Kirsha Danilov

Kirsha Danilov 

(Kirill Danilovich), a skomorokh (itinerant performer), thought to be the compiler of the first collection of Russian byliny (epic folk songs), historical and lyrical songs, and spiritual verse (71 texts with music). In the Urals, sometime after 1742, he wrote down the folk songs he performed. In 1768 the original collection was acquired by the industrialist P. A. Demidov.

Only a manuscript copy dating from 1760–90 has survived. The first editions of the collection to be published were the Ancient Russian Poems (1804), edited by A. F. lakubovich, and the Ancient Russian Poems (1818), edited by K. F. Kalaidovich. Kirsha Danilov’s collection, which brought byliny to the attention of 19th-century Russian readers, was highly esteemed by A. S. Pushkin, V. G. Belinskii, F. M. Dostoevsky, and M. Gorky.

PUBLICATIONS.

Sbornik Kirshi Danilova. Edited by P. N. Sheffer. St. Petersburg, 1901.
Drevnie rossiiskie stikhotvoreniia, sobrannye Kirsheiu Danilovym. Prepared for publication by A. P. Evgen’eva and B. D. Putilov. Moscow-Leningrad, 1958.

REFERENCES

Azadovskii, M. K. Istoriia russkoi fol’kloristiki, vol. 1. Moscow, 1958. Pages 85, 103–04, 165, 168–73.
Dergacheva-Skop, E. I. “Novonaidennye listy iz sbornika Kirshi Danilova.” Trudy Otdela drevnerusskoi literatury, 1965, vol. 21.

A. A. GORELOV