The Kosovo battle between historical sources and epic legend

• Main Author: Pitulić Valentina D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Faculty of Philosophy, Kosovska Mitrovica 2012-01-01
• Series: Zbornik Radova Filozofskog Fakulteta u Prištini
• Subjects: the battle of Kosovo; history; epic biography; Serbs; Turks; Milos Obilic; Lazar of Serbia; sultan Murad
• Online Access: http://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0354-3293/2012/0354-32931202099P.pdf

This paper is concerned with the Byzantine, Turkish and Serbian sources of the Kosovo Battle. As this battle was a turning point in the consciousness of the Serbian people, it is, as a historical fact, transposed into the oral legend, where it was shaped according to the laws of oral narrative. Using an interdisciplinary method, we follow the course of the Kosovo Battle on the corpus of Vuk's writings, as well as the writings after him, trying to show that the themes are recurring. Certain changes in the epic legend can be attributed to the ethno-psychological moment as well as to the historical circumstances which led to a greater or lesser use of particular motifs. .