"Sadko, the rich Guest of Novgorod," also, in the song of that title, belonging to the Novgorod cycle, was a prominent citizen of Novgorod, who built a church in Novgorod, during the twelfth century, and is referred to in the Chronicles for a space of two hundred years.

In fact, the Novgorod cycle contains less of the personified phenomena of nature than the cycle of the Elder Heroes, and the Kieff cycle, and more of the genuine historical element.
A regular tonic versification forms one of the indispensable properties of these epic poems; irregularity of versification is a sign of decay, and a complete absence of measure, that is to say, the prose form, is the last stage of decay.

The airs to which they are sung or chanted are very simple, consisting of but few tones, yet are extremely difficult to note down.

The peasant bard modifies the one or two airs to which he chants his lays with astonishing skill, according to the testimony of Rybnikoff, who made the first large collection of the songs, in the Olonetz government (1859), and Hilferding, who made a still more surprising collection (1870), to the north and east of Olonetz.
The lay of Sadko, above mentioned, is perhaps the most famous--the one most frequently alluded to in Russian literature and art.

Sadko was a harper of "Lord Novgorod the Great." "No golden treasures did he possess.