The Kosovo Maiden or Maiden of the

Blackbird Field Blackbird, blackbirds, black bird or black birds may refer to: Birds Two groups of birds in the parvorder Passerida: * New World blackbirds, family Icteridae * Old World blackbirds, any of several species belonging to the genus ''Turdus'' in the ...

( sr, Косовка девојка / ) is the central figure of a poem with the same name, part of the

Kosovo cycle Serbian epic poetry ( sr, Српске епске народне песме, Srpske epske narodne pesme) is a form of epic poetry created by Serbs originating in today's Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia. The ...

in the Serbian epic poetry. In it, a young beauty searches the battlefield for her betrothed fiancé and helps wounded Serbian warriors with water, wine and bread after the

Battle of Kosovo The Battle of Kosovo ( tr, Kosova Savaşı; sr, Косовска битка) took place on 15 June 1389 between an army led by the Serbian Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović and an invading army of the Ottoman Empire under the command of Sultan ...

in 1389 between Serbia and the Ottoman Empire. She finally finds the wounded and dying warrior Pavle Orlović who tells her that her fiancé

Milan Toplica In Serbian epic poetry, Toplica Milan ( sr-Cyrl, Топлица Милан; or Milan Toplica, sr-Cyrl, link=no, Милан Топлица), also known as Milan from Toplica ( sr, / ), was a Serbian knight who died during the historical Battle o ...

and his blood-brothers

Miloš Obilić Miloš Obilić ( sr-cyr, Милош Обилић, ) was a legendary Serbian knight who is reputed to have been in the service of Prince Lazar during the Ottoman invasion of Serbia in the late 14th century. He is not mentioned in contemporary sou ...

and

Ivan Kosančić Ivan Kosančić ( sr-cyr, Иван Косанчић) was a Serbian knight who died during the historical Battle of Kosovo in 1389. Biography He was born in the upper Toplica region (south Serbia)- mountain Radan, near the town of Kuršumlija ...

are dead. Before the battle they had given her a cloak, golden ring and veil for the wedding as a promise of safe return, but they were slain and Pavle pointed to the direction of the bodies. The poem finishes with;

"O wretch! Evil is your fortune!
If I, a wretch, were to grasp a green pine,
Even the green pine would wither."

The poem became very popular as a symbol of womanly

compassion Compassion motivates people to go out of their way to relieve the physical, mental or emotional pains of others and themselves. Compassion is often regarded as being sensitive to the emotional aspects of the suffering of others. When based on n ...

and charity. Serbian painter Uroš Predić took up the theme in 1919 with an oil painting of the same title. In 1907, Croatian sculptor Ivan Meštrović created a marble relief of the subject as a part of his

. Another Croatian artist, painter

Mirko Rački Mirko Rački (13 October 1879 – 21 August 1982) was a Croatian painter. Rački was born in Novi Marof, and graduated from the Teacher's Academy in Zagreb. He then went to the private art school of Heinrich Strehblow in Vienna, then studied at t ...

, painted a version of Kosovo Maiden.

External links

''The Maiden of Kossovo'', Songs from Kosovo cycle
{{Authority control Serbian culture Serbian literature National personifications National symbols of Serbia Characters in Serbian epic poetry Serb culture Cultural depictions of Serbian women Feminism in Serbia

See also

External links