Lāčplēsis
Lāčplēsis is an epic poem by the Latvian poet Andrejs Pumpurs and is considered the Latvian national epic . He wrote the text between 1872 and 1887 on the basis of Latvian myths and legends , including Heinrich's Livonian Chronicle . In 1888 the work was named Lāčplēsis. Latvju tautas varonis. Tautas epuss. Pec tautas teikām sacerējis Pumpurs (Bear tears. Hero of the Latvian people. Folk epic. Based on folk tales written by Pumpurs) . The occasionally used German translation of the name Lāčplēsis (from Lat. Lācis = the bear, Gen. Pl. Lāču + plēst = tear, Part. Perf. Plēsis ) with "Bärentöter" is not only inaccurate or wrong, but also misleading because this in Karl May the name of the rifle of Old Shatterhand is.
Content of the poem
The poem tells the life of the legendary hero Lāčplēsis. He was chosen by the gods to be the hero of his people. As a young man, he saves his foster father, Lord von Lielvārde , from a bear by tearing it up with his bare hands. At Prince Aizkrauklis' castle , he spies on the witch Spīdala, who is in league with the devil, and Kangars , who wants to replace the Latvian gods of nature with the Christian faith. Spīdala tries to drown Lāčplēsis by thrusting him into the Staburags whirlpool of the Daugava . However, Lāčplēsis is saved by the sorceress Staburadze , who takes him to her underwater crystal castle. There Lāčplēsis meets the girl Laimdota ("given by Laima") and immediately falls in love with her. A short time later he made friends with the hero Koknesis ("tree bearer") and studied with him at the castle of Laimdota's father Burtnieks .
Kangars provokes a war with the Estonians and Lāčplēsis fights the giant Kalapuisis to win Laimdota's hand. He defeats the giant and makes peace with him. From then on both fight together against the common enemy: the German missionaries, led by the priest Dietrich (Dītrihs). Lāčplēsis accomplishes the next heroic deed by spending a night in the sunken castle. In this way he breaks the curse that weighs on the castle, and it rises again into the air. Laimdota and Lāčplēsis become engaged. In the following episodes, Laimdota reads old books about creation and the ancient Latvian teachings.
Laimdota and Koknesis are deported to Germany and imprisoned. Spīdala convinces Lāčplēsis that his two friends love each other. Lāčplēsis returns to his home castle Lielvārde and sets off from there by ship to Germany. However, his ship is lost in the North Sea , where he meets the daughter of the north wind. Meanwhile, Dietrich and Liv prince Kaupa of Turaida meet with the Pope in Rome to plan the Christianization of Latvia . Lāčplēsis begins his dangerous journey home across the North Sea . He fights against monsters with three, six and nine heads for the enchanted island. Eventually he meets Spīdala on the island and heals her of her obsession. He then meets Laimdota and Koknesis again, who managed to escape Germany but fell into a trap on the enchanted island. Koknesis falls in love with Spīdala. Finally the four friends return to Latvia.
When they get home, they celebrate a big double wedding on Jāņi Day . Soon afterwards Lāčplēsis and Koknesis set out again to fight the German crusaders . After several battles they are able to push back the Germans, but their leader, Bishop Albert , brings reinforcements from Germany. One of the crusaders is the Black Knight. On Dietrich's orders, Kangars reveals the secret of Lāčplēsis' strength: his mother was a she-bear, and his superhuman strength comes from his bear ears. The German knights then come to Lielvārde and offer Lāčplēsis peace. Lāčplēsis welcomes and entertains guests in the castle. A tournament is held in which Lāčplēsis engages in a duel with the Black Knight, who cuts off both ears in battle and thus robs him of his strength. Nevertheless, both opponents fall into the Daugava and sink. When Lāčplēsis rises again from the floods, the Latvian people will be free.
structure
- Canto I: The Council of the Gods - Lāčplēsis' fate is revealed.
- Canto II: Lāčplēsis' first heroic deed - Lāčplēsis sets out for Burtnieki Castle - Encounter with Spīdala - In the Devil's Shaft - In Staburadze's Palace - Return and encounter with Koknesis.
- Canto III: The Kangars and Spīdalas Conspiracy - War with the Estonians - The Sunken Castle - The Creation - The Latvians are deceived by the Christians.
- Canto IV: Kaupa in Rome - Koknesis and Laimdota in Germany - Lāčplēsis in the North Sea - Lāčplēsis' return.
- Canto V: On the enchanted island - meeting with Spīdala - homecoming - Lāčplēsis, Laimdota and Koknesis are reunited.
- Canto VI: Jāņi - The battle begins - Lāčplēsis 'wedding - Lāčplēsis' death.
Further processing
- The Latvian writer Rainis used motifs from the epic in his drama Uguns un Nakts (Fire and Night, 1905), originally written as an opera libretto ; However, the focus here is not on Lāčplēsis itself, but Spīdala (in Rainis: Spīdola).
- Fallijs (d. I. Konrāds Bullāns, 1877–1914): Lāčplēsis (1908–12, drama)
- Dzintars Sodums (1922–2008): Lāčplēsis trimdā (Lāčplēsis in exile, 1960, short story)
- Jānis Turbads (d. I. Valdis Zeps, 1932–1996): Ķēves dēls Kurbads (mare's son Kurbads, 1970, satire)
- Baņuta Rubesa (* 1956): Varoņdarbi (heroic deeds, 1979, Singspiel after Ķēves dēls Kurbads )
- In 1988, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the appearance of the epic, an adaptation was made as a rock opera . The libretto was written by Māra Zālīte , the music is by Zigmars Liepiņš. The world premiere took place on August 23, 1988 - not by chance on the 49th anniversary of the signing of the Hitler-Stalin Pact .
filming
The Lāčplēsis story was filmed in 1930 by Aleksandrs Rusteiķis. The plot of the silent film takes place in a mythical prehistory as well as during the revolution of 1905 , the First World War and the Latvian War of Independence .
Representations
- The northern main group of figures (third tier, gray granite) of the Freedom Monument in Riga depicts Lāčplēsis' fight with the bear.
- A Lāčplēsis sculpture was erected across from the Majori train station ( Jūrmala ) in 1953 .
Extended meanings of the protagonists
The characters of the epic are very popular in Latvia; their names appear again in many places in everyday life in Latvia. (Product names or their use for the purpose of advertising and sales are not listed here).
- Kalapuisis (derived from the Estonian Kalapoiss ) is a character from the Estonian national epic Kalevipoeg .
- Kangars' betrayal gave birth to the neologism kangarisms ("kangarism").
- Kaupa ( Kaupo ) was a historical person, a live prince who converted to Christianity at the end of the 12th century; a monument was erected to him in Turaida .
- Lāčplēsis:
- The city of Lielvārde with the Lāčplēša parks was the venue for the Lāčplēsis Days ( Lāčplēša dienas ) in 1988.
- Lāčplēša gulta (Bed of Lāčplēsis) is a boulder in Lielvārde.
- The prize awarded 1920-1928 Lāčplēša Kara ordenis ( Bear Ripper Orden ) was the highest military order of the independent Republic of Latvia.
- Lāčplēša iela is a street name in Riga and many other Latvian cities.
- Lāčausis ("barrage") is a Latvian fairy tale character and was used by Pumpurs as the epithet of Lāčplēsis.
- Laimdota has been a popular girl name since the Rainis drama.
- Spīdala / Spīdola:
- The ship SS Arvonian, built in 1905, has been called Spīdola since 1928 .
- Spīdola is a Latvian submarine, built in 1926, later captured by the Soviet Union.
- The first mass-produced transistor radio in the Soviet Union (from 1961 by the VEF company in Riga) had the product name Спидола (Spidola); the word became popularly synonymous with “transistor radio”.
- Spīdolas balva is an award that has been presented by the Latvian Cultural Fund since 1993 for special achievements in humanitarian science and art.
- Staburadze is the personification of an approximately 18 m high, legendary rock Staburags (lit. "Pfostenhorn"), which towered on the left bank of the Daugava and was flooded in 1966 in the course of the construction of the Pļaviņas hydroelectric power station near Aizkraukle.
Lāčplēsis day
On Lāčplēsis Day (Latvian: Lāčplēša diena ), November 11th, the Latvians commemorate the victory over the Bermondt Army at the Battle of Riga in 1919.
Latvian language editions
- Latvian: Lāčplēsis. Latvju tautas varonis. Tautas eposs pēc tautas teikām sacerēts.
Full text on No latviešu literatūras klasikas .
Latest issues (all published in Riga):- LVI, 1972 (illustrated by Gunārs Krollis);
- Zinātne, 1988 (with an introduction and comments by Jāzeps Rudzītis);
- Ave Sol, 1995 (illustrated by Aleksandrs Stankevičs);
- Annele, 2002 (illustrated by Gunārs Krollis, foreword by Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga );
- Zvaigzne ABC, 2000 (school edition);
- Zvaigzne, 2008;
- Lauku Avīze, 2016 (illustrated by Agris Liepiņš).
Translations into other languages
- Danish: Bjørnedræberen. Det lettiske folks epic. Gended and commented by Per Nielsen. 2nd, revised and commented edition. Forlaget Ravnerock, Otterup 2012 .; first edition under the title Bjørnedræberen. Et lettisk helteepos in Forlaget Brage, 1991.
- English: Lāčplēsis (The Bear Slayer) A hero of the Latvian people. Folk epic. Interlinear translation from Latvian by Gunārs Cīrulis. Writers' Association of the Latvian SSR, Center for Translation of Latvian Literature, Riga 1988 (association publication).
- English:
- Lāčplēsis / Bear Slayer: The Latvian People's Hero. A National Epic. Word-for-word translation by Rita Laima Krieviņa. Writers union of the Latvian SSR, Riga 1988.
- Bearslayer by Andrejs Pumpurs: A free translation from the unrhymed Latvian into English heroic verse by Arthur Cropley. University of Hamburg 2005 ( full text in the Internet Archive and in Project Gutenberg , http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17445 ); LU Akadēmiskais apgāds, Riga 2007 ( Google Books ). (Without naming the translator, born in 1935, but with the copyright reference “The content of this book is sourced from the public domain” from tredition, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-8424-8426-9 ).
- Finnish: Karhunkaataja. Latvian kansallissankari. Adaptation from Latvian by Edgar Vaalgamaa. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, Helsinki 1988, ISBN 951-717-535-3 .
- Russian:
- Лачплесис. Version based on an interlinear version by Vladimir Dershawin. Moscow, Riga, Leningrad 1945; New edition with afterword and comments by Jurij Wipper in 1950.
- Лачплесис. Adaptation from Latvian by Ludmila Kopilova, illustrated by Dainis Rožkalns. Лиесмa (= Liesma), Riga 1983.
- Spanish: Lāčplēsis = El descoyuntaosos. Poema épico letón. Traducción de Miguel Ángel Pérez Sánchez. Latvijas Universitāte, Riga; AECID, Madrid 2017.
literature
- Aija Priedīte: The changes of the Latvian national hero Lāčplēsis between 1888 and 1988. In: Zeitschrift Baltica , Hamburg 1989, issues 3 and 4.
- Friedrich Scholz: The literatures of the Baltic States. Their creation and development. Opladen 1990. ISBN 3-531-05097-4 .
- Biruta Gudriķe: Pumpurs, Andrejs . In: LU Literatūras, folkloras un mākslas institūts (ed.): Latviešu rakstniecība biogrāfijās . Zinātne, Riga 2003. ISBN 9984-698-48-3 , p. 463 f. (Latvian).
Web links
- Illustration of the model of the Lāčplēsis group of figures for the Riga Freedom Monument in the weekly Atpūta № 514, p. 32 (back)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Recording of the rock opera on YouTube.
- ↑ Description of the film (Latvian) on the pages of the "Latvian Culture Canon" ( Latvijas Kultūras kanons ), accessed on March 23, 2019.
- ↑ Streaming of the film (94 min.) At Latvijas Filmas (provided by Nacionālais Kino centrs ).
- ↑ See Scholz, p. 280.
- ↑ Currently around 650 registered namesake in Latvia, see http://www.draugam.lv/vards/Laimdota (Latvian), accessed on March 22, 2019.
- ↑ See Scholz, p. 281
- ↑ In Great Britain and in the Commonwealth of Nations , the end of World War I in 1918 is commemorated on this day ( Remembrance Day ).
- ↑ Examples of illustrations by Gunārs Krollis, Aleksandrs Stankevičs and Voldemārs Valdmanis and (not specifically named) Ģirts Vilks u. a. Artists can find the web article Lāčplēsis. Imprese di un giovane guerriero dalle orecchie d'orso on bifrost.it (Italian), accessed on March 26, 2019.
- ↑ Laimdota un Spīdala minisvārkos. Kāpēc ne? Saruna ar Agri Liepiņu (Laimdota and Spīdala in miniskirt. Why not? Conversation with Agris Liepiņš). In: Lauku Avīze (LA.lv) from September 16, 2016 (Latvian, with three illustrative examples).
- ↑ Description at bibliotek.dk (Danish).
- ↑ Review by Per-Olof Johansson ( PDF; 126 kB , Danish).
- ↑ Author's page Per Nielsen at the Danish Writers' Union (Danish).
- ↑ »Jaunā Gaita« № 250 (September 2007) , 4th paragraph (Latvian)
- ↑ Books by Arthur J. Cropley see goodreads.com.
- ↑ Aina Rozeniece: “Lai pastāvīgi ejam gaismas karā! Cik lēni tumsa bēg, to redzējām “- Andrejs Pumpurs . In: Latvijas Vēstnesis. September 27, 2002, last paragraph (Latvian).