Post by croatchessmaster on Dec 31, 2011 22:18:50 GMT -5
Marko Kraljevic was a member of the Mrnjavèeviæ family, which some sources suggest had Herzegovinian origins. Marko’s father, Vukašin, was king of the southern Serbian lands whose capital was Prilep (now in Macedonia). When Vukašin was slain in battle with the Turks in 1371, Marko succeeded him as king but as a vassal to the Ottoman sultan. Marko is known to have completed a monastery at Sušica, near Skopje (Maced.), and to have died fighting at the Battle of Rovine (1395) during a war between the Turks and the Walachian prince Mircea the Old, but otherwise his life is sparsely documented. More colourful details have been preserved in Serbian ballads and epic poetry, as well as in various Balkan folk songs. Joyous, just, strong, incredibly brave, and chivalrous to a fault, Marko is portrayed as an implacable foe of the Turks, a prodigious drinker of wine, and inseparable from his horse, Šarac.
The Marko Kraljevic cycle synthesizes old, almost forgotten Serbian motifs with the historical practices of the then contemporary, Turkish-dominated society. In their dominant, decasyllabic form, the earliest date that can be ascribed to these poems is the seventeenth century, although one tale, in a different poetic form, was published by Petar Hek- torovic in 1556.13 The existence and nature of the Marko Kraljevic cycle reveal a continuity in Serbian oral narrative, a continuity that is usually thought to have been severed by the Ottoman encroachment.
The Kosovo poems concentrate on a national crisis from the perspective of tragedy. Descriptions and analyses of the critical battle are accepted by the audience as truthful and sanctified. The primary tone of these poems is fatalistic. Thus, the immediacy and emotional force of the Kosovo songs preclude the presence of a vila who, after all, represents the paganistic past, and whose personality and role in a plot are always deliberately devised. Other explanations for her absence in the Kosovo cycle should be researched, but it is evident that the purpose and mode of the narrative poems in which the vila appears conflict with the purpose and mode of the Kosovo songs in which she is absent.
It is a delight to rediscover her in the Marko poems. She is less diabolical here than in the old epics. In those early narratives, she would instigate quarrels that led to tragic deaths or demand human sacrifices.14 In the Marko poems the vila becomes a prophetess and mentor. She is to Marko a divine guide who only appears in the most crucial moments. Unlike Athena's actual physical protection of Odysseus, the vila's care of Marko is essentially advisory.
In one of the most popular Marko poems, Marko and Musa Kesedja,15 when Marko finds himself facing imminent death, pinned beneath the enormous body of the outlaw Musa, he accuses the vila of having forsaken him. The vila reprimands him, reminding him that she had forbidden him to fight on the Sabbath, and that he should be ashamed to even consider the idea that two heroes fight one. Nevertheless, she ends her lecture by alluding to his hidden dagger, which he then draws to kill his assailant.
Her role as prophetess is dramatized in the poem describing Marko's death.16 The vila not only tells Marko that the time has come when he must die, she describes the place where he will discover the exact time of his death and gives him ceremonial directives so that he can prepare himself for death. All that is spoken comes to pass.
Ðura Jakšiæ (1832-1878) - Marko Kraljeviæ - 1857-59, oil on canvas, National Museum Belgrade Through epic poetry Marko Kraljeviæ lived more than 300 years. Fighting for justice against Turks he become the symbol of liberty and fairness
The Marko Kraljevic cycle synthesizes old, almost forgotten Serbian motifs with the historical practices of the then contemporary, Turkish-dominated society. In their dominant, decasyllabic form, the earliest date that can be ascribed to these poems is the seventeenth century, although one tale, in a different poetic form, was published by Petar Hek- torovic in 1556.13 The existence and nature of the Marko Kraljevic cycle reveal a continuity in Serbian oral narrative, a continuity that is usually thought to have been severed by the Ottoman encroachment.
The Kosovo poems concentrate on a national crisis from the perspective of tragedy. Descriptions and analyses of the critical battle are accepted by the audience as truthful and sanctified. The primary tone of these poems is fatalistic. Thus, the immediacy and emotional force of the Kosovo songs preclude the presence of a vila who, after all, represents the paganistic past, and whose personality and role in a plot are always deliberately devised. Other explanations for her absence in the Kosovo cycle should be researched, but it is evident that the purpose and mode of the narrative poems in which the vila appears conflict with the purpose and mode of the Kosovo songs in which she is absent.
It is a delight to rediscover her in the Marko poems. She is less diabolical here than in the old epics. In those early narratives, she would instigate quarrels that led to tragic deaths or demand human sacrifices.14 In the Marko poems the vila becomes a prophetess and mentor. She is to Marko a divine guide who only appears in the most crucial moments. Unlike Athena's actual physical protection of Odysseus, the vila's care of Marko is essentially advisory.
In one of the most popular Marko poems, Marko and Musa Kesedja,15 when Marko finds himself facing imminent death, pinned beneath the enormous body of the outlaw Musa, he accuses the vila of having forsaken him. The vila reprimands him, reminding him that she had forbidden him to fight on the Sabbath, and that he should be ashamed to even consider the idea that two heroes fight one. Nevertheless, she ends her lecture by alluding to his hidden dagger, which he then draws to kill his assailant.
Her role as prophetess is dramatized in the poem describing Marko's death.16 The vila not only tells Marko that the time has come when he must die, she describes the place where he will discover the exact time of his death and gives him ceremonial directives so that he can prepare himself for death. All that is spoken comes to pass.
Ðura Jakšiæ (1832-1878) - Marko Kraljeviæ - 1857-59, oil on canvas, National Museum Belgrade Through epic poetry Marko Kraljeviæ lived more than 300 years. Fighting for justice against Turks he become the symbol of liberty and fairness