To honour the female: the gendering of the South Slavic epic tradition

Folklore, Oct, 2002 by Elka Agoston-Nikolova

A similar development has taken place in the Dalmatian oral tradition (see versions in DAL). Here, too, the hero may be portrayed as a drunkard or an adulterer. In song number 22 from this collection, which was taken down from a female singer, the hero has to be hidden in a linen chest when the woman's husband comes home, and instead of facing the man he has wronged in honest battle, the hero flees ignominiously. Interestingly, this variant was not taken down in the last century, as one might suppose in the light of the "weakening" of the epic form and the introduction of novelistic elements, but as early as 1886.

Another factor is that, as the heroic male diminishes, the women grow to fill the gap. This is particularly clear in the later "hajduk" songs, which not only demythologise the male, but allow for a heroic spirit in women. These songs about "hajduti" (initially robbers and outlaws, latterly resistance-fighters) are broadly in the epic tradition, but also introduce some new and realistic elements. The adversary, although ethnically the same, is "Other" in that he/she breaks with the code of the patriarchal family. In this brotherhood of the forest, revolutionary changes are possible. A woman may prove to be stronger than a man, to be able to shoot more accurately and to become the leader of the band (MIL, no. 212; SAPK, nos. 408, 429; TREM nos. 144-6). The song collected by the brothers Miladinovi depicting the female leader Sirma Vojvodka is accompanied by a note from the collector, who had spoken to Sirma (an old woman of 80 years at the time); she still kept her pistols under a cushion and her sabres hung on the wall (collector's note under No. 212, MIL).

In this respect, these female personages continue an old South Slavic tradition--that of archaic female fighters, the vila, samovila, Arkatka devojka, the mythic female spirits who fight and win many a battle. It is this archaic fighting female who is reflected in versions of the epic where the wife fights alongside her husband against his mortal foe. Radost Ivanova sees this actively fighting wife as a continuation of the "wedding battle between bride and groom," as portrayed in the heroic wedding songs. For within the wedding ritual, the bride is "foreign" to the husband's family, in a sense allied to the "Other." Out of this archaic layer, in later times with the development of novelistic tendencies in the Bulgarian epic narrative, Ivanova argues, the wife will be portrayed in a realistic, and sensational, way (Ivanova 1992, 162). In contrast, F Badalanova-Pokrovska takes a symbolist stance and argues that, as towns are seen as female, bride or whore, the wife's betrayal of her husband in the epics is synonymous with the town's betrayal of the hero by shutting the gates against him (Badalanova-Pokrovska 1995, 153).

Kuzman Shapkarev took down an unusual hajduk leader song from one of his best female singers, Dostana Stoeva. The song tells of the maiden Grozdena, who for seven years has led her troop of seventy-seven hajduti with great success. But she marries and leaves the forest, and her brother takes her place. He, however, is not so successful, and one night he hears his own men planning to kill him. He sends word to his sister asking her to come to his rescue. Grodzena is pregnant with her second child and her first child is still only a babe in arms but, for love of her brother, she dresses once more in hajduk uniform and sets out for the forest. She finds and divides the hidden loot between the men and sends them happy back to their homes.