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Ilya Muromets (Ilya of Murom) is a Russian mythical hero. He is celebrated in numerous byliny (folk epic poems). Along with Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich he is regarded as the greatest of all the legendary bogatyrs (i.e., medieval Russian knights-errant).
According to legend, Ilya, the son of a Cossack farmer, was born in the village of Karacharovo, near Murom. He suffered serious illness in his youth and was unable to walk until the age of 33, when he was healed by a travelling minstrel. He was then given super-human strength by a dying knight, Svyatogor, and set out for the city of Kiev to serve Prince Vladimir the Beautiful Sun (Vladimir Krasnoye Solnyshko). Along the way he single-handedly defended the city of Chernigov from invasion by the Tatars and was offered knighthood by the local ruler, but Ilya declined to stay. He then killed the forest-dwelling monster Solovey-Razboynik, (literally Nightingale the RobberNightingale the Robber Solovey-Razboynik, russian also known as Solovey Odikhmantievich russian epic bird-like monster sitting on a tree by the road and stunning strangers with horrible whistle. Legendarily defeated by Ilya Muromets.), who could murder travellers with his whistle.
In Kiev, Ilya was made chief bogatyr by Prince Vladimir and he defended Russia from numerous attacks by the Tatars. Generous and simple-minded but also temperamental, Ilya once went on a rampage and destroyed all the church steeples in Kiev after Prince Vladimir had failed to invite him to a celebration. He was soon appeased when Vladimir sent for him.