A History of Bohemian LiteratureLützow, Francis, hrabe
History
A History of Bohemian Literature
Lützow, Francis, hrabe
Czech literature -- History and criticism
Kollar's _Slávy Deera_ ("Daughter of Sláva") perhaps contributed more
than any other work to the revival of Bohemian literature. Its first
appearance was received with great enthusiasm, which continued for many
years. Some of the Bohemian patriots boasted that they knew the whole
enormous collection of sonnets by heart. The book, at first a small
collection of sonnets, gradually grew to one of the largest books
consisting entirely of sonnets which exists. The first collection was
published in 1821, and consisted principally of reminiscences of Mina
and of Jena, though Kollar's enthusiasm for the Slav race also already
finds expression here. It was impossible that so fervent a Slav should
love a German girl, but Kollar discovered that the family of Schmidt
had come to Thuringia from Lusatia, which was formerly a Slav country,
and where, indeed, a Slav dialect lingers to the present day. Mina
thus being a Slav, it was possible to celebrate her as the "Daughter
of Sláva", a goddess who personifies the Slavic race. Kollar firmly
maintained that such a goddess had existed in the heathen mythology of
the Slavs, but recent and more critical writers have expressed doubts
on the subject. At any rate, Kollar gave the name of the _Daughter_
_of Sláva_ to the second and enlarged edition of his sonnets, which
appeared in 1824. While the first collection had consisted mainly of
love songs, the national Slav motive now becomes equally prominent.
Kollar was greatly struck by the fact that large parts of Northern
Germany, including the country near Jena, where Kollar had first
loved and written, were formerly inhabited by Slavs. Constant warfare
with the Germans, which began at the time of Charles the Great, has
indeed long since destroyed all trace of these Slavs, but Kollar's
imagination recalled them to life. Though very little is known of the
Slav inhabitants of Northern Germany, there is no doubt that Kollar
has greatly idealised them. The edition of the _Daughter of Sláva_
published in 1824 consisted of three cantos. The poet, accompanied
by Milek (the Slavic god of love), who has descended from heaven to
bring him news of Mina, visits the countries that are watered by
the Saale, the Elbe, and the Danube, and the three rivers give their
names to the three cantos. Kollar and his companion everywhere search
and find traces of the former Slav inhabitants of the countries which
they visit. The edition of 1824 first contained the "fore-song"
(_předzpěv_), or introduction, written in distichs, in which Kollar
bewails the fate of the early inhabitants of Northern Germany. These
verses rank among the finest in the whole range of modern Slav poetry.
In 1832 Kollar published a third, again enlarged, collection of his
sonnets. The second canto was considerably added to, and now entitled
_The Elbe, the Rhine, and the Vltava_.[153] Two new cantos were added
under the names of _Lethe_ and _Acheron_. Kollar chose those names
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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