Nightingale the Robber

Recorded as a numen rather than a mortal because the byliny do not treat him as a man: he flies, he nests, and his whistle is not a human capacity — though he has a house, a wife and daughters, which is why the record says part human and does not resolve the question the epic leaves open. The bylina in which he appears was recorded 132 times, making it one of the most collected Russian epics there is, and he was not in the registry.

Domains

• brigandage
• destructive sound

Relations

• defeated by: Ilya MurometsNon-symmetric, so nothing is written onto the pre-existing Ilya record. This is the deed that opens Ilya's cycle, and the registry held the archer without the target.Reference treatment: Nightingale the Robber was shot down with arrows to the eye and temple by Ilya Muromets, who then dragged him to Vladimir of Kiev. (secondary)
• captive of: Prince VladimirIn-batch, and the scene is the point of the whole journey — the robber is brought in alive so that the court can be shown what Ilya has done.Reference treatment: Ilya presents Nightingale the Robber as a prisoner at Vladimir's court, earning the prince's admiration, and Vladimir asks to hear him whistle. (secondary)

Sources

• Nightingale the Robber is the part-bird epic brigand of the road to Kiev whose whistle stuns and kills, shot down by Ilya Muromets and brought as a prisoner to Prince Vladimir's court.: Reference treatments of Nightingale the Robber and of 'The First Journey of Ilya Muromets'. (secondary)