Гором језди будимски Бешлага
Gorom jezdi budimski Bešlaga

Modification of Epic Singing about the Unfaithful Lover

Summary/Abstract: The analysis is based on a circle of variants with the topic of the unfaithful wife who betrays the husband by siding with haiduks (Disloyalty of Popović Stojan’s Lover – Nevjera ljube Popović Stojana) and a transcript of a song structured after the same pattern, noted in 2011 by Hadžera Sarač from Gradiška (born in 1937). The given summary model, very popular and present in the entire Yugoslav space, is recognized by the motive of singing through the mountain, so besides the classic heroic motivation of a clash on the basis of a conflict among the characters we can also identify the breaking of the taboo of violating silence in the mountain, more specifically combined with the taboo of singing amiss (during the night). The song is based on an extremely complex system of codes: spatial (representations of a mountain as a dangerous, chthonic, impure place), mythical (representations of chthonic beings and their correlation with space), historical (a historical and epic role of haiduks), social (codification of family relations and a heroic ethos). The variant of Hadžera Sarač differs from more traditional versions in its conciseness and the introduction of atypical details (the motive of separated lovers), which opens up a space for following genre modifications and the destruction of the epic code. The genre status of the song and the relationship of the singer and tradition are seen in precious autoreferential statements (“There used to be heroic songs, sung for a girl”, “it is an old song”, “and that is an ancient song”).

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