Nad Tatrou sa blýska
Encyclopedia
Nad Tatrou sa blýska is the national anthem
of Slovakia
. The origins of the anthem are in the Central Europe
an activism
of the 19th century. Its main themes are a storm over the Tatra mountains that symbolized danger to the Slovaks, and a desire for a resolution of the threat. It used to be particularly popular during the 1848 - 1849 insurgencies
.
During the days of Czechoslovakia
, the anthem was played in many Slovak towns at noon. This tradition ceased to exist after the two nations split. Nad Tatrou sa blýska is now performed mainly at special events, including sporting events.
23-year-old Janko Matúška
wrote the lyrics of this anthem in January - February 1844. The tune came from the folk song Kopala studienku
(She Dug A Well) suggested to him by his fellow student Jozef Podhradský (1823 – 1915), a future religious and Pan-Slavic
activist and gymnasial
teacher. Shortly afterwards, Matúška and about two dozen other students left their prestigious Bratislava
Lutheran lyceum
(preparatory high school and college) in protest over the removal of Ľudovít Štúr
from his teaching position by the Lutheran Church under pressure from the authorities. Slovakia was part of the Kingdom of Hungary within the Austrian Empire then, and the officials objected to his Slovak nationalism.
Lightning over the Tatras was written during the weeks when the students were agitated about the repeated denials of their and others' appeals to the school board to reverse Štúr's dismissal. About a dozen of the defecting students transferred to the Levoča
Lutheran gymnasium. When one of the students, the 18-year-old budding journalist and writer Viliam Pauliny-Tóth (1826 – 1877), wrote down the oldest known record of the poem in his school notebook in 1844, he gave it the title of Prešporskí Slováci, budúci Levočania (Bratislava Slovaks, Future Levočians), which reflected the motivation of its origin.
The journey from Bratislava to Levoča took the students past the High Tatras
, Slovakia's and the then Kingdom of Hungary's highest, imposing, and symbolic mountain range. A storm above the mountains is a key theme in the poem.
anthem composed of the first stanza from a Czech operetta tune, Kde domov můj
(Where Is My Home?), and the first stanza of Matúška's song, each sung in its respective language and both played in that sequence with their respective tunes. The songs reflected the two nations' concerns in the 19th century when they were confronted with the already fervent national-ethnic activism of the Hungarians and the Germans
, their fellow ethnic groups in the Habsburg Monarchy
.
When Czecho-Slovakia fell apart into the Czech Republic
and the Slovak Republic in 1993, the second stanza was added to the first and the result legislated as Slovakia's national anthem. The competing national song Hej, Slováci was a version of the international pan-Slavic movement's traditional anthem, Hey, Slavs
.
The reference in Nad Tatrou sa blýska to the Tatras has a parallel in the interpretations of Slovakia's coat of arms
that was defined during the period when Matúška wrote the lyrics. The Slovak coat of arms is a slight variant of a prominent part of the Coat of arms of Hungary
, where it is considered to symbolize the three principal mountain ranges of the pre-1918 Kingdom of Hungary
: Mátra
, Fatra
, and the Tatras. Slovakia was part of the Kingdom of Hungary
until 1918. The doublecross in the coat of arms represented these lands from early 9th century, when Cyril and Methodius came to Great Moravia. They brought this symbol with them from the Byzantine Empire. Later Hungarian King Béla IV took the sign and put it into official coat of arms of the Hungarian Kingdom as a sign of "Northern Hungary", today Slovakia. Although today only the Tatras and Fatra
belong to the republic, and the other one is in Hungary. A more popular explanation is that the three peaks are symbolic of the Tatras. Some say, too, that they represent the mountain group of Vysoká in the High Tatras
.
was frequent versification
that imitated the patterns of the local folk songs. The additional impetus for Janko Matúška to embrace the trend in Lightning over the Tatras was that he actually designed it to replace the lyrics of an existing folk song
. Among the Romantic-folkloric features in the structure of Lightning over the Tatras are the equal number of syllables per verse, and the consistent a−b−b−a disyllabic
rhyming of verses 2-5 in each stanza. Leaving the first verses unrhymed was Matúška's license (a single matching sound, blýska—bratia, did not qualify as a rhyme):
Another traditional arrangement of Matúška's lines gives 4-verse stanzas rhymed a−b−b−a with the first verse made up of 12 syllables split by a mid-pause, and each of the remaining 3 verses made up of 6 syllables:
, rhyming patterns, and language of the anonymous ad-hoc piece below contain no attributes of the original, or of the canons of Slovak Romantic poetry
.
National anthem
A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...
of Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
. The origins of the anthem are in the Central Europe
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
an activism
Romantic nationalism
Romantic nationalism is the form of nationalism in which the state derives its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs...
of the 19th century. Its main themes are a storm over the Tatra mountains that symbolized danger to the Slovaks, and a desire for a resolution of the threat. It used to be particularly popular during the 1848 - 1849 insurgencies
Revolutions of 1848
The European Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Spring of Nations, Springtime of the Peoples or the Year of Revolution, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe in 1848. It was the first Europe-wide collapse of traditional authority, but within a year reactionary...
.
During the days of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, the anthem was played in many Slovak towns at noon. This tradition ceased to exist after the two nations split. Nad Tatrou sa blýska is now performed mainly at special events, including sporting events.
Circumstances
Janko Matúška
Janko Matúška was a Slovak poet, activist, occasional playwright, and clerk of the court...
wrote the lyrics of this anthem in January - February 1844. The tune came from the folk song Kopala studienku
Kopala studienku
Kopala studienku is a Slovak folk song, whose melody has served as basis for the Slovak national anthem Nad Tatrou sa blýska.#Kopala studienku, pozerala do nej,#A na tej studienke napájala páva,#A ja ti nepoviem, lebo sama neviem,-Attempt to English translation:#She was digging a well, looking into...
(She Dug A Well) suggested to him by his fellow student Jozef Podhradský (1823 – 1915), a future religious and Pan-Slavic
Pan-Slavism
Pan-Slavism was a movement in the mid-19th century aimed at unity of all the Slavic peoples. The main focus was in the Balkans where the South Slavs had been ruled for centuries by other empires, Byzantine Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Venice...
activist and gymnasial
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
teacher. Shortly afterwards, Matúška and about two dozen other students left their prestigious Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
Lutheran lyceum
Lyceum
The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies between countries; usually it is a type of secondary school.-History:...
(preparatory high school and college) in protest over the removal of Ľudovít Štúr
Ludovít Štúr
Ľudovít Štúr , known in his era as Ludevít Velislav Štúr, was the leader of the Slovak national revival in the 19th century, the author of the Slovak language standard eventually leading to the contemporary Slovak literary language...
from his teaching position by the Lutheran Church under pressure from the authorities. Slovakia was part of the Kingdom of Hungary within the Austrian Empire then, and the officials objected to his Slovak nationalism.
Lightning over the Tatras was written during the weeks when the students were agitated about the repeated denials of their and others' appeals to the school board to reverse Štúr's dismissal. About a dozen of the defecting students transferred to the Levoča
Levoca
Levoča is a town in the Spiš region of eastern Slovakia with a population of 14,600. The town has a historic center with a well preserved town wall, a Renaissance church with the highest wooden altar in Europe, carved by Master Paul of Levoča, and many other Renaissance buildings.On 28 June 2009,...
Lutheran gymnasium. When one of the students, the 18-year-old budding journalist and writer Viliam Pauliny-Tóth (1826 – 1877), wrote down the oldest known record of the poem in his school notebook in 1844, he gave it the title of Prešporskí Slováci, budúci Levočania (Bratislava Slovaks, Future Levočians), which reflected the motivation of its origin.
The journey from Bratislava to Levoča took the students past the High Tatras
High Tatras
High Tatras or High Tatra are a mountain range on the borders between Slovakia and Poland. They are a part of the Tatra Mountains...
, Slovakia's and the then Kingdom of Hungary's highest, imposing, and symbolic mountain range. A storm above the mountains is a key theme in the poem.
Versions
No authorized version of Matúška's lyrics has been preserved and its early records remained without attribution. He stopped publishing after 1849 and later became clerk of the district court. The song became popular during the Slovak Volunteer campaigns of 1848 - 1849. Its text was copied and recopied in hand before it appeared in print in 1851 (unattributed, as Dobrovoľnícka – Volunteer Song), which gave rise to some variation, namely concerning the phrase zastavme ich ("let's stop them") or zastavme sa ("let's pause"). A review of the extant copies and related literature inferred that Matúška's original was most likely to have contained "let's stop them." Among other documents, it occurred both in its oldest preserved handwritten record from 1844 and in its first printed version from 1851. The legislated Slovak national anthem uses this version, the other phrase was used before 1993.National anthem
On 13 December 1918, only the first stanza of Janko Matúška's lyrics became one half of the two-part bilingual Czecho-SlovakCzechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
anthem composed of the first stanza from a Czech operetta tune, Kde domov můj
Kde domov muj
Kde domov můj? is a piece of music written by the composer František Škroup and the playwright Josef Kajetán Tyl.The piece was written as a part of the incidental music to the comedy Fidlovačka aneb Žádný hněv a žádná rvačka . It was first performed by Karel Strakatý at the Estates Theatre in...
(Where Is My Home?), and the first stanza of Matúška's song, each sung in its respective language and both played in that sequence with their respective tunes. The songs reflected the two nations' concerns in the 19th century when they were confronted with the already fervent national-ethnic activism of the Hungarians and the Germans
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
, their fellow ethnic groups in the Habsburg Monarchy
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
.
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
and the Slovak Republic in 1993, the second stanza was added to the first and the result legislated as Slovakia's national anthem. The competing national song Hej, Slováci was a version of the international pan-Slavic movement's traditional anthem, Hey, Slavs
Hey, Slavs
Hey, Slavs is an anthemic song dedicated to Slavic peoples. Its first lyrics were written in 1834 under the title Hey, Slovaks by Samuel Tomášik and it has since served as the anthem of the Pan-Slavic movement, the anthem of the Sokol physical education and political movement, the anthem of the...
.
The reference in Nad Tatrou sa blýska to the Tatras has a parallel in the interpretations of Slovakia's coat of arms
Coat of arms of Slovakia
The coat of arms of Slovakia consists of a red shield, in early gothic style, charged with a silver double cross standing on the middle peak of a dark blue mountain consisting of three peaks. Extremities of the cross are amplificated, and its ends are concaved...
that was defined during the period when Matúška wrote the lyrics. The Slovak coat of arms is a slight variant of a prominent part of the Coat of arms of Hungary
Coat of arms of Hungary
The current coat of arms of Hungary was adopted on July 3, 1990, after the end of communist rule. The arms have been used before, both with and without the Holy Crown of Hungary, sometimes as part of a larger, more complex coat of arms, and its elements date back to the Middle Ages.The shield is...
, where it is considered to symbolize the three principal mountain ranges of the pre-1918 Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
: Mátra
Mátra
Mátra is a mountain range in northern Hungary, between the towns Gyöngyös and Eger. The country's highest peak, Kékestető , belongs to this mountain range....
, Fatra
Fatra
Fatra is the old or imprecise name of two mountain ranges in Slovakia:*Greater Fatra *Lesser Fatra...
, and the Tatras. Slovakia was part of the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
until 1918. The doublecross in the coat of arms represented these lands from early 9th century, when Cyril and Methodius came to Great Moravia. They brought this symbol with them from the Byzantine Empire. Later Hungarian King Béla IV took the sign and put it into official coat of arms of the Hungarian Kingdom as a sign of "Northern Hungary", today Slovakia. Although today only the Tatras and Fatra
Fatra
Fatra is the old or imprecise name of two mountain ranges in Slovakia:*Greater Fatra *Lesser Fatra...
belong to the republic, and the other one is in Hungary. A more popular explanation is that the three peaks are symbolic of the Tatras. Some say, too, that they represent the mountain group of Vysoká in the High Tatras
High Tatras
High Tatras or High Tatra are a mountain range on the borders between Slovakia and Poland. They are a part of the Tatra Mountains...
.
Close reading and footnotes
- Romantic poetsRomantic poetryRomanticism, a philosophical, literary, artistic and cultural era which began in the mid/late-1700s as a reaction against the prevailing Enlightenment ideals of the day , also influenced poetry...
began to employ the Tatras as a symbol of the Slovaks' homeland. - That is, to join the national-ethnic activismRomantic nationalismRomantic nationalism is the form of nationalism in which the state derives its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs...
already underway among other peoples of Central EuropeCentral EuropeCentral Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
in the 19th century. - The standard meaning of sláva is "glory" or "fame". The figurative meaning, first used by Ján KollárJán KollárJán Kollár was a Slovak writer , archaeologist, scientist, politician, and main ideologist of Pan-Slavism.- Life :...
in the monumental poem The Daughter Of Sláva in 1824, is "Goddess/Mother of the Slavs". - The idiomIdiomIdiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made...
atic simile "like a fir" (ako jedľa) was applied to men in a variety of positive meanings: "stand tall," "have a handsome figure," "be tall and brawny," etc. - See the article on KriváňKriván (peak)Kriváň is a mountain in the High Tatras, Slovakia, that dominates the upper part of the former Liptov County. Multiple surveys among nature lovers have ranked it as the country's most beautiful peak. Readily accessible along maintained marked trails and with the exceptional vistas afforded from...
for the mountain's symbolism.
Poetics
One of the trends shared by many Slovak Romantic poetsRomantic poetry
Romanticism, a philosophical, literary, artistic and cultural era which began in the mid/late-1700s as a reaction against the prevailing Enlightenment ideals of the day , also influenced poetry...
was frequent versification
Meter (poetry)
In poetry, metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study of metres and forms of versification is known as prosody...
that imitated the patterns of the local folk songs. The additional impetus for Janko Matúška to embrace the trend in Lightning over the Tatras was that he actually designed it to replace the lyrics of an existing folk song
Kopala studienku
Kopala studienku is a Slovak folk song, whose melody has served as basis for the Slovak national anthem Nad Tatrou sa blýska.#Kopala studienku, pozerala do nej,#A na tej studienke napájala páva,#A ja ti nepoviem, lebo sama neviem,-Attempt to English translation:#She was digging a well, looking into...
. Among the Romantic-folkloric features in the structure of Lightning over the Tatras are the equal number of syllables per verse, and the consistent a−b−b−a disyllabic
Syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
rhyming of verses 2-5 in each stanza. Leaving the first verses unrhymed was Matúška's license (a single matching sound, blýska—bratia, did not qualify as a rhyme):
- — Nad Tatrou sa blýska
- a - Hromy divo bijú
- b - Zastavme ich bratia
- b - Veď sa ony stratia
- a - Slováci ožijú
Another traditional arrangement of Matúška's lines gives 4-verse stanzas rhymed a−b−b−a with the first verse made up of 12 syllables split by a mid-pause, and each of the remaining 3 verses made up of 6 syllables:
- a - Nad Tatrou sa blýska, hromy divo bijú
- b - Zastavme ich bratia
- b - Veď sa ony stratia
- a - Slováci ožijú
English rhyming ditty
Note: The prosodyMeter (poetry)
In poetry, metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study of metres and forms of versification is known as prosody...
, rhyming patterns, and language of the anonymous ad-hoc piece below contain no attributes of the original, or of the canons of Slovak Romantic poetry
Romantic poetry
Romanticism, a philosophical, literary, artistic and cultural era which began in the mid/late-1700s as a reaction against the prevailing Enlightenment ideals of the day , also influenced poetry...
.
- Far above the Tatras
- Lightning bolts are pounding
- These bolts we shall banish
- Brothers, they will vanish
- Slovaks are rebounding
- Our Slovakia was
- Until now, quiescent
- But the lightning flashing
- And the thunder crashing
- Made it effervescent
External links
- Anthem of the Slovak Republic - A page at the official website of the President of SlovakiaPresident of SlovakiaThe President of Slovakia is the head of state of Slovakia. The President is directly elected by the people for five years, and can be elected for a maximum of two consecutive terms. The presidency is largely a ceremonial office, but the President does exercise certain limited powers with absolute...
featuring various audio files of the anthem. - Slovak National Anthem, sheet music, lyrics