The influence of W. Avenarius's stylized texts at the distortion of the heroic epos in the Russian educated society at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. The first article. "The book about the Kiev heroes"

The article analyzes the translation of epics by W. Avenarius, published in the “The book about the Kiev heroes”. The book contributed greatly in what educated Russians thought about national epos in the end of the XIX century and in the beginning of XX century. Avenarius’s stylized texts distortthe original ethos of the Russian epic. W. Avenariushas his own concept of moral and artistic value of the epos and he uses it to filter important epic fragments, resulting in substitution of motiveand even the sense of heroic action. W. Avenarius creates contaminated images (for example, connecting ZmeyTugarin and Idolishche), which do not correspond to the true meaning of the epic. The role of sorcery and magic in the system of values of the Russian epic is also exaggerated by Avenarius. “The book about the Kiev heroes” had a great impact on Russian society’s reception of national heroic epos, in many respects due to the design and illustrations of A.V. Prokhorov.