In the folk songs of the Gottschee area, published in 1895 in the collection Die deutsche Sprachinsel Gottschee. Geschichte und Mundart, Lebensverhältnisse, Sitten und Gebräuche, Sagen, Märchen und (Lieder by Adolf Hauffen, there is a particular emphasis on narrative folk songs, i.e. folk songs that tell a story.
They often reflect the setting of the nobility, which can be observed in the social position of the protagonists, their behaviour, the social norms that prevailed among the nobility, or the environment in which the stories take place. They include, for example, stories about the conscription of men for war or their homecoming, emphasising the role of the knight, the defender of the land. The song Daisy (Marjetica), published in the Hauffen collection under No. 71, proves this by mentioning pointed shoes, as pointed shoes were a distinct medieval sign of prestige. The mention of pointed or beaked shoes also indicates that the song was written before the settlers colonised the Kočevska Region.
Reflection of the Aristocratic World in the Folk Song A Girl and a Nobleman’s Son
The life of the upper classes is also evidenced in the folk songs describing the everyday life of the social groups that enabled the nobility to live their lifestyle. The folk song A Girl and a Nobleman’s Son, published in Hauffen’s collection under No. 78, directly depicts some traits that are very different from the everyday life of the Gottscheers in their new environment. The rich backgrounds of the boy and girl are evident in the song: the boy is the son of a nobleman, but the girl’s father who tries to trifle with the young nobleman is also wealthy. A number of forest and field workers work for him; the labour is differentiated between them, which shows the strength of the upper classes from which the girl comes. The song not only expresses that the main protagonists belong to the higher social strata, but it also refers to a chore that was carried out in a different way in Slovenia than in the Gottscheer folk song: i.e. in the song, the hay is raked by men, not by women, as was the general custom in Slovenia. The Slovene language does not have a term for a man who rakes hay; we only know the term for “female raker” (slv. grabljica).
Coloured Shoes
As well as the narrative folk songs, distinct prestigious goods are also included in some of the ritual folk songs, such as the song “Handsome Andrle” (Hauffen, No. 119), in which the fair from its original setting, associated with prestigious offerings, is replaced by the Ljubljana Fair. Belonging to the highest social classes is even more distinctively expressed in the ritual folk song The Bride’s Farewell (Hauffen, No. 106), with which the bride bids farewell to her family: the folk song contains, among other things, a couplet referencing part of the bride’s attire, the coloured shoes. These coloured shoes could only be brocade shoes, which expressed the highest social status.
Where does the reflection of the noble world come from?
The theme of life in the upper social circles would not otherwise have attracted attention if it had been consistent with the living conditions of the Gottscheers: i.e. they lived in modest conditions in their new surroundings and there was not a single noble country estate in the area, apart from Friedrichstein Castle and the manor house. The Poljane and Kostel Castles were located outside the environs of the Gottscheer villages. Hence, the environment in which the settlers in the Kočevska Region lived did not allow any direct observation of the life of the castle lords. The story of the forbidden love between Veronika of Desenice and Frederick II, Count of Celje, connected with the Friedrichstein Castle, did not pass into the tradition of the Gottscheers either.
The settlers in the Kočevska Region lived in a highly closed-off community. In centuries past, women did not leave their poverty-stricken hill villages and preserved their folk traditions as they offered important solace when separated from their husbands. Mainly, they preserved the traditions that the Gottscheer people brought with them. The pilgrimages that the Gottscheer people took part in were also accompanied by devotional and legendary folk songs, but not by other narrative or ritual folk songs.
Folk Song Heritage as Evidence of Immigration from Franconia and Thuringia?
The folk songs of the Gottscheers are, therefore, an expression of prosperity preserved in the remembrance of a time that helped them survive in a new environment. This finding has opened up an important aspect of the treatment of the Gottscheer tradition and the search for an explanation has led to a rethinking of the original environment of the Gottscheers and the reasons for their immigration to the Kočevska Region. This reflection has revealed new historical links with the economically and socially important environment of Franconia and Thuringia, and, with the renewed discussion of the validity of Bishop Hren’s written record, has also shed light on the reasons for the immigration of the Gottscheers to their new surroundings. These reasons underline the importance of honour and loyalty and will be included, together with extensive analysis and new insights, in one of the studies that will be brought out in the Slovenian translation of Hauffen’s opus. The book “The Folk Song Tradition of Kočevska Region” will be published in November 2024 by the ZRC Publishing House.
Sources:
- Hauffen, Adolf. 1895. Lieder . Graz: K. k. Universitäts-Buchdrückerei und Verlags-Buchhandlung ‘Styria’.
- Knific, Bojan. 2020. Obutvena dediščina na Slovenskem: O škornjih, čevljih, coklah, opankah, copatah in drugih obuvalih. Tržič: Tržiški muzej.
- Lackner-Kundegraber, Marija. 1995. Etnografske posebnosti v nekdanjem Kočevskem nemškem jezikovnem otoku. Kronika 43/3: 76–84.
- Marolt, France. 1939. Slovenske prvine v kočevski ljudski pesmi. V: Kočevski zbornik. Razprave o Kočevski in njenih ljudeh. Ljubljana: Vodstvo družbe sv. Cirila in Metoda v Ljubljani, 179–320.
- Stopar, Ivan. 1986. Gradovi na Slovenskem. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba.
Članek Odsev plemiškega sveta v kočevarskem pesemskem izročilu je nastal v okviru projekta Teža preteklosti. Dediščina večkulturnega območja: primer Kočevske , which was financially supported by the Slovenian Research Agency.
Prejšnja objava: Kaj dela Micika v püngradi na Kočevskem? – Pesmi Prekmurcev na Kočevskem .
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