О Његошевом надахнућу „бесудном земљом“
On Njegoš’s Inspiration by “Land Without Justice”

Summary/Abstract: As a poet exceptionally educated in theology, deeply inspired by the patriotic traditions of his country and his own political experience, Njegoš was at the same time the bishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church and and the ruler of his country, Prince Bishop of Montengro. In the difficult times of the interior tribal conflicts and local warfare along the frontiers of his country, Njegoš was a witness of different forms of pоlitical deceptions and military plunder. He had to keep signing provisional peacemaking agreements with neighbouring Turkish regions, often ruled by local leaders who disregarded the orders of their own sultan. Sometimes compelled to defend the traitors of his country in order to avoid dangerous interior conflicts, sometimes compelled to give promises which he knew he was not sure to keep, he was deeply attached to the national interests of his people and tried to introduce some sort of order in what he called his “lawless country”. His bitter political experience was illuminated by rich religious insights in his long historical poems The Mountain Wreath and Stephen the Small – The Tsar Impostor. These works evoke the proud readiness of his ancestors to die for a small grain of life, territory and freedom, but they also embody the seamy side of the traditional cult of heroism, the way in which it could be exploited by political machinations for the purposes of unlimited fraud and cruelty. His tragic sense of history reflects both its horrors and the visionary poetic insights illuminated by religious and moral commitments.

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