In their
heroic songs, also, the reader must not expect to meet with the
chivalry of the more western nations. Weak vestiges of this kind of
exaltation, with a few exceptions, are to be found among those Slavic
nations only, who, by frequent intercourse with other races, adopted
in part their feelings. The gigantic heroism of the Slavic Woiwodes
and Boyars is not the bravery of honour; it is the valour of manly
strength, the valour of the heroes of Homer. The Servian hero, Marko
Kralyewitch, was regarded by Goethe as the personification of
_absolute_ heroism; but even Marko does not think it beneath him to
flee, when he meets one stronger than himself. These are the dictates
of nature, which only an artificial point of honour can overcome.
But, for the full enjoyment of Slavic popular poetry, we must exact
still more from the reader. He must not only divest himself of his
habitual ideas and views, but he must adopt foreign views and
prejudices, in order to understand motives and actions; for the
Oriental races are far from being more in a state of pure nature than
ourselves. He will have to transport himself into a foreign clime,
where the East and the West, the North and the South, blend in
wonderful amalgamation.
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