Смъртта на Марко

Studies of songs and legends about the death of Marko have largely concentrated upon narrative motifs (Erzählmotiven) rather than on single elements, seemingly ordinary items such as water, tree, stone, weapon, horse. The analysis of these latter when their position in folk beliefs is also borne in mind makes it possible to establish the mythological substance of these songs and legends. The historical personality of Marko Kralevich is involved into an older mythological relationship of things and the basic idea is the one of the ruler as a mediator between this world and the other world. This idea determines the supernatural qualities and origin of the ruler. The same qualities are attributed also to his weapon and his horse – they are acquired from the other world and returned to it by his death. The functions of water and stone are determined by their mythological semantics: water as a bound between the two worlds and associated with both life and death, and stone as essentially chthonic.