18 мая 2012 года команда 7 "б" класса победила в кноминации "Лучшее эссе" конкурса "Россия. Чувашия. Великобритания: единство в различии".

Россия. Чувашия. Великобритания: единство в различии. Эссе.
The image of a hero in British, Russian, Chuvash epic tales.
Munshi Axana 6 b,
Ksenofontova Maria 6 b,
Romanchenko Julia 6 b,
Levhina Kate 6 b,
Romashov Nikita 6 b.
Coordinator -   
Svintsova Zhanna Vyacheslavna
A modern person while hearing the word “hero” will probably think of some historical figures or film characters with superabilities and superpower. But actually this word takes its origin from the epic tales. Whose names are on the tip of the tongue when we speak about a hero of an epic ballade? For someone it may be French Roland, for others – Anglo-Saxon Beowulf. Russian people will probably name Ilya Muromets or Dobrynya Nikitich. Chuvash people’s legends remind us of Bulgar-Chuvash hero Ulyp. Having different cultural backgrounds, Beowulf, Ilya Muromets and Ulyp have common features - fearlessness, generosity and ability to protect their people, and these features unite them into a certain type of characters. The role of epic tales in the history of every nation is very big. Each country has its own style of national heroic epic ballades. Michael Meyer, an English linguist, says that an epic tale is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. The main character of every epic tale has his own distinguished features but still these heroic characters have much in common. We carried out a research to investigate the role of these heroes in the English, Russian and Chuvash cultures.
Anglo-Saxons had many poets. They were professional singers and authors of some songs. Those folk songs are called gleomans or scops. Anglo-Saxons left a memory about their life and wrote a poem called Beowulf . There are many Russian epic tales about Ilya Muromets, which give us the idea of the biography of this person. Chuvash people have an epic tale which tells us about a hero called Ulyp. This man was a great defender of the Chuvash people.
Were these people real? What are the main differences between these heroes and what are their common features? What do people say about the enemies of these characters? We tried to find more differences and peculiarities between Beowulf, Ulyp and Ilya Muromets.
Beowulf, a hero of Geats in Scandinavia, comes to help the king of the Danes, who is attacked by monster Grendel. We can assume that Grendel is a troll or an ogre. The monster could make people sleepy with the help of its magic. Nobody could kill him with the sword. That’s why Beowulf has to “wrestle with Grendel until he is able to crack one of the monster’s arms free of its socket”. Then revengeful Grendel’s mother attacks Beowulf and is also killed in her underwater lair. We think that she is a water demon, because she is called “a sea-hag”. For his heroic deeds Beowulf gets a kingdom. He is “a good king and never kills a kinsman, even when he is drunk”. He dies defending his own land from a dragon. He is sorry that he has no son to whom he could give his inheritance.
Ilya is a Russian legendary “bogatyr” (medieval knights-errant of Kievan Rus). Ilya Muromets suffered serious illness in his youth and was unable to walk until the age of 33 when he is healed by two pilgrims. Then he gets superhuman power. Ilya Muromets fights many foes. The most famous of Ilya’s enemies are Solovey Razboynik (Nightingale the Robber ) and Idolistche Poganoe. Both characters are people. They don’t have any magic power, but Solovey can whistle very loudly. Idolitsche is a tatar khan. He is characterized as “poganoe”, which means that he belongs to a different confession. Ilya kills them both, even though Idolitsche is really strong. Idolitsche gets his power from large meals. He eats a big ox, a lot of bread and drinks a bucket and a half. He boasts about it, but Ilya, who usually eats only a lump of bread and drinks a glass of beer, throws Idolitsche away by throwing his hat onto the head of the khan und thus defeats him.
Ulyp defends his people from enemies. He defeats a monster called Kireshmet. The monster looks like a big spider. It has 40 arms and hands, there are forty fingers on each hand. People are imprisoned in his stomach. After defeating the monster Ulyp releases people. He also fights Patti-khan, who is a tatar khan, and his warriors. His wife, his father-in-law and his son help him and take part in his feats. The enemies poison him and kill him with a sword while he is asleep but his wife sacrifices her life to save her husband. So we can see that this hero gets his power from the support of his family and his friends. It’s the main idea of the Chuvash mentality – people can be strong only when they are together. A person can do nothing if he is alone. Even heroes need helpers.
The heroes also have famous personal belongings. For example, Beowulf is presented with a great beautiful sword. Giving the names to the swords of the heroes is a tradition of Western ballads. Ulyp and Ilya have powerful horses. Ulyp’s horse has wings. The horses are friends to their masters.
Beowulf, Ulyp and Ilya have different personal traits of character but still they have a lot in common. Beowulf is noble and kind. Ilya is kind and modest. Both Ilya and Beowulf are single. The main trait of character of Ulyp is his loyalty to his family. Ulyp has close connections to his family. He gets his power from his grandmother who gave him clothes of his ancestors and water from a magic river. Ulyp is married to Sarine who was the daughter of Bulgar’s king.
Unlike Ulyp and Beowulf, who have relationships with royal families, Ilya doesn’t need to be close to the king because most of all he appreciates his freedom. He loves the poor more than the rich. He is ready to fight for justice. Ilya is a kind, generous, hot-tempered, simple-hearted and modest hero.
Beowulf is always ready to defend his people and even sacrifice his own life. He is different from other Geats because he believes that “all credit for his victory goes to God”. People still praise him. As it is said in the poem: “They say that he was of all world’s kings the gentlest of men and the most gracious, the kindest to his people, the keenest for fame”. All the heroes are ready to defend their people.
Ulyp loves his people. He values his family and children most of all. So he is strong, powerful, loyal to his people and ready to defend them. He pays a lot of attention to his children. He brings them up wisely and his children help the Chuvash people after Ulyp leaves this world.  So we can see that epic heroes help their people and fight enemies. Beowulf becomes famous for killing monsters while Ulyp and Ilya save their people from real enemies – foreign conquerors and bandits. In both Ilya’s and Ulyp’s enemies we can see tatar conquerors who brought a lot of grief to the Russian and the Chuvash people. Beowulf is powerful from his birth, while Ilya and Ulyp get power with the help of magic. Ilya is born ill and a saint helps him to get his superhuman power. Ulyp gets his power from his family. Still he is very humane in his sons’ parenting and can’t cope with everything without the help of his people.
Thus, the epic poems show the main values of the nation. Anglo-Saxons appreciate heroic deeds and a death in a battle. Russian people like when the hero is simple-minded and freedom-loving. Chuvash people esteem the family and the unity of the nation. All the heroes are brave, able to protect their people and kind.
18.05.2012.

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