Episode Details

Sent to the Golden Horde to exact twelve years of tribute, Dobrynya charges his young wife Nastasya to wait three years, and three, and three more — and never to marry his sworn brother Alyosha. Twelve years pass with no word of him, the wedding feast is laid — and a young minstrel walks into the hall, takes up the gusli, and plays Dobrynya's own tunes.

Dobrynya and Alyosha (Добрыня и Алёша) — a bylina of old Rus', recorded from the storyteller Ivan Grigorievich Zakharov in 1871, in a new English translation made for this show, read aloud over a gentle instrumental bed.

Byliny.

Intermission: "The Cello's Unfinished Promise 2" — instrumental.

KacheliTV — Russian classics, read aloud.