"Black lamb and gray falcon - Journey through Yugoslavia" (translated from English Sanja Selić), is a very extensive book, and in the opinion of many literary critics, a legendary travelogue written by his pen Rebecca West, one of the most famous British writers, journalists, literary critics and travel writers of her time. However, all the details and descriptions contained in the original author's manuscript, on over 1000 pages, are not included in the cover of this book for several reasons, but only those parts that were the most legible and most memorable for the reader from our area were selected for publication.
The very title of the book "The Black Lamb and the Gray Falcon" is quite "mystical", shrouded in a tangle of unknowns and questions, because it is not easy for the reader to figure out who and why the gray falcon symbolizes in it, a beautiful and attractive, but horribly cruel and cruel bird, and the lamb, an extremely harmless and cuddly animal, a symbol of innocent suffering. In the title of the book, the adjective "black" was added to the noun "lamb", probably because among the white sheep, which are the most numerous in every flock, the black lamb is the first to catch the eye of the butcher and the falcon, and so it is the first to die.
This book was published at a historically significant time, in 1941, and it immediately aroused great interest among readers and literary critics, which continues to this day. Even the English, those centuries-old travelers, considered it and still consider it one of the best achievements in the travel writing genre. Some critics, with a clear reason, see it as a kind of spiritual rebellion against the unjust actions of the powerful of the time and, in general, the imperial logic and its essential and deep unfairness. Which always results in the oppression of smaller nations and the intimidation of those who oppose the imperial rationale. As an Englishwoman, therefore, a member of one of the nations that play an important role on the world historical stage, the author is deeply aware of this layer of every such story.
Rebecca West has traveled a lot. At the age of nineteen, she set out on her first literary pilgrimage, but initially only as a journalist and fighter for women's rights. However, from that time on, her passion for social engagement did not stop, so that this young Englishwoman soon became a well-known feminist, and later was known throughout the world as a humanist with broad perspectives. She got to know and along the way studied many countries, peoples and their social arrangements. She knew a lot about the time in which she lived and created, so it was possible for Rebeka to include in this book a great overview of the history of the South Slavs. Thanks to the author's extensive knowledge of our historical and cultural facts, today in this book we discover a lot of important data from our own history, especially from the chivalrous battles of our ancestors conducted mainly for the sake of bare survival. Looking back at the broad historical and deep cultural events in these areas, in the book "Black Lamb and Gray Falcon" Rebeka West writes with deep enthusiasm about Yugoslavia.
Before her first arrival in these areas, Rebeka studied many books about our country and the specific way of life of the local people, and especially before her second arrival, she read all the books about Yugoslavia and the Balkans that she could get her hands on. This caused love and knowledge to intertwine in this book in the most beautiful literary way and to create an all-round quality whole, a story that no one has published before. Rebeka stayed in Yugoslavia for the first time in 1936 as a guest lecturer at some universities, and she spoke about her Yugoslav experiences in several English clubs. On her return to England, she spoke to her husband about our country with such enthusiasm that he, with an ironic smile, said: "So everyone is happy in Yugoslavia."
Arriving later, she managed to visit and get to know many areas as well as the lives of local people, so based on her notes, she spoke and wrote about the most diverse types of social events in Yugoslavia. Many agree that she wrote about us as convincingly as if she had lived in these areas for a long time. During an Easter trip by train to our country in the company of her husband, a professional banker, Rebeka thought about how simple, open and clear the way of life of the people here is. Her impression was that - everything is visible, comprehensible, natural and without particular doubts. Because of this, she often wondered how people who were convinced that Yugoslavia was inhabited by barbarians, dared to act outside its laws, even when they were within its borders.
The idyllic landscape of mountain passes through which the road to Montenegro meandered from the direction of Peć, where it ended, delighted Rebeka. She admired the hitherto unseen beauty of our mountains, enjoyed the landscape of untouched nature, the smell of the surrounding forests, the freshness of the air and the cold sources of drinking water that she had not seen in her country. She said that the people she met along the way were beautiful, majestic and peaceful. That she and her companions were shown the graves of their brothers and ancestors who died in various battles with special fervor in their eyes, which completely fascinated this native Londoner. At the same time, Rebeka remembered the texts in which she read that Montenegro often went to war since ancient times, heroically defending its independence and freedom. In fact, three hundred years after Kosovo, Montenegrins, as the author says - without losing their courage, went to war with the Turks and won. However, when the Turks were defeated under Vienna in 1683, and when they were then driven out of Hungary, they turned against Montenegro, which was much closer, with all their remaining strength. They expected, as he says, a weaker enemy. The author presents information that Montenegrins made great sacrifices to preserve the independence of their country. In this regard, he points out that one of the extremely important motives for the marriage of our people was the desire to leave behind heirs, young heroes, who will bravely hold on and fight for their country in the coming battles like their ancestors. Rebeka West said that of all the peoples of that time, the Montenegrins are the most similar to Homerove heroes, the true heirs of the Hellenic world, not only for their courage but also for their war cunning, which they often used during battles against many times more powerful enemies. Since our opponents at the time, the Turks, as Rebeka wrote, were often extremely brave fighters, there was no end to the stories that Montenegrins told about themselves, about heroism, about wars. Always with chivalrous respect for the enemy. Also, in several places in this book, the author mentions the exceptional beauty and classy demeanor of our people.
While the golden light of the late evening was still visible on the surrounding hills, Rebeka arrived in Kolašin, the first larger populated place on the way to Montenegro. She noticed that the area was not tame at all, and remembered that the name of the town comes from two words: Sleeve i rail, which in Albanian could mean: Saint Nicholas. The author experienced the meeting with the police chief at the time in an unusual way. She says that she looked at him with special respect, like a sheriff from the Wild West. The other locals whom Rebeki met also looked as solid as bronze, as hard as dry oak, stable and dignified people, the kind rarely found in other regions. She thought that the Montenegrins, numerically weaker, could not even defeat the Turks if they were not exactly like that, made of special material. From some statements in the book, it can be seen that the author really considered Montenegrins to be heroes, and that means to some extent also stubborn people because, by their nature, heroes must be, among other things, stubborn, probably because of great self-confidence.
After Kolašin, Rebeka West visited Podgorica and Lake Skadar, and then came, as she said, to a town under the mountains that slept by the river. In fact, it was Rijeka Crnojevica, the town of the tribe that inhabited the slopes of this Montenegrin fortress. Rebekah enjoyed seeing the incredible beauty around her. She didn't know what caught her attention more, an old asymmetrical bridge with a magical arch, or rowboats, or trees in bloom above the river that surrounded it. Or a row of stone houses with beautiful people sitting at open doors. Rebecca says that in the house closest to them, she saw three middle-aged women and an old woman sitting with them. On that occasion, she noticed that Montenegrin women are more beautiful as girls and as women getting older, than as women in their full sexual maturity. For men in Montenegro, she said that they preserved their freedom by frantically guarding their masculinity, which prevented them from loving their wives or allowing them to forget the lack of love in their thinking and work. Comparing Montenegrin women with the women of the industrialized West, whose men are exhausted by an invisible enemy, much more dangerous than the Turks, Rebeka stated that the women in Montenegro are not in a much better position, even though, in her opinion, they are made for love. Nevertheless, she understood that the behavior of Montenegrins must be like that because it directly and strongly emanated from a small area where tradition and folk customs meant a lot.
In this book, it is said that Montenegrin women do not feel any inclination towards too free behavior, that licentiousness is a much greater burden for them than chastity.
Rebeka Vest visited Cetinje with great curiosity. She noticed that the narrow strip of fertile land around the city that gives life to tall trees and agricultural crops is always blessed with good rain. That the rocky amphitheater that surrounds the city is bare and dry, made mostly of porous stones. She visited famous houses, including Biljardu and the Cetinje Monastery. She had read about the monastery before, she already knew that it was built in the 15th century, and that the works, which were carried out on it at the end of the 17th century, gave it, as Rebeka wrote: a strong and austere appearance characteristic of Montenegrin church architecture . On the rock above it she recognized the remains of a round tower that disturbed her Sir Gardner Wilkinson, the Englishman, during his visit to the bishop Peter II.
Rebecca West (1892-1983) was a famous British writer, journalist and literary critic. Like contemporaries George Orwell i André Malraux, was dedicated to engaged texts with an emphasized social self-awareness, and layered travelogues that covered civilizational verticals, not only classic literary works. She was born in London as Sisili Izabel Fearfield and already in 1911 she became a political publicist and fighter for women's rights. She published her works in many newspapers. Her first book is a critical study of Henry to James, and then she started publishing novels, among which the most notable are "The Return of the Soldier", "The Judge", "The Reed that Thinks", "The Fountain that Spills" and "Birds Fall". She also published her biography Saint Augustine. After the Second World War, Rebecca West published new engaging tracks, such as the series about the Nuremberg trial, which she collected in the book "The Meaning of Betrayal". However, in the opinion of most critics, "The Black Lamb and the Gray Falcon", a travelogue about Yugoslavia, is her most significant work.
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