The Singers and Their Songs

In tracking the Return Song structure through a body of material or, for that matter, conducting any kind of investigation into oral poetic techniques, it is important to control as far as possible the variables involved. The conclusions quoted above are based on surveys of a great many texts and thus provide the background essential to more focused research. In order to understand story-pattern dynamics more exactly, I now narrow the sample of material in two ways: by designating for close study exclusively texts from a single geographical area or local tradition, and by further limiting this textual basis to the Return Song repertoires of two singers from within that area.^[9] The analysis will cover the local tradition of the region of Stolac, a subset of the Moslem epic tradition as a whole, through its manifestation in the Return Songs of the guslari Ibro Basic^[*] and Mujo Kukuruzovic^[*] , the singer whose "error" began this chapter. While the results cannot have as general applicability to the larger Serbo-Croatian and South Slavic epic tradition as do Lord's summaries, they will illustrate in some detail how an individual singer responds to and within his tradition. And since the investigation will range over seven epic texts—a total of some 11,000 lines^[10] —there will be ample opportunity to demonstrate the generative multiformity of story-patterns.

Ibro Basic^[*] and the Alagic^[*] Alija and Velagic^[*] Selim

The Return Songs of Ibro Basic^[*] are the subject of the first stage of investigation; three versions of his Alagic^[*] Alija and Velagic^[*] Selim (hereafter AAVS ) will serve as the textual foundation for the opening analysis of story-pattern variation. Two of these arc sung texts (nos. 291b and 6597 ) and one is dictated (no. 1283). The song is in Lord's terminology a "return-rescue" epic, with the Return schema described above forming the first part of the plot structure.^[11] The major action may be summarized as follows.

The General Plot of AAVS

The pripjev ("proem"), which begins the song in versions 291b and 6597 , typically does not form part of the main narrative frame but addresses itself to the rhetorical "we" of the singer's audience. The narrative actually commences with cannon thundering in celebration of the ban's capture of Alagic^[*] Alija (AA), a young Turkish hero whom he casts into an underground prison. There AA encounters Velagic^[*] Selim (VS), who has been incarcerated for twelve years.^[12] VS identifies himself and poses a long list of questions about their common homeland, Udbina. He is encouraged by all of AA's answers except the final four: VS's white tower is now overgrown with ivy, his mother has declined with age, his wife is in the process of being re-married, and his horse has been stolen. As VS bemoans his fate, AA interrupts and narrates a long flashback that details his journey to Zadar and subsequent capture. On the eve of his marriage to Muminova Fata, an urgent message begging his immediate aid arrived from Mustajbeg of the Lika. At first he refused to leave his bride in order to rescue Mustajbeg from the siege of General Pero, but an anonymous voice from a window high above the courtyard reminded him of his heroic duty. AA capitulated, rallied the gathered wedding guests to his purpose, and undertook the journey to the Lika. Although AA enjoyed initial success against the malevolent Christian forces, Mustajbeg deceived him by failing to unlock the gates to his tower at the appropriate moment. As the result of this treachery, AA was overcome, seized alive, and imprisoned in Zadar.

The ban of Zadar now overhears the flashback account and offers AA his freedom for a price: a great many valuable gifts, together with his sister, Aikuna. When AA agrees to all but the last condition, the ban angrily threatens him with a gruesome death and departs. On his return to the tower his wife the banica approaches her husband with an ultimatum. Since the shouting of the captives has so frightened her infant, Marija, that he will not nurse, the banica declares that she will throw the baby to his death unless the ban immediately releases the person responsible for the disturbance. He thus has no choice but to re-enter the prison to confer with VS, and the result is one month's freedom for the prisoner to return to his homeland and attend to his mother and wife.

VS arrives in Udbina to find the wedding party of his wife's suitor encamped below his tower. With hair to his waist and nails grown out kano u krilasa

("like [those] on a winged horse")—that is, in disguise^[13] —he passes himself off as an anonymous twelve-year captive begging alms. After an initial encounter with Mustajbeg, who earlier deceived AA, VS next approaches Halil, suitor to his wife. The prisoner is permitted to join the athletic contests and so soundly defeats his rival, Halil, that the outraged suitor challenges him to the martial equivalent of their games—single combat. The ragged captive accepts the challenge, slyly suggesting that it take place near VS's tower and that each of them wager heavily on the outcome. Finally, VS, still in disguise and spinning his Odyssean tale, meets his wife. Far from recognizing him, she is terribly frightened by his appearance and begins to flee. To test her fidelity, he then claims to have known VS as a fellow prisoner and to have buried him. When his wife responds with a reward, VS asks whom she honors in doing so: her dead husband or her present suitor. Tearfully exclaiming her loyalty to VS, whom she now recognizes, she runs to their tower and snatches a sword from the wall, pleading with her husband to behead her and end her misery. Much impassioned weeping ensues, while the returned hero inwardly rejoices over his wife's faithfulness. Mustajbeg overhears the recognition scene and, gathering up the wedding party and the suitor Halil, quickly flees to escape VS's wrath.

The month of freedom comes to an end, and VS keeps his promise to come back to Zadar. The ban's attention now focuses on AA, who has also begun to shout and create a disturbance. AA complains that his life is almost over and requests writing materials to prepare a last letter to his mother. In it he directs her to distribute his arms and armor among their standard-bearers and to allow Fata, his betrothed, to make a new marriage contract. The young girl, however, decides to join her lover in Zadar alone, and she sends their servant, Huso, with a plea for assistance to her father, Muminagha. But Muminagha threatens both Huso and his daughter with death over the shame she has caused him, so she readies herself to leave for Zadar disguised as a Christian warrior. During the journey she spends a night encamped in a mountain pass, with wild animals all about; she speaks to each one in turn, asking that she be allowed to proceed in safety. After entering the city, Fata questions her horse (really AA's war charger) as to where she might gain information about AA and soon finds herself at a tavern, where Mara, the innkeeper, guesses her identity. Because of a kindness once done her by Muminagha, Mara pledges her support. After a change of dress they consult Andjelija, who promises to help with the escape of the Turkish heroes. The next day sees their plan in action, though AA and VS do not at first realize what is happening. Fata heroically fights her way through the hostile ranks until

she reaches the captives; she then frees them and furnishes them with horses and weapons while Muminagha's troops arrive to aid her. In the aftermath, Fata and Andjelija reveal their true identities and later marry AA and the suitor Halil, respectively.

The Story-Pattern of AAVS

Ibro's AAVS , one of many similarly structured epics preserved in the Parry Collection, follows the Return Song schema. At the most basic level it consists of a double cycle of the five elements, one cycle for each hero.^[14] VS has been absent from Udbina for twelve years (A_vs ), suffering as a prisoner of the ban of Zadar while Halil strives to usurp his place at home (D_vs ,).^[15] He is released for one month and allowed to return (R _vs ).^[16] By defeating his rival in the throwing and jumping competitions, winning their proposed single combat by default, and causing Mustajbeg and the wedding party to flee his wrath, he achieves retribution (Rt_vs ). In addition, note that in terms of the story-pattern VS's wife is a marriageable maiden, since she is courted by a suitor and, for the period of VS's absence, is without a husband. The successful trial of her fidelity thus culminates in the (re-)establishment of her husband's position, that is, in * W_vs , (marked with an asterisk to indicate its ephemerality). At this point, then, the first Return Song cycle is complete; a song which we might call The Captivity of Velagic^[*] Selim has run its narrative course.

But AAVS as a whole has not. AA is also absent from their common home-

land Udbina (A_aa ).^[17] He finds himself a helpless captive in the same prison and in despair writes a last letter to his mother in which he abandons all hope of rescue (D_aa ). From this element on, Fata serves as the substitute hero by securing AA's release and thereby making possible his return (R_aa ). She fights bravely, killing many of the ban's army and revenging AA's incarceration (Rt_aa ). The epic closes with a series of recognitions and the long-deferred marriage (W_aa ).

We need to appreciate the significance of this second Return cycle fully. The latter section of AAVS , which might be termed either The Rescue of Alagic^[*] Alija and Velagic^[*] Selim or The Return of Alagic^[*] Alija , is both a rescue sequence that concludes the overall "return-rescue" pattern and a Return pattern in its own right. This dual identity of the second section reveals a fundamental symmetry in the structure of Ibro's "return-rescue" song, a symmetry which suggests that the more complex type of epic developed from the simpler, five-element schema. While we cannot go much further with the present evidence than the demonstration of this relationship between story-types and a logical hypothesis about the derivation of one from the other, the essential point of the demonstration is secure: a double-cycle, "return-rescue" epic such as AAVS is genetically —one might say formulaically—related to the basic Return Song schema. To put it another way, the return pattern is a multiform capable of theme-like variation both as a simplex and as a multiple of itself. We should detect something distinctly traditional about this situation.

The narrative pattern of AAVS as a whole can thus be described as a recombination of the Return sequence along the lines indicated above. Within the song, A _vs -D_vs and A_aa - D_aa are roughly co-extensive: while the personal histories of the two heroes vary slightly, their initial situations of absence and detention in Zadar are comparable.^[18] But from this point on the pattern splits. Upon his release VS follows out the Return Song cycle to its logical conclusion (R_vs , Rt_vs , and * W_vs ). But because his freedom is temporary, he regresses to D _vs on re-entering prison.^[19] Meanwhile, AA languishes in Zadar, managing only to resign himself to death (D_aa ). In schematic terms the progress of the narrative may be represented as in figure 12. In the rescue section of the song, Fata's surrogate heroics accomplish R_aa and Rt_aa and clear the way

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Figure 12.
AAVS, Through Devastation Element

for W_aa , thus completing the cycle for AA. But, one may ask, what of VS? Is he not also rescued? And why does he not marry at the close of the epic, as the story-pattern would seem to demand?

One answer is that VS has already married—or re-married, to be exact (*W_vs ). More than a frivolous solution, this line of argument suggests the vital-it), and integrity of the story-pattern that structures this and so many cognate epic narratives. Another answer—and one perhaps truer to the symbolic nature of the pattern—is that VS does in fact marry again. For just as Fata has taken on AA's heroic identity, a second female substitute, Andjelija, adopts VS's function; thus the paired heroes are freed by paired surrogates. In this way R_aa and Rt_aa are also R_vs and Rt _vs . The culmination in double marriage unites Fata (AA's substitute) and Andjelija (VS's substitute) with, respectively, AA and Halil (VS's former rival). At one structural remove, then, VS marries Andjelija and the story-pattern obtains. The narrative as a whole may thus be schematized as in figure 13, in which the section in parentheses is the rescue sequence, itself a Return pattern, while the bracketed section is that part of the cycle undertaken and achieved by the surrogates, Fata and Andjelija.

However the question posed above is answered, it rapidly becomes even clearer just how fundamental the A-D-R-Rt-W schema is to AAVS and yet how complex the narrative that results from combination and permutation of simple story elements can be. As noted above, this particular kind of "return-rescue" epic bears a genetic relationship to the five-element, single-cycle Return Song. The first departure from the basic pattern, VS's conditional release, prepares the way for a second departure, the unconditional release of the heroes. Yet the second event conforms to the same R-Rt-W sequence identically, with the single qualification that the agents of the actions involved are substitutes. In short, the evidence examined so far justifies the following hypothesis: the Return Song story-pattern (the five-element simplex) is more than a narrative latticework; not only does it have considerable potential for variation, but it is also dynamic and process-directing and it lies at the foundation of more complex story-types.

In turning to the second example of variational capacity in the Return Song,

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Figure 13.
AAVS, Entir ePattern

it will thus be well to keep in mind the dual nature of the story-pattern: as a series of abstract potentials, these five elements both generate and control narrative structure. By marshaling thematic content, story-pattern gives both life and direction to the song; within a context of multiple possibilities, it provides parameters and determines the overall shape of the text. This kind of variation characterizes the largest and most abstract of traditional multi-forms, making possible formularity at the level of narrative sequence. But although story-pattern resembles formula and theme in its generative potential, an important difference must be taken into account: at the highest level of structure, a level not directly affected by prosody, consistency of occurrence from one instance to another must depend not on meter and associated phenomena, but rather on the idea-pattern of Return. To state the converse, a small change in story-pattern can mean a very significant change in the epic as a whole.

Mujo Kukuruzovic^[*] and the Extended Return Song

As noted in chapter 2, Mujo's repertoire was quite large, consisting of a total of thirty-eight pjesme on a variety of subjects and apparently learned from a variety of singers. Parry, Lord, and Nikola recorded nine of these songs either on aluminum disks or from dictation, making a total of twelve texts when variants are included. Among those not recorded, The Young Ban of Janok^[20] seems especially relevant, as will be seen below. Our main focus, however, will be on the four complete texts of Mujo's captivity songs, those about Ograscic^[*] Alija (OA₁ and OA ₂ , nos. 6617 and 1287a) and Alagic^[*] Alija (AA₁ and AA ₂ , nos. 6618 and 1868 ).^[21]

The OA and AA Songs

Texts OA₁ and OA₂ are, as is shown below, variant versions of The Captivity of Ograscic^[*] Alija , the former sung and the latter oral-dictated.

The discrepancy in length—almost 900 lines—will bear explanation as the analysis progresses, since the shorter performance (OA₂ ) excludes a major section of the narrative which is part of OA₁ . Song AA₁ contains the momentary confusion described near the beginning of this chapter; that is, Mujo "skips over" from AA to OA in mid-song, but manages to realign himself within thirty lines and to finish out the AA story. The oral-dictated version AA ₂ , on the other hand, is really one-fourth AA and three-fourths OA . Losing his song at exactly the same point as in AA₁ , Mujo never returns to AA . In reconstructing the story lines of these four closely interrelated performances, I will describe OA and AA concurrently up to the point of divergence,^[22] which we shall then need to examine carefully before proceeding to individual accounts of the later sections of the epics.

The General Plot of AA/OA, Section 1

After the optional pripjev , both songs begin typically with the hero crying out from prison.^[23] As in Ibro Basic's^[*]AAVS , the Turkish hero's wailing so upsets the ban's infant son that he will not nurse. But when the banica reports this situation to her husband in AA/OA , he refuses to bargain with or to release the hero, citing the havoc caused by the prisoner before his capture as sufficient grounds for maintaining the status quo. The banica is thus forced to become the bargaining agent herself. She descends into the tamnica and is greeted as nerodjena majka ("unrelated, or foster, mother") by the captive, who then tells her one of two stories. In OA₁ , and OA₂ a letter to the imprisoned hero has informed him of his son's imminent marriage. He laments the fact that he has not seen the young man since he was an infant, and that now he will not be able to take part in the wedding ceremony. AA's letter carries a somewhat different but similarly dispiriting message: his wife, having given him up for lost, is about to remarry. Moved by the tale of woe, the banica then opens negotiations with AA/OA. In return for his release, she requires either the prisoner's pobratimstvo ("blood-brotherhood") or his kumstvo ("godfather-hood," specifically of her son), or both. These synthetic kin relationships establish ritual bonds between two enemies, a Turkish hero and a Christian ban (through his wife, the banica).

When the bargain has been completed, the hero is released and he heads for his home in the Turkish Krajina. Here the story lines again diverge slightly, just as in the case of the letters. During his journey OA encounters the wedding

party of his son, Hadzibeg. A scrim of "Questioning the Captive" themes proves Hadzibeg's loyalty to his father beyond doubt, for the news of OA's death brought by the disguised captive so saddens the young man that he immediately orders a stop to the wedding celebration. At the family kula ("tower") OA confronts his wife. Although she does not yet recognize her long-lost husband, she quickly reveals her unfaithfulness by rejoicing over the report of his death. OA then wins a race against the suitor Halil and other members of the wedding party, and later passes the Odyssean test set by Hadzibeg's intended bride—he successfully saddles and rides OA's home, a feat no one else has been able to accomplish.^[24] Finally his wife, mother, and the treacherous Mustajbeg recognize him from his distinctive tamburitza-playing. This group recognition leads up to the close of the first section: Mustajbeg gathers the wedding party and flees to escape OA's revenge, OA's wife dies or is slain by her husband,^[25] and his mother discusses with her son the advisability of seeking an alliance with the enemy.

The story of AA from the point of bifurcation to the end of the first section (the locus for "skipping over") is not very different from that of OA. The "Questioning the Captive" theme again precedes the contest with the suitor Halil, only in the AA story the contest divides into two parts: the first, a throwing competition, is vestigial in that AA looks on but does not join in, while the second is very real indeed, consisting as it does of single combat (mejdan ) between AA and his rival, Halil. Again the preparation of the hero's home serves an important catalytic function; while in the stable, AA meets and enlists the aid of his sister, who recognizes him by the scar (biljeg ) he received as a child from being bitten by a horse.^[26] Since the wedding procession has left for Halil's home in Kladuša—led, as in so many other instances, by the untrustworthy Mustajbeg—it is up to AA to ride after them. At first he refuses to do so, but after much urging by his mother, he accedes and promises to recoup her "maidservant," his wife. Once in Kladuša, AA fights the mejdan and, having defeated his rival, claims his wife. He cuts off her hands, carries her back to his kula , and dispatches her in the presence of his mother. The same discussion with his mother then ensues; nothing explicit is mentioned about Mustajbeg, but in the second section plans will soon take shape to work revenge on Mujo, brother to his wife's suitor Halil.

The Story-Pattern of AA/OA, Section I

Section I follows the familiar five-element pattern of Return. Each song opens with an imprisoned hero in an enemy tamnica crying out in misery. In the course of the conversation between the ban and banica, during which the ban explains why he has no intention of releasing AA/OA, the heroic deeds and capture of the prisoner are rehearsed in a kind of flashback (A_aa/oa ).^[27] The Devastation element finds expression in the incarceration and letter (whatever message applies), for AA/OA's demonstrative lamenting is a response to these painful realities (D _aa/oa ). Bargaining with the banica produces the desired results, however; the ritual kinship ties prove an effective means of certifying continued goodwill, and she agrees to release the hero. As is typical of the story-pattern, it is again a female figure who catalyzes the Return (R _aa/oa ).^[28] Whether the hero meets his family and adversary on the way back (OA) or in his homeland (AA), he soon ascertains his wife's infidelity and enters into competition—both actual and, with respect to the story-pattern, symbolic—with his rival. All of his actions, undertaken and completed in the "disguise" of a captive claiming to have buried AA/OA, culminate in a twofold revenge (Rt_aa/oa ): he defeats his adversary, Halil, and causes the death of his unfaithful wife. What he accomplishes, in other words, in place of the expected marriage (W ), is an "anti-Wedding" (W -) that fulfills the schema symbolically but leaves the overall pattern with a reversed or occluded ending.

This ambivalent character of the fifth and final element is crucial to the structure of the tale as a whole: without the ambivalence of W -, the song ends here; with it, the song goes on. It is as if the reversal of W inherent in W - postponed the expected closure and demanded another kind of fulfillment, just as *W in AAVS called for continuation in a second cycle. In schematic terms, the progression of AA/OA , Section I, may be compared as shown in figure 14. There is thus a clear symbolic logic to the continuation or termination of the song after the Wedding element. If W is either conditional (*W in AAVS ) or negatively fulfilled in what I have called the "anti-Wedding" (W - in AA/OA ), it cannot be a final W . Rather, the song will go on, seeking, as it were, an unconditional, positive W to close out the narrative.

To summarize, then, what I have identified as Section I of AA/OA is a complete song in itself, a song which we could call The Captivity of Alagic^[*] Alija

/Ograscic^[*] Alija , with one crucial difference: the A-W Return Song cycle is left open-ended by frustration of the W element. We should now recall that it is precisely at this point—when the "Return Song within a Return Song" ends—that the singer Mujo Kukuruzovic^[*] makes his error in texts AA₁ and AA₂ . Alagic^[*] Alija has dispatched his unfaithful wife and, as the guslar himself said, should be headed for the spring at Jezero to make plans for a retaliatory raid. The apparent motivation is AA's disillusionment over his wife's infidelity and his countrymen's lack of fealty; he has already revenged himself once upon Halil in their single combat and will now complete his retribution by attacking Halil's brother. Instead, we remember, he starts out in AA ₁ for Kara Bogdan, seat of the Christian enemy General Pero, whom he hopes will join forces with him in making war on the treacherous Mustajbeg and his narrative double, the ubiquitous bey of Ribnik.^[29] And while Kukuruzovic^[*] manages in that performance to correct his "skipping over," in AA₂ he follows the "wrong" story line through to its final W .

Kukuruzovic's^[*] Error: a First Approximation

A number of explanations for the error now present themselves. We shall need to re-examine the possible solutions later on when analysis of Section II is complete, but we can at least introduce them here. To begin with, an important unit closes with W -, so that whatever might follow the death or slaying of the unfaithful wife occurs outside the first Return Song cycle. On the face of it, if variation is to appear, even variation in the form of a "mistake," we would expect it to appear outside of a five-element sequence rather than within it. That is, Kukuruzovic's^[*] error occurs outside the pattern of themes associated with the story-pattern; it happens, in short, at a vulnerable spot in the narrative. When we add to this observation the demonstrated near-identity of AA , Section I, and OA , Section I, Mujo's "skipping over" becomes a quite understandable phenomenon. To offer a first approximation, then, I would interpret the slip as an instance of what might be called generic override , a faulty

choice between alternatives that are equivalent in terms of story-pattern but not in terms of actual narrative content—for in both cases, the hero rides off to join an enemy for the purpose of making war on his own countrymen; the particulars vary, but the pattern does not. The singer makes a mistake on the particularized level of the story, but the generic level of AA/OA remains the same, undisturbed and in proper sequence. The source of the error is multiformity, the same multiformity that defines and gives life to the guslar's oral epic tradition.

In order to measure the correspondence between variant texts more exactly, and to understand the basis of generic override in analogy, let us consider Kukuruzovic's^[*] "skipping over" more closely. Immediately below are the relevant passages from texts AA₁ and OA₁ ; further evidence from AA₂ and OA ₂ will be added as appropriate.

The generic situation is this: AA/OA dispatches his unfaithful wife in the presence of his mother (and sister) and, swearing to revenge Mustajbeg's (or the bey of Ribnik's) disloyalty by attacking his own countrymen (in alliance with the Christian enemy, General Pero), rides away from his homeland. Of those elements parenthesized in this description, the first two are variable in both OA and AA , while the third is found only in the OA story line. Thus the narrative problem posed for the singer consists of bridging the gap from W - to one of two Journey (J ) destinations, either Jezero or Kara Bogdan. In symbolic terms the situation may be represented as in figure 15.

Collating all four texts of the W - to J sequence, we can say with certainty that the OA "skipping over" runs at least through line 689 of AA ₁ . The sequence contains five discrete units: (1) the oath (AA₁ .675, OA₁ .731), (2) the announcement of desertion to General Pero (AA₁ .676-78, OA₁ .732-34), (3) the plan of revenge (AA₁ .679-83, OA₁ .735-44), (4) the mother's distress and caution (AA₁ .684-88, not present in OA₁ ),^[35] and (5) the actual setting out and journey (AA₁ .689-93, OA₁ .745-48). Note that the third unit, the plan of revenge, always carries with it some indication of a W to be fulfilled as the result of AA/OA's continued retribution. In the case of AA ₁ , the hero promises to take the bey's daughter in marriage, to wed "either her or the black earth." In OA₁ he boasts that he will decimate the bey's troops and take the women as booty, to be married off to his mercenaries. Whether explicitly or not, both the AA and OA story lines somehow include in the plan the capture of the

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Figure 15.
Bridge from W - to J

bey's daughter; in other words, the rite of bride-stealing is understood as the culmination of heroic vengeance. It is two units later, during the setting out and journey, that Kukuruzovic^[*] manages to correct himself by singing a common formulaic series of lines associated with traveling. He has followed the form of W - to J all the way through its five units; his only "error" is that he sings W - to J_oa instead of to J_aa . Generic override, the result of story-pattern congruency and the guslar's traditional impulse toward analogy,^[36] has caused the "skipping over." As indicated above, the very vitality of traditional thought has in this case been the downfall of superficial story sequence. Still, in the narrative logic unique to oral traditional song, the form is preserved and, whether or not the "correction" is made, the tale goes on.

But to what does it go on? With the Return Song having run its course, what follows? I remarked earlier that the first parts of AA and OA were enough alike that a single story line summary would adequately render them both. This was indeed the case; Section I of AA/OA is a unit complete in itself except for the modulation entailed in W -. But as Kukuruzovic^[*] indicated in his conversation with Nikola, the second sections of AA and OA are quite different. We shall therefore need to ask a number of questions. Is there any story-pattern underlying the rest of these four texts, either by song (AA vs. OA ) or by generalized sequence (all four performances)? If so, what is that pattern, does it function in a manner similar to that underlying the Return Song, and how does it affect the role of Section II in the guslar's "skipping over"? Finally, we should ask whether an overall sequence of elements can be distilled out of AA/OA , an overarching series of abstractions which, as a compound story-pattern in its own right, both limits and generates the narrative substance of the song as a whole. In order to develop answers to these questions, we first need the story lines for Section II of AA and OA ; they follow immediately below, together with pattern analysis in a running commentary.

OA, Section II: Story and Story-Pattern

After the W - to J _kb section is complete, Kukuruzovic^[*] moves OA and General Pero along to Janok, where the hero overhears the ban of Janok urging his chieftains to attack the Lika, the territory under the sway of Mustajbeg.^[37] Pero advises raising a force to attack the bey of Ribnik, specifically to steal the bey's daughter and marry her off to one of the captains. OA₁ varies somewhat from OA₂ in that OA overhears both the ban of Janok and Takulija

ban planning offensive action. In fact, that particular passage (OA₂ .562-66) comprises a common opening to what may be called an "Attack Song," wherein a hero and his army make war on a given city.^[38] This clue, along with the fact that Kukuruzovic^[*] lists a song he refers to as "The young ban of Janok was drinking wine / And next to him Takulija ban"^[39] as part of his repertoire in both the conversation with Nikola (no. 6619 ) and the listing of his songs (no. 1287), argues strongly for the possibility of a "compound song." When we add to these observations the unitary character of Section I, it seems safe to understand OA as an amalgam of songs , perhaps a relatively recent amalgam, since the transition between its parts is so unstable. Whatever its actual status, however, the evidence shows that what Kukuruzovic^[*] knows and sings as one tale was at some point two tales. In fact, in a manner of speaking, it seems still to exist as two songs, since Section II is individually a part of the singer's repertoire.

To continue the sketch of the OA narrative, the force which Pero recommends is raised and the ban of Janok enlists the aid of the Knezevic^[*] twins to spy on the city of Ribnik. These twinned figures have, as it were, a double identity; since their father remained in Ribnik when they joined the service of the enemy ban, they maintain a unique right of passage between Turkish and Christian dominions. Just as they depart Janok to begin their espionage in OA₁ , the hero also leaves, but with a different purpose. His original loyalty having re-emerged, OA goes to Ribnik to tell Zlatija, the bey's daughter, of the impending Christian attack.^[40] At the same time the Knezevic^[*] twins, having won their father over, secure important information from him: the bey has left Ribnik and the city is therefore vulnerable to attack. Ruza Knezevic^[*] , the boys' sister, who has also remained in Ribnik, overhears her father's treasonous disclosure and, after castigating all three of them, runs off to report the news of imminent danger to the same Zlatija lately in conversation with OA. This kind of structural redundancy is not a customary feature of Serbo-Croatian oral epic song, and it makes for a narrative "loop" which stalls the progression of the story. For each time that Zlatija reacts by approaching a Turkish stalwart, Gojenovic^[*] Ilija (GI), in order to pass on to him what is supposed to be new and startling information, she is accused of dreaming and

not taken seriously. Another sign that the loop is an unusual feature is the imposition of "boundary line" sequences to maneuver the story line from the Knezevic^[*] twins to OA and back again. This awkward shifting of narrative direction underlines the redundancy and contrasts sharply with the fluidity of the rest of the song.^[41]

The redundancy, loop, and boundary sequences indicate an in-progress adaptation, an interface between the two sections of Kukuruzovic's^[*] song created under the pressure of composition in performance. Two further signals point to the same conclusion. First, in OA₂ the receiver of Zlatija's news, GI, is in obvious confusion referred to as AA! Not only is the singer uncertain about whether the hero of Section I has exited Section II, but generic override prompts the insinuation of the "wrong" hero, OA's counterpart, AA. Second, after OA's supernumerary report to Zlatija in OA₁ , he simply vanishes from the song; he is last heard from, to be precise, at line 895 of a song 2,180 lines in length. We may recall that he leaves the scene even earlier in OA₂ . All of this evidence points unmistakably toward OA's actions in Section II of the song as a kind of overflow from the Return Song pattern of Section I. To summarize the pattern symbolically from W - on, then, we have

where P represents the plan hatched by the ban to attack Ribnik^[42] and Rp the report of that plan in the place to be attacked. As we have seen, while there is only incidental variation in the forms taken by P , the Rp element absorbs the narrative spillover from Section I of the story amalgam.

The Rp element gives way to the attack (At ) and GI's eventual heroic action. When it becomes apparent that Ribnik is indeed under siege, he bravely rides out through the hostile Christian ranks, intending to reach Jaboka, an intermediate locus in the epic geography where the unsuspecting bey of Ribnik is presently encamped. Though mortally wounded, he succeeds with his dying breath in relaying the news of the attack to the bey. At this juncture the enraged Turkish leader takes over, marshaling his force and calling upon the trickster-hero Tale to join him.^[43] Undertaking a reconnaissance mission structurally symmetrical to that of the Knezevic^[*] twins, the bey's ally Mujo rides out from Jaboka toward Ribnik to have a look at the ban's force. His mission may, in terms of narrative pattern, be both the logical counterpart of the earlier spying and a thematic preliminary to offensive

action. In any case, Mujo's report moves Tale to urge immediate attack. But before the attack can commence, Kukuruzovic^[*] inserts the theme of the brothers Mujo and Halil arguing over use of the horse left jointly to them by their grandfather. Halil wishes to use the animal to initiate the battle plan, but his request is denied. This refusal brings about his threat to destroy "his half" of the horse, and Mujo, seeing his brother's rage, finally accedes. As we will note in Section II of AA , this argument (hereafter symbolized M/H ) constitutes a theme associated for Kukuruzovic^[*] with that of Counter-attack (Ct ). Thus far the symbolic logic for Section II is

From here on the story moves rather fast, with the bey of Ribnik surveying the carnage and determining that the victory is his, with one qualification. He catches sight of General Pero absconding with his daughter Zlatija, and of his allies Halil and Velagic^[*] Selim in hot pursuit. Pero reaches Janok and casts his prize into the ban's tamnica ; when Halil and VS later follow him into an inn, he orders them seized and incarcerated along with the girl. Here the three are left, ostensibly helpless, while their captor rejoices over his coup .

We may detect a double structure in the imprisonment of the heroes and the bey's daughter, a rescue pattern which, as we saw above in AAVS , is a reflex of the Return Song sequence. For soon after the capture of the prisoners (A ) and their suffering in jail (D ), Mujo arrives at the inn and begins to plan their release—that is to say, their Return (R )—with Mara the innkeeper, whom we recall as the intermediary in AAVS .^[44] Mujo dons a Christian female disguise, just as in AAVS the female surrogate hero Fata put on Christian male dress, and gains admittance to the ban's kula . Here the narrative begins its double resonance: generally, it follows the rescue (really the Return) pattern and, specifically, it echoes the very opening of the song by closely adhering to not simply a generic pattern but also a series of more particularized events. Mujo bargains for release not with the ban of Janok, but with his wife, the banica. The condition for release is again pobratimstvo , blood-brotherhood; once the banica has put to rest her concerns about the safety of her land and people by securing the treaty, she agrees to let all three captives go. After stopping to pick up the same horse over which Mujo and Halil earlier argued,^[45] the heroes and the girl proceed to the Turkish border (R ) and the tale ends.

To emphasize the dual structure of this section of the story and to summarize the pattern of Section II as a whole, I symbolize below the entire narrative action in two ways: by continuing the progression of elements used so far in describing Section II (Code 1 ) and by juxtaposing to the last part of this progression the same elements in Lord's original notation (Code 2 ).

In Code 1 I have added the elements Capture (Cp ), Imprisonment (I ), Release (Rl ), and Homecoming (H ) to represent the end of the OA song. It is left understood that Cp and I apply to all three captives, although the bey of Ribnik's daughter is captured and imprisoned earlier than Halil and VS. These four designations adequately account for the action entailed, and they clearly follow the same narrative scheme as the A, D , and R elements immediately below them.

We may draw some interesting conclusions from this comparison. Not only is the rescue, like that of AAVS , structurally a reflex of the basic A-W scquence; the major differentiation between the two patterns in both Kukuruzovic's^[*] and Ibro Basic's^[*] songs is at the thematic level. To put it another way, "Return" and "Rescue" are equivalent at the level of story-pattern and differ only at the level of theme . This observation in turn argues the primacy of the A-W series both synchronically (in the generation of the song during performance) and diachronically (in the generation of song types over time). When we recall the various avatars of the Return Song pattern either studied at length or at least briefly mentioned in this chapter, we can begin to appreciate how fundamental this network of abstractions is to the history and "dialectology" of Serbo-Croatian oral narrative song.

The comparative analysis of Codes 1 and 2 also affords insight into the cyclic shape of the song as a whole. The opening A-D-R joins with the ending A-D-R to frame the narrative, to yield a ring similar to the Homeric paradigm in general and to the Iliad in particular.^[46] One problem plagues the near-symmetry of OA, however: Section II (and therefore the epic) ends with the Turks' return (R ) to their homeland. Nothing is said about their possible retribution (Rt ) for imprisonment or about a wedding (W ) involving any of them. We might well have expected these last two elements to occur here, largely because of the frustrated W - in Section I and the apparent progression toward such a coda throughout most of Section II. Does their absence suggest a flawed song, an imperfect performance which was perhaps cut short for whatever reason?

I would argue against such a conclusion. First, we must recall that there has

already been an instance of Turkish retribution against the Christian forces in what has been designated as the Counter-attack (Ct ). Zlatija was captured earlier in the story, sometime between her report to GI and Pero's ride to Janok, and so the Ct can be understood as consequent to her capture. Of course, Halil and VS are seized later still and the final release does not take place until some time afterward, but this splitting of elements is hardly unusual.^[47] So Rt does indeed appear—as Ct —but out of proper sequence.

The W element, however, takes no part in the epic's closure; no wedding forms the coda to the action of OA in Section II. In fact, what the ban of Janok plans to do, and succeeds in carrying out, is precisely the reverse of the true wedding ritual: he enters on the sacred rite of "bride-stealing,"^[48] (1) without proper arrangements, (2) without the appropriate Turkish retinue, (3) in time of war, and (4) as an enemy, a Christian ban intending to take as his prize a Turkish maiden. These are not simply qualifications; they amount to absolute abrogations of custom, actions diametrically opposed to conventional, socially sanctioned behavior. In effect, this bride-stealing, which would usually serve as the ceremonial preliminary to a wedding, constitutes a motif reversed. Order is restored only when Zlatija is rescued and returned to her homeland—when, that is, the insult done her and the Turkish people by the ban of Janok and his forces has been atoned for.

In reality, then, the story-pattern unity of Section II and of the epic overall depends not on a final wedding scene per se but rather on a symbolic equivalent, a reversal of the unlawful bride-stealing that began Section II. Just as the Return Song pattern reached a qualified conclusion with the death of OA's wife (W -₁ ), an event and dement paralleled by Pero's rupture of the marriage rite in stealing Zlatija (W -₂ ), so the return of the girl (W +) answers both actions and restores order to the story and its elemental structure. In this way Kukuruzovic^[*] , or the tradition, has solved the problem of ending the story in a deeply traditional manner: the coda completes both "songs within the song" and the larger, composite narrative. Once again story-pattern has both limited and generated the internal logic of the song.

AA, Section: Story and Stoy-Pattern

As we have seen, Kukuruzovic^[*] felt that the correct sequel to the first part of AA was the story line that commenced with AA's journey to the spring at Jezero, where he met Päun harambasha and planned a retaliatory raid on Halil's brother Mujo. Their plans are ambitious: in revenge for Halil's wooing of his wife, AA will attack Mujo's kula , steal his sister, Aikuna, and attempt to take Mujo himself prisoner. After raising an army for the purpose and

gaining entrance to the tower by tricking Aikuna, they accomplish all but the last of their intentions. At this point, we soon discover, Aikuna is spirited off to captivity by the ban of Koluto, a natural (because Christian) enemy. Mujo, far from his home, dreams that just such destruction and capture have taken place, and later hears that his dream is only too true. The ruse perpetrated by AA turns out to be his last narrative gasp; after that, we see him no more.

A few details and larger structures should seem familiar. After the journey, this time to Jezero (J _j ), the hero makes his plan for revenge (P ) and proceeds to the attack on Mujo's kula (At ). Even a Report element (Rp ) appears, this time after the attack has begun. To compare the story-pattern sequences of OA and AA thus far, consider the two series of elements juxtaposed:^[49]

The general sequences are identical. In fact, OA and AA share many details at levels of structure more particularized than that of story-pattern. One of these is the theme of raising an army associated with P , though this connection is a generally traditional one not limited to these two songs; almost any attack or journey of a wedding party encountered in the tradition presupposes the occurrence of this theme. Another such similarity lies in the dreams that surround the Rp element in both songs. The horrors of war present themselves to GI (in OA ) and Mujo (in AA ) as too frightening to be real; the second part of this motif then consists of the hero's discovery that what he faces is more than a dream, that attack (At ) has really begun and he must therefore take some action. With the impetus thus passing away from the original hero of the song (OA/AA) to a kind of narrative surrogate (GI/Halil), the report is a logical spot for the disappearance of OA/AA. And, in both epics, this is precisely where that disappearance takes place. The transition from the opening Return Song through the revenging attack to the rescue song is complete, and in both OA and AA we arrive at this point and have no more need of the original hero. From now on the song is to tell of Halil's or Mujo's rescue either of Mujo's sister (AA₁ ) or of Zlatija, Halil, and VS (OA₁ , AA₂ ).

Before the counter-offensive (the version of Ct found in AA ) can begin, Kukuruzovic^[*] again interposes the theme of Mujo and Halil arguing over the rights to their horse (M/H ). Once more the outcome is crucial to the shape of what follows: Halil's threat to do away with the animal elicits Mujo's permission to use the horse and, what is more, his advice to proceed with a certain course of action in liberating Aikuna. He recommends seeking a series

of heroes including Toša harambasha in Janok, Pop Milovan in Pozun, and the familiar figure of Mara the innkeeper in Koluto itself. As Halil goes from one to the next, the first two balk at the prospect of challenging the ban but are shamed into a promise of aid. Once they all reach Mara's inn, the story line returns to a sequence very near that of OA . Mars instructs Halil to disguise himself in the priest Milovan's clothes, a disguise that, like Mujo's in OA , contrasts diametrically with his real identity: it indicates a Christian member of a religious order rather than a secular Turk. Halil manages to enter the ban's kula by claiming that he has come to marry the captive to Milic^[*] harambasha, but soon takes advantage of the situation by stealing the ban's only son, the infant Marijane. His intent is to exchange the boy for Aikuna, and there ensues a bargaining scene conducted through a messenger bearing letters between Mujo and the banica. And though the ceremony is not explicitly described, it becomes clear by the end that the condition for release (in this case a trade) is again a Turkish-Christian peace treaty in the form of blood-brotherhood. The epic closes with an exchange of prisoners at the border between the territories.

Section II of AA thus follows a symbolic pattern nearly identical to that of OA , Section II, as the diagram below illustrates:

The only difference in the narratives at the level of story-pattern is that indicated by the asterisked element, Ct* . For in AA there occurs not a martial answer to At , but a plan that nonetheless entails enlisting the aid of a number of people.^[50] This plan is, in terms of the overall paradigm, no less a Ct , for it comes after (and is the narrative consequent of) M/H , responds to At , and will serve as the transposed Rt for the rescue sequence to follow. Halil's deception of the ban and stealing of his son constitute payment in kind for the capture of Aikuna and her impending forced marriage to Milic^[*] . Indeed, this payment is not so different structurally from VS's Rt in AAVS . For in all three cases—AAVS, OA , and now AA —the rite of bride-stealing has been perverted by an outside agent, and the hero's task is to restore the normal order. One way or another, the hero accomplishes this restoration, adhering to the fundamental traditional logic of the Return Song pattern, whatever the thematic component and story line of the particular song as a whole. Section II of AA ends with the removal of the stigma that began it, that is, with the transfor-

mation of W -_1,2 to W + in the return of Aikuna. Just as in OA , the A-D-R sequence is explicit, the Rt element is transposed and appears as Gt (here Ct *), and the W + obviates the earlier W -_1,2 .