The Theme of the Virgin Mary and the Sinful Soul in the Czech Oral and Literary Tradition: Contribution to the Interdisciplinary Study of West Slavic Legend Songs

Abstract

The article deals with the Czech treatment of the theme of Mary and the sinful soul, which is also known in Slovenian poetic culture. It is based on a study of the oral tradition of Czech broadside ballads, as presented in the materials of the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Brno. The materials were obtained by collecting folk songs between the 1930s and 1950s. The article is based on the unity of literary production (broadside ballads) and reception (oral tradition). It is the result of interdisciplinary research, and presents the following: (1) an edition of the Czech version of the poem Byla cesta ušlapaná, ó Maria Bolestná (“There was a beaten path, O Maria the Sorrowful”), which was transmitted through the oral and literary traditions of the printed broadside ballads; (2) its interdisciplinary analysis from the perspectives of linguistics, literary history, ethnology, ethnomusicology and hymnology; and (3) its placement in a broader context, both Czech and Central European-Germano-Slavic, including Slovene. The discussion offers a model of a methodology for researching song culture based on interdisciplinary cooperation, which could be applied in Slavic comparativistics.

Keywords

• Virgin Mary’s Legend Song
• Czech broadside ballad
• Mother of God Mediatrix omnium gratiarum
• scriptuality and orality
• interdisciplinary approach