The Ballads of Marko Kraljević/Marko Kraljević and the Vila
MARKO KRALJEVIĆ AND THE VILA[1]
Two pobratims rode on the way together,
Over fair Miroč mountain;
Kraljević Marko was the one,
The other was Vojvoda Miloš[2];
Both of them rode on noble steeds,
Both bore their battle-spears,
And each kissed the white face of other
For the love that is between two pobratims.
Sleep drew nigh to Marko as he sat on Sharatz,
And to his pobratim[3] he said:10
"Ah, my brother, Vojvoda Miloš!
Sleep sits heavy on mine eyelids,
Sing to me, brother, and refresh me."
But Vojvoda Miloš made answer:
"Ah, my brother, Kraljević Marko,
Fain would I sing to thee, brother,
But last night I drank much wine
With Vila Ravijojla on the mountain,
And the Vila laid threat upon me,
If she should hear me sing,20
She will shoot me with arrows,
Through throat and living heart."
But Kraljević Marko answered:
"Sing, brother! fear not thou the Vila,
Since I, Marko Kraljević, am beside thee,
With my wonder-horse Sharatz
And my golden mace."
Then Miloš began to sing.
He began a beautiful song.
About all our best and oldest30
Who held the kingdom,
And in Macedonia the fortunate
Raised pious edifices.
The song pleased Marko,
He leaned back on the pommel of the saddle,
He fell on sleep, but Miloš ceased not from singing.
The Vila Ravijojla heard him,
And began to join in the singing;
Miloš sang, the Vila sang against him.
But more beautiful is the voice of Miloš40
More beautiful than the voice of the Vila;
Therefore the Vila Ravijojla was moved to anger.
She leapt down on the Miroč mountain,
She bended her bow and loosed two white arrows;
One arrow smote Miloš in the throat,
The other pierced his heroic heart.
Miloš cried: "Woe is me, my mother!
Ah me, Marko, brother-in-God!
Ah me, brother, the Vila has pierced me with arrows!
Did not I tell thee50
That I might not sing on Miroč mountain?"
Marko roused himself from slumber,
And sprang from his piebald steed.
He pulled tight the girths of good Sharatz,
He embraced his horse Sharatz and kissed him:
"Alas, Sharo[4], thou my right wing!
If thou overtake the Vila Ravijojla,
I shall shoe thee with pure silver,
With pure silver and with beaten gold;
I shall cover thee with silk to the knees,60
And tassels shall hang from thy knees to thy hoofs;
I shall mingle thy mane with gold,
And shall adorn thee with little pearls;
But if thou overtake not the Vila,
I shall put out thy two eyes,
And break all thy four legs,
And thus I shall leave thee
To drag thyself from pine to pine,
Like me, Marko, without my brother."
He leapt upon the back of Sharatz,70
And dashed over Miroč mountain;
The Vila flew to the summit,
Sharatz galloped on the mountain slopes,
Nowhere saw he the Vila nor heard her.
But when at last he espied her,
He bounded into the air three spear-lengths,
Three spear-lengths high and four good spear-lengths forward,
And quickly Sharatz overtook the Vila.
When the Vila perceived her straits,
She flew upwards to the clouds in her distress,80
But Marko drew his mace,
And hurled it strong and ruthless,
He smote the white Vila between the shoulders,
And felled her to the black earth.
Then he began to smite her with the mace,
He turned her to the right and to the left
And beat her with the golden mace.
"Wherefore, Vila—may God smite thee!—
Wherefore didst thou pierce my brother with arrows?
Give healing herbs to this worshipful knight,90
Else dost thou lose thy head!"
The Vila began to call him brother-in-God:
"Brother-in-God, Kraljević Marko!
Brother-in-God-the-Highest, and in Saint John!
Let me go forth alive into the mountain,
That I may pluck herbs on Miroč,
Wherewith to heal the hero's wounds."
And Marko was merciful for God's sake,
His heroic heart was compassionate,99
He suffered the Vila to go forth alive into the mountain,
And the Vila gathered simples for Miloš;
The Vila gathered them, and ever and oft she called:
"I am coming, brother-in-God!"
The Vila gathered simples on Miroč
And healed the wounds of the hero.
More beautiful was now the voice of Miloš,
More beautiful than it had ever been.
And the heart of the knight
Was sounder than ever tofore.
The Vila hied her to the Miroč mountain,110
Marko and his pobratim gat them on their way.
They journeyed even unto Porec.
They forded Timok river,
They came to Bregovo—the great village,
And fared onwards to Widdin.
And thus the Vila spake to her sister Vilas:
"Hearken unto me, ye Vilas,
Loose not your arrows against knights in the mountain.
If ye hear aught of Marko Kraljević,
Or of his magic horse[5], Sharatz,120
Or of his golden mace.
What did not I suffer at his hands!
And hardly might I save myself alive!"
- ↑ Vila: a species of nymph that haunted the wooded mountain-slopes and frequented springs. In Serbian song Vilas are represented as jealous and capricious beings but on the whole not unfriendly to mankind. They are still believed in by the peasants. A man who was in the service of my wife's family in Serbia saw a Vila on several occasions, and was reduced each time to a pitiable state of terror, from which I gather that the kind things said of them may be merely lip-service, an attempt to propitiate; cf. our "good folk."
- ↑ Miloš Obilić.
- ↑ Pobratim, lit. half-brother. When two men, not related, swear everlasting friendship, each becomes pobratim to the other. Formerly this was a very sacred alliance. For a wonderful description of the mystical nature of the bond, see Večnost by Janko Veselinović (Clarendon Press, 1918).
Posestrima is the corresponding feminine form. The vanquished Vila became Marko's "sworn sister." See "Musa the Outlaw," also "Leka's Sister," l. 408. - ↑ An endearing contraction of Šarac.
- ↑ Видовит: it is impossible to translate this word. In his Dictionary Vuk says it is applied to children born with a caul. Such children when they grow up know more than other folk and are able to consort with Vilas. The same curious expression occurs in line 26.