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QUEEN’S COURT MANUSCRIPT.
ZABOI AND SLAVOI.[1]
In forest black a rock doth rise,
High on the rock doth spring
The mighty Zaboi, far and wide
His glance around to fling.
- ↑ This poem, by its contents and style, is derived from Bohemia’s heathen times, though first given to us through the medium of the Queen’s Court Manuscript (Book iii. Chap. 27), towards the end of the thirteenth century. It is there headed “Begins of a great Battle.” The transaction, which is here commemorated (the liberation of Bohemia through Zaboi and Slavoi out of the power of a king, whose name is not mentioned) is, according to Palacky, entirely unknown to history, and therefore the time at which it occurred is impossible to be ascertained; it is however certainly not later than the ninth century. We may remark in it the mention of an old Bohemian poet, Lumir, of whom nothing more is known; this is however a proof that inspired bards were already held in especial reverence among the earliest Bohemians. The name of the foreign enemy of the Bohemians, Ludiek, indicates the German Ludwig, without its being possible
