The Battle of Kosovo in the Interplay of Epic Bards and the Epic

3
SERBIAN STUDIES
PUBLISHED BY THE NORTH AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR SERBIAN STUDIES
CONTENTS
VOLUME 5, NUMBER 3
SPRING 1990
Thomas A. Emmert
PROLOGUE TO KOSOVO: THE ERA OF PRINCE LAZAR
5
Tanya Popovic
THE BATTLE OF KOSOVO IN THE INTERPLAY OF EPIC
BARDS AND THE EPIC AUDIENCE
21
Dimitrije Djordjevic
THE ROLE OF ST. VITUS DAY IN MODERN SERBIAN
HISTORY
33
David MacKenzie
ILIJA GARASANIN: MAN AND STATESMAN
41
Alex N. Dragnich
JOV AN RISTIC AND SERBIA'S STRUGGLE FOR
INDEPENDENCE AND DEMOCRACY
57
Dragan Milivojevic
SOCIAL ASPECTS OF EARLY SERBO-CROATIAN
TEXTBOOKS AND READERS OF ENGLISH FOR U.S.
IMMIGRANTS
67
NOTES (Student Essay)
Jelena S. Bankovic-Rosul
THE AWAKENING OF THE SLEEPERS IN DANILO KIS'S
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE DEAD
85
Tanya Popovic
21
THE BATTLE OF KOSOVO IN THE INTERPLAY OF EPIC BARDS
AND THE EPIC AUDIENCE
The Kosovo worship is a complex phenomenon which assumed
a dominant role in the heroic poetry of the Serbian people. In an
active interplay bel ween epic bards and the epic audience, the greatest historical defeat of the Serbian forces by the Turks in 1389 was
elevated to an archetype of greatness in lhe oral literary tradition.
It takes a profound insight into the moral norms and epic code of
behavior of the Serbian people to understand their glorification of
the Kosovo defeat in the oral tradition as opposed lo other, real,
victories they achieved in his lory. A lwo-way process of interpreting
the Kosovo defeat as dialogue between the narrator and his listeners,
leads to a common understanding of its historical significance and
catharsis, all this expressed in dramatic narratives of great power
and beauty.
With lhe passage of lime, fourteenth century Kosovo events were
told over and over again by the epic bards. Successive generations
of non-literate audiences incorporated them into their own experience and passed them on to create a link between the generations.
Epic distance contributed lo the validity of the historical events
which were preserved within the tradition. However, the Kosovo
events may be broken down into constant elements which were preserved in the continuous process of tradition, and in variable elements due to the interpretations of lhe bard-audience in various
historical periods .
Histori al persons and historical events represent merely starling
points from which the poetic imagination begins the process of developing epic songs. 1 The bards and audience examined such historical facts as Sultan Murad I's death al tho hands of Milos Obilic
or Prince Lazar Hrebljanovic's beheading after the Ballle of Kosovo
by the Turks al the orders of the new Sultan Bajazel J.2 These depart
from actual facl by absorbing such historical elements as rationalize
their subjective interpretations but al the same time an hor them
within the framework of epic tradition. On this ground they moved
from fact to fiction, selling the stage for dramali onflicl. Thus, by
rendering Lord Vuk Brankovic as a traitor, he is made responsible
for the military defeat, although Vuk was, in real life, the son-in-law
of Prince Lazar.
Tanya Popovic
21
THE BATTLE OF KOSOVO IN THE INTERPLAY OF EPIC BARDS
AND THE EPIC AUDIENCE
The Kosovo worship is a complex phenomenon which assumed
a dominant role in the heroic poetry of the Serbian people. In an
active interplay between epic bards and the epic audience, the greatest historical defeat of the Serbian forces by the Turks in 1389 was
elevated to an archetype of greatness in the oral literary tradition.
It takes a profound insight into the moral norms and epic code of
behavior of the Serbian people Lo understand their glorification of
the Kosovo defeat in the oral tradition as opposed to other, real,
victories they achieved in history. A two-way process of interpreting
the Kosovo defeat as dialogue between the narrator and his listeners,
leads to a common understanding of its historical significance and
catharsis, all this expressed in dramatic narratives of great power
and beauty.
With the passage of lime, fourteenth century Kosovo events were
told over and over again by the epic bards. Successive generations
of non-literate audiences incorporated them into their own experience and passed them on to create a link between the generations.
Epic distance contributed to the validity of the historical events
which were preserved within the tradition. However, the Kosovo
events may be broken down into constant elements which were preserved in the continuous process of tradition, and in variable elements due to the interpretations of the bard-audience in various
historical periods.
Historical persons and historical events represent merely starling
points from which the poetic imagination begins the process of developing epic songs. 1 The bards and audience examined such historical facts as Sultan Murad I's death at the hands of Milos Obilic
or Prince Lazar Hrebljanovic's beheading after the Battle of Kosovo
by the Turks at the orders of the new Sultan Bajazet J.2 These depart
from actual fact by absorbing such historical elements as rationalize
their subjective interpretations but at the same Lime anchor them
within the framework of epic tradition. On this ground they moved
from fact to fiction, setting the stage for dramatic conflict. Thus, by
rendering Lord Vuk Brankovic as a traitor, he is made responsible
for the military defeat, although Vuk was, in real life, the son-in-law
of Prince Lazar.
Tanya Popovic
22
As has been shown, histori al clem nts in h roi songs sh uld
not be considered as ac urate ac ounts, but rath r as what was believed to have happened or, under ertain ondili ns, whal might
or should have happencd. 3 Here we deal w.ilh variabl l m nts in
the course of development of epic tradition . The lat r pi p rf rmers interpreted constant elements, namely histori al fa ts, fr m the
past in light of their present meaning. In that way g n rati n ang
about the Kosovo Battle not only with pi objc tivity anct th authority of tradition, but at the same Lime with th ir own p r . pti ns,
expecta tions and interactions.
The epic bards translated the catharsis of the K sovo cl 'f al i nlo
a magnificent Kosovo legend. The Kosovo ycl of pic songs reflected popular reaction to the national tragedy and Lhc r alion of
tragic heroes and heroines. Such is a ballad about Jugovi 's m thor
whose heart was made hard as stone by the loss of nin sons-nine
warriors all and a husband, the old Jug Bogdan, wh I d his b ys to
the Kosovo Ballle. The emotional climax is reached wh n Lh c news
of the deaths are delivered by two black ravens, hm·bing rs f
ath.
The ravens bring Lhe severed hand of the younge l son, throw il nlo
the Mother's lap who - dying- intones in passional m laphor:
Thou dear hand, oh thou my fair gre n app le, Wh re
didst blossom? Where has fate now plu ked lh '? Woe
is me! thou blossomed on my bosom, Th u wast plu ked,
alas, upon Kosovo!
Another tragic heroine is Lhe Maiden of Kosovo who scar h
battleground for her betrothed warrior Toplica Milan among th
and wounded. Finally, there is the belated tragic h ro, Musi '
who arrives after the Battle to fight alone and dies by hims
filling his oath given to his Prin e.
The epic audien e actively reacted expe Ling Lo hear such t ries
as dealt with their sorrows and could help to hea l th woun s of
defeat. Here we come to one theory of inl rpr Lation of the hi sl J.-ical
"horizon of expectations" and an aesthetics of re eplion, i.e. " horizon of aesthetic perception" by the contemporary
rman lit rary
historian and theorist Hans Robert Jauss. Jauss has ben ass iatcd
with the Konstanz s hoot of literary studies in s uthcrn , •r n 1 any
and first introduced it to the American readers in 1982 with_ the
Tanya Popovic
23
publication of essays, Toward an Aesthetic of Reception. RezeptionsCfJsthetik encapsulates the methodology of the Konslanz School
as developed by Jauss and his group into the so-called "aesthetics
of reception," i.e. reader-response or, in our case, listener-response
to the traditional text.
In the textural analysis of the Kosovo songs, their aesthetic function is very important and unfolds slowly to the epic audience during the process of the reception. The epic bards are telling either
uninterpreted or interpreted events depending on their individual
creativity. for each performance is a unique adventure in the union
between the narrator and his listeners. The epic poet is known to
his auclience but al the same time he is a part of the tradition and
acts as narrator of retold epics and in a way retreats behind the text
he is narrating. Revenge, loss and sacrifice, the might of the enemy
and the overwhelming force of evil, heroism versus betrayal, all rise
from the Kosovo cycle of epics. The individual narrators' commentaries of the heroic epic are assimilated by the audience, which is
thirsty for the epic truth, which participates in the fate of the Kosovo
heroes, and finally achieves an emotional unity with the bard.
Improvisation in oral poetry is a matter of delivery, and each performance has il to some degree, reflecting a combination of the listeners' demands and the bards' subjective interpretations of tragic
events. The bards are therefore not only vehicles of the enjoyment
of the adventure, but they convey some of the ethos of the heroic
world. If nothing else, they can use symbolic gestures to enhance
the meaning of the narrative. Listeners for their part are very responsive, but they are not being merely entertained and lake a participatory role, expressing their feelings and reactions lo the epic
singer, encouraging or discouraging him in the course of the narrative to such a degree as to actually shape the final outcome.
The true life of the Kosovo legend can be expressed, as Jauss would
slate, "through the more or less dynamic interrelationship between
question and answer, between problem and solution, which can
stimulate a new understanding and can allow the resumption of the
dialogue between present and pasl." 4 Epic bards and epic audience
are brought together through the collective experience of the Kosovo
events. Both keep moving, the bards in the process of producing
epics poems and the audience in the process of receiving them. One
of the functions of the bard is to reenact the past in such a way that
Tanya Popovic
24
he asks an old question each generation, but is able to int 'rpret and
reformulate that question in such a way that tho listeners will respond with interest. Thus the true meaning of the Kosovo defeat can
be defined as the hermen ulic relation between why lh Sorbs lost
the battle along with their freedom and the answer offered by the
epic songs dealing with it.
First, one has to address the heroic act of Milos Obilic who succeeded in slaying the Turkish Sultan Murad I, hoping desperately
that it would distract the Turkish army from further advances against
Serbian forces. This act, which is historically true, made of Milos
one of the most prominent Serbian epic heroes. Tho audience admired him as a freedom fighter and upholder of tho Christian faith,
elevating him through cathartic identification to a hero. The aesthetic identification pattern was clearly understood by epic bards
(guslars) who either progressed or, if they wore inferior performers,
regressed in the portrayal of the fate of the hero during his encounters with extraordinary events. Reception by the audience passes
through, as Jauss enumerated in his book Aeslhelic Experience and
Literary Hermeneutics, "a sequence of altitudes. Astonishment, admiration, being shaken or touched, sympathetic tears a11d laughter,
or estrangement constitute the scale of such primary levels of aesthetic experience which the performance.. .brings with it." 5
Milos Obilic symbolized the resistance of a people against foreign
aggression and the epic audience derived pleasure from the epic
events in which Milos was the main participant. Analysis of the
epic songs about Milos yields many opinions about the bard-audience relationship and also holds the key to the essential question
why the Serbs were defeated al the Kosovo Battle. One of the most
obvious reasons, true to historical fact, was that the Turkish army
was militarily superior. The spy interrogated by Milos Obilic about
the strength of the Turkish army in a fragment song "Kosancic and
Milos," informs us in impressive metaphor:
I have spied upon the Turkish army and a mighty army
came from Turkey. Were we grains of salt instead of
warriors Yet we could not salt lhal army's dinner.
The other, also very relevant reason for the defeat, is represented in
the epic songs by the disunity, mistrust, betrayal and deception of
Tanya Popovic
25
the gentry around Prince Lazar. In the song "The Banquet on the
Eve of the Battle" Milos Obilic was slandered by invidious co urtiers,
and Prince Lazar, who gave a toast honouring each lord, called Milos
a great warrior, friend and traitor:
Milos Obilic, I drink to thee now, To thy health, oh
Milos, friend and traitor! Friend at first, but at the last
a traitor. When the battle rages fierce tomorrow Thou
wilt then betray me on Kosovo.
Catharsis is achieved by generations reacting with justified anger
and furor together with their hero to denounce the epic traitor Vuk
Brankovic and pledge to slay Sultan Murad I. The epic bards reflect
with naive vengeance about what Milos will do after the victory
with then captive traitor:
Bind him to my battle-lance! Yea, tie him As a woman
lies hemp to her distaff, And I'll drag him with me to
Kosovo.
The influence of the Church is felt in the Kosovo songs, and description of Prince Lazar's dinner before the Battle has parallelisms
with th e Last Supper of Christ. Here we find that the answer to the
question why the Serbian people were defeated at the Kosovo Battle
is allribuled to a free choice made by Prince Lazar himself. In the
song "The Fall of the Serbian Empire" Prince Lazar selected a heavenly kingdom instead of an earthly kingdom. The reasoning given
by the bards is:
If I now should choose an earthly kingdom , Lo, an earthly
kingdom is but fleeting, But ad's kingdom shall endure for ever.
This answer to the main question was most rewarding under the
circumstances. It was nurtured by faith, fervent patriotism and the
national pride of the Serbian people who compensated for their defeat by investing it with moral justification through songs about how
their Emperor, interchangeably called Prince Lazar, voluntarily chose
the heavenly kingdom. Identification of the bards and audiences
Tanya Popovic
26
with their Emperor and his submission to the will of od, made
them free again. 0 Their creativity io recili ng th e her i exploi ls of
the Kosovo warriors was boundless. Contemporary li st ners displayed und rstanding, reception, inlcrprolation and r no lion of the
tragic poems in a Serbian Iliad of Kosovo. The bards' narration was
for the Lime being the only relic of a great past, guaranteeing through
epic objectivity historical validity as well. Later listeners p r eived
the past in a process of traditional continuity and bards presented
the Kosovo events of the past in light of contemporary signifi ance.
Bards of each generation invested the individual cv nts with a broad
range of possible meaning. Both the audience's re op tion and the
bards' presentation brought an element of subj liv , current, experience into the picture. So the events at Kosovo b me assJmilated into a variety of contemporary contexts and a •s th ctic and
emotional levels.
It is fascinating to look in detail alan individual Kosovo poem.
Though it deals with the same historical facts, no song in any period
offers to its epic audience the same view. Moving within the convention of traditional oral genre, the Kosovo epic poems w re performed and received always in the same impersonal way, but with
the fine judgment of the narrator who was innuenccd by the action
and participation of his audience. Whether passive or active, an epic
production always involved a question/answer dialogue approach
or, as Jauss staled "to incorporate the open horizon of the future
into the story of the past." 7
Hans Georg Gadamer also dealt with the art of questioning in his
publication Truth and Method which was originally published in
1960 and which represents an important contribution to philosophical hermeneutics. Gadamer's explanation of the logic of the question/answer formal can be very illuminating if it is applied to the
preservation of the past in the Kosovo Battle. I [e says "that a text
handed down from tradition becomes the object of interpretation
means already that it puts a question to the interpreter." 0
In the tapestry of open horizons in the Kosovo epics, the bards
touched upon several themes simultaneously. Thus, as the epic narrator works out the composition of the tragic dignity of the Serbian
warriors in losing freedom in the Kosovo Battle, he also addresses
human relations based on the patriarchal ode of h nor. This is
evident in the song "Banovic Strahinja" which epitomizes the hon-
Tanya Popovic
27
orable attitude of the Serbs toward their enemies. Vojislav Djuric
characterizes Banovic Strahinja in Anlologija narodnih junackih pesama as a paradigm of people's avenger and at the same time of
human generosity. 9
The epic audience sympathized with Banovic Strahinja and even
had understanding for the old Turkish Dervish because they were
all increasingly involved in a dramatic play. The stage was set by
epic bards to be on the eve of the Kosovo Battle. The might of Turkish army is displayed in an impressive manner. Hatred for the enemy
is evident but for the lime being is put aside in order to give momentum to the bard. He depicts a unique scene in which the participants, Banovic Strahinja and the old Dervish, extol word of honor
as a higher value than the enmity between them. The epic audience
was gratified to witness manifestation of noble human reactions between the enemies which overruled, but for only a moment, their
respective roles in the Kosovo Battle.
In a dialogue between the bard and the audience, a given word of
honor was the answer and solution for questions and problems related to the Kosovo Battle. At this point, the above epic song enters
into a changing horizon of experience, and epic bards bind together
Banovic Strahinja and the old Dervish in a friendship stronger then
their respective religious, family , ethnic and military ties. Authors
of the six hundred years aimiversary publication Kosovo in Conscience and Inspiration of the Serbian People, evaluate this epic song
and masterfully deal with the hatred for a foreign oppressor and the
moral dilemmas of the individuals. 10 The old Dervish complains
about his Turkish compatriots:
Now wilh riches gone, there are friends no more!
He pledges to Banovic Strahinja:
Yet my word is harder than rock;
and admires him in the following verses:
To both, your steed and to your bravery, River fords
wait to whatever place you come.
28
Tanya Popovic
The message of Kosovo poems, the interpretation of the events by
bards and the acknowledgement of the illiterate audience and their
response fit into a collective understanding of a world above which
hovered the unfulfilled ideal of freedom. The Kosovo logond generally was equated with freedom and heroism, but epic bards, often
blind guslars, did not narrow down an epic song to a specific historic moment but instead carried it over through centuries. This
process enabled them to give several i nterpretalions to historical
events of the Kosovo Battle using it as a symbol of patriotism.
For this reason, the Kosovo theme appears not only in the Kosovo
cycle of epic songs, but also in the epic poetry of later periods. It is
a reminder of military defeat and even more a chall enge to achieve
national freedom. Thus Kosovo tragedy comes into sight as a reneelion in the nineteenth century song "Beginning of the Revolt against
the Dahijas." The year is 1804 and Serbian people (royah) cannot
endure any further Turkish terror. Epic bards evoke tho popular
belief that an innocent victim has to be avenged:
because blood has boiled up out of the earth. n
It is obvious that the Serbian people are this victim, that omens
are favorable and that lime for rebellion is ripe. Above all epic bards
draw a mythical strength from the lost Kosovo Balli and the epic
audience is more than willing to enter the uprising. They are in
ecstasy.
Comparing the Kosovo heroes, among whom s me were historical
and others fictional characters, Milos Obilic was the most significant
and won his place in the whole South Slavic epic poetr}. 12 This
was confirmed by Benedikt Kuripesic, who collected in the sixteenth century much material about Milos while traveling through
the Kosovo region and published it in his Putopis kroz J3osnu, Srbiju,
Bugarsku i Rumelij u.
13
Another South Slavic epic h ero whose impact needs lo be mentioned is Prince Marko (Kroljevit Marko) who stands next to Milos
Obilic. Kraljevic Marko historically did not participate in the Kosovo
Battle and his heroic achievements are not comparable to Milos
Obilic's in a hierarchy of epic values; nevertheless, he became one
of the most popular epic heroes in Serbia and the Balkans. Collective
identification patterns with Milos Obilic versus Kraljcvic Marko are
Tanya Popovic
29
worked out in the interplay of history and legend in the South Slavic
epic poetry. 14 If it is assumed that chronicle-songs were created
spontaneously at approximately the same time that historical events
took place, 15 it is understandable that admiration for Milos Obilic
who slew the Sultan was not very popular at the beginning of the
Turkish rule. It was safer for epic bards to sing about Kraljevic Marko
who became a Turkish vassal,1 6
While a basic question for Milos Obilic was how to die in the
glory of the Kosovo epic myth, for Kraljevic Marko, however, epic
bards opened the question not how to be killed but how to survive:
The primary difference is that Milos is surrounded by
the tragedy of impending destruction and annihilation,
while Marko after such a catastrophe faces an almost
ludicrous situation, that 'what never happens, somehow still may happen'. This means that two separate
myths about two different heroes are intertwined. It is
unthinkable to visualize Milos as a vassal or a slave,
since he faces an enemy to kill and be killed. On the
other hand the vassalage is accepted in songs about
Marko as an essential realistic ambient and, consequently, as a fundamental conceivable challenge ...
Marko is the most outstanding protagonist of humor in
Vuk's epics. One could say that destinies of Milos and
Marko epitomize two mythical antipodes of human
predicament and prospects, two antipodes of the Serbian history, and, consequently, two opposing pivots
of how to value and cherish life. 17
If Marko Kraljevic was not a participant in the Kosovo Ballle in
the mainstream of epic poetry, the epic bards found a way to involve
him in such other songs as "The Death of Prince Marko", in Vuk 6,
No. 28. In my book Prince Mm*o : The Hero of SouLh Slavic Epics
it is said that epic song:
merged th e legendary Battle of Kosovo Field with the
myth of Kraljevic Marko as the two single greatest pillars in the epic history of the South Slavs. Poetic license was liberally applied lo correct the embarrassment
Tanya Popovic
30
of Kraljevic Marko's historical absence from the great
battle in which the finest sons of the S rbion nation
were lost. Ultimately, however, Kraljevic Marko took
his place alongside them and, according to a few songs,
died a heroic death. As a symbol of their aspiration for
freedom, the poet had Kraljevic Marko buried at Kosovo, the place where freedom had b n lost. 10
After six hundred years the tragic battle of Kosovo, or lh Plain
of Blackbirds, has remained one of the most extoll d epic ev nts in
the Balkans. According to the epic bards, Milos Obilic unavoidably
exemplified a tragic martyr-type hero who sacrificed himself for his
people. In addition to him, the South Slavic peopl s n d d another
type of hero - Kraljevic Marko - to sustain thorn throughout the
centuries of slavery that followed the defeat as a kind or apotheosis
of life itself. 19
Le Moyno College
'Tanya Popovic, Prince Ma1*o : The Hero of South Slavic l:.pics (Syra use: Syracuse
University Press, 1988), pp. 29-30.
'Vladimir Corovic, Istorija Jugoslavije (Beograd: Narodno Dolo, 1932) , p. 196.
3 Popovic, op. cit., p. 29.
•Hans Robert )auss , Toward an Aesthetic of Reception (Minneapoli : University of
Minnesota Press, 1982), p. 70.
•Jauss, Aesthetic Experience and LiterOiy Hermeneutics (Minneapolis: Un ivers ity
of Minnesota Press, 1982), p. 153.
"Remnants of pagan cult of human sacrifice found th eir way from mythological
heritage into the Kosovo epics. The motif of sacrifice was modified in its evolution.
Instead of serving pagan gods, in the Kosovo epics it was tran form d by Prince
Lazar's submission to the will of one Christian God . Cf Vladimir )ovitic, Milorad
Petrovic, Olja Jovicic, Kosovo u svesti i nadahnucu SI]Jskoga naroda (Sabac: Glas
Podrinja; Beograd : Nova knjiga, 1988). pp. 286-93.
7 )auss, Toward an Aesthetic of Reception, p . 61.
•Hans Georg Gada mer, Truth and Method (Now York: Seabury Pross, 1975), p. 333.
0 Vojislav Djuric, Antologija narodnih junackih pesama (Beograd:
rpska knjizevna
zadruga, 1969) , pp . 47-49.
'"Jovicic, op. cit. , pp. 250-251.
"Vida Latkovic, "Bcle~ke i obja~njenja," in: Vuk KaradZic. Srpske narodno pjesme.
Vol. 4, edited by Radomir Aleksic, Nikola Bana~evic, Vojislav Djuric nd Vido Latkovic. (Beograd: Prosveta, 1958). p. 522.
Tanya Popovic
31
" in his book about Prince Lazar Hrebljanovic, the historian llarion Ruvarac states
that all historical so urces dating from before the beginning of the second half of th e
eighteenth century referred to Milos as Kobilic or Kobilovic. It was not until 1754
that Vasilije Petrovic in his History of Montenegro used tbe name "Obiljevic" for the
first time. In 1765 Pavle )ulinac referred to Milos as "Obilic," in a book on Serbian
history. The two names, Obiljevic and Obilic, suggested a person who is abundant
with many good things. In Dragutin Subotic, Yugoslavia Popular Ballads (Cambridge:
University Press, 1932), p. 88.
nBenedikt Kuripesic, Putopis kroz Bosnu, Serbiju , Bugarsku i Rumeliju 1530 (Sarajevo, 1950), p. 30-37.
''Popovic, op. cit., p. 26.
' "Ibid., p. 33.
'"Andre Vaillant's article in Les Chants epiques des Slaves du Sud (Revue des
Courts et Conj(mnces, 1932).
"Jovicic, op. cit., p. 272.
16 Popovic, op. cit., p. 178.
'"Several scholars attempted to answer for Kraljevic Marko's ex traordinary popularity in the South Slavic epics. For this topic see the following: Vuk Stefanovic
Karadzic, Narodna srbska pjesnorica (Vienna: Pecatna Joanna Shnirera, 1815), p. 95.
Torno Maretic, "Kosovski junaci i dogadjaji u narodnoj epici", Rod jugoslovenske
akodemije znanosti i umjetnosti, 97, no. 26 (1889): 69-181, esp. 72. Sreten Stojkovic,
Kraljevi{; Marko: Jiterarno istraiivanje uzroko njegove sla ve i populornosti u srpskom
narodu (Beograd: Drzavna Stamparija Kraljevine Srbije, 1907), p. 9. Vladimir Corovic,
"Kraljevic Marko u srpskim narodnim pripovijetkama", Srpski knjiievni glasnik, 22,
no. 1 (Jan. 1909): 44-48, Mikhail Khalanskii, Iu zhno-slavianskiia skaza niio o Kroleviche Morke (Varshava: Tipografiia Varshavskago Uchebnago Okruga, 1894), p. 15859. Dragutin Kostic, "Starost narodnog epskog pesniStva naseg", ju inoslovenski filolog 12 (1933): 45. Nikola Banasevic, Ciklus Marko Kraljevica i odjeci froncuskoitolijonske viteske knjiievnosti (Skoplje: Skopsko naucno drustvo, 1935), pp. 16-18,
18-37 passim.