Illustration of Serbian epic poem "Death of Prince Marko" by Jurij Šubić. It shows the scene from the poem when a monk from Vilindar (modern day Hilandar monastery on Mount Athos in what is today Greece) discovers Marko's body lying under the two fir trees next to a well. In this poem, the most famous hero of our epic poetry cycles (and actual historical ruler of what is today south Serbia and North Macedonia) "who cannot be killed any hero or beast" is told by his Fairy Godmother (elf like beings) that he will die that day "from the hand of God, the old 'krvnik'" (slayer, executioner, murderer). At first, Marko doesn't believes her, but then she tells him to go to the top of Urvine mountain where he will see "two fir trees so tall they are touching the sky" and a well standing between them and if he looks into the well, he will see when will he die. Marko did this, and he saw that he was indeed going to die that day after "short three hundred years on this earth..." What he did next is interesting:
"Then Marko pulled out his sabre,
And with his sabre cutt off the head of horse Sharatz,
That never he should fall into the hands of Turks,
Nor ever be a slave to them...
And when Marko had slain Sharatz,
He buried him better than his brother Andrew,
In four pieces then he broke his sharp sabre.
Lest the Turks should boast they've taken it of Marko,
And after Marko broke his sharp sabre,
He broke his war spear in seven pieces,
Then Marko took his ribbed mace,
And cast it from Urvina mountain,
Into the great grey sea;
And he said:
'When my mace shall come up out of the sea,
Another Marko shall appear upon earth!'
And having destroyed his weapons,
Marko wrote his will, layed down and died..."
In here we can notice several motifs. First is ritual killing of swords and spears practices by various peoples like Celts and Germanics.
And second, the common motif of "King in the Mountains". Same myth is also connected with German king Friedrich Barbarossa and Lusatian Serb pagan duke Miliduch who died fighting against Charles the Younger at modern day Weissenfels (that battle here is often considered Kosovo battle equivalent of Lusatian Serbs after which Slavic chieftains submitted). The legend of king Marko and his horse Sharatz (Шарац/Šarac means "Coloured") is also echo of Thracian Horseman (divinity of ancient Thracians) also known as "Heros Sabazmos" which is also echoed in story of St George killing a Dragon while on his horse.
