The girl from the Amselfelde

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“The girl from the blackbird field” by Uroš Predić

The girl from the Amselfelde ( Serbian Косовка девојка , Kosovka devojka ) is a ten-syllable Serbian epic song from the cycles of the Blackbird Field Battle . The written version of the orally transmitted song was written down in 1817 by Lukijan Mušički, the abbot of the Šišatovac monastery or someone commissioned for him for the song collection of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić by an old blind man from Grugervci ( Blind from Grgurevci ) in Syrmia .

content

The song begins with a narration of the bright Sunday morning after the end of the battle on the blackbird field . A girl looks for her fiancé and his two blood brothers among the wounded and dead. She carries white bread in her hands and two gold jugs - one filled with cold water, the other filled with red wine. After taking care of the heroes lying in her blood, it becomes apparent that her youth, the splendor of the morning and the gold of her jugs as great promises will soon betray her. Finally she learns from a badly wounded warrior that all three died in battle.

origin

The epic belongs in the context of the Epic Songs of the Blackbird Battle and existed for centuries as an orally transmitted epic of oral poetry among bards of the South Slav Serb population in the western Balkans. Since the song is a component of orally traditional poetry, it was widespread in various variants and forms among the rural population and was therefore not to be assigned to a specific author, but rather a song that “belonged” in the community to which it was known. The song was presented to an audience by a guslaren during the respective special lectures in the form he knew. The written version was finally noted in Syrmia by the "Blinden aus Grgurevci" by the abbot of the Šišatovac monastery and included in the song collection Vuk.

interpretation

The song does not tell of a historical event, but has elements of high historical accuracy. The great national catastrophe of the Blackbird Battle is told in a personal drama in a fictional story. Medieval customs and traditions are reflected in the gifts that the girl from Amselfeld received from her fiancé and his two blood brothers before the battle. Exact historical knowledge can be found in an exact description of the ornaments of rings, tunics and shawls, as well as the details in the communion of the Serbian army before the battle. Svetozar Radojčić set this against the evidence of the simultaneous Byzantine military tracts, Serbian monastic literature and medieval frescoes and suspects their aptly precise oral tradition in the song Kosovka devojka on the exact repetition of the song lines impressed on the memory over several centuries. An unanswered mystery in the lore of Epic Songs is some of the finest feudal medieval Serbian epics recorded by devout blind women, often showing a stronger sense of the distant past than does non-blind male singers.

The poem from Kosovka devojka is counted among the most beautiful songs of the Kosovo cycle of Serbian folk epics , along with the song about the death of mother Jugović . The poem gained great popularity as a symbol of female care, help and charity. Uroš Predić took up the subject in 1919 and left an oil painting of the same name. The sculptor Ivan Meštrović created a marble relief entitled Kosovka devojka in 1907 as part of his Kosovo sculpture cycle.

In 1853 the translation of Therese von Jacob's poem was published in Leipzig.

literature

  • Ronelle Alexander 1990: The poetics of Vuk Karadžić's Kosovo Songs: An Analysis of "Kosovka Devojka". In: Wayne S. Vucinich & Thomas A. Emmert (Eds.) 1991: Kosovo Legacy of a Medieval Battle. 189-202, Minnesota Mediterranean and East European Monographs, Vol. 1, University of Minnesota, ISSN  1057-3941 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ronelle Alexander 1990: The poetics of Vuk Karadzic's Kosovo Songs: An Analysis of "Kosovka Devojka". In: Wayne S. Vucinich & Thomas A. Emmert (Eds.) 1991: Kosovo Legacy of a Medieval Battle. 189-202, Minnesota Mediterranean and East European Monographs, Vol. 1, University of Minnesota, ISSN  1057-3941 . P. 189 f.
  2. ↑ Anne Pennigton & Peter Levi 1984: Marko the Prince - Serbo-Croat heroic songs . St. Martin's Press, New York. ISBN 0-312-51537-5 , pp. 21-24
  3. ^ Svetozar Koljević 1980: The Epic in the making . Clarendon Press, Oxford. ISBN 0-19-815759-2 , p. 171
  4. ↑ a b c Svetozar Koljević 1980: The Epic in the making . P. 320