Podsockolnicheck - the image of a half-breed in bylinas.

The motif of bylina about the battle between Ilya Murometz (Ilya from the town of Murom) and his own son (which is named "Podsockolnicheck", "Sockolnick" and other) always draw the attention of researchers. They notice the great patriotic spirit and bring parallels between similar motifs of other peoples ( iranian Rustam and Suhrab, german Hilderbrand and Hadubrand).

But in our opinion not every aspect of that bylina has found a proper explanation. Two circumstances arrest our attention: the abscence of any reflection on the case of son's murder (in contradistinction to iranian and german motifs, and especially while the reflections aren't alien to bylinian epos - for example "Danilo Lovchanin"), and the unusual way of traitor-son's execution. Ilya rends Podsockolnicheck in two parts, having grasped his one leg and stepped on the other. No other hero except Ilya uses this kind of execution and to no other opponent.

Beside bylinas we can find similar execution, used against a child of a human and a non-human being. In such kinds of prose as legends and bylichkas the non-human parent of such a mongrel, when leaving a human, rends a child in two parts, pulling by his legs, and throws one half to the human. Thus, the essences, that have been united against the laws of God and Nature become separated again.

According to morality of the epos, the nomads of steppes, the "tatarians" are not quite human beings. Thus, "tatarian" tsar (ruler), sending an ambassador to Kiev, asks: "who can speak russian language, the language of humans?". Here the slavs were unanimous with other settled peoples: goths, who considered the nomads Hunes as a result of mix between witches and demons, and Byzantines, who told: "nomads-barbarians are the beasts (or breed of evil spirits) with some human traits" (V.V. Puzanoff). Taking into account, that moral features in bylinas are put in straight dependence of origin ("not-father's son", "boyarian keens are all boastful" and other), the fruit of sinful copulation with non-human steppe tribes is invested with disgusting traits. Podsockolnicheck tries to kill his father, while he is sleeping, and in numerous variants of the text kills his mother. So, Ilya doesn't execute the traitor in modern understanding, but eliminates the personified violation of the world's order, tears in two pieces the essences, that has been joined in spite of laws of existence. And exactly that is the deed of Ilya, the favourite of bylinas, and the point of this subject.

Ozar Voron

Translated and illustrated by Bewolkter (WTS-Belarus)