South!

by Tanya Popovic

One of the most popular of the south European epic heroes—a counterpart of the French Roland or Spain’s El Cid—Prince Marko has not been well known in America. The historical Marko headed a small kingdom in Macedonia in the fourteenth century. A vassal of the Turkish sultans, he was a relatively minor historical figure. Yet in the oral tradition he was transmuted into a figure of legend, the great hero who protected the South Slavic people from injustice and oppression. In Prince Marko, Popovic