”ESPECIALLY MYTHOLOGICAL SONGS” IN VUK KARADŽIĆ‘S COLLECTIONS

Abstract

After reflecting on the history of research on mythological lyric in south Slavic and Serbian studies, Vuk’s views on this poetic type is pointed out. Since 1841. when Vuk published the first volume of Serbian folk poems, the cycle of mythological lyric has been singled out. However, he applied the same term for a number of poems ”in the middle”, at the begging of the second book of Vienna edition. Only lyrical mythological poems from Vuk’s collections and manuscripts are singled out on this occasion. Of particular note are the stylization of archaic layers (elemnets of cosmogony, solar and lunar cult, matriarchy) and the processes of their intertwining with christian depictions. Structural segments (different types of heroes, space, time, thematic) are singled out, along with flexibility of formulae and the dynamic genre connections of oral types.