The Legacy of Serbian Heroes

Many words will be written here today about the most beautiful na-
tional songs praising the chosen Serbian heroes in their best of ende-
avors and momentums; with their swords and deeds they left behind
the legacy to their children and resurrected those days and nights of
our history once more. Entangling the hank of time in front of the
reader, we will travel from the period of tsar Dusan to the first Serbian
uprising and Karadjordje.
Serbian national poets and storytellers created work of timeless
value at the sole peak of spoken literature. among them, and alongside
with fairytales, are the most beautiful heroic poems. Enslaved after
the Battle of Kosovo, centuries under the Turks suffering from low
morale and poor physical subsistence, cut off from any literature and
in order to retain at least parts of it, the Serbian nation started shaping
its history into heroic poetry. It had been remarked long time ago that
these poems can serve as historical documents. During the times of
Serbian uprisings, at the beginning of the XIX century, many chroni-
cles describing characters and occurrences were created.
The Memoirs of Prota Mateja nenadovic and the manuscripts of
Vuk Karadzic on Serbian warfare on the Dahias coincide with the poem
of filip Visnjic The Beginning of the Revolt Against the Dahijas. This is
how the national poet imagined his heroes: they are, just as historical
events often prove, an aspect of the best collective characteristics and
patriotic ideals. They sailed out from national imagination that, after
all, had a stronghold life, to give spiritual protection for people and set
an example of power and consolation that were forbidden. Some of tho-
se heroes are real historical figures – just like duke Momcilo, Starina
novak, Stojan Jankovic, Ilija Bircanin, Karadjordje.
There always had been and still exist to this day, those who think
with defiance about our, as they call it, “decasyllabic history.” This was
caused either by ignorance or by poor belief that justice and truth, be-
auty and heroism cannot go side by side. neither is good enough beca-
use knowledge can be acquired and poor belief can be changed. obvi-
ously, to those people it seems as if ideals presented in our national he-
roic poetry are set too high and thus cannot be reached by an ordi-
nary person. “one who is born to crawl – cannot fly!” Since there is an
undeniable difference between an aesculapian snake and a falcon, it is
proven that the size of one nation is measured by the height of its ideals.
and what are these Serbian heroes like, these Serbian falcons, as
most commonly described by any national poet? They are beautiful
and proud, courageous and compassionate, wise and ethical. They are
of great physical and spiritual strength, guardians of high moral prin-
ciples, loyal to their orthodox faith, homeland, and their people. In
life and in death, they are their own pinnacles. They struggle mightily
all their life against the enemies, for freedom, for justice, for those who
are weaker. and even when they die, they stay victorious taking count-
less enemies with them. In life, in death and after it, they stay an epit-
ome of behavior for all of us.
all of our best heroes are always lonely. This shows that the poet whi-
le trying to elevate the importance of the heroes was still portraying
them as regular human beings. Milos obilic, the greatest Serbian kni-
ght without fear and shortcomings, had only two companions: Ivan
Kosancic and Milan Toplica; they all fell in decisive battle of Kosovo.
Marko Kraljevic, the greatest of Serbian heroes, usually rides alone,
fights alone, and trusts in no one but his horse Sarac. In the Turkish
army of Kosovo, Banovic Strahinja is only followed by his hound Ka-
raman. Duke Dojcina had no companion when he got deathly sick
after his duel with the arab known for taking away from Serbs not
only their gold but their honour as well. Starina novak, our most fa-
mous haiduk, surrounded himself only with closest members of his
family: sons grujica and Tatomir and his brother radivoj. Stojan Jan-
kovic also fights alone; meanwhile Tadija Senjanin has two reliable
friends by his side… When one of our heroes is surrounded by trusted
company during the time of his extraordinary achievement, it usually
consists of not more than one or two brothers or closest friends (some-
times referred to as “brothers in bond”).
This loneliness symbolizes the Serbian people left with no real help,
no real friends, under the brutal Turkish occupation (which eventually
was dissolved during the seemingly calm period in Europe that lasted
until 1912) and also at the time when they were surrounded by other,
older opponents, which are also remembered as “the latins, the old
deceivers.”
There are little of us, but there are many Hungarians…
However, the poet living through difficult times, in the name of the
people felt deeply about the ancient Serbian disunity that has brought
to us all the evils of this world, as well as feeling of loneliness to our
homes.
There is a British folk legend about King arthur and forty knights
falling into a magical sleep in the cave hidden from the human eyes.
Whenever Britain is endangered, they will awaken and stand in her
defense, beating every enemy. The message here is the same as in our
legend of Marko Kraljevic who also fell into magical sleep in his cave.
Prior to that he gave some hay to his Sarac and thrust his sword into
the rock, so that blood from it drips into the cup. When Sarac eats all
of the hay, when the cup is filled with blood and the sword comes out
of the rock, the Serbs will be in frantic danger and Marko will awaken
once more to go and save them. In our country, we only have one great
hero, a lonely rescuer – in their country there are forty great heroes, an
army of rescuers.
another legend of Marko comes to mind, according to which the
virtues of heroism will be held even more vulnerable and lonely in the
new times. Surrounded by the people with firearms, Marko took the
rifle and accidentally shot the palm of his hand. He said: “now, hero-
ism alone will not save us, because the worst of ignorance can kill the
best of heroes.”
faced with no further perspectives but the hard earth and the un-
reachable sky – the national poet could only lean on spiritual guidance
just like a mythical sculptor Pygmalion, who with the strength of his
talent and desire was able to make his work come to life. It was his pur-
pose as the national poet to express and magnify love; not love for a
woman, but for orthodox faith and fatherland, putting his art to the
harder test of resisting many temptations. for how long did he have to
be in agony, alone and unprotected, the poet or the nation, living in a
large vast of time, creating such giants of solitude and making them
serve as most powerful examples for next generations!
It is only with Karadjordje and with the first Serbian uprising that
people, as a collective character, started to appear in poetry. “People
rise on their feet, same as the grass rises from the earth!” and so it was
in reality:  released from the jaws of five centuries long occupation by
ottoman Empire, the Serbian nation came out of darkness and was
getting ready to rebuild its modern state, which would find ways to
resist any enemy.
To create a portrait of a hero, national poet most often employs two
main techniques: with the painting process, using decasyllabic rhyme
as a brush on the walls prepared for frescoes, he paints an image of a
hero; and with the psychological approach, when the poet gives the
hero personality by using the events and actions in which he places
him. furthermore, he always strives for the physical and the spiritual
descriptions to unite and to have the hero awarded with both inner
and outer beauty. Sometimes the poet spends numerous verses to ac-
complish it, and sometimes he only needs a few to achieve his goal.
Milos Vojinovic, historically known as domestikos or the Domes-
tic of the imperial table of Tsar Dusan, is one of our ancient heroes. In
the poem The Marriage of Dusan where the tsar’s name Stefan is chan-
ged into a more national name “Stjepan,” Vojinovic is his younger ne-
phew, who always shined on the battlefield “as the bright sun shines
behind the mountains.” He exceeds the latins, ie. the Italians, ie. the
Catholics in everything: he beats the detained latin king, he jumps
over three horses with knights carrying three flames of swords, he hits
an apple with an arrow through a ring, among three girls who look
alike he recognizes roksanda who Dusan will later marry, and at last
he slays the monstrous three-headed latin duke Balacki.  He secretly
accomplished all of it at his uncle’s wedding, dressed as a black Bulgar-
ian, in order to preserve the reputation of the tsar and the empire, and
to confirm one of the basic principles of the legacy:
It is difficult for everyone, everywhere, without their own compatriots!
Duke Momcilo, who rides a horse with wings named Jabucilo, and
who can fly wherever he wants, swings his sword using nothing but
the power of his mind. He is not afraid of anyone but god. He repre-
sents a hero from pre-Kosovo era as well as a historical figure of four-