Фольклор в сербской исторической литературе Средневековья

Abstract

The article is devoted to the reflection of folk stories in the Serbian historical literature of the Middle Ages. We focus on the reflection of folklore in the early historical monuments, historical vitae, and, in the first place, in the genealogies and annals of the late Middle Ages. These monuments had reflected the folk stories which were recorded by folklorists of modern age. Among them are the epic tales of Janko Sibinyanin and of the Battle of Kosovo. Our special attention was paid to the reflection of the epic tales of Kosovo cycle in the annals and genealogies of 15 th -17 th centuries. The two main components of the epic story of the battle were the feat of Milos Kobilic who killed Turkish sultan Murat, and the treason of Vuk Brankovic, the son-in-law of Serbian Prince Lazar’ who was killed in the battle. The article shows that the notion of the late occurrence of stories about Milos the assassin has indeed been confirmed by a study of Serbian historical works. At the same time, Milos might have had a homonymous historical prototype — the Serb who allegedly had killed Sultan Musa after the Battle of Maritsa in 1413. A mention of this person in the Serbian Junior chronicle of the First type, basically going back to 1453, was replaced in the 16 th century Niko’lski copy with the name of Milos as the assassin of Murat. The tale of Vuk Brankovic’s treason was less popular in 16 th and 17 th century Serbian chronicles, which can be attributed to his status as the progenitor of the highly esteemed Brankovic dynasty. Political factors could have also affected the earlier silencing of the names of those who betrayed Lazar’ in the Kosovo battle. In all early monuments they remain anonymous; the act of treason is, however, mentioned every time. The question thus remains open, and folklore mentions can be used in the search for potential solutions.