Folk Songs and Medieval Scribes

The Middle Ages

After the country's conversion to Christianity in 864 and the arrival of the disciples of Cyril and Methodius (the brothers who created the Slavic alphabet), Bulgaria became the literary centre of the Slavic world. In the 10th century, under Tsar Simeon, so much was translated, written and copied in Preslav that the period is called the Golden Age of Bulgarian Letters.

• Chernorizets Hrabar (the Monk Hrabar), On the Letters („За буквите“) – a passionate defence of the Slavic alphabet against Greek snobbery.
• John the Exarch, Hexameron („Шестоднев“) – an account of the creation of the world which, among other things, also gives us the first descriptions of Bulgarian rulers in all their splendour.
• Patriarch Evtimiy (14th century) – reformed spelling in Tarnovo (the medieval capital) shortly before everything collapsed under the Ottomans. Bad timing, good ideas.

Paisiy of Hilendar

In 1762 the monk Paisiy, in the Hilendar Monastery on Mount Athos, completed his Slavonic-Bulgarian History („История славянобългарска“). The book is more of a rallying call than a textbook: Bulgarians have a glorious past and no reason to be ashamed of their language. It was copied by hand and carried from village to village. It is regarded as the beginning of the National Revival (the 18th–19th century awakening of Bulgarian national identity).

The Folk Songs

The thousands of folk songs are the true literature of the five centuries under Ottoman rule. They tell of heroes and hajduks (outlaw rebels), of love and sorrow, of Prince Marko (Krali Marko, the legendary folk hero) and of the maidens who refuse to marry Turks. The Miladinov brothers gathered them into a collection in 1861. Valya Balkanska's recording of “Delyo the Hajduk Has Risen” („Излел е Дельо хайдутин“) has been flying through space aboard the Voyager probe since 1977.