Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/395

 Shakespearian Story in Serbian Folklore. %*]

the plot are to be taken into consideration : namely the " moving forest " (Birnam wood that moved on Dunsinane), and the motif of the birth of one who " was not born of woman."

To take the less important first, — the motif of the hero, " not born of woman," which Shakespeare applies to MacdufT, is also very widespread. It is, of course, found in Andrew de Wintoun's Orygynall Cronykl, in verse, written in the Scots tongue, compiled between 1420- 1424. It occurs also in the legend of the hero Tugarin, and in that of the Russian hero Rogdai. It occurs, too, in a folk-song of the Caucasus, and in a German proverb. The same legend is told about Julius Caesar, Rustem and other historical personages.^

I have only found this motif in one Serbian folk-lore tale, and in a very altered and much attenuated form. It occurs with reference to a horse, not to a man. In a Serbian folk-tale (Vrcevic, Srp. nar. Kratke i Saljive), a quick-witted Serbian girl discusses paradoxical and enig- matic sayings before the king, whom she greatly amazes by her shrewdness. Among other strange statements she tells him that she rides a horse that has not been born by its dam. " How is that } " asked the king. " It's quite simple," answered she. " My horse's saddle is made of the skin of a foal, which we took from the dead mare. Thus it was never born."

The moving forest forms one of the principal episodes in a charming Serbian folk-tale, which is given by Karadzic [Srp. nar. pripov : Jedna gobela u kao).

Once King Solomon the Wise was robbed of his wife by another king, and therefore set forth to find her. Finally he succeeded. But before entering the city where she was living with her new husband, he commanded his soldiers to hide in a wood, and not to leave it nor to come to his

1 Cf. Halliwell, Simrock, etc. ; E. Kroeger, Die Sage I'on Macbeth bis zu Shakespeare, 1904 ; R. Kohler, Kleinere Schriften, iii. 518 ; etc.