Narodne pjesme, II. Lirske: O 1000-godišnjici Kraljevstva hrvatskog 925-1925.

The collection is part of a larger project initiated as part of the Thousandth Anniversary of the Croatian Kingdom (1925), a major national celebration marking a thousand years since the supposed coronation of King Tomislav (925). The first volume contained epic (heroic) poems, while the second brought lyrical folk songs – love, wedding, lament, humorous, ritual and other lyrical-poetic forms from various Croatian regions.

The aim of the edition was to strengthen national consciousness and cultural identity through the collection and popularization of national treasures. At a time when the Croatian people lived within the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, such publications had a strong patriotic and integrative character – they represented Croatian oral literature as a continuous thread from the medieval kingdom to the 20th century.

The book contains a selection of authentic lyrical folk songs, collected from earlier collections (Kukuljević, Mažuranić, Radić, etc.) and more recent field recordings. The lyrical songs are distinguished by their richness of emotions, picturesqueness, and motifs of love, nature, family, suffering, and joy – typical of Croatian oral poetry.