Sadko lived in the glorious Constantinople. The towers of Constantinople were made of white stone, there were tall temples in the city, and wide squares were pleasing to the eye.
Once Sadko went to Lake Ilmen, which is near the Black Sea and not far from the Tverdizemnoe. He began to play the spring harp. And the god Ilm Ozerny came out of the lake.
“You, Sadko,” said Ilm, “amused me.” For this I will reward you. Make a great bet with the merchants of Constantinople that you will catch a fish in Ilmen - a golden feather, and I will help you.
Sadko returned to Constantinople and made a great bet with the merchants for all the shops and goods of Constantinople. And when he caught a fish - a golden feather, he became the richest merchant in the city. Sadko began to trade, and the god Veles himself helped him in trade matters. And therefore Sadko built a rich temple for Veles. And he equipped thirty ships and sailed to trade overseas.
And he walked along the Black Sea, visited the White Island, which is at the mouth of the Danube. I also visited Berezan, Stribog Island, at the mouth of the Dnieper. And then he stopped on the island of Likha One-Eyed, then on the island of Buyan near the mouth of the Ra River. From Buyan Island, Sadko climbed the Ra River to the White City, where he sold goods at a profit and built a temple to Veles. And when Sadko was returning back to Constantinople along the Black Sea, his ships were caught in a storm.
- We traveled a lot along the sea, we didn’t pay tribute to Chernomorets! Now the King of the Sea demands tribute!
And then the shipmen saw a miracle, a miracle - a fiery boat in which the servants of Chernomorets arrived. They demanded Sadko himself instead of tribute. And he went on a fiery boat to the Sea King. And the Sea King had a feast. And he ordered Sadko to play his magic harp. There was nothing to do - Sadko began to play, and the Sea King began to dance.
Then Veles appeared before Sadko and said:
“You see that the king is galloping in his chambers - he’s galloping across the blue sea!” And from that dance the winds are furious, and from that dance the waves are foaming! Ships are sinking in the sea, innocent souls are dying!
Hearing about this. Sadko broke his harp and Chernomorets stopped dancing. And Chernomorets told the guslar that as a reward for his game he would receive the daughter of the Sea King, Ilmara, as his wife.
They played a wedding. After the wedding, Sadko went to bed with Ilmara, and when he woke up, he found himself on the bank of the Ilmara, a river that flows near the walls of Constantinople. And he saw his ships sailing along the river. His friends, the shipbuilders, were amazed that Sadko was ahead of them in Constantinople.
And now everyone glorifies Sadko from century to century!
The song about Sadko is restored on the basis of epics about Sadko (see the academic edition of “Novgorod epics”), Greek legends about Odysseus, and Arabic tales about Sinbad the Sailor. Initially, these were Asia Minor legends; after the Slavs migrated to new lands, the legends began to be associated with Tauride Novgorod (Scythian Naples in the Crimea) and only then with Slovenian Novgorod. Sadko's heirs were Odysseus and Sinbad. Odysseus walked the same Black Sea as Sadko. And only then (in Roman times) he was sent to the Mediterranean Sea, and the magical islands and peoples, very well known in the Black Sea, were tied to the islands and peoples of the Mediterranean Sea, which is why everything got mixed up. Odysseus-Sadko performs the same feats and goes to the same places as the Argonauts (and they certainly go to the Black Sea).
This is described in more detail in the series of articles “The Death of Atlantis” (“Science and Religion” No. 9-12, 1991). It is interesting to compare the Greek legend about Polyphemus and the Russian fairy tale about Likha the One-Eyed. The story about the fiery boat and the pillar of fire, along which Sadko descends into the Underwater Kingdom, is reminiscent of ufological descriptions. However, it is also taken from “Novgorod epics”.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru