Folk heroes are a special category of individuals andcharacters who enjoy special love and popularity among ordinary people, whose memory, as we know, provides them with undying fame. They can be fictional, semi-legendary, as well as real historical figures whose deeds and lives become the object of folklore creativity.
general characteristics
Folk heroes - personalities in all respectsuncommon. On the one hand, they are recognized and honored for concrete merit, on the other - among them there are those who have not done anything outstanding, but nevertheless entered human memory as carriers of certain national traits, which makes them particularly recognizable. Therefore, many subconsciously perceive them as the embodiment of the spirit of any country or nation. Historical figures for their exploits for a long time become the main protagonists of folklore, songs, tales, legends. But it often happens the other way around: the characters of literary works turn out to be so colorful that they go beyond the artistic world and begin to live independent lives as folk heroes.
Robin Hood
The identity of this person has not been established.According to the literary tradition established by V. Scott, this man lived in the 12th century in England, during the reign of Richard the Lionheart. However, most historians agree that he was born in the 14th century. The reason for his popularity is probably known to everyone: he took wealth from wealthy people and gave them to the poor. According to legends, his habitat was the famous Sherwood Forest, where the hero hid with his “forest retinue”.
About its origin is not known anything reliably:according to some versions, Robin Hood was a simple peasant, some speak of his noble roots, even called the clan to which he could belong: Huntington. About the noble robber in his homeland there is a whole cycle of ballads, songs, legends. He repeatedly became the protagonist of works of art ("Ivanhoe"), his adventures were repeatedly screened in different ways.
William Tell
Often folk heroes are personalities.semi-legendary. Such, for example, V. Tell, who, according to legends, was a simple peasant. He became famous for his exploits during the days of Austrian rule in the Swiss lands. Most likely, this person or his prototype came from the mountain canton of Uri, whose inhabitants expressed particularly stormy discontent with foreign domination. The feat of this hero is that he refused to bow to the head of the governor, who was hanged in the main square. As a test, he was ordered to shoot an apple on the head of his own son. He successfully passed this test, but later admitted that if he hadn’t hit, he would have killed the vicegerent with his other hand. Subsequently, an armed confrontation began between the canton and the Austrians, as a result of which he defeated the enemy. This plot formed the basis of the opera of the same name by D. Rossini and the drama of F. Schiller.
Joan of Arc
The image of the national hero persists throughoutlong time in the memory of several generations. Often they became historical persons. Joan of Arc, of course, is one of the most famous and leading heroines. She came from a simple peasant family, and during the Hundred Years War the French troops under her command won a number of major victories. The memory of these distant events is connected with her name. She was subsequently canonized.
Siberian Attacher and Commander
In our country, not only warriors, but alsoTravelers often became actors in songs, tales, and legends. Yermak Timofeevich, the conqueror of Siberia, is a vivid example. This man became famous for having mastered the distant lands beyond the Urals, which earned him real fame. In fact, in the 16th century, the accession of such a huge territory was an important stage in the formation and strengthening of a single Russian state. His victories, successful campaigns and the tragic death literally shook his contemporaries, who passed on to their generation the love of a brave ataman. Ermak Timofeevich is famous not only for the development, but also for the annexation of the Trans-Ural lands. The conqueror of Siberia firmly entered the people's memory. And this is due to the fact that his travels have become a real landmark event of his time.
Another historical person who received universalrecognition is Kutuzov, a national hero, who, like no other, enjoyed the love and respect of ordinary soldiers. He very subtly felt the mood of the Russian people during the war with Napoleon and, skillfully using it in battles, eventually led the army to victory.
Ivan Susanin
Some popular heroes of Russia are alsohistorical persons. These include a simple peasant, who, according to some assumptions, was the serfs of the Shestovs, or the clerk in their lands, or the headman. For some time in the estate of these landowners, Mikhail Fedorovich hid in the year of the Time of Troubles. When the Poles came to kill him, Susanin, with the help of his son-in-law, warned the future king about the danger, while he himself led the enemies to impassable terrain, for which he took a terrible death from them. This person is still known to every citizen of our country, his image inspired the composer M. Glinka to create the opera “Life for the Tsar”, which still does not descend from theatrical stage.
Miguel Hidalgo
Folk heroes of different countries are also known foroutside their homelands. Mexican Catholic priest, who called the people to fight against Spanish domination, is still known in history. In the early 19th century, he raised the rebels to fight. Despite the successful actions of the revolutionaries, he was arrested and shot in 1811. Nevertheless, ten years later, Mexico gained independence.
Giuseppe Garibaldi and Ulysses Grant
The first prominent Italian politicianthe struggle for independence and unification has become a kind of personification of the national struggle of the people. He participated in the battles against the Austrian authorities in the late 1840s, but the first stage of the uprising ended unsuccessfully. After about a decade, the confrontation resumed, and this time it ended with the unification of the scattered Italian lands into a single state.
W.Grant is known as a talented commander and leader of the forces of the North during the Civil War in the states. He was a simple peasant, received a military education, but later led the volunteer rebel groups in Illinois. Volunteers from the Missouri area began to flock to it. He is known for achieving his goal at all costs, sacrificing literally everything for victory and not taking into account the possible grave consequences of defeat. This tactic has justified itself, which has earned him immense popularity among Americans.
Epic heroes
К таким относятся лица, жившие в период Древней Rus. First of all, they include, of course, the famous bogatyrs, defenders of Russian outposts, who defended the land from enemy invasions. The names of Ilya Muromets and his faithful comrades Dobrynia Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich are known in our country to any schoolboy. In addition to them, such a character as Nikita Kozhemyaka is also very popular. The peculiarity of the legends about him is that they show how this hero had powerful heroism before the exploits. In the story of the fairy tales, he saved the princess, defeating the serpent, and plowed on him a huge furrow, which went down in history under the name "Serpent Shaft."
War faces
A prominent place in this series is occupied by children-heroes,who at a very young age were famous for their exploits against the invaders. One of them is Valya Kotik, a partisan boy about whom every Soviet schoolboy probably knew. He was born in Ukraine and, as a schoolboy, took an active part in the partisan movement. At first he was connected, and then he participated in real battles. One of the most significant actions is the disruption of a telephone cable that connected local enemy units with Hitler’s headquarters in the Polish capital. In addition, he participated in the undermining of enemy railway trains. He is credited with the rescue of the partisan detachment, when he gave the alarm in time, so that the soldiers were able to repel the invaders. The boy was mortally wounded a year before the end of the war and was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
Children heroes entered people's memory thanks tothat feats that did not seem to fit their young age. Lenya Golikov was born in the Novgorod region. At the beginning of the war immediately joined the partisan detachment. He became a scout brigade, participated in more than two dozen operations. The boy undermined the enemy vehicles. Once, thanks to his actions, valuable plans of minefields and reports were in the hands of the partisans. He died tragically in 1943, when the detachment was surrounded, only six of whom managed to escape. For services, the young pioneer also received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
It often happens that literary charactersbecame popular. Of the characters in children's works should be called first Malchish-Kibalchish. He acted during the civil war. His image was created by the writer A. Gaidar so successfully that he gained great popularity among the people.
But the greatest fame got, perhaps,character poems V. Tvardovskogo. Vasily Terkin, the national hero, turned out to be very convincing and believable, since the author wrote him off from a simple Russian soldier, which explains his popularity.
