Bogatyr

Historically, they came into existence during the reign of Vladimir the Great (Grand Prince of Kiev from 978 to 1015) as part of his elite warriors (druzhina[1]), akin to Knights of the Round Table.

[2] Tradition describes bogatyrs as warriors of immense strength, courage and bravery, rarely using magic while fighting enemies[2] in order to maintain the "loosely based on historical fact" aspect of bylinas.

They are characterized as having resounding voices, with patriotic and religious pursuits, defending Rus' from foreign enemies (especially nomadic Turkic steppe-peoples or Finno-Ugric tribes in the period prior to the Mongol invasions) and their religion.

[7] Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (1890—1907) claims that the first known use of the word in a Kievan context occurred in Stanisław Sarnicki's 1585 book Descriptio veteris et novae Poloniae cum divisione ejusdem veteri et nova (A description of the Old and the New Poland with the old, and a new division of the same), which states: "Rossi ... de heroibus suis, quos Bohatiros id est semideos vocant, aliis persuadere conantur.

Some scholars divide the epic poems into three collections: the Mythological epics, older stories that were told before Kiev-Rus was founded and Christianity was brought to the region, and included magic and the supernatural; the Kievan cycle, which contains the largest number of bogatyrs and their stories (Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich, and Alyosha Popovich); and the Novgorod cycle, focused on Sadko and Vasily Buslayev, which depicts everyday life in Novgorod.

[10][need quotation to verify] Many of the stories about bogatyrs revolve around the court of Vladimir I of Kiev and feature in the Kievan Cycle.

Each of them tends to be known for a certain character trait: Alyosha Popovich for his wits, Dobrynya Nikitich for his courage, and Ilya Muromets for his physical and spiritual power and integrity, and for his dedication to the protection of his homeland and people.

While the female bogatyr doesn't quite match the men in strength and bravery, there are stories detailing instances where they save their husbands and outwit the enemy.