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HERO TALES AND LEGENDS OF THE SERBIANS
By
WOISLAV M. PETROVITCH
Late attache to the Serbian Royal Legation to the Court of St. James
With a preface by
CHEDO MIYATOVICH
Formerly Serbian Minister to the Court of St. James
And thirty-two illustrations
In colour by
WILLIAM SEWELL & GILBERT JAMES
To that most Eminent Serbian
Patriot and Statesman
His Excellency
Nicholas P. Pashitch
This book is
respectfully inscribed
by the author
PREFACE
Serbians attach the utmost value and importance to the sympathies of
such a highly cultured, great, and therefore legitimately influential
people as is the British nation. Since the beginning of the twentieth
century there have been two critical occasions [1]--the annexation of
Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria and the war against the Turks--when
we have had opportunities to note how British sympathies, even when
apparently only platonic, can be of great practical importance for
our nation. It is quite natural that we should desire to retain and
if possible deepen and increase those sympathies. We are proud of our
army, but we flatter ourselves that our nation may win sympathy and
respect by other than military features of its national character. We
wish that our British friends should know our nation such as it is. We
wish them to be acquainted with our national psychology. And nothing
could give a better insight into the very soul of the Serbian nation
than this book.
The Serbians belong ethnologically to the great family of the
Slavonic nations. They are first cousins to the Russians, Poles,
Czechs, Slovaks, and Bulgars, and they are brothers to the Croats
and Slovenes. Since the Church has ceased to be the discordant and
disuniting element in the life of the nations, the Orthodox Serbians
and the Roman Catholic Croats are practically one and the same
people. But of all Slavonic nations the Serbians can legitimately
claim to be the most poetical one. Their language is the richest and
the most musical among all the Slavonic languages. The late Professor
Morfill, a man who was something of a Panslavist, repeatedly said to
me: "I wish you Serbians, as well as all other Slavonic nations, to
join Russia in a political union, but I do not wish you to surrender
your beautiful and well-developed language to be exchanged for the
Russian!" On one occasion he went even so far as to suggest that the
future United States of the Slavs should adopt as their literary and
official language the Serbian, as by far the finest and most musical
of all the Slavonic tongues.
When our ancestors occupied the western part of the Balkan
Peninsula, they found there numerous Latin colonies and Greek towns
and settlements. In the course of twelve centuries we have through
intermarriage absorbed much Greek and Latin blood. That influence, and
the influence of the commercial and political intercourse with Italy,
has softened our language and our manners and intensified our original
Slavonic love of what is beautiful, poetical, and noble. We are a
special Slavonic type, modified by Latin and Greek influences. The
Bulgars are a Slavonic nation of a quite different type, created by
the circulation of Tartar blood in Slavonian veins. This simple fact
throws much light on the conflicts between the Serbians and Bulgarians
during the Middle Ages, and even in our own days.
Now what are the Serbian national songs? They are not songs made by
cultured or highly educated poets--songs which, becoming popular,
are sung by common people. They are songs made by the common people
themselves. Up to the middle of the nineteenth century the Serbian
peasantry lived mostly in agricultural and family associations called
Zadrooga. As M. Petrovitch has stated, the sons of a peasant did
not leave their father's house when they got married, but built a
wooden cottage on the land surrounding the father's house. Very often
a large settlement arose around the original home, with often more
than a hundred persons, men and women, working together, considering
the land and houses as their common property, enjoying the fruits of
their work as the common property too. All the members of the Zadrooga
considered the oldest member of such family association as their chief,
and it was the usual custom to gather round him every evening in the
original house. After questions of farming or other business had been
disposed of, the family gathering would be enlivened by the chieftain
or some other male member reciting an epic song, or several such songs,
describing historic events or events which had lately happened. At
the public gatherings around the churches and monasteries groups of
men and women would similarly gather about the reciters of songs on
old kings and heroes or on some great and important event.
In Hungarian Serbia (Syrmia, Banat, Bachka) poor blind men often make
it a lucrative profession to sing old or new songs, mostly on old
heroes and historical events or on contemporary events. But in other
parts of Serbia (Shumadiya, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, Dalmatia)
very often well-to-do peasants recite the hero songs to crowds of
listeners of both sexes. It is a curious fact noticed already by Vouk
S. Karadgitch that the reciters of the heroic songs are hardly ever
young men, but generally men of middle age, and still more frequently
old men. It is as if old men considered it their duty to acquaint the
young generation with the principal events of the nation's history
and their principal heroes. You may find still many an illiterate
person in Serbia, but you will not find one who would not be able to
tell you something about Stephan Nemanya, the first king of mediaeval
Serbia, about his son St. Sava, Tsar Doushan, his young son Ourosh,
King Voukashin, the Royal Prince Kralyevitch Marko, Tsar Lazar, and
the heroes who fell in the famous battle at Kossovo (1389). It can
be said that the Serbian peasants wrote their own national history
by composing and reciting it from one generation to another in the
rhythmical ten-syllabic blank verse. The gooslari and the monks kept
the national political consciousness and the national Church fully
alive through the five centuries in which they were only Turkish Rayah,
a mass of common people doomed to be nothing better than slaves to
their master, the Turk. We would to-day not have known anything about
the persistent guerilla war, which the best and boldest men of the
nation were relentlessly carrying on against the nation's oppressor
since the beginning of the sixteenth century until the first rising
of Shumadia under Karageorge in 1804, if we had not the so-called
Haidoochke Pesme (the Songs on Haidooks). Long before the history of
The Resurrection of the Serbian National State had been written by
Stoyan Novakovich, the learned President of the Serbian Academy, the
bard Vishnyich described that resurrection in songs of great beauty
and power. And the victories of the Serbian army over the Turks and
Bulgars in the war of 1912-13 are already sung by the improvized
bards in the inns and at the great gatherings of the people at the
village fairs and around the churches on great church festivals. Of
course, a Serbian who has heard on hundreds of occasions national
songs recited learns to recite them himself, although he may not be
able to accompany his recitation on the goussle. Nor does he find
it difficult, by using many stereotyped lines of old and well-known
songs, to tell the story of a recent event. When in 1873, as Minister
of Finance, I was defeated in the Budget debate at the Skoupshtina,
my defeat was recited to the people in blank verse the same evening,
and the next day.
Besides the songs which relate, more or less accurately, actual events,
many a national song relates a legend or a tradition. They have been
created, no doubt, under the influence of the priests and monks,
and are appropriate recitations to the crowds who come to the church
festivals. I am glad to see that M. Petrovitch has included in his
collection the song which is probably the oldest among all Serbian
songs. It is called "The Saints partition [or divide] the Treasures,"
and it gives expression to an evidently very old tradition, which
remembers a sort of catastrophe which befell India, and which probably
was the cause of the ancient ancestors of the Slavs leaving India. It
is most remarkable to find an echo of an Indian catastrophe in the
national songs of the Serbians.
That the Serbians had national songs in which they described the
exploits of their national heroes was noted in the fourteenth
century. Nicephoras Gregoras, sent by the Byzantine Emperor on a
diplomatic mission to Serbia, relates having heard the Serbians sing
their national songs on their heroes. The records of several diplomatic
missions, going from Vienna or Buda to Constantinople during the
sixteenth century, relate that the members heard people sing heroic
songs. In that century we have the first attempt to reproduce in
print some of those national songs, as, for instance, by the Ragusan
poet Hectorovich. In the eighteenth century fuller efforts were made
by the Franciscan monk Kachich-Mioshich and by Abbe Fortis. But it
is to the self-taught founder of modern Serbian literature, Vouk
Stephanovitch Karadgitch, that the greatest honour is due, as has
been shown by M. Petrovitch in his Introduction and elsewhere.
M. Petrovitch must have experienced what the French call embarras
de richesses. It was not so easy to select the songs for an English
translation. But he has given us some of the finest Serbian epic
songs as samples of what the Serbian national poetry is capable of
creating. I regret only that he has not included a few samples of
what the Serbian village women and girls are able to produce in the
way of lyrical poetry. Perhaps on some other occasion he will make
an amende honorable to our countrywomen.
I wish to add yet a few words to what M. Petrovitch has said about our
greatest national hero, the Royal Prince (Kralyevitch) Marko. As he
has pointed out, Marko is a historical personality. But what history
has to say about him is not much, and certainly not of the nature to
explain how he became the favourite hero of the Serbian people. He
was a loyal and faithful vassal of the Sultan, a fact hardly likely to
win him the respect and admiration of the Serbians. Yet the Serbians
throughout the last five centuries have respected, admired, loved
their Royal Prince Marko, and were and are now and will ever be proud
of him. This psychological puzzle has stirred up the best Serbian
and some other historical students and authors to investigate the
matter. It is evident to all that most of the songs on Marko must have
been composed under the mighty influence of his personality upon his
contemporary countrymen. Dr. Yagich, Dr. Maretich, Professor Stoykovich
and St. Novakovich all believe that his athletic strength and personal
appearance were responsible for much of the impression he made. All
agree that his conduct in everyday life and on all occasions was that
of a true knight, a cavaliere servente, a chevalier sans peur et sans
reproche. Even his attachment and unfailing readiness to serve the
Sultan was counted in his favour, as proof of his absolute loyalty of
character. Probably that very loyalty was appreciated by the Sultan
and enabled Marko not rarely to appeal to the Sultan in favour of his
people, especially when some prisoners or slaves were to be liberated
and saved. He was certainly the protector of poor and suffering men
and women, and went to their rescue at all and every personal risk
and cost. He must have given real proofs of his devotion to the cause
of justice; that is what endeared him to his generation as well as
to the generations which followed. He must have been known during
his life for his fear of God and his respect and tender love for
his mother. The Serbians painted him from the model which his own
personality and his actual deeds offered to the nation. One of the
most beautiful features of his knightly character as described by
the national bards is his love of and pity for suffering animals. I
regret that my friend Petrovitch did not give a sample of the songs
which glorify that feature of our national hero, as, for instance,
the song "Marko and the Falcon" (Vouk. ii. 53), or "Marko and the
Eagle" (Vouk. ii. 54), in each of which it is described how when once
Marko fell ill on a field, an intense thirst tormenting him and the
scorching sun-rays burning his face, those birds out of gratitude for
the kindness Marko showed them once, brought to him water in their
beaks and spread their wings to shade his face against the sun.
By far the best study on the Serbian national hero has been written
by the Russian professor M. Halanski, who explains the puzzle by the
natural sympathy of the people for a 'tragic hero.' The historical
Marko was certainly a 'tragic hero.' Nothing proves that better than
his last words before the battle of Rovina began (1399), and which
M. Petrovitch quotes in the text.
I ought to add that there is also a theory that the Serbian nation,
so to say, projected itself in the Royal Prince Marko, depicting its
own tragic fate, its own virtues and weaknesses, in the popular yet
tragic personality of Marko. No doubt Marko must have been in some
way the representative type of a noble Serbian, otherwise he could
not have found the way to the soul and heart of his people. Yet that
theory is hardly modest, for my taste.
It may interest our British friends to know that a relation of the
dynasty of which Marko was the last representative, a certain Prince
John Mussachi, in a historical memoir stated that Marko's father, King
Voukashin, was the descendant of a certain nobleman named Britanius
or Britanicus! [2] We should be proud if it could be proved that
the ancestors of our national hero were in some way connected with
the Britons.
Chedo Miyatovich
Member of the Royal Serbian Academy of Sciences
Belgrade
June 28, 1914
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
Introduction xvii
I Historical Retrospect 1
II Superstitious Beliefs and National Customs 13
III Serbian National Epic Poetry 54
IV Kralyevitch Marko; or, the Royal Prince Marko 59
V Banovitch Strahinya 119
VI The Tsarina Militza and the Zmay of Yastrebatz 129
VII The Marriage of Maximus Tzrnoyevitch 134
VIII The Marriage of Tsar Doushan the Mighty 150
IX Tsar Lazarus and the Tsarina Militza 170
X The Captivity and Marriage of Stephan Yakshitch 177
XI The Marriage of King Voukashin 186
XII The Saints Divide the Treasures 195
XIII Three Serbian Ballads
1. The Building of Skadar 198
2. The Stepsisters 206
3. The Abduction of the Beautiful Iconia 210
XIV Folk Lore
1. The Ram with the Golden Fleece 213
2. A Pavilion neither in the Sky nor on the Earth 220
3. Pepelyouga 224
4. Animals' Language 230
5. The Stepmother and her Stepdaughter 235
6. Justice and Injustice 240
7. He who Asks Little Receives Much 243
8. Bash Tchelik or Real Steel 247
9. The Golden Apple-tree and the Nine Pea-hens 267
10. The Bird Maiden 280
11. Lying for a Wager 283
12. The Maiden Wiser than the Tsar 287
13. Good Deeds Never Perish 291
14. He whom God Helps no one can Harm 300
15. Animals as Friends and as Enemies 305
16. The Three Suitors 316
17. The Dream of the King's Son 322
18. The Biter Bit 328
19. The Trade that no one Knows 340
20. The Golden-haired Twins 353
XV Some Serbian Popular Anecdotes 362
Glossary and Index 371
INTRODUCTION
More than once in the following pages I have lamented my inability
to translate into English verse the spirited ballads of our national
bards; never until now have I realized the error involved in the
dictum of my teachers of literature--true as it may be from one point
of view--that beautiful thoughts are to be more freely expressed in
prose than in a poetic form, which is necessarily hampered by rules
of prosody and metre. Undoubtedly, good prose is worth more than
mediocre verse, but how if the author be a master poet?
Serbian epic poetry undoubtedly deserves the attention of the English
literary world, and I venture to express the hope that some day another
English poet will be attracted as was Sir John Bowring by the charm
of our ballads, and like him will endeavour to communicate to readers
of English the alluring rhythmic qualities of the originals.
In the first half of the nineteenth century various German poets
transversified some of our national ballads, and I cannot but boast
that among the number was even Goethe himself. Alas! he was compelled
to use Italian versions, for he was ignorant of the Serbian language,
unlike his worthy countryman Jacob Grimm, who, after having learnt
our musical tongue that he might acquaint himself with the treasures
written in it, wrote: "The Serbian national poetry deserves indeed a
general attention.... On account of these ballads I think the Serbian
will now be universally studied."
A Tcheque [3] writer, Lyoodevit Schtur, speaking of the Slav poetry,
wrote: "The Indo-European peoples express each in their own manner what
they contain in themselves and what elevates their souls. The Indian
manifests this in his huge temples; the Persian in his holy books; the
Egyptian in pyramids, obelisks and immeasurable, mysterious labyrinths;
the Hellene in his magnificent statues; the Roman in his enchanting
pictures; the German in his beautiful music--the Slavs have poured
out their soul and their intimate thoughts in ballads and tales."
I think that it is not too much to claim that of all the Slavs,
Serbians have most profusely poured out their souls in their poetry,
which is thoroughly and essentially national. So much could not safely
be said about their tales and legends, which, to my mind, seem less
characteristic. Indeed, by their striking analogy with the folk lore
of other nations they help to demonstrate the prehistoric oneness
of the entire Aryan race. For example, it would be ridiculous for
any nation to lay exclusive claim, as 'national property,' to such
legends as "Cinderella" [4] and certain others, which are found more
or less alike in many languages, as is well known to those who have
any considerable acquaintance with European folk lore.
From time immemorial the Serbian has possessed an exceptional natural
gift for composing heroic ballads. That gift was brought from his
ancient abode in the North; and the beautiful scenery of his new
surroundings, and contact with the civilized Byzantine, influenced
it very considerably and provided food for its development, so that
it came to resemble the Homeric epic rather than any product of the
genius of the Northern Slav. The treasure of his mental productions was
continually augmented by new impressions, and the national poetry thus
grew opulent in its form and more beautiful in its composition. The
glorious forests of the Balkans, instinct with legend and romance, to
which truly no other forests in Europe can compare; the ever-smiling
sky of Southern Macedonia; the gigantic Black Rocks of Montenegro
and Herzegovina, are well calculated to inspire even a less talented
people than the Serbian inhabitants of those romantic regions for
the last thirteen centuries.
The untiring Serbian muse pursued her mission alike upon the
battlefield or in the forest, in pleasant pastures amid the flocks,
or beneath the frowning walls of princely castles and sacred
monasteries. The entire nation participated in her gracious gifts;
and whenever a poet chanted of the exploits of some favourite
national hero, or of the pious deeds of monk or saint, or, indeed,
of any subject which appeals closely to the people, there were never
lacking other bards who could make such poetic creations their own and
pass them on with the modifications which must always accompany oral
transmission, and which serve to bring them ever more intimately near
to the heart of the nation. This characteristic of oral transmission
explains the existence of varying versions of some of the most
popular songs.
Through many centuries, and more especially during the blighting
domination of the Turk, Serbian national literature was limited to
a merely oral form, save that the untiring monks, inviolable within
the sacred walls of their monasteries, spent their leisure, not
in inscribing the popular ballads and lyric songs of their nation,
but in recording the biographies of other monks or of this or that
princely patron.
Those Serbians who could not endure the oppressive rule of the
Ottoman, and who in the seventeenth century emigrated with their
Patriarch Arsen Tcharnoyevitch to the level fields of Southern
Hungary--there to adopt in the course of the two subsequent centuries
the pseudo-classicism of the West--considered it infra dignitatem to
write about such vulgar subjects as popular poetry and tradition. The
gifted descendants of those lamentable slaves of the cunning Austrian
and Pan-Russian influences wasted their talents in vain and empty
imitation of pseudo-classic productions from Italy and France, and,
by conjugating zealously the Serbian and Old-Slavonic verbs in the
Russian fashion they created a monstrous literary jargon which they
termed Slavyano-Serbski (i.e. Slavo-Serbian). And if any Serbian
author should have presumed to write in the melodious and genuine
Serbian as universally spoken throughout his fatherland, he would have
been anathematized by those misguided Slavo-Serbian 'classicists' who
fondly believed that by writing in a language hardly comprehensible
even to themselves, because of its utter inconsequence and arbitrary
changes, they would surely become distinguished in the history of
their nation's literature.
The 'classicists' received their deserts in the first half of the
nineteenth century, when they were overwhelmed by the irresistible
torrent of the popular movement headed by the self-taught Serbian
peasant, Vouk Stephanovitch-Karadgitch, whose name will remain for
ever great in the history of Serbian literature. Karadgitch has been
called justly "the father of Serbian modern literature." His numberless
opponents, who began by heaping upon him every opprobrious epithet
which their pens or tongues could command, ended, after more than
fifty years of fruitless resistance, by opening wide their arms to him.
Karadgitch framed a grammar of the popular Serbian language, banishing
all unnecessary graphic signs and adapting his thirty-lettered
alphabet to the thirty sounds (five vowels and twenty-five consonants)
of his mother tongue--thus giving it an ideal phonetic orthography,
and establishing the golden rule, "Spell as you speak and speak as you
spell." [5] He also travelled from one village to another throughout
Serbia, zealously collecting and inscribing the epic and lyric poems,
legends, and traditions as he heard them from the lips of bards and
story-tellers, professional and amateur.
In his endeavours he was powerfully seconded by the Serbian ruling
princes, and he had the good fortune to acquire the intimate
friendship of those distinguished philologers and scientists of the
last century, Bartholemy Kopitar, Schaffarik, and Grimm. Helped by
Kopitar, Karadgitch succeeded in compiling an academic dictionary of
the Serbian language interpreted by Latin and German equivalents. This
remains to this day the only reliable Serbian dictionary approaching
to the Western standard of such books. His first collection of Serbian
popular poems was published in Vienna in 1814. It contained 200 lyric
songs, which he called zenske pyesme (i.e. 'women-songs'), and 23
heroic ballads, and the book created a stir in literary circles in
Austria, Serbia, Germany, Russia, and other countries. Seven years
later Karadgitch published at Leipzig a second edition in three
books. This contained 406 lyric songs and 117 heroic poems. From this
edition Sir John Bowring made his metrical translation of certain
of the lyric and epic poems, which he published in 1827 under the
title Servian Popular Poetry. He dedicated the book to Karadgitch,
who was his intimate friend and teacher of Serbian.
I have reproduced three of Bowring's ballads in this book that
English readers may have a better idea than they can obtain from a
mere prose rendering of the original verse. As to the poetic merits of
these metrical translations I will not presume to offer an opinion,
but I may be permitted to say that I have not seen a more faithful
translation of our national ballads and lyric songs in English or in
any other language. Considering the difficulties to the Anglo-Saxon
student of any Slavonic language (more especially Serbian) it is
surprising that there should be so few defects in Bowring's work. Sir
John must have possessed an uncommon gift for acquiring languages,
as he has also translated from each of the other Slavonic tongues
with--so I am informed--similar accuracy and precision.
The third edition of Karadgitch's work appeared in Vienna at intervals
between the years 1841 and 1866. It had now grown to five volumes and
contained 1112 lyric songs and 313 heroic ballads. It is from this
edition that I have selected the hero-tales in this book; and if I
should succeed in interesting a new generation of English readers in
the literature of my country it will be my further ambition to attempt
the immeasurably harder task of introducing them in a subsequent
volume to our popular lyric poetry.
It remains only to tender my most grateful acknowledgment to my
esteemed friend M. Chedo Miyatovich for his invaluable advice and
encouragement, and for his generous willingness to contribute the
preface which adorns my book.
W. M. P.
CHAPTER I: HISTORICAL RETROSPECT
The Coming of the Serb
Prior to their incursion into the Balkan Peninsula during the
seventh century, the Serbians [6] lived as a patriarchal people
in the country now known as Galicia. Ptolemy, the ancient Greek
geographer, describes them as living on the banks of the River Don,
to the north-east of the sea of Azov. They settled mostly in those
Balkan territories which they inhabit at the present day, namely,
the present kingdom of Serbia, Old Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Montenegro, Dalmatia, Batchka, Banat, Croatia, Sirmia
and Istria. The ancient inhabitants of those regions, Latins,
Illyrians, Thracians, Greeks and Albanians, were easily driven by
the newcomers toward the Adriatic coast. Their Emperor, Heraclius
(A.D. 610-641), unable to oppose an effective resistance, ceded to
the Serbians all the provinces which they had occupied, and peace
was thus purchased. The pagan and uncultured Serbian tribes now came
into constant intercourse with the civilized Byzantines, and soon
were converted to Christianity; for it is an almost invariable fact
that when one people conquers or subjects another people, the more
civilized of the two, whether the vanquished or the victorious, must
necessarily impose its civilization and customs on the more barbarous.
But the Serbians only embraced Christianity to any large extent with
the beginning of the ninth century, when the two brothers Cyrillos and
Methodius--the so-called Slavonic apostles--translated and preached
the teaching of Christ in the ancient Slav language, then in common
use among all southern Slavs of that time.
Early Struggles
As the Serbians, during the seventh and eighth centuries, were divided
into tribes, they became an easy prey to the attacks of the Byzantines,
the Bulgars and the Francs, although they never were subjugated by
any of those neighbours. The Serbians, however, were forced to realize
that only by concentration of their power could they offer resistance
as a nation, and a serious effort was made to found a State on the
banks of the River Morava, with Horea Margi (now called Tyoupriya)
as its capital, in the early part of the ninth century. Owing to
Bulgarian hostility, however, this proved abortive.
A fresh attempt to form an independent State was made by the Djoupan
(Count) Vlastimir, who had succeeded in emancipating himself from
Byzantine suzerainty. This province was called Rashka and extended
around the Rivers Piva, Tara, and Lim, touching the basin of the
River Ibar in the east and that of Vrbas in the west. But in the
very beginning of its civil life there were dissensions amongst the
leaders which facilitated the interference of the Bulgarian Tsar
Simeon. Tchaslav, the djoupan of another Serbian tribe, though he
possessed no rights to it, claimed the throne, and was supported
by Simeon, who successfully invaded Rashka. The Bulgarians retained
possession of the country for seven years (924-931), when Tchaslav
succeeded in wresting from them a new state which comprised,
together with Rashka, the territories of Zetta, Trebinye, Neretva
and Houm. After his death, great disorder reigned in this principality.
In the course of the next century the Byzantine Empire, having
again brought the now enfeebled Bulgaria within its rule, also
overpowered Rashka, whose Grand Djoupan fled. The ruler of Zetta,
Stephen Voislav (1034-1051), son of Dragomir, djoupan of Trebinye,
took the opportunity of declaring himself independent of his suzerain
the Grand Djoupan of Rashka, and appropriated Zahoumlye (Herzegovina)
and some other regions. His son Michaylo (1053-1081) succeeded further
in bringing Rashka under his authority, and obtained the title of
king (rex Sclavorum) from Pope Gregory VII in the year 1077. Under
the rule of King Bodin, the son of Michaylo, the Serbia of Tchaslav
was restored; furthermore Bosnia was added to his state. But after
Bodin's death new disorder ensued, caused mainly by the struggles
amongst the several pretenders to the throne.
Internecine Strife
Internecine strife is an unfortunate feature to be noticed throughout
Serbian history, and constantly we see energy wasted in futile
dissensions among various members of ruling families, who criminally
and fatally neglected national interests, in pursuit by legitimate
or illegitimate means of their personal ambitions. This has at all
times hindered the Serbian nation from becoming a powerful political
unit, although efforts were made by many of the rulers to realize
this policy.
In 1169 a dynasty destined to rule Serbia for more than two centuries
(1169-1372) within ever-changing political boundaries, was founded
by the celebrated Grand Djoupan Stephan Nemanya (1169-1196) who was
created Duke (grand djoupan) of Serbia by the Byzantine Emperor after
he had instigated a revolution, the result of which was favourable
to his pretensions. By his bravery and wisdom he succeeded not only
in uniting under his rule the provinces held by his predecessors,
but also in adding those which never had been Serbian before, and he
placed Ban Koulin, an ally, upon the throne of Bosnia. Furthermore he
strengthened the orthodox religion in his state by building numerous
churches and monasteries, and by banishing the heretic Bogoumils. [7]
Feeling the weakness of advanced age, and wishing to give fresh proof
of his religious faith to his people, the aged Nemanya abdicated in
1196, in favour of his able second son Stevan, and withdrew into a
monastery. On his accession in the year 1217 Stevan assumed the title
of King of Serbia.
When the crusaders vanquished Constantinople, Sava, Stevan's youngest
brother, obtained from the Greek patriarch the autonomy of the Serbian
Church (1219), and became the first Serbian archbishop.
Stevan was succeeded by his son Radoslav (1223-1233), who was dethroned
by his brother Vladislav (1233-1242), who was removed from the throne
by his third brother Ourosh the Great (1242-1276). Ourosh increased his
territory and established the reputation of Serbia abroad. In his turn,
he was dethroned by his son Dragoutin (1276-1281), who, owing to the
failure of a campaign against the Greeks, retired from the throne in
favour of a younger brother Miloutin (1281-1321), reserving, however,
for himself a province in the north of the State. Soon afterward
Dragoutin received from his mother-in-law, the queen of Hungary,
the lands between the Rivers Danube Sava and Drina, and assumed the
title of King of Sirmia. Dragoutin, while still alive, yielded his
throne and a part of his lands to Miloutin, and another part remained
under the suzerainty of the King of Hungary. Miloutin is considered
one of the most remarkable descendants of Nemanya. After his death the
usual discord obtained concerning the succession to the throne. Order
was re-established by Miloutin's son, Stevan Detchanski (1321-1331),
who defeated the Bulgarians in the famous battle of Velbouzd, and
brought the whole of Bulgaria under his sway. Bulgaria remained a
province of Serbia until the Ottoman hordes overpowered both.
Doushan the Powerful
Stevan Detchanski was dethroned by his son Doushan the Powerful
(1331-1355), the most notable and most glorious of all Serbian
sovereigns. He aimed to establish his rule over the entire Balkan
Peninsula, and having succeeded in overpowering nearly the whole of
the Byzantine Empire, except Constantinople, he proclaimed himself,
in agreement with the Vlastela (Assembly of Nobles), Tsar of
Serbia. He elevated the Serbian archbishopric to the dignity of the
patriarchate. He subdued the whole of Albania and a part of Greece,
while Bulgaria obeyed him almost as a vassal state. His premature death
(some historians assert that he was poisoned by his own ministers)
did not permit him to realize the whole of his great plan for Serbia,
and under the rule of his younger son Ourosh (1355-1371) nearly all
his magnificent work was undone owing to the incessant and insatiable
greed of the powerful nobles, who thus paved the way for the Ottoman
invasion.
Among those who rebelled against the new Tsar was King
Voukashin. Together with his brother and other lords, he held almost
independently the whole territory adjoining Prizrend to the south of
the mountain Shar. [8]
King Voukashin and his brother were defeated in a battle with the
Turks on the banks of the River Maritza (1371), and all Serbian lands
to the south of Skoplye (Ueskueb) were occupied by the Turks.
The Royal Prince Marko
The same year Tsar Ourosh died, and Marko, the eldest son of King
Voukashin, the national hero of whom we shall hear much in this book,
proclaimed himself King of the Serbians, but the Vlastela and the
clergy did not recognize his accession. They elected (A.D. 1371) Knez
[9] (later Tsar) Lazar, a relative of Tsar Doushan the Powerful, to be
the ruler of Serbia, and Marko, from his principality of Prilip, as a
vassal of the Sultan, aided the Turks in their campaigns against the
Christians. In the year 1399 he met his death in the battle of Rovina,
in Roumania, and he is said to have pronounced these memorable words:
"May God grant the victory to the Christians, even if I have to perish
amongst the first!" The Serbian people, as we shall see, believe that
he did not die, but lives even to-day.
Knez Lazar ruled from 1371 to 1389, and during his reign he made
an alliance with Ban [10] Tvrtko of Bosnia against the Turks. Ban
Tvrtko proclaimed himself King of Bosnia, and endeavoured to extend
his power in Hungary, whilst Knez Lazar, with the help of a number
of Serbian princes, prepared for a great war against the Turks. But
Sultan Amourath, informed of Lazar's intentions, suddenly attacked
the Serbians on June 15 1389, on the field of Kossovo. The battle
was furious on both sides, and at noon the position of the Serbians
promised ultimate success to their arms.
The Treachery of Brankovitch.
There was, however, treachery in the Serbian camp. Vook (Wolf)
Brankovitch, one of the great lords, to whom was entrusted one wing
of the Serbian army, had long been jealous of his sovereign. Some
historians state that he had arranged with Sultan Amourath to betray
his master, in return for the promise of the imperial crown of
Serbia, subject to the Sultan's overlordship. At a critical moment
in the battle, the traitor turned his horse and fled from the field,
followed by 12,000 of his troops, who believed this to be a stratagem
intended to deceive the Turks. This was a great blow to the Serbians,
and when, later in the day the Turks were reinforced by fresh
troops under the command of the Sultan's son, Bajazet, the Turkish
victory was complete. Knez Lazar was taken prisoner and beheaded,
and the Sultan himself perished by the hand of a Serbian voivode,
[11] Milosh Obilitch.
Notwithstanding the disaster, in which Brankovitch also perished, the
Serbian state did not succumb to the Turks, thanks to the wisdom and
bravery of Lazar's son, Stevan Lazarevitch (1389-1427). His nephew,
Dyourady Brankovitch (1427-1456), also fought heroically, but was
compelled, inch by inch, to cede his state to the Turks.
The Final Success of the Turks
After the death of Dyourady the Serbian nobles could not agree
concerning his successor, and in the disorder that ensued the Turks
were able to complete their conquest of Serbia, which they finally
achieved by 1459. Their statesmen now set themselves the task of
inducing the Serbian peasantry in Bosnia, by promises of future
prosperity, to take the oath of allegiance to the Sultan, and in
this they were successful during the reign of the King of Bosnia,
Stevan Tomashevitch, who endeavoured in vain to secure help from the
Pope. The subjugation of Bosnia was an accomplished fact by 1463, and
Herzegovina followed by 1482. An Albanian chief of Serbian origin,
George Kastriotovitch-Skander-Beg (1443-1468), successfully fought,
with great heroism, for the liberty of Albania. Eventually, however,
the Turks made themselves master of the country as well as of all
Serbian lands, with the exception of Montenegro, which they never
could subdue, owing partly to the incomparable heroism of the bravest
Serbians--who objected to live under Turkish rule--and partly to the
mountainous nature of the country. Many noble Serbian families found
a safe refuge in that land of the free; many more went to Ragusa as
well as to the Christian Princes of Valahia and Moldavia. The cruel
and tyrannous nature of Turkish rule forced thousands of families to
emigrate to Hungary, and the descendants of these people may be found
to-day in Batchka, Banat, Sirmia and Croatia. Those who remained
in Serbia were either forced to embrace Islam or to live as raya
(slaves), for the Turkish spahis (land-lords) not only oppressed the
Christian population, but confiscated the land hitherto belonging to
the natives of the soil.
The Miseries of Turkish Rule
We should be lengthening this retrospect unduly if we were to describe
in full the miserable position of the vanquished Christians, and so
we must conclude by giving merely an outline of the modern period.
When it happens that a certain thing, or state of things, becomes
too sharp, or acute, a change of some sort must necessarily take
place. As the Turkish atrocities reached their culmination at the
end of the XVIIth century, the Serbians, following the example of
their brothers in Hungary and Montenegro, gathered around a leader
who was sent apparently by Providence to save them from the shameful
oppression of their Asiatic lords. That leader, a gifted Serbian,
George Petrovitch--designated by the Turks Karageorge ('Black
George')--gathered around him other Serbian notables, and a general
insurrection occurred in 1804. The Serbians fought successfully,
and established the independence of that part of Serbia comprised
in the pashalik of Belgrade and some neighbouring territory. This
was accomplished only by dint of great sacrifices and through the
characteristic courage of Serbian warriors, and it was fated to endure
for less than ten years.
Serbia again Subjugated
When Europe (and more particularly Russia) was engaged in the war
against Napoleon, the Turks found in the pre-occupation of the Great
Powers the opportunity to retrieve their losses and Serbia was again
subjugated in 1813. George Petrovitch and other Serbian leaders left
the country to seek aid, first in Austria, and later in Russia. In
their absence, Milosh Obrenovitch, one of Karageorge Petrovitch's
lieutenants, made a fresh attempt to liberate the Serbian people
from the Turkish yoke, and in 1815 was successful in re-establishing
the autonomy of the Belgrade pashalik. During the progress of his
operations, George Petrovitch returned to Serbia and was cruelly
assassinated by order of Milosh who then proclaimed himself hereditary
prince and was approved as such by the Sublime Porte in October
1815. Milosh was a great opponent of Russian policy and he incurred the
hostility of that power and was forced to abdicate in 1839 in favour of
his son Michel (Serbian 'Mihaylo'). Michel was an excellent diplomat,
and had previously incorporated within the independent state of Serbia
several districts without shedding blood. He was succeeded by Alexandre
Karageorgevitch (1842-1860) son of Karageorge Petrovitch. Under the
prudent rule of that prince, Serbia obtained some of the features
of a modern constitution and a foundation was laid for further and
rapid development. But an unfortunate foreign policy, the corruption
existing among the high dignitaries of the state and especially the
treachery of Milosh's apparent friends, who hoped to supplant him,
forced that enlightened prince to abandon the throne and to leave his
country. The Skoupshtina (National Assembly) restored Milosh but the
same year the prince died and was succeeded once again by his son
Michel (1860-1868). At the assassination of this prince his young
cousin, Milan (1868-1889), ruled with the aid, during his minority,
of three regents, in conformity of a Constitution voted in 1869.
The principal events during the rule of Milan were: the war against
Turkey (1876-1878) and the annexation of four new districts; the
acknowledgment of Serbian independence by the famous Treaty of Berlin;
the proclamation of Serbia as a kingdom in 1882; the unfortunate war
against Bulgaria, which was instigated by Austria, and the promulgation
of a new Constitution, which, slightly modified, is still in force.
After the abdication of King Milan, his unworthy son, Alexander,
ascended the throne. Despite the vigorous advices of his friends and
the severe admonishments of his personal friend M. Chedo Miyatovich,
he married his former mistress, Draga Mashin, under whose influence
he entered upon a period of tyranny almost Neronian in type. He went
so far as to endeavour to abolish the Constitution, thus completely
alienating his people and playing into the hands of his personal
enemies, who finally murdered him (1903).
King Peter I
The Skoupshtina now elected the son of Alexander Karageorgevitch,
the present King Peter I Karageorgevitch, whose glorious rule will
be marked with golden letters in modern Serbian history, for it is to
him that Christendom owes the formation of the league whereby the Turk
was all but driven from Europe in 1913. But, alas! the Serbians have
only about one-half of their lands free, the rest of their brethren
being still under the foreign yoke.
Brief as is this retrospect it will suffice to show the circumstances
and conditions from which sprung the Serbian national poetry with
which we shall be largely concerned in the following pages. The
legends have their roots in disasters due as much to the self-seeking
of Serbian leaders as to foreign oppressors; but national calamities
have not repressed the passionate striving of a high-souled people
for freedom, and these dearly loved hero tales of the Balkans express
the ideals which have inspired the Serbian race in its long agony, and
which will continue to sustain the common people in whatever further
disappointments they may be fated to suffer ere they gain the place
among the great nations which their persistence and suffering must
surely win in the end.