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Wrana said:
Certainly! Unless much later, than "serving Knyaz" appeared at Moscow court, of course... (but this is MUCH later).
But as you must remember, bylinas mostly include a very certain Prince (if you wish) as a character. Or do you remember ones mentioning others?
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Thats because bylinas are centered aroud several heroes who lived at about the same time
Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitych and Alesha Popovitch, mostly. But druzhinas arent necessarily assotiated with that particular Knyaz, or any bogatyr at all.
Bogarus gave me impression of being mostly inspired by 12-14th century Russia (with some splash of Christianity, and sects from later time, as K. alredy confessed)
, so Druzhina cavalry is absolutely not an anachronysm in it.
By the way. Knyaz "Vladimir Krasno Solnyshko" from these Bylinas is actually Vladimir I, around 960-1050, who baptized Russia. So everything makes lots of sense, to think of it.
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As for Simargl - there are really few sources. IIRC, it's of Persian origin and some ideas on its functions in Slavic/Rus mythology may be taken from Iranic sources... It's image was certainly often used as one of a guardian, that's for sure!
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Not much is known about Russian paganism, thats true. Christian clergy did its best to wipe all traces of pagan traditions, and they succeeded. But from what I've read, Simargl could indeed be borrowed from Iran in the ancient times.
Well, as I see it - Rudra was initially a God in India, and later there were many Rudras as his companions. Or, for example, the Beregini. Initially it was a name of one specific Goddess; there was just one Bereginya. Later slavs believed that there are many other Bereginyas as well, protective spirits of the shore. Here's one, by the way -
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%98%...D%D1%8F_01.jpg
So why not having winged dogs named after Simargl, his minions or something - seems quite logical to me.
P.S.
And why, I ask of thee, did Vans 'conquer' Bogarus? Logically, they were invited to rule!