THE KOSOVO COVENANT AND THE SERBS’ NATIONAL IDENTITY
THE KOSOVO COVENANT AND THE SERBS’ NATIONAL IDENTITY

Summary/Abstract: For more than six hundred years, Serbs have been singing songs and telling tales about the battle at Kosovo Polje. The search for the truth about the Kosovo tragedy and its deeper meaning began almost the day after the two armies left the field of battle. Unusually durable and vital, the stories of the battle of Kosovo have, by changing their shape through cults and prayers, heroic poems, literature and art, scientific research, and political slogans, for centuries inspired people in making fateful decisions. They have also been called the Kosovo Covenant, the Kosovo Cult, the Kosovo Commitment, the Kosovo Myth, the Kosovo Legend, Vidovdan (St. Vitus Day) Idea, Vidovdan Cult, Vidovdan Ethics. What is the secret of durability of Kosovo lore? What and how much influence does it have on the Serbs’ national consciousness? Thus posed questions do not require hasty answers. Let us, therefore, map out the routes and set signposts for future research.

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