Excerpt from Pansies and Asphodel It is a remarkable fact that in one respect the Folklore of the Russians differs from that of most other nations; Ilia of Mourom, the favourite hero, who is greater even than King Vladimir himself, is a peasant's son, and M ikoula, another prominent character, is a villager. Ilia is always a democrat, and is constantly appearing as the representative of his class, rebuking even Vladimir himself when the interests of the country demand it, and serving the people rather than the king. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.