Nightingale the Robber

Pavel Ivanovich Melnikov discovered a version of the legend of Solovei in a 17th-century handwritten collection of stories and published it in the Russian newspaper he edited, Nizhegorodskie gubernskie vedomosti (the Nizhny Novgorod Government News), in 1845 and 1847.

[1]The bylina concerning Nightingale the Robber is also called "The First Journey of Ilya Muromets", and is one of the most popular Russian epics, having been recorded 132 times (Bailey, p. 25).

When Nightingale the Robber whistles, allegedly: "all the grasses and meadows become entangled, the azure flowers lose their petals, all the dark woods bend down to the earth, and all the people there lie dead!"

Legend states that Ilya Muromets survived the whistle, even though Nightingale leveled half of the surrounding forest.

Ilya Muromets shot down Nightingale the Robber with arrows to the eye and temple, then dragged the defeated monster before Vladimir, the Prince of Kiev.