Bylina

A bylina (Russian: былина, IPA: [bɨˈlʲinə]; pl. былины, byliny) is a type of Russian oral epic poem.

For other uses, see Bylina (disambiguation).
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The oldest byliny are set in the 10th to 12th centuries in Kievan Rus', while others deal with all periods of Ukrainian and Russian history. Byliny narratives are loosely based on historical fact, but greatly embellished with fantasy or hyperbole.

The word bylina derives from the past tense of the verb to be (Russian: был, romanized: byl) and implies 'something that was'. The term most likely originated from scholars of Russian folklore (folklorists); in 1839, Ivan Sakharov, a Russian folklorist, published an anthology of Russian folklore, a section of which he titled "Byliny of the Russian People", causing the popularization of the term. Later scholars believe that Sakharov misunderstood the word bylina in the opening of the Igor Tale as "an ancient poem." The folk singers of byliny called their songs stariny (Russian: старины, IPA: [ˈstarʲɪnɨ], starines; sg. старина starina) or starinki (Russian: старинки), meaning 'stories of old' (Russian: старый, romanized: staryj).

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