ABSTRACT
The bylina about “Falconer” is devoted to the age-old story about the fight of a father and a son. The Persian “Sorab and Rustem” as retold by Firdausi, the German “Hildebrandslied,” and the Armenian “David of Sassoun” are other well-known examples of this traditional epic theme. Although the Russian realization of this subject has been attributed to Eastern or Western sources, it seems to be unique in several respects and always ends with the death of the son (Putilov 1971b: 83–90).
