Goats, Trolls, & Visegrad Pt. 3
Actually, I don't see any reason why I can't just post this now. Obviously, all of the italics and other codings will be lost, but it still makes sense.
The Billy Goats Gruff is a folk tale of Norwegian origin yet I remember hearing it (not to mention fearing it and obsessing over it) as a child in America. My parents are not of Norwegian descent and, more importantly, I was not the only American child to hear this story. I shared my terror with my elementary school friends who had also heard the tale, though told in the style of their orator - i.e. their parents. The story, even as mutilated by prepubescent minds unable to grasp abstractions or subtleties, essentially follows these narrative points:
1. There are three billy goats, all named “Gruff,” who decide that the grass on the other side of a bridge is greener and therefore more delicious than the grass on their side. They wish to cross over.
2. The bridge is guarded by a belligerent troll with an inkling to devour those attempting to cross said bridge.
3. The billy goats cross one-by-one in ascending order of physical size with the first two convincing the troll to hold out for the larger goat following just behind for he will surely be a more sumptuous meal. The troll agrees both times.
4. The third and largest billy goat Gruff is too powerful for the troll and, instead of receiving his delicious filling of goat, he is crushed to bits by the enormous goat.
5. The goats make it safely to the other side and enjoy the grass.
Exactly halfway through his chronicle The Bridge on the Drina, Ivo Andrić tells a story strikingly similar to The Billy Goats Gruff. It is the story of Gregor Fedun, a young streifkorps soldier given the daunting task of guarding the small but critical bridge. Between The Billy Goats Gruff and Andrić’s story of Gregor Fedun there are countless dissonances and misalignments but, it can be argued, an even greater sum of peculiar and fascinating similarities.
Take, for instance, the similarities between the definition of a troll and Gregor Fedun’s description in Chapter 13 of The Bridge on the Drina. The Oxford English Dictionary says a troll “in Scandinavian mythology, [is] one of a race of supernatural beings formerly conceived as giants…supposed to inhabit caves or subterranean dwellings.” Andrić describes Fedun as a young man “of gigantic stature and childlike mind” suggesting very clearly both the distinctive size and, to put it crudely, the undeveloped mentally capacity of a troll (Andrić 157). Fedun, as a member of the streifkorps, also shares that honor of belonging to a select and mythologized entity - a select military group rather than a supernatural race. While the Gruff troll waits beneath the bridge for the goats, Andrić places his troll of a man on top of the bridge, perhaps suggesting Fedun is a more socially acceptable variant of troll - a troll equipped for life in modern times. The troll and Fedun also share similarly basic motivations which ultimately lead to their tragic demise. The troll is driven by that most essential of necessities - hunger. Fedun’s hunger is lust. And because Fedun is a modern troll, his drive can be euphemized and construed as love, which is more socially sophisticated. And just as one can feel hunger slowly growing in one’s stomach (as the troll must have), Fedun begins to feel “as if he were waiting for someone on that exposed and windy spot” (158).
In The Billy Goats Gruff there are three characters who wish to cross the bridge, each in succession. In Fedun’s story, there are only two, one of which doesn’t even appear until the final encounter on the bridge. There are three bridge crossings in one story (three being the magic number of fairy tales) but numerous crossings in the other. So, at first glance, the stories do not reconcile. And yet, Jelenka, the girl who takes the place of the goats (along with her bandit friend, Jakov) in Andrić’s version, actually crosses the bridge a total of nine times: four to the market, four returning, and once to transport Jakov in his disguise. Further, Fedun waits six hours exactly between the crossing in which Jelenka promises to return at night with her grandmother and the crossing in which she actually does - the ninth crossing of Jelenka. I don’t believe it needs to be pointed out that the numbers involved here are multiples of three. This, again, suggests that things are more complicated in the modern world, but the old rules still prevail.
Another curious dissimilarity is Jelenka to the goats. While they are both objects of physical desire to their respective trolls, Jelenka is described as being quite attractive and obviously female while the goats are simply goats, and all three (though the youngest must be assumed, I believe it is a safe assumption) males. Jelenka’s bandit lover Jakov helps us tie in this part of the story. When Jakov crosses, he is disguised as Jelenka’s ugly old grandmother who “walked almost on all fours.” The facts that he is male, not particularly attractive (at least while he’s crossing the bridge), and crosses practically on all fours all link him to the goats. Furthermore, in him we have our third goat-related persona to cross the bridge. There is Jelenka (one goat), the old grandmother (two goats), and the true Jakov hidden under the disguise (three goats).
Digging deeper, we realize that in The Billy Goats Gruff, the goats are driven by the same force as the troll - hunger. The goats intend on crossing the bridge “to make themselves fat” just as the hungry troll wishes to “gobble them up” (Alishman). This is, most unsurprisingly, quite similar in Andrić’s version. Jelenka is motivated to cross the bridge by her love affair with the bandit Jakov. The two had met last autumn and “had liked the look of each other and had becomes lovers” (Andrić 164). That this love affair begins in the same way (with gazes and “the look of each other) as Jelenka’s false flirtation with Fedun is even more specifically telling than the simple fact that Jelenka and Fedun are both lovesick. And on top of this there is another layer of connection in motives. Fedun’s attraction to Jelenka is described as “spring fever” on page 167 and, on the back cover of the book itself, as “a moment’s spring forgetfulness.” In the version of The Billy Goats Gruff collected by D. L. Alishman, there is no mention of season. Yet, in an alternate version of unknown origin, the billy goats lived in the valley during the winter but “when spring came, longed to travel up to the mountains to eat the lush, sweet grass” (Billy Goats Gruff). In this way, both stories become driven by motivations that are necessarily tied to springtime, growth, and fertility.
At the end of each story, the trolls meet their tragic ends. The troll in the folktale is mashed up to tiny bits by the largest of the goats. His greed did him in. If he had only eaten that first small goat, or even the second medium-sized goat, he might have survived and been contented. Instead, he was led on by temptation and a primal urge. The situation is much the same with Fedun. If only he had stopped the flirtation after the first two or three encounters; if only he had been happy enough with longing glances he might have survived. Instead, he longs for something more with Jelenka. He too is led by temptation and a primal urge and he too is done in by his greed. His fate is quite different from the troll’s, though not inappropriate. The Billy Goats Gruff is a very old story with a relatively barbaric sense of morality from beginning to end so the troll’s being crushed to death by his dinner seems a fitting solution. Andrić’s story of Fedun is, as previously mentioned, a modern telling of the tale in which it would seem absurd for Fedun to be crushed to bits by Jelenka. Instead, Fedun is punished by the sergeant-major of the streifkorps, a modern bureaucratic organization and a fitting punishment. Yet, the punishment - a court-martial - is not severe enough to end a tragedy. So, in a very modern, civilized manner (if there is such a thing in death), Fedun takes his own life. So both trolls have been tragically obliterated and, while Jelenka was captured, we are to assume Jakov escaped cleanly to the greener grass on the other side of the bridge.
In the end of these analyses, we are left with more questions than answers. What does this suggest about the beginning and end of Chapter 13 of The Bridge on the Drina which does not, in fact, deal with Fedun? What does this mean in the context of the rest of the book? Was Andrić aware of the story of the billy goats and the bridge, or is this mere archetypal coincidence? There are many more questions even than those and they are all good, fair questions and warrant further research and further analysis. A question that I can provide for which I can provide insight and a question that I believe is of some importance is Why would Andrić make this the central chapter in a chronicle that spans five centuries, multiple empires, and millions of lives? There is a long answer and a short answer to this question, and I am ill-equipped to give the long answer. That is perhaps the subject of another analysis or, perhaps, can only be truly answered by the late Andrić himself. For me, this chapter is the centerpiece of Andrić’s novel because it does exactly what a centerpiece should do. It aligns all the elements of the surroundings into an appropriate, if unsettling and inconvenient, design. It is the focusing lens and it brings everything together: old and new, pure and evil, male and female, love, deception, melancholy, fate, death, sacrifice, greed, risk, hope, independence, lust, loyalty, the kapia, and the crossing of the bridge that was the heart and sun of a town, those five centuries, those millions of lives, and, for better or worse, the future.
Works Cited
Alishman, D. L. Three Billy Goats Gruff. 2 Feb. 2000. The University of Pittsburgh. 10
September 2006. .
Andrić, Ivo. The Bridge on the Drina. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1977.
Billy Goats Gruff. 2005. Deerlake Designs LLC. 12 September 2006.
.
Oxford English Dictionary. 2006. Oxford University Press. 13 September 2006.
. Path: Search; “Troll”; Find Word.
The Billy Goats Gruff is a folk tale of Norwegian origin yet I remember hearing it (not to mention fearing it and obsessing over it) as a child in America. My parents are not of Norwegian descent and, more importantly, I was not the only American child to hear this story. I shared my terror with my elementary school friends who had also heard the tale, though told in the style of their orator - i.e. their parents. The story, even as mutilated by prepubescent minds unable to grasp abstractions or subtleties, essentially follows these narrative points:
1. There are three billy goats, all named “Gruff,” who decide that the grass on the other side of a bridge is greener and therefore more delicious than the grass on their side. They wish to cross over.
2. The bridge is guarded by a belligerent troll with an inkling to devour those attempting to cross said bridge.
3. The billy goats cross one-by-one in ascending order of physical size with the first two convincing the troll to hold out for the larger goat following just behind for he will surely be a more sumptuous meal. The troll agrees both times.
4. The third and largest billy goat Gruff is too powerful for the troll and, instead of receiving his delicious filling of goat, he is crushed to bits by the enormous goat.
5. The goats make it safely to the other side and enjoy the grass.
Exactly halfway through his chronicle The Bridge on the Drina, Ivo Andrić tells a story strikingly similar to The Billy Goats Gruff. It is the story of Gregor Fedun, a young streifkorps soldier given the daunting task of guarding the small but critical bridge. Between The Billy Goats Gruff and Andrić’s story of Gregor Fedun there are countless dissonances and misalignments but, it can be argued, an even greater sum of peculiar and fascinating similarities.
Take, for instance, the similarities between the definition of a troll and Gregor Fedun’s description in Chapter 13 of The Bridge on the Drina. The Oxford English Dictionary says a troll “in Scandinavian mythology, [is] one of a race of supernatural beings formerly conceived as giants…supposed to inhabit caves or subterranean dwellings.” Andrić describes Fedun as a young man “of gigantic stature and childlike mind” suggesting very clearly both the distinctive size and, to put it crudely, the undeveloped mentally capacity of a troll (Andrić 157). Fedun, as a member of the streifkorps, also shares that honor of belonging to a select and mythologized entity - a select military group rather than a supernatural race. While the Gruff troll waits beneath the bridge for the goats, Andrić places his troll of a man on top of the bridge, perhaps suggesting Fedun is a more socially acceptable variant of troll - a troll equipped for life in modern times. The troll and Fedun also share similarly basic motivations which ultimately lead to their tragic demise. The troll is driven by that most essential of necessities - hunger. Fedun’s hunger is lust. And because Fedun is a modern troll, his drive can be euphemized and construed as love, which is more socially sophisticated. And just as one can feel hunger slowly growing in one’s stomach (as the troll must have), Fedun begins to feel “as if he were waiting for someone on that exposed and windy spot” (158).
In The Billy Goats Gruff there are three characters who wish to cross the bridge, each in succession. In Fedun’s story, there are only two, one of which doesn’t even appear until the final encounter on the bridge. There are three bridge crossings in one story (three being the magic number of fairy tales) but numerous crossings in the other. So, at first glance, the stories do not reconcile. And yet, Jelenka, the girl who takes the place of the goats (along with her bandit friend, Jakov) in Andrić’s version, actually crosses the bridge a total of nine times: four to the market, four returning, and once to transport Jakov in his disguise. Further, Fedun waits six hours exactly between the crossing in which Jelenka promises to return at night with her grandmother and the crossing in which she actually does - the ninth crossing of Jelenka. I don’t believe it needs to be pointed out that the numbers involved here are multiples of three. This, again, suggests that things are more complicated in the modern world, but the old rules still prevail.
Another curious dissimilarity is Jelenka to the goats. While they are both objects of physical desire to their respective trolls, Jelenka is described as being quite attractive and obviously female while the goats are simply goats, and all three (though the youngest must be assumed, I believe it is a safe assumption) males. Jelenka’s bandit lover Jakov helps us tie in this part of the story. When Jakov crosses, he is disguised as Jelenka’s ugly old grandmother who “walked almost on all fours.” The facts that he is male, not particularly attractive (at least while he’s crossing the bridge), and crosses practically on all fours all link him to the goats. Furthermore, in him we have our third goat-related persona to cross the bridge. There is Jelenka (one goat), the old grandmother (two goats), and the true Jakov hidden under the disguise (three goats).
Digging deeper, we realize that in The Billy Goats Gruff, the goats are driven by the same force as the troll - hunger. The goats intend on crossing the bridge “to make themselves fat” just as the hungry troll wishes to “gobble them up” (Alishman). This is, most unsurprisingly, quite similar in Andrić’s version. Jelenka is motivated to cross the bridge by her love affair with the bandit Jakov. The two had met last autumn and “had liked the look of each other and had becomes lovers” (Andrić 164). That this love affair begins in the same way (with gazes and “the look of each other) as Jelenka’s false flirtation with Fedun is even more specifically telling than the simple fact that Jelenka and Fedun are both lovesick. And on top of this there is another layer of connection in motives. Fedun’s attraction to Jelenka is described as “spring fever” on page 167 and, on the back cover of the book itself, as “a moment’s spring forgetfulness.” In the version of The Billy Goats Gruff collected by D. L. Alishman, there is no mention of season. Yet, in an alternate version of unknown origin, the billy goats lived in the valley during the winter but “when spring came, longed to travel up to the mountains to eat the lush, sweet grass” (Billy Goats Gruff). In this way, both stories become driven by motivations that are necessarily tied to springtime, growth, and fertility.
At the end of each story, the trolls meet their tragic ends. The troll in the folktale is mashed up to tiny bits by the largest of the goats. His greed did him in. If he had only eaten that first small goat, or even the second medium-sized goat, he might have survived and been contented. Instead, he was led on by temptation and a primal urge. The situation is much the same with Fedun. If only he had stopped the flirtation after the first two or three encounters; if only he had been happy enough with longing glances he might have survived. Instead, he longs for something more with Jelenka. He too is led by temptation and a primal urge and he too is done in by his greed. His fate is quite different from the troll’s, though not inappropriate. The Billy Goats Gruff is a very old story with a relatively barbaric sense of morality from beginning to end so the troll’s being crushed to death by his dinner seems a fitting solution. Andrić’s story of Fedun is, as previously mentioned, a modern telling of the tale in which it would seem absurd for Fedun to be crushed to bits by Jelenka. Instead, Fedun is punished by the sergeant-major of the streifkorps, a modern bureaucratic organization and a fitting punishment. Yet, the punishment - a court-martial - is not severe enough to end a tragedy. So, in a very modern, civilized manner (if there is such a thing in death), Fedun takes his own life. So both trolls have been tragically obliterated and, while Jelenka was captured, we are to assume Jakov escaped cleanly to the greener grass on the other side of the bridge.
In the end of these analyses, we are left with more questions than answers. What does this suggest about the beginning and end of Chapter 13 of The Bridge on the Drina which does not, in fact, deal with Fedun? What does this mean in the context of the rest of the book? Was Andrić aware of the story of the billy goats and the bridge, or is this mere archetypal coincidence? There are many more questions even than those and they are all good, fair questions and warrant further research and further analysis. A question that I can provide for which I can provide insight and a question that I believe is of some importance is Why would Andrić make this the central chapter in a chronicle that spans five centuries, multiple empires, and millions of lives? There is a long answer and a short answer to this question, and I am ill-equipped to give the long answer. That is perhaps the subject of another analysis or, perhaps, can only be truly answered by the late Andrić himself. For me, this chapter is the centerpiece of Andrić’s novel because it does exactly what a centerpiece should do. It aligns all the elements of the surroundings into an appropriate, if unsettling and inconvenient, design. It is the focusing lens and it brings everything together: old and new, pure and evil, male and female, love, deception, melancholy, fate, death, sacrifice, greed, risk, hope, independence, lust, loyalty, the kapia, and the crossing of the bridge that was the heart and sun of a town, those five centuries, those millions of lives, and, for better or worse, the future.
Works Cited
Alishman, D. L. Three Billy Goats Gruff. 2 Feb. 2000. The University of Pittsburgh. 10
September 2006. .
Andrić, Ivo. The Bridge on the Drina. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1977.
Billy Goats Gruff. 2005. Deerlake Designs LLC. 12 September 2006.
.
Oxford English Dictionary. 2006. Oxford University Press. 13 September 2006.
. Path: Search; “Troll”; Find Word.