Serbian epic poetry 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 ...

, 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 of Kosovo in 1389. According to folk songs, he was born in the Toplica region and was a sworn brother (in Serbian: побратим / ''pobratim'') to

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, and had before the battle promised himself to a girl, the

Kosovo Maiden The Kosovo Maiden or Maiden of the Blackbird Field ( sr, Косовка девојка / ) is the central figure of a poem with the same name, part of the Kosovo cycle in the Serbian epic poetry. In it, a young beauty searches the battlefield for ...

. After the battle, she found

Pavle Orlović Pavle Orlović ( sr-cyr, Павле Орловић) is a semi-mythological hero of the Kosovo cycle of Serbian epic poetry; he was a Serbian knight, one of the military commanders under Prince Lazar that fell at the Battle of Kosovo (1389) again ...

and heard about the fate of Milan and his sworn brothers, according to a Serbian epic poem recorded and published in the early 19th century by

Vuk Karadžić Vuk Stefanović Karadžić ( sr-Cyrl, Вук Стефановић Караџић, ; 6 November 1787 (26 October OS)7 February 1864) was a Serbian philologist, anthropologist and linguist. He was one of the most important reformers of the moder ...

. Honours and titles attributed to him, differ from area to area, with the folk songs recorded by Karadžić calling him a duke. In the cycle of Marko Kraljević he is known to hold the title of bajraktar, while Obilić is a vojvode and Kosančić a ''privenac''. In folklore, the character is usually portrayed as an expert marksman and the most skilled archer in the army of Prince Lazar, thus he is often visually depicted as carrying a bow and arrows. He is also often characterised as being exceptionally tall. In Kosovo mythos, his character is modeled after the historical group of 12 unnamed Christian knights who penetrated the Turkish camp and killed the Ottoman sultan. Some legends depict him as a knight who entered the Murad's tent along with Obilić, thus participating in the slaughter of the sultans suite amidst the shock of the assassination. Others portray him as standing guard outside the tent along with Kosančić. In the aftermath, the trio attempts to escape in vain, wreaking havoc among the Turkish forces in the process. Toplica is so mighty that along the path where he forces his way ''...a chariot can pass afterwards''. However, he is the first of the three to fall to the enemy blades. Medieval Berkovac, near

Valjevo Valjevo (Serbian Cyrillic: Ваљево, ) is a city and the administrative center of the Kolubara District in western Serbia. According to the 2011 census, the administrative area of Valjevo had 90,312 inhabitants, 59,073 of whom were urban dwell ...

, is commonly called ''Zamak Toplice Milana'' ( sr-Cyrl, Замак Топлице Милана). The Topličin Venac Crescent in Belgrade is named after Milan Toplica.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Toplica, Milan Serbian knights Characters in Serbian epic poetry

See also

References