THE STORY:
Strahinja Banović or
Strahinjić Ban (Serbian: Бановић Страхиња) is the name of the unhistorical nobleman and knight depicted in the
Serbian epic poem of the same title.
As stated in the poem, Strahinja ruled a small feud in Kosovo prior to the
Battle of Kosovo (1389). His wife Anđelija, daughter of noble
Jug Bogdan gets kidnapped by
Bashi-bazouk Vlah Alija after Turks ravaged absent Strahinja's castle. Strahinja asks Jug Bogdan if he and Anđelija's brothers (the
Jugovići) could help him rescue her, but
Jug Bogdan refuses, presuming that Anđelija had slept with the kidnapper, which is a great shame to the family. On his own, Strahinja seeks for Anđelija in the fictional Goleč mountain, where Vlah Alija is stationed. Strahinja finally finds them, but Anđelija openly betrays him for Vlah Alija. Strahinja slices Vlah Alija's throat with his teeth, as a wolf would kill a sheep and returns to his father-in-law's estate with his wife where her brothers wait to kill her. Strahinja steps in front and tells them that he had forgiven his wife.
The greatest significance of the song is in the contrasts that arise between traditional and human: Representatives of traditional morality in the poem are members of the Jugović family (brothers and father of the abducted Andjelija), while Strahinja is a figure that goes beyond the limits of the laid down norms and relies only on his own humanity. Whether the addultery was intentionally committed or the woman was abducted and raped, the penalty for the adulteress has traditionally been the death. Banović Strahinja condemns the inhumanity and primitiveness of such understanding, and shows a deep knowledge of the human psyche seeing that his wife has betrayed him not because of the love of the kidnapperr, but out of fear for her own life, knowing the traditional punishment.
