Page:The Ballads of Marko Kraljević.djvu/30



has very little to say concerning Marko. The facts can be stated in a few words. He was the son of Vukašin, King of Prilep, hence the appellation Kraljević, or King's son, by which he is universally known.

In 1371, Vukašin and his brother Uglješ, as members of a very loose species of Balkan League, made an attempt to repel the Turkish invaders. But the Turks surprised and routed the Serbian army at Tchermen on the Marica, and Vukašin was drowned in the river along with thousands of his men. Marko succeeded his father as King of Prilep but the Ottoman pressure was irresistible, and in order, presumably, to retain his lands and local authority, Marko went over to the service of the Turk (1385). One of the Serbian MSS. in the Khludov collection at Moscow says that Marko was married in this town to Helen, daughter of the Vojvod Chlapen. There is no record of his having been present at the battle of Kossovo, although it is probable that he did play some part in the struggle. He was killed, according to tradition, at the battle of Rovina in 1394, while fighting for the army of the Sultan Bajazet against the Roumanians.

That is practically all the information we have and there is no body or substance in it. Yet every Serb knows and loves Marko, and reveres him as the greatest hero of the race. It is the traditional poetry that has wrought this marvel, that has atoned for the silence of history, that has endowed Kraljević with a robust vitality. Without it the great Marko would have been but the shadow of a shade.

Before dealing with the epic ballads wherein the exploits of