Wójnski kěrluš
Wójnski kěrluš (war song, actually “chorale from war”) is an old Sorbian epic hero song , the content of which goes back to the 9th century and whose distribution extends far beyond the Sorbian settlement area. Until the 19th century, the parts of the song were only transmitted orally.
discovery
Reports of old Sorbian songs and sagas are first recorded around 1700. In 1700 Abraham Frencel quotes fragments of a Sorbian rain magic song.
In 1783 the Görlitz historian and linguist Karl Gottlob von Anton reported for the first time about the existence of old epic songs: “You know too well that they were the masters of the land that is now owned by their enemies, the Germans; the atrocities perpetrated against them are still fresh in their minds and they nourish themselves with the hope that they will one day raise their heads again and subjugate their oppressors. They still have oral records of their fates, which they keep very secret from the Germans. "
Anton did not give a further reason for the secrecy, but this probably lies in the fact that especially the younger songs often deal with social injustices by Lusatian lords. After a few first attempts to collect and document Sorbian songs, Jan Arnošt Smoler and Leopold Haupt succeeded in their publication Volkslieder der Wenden in Ober- and Nieder-Lausitz 1841–1843, a comprehensive presentation of a large part of the Sorbian songs, including melodies and notes which are still a standard work of Sorbian research today. In addition to a few other songs that Smoler dated as "very old", there are two variants of the song called Link Chain in German. One variant came from the childhood place of Smolers, from Lohsa , while the other came from Naundorf in Niederlausitz .
It was not until 1893 that Ewald Müller published another, very extensive version of the song, which the cantor Riese from Sielow had sent him. Other variants were recorded by Adolf Černý , among others , so that a total of over 20 different variants of the song or parts of it are documented in predominantly Lower Sorbian . The German translations and the Upper Sorbian transmissions of some parts of the song are likely to be new . With the equally not small number of variants of the melody, two core melodies can be recognized, one of which is probably more recent and resembles the melody of the German folk song O wiewohl ist mir am Abend , while the other gives an insight into an archaic sense of sound is probably the historical melody of the song. Since the variants of the song sometimes deal with different events around the song's hero, it can be assumed that some parts originally told a coherent story, with the song retaining a fragmentary character.
content
Wójnski Kěrluš tells of a hero, Pan , who is greeted by his people after his victorious battles. "Pan" is a term no longer used in modern Sorbian for a noble gentleman. Four sections of a story can be identified within the variants of the song. The variants of the song almost always begin with the words: “Our boys come ridden from the war and lead our master’s horse.” This introduction is followed by a short report in which four different themes emerge in the variants of the song.
In the presumably first part of the song the arrival of Pan is described with strange riders, who are described in the text as Huntše , Huns or Hungarians .
In the second part of the song the arrival of Pan himself is portrayed, who is leading a "woman" with him, as mistress for his people and probably wife for himself.
The third part of the song describes the return of Pan and his men, including a prisoner of war German warrior. This part of the song goes back to the communication of the Sielower Cantor and is the most extensive version in terms of content. In this part of the song, which undoubtedly forms the climax of the whole song, the German king is asked to pay homage to Pan, and the mistress is offered to have the course of the war reported to her. Because of this passage in the song and due to the fact that reports of battles or the exodus of Panes and his people are completely absent, Cantor Riese assumed that entire parts of the song had been lost here.
In what is probably the last part of the song, the riders only return with Pan's horse, but without it. This, so report at least two versions, u. a. even the one recorded at Smoler, the “old and strong gentleman” would lie at the bottom of a river by the Danube , four miles behind the Morava in present-day Serbia . The reason why Pan died is not disclosed.
The second and last part of the song are also supplemented by other elements, of which it is not clear how they relate to the original song. After the above-mentioned story about the Pan, there is a richly pictorial and symbolic description of his ring and what you can see in the "eye" of the ring. These passages, which are difficult to interpret, are seamlessly followed by a short dance song.
Only in one version is a name of the Pan mentioned. This is how you read: Pišic Panjo konja wjeźo , meaning “Mr. Piš leads (his) horse”.
In addition, the call "Huj" appears between the verses in all versions, which is sung along.
Interpretations and exploration
Real doubts about the authenticity of the song hardly arose because of the widespread use of the song, even across language barriers. In particular, the content of the unclear part of the song about the Lord's Ring has been passed down with great similarities in Poland, Moravia, the Czech Republic and the Ukraine, as Smoler documents. For Galicia , he mentions a nursery rhyme spoken or sung in a game called The Queen.
The Sorbian musicologist Jan Rawp , who had made a particular contribution to the research of the song, saw a real, old folk song tradition in the widespread use of the song, and cites its traditional vocabulary and the form of its melodies for its old age. Oral traditions for epic songs from the 12th century on are also documented in Serbia and Poland , whose songs are similar in form and narrative to Wójnski Kěrluš . At the same time, he dates the content of the song to the 10th century and pointed to historical events from that time, which strikingly coincide with the stories in the stanzas.
The main source for the song is therefore Widukind von Corvey with his history of Saxony. He reports on the battles between King Heinrich the Vogler and the Slavs in Daleminzia : “The above-mentioned Hungarian army, summoned by the Slavs, caused great damage in Saxony and made infinite booty; on their return to Dalminzien they met another Hungarian army, which threatened to war on their friends, as they scorned their help while they had led the first army to great booty. And so it happened that Saxony was devastated a second time by Hungary; while the first army awaited the second in Dalminzien, this country was brought into such great distress that they left their own property that year and served other peoples for their livelihood. "
Accordingly, the song would describe the events around the year 924, when the inhabitants of the Sorbian Gau Daleminzien, which encompassed the area around the Lommatzscher care as far as Dresden , called the Hungarians to help against the warriors of the German kings, who had been calling on them again and again since 904 devastated the land. Widukind hides the fact that the Hungarians did not cease their invasions until King Henry had to pay tribute to them, which continued until his final victory over the Hungarians. Widukung does not consider the role of the Slavic warriors to be worth mentioning, but notes: dum illos ad tantam predam duxissent , "... they ... led to great booty" and thus still records and documents the leadership of the Hungarians by the Slavs thus indirectly a participation by Slavic warriors. Thus, the parts of the text that Hungarians fought for and with Sorbs would be just as substantiated as the fact that the German king was forced to pay homage (namely tribute payments). The mention that the Hungarians had two different armies in Daleminzia, which acted independently of each other and ultimately caused their allies, the Daleminzer, a lot of effort, so that they were forced to earn their living in foreign countries, fits in with the conclusion of the song and could explain why the hero of the song died in Serbia. In addition, Rawp points to the call in the song Huj as a war call and confirms this with contemporary reports (Luitprand, Engelinus) Ex eorum turpis et diabolica hui, hui frequenter auditur. as the battle cry of the Hungarians in the fight against King Henry I in 933. This interjection thus proves the authenticity of the song in a special way.
The Pan, on the other hand, cannot be proven historically, but rulers are repeatedly recorded for individual Sorbian tribes, so that the existence in itself is not excluded. The name Piš could either be an echo of the verifiable name Peš as a short form "Peter" in the Christianized Slavic areas of this time or as a form of Pych or Pychor, which means something like "proud". Both names can be proven at least for the old Slavic period and do not make the mention of a name that was absolutely no longer in use in modern times seem entirely fictitious. However, the form Pychor in particular could be more of an honorable nickname for Piš than an actual personal name.
According to Rawp, Wójnski kěrluš is the oldest surviving epic Slavic song in terms of content.
Text sample (Sorbian - German)
Na tym sedli pani sedži, huj, pani sedži.
Ma ta pani złoty peršćeń, huj, złoty peršćeń.
Ma tón peršćeń módre woko, huj, módre woko.
Pšez to woko woda bjejži, huj, woda bjejži.
Na tej wodži trawa rosće, huj, trawa rosće.
Po tej trawi pawy khodža, huj pawy khodža.
Rjana pani pawy pase, huj, pawy pase!
A mistress sits on the saddle, huj, sits a mistress.
Mistress has a golden ring, huj, has a golden ring.
Ringlein has a black eye, huj, a black eye.
Water flows over the eye, huj, water flows.
Grasses grow on the water, huj, grasses grow.
Peacocks are walking on the grass, huj, peacocks are walking.
Beautiful mistress tending peacocks, huj, tending peacocks.
Edits
Even today, the song is an integral part of Sorbian music culture in individual parts. Fame in Upper Lusatia even increased due to the fact that the Sorbian composer Bjarnat Krawc recorded part of the Wójnski kěrluš in his 33 Wendish folk songs for voice and piano op. 52 and made it accessible to middle-class circles. In addition, the draftsman Měrćin Nowak-Njechorński dedicated a work to the song.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Jan Rawp: Naše golcy z wojny jědu . In: Lětopis / Series C , published for the Institute of Sorbian Folk Research, born in 1954/57, ISSN 0522-5086 .
- ↑ Jan Arnošt Smoler, Leopold Haupt (ed.): Folksongs of the Wends in Upper and Lower Lusatia . Gebhardt, Grimma 1841–1843, Part I Lied LIX p. 93 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ) and in Part II Lied XCI p. 81 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
- ^ Res gestae Saxonicae, Section 1.20 of the Widukind by Corvey.
- ↑ Ernst Eichler : + Pichor . In: Ders .: Slavic place names between Saale and Neisse. Vol. 3: N-S . Domowina-Verlag, Bautzen 1993, ISBN 3-7420-0780-7 .