Nikolay Aretov
Quest of the Legend: Paths to Aglikina Polyana
National mythology purposefully forges narration about heroes. Those who fight for national independence have important place among them. This narration highlights and sacralizes some places, connected with important events, with battlefields, graves, etc. One such important place is Aglikina Polyana, situated in the Balkan, not far from the town of Sliven. According to folk-songs and stories this was place, where leathers of rebel gropes gather their armed men. In 1868 such famous leaders as Hadji Dimitar and Stefan Karadga set Aglikina Polyana as a place, where those who have separated from the grope must go and wait it. And this was what happened. The events were recorded in memoirs of the participants, written by Soyan Zaimov and published by Zakhari Stoyanov in 1885, both of them rebels and writers, strongly engaged in sacralizing these events.
Curiously enough their writing revealed not only the heroic deeds and suffering of the rebels, but also their disappointment and frustration in the quest of the legendary place and the legend itself. This paper traces the signs of this disappointment and frustration in the texts of St. Zaimov and Z. Stoyanov.
