Sadko is a Russian medieval epic (bylina

Bylina

Bylina or Bylyna is a traditional Russian oral epic narrative poem. Byliny singers loosely utilize historical fact greatly embellished with fantasy or hyperbole to create their songs...

). The title character is an adventurer, merchant and gusli musician from Novgorod.

Synopsis

Sadko played the gusli on the shores of a lake. The Sea Tsar

Merman

Mermen are mythical male equivalents of mermaids – legendary creatures who have the form of a human from the waist up and are fish-like from the waist down.-Mythology:...

 enjoyed his music, and offered to help him. Sadko was instructed to make a bet with the local merchants about catching a certain fish in the lake; when he caught it (as provided by the Tsar), the merchants had to pay the wager, making Sadko a rich merchant.
Sadko traded on the seas with his new wealth, but did not pay proper respects to the Tsar as per their agreement. The Tsar stopped Sadko's ships in the sea. He and his sailors tried to appease the Sea Tsar with gold, to no avail. Sadko's crew forced him to jump into the sea. There, 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

Brown Robyn's Confession

-Synopsis:Brown Robyn goes to sea. On shipboard, they are unable to see any lights in the sky. They "cast kevels" which indicated that it was because of Brown Robyn. He confesses to incestous relations with his mother and his sister , or, in other variants, to killing his father...

.

Adaptations

This tale attracted the attention of several authors in the 19th century with the rise of the Slavophile

Slavophile

Slavophilia was an intellectual movement originating from 19th century that wanted the Russian Empire to be developed upon values and institutions derived from its early history. Slavophiles were especially opposed to the influences of Western Europe in Russia. There were also similar movements in...

 movement and served as a basis for a number of derived works, most notably the poem "Sadko" by Alexei Tolstoy (1871–1872) and the opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 Sadko

Sadko (opera)

Sadko is an opera in seven scenes by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The libretto was written by the composer, with assistance from Vladimir Belsky, Vladimir Stasov, and others. Rimsky-Korsakov was first inspired by the bylina of Sadko in 1867, when he completed a tone poem on the subject, his Op. 5...

composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five.The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful or The Mighty Coterie, refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the years 1856–1870: Mily Balakirev , César...

, who also wrote the libretto. In 1953, Aleksandr Ptushko

Aleksandr Ptushko

Aleksandr Lukich Ptushko is a Soviet animation and fantasy film director, and Meritorious Artist of the RSFSR. Ptushko is frequently referred to as "the Soviet Walt Disney," due to his prominent early role in animation in the Soviet Union, though a more accurate comparison would be to Willis...

 directed a film based on the opera entitled Sadko

Sadko (film)

Sadko is a 1952 Russian fantasy film directed by Aleksandr Ptushko. The film is based on an opera by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, which was based on a Russian bylina with the same name, and scored with Rimsky-Korsakov's music from the opera....

. A shortened and heavily-modified American version of this film entitled The Magic Voyage of Sinbad was spoofed on Mystery Science Theater 3000

Mystery Science Theater 3000

Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....

. (The original version of the film is available on DVD from RusCiCo).

Historical parallels

Sadko can be viewed as a metaphor for Yaroslav the Wise. The liberation of the Novgorodian people by Sadko can also be linked to the establishment of the Novgorod Republic

Novgorod Republic

The Novgorod Republic was a large medieval Russian state which stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Ural Mountains between the 12th and 15th centuries, centred on the city of Novgorod...

 by Yaroslav. Sadko may also be based on a certain Sedko Sitinits, who is mentioned in the Novgorodian First Chronicle as the patron of the stone Church of Boris and Gleb built in the Novgorodian Detinets in 1167.

External links

• Sadko the bylina
• Prose version
• Sadko as collected by Arthur Ransome
  Arthur Ransome
  Arthur Michell Ransome was an English author and journalist, best known for writing the Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. These tell of school-holiday adventures of children, mostly in the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads. Many of the books involve sailing; other common subjects...
  
   in Old Peter's Russian Tales
• Sadko as collected by Arthur Ransome
  Arthur Ransome
  Arthur Michell Ransome was an English author and journalist, best known for writing the Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. These tell of school-holiday adventures of children, mostly in the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads. Many of the books involve sailing; other common subjects...
  
  in Old Peter's Russian Tales as a librivox.org audiobook.