

Adaptations

This tale attracted the attention of several authors in 19th century, with the rise of Slavophile movement and served as a base for a number of derived works, most notable being a poem ''Sadko'' by Alexei Tolstoy and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov's opera ''Sadko''. It was also a 1953 film by Aleksandr Ptushko. A butchered version of the original film was spoofed on Mystery Science Theater 3000 under the name "The Magic Voyage of Sinbad".

References

1. Francis James Child, ''The English and Scottish Popular Ballads'', v 2, p 15, Dover Publications, New York 1965

External links

★ ''Sadko'' the ''bylina'' in English

★ Prose version, in English

★ ''Sadko'' as collected by Arthur Ransome in ''Old Peter's Russian Tales''.