History and Effects of the Kosovo Polje Mythology

The mythology surrounding the 1389 Battle of Kosovo Polje, in present-day Serbia, is the foundation for the Serbian cultural identity and is a prism through which Serbs view and interpret the past, present, future. The mythology, created out of necessity to cope with Ottoman conquest and the hardships of peasant life, began with early eulogies to the Serbian knights who were defeated on the Kosovo plain. It evolved through oral folklore tradition, epic poetry, and literature while being preserved and cultivated by the Serbian Orthodox Church. Epic themes of Serbian religious sacrifice, heroism, martyrdom, and struggle combined with victimhood, betrayal, and revenge provide the foundation of the mythology. Heroic and villainous characters evolved to dramatize the story from the deified Serbian Prince Lazar and warrior-hero Milos to the traitorous Vuk Brankovic and the occupying Ottoman Turk. The effects of the epic mythology range from simple first-order effects such as individual beliefs to second and third order effects such as cultural mobilization, nationalist political action, and justification for war. The study of the Kosovo Polje mythology provides a lesson in the strength of symbolic cultural beliefs, whether fact or fiction, and the importance of understanding the history of those beliefs.