Poetry · A way to begin
The Mountain Wreath
Горски вијенац
Petar II Petrović-Njegoš · 1847
Synopsis
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, Metropolitan Danilo gathers the chiefs of the Montenegrin clans at Christmas, divided among themselves and threatened by Ottoman power. In decasyllabic verse, through dialogues and monologues, the poem gives voice to the chiefs, shows the customs of a heroic clan society caught between the Ottoman Empire and Venice, and raises the question that tears the assembly apart: what to do with the Montenegrins who have converted to Islam. Thought and action, morality and religion clash within it.
Context
Written at Cetinje in 1846, the poem was published in Vienna in 1847, printed by the Mekhitarist monastery. It comprises 2,819 lines and combines epic, drama and lyric poetry. The historian Srdja Pavlović reads in it the story of a new beginning, the passage from a society of clans to a nation, poeticised to speak of its author's Montenegro. Its historical truth and its political uses are debated; it was translated into English in 1930 by James W. Wiles and into French under the title La Couronne de la montagne.
Who it is for
A long dramatic poem in verse, dense in customs and maxims; a historical introduction helps in following it.
Prizes and reception
Its author is regarded as the most illustrious son of Montenegro and the greatest poet of Serbian literature.