Poetry · A way to begin
Bearslayer
Lāčplēsis
Andrejs Pumpurs · 1888
Synopsis
In the time of the Livonian crusades, a young man of prodigious strength earns the name Lāčplēsis, the bear-slayer, by overcoming a bear. Educated at Burtnieki castle, he meets the witch Spīdala and Staburadze, falls in love with Laimdota and befriends Koknesis, while the German knights threaten his people and the traitor Kangars seeks the secret of his strength. The episodes combine the hero's battles with Latvian legends.
Context
The poem was written from 1872 to 1887, completed in Tartu and dedicated to the third general Latvian song festival, during which it appeared in 1888. It borrows from the tales of the strong man born of an animal and from folklore motifs, without taking over popular songs, unlike the Finnish and Estonian epics, and Andrejs Pumpurs had first called it Lāčausis, the man with bear's ears. Rainis drew Uguns un nakts from it in 1905, and Māra Zālīte's rock opera, performed in 1988 more than forty times before more than one hundred and eighty thousand people, made it a moment of the third national awakening.
Who it is for
An epic in verse, to be read canto by canto. It helps to know that it is set at the time when the German crusaders conquer Livonia.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the Latvian national epic; 11 November, the anniversary of the fighting of 1919, is celebrated in Latvia as Lāčplēsis Day.
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