"Her subjection to the Greek Church was alone sufficient during
the Middle Ages, and is in some measure sufficient even in our
own time, to keep Russia politically and intellectually at a
distance from the rest of the Western world."
Little if any part was taken by the Slavs in the Crusades. They
had hardly any of the spirit of chivalry, and their belief,
during their period of barbaric heathenism, was not so romantic
and ideal as the Gothic.
The heroic prose tales of Russia are older and more popular than
her ballads. They are told in the nurseries, and recount the
heroic deeds of Vladimir the Great. The ballads are mostly a
recital of the feuds between the Poles and the Tartars, not
unlike the Border ballads of Scotland.
Their greatest hero is Yermak, who conquered the Mongols, and in
the fifteenth century won for the Czars the country that is now
called Siberia. Yermak's deeds and praises are sung from one end
of Russia to the other, even at the present day; and the poorest
peasants usually have a colored print representing him on
horseback, nailed to the wall of their cabins.
Serbian
The popular poetry of the Slavic race, which still survives, is
found in its perfection among the Serbians and Dalmatians, while
it is almost extinct among the other nations. It is of unknown
antiquity, and has been handed down from one century to another.
The Slavs have always been a singing race, and must have been so
from Pagan times, as their songs abound with heathen gods and
customs, dreams, omens, and a true Eastern fatalism. Love and
heroism are the usual themes, and among the Serbians the peculiar
relation of sister and brother forms the principal subject of
interest.
A Serbian woman who has no brother is considered a fit subject
for sympathy. The Serbian poetry is nearly all Epic, and in this
particular class of verse no modern nation has been so
productive. There is a grand and heroic simplicity in their song,
as it recounts their daily life; the hall where the women sit
spinning near the fire, the windswept mountain side, where the
boys are pasturing their flocks, the village square where youths
and maidens dance, the country ripe for the harvest, and the
forest through which the traveller journeys, all reecho with
song. This Serbian poetry first became generally known in Europe
through Goethe and Grimm in Germany, and Bowring and Lytton in
England.
Finnish
The Finnish race reached a high degree of civilization at a very
early period. They have always been distinguished by a love of
poetry, especially for the elegy, and they abound in tales,
legends and proverbs. Until the middle of the twelfth century
they had their own independent kings, since then they have been
alternately conquered by the Russians and Swedes; but like the
Poles, they have preserved a strong national feeling, and have
kept their native language. Their greatest literary monument is
the Kalevala, an epic poem. Elias Lonnrot, its compiler, wandered
from place to place in the remote and isolated country in
Finland, lived with the peasants, and took from them their
popular songs, then he wrote the Kalevala, which bears a strong
resemblance to Hiawatha. Max Muller says that this poem deserves
to be classed as the fifth National Epic in the world, and to
rank with the Mahabharata and the Nibelungen-lied. The songs are
doubtlessly the work of different minds in the earliest ages of
the nation.
Hungarian
The Magyars, or Hungarians as they are called, came into Europe
from Asia, and first settled between the Don and the Dneiper.
They possessed from remote antiquity a national heroic poetry,
the favourite subject of which was their migration and conquests
under the Seven Leaders. They laid claim to Attila as being of
their nation, and many of their most warlike songs recounted his
deeds and those of the other Gothic heroes. The Magyars have
never taken kindly to foreign influence, and when, in the
fifteenth century, Mathias Corvin tried to bring Italian
influence to bear on them, the result was a decline in
literature, and neglect of the old poems and legends. During the
Turkish invasions the last remnants of the national songs and
traditions disappeared; and under the Austrian rule the
Hungarians have become decidedly Germanized.
Within the past century Kisfalud has sought to restore the
national legends of his country, and a new impetus has been given
to the restoration and preservation of the Hungarian language and
literature.
