Minnesota Guslar

RiSTO Grk and his Qusle Minnesota GUSLAR THOMAS F. MAGNER THE THIN WAIL of the gusle drops in You leveled our mosques and minarets volume and the stiff figure of the tall guslar And built churches and altars. opposite you sways and gives voice to the This I shall never forgive. tale of "Karageorge and the Black Arab." Minnesota may justly be proud of having Black Arab inscribes a letter. in Mr. Grk a representative of the ancient Sends it to the Serbian land calling of poet-singer. The epic tales he To the hands of Petiovich George. chants from memory represent the magnifi You are listening to an epic poem of the cent contribution of the Serbian people to South Slavs, sung in the Serbian tongue by world literature. a Herzegovinian guslar, though you are in These narrative poems, banded down South St. Paul! Your guslar, drawing the from guslar to guslar by word of mouth, horsehair bow over the one-stringed gusle, have been the object of study and admira his voice sobbing in grief or ringing with tion since they first were brought before a triumph, is Risto Grk. wide public by the great Serbian scholar, Hear me, Petrovich George! Vuk Karajich, in the early part of the last Note well what I say to you! century. The late Milman Parry, a Homeric You have wronged me sore scholar at Harvard University, recorded In taking my Serbian land. three hundred and fifty of these heroic Mr. Grk, a sturdy six-footer, who was poems in Yugoslavia in an endeavor to un sixty on March 25, sits tensely in bis straight derstand the development of the Homeric chair, his face a mirror of the emotions epic by studying this living epic tradition expressed in this heroic tale. The harsh of the Serbs. notes from the gourd-shaped gusle blend The tale chanted by Mr. Grk when I with the threatening words of the Black visited him relates a conflict between the Arab, as the Turk is described. Turkish rulers and the Serbian rebel, Kara george, who led an uprising in 1804. For PROFESSOR MAGNER is chairman of the depart Serbs this is but recent history, since their ment of Slavic and Oriental languages in the greatest songs take them back to the bloody University of Minnesota. "Field of the Blackbirds," Kossovo Polye, 296 MINNESOTA History where in 1389 their forces were routed by surrounded by a group of rapt listeners in the Turks, who then began their five- the back country of Serbia, Montenegro, cenlury rule over Serbia. and Bosnia-Herzegovina, but this ancient During the centuries of cruel Turkish rule tradition is fast losing ground before modern that followed, the Serbs developed this diversions radiating out from the cities. oral poetry to record their history, to pre Our Minnesota guslar, Mr. Grk, a retired serve their unity, and to voice their hopes. packing-house employee, emigrated from The poems are distinguished by a high near Stolats in Herzegovina to this country moral tone and by the moving acceptance in 1908, at the age of fourteen. He learned of the infliction on the Serbs of God's pun many of these epic chants at the feet of ishment in the form of the Turk, though his guslar uncle in the old country and never by an acceptance of the Turk him other songs from the noted Montenegrin seff. guslar, Petar Perunovich, who lived in One cycle of these epic poems, which South St. Paul in 1926. naturally reminds Minnesotans of the Paul During his early years here, Mr. Grk im Bunyan tales, revolves about the exploits of provised a gusle from large tin cans, but Marko Kralyevich (Marko the King's Son), in 1933 he became the proud owner of an an adventurous Serbian knight of tremen excellent instrument fashioned by the late dous prowess. Father Teofan Beatovich, who went to Marko, his black mustaches as big as a South St. Paul from Yugoslavia and re six-month-old lamb, smites the Turk with turned after a few years residence in Amer his mace of a hundred and eighty-five ica. The gusle, an instrument introduced pounds, squeezes drops of water out of dry into Serbia about the tenth century from wood of nine years seasoning, and can leap Asia Minor, is shaped like a banjo with from mountain to mountain on his wondrous a gourd-like sounding box, has but one piebald horse, Sharats. Whenever Marko horsehair string, and is played by a horse drinks wine, which is often, Sharats quaffs hair bow. his allotted half from the wine skin. Occasionally Mr. Grk plays for small groups at the Serbian Home in South St. WHILE spending the night in a private Paul, but there, as in Yugoslavia, the art home in Montenegro (Yugoslavia) in the form of the guslar is slowly disappearing. summer of 1953, I was overjoyed to find So that these songs, with their historic as that my young host, a blind veteran of sociations and inherent beauty, will not World War II, was a guslar. For many completely disappear, Mr. Grk is record hours, with an audience composed of his ing representative chants for the depart ten-year-old son and myself, the blind gus ment of Slavic and Oriental languages in lar played "Kossovo Maiden," "The Fall of the University of Minnesota.'^ the Serbian Empire," and other epic songs. If you should have the privilege of lis Though that Montenegrin guslar and tening to Risto Grk chant these ancient Risto Grk are separated by thirty years in songs, take along a Serbian friend. You age and by thousands of mfles, their voices probably don't understand Serbian and the and singing styles are the same, both men music of the gusle is not in itself note singing with the guslar's stylized hoarse worthy, but watch your friend. He will sit ness and the choking sob alternating with unmoving, his eyes on the guslar's lips, piercing notes of triumph. lost to South St. Paul, but feeling and re You may still see an occasional guslar living with the guslar the tragedies and triumphs of the Serbian people. All was honor, all was holy! ^ Some of these disks will be added to the Min nesota Historical Society's record collection. Ed. God's will was done on Kossovo! Autumn 1955 297 Copyright of Minnesota History is the property of the Minnesota Historical Society and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s express written permission. Users may print, download, or email articles, however, for individual use. To request permission for educational or commercial use, contact us. www.mnhs.org/mnhistory .

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