Bugarštica (pronounced as /bûɡaːrʃtitsa/ or pronounced as /buɡǎrʃtitsa/), originally known as Bugaršćica, is a form of epic and ballad oral poetry, which was popular among South Slavs mainly in Dalmatia and Bay of Kotor from 15th until the 18th century, sung in long verses of mostly fifteen and sixteen syllables with a caesura after the seventh and eighth syllable, respectively.[1]
The term bugaršćica and bugaršćina for song and bugariti for singing were first recorded in 1550s by Petar Hektorović and published in Fishing and Fishermen's Talk (1568), in his reference to two songs he collected from fishermen from the Adriatic island of Hvar. Juraj Baraković recorded bugarskice, while Ivan Gundulić bugarkinje. In Central Croatia were sometimes named as popijevka or popevka. The form bugarštica is a 19th-century invention as the contemporary Serbo-Croatian standard language does not have "consonantal cluster šć", being more a technical term, but since 1980s bugaršćica is also being used in the scientific literature because it is more appropriate for the historical context.
The origination and etymology are still uncertain. There exist three predominant theories regarding the etymology of bugarštica:
As historical events spread and reflect easily in both oral and written poetry it is problematic to directly relate their origin with historical figures of the different royal court, toponyms, and nationality, as well as at the early times did not exist today's national separatism.
In the scholarship exist various theories:
Maja Bošković-Stulli in 2004 synthesis concluded that the predominant area of origin was in the South near the Adriatic coast, with a style partly recognizable in Stećak inscriptions, and was influenced by Latin ballad poetry as well as the content from the Latin and Hungarian historical chronicles.
It is considered to be older epic layer of South Slavic oral tradition which existed probably before the 15th century and disappeared by the middle of the 18th century. The earliest known poem which can be classified as bugarštica was recorded in 1497 by Italian poet Rogeri de Pacienza, included in his work Lo Balzino, who was present when it was performed after a Kolo (dance) in honour to Queen Isabella del Balzo by thirty Slavs, men, women and children who had settled in the village of Gioia del Colle, Southern Italy.[5] [6] It tells about the imprisonment of Hungarian voivode Janko (John Hunyadi) by Despot of Serbia Đurađ Branković in Smederevo Fortress, which happened in 1448.
During the 16th–18th centuries all of them were collected in Dalmatia and the Bay of Kotor, with an exception in Central Croatia (with Kajkavian dialect features). First collector Petar Hektorović recorded fishermen Paskoj and Nikola singing them as a way to spend the rowing time faster. In his writing to Mikša Pelegrinović, it is evident that these songs were commonly known, there was also other and older way of singing, and Hektorović even assumed those fishermen learned them from someone else. Other poets and priests who collected them are Juraj Baraković, Juraj Križanić, Petar Zrinski, Nikola Ohumućević, Đuro Matijašević, Julije Balović, Andrija Zmajević, and Josip Betondić, among others.[1] They were published in the late 19th century by Franz Miklosich, Alexander Hilferding, and most completely by Valtazar Bogišić in Narodne pjesme iz starijih, najviše primorskih zapisa (1878), about 85 bugarštica songs in total. By the 19th century bugarštica vanished as a from, most probably due to popularity of younger epic songs in decasyllabic meter.[1]
The songs are sung in long verses of mostly fifteen and sixteen syllables with a caesura after the seventh and eighth syllable, respectively.[7] Sometimes have an addition, mostly in six syllables. Although some bugarštica's content is closely related to historiography, especially to the history of Mauro Orbini's Il regno de gli Slavi (1601) and Ludovik Crijević Tuberon's Writings on the Present Age (Commentaria temporum suorum) (1603), they are generally deemed to be oral songs, transmitted orally. The bugarštica's themes vary not only in the scope of this type but also in respect of decasyllabic songs. Although mostly have epic and heroic themes, its structures tend to be of ballad poetry, which includes summarized storytelling, with a sudden beginning of an action, with dialogue and graded repetition.
In the scholarship, some like Milovan Gavazzi and Bogišić viewed the sixteen syllables to be composed of two octosyllables and hence was argued relationship with octosyllabic songs. Other scholars were rather critical of such a metric approach and rather considered that bugarštica should be viewed as one unity. Nevertheless, the comparison of a bugarštica, provisionally titled "Kraljević Marko i brat mu Andrijaš",[1] written by Hektorović in 1556 with three songs by Burgenland Croats found almost identical similarity in the balladic intonation, use of diminutives, and content. The similarity with them was also found in a song from the islands of Susak, Žirje, and city of Dubrovnik. Bošković-Stulli deduced that such songs were widespread on Croatian territory, emerged from an older stratum of folk poetry, and with some hinterland influences partly changed and formed in Dalmatia.
The main themes are about Christian-Ottoman conflicts (including battles of Kosovo in 1389 and 1448, sometimes mixed together), events regarding Croatian-Hungarian, Bosnian and Serbian history and feudal lords from 14th-16th centuries, and Montenegrin coastal battles in Perast and Bay of Kotor in the 17th century. It has typical South Slavic epic poetry heroes, from Serbian figures Marko Kraljević, Đurađ Branković, Vuk Grgurević, Jakšić brothers and possibly Miloš Obilić, Hungarian figures Sibinjanin Janko (Janos Hunyadi), Sekula or Ivan Zeker (Székely), Svilojević (Michael Szilágyi), Matthias Corvinus and John Corvinus, Croatian figures Ivan Karlović, Nikola Šubić Zrinski, Petar Berislavić, to local Dubrovnik and Bokelji heroes.[1] However, the poems are often focused on the secondary participants of these events, emphasizing human experience and interaction. They conserved archaic feudal period customs, manners, etiquette, descriptions of attire, weapon, mythological dragon or snake and vila and so on. They integrate different cultural and ethnic layers and represent significant monument of South Slavic folklore.