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424 ALBERT B. LORDbecause most of the dumy are simply not the kind of songs that thebyliny and the South Slavic epics are. They do not allow for longdescriptions of epic character, and so it is not easy to compare them withthose epics. But when we say this we must also immediately point outthat not all South Slavic songs characterized as "epics" are indeed epics:many, especially those in the Christian tradition, are actually ballads.This is true for both the decasyllabic songs in Serbo-Croatian andBulgarian and for the long line bugarstice. If one is to compare thedumy with South Slavic oral traditional narrative, one must seek out theballadic forms or perhaps those that are mixed. Otherwise there is novalid comparison beyond the level of verse-making and of formulas forspecific essential ideas.For example, the duma "Pro Xves'ka Gandżu Andybera" (AboutXves'ko Gandża Andyber) and the song "Marko Kraljevic pije uzRamazan vino" (Marko drinks wine during Ramazan) are both clearlynarrative, but they are not heroic in the epic sense, because they tell of asingle incident of protest or defiance. There is no depth of mythicpattern or background. The Marko in this song is not like the hero of"Marko Kraljevic i Musa Kesedżija" (Marko Kraljevic and Musathe Highwayman) or of "Marko Kraljevic i Mina od Kostura" (MarkoKraljevic and Mina of Kostur). Indeed, the kind of story that it tells isquite different.The duma about Xves'ko Andyber depicts a poor Cossack enteringthe city of Kylyia and going to an inn. While he is warming himself at thestove, three gentlemen come in and order drinks, but offer nothing tothe Cossack. One of them finally asks the barmaid to bring some greenbeer to the poor man. Instead she brings some "mead and fine liquor,"which Andyber promptly consumes. He takes out a pure gold hammerto pawn for drink and spreads gold coins on the table. Then thegentlemen and the barmaid begin to pay more attention to him.Andyber goes to the window and calls out to the rivers of the steppe toaid him, whereupon a Cossack appears with fine clothes for him, andanother with Moroccan boots, and a third with a Cossack cap. It is thenthat the gentlemen recognize him as Xves'ko Gandża Andyber, theZaporozhian hetman. They order more drinks for him, which he pourson his clothes because they, not he, are being honored. Andyber thenorders the Cossacks to take the gentlemen outside and flog them. This isa song of protest and defiance, a ballad in scope because it focuses on asingle incident, and the figure of Andyber is heroic. So we have here notan epic in the western sense, but a fine heroic ballad of social protest.
COMPARATIVE SLAVIC EPIC 425In the Serbo-Croatian tradition this Ukrainian ballad bears comparisonto the song about Marko drinking wine during Ramazan, as well asothers of the same kind (e.g., "Turci u Marka na slavi," "Marko ukidasvadbarinu," "Lov Markov s Turcima"). In the first, the sultan issues adecree that no one may drink wine during Ramazan, nor wear greencoats, nor gird himself with a sword, nor dance the kolo with thewomen. But Marko does all these things, and even forces the hodżasand hadźis to drink wine with him. When the sultan is informedabout this, he sends for Marko. When Marko comes, he sits on thedivan at the sultan's immediate right, cocks his fur cap over his eyes,and places his famous mace at his side and his sword across his lap. Thesultan scolds Marko for disobeying the decrees, and asks why he hascocked his fur cap over his eyes and placed his mace at his side and hissword across his lap. Marko replies that he drank wine because therewas nothing in his religion to stop him from doing so; that he forcedthe hodźis and hadźis to join him because it was against his sense ofpropriety for them to look on while he drank without joining him; thathe was wearing a green coat because it suited him; that he had girdedhimself with his sword because he had paid a good deal for it; and thathe danced with the women because he was unmarried. He has cockedhis fur cap over his eyes because his forehead is burning; he is talkingwith the sultan and has his mace and sword at hand in case of a fight. Ifthere were one, it would be hard on the person closest to him. Thesultan looks around, notes that he is closest to Marko, and moves awaya bit, but Marko moves also. Once he is up against the wall, the sultangives Marko a large sum of money to buy himself a drink! 23In thissong, of course, defiance is less against a system, although that isimplied, than against the sultan himself.The duma "Pro samars'kyx brativ" (About the brothers of Samarka)is also clearly a ballad, but for a different reason. It is elegiac, focusingon the last moments of three dying brothers; there is no action, onlyeach one's last words. By no definition is this an epic. By contrast,there is a very large international ballad genre of "last words," or"gallows speeches," the prisoner's "good night," with a number ofsubdivisions. The duma about "Xvedir bezridnyj" (Xvedir, the onewithout kin) begins in the same vein as such ballads, i.e., with thewords of the dying Xvedir, to which is added the fulfillment of Xvedir's23Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic, Srpske narodne pjesme, 4 vols. (Belgrade, 1958),2, no. 70.
Page 1: HARVARDUKRAINIAN STUDIESVolume V Nu
Page 5 and 6: Comparative Slavic EpicALBERT В. L
Page 8 and 9: 418 ALBERT B. LORDhowever, that a S
Page 10 and 11: 420 ALBERT B. LORDFor example, in t
Page 12 and 13: 422 ALBERT B. LORDbyliny have point
Page 16 and 17: 426 ALBERT B. LORDrequest to his pa
Page 18 and 19: 428 ALBERT B. LORDreturn song in th
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Page 22 and 23: 432 FRANK E. SYSYNan understanding
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DOCUMENTSThe Ukrainian University i
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THE UKRAINIAN UNIVERSITY IN GALICIA
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Reviews 547Although certainly Nemir
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Reviews 549Ruthenian lands of the s
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Reviews 551serves as a general intr
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Reviews 553inevitably detracts from
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Reviews 555tion, a useful history o
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Reviews 557Walter S. Tarnopolsky in
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Reviews 559spelling), but also brin
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Books Received 561Berkeley: Univers
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INDEX TO VOLUME V (1981)A. Articles
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Index 565Saunders. D. В. "Contempo
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Index 567Hryhorii Kostiuk. See Naka
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