Prince Marko - in Folk Poetry - Serbian Epic Poetry

Serbian Epic Poetry

Marko Mrnjavčević is the most popular hero of the Serbian epic poetry, in which he is referred to as Kraljević Marko; kraljević, translated as "prince", means "king's son". This informal title was often attached to the names of King Vukašin's sons in the contemporary sources. It was also used postpositively as a surname: Marko Kraljević.n.b.3 The title/surname was adopted by the Serbian oral tradition, and became an integral part of the hero's name.

The poems about Kraljević Marko are not sequels that continue the same story line—the only thing that binds them into a single poetic cycle is the hero himself. His adventures are narrated with the goal to illuminate his character and personality. The epic Marko was endowed with the life of 300 years, and other prominent heroes from the 14th to the 16th centuries appear sometimes as his companions, including Miloš Obilić, Relja Krilatica, Vuk the Fiery Dragon, and Sibinjanin Janko with his nephew Banović Sekula. The poems contain few historical facts about Marko Mrnjavčević, notably his connection to the epoch of disintegration of the Serbian Empire, and his vassalage to the Ottomans. They were composed by anonymous Serbian folk bards during the Ottoman occupation of their land. American Slavicist George Rapall Noyes characterized them as "combining tragic pathos with almost ribald comedy in a fashion worthy of an Elizabethan playwright."

The Serbian epic poetry accords with the historical fact that King Vukašin was Marko's father. It asserts that his mother was Jevrosima, the sister of Voivode Momčilo, the lord of the Pirlitor Fortress in Mount Durmitor (in Old Herzegovina). He is described as a man of immense size and strength, possessing magical attributes: a winged horse and a sabre with eyes. Vukašin murdered him with the help of the voivode's young wife Vidosava, despite Jevrosima's self-sacrificing attempt to save her brother. Instead of marrying Vidosava, as was the initial plan, Vukašin killed the treacherous woman. He took Jevrosima from Pirlitor to his capital city of Scutari and wedded her, as the dying Momčilo had actually advised him to do. She bore him two sons, Marko and Andrijaš, and the poem recounting these events concludes with the statement that Marko took after his uncle Momčilo. This epic character corresponds historically to the Bulgarian brigand and mercenary Momchil, who was for some time in the service of Serbian Tsar Dušan; he later became a despot and died in 1345 in the Battle of Peritheorion. According to another account, Marko and Andrijaš were born by a vila (Slavic mountain nymph), whom Vukašin wedded after he caught her by a lake and took off her wings so that she could not fly away.

As Marko matured he developed a strong individuality, and Vukašin once declared that he had no control over his son, who went wherever he wanted, drank and brawled. Marko grew up into an extraordinarily large and strong man, with a rather terrifying appearance which was at the same time somewhat comical. He wore a wolf-skin cap pulled low over his dark eyes; his massive black mustache was as large as a six-months-old lamb; his cloak was a shaggy wolf-pelt. A Damascus sabre swung at his girdle and a spear was slung across his back. Marko's six-flanged mace weighed 66 okas (85 kilograms), which he hung at the left side of his saddle, balancing it with a well-filled wineskin attached to the saddle's right side. His grip was such that he could squeeze drops of water out of a piece of dry cornel wood. He defeated a succession of the greatest champions, fighting triumphantly against overwhelming odds.

The hero's inseparable companion and friend was his piebald wonder-horse Šarac, who could talk. When Marko drank he always gave Šarac an equal share of the wine. The horse could leap three spear-lengths high and four spear-lengths forward, which enabled Marko to pursue and capture the dangerous and elusive vila called Ravijojla. She then became his sister-in-God, promising to aid him if he should ever be in evil straits. When Ravijojla helped him to kill the monstrous, three-hearted Musa Kesedžija, who almost defeated him, Marko grieved because he had slain a better man than himself.

Marko is portrayed as a protector of the weak and helpless, a fighter against Turkish bullies and against injustice in general. He acted as an ideal bearer of patriarchal and natural norms of life: amidst a Turkish military camp, he beheaded the Turk who dishonorably killed his father; he abolished the marriage tax by killing the tyrant who imposed it on the people of Kosovo; he saved the sultan's daughter from an unwanted marriage, after she entreated him as her brother-in-God to help her; he rescued three Serbian voivodes, his brothers-in-God, from a dungeon; he helped animals in trouble. He is shown as a rescuer and benefactor of people, promoter of life; "Prince Marko is remembered like a fair day in the year," as is stated in a poem.

A striking characteristic of Marko's was his devotion to his mother Jevrosima, for whom he cherished a limitless reverence and love. He constantly sought her advice and obeyed it even when it contradicted his own impulses and desires. She lived with Marko at his mansion in Prilep, shining as his lodestar that led him toward the good and away from the evil, along the path of moral improvement and Christian virtues. Marko's honesty and high moral courage are conspicuous in the poem in which he happened to be the only person who knew the will of the late Tsar Dušan regarding his heir. Marko refused to bear false witness in favor of the pretenders—his own father and uncles—and spoke out the truth that Dušan had appointed his son Uroš heir to the Serbian throne. This almost cost him life as Vukašin tried to kill him.

Marko is also represented as a loyal vassal to the Ottoman sultan, fighting to protect the potentate and his empire from dangerous outlaws. When summoned by the sultan, he participated in Turkish military campaigns. Yet even in this relationship, the hero's strong personality and sense of dignity were expressed. More than once the sultan actually showed anxiety towards his burly, wayward vassal, and the interviews between Marko and his imperial master usually ended in this way:

Marko's fealty was skilfully combined with the suggestion that the nominal servant was in reality greater than his lord. Serbian bards thus reversed the roles and turned the tables on their conquerors. This dual aspect of Marko could be a reason why he became a national hero of the Serbs: for them he grew into "the proud symbol expressive of the unbroken spirit that lived on in spite of disaster and defeat," as stated by David Halyburton Low, translator of Serbian epic poems.

In fights Marko used not only his strength and prowess but also cunning and trickery. Despite all the extraordinary qualities, he was not depicted as some abstract superhero or a god, but as a mortal man. There were opponents in the presence of whom his courage wavered and those who surpassed him in strength; there were times when his spirit quailed. He had his evil moments, when he acted capricious, short-tempered, or even with cruelty, but these were few in number. The prevailing traits of the hero's nature were honesty, self-sacrificing loyalty, and the fundamental goodness.

With his comically stylized appearance and behavior, and his wry remarks at opponents' expense, Marko is regarded as the most humorous character in the Serbian epic poetry. When a Moor smote him with a mace, the hero spoke to the attacker laughingly, "O valiant black Moor! Are you jesting or smiting in earnest?" Jevrosima once advised her son to cease from his bloody adventures and to plough fields. He obeyed, but in his grimly humorous way, ploughing the sultan's highway instead of fields. There came a group of Turkish Janissaries, who transported three packs of gold. They shouted at him to stop ploughing the highway, to which he responded by warning them to keep off the furrows. Marko quickly wearied of the exchange of words:

Marko, aged 300 years, rode on 160-years-old Šarac by the seashore towards Mount Urvina, when a vila told him that he was going to die. Marko then stooped over a well and saw no reflection of his head from the water, hydromancy thus confirming the vila's words. He killed Šarac lest Turks capture and use him for menial labor, and gave his beloved companion an elaborate burial. He broke his sword and spear and threw his mace far out into the sea, before lying down to die. The hero's body was found seven days later by Vaso, the abbot of the Monastery of Hilandar on Mount Athos, and his deacon Isaija. Abbot Vaso transported Marko to Mount Athos and buried him at the monastery, leaving no sign of his grave.