88 HOW BALLADS SPREAD

St. Simon's Hermitage, which are mere fragments. The text is

found in Greek as far west as Corsica.

The influence of Serbian poetry has been very strong on ^the
like-minded peoples of the Balkan peninsula, and it is perceptible
in such Czech pieces as The Robber's Bride, The Turk's Bride, and
also in Polish Galicia and the Ukraine. An interesting chain of
ballads connects the Serbian Banovic Strahinja with the Bulgarian
Iskren and Milica and the Russian Mihail Potyk. The husband is
engaged in furious battle with a would-be seducer. They fight to
a standstill, and appeal to the lady—who helps the aggressor. The
husband is tied up, but released by his dog or miraculously, and
kills both the guilty ones. There is clearly only one story involved,
but it is less easy to give it a home; perhaps Bulgaria.

These instances are a few out of many. Particularly easy would
it be to increase the number of ballads which have travelled a short
distance from a richer land to its neighbours, as from Germany to
Lusatia. Beyond these there is a nebulous mass of floating motifs,
which are sometimes bound together in quite precise formulas: the
May Song which stretches across all Europe, and follows much the
same order in the Greek Swallow Song as in France and Spain; the
Power of Song to draw down birds and bring up the fish round
the keel of a vessel, or else bind a nix, smash a bridge, or toss the
sea; Love which will alone make sacrifices, when no parents or
relatives avail; the intoxicating Power of Beauty, the tests of true
love. A picture of the essential unity of European balladry grows
clearer and clearer as we consider such cases. The signs of inven-
tiveness multiply, and the evidence of readiness to learn and adapt
interesting themes lies everywhere around the student. There is
no vague, formless, 'nameless and dateless5 bubbling of mixed
motifs; but artistic creation according to prescribed patterns and
the intelligent, even eager, appreciation of such work. Such
appreciation does not involve incapacity to create. When all the
connexions are worked out, each ballad area is left with dozens or
hundreds or thousands of pieces peculiarly its own, according to
the richness of local tradition. There are richer and poorer areas,
as there are richer and poorer written literatures; but there is some-
thing of interest in the achievements of every people, and even in
the special significance each has given to the common material.

Before leaving this chapter, it would be well to mention that
ballad variants can often be followed over a national map as ballads