Hero Tales and Legends of the Serbians

by Woislav M. Petrovitch

This beautiful, illustrated book recounts the many heroes and legends of Serbian folklore. Beginning with a historical overview of the country's key characters, themes, and superstitions, it also includes prose translations of many Serbian folk ballads. A treat for fans of mythology and fairy tales, and a glimpse into the poetic soul of a country little known to most westerners. WOISLAV M. PETROVITCH (1885?-1934) was an attaché to the Serbian Royal Legation to the Court of St. James's, and a translator. He also wrote Her People, History and Aspirations and Key to the Serbian Conversation Grammar.

Genres: Folklore, Nonfiction, History

412 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1914

Reviews

[Cwn_annwn_13 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains some information about Serbian Folk Lore, Folk customs, a little theorizing about pre-Christian religion in Serbia and other Serbian legends but the bulk of this book is about Prince Marko. It would be very inaccurate to try to say he fits this description exactly but in a sense he is the Serb version of King Arthur. Overall an interesting and entertaining read if this sort of thing interests you.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

[Czarny Pies · Rating 4 out of 5]

The great philologist and ethnographer, Vuk Stefanović Karadžić (1787-1864) in his remarkable career collected and published 406 lyric songs and 117 heroic poems that had been transmitted orally for centuries by Serbian bards (gousslari). This corpus is a monument in European literature comparable to Elias Lonnröt's "Kalevala", Lady Gregory's "Irish Myths and Legends", the Grimm brothers "Kinder- und Hausmärchen" or Lady Charlotte Guest's "Mabinogian". As such it will be a source of great pleasure to readers interested in European folklore. Unfortunately as Petrovitch who selected the sample of Karadžić's poems that appear in this volume freely admits his prose translations are rather pedestrian.

Karadžić was also the compiler of the first modern Serbian dictionary and the great hero on the cultural level of Serbia's struggle for independence from the Ottoman Empire which began in the 18th century and which was waged through-out the entire nineteenth century.

"Hero Tales and Legends of the Serbians" was conceived to celebrate Serbia's triumph in the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 which appeared to give Serbia its long sought-after independence. Very ironically it was published in August 1914 just weeks after the assassination Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian nationalist had instigated World War I. More than an introduction of Serbian folklore, this book is very intriguing document that illustrates the zeitgeist of Europe on the eve of one its worst catastrophes.

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

I had no idea of how rich the Serbian history and culture is. These tales show how well-preserved tradition and national pride is. I truly enjoyed this book.

[Mark Schlechty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible stories...well told

I love the stories in this book . Especially the ones about Marco and Sharatz. The fairy tales were also very interesting. I spent many nights staying up way too late reading this book. The beginning of the book gives a significant amount of sociology/anthropology of Serbian people to help a reader understand the stories. The traditions and customs of the land are rich and meaningful and fun to read. I read stories from every culture and this is one of the finest.

[Allison]

There's good stuff in here, if you can read around the turn-of-the-century racism and imperialism to get at it.

[Alexei López · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Precious Jewel in European Culture

The nineteenth century was a time of rediscovery of tradition and folklore that resulted in efforts in which many men and women rescued the oral richness of the peasantry imagery. In spite of being a period in which the scientific mind tried to leave all this behind, many beautiful compilations of fairy tales and songs were published and reached an incredible sucess.

Petrovitch's book is such an attempt for Serbia. As the reader unfolds the pages, he/ she will find echos of other traditions (basically european but, not surprisingly, asiatic too). The first part of this work mainly focuses on the Serbian's quotidian life and social traditions, whereas the remaining of it deals with the national heroes and fairy tales.

I can't but recommend this beautiful volume to anyone interested in tradition, folklore, myth and comparative studies. The only weaknesses worth mentioning (in this edition) are: poor editing (some pages go blank because the size of the image that follows was not taken into account) and lack of information of the book (one needs to do some research to get some essential information (original publication date etc.,). These are the reasons why I didn't rate it as high as the ouvre deserves.

[Lianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Een uitgave die oorspronkelijk stamt uit de tijd van voor de Eerste Wereldoorlog, de tijd waarin Servië groot was. De Nederlandse vertaling is uitgekomen toen die wereldoorlog gestart was, mede door een moord gepleegd door een nationalist in Sarajevo. Die (dreigende) wereldoorlog heeft de verzameling verhalen nauwelijks beïnvloed, zover ik kan beoordelen. Wel de langdurige bezetting door en strijd tegen het grote Ottomaanse rijk.
In veel legenden en heldensagen komen dezelfde thema's terug. De verhalen circuleerden in de verschillende delen van Oost-Europa blijkbaar met verschillende details.