Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Stoykova, Stefana

Titel

Към проучването на една обща тема в българския и гръцкия фолклор (Песента за падането на Цариград)

Ist Teil von

• Bŭlgarski folklor, 1985, Vol.XI (3), p.29-43

Ort / Verlag

Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum at BAS

Erscheinungsjahr

1985

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• One of the most recurrent topics in Bulgarian folklore is about the fall of a kingdom prophesied by a bird or in a dream. One story tells of the fall of Constantinople and the death of its last Christian ruler Constantine XI (King Kostadin). In the collective national consciousness this was identified with the fall of the Bulgarian state (which in fact occurred half a century earlier) and was looked upon as a punishment for the haughtiness of the Bulgarians. The song is based on an older mythological theme and is connected with certain Christmas rites. Components of a more recent mythological type were incorporated in its historical layers (originating most probably from the Life of the popular Saint Nikola Mirlikiyski, Master of the Seas, and patron saint of sailors and students, as well as from other legends). The subject of the fall of a city or state, and especially of Constantinople, is popular in Greek folklore also. Motifs appearing in the Bulgarian song can be discovered in several Greek folk songs treating similar themes. Compared with the Bulgarian song, however, the Greek songs seem to be more fragmentary. They also appear to reflect a more recent stage of the development of the collective national consciousness: they are more realistic and the presentation of the historical scene is more specific and less detached. A closer analysis of the texts, however, reveals the fact that some of the songs are marked by features typical of an earlier stage of development. This becomes clear only when they are compared with the Bulgarian song which is of an older typological order.