On the death of Du[vs]an his dominions fell apart, so that the
conquering Turk, who now appeared, was only met with isolated
resistance. At a battle on the river Maritza in 1371 the Christians
were utterly routed and, among other chieftains, King Vuka[vs]in was
slain. His territories had included Prizren in the north, Skoplje,
where Du[vs]an had been crowned, Ochrida and Prilep. It was Prilep,
amid the bare mountains, which passed into the hands of Marko, the
king's son, Marko Kraljevi['c], and thereabouts are the remains of his
churches and monasteries. But for the Serbs and the Bulgars Marko is
associated with deeds of valour; he has become the protagonist of a
grand cycle of heroic songs, wherein his wondrous exploits are
recalled. Although he was, by force of circumstances, a Turkish
vassal, and, fighting under them, he perished in Roumania in 1394, so
that historically he may not have played a very helpful part, yet it
is to him that numerous victories over the Turk are ascribed. He is
said to have been engaged in combat against the three-headed Arab, to
have waged solitary and triumphant warfare against battalions of
Turks, to have passed swiftly on his faithful charger [vS]arac from
one end of the country to another, to have defended the Cross against
the Crescent, to have succoured the poor and the weak, to have
conversed with the long-haired fairies, the "samovilas," of the forest
lakes, who gave him their protection, and he is said to have assisted
girls to marry by abolishing the Turkish restrictions. They say that
he is still alive, and when he reappears, gloriously seated on
[vS]arac, then will the people be free, at last, and united.[18]
Through the long centuries of Turkish oppression he--who personifies
many of the traits in the national character, with Christian and with
pagan attributes--he, in these legends, many of which have a high
poetic value, was able to keep alive the hope of deliverance. From one
end of the Balkans to the other, from Varna to Triest, the popular
hero is Marko Kraljevi['c]. He is as much the personage of Bulgarian
as of Serbian folk-songs, and this is well, seeing that he was a
Serbian prince while many of his adoring subjects were Bulgars--the
noble Albanian chronicler, Musachi, for instance, calls his father Re
di Bulgaria. As Marko is dear to them in song the Bulgars have come to
think that he was a Bulgar; thereupon the Serbs point out that he was
the son of Vuka[vs]in, that Marko is an admittedly Serbian name, and
that Kralj (King) and Kraljevi['c] are titles so unknown in Bulgaria
that when the Sofia newspapers alluded to Louis Philippe, Ferdinand's
grandfather, they spoke of him--him of all people--as Tzar Louis
Philippe. Thereupon the Bulgars retort that, anyhow, Marko was cruel
and perfidious and a braggart and a drunkard and a fighter against
Christians, and a fighter remarkable for cowardice. But if we are
going to look at the private character of all the world's national
heroes, we shall be the losers more than they. Let Marko, who joins
the Serb and the Bulgar in song, find them engaged, when he comes
back, in drinking together and not in making him the subject of
antiquarian and acrimonious debate.