A motivational analysis of the “central character” as a means to reconstruct the logical-temporal consistency of bylina plots

The question of Russian folk epics’ relation to the chronological interconnection of different episodes about one hero remains open, even though this problem has been already posed by the discoverers of bylinas’ living practice, as can be seen from Pavel Rybnikov’s and Alexander Hilferding’s observations and notes. At that, the existing scholarly works treat different bylina narratives as presupposing a kind of reciprocal discontinuity and, consequently, separateness. For example, the variability of Russian heroic poetry - as well as its inability to develop the so-called “grand form” - are often considered as indicative of the fact that any attempt to reconstruct an integral “epic biography” of a certain bylina character is impossible. Meanwhile, the absence of a “grand form” by no means excludes the fact that in the minds of narrators there was an idea of a logical-temporal sequence of the stories they performed. This is confirmed, in particular, by contamination practice, which was, as we know, typical for bylina plots. Therefore, so as to reconstruct Russian epic consciousness’s temporal continuum, the author suggests focusing on the “central hero” of the bylina artistic reality - namely, Prince Vladimir. Examining the totality of different actions performed by the Kiev ruler, it is possible to define a common criterion for these actions’ chronological arrangement. As such a criterion the hero’s motivation is proposed: according to various plots, Prince Vladimir is driven either by personal honor and personal fame - or, on the contrary, by the honor of Christian sacred realities and the wish to increase the glory of God. In other words, this character’s consecutive “epic biography” may be compiled through his spiritual-moral dynamics, i.e., his gradual transition from the pre-Christian values to the axiological categories of the Orthodox faith.