Prince Vladimir
This record is the epic Vladimir and says so. The byliny stand at several centuries' remove from Vladimir Svyatoslavich, who ruled Kiev from about 980 to 1015 and converted the Rus, and the epic prince who sits at table while his bogatyrs do the work is a composite: the epic material also draws on Vladimir Monomakh, and the figure behaves in ways the historical ruler is not recorded to have behaved. The record is filed at kievan-rus-historical because that is where the cycle places him and no earlier; it does not assert an identity with the historical prince, and no dates are given, because giving them would make exactly that assertion. What he is here is the centre the Kiev cycle organises itself around, which is the function the registry was missing entirely.
Domains
- kingship
Epithets
- Красное Солнышко
Relations
- overlord of: Ilya Muromets
- overlord of: Dobrynya Nikitich
- overlord of: Alyosha Popovich
- captor of: Nightingale the Robber