In the north of Russia numerous ballads are still current which seem to be based on events much more remote than anything treated in Servian poetry. Many of them deal with stories relating to the time of Vladimir I, who ruled over Kiev about 980-1015, and their antiquity is rendered highly probable by the fact that the same king, together with his chief hero, Ilja of Murom, figures in Thiðreks Saga af Bern. In their present form these ballads show the characteristics of popular poetry to such an extent that they are scarcely distinguishable from folk-tales. Yet it is possible that they are in part descended from poems which might fairly be brought under Stages I and II of our scheme.
At all events there is some reason for suspecting that in early times court-poetry was not unknown in Russia. Evidence to this effect is supplied by the Slovo o polku Igorevě ('Story of Igor's expedition'), which may be described as an epic, though it has no fixed metrical form. The subject is a disastrous expedition undertaken by Igor, the son of Svjatoslav, against the Polovtses on the Don in the year 1185. It is believed to be an absolutely contemporary work, composed within two years of the event. Both in language and spirit it shows rather a striking resemblance to Anglo-Saxon heroic poetry. "Igor leads his soldiers to the Don: the birds in the thicket forebode his misfortune; the wolves bristle up and howl a storm in the mountain clefts; the eagles screech and call the beasts to a feast of bones; the foxes bark for the crimson shields.... The Russians bar the long fields with their crimson shields, seeking honour for themselves and glory for the Prince[156]." There are frequent references also to mythical beings. It is held by many that this work was composed by a bard who belonged to the družina or military following of the prince and that it is the last relic of what may once have been a considerable body of poetry. Certainly we may note that the author repeatedly refers to a certain 'Bojan the Wise, nightingale of ancient time,' a poet who is unknown from other sources, but who apparently lived nearly a century before the composition of the Slovo. This carries us back practically to what we may call the Russian Heroic Age, for Bojan is represented as singing the praises of the sons of Vladimir I. In their time the Russian courts still maintained intimate relations with the Scandinavian kingdoms. Vladimir indeed appears to have had Norwegians in his service, and Olafr Tryggvason is said to have been brought up at his court. It is scarcely impossible therefore that this early poetry may have been due, in part at least, to Scandinavian influence.
FOOTNOTES:
[149] The first part of this note is mainly derived from an interesting paper by Prof. M. Murko in the Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde (Berlin), 1909, p. 13 ff., to which the reader is referred for further information and authorities. The collections of poems published by Marjanović and Hörmann have not been accessible to me.
[150] Some interesting remarks relating to the prevalence of minstrelsy—apparently among the Christian population—during the eighteenth century are to be found in Fortis' Travels into Dalmatia (London, 1778). "A Morlacco travels along the desert mountains singing, especially in the night time, the actions of ancient Slavi kings and barons or some tragic event.... Although the Morlacchi usually sing their ancient songs, yet other poetry is not altogether extinguished among them; and their musicians, after singing an ancient piece, accompanied with the guzla, sometimes finish it with some extempore verses, in praise of the personage by whom they are employed" (ib., p. 85).
[151] The following observations are based on the poems published in Krauss' Slavische Volkforschungen.
[152] Thus in a number of poems the Beg Ljubović appears as the representative of Hercegovina.
[153] Especially several of those dealing with the battle of Kossovo (1389), to which we shall have to refer in a later note.
[154] There are references to the existence of heroic poetry in the neighbourhood of Spalato and Sebenico as far back as the sixteenth century; cf. Murko, Arch. f. slav. Philol., XXVIII 378. A much earlier reference has been traced in Nicephorus Gregoras' account (Hist. Byz., VIII 14) of his mission to the court of Stephan Uroš in the year 1326, where it is stated of his followers: φωναῖς ἐχρῶντο καὶ μέλεσι τραγικοῖς· ᾖδον δ' ἄρα κλέα ἀνδρῶν ὧν οἷον κλέος ἀκούομεν οὐδέ τοι ἴδμεν. But it is extremely doubtful whether these persons were Servians.
[155] In the middle of the sixteenth century the Slovenians of Tolmino used to sing "di Mattia re d' Ungheria e di altri celebri personaggi di quella nazione" (Murko, Zeitschr. d. Vereins f. Volksk., 1909, p. 14, note). Matthias Hunyadi died in 1490.