{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/hbs/hbs28.htm","path":"neu/hbs/hbs28.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/hbs/hbs28.htm","text":"So many monasteries wherefore hast thou begun?\nHast thou sinned before God? Or by good hap hast thou won the gold abroad?\u201d\nMarko of Prilip answered:\n\u201cI will tell in the name of God.\nOnce, when I was in the Moorish land, at dawn to a cistern fair\nI went, that Dapple might drink thereof; and behold, at the water there,\nWere twelve Moors. Out of my due time I wished to water the steed;\nThe twelve Moors would not let me, and a battle did we breed.\nThereat I drew the heavy mace, and smote a black Moor down.\nWe smote against each other, eleven against one.\nTwo I smote down, and ten of them came furiously at me.\nThen nine of them must I abide, for I had stricken three.\nThe fourth fell; eight were the champions against me that did drive.\nBut I struck again; on the red ground lay ruddy corpses five.\nI slew the sixth, but was taken by the six that were left alive.\nThey bound me, and they bore me to the Moorish king along;\nAnd the king of the Moors threw me into the dungeon strong.\nSeven years was I in it: when summer was at hand\nI knew not, nor when winter had come across the land;\nExcept that, when in winter the girls the snowballs cast,\nThen would they toss a snowball into the dungeon fast;\nAnd then I knew it was winter, as I lay within the tower.\nIn the summer, they would throw me a sprig of basil flower,\nAnd I knew it was summer. The eighth year in prison that I was,\nI wearied not of prison, but of a Moorish lass.\nUnto the Moorish Sultan the daughter dear was she;\nNight and morn to the window of the tower she summoned me:\n\u201c \u2018Marko, poor lad, in the dungeon I prithee rot not here,\nBut give true pledge thou wilt take me to be thy true love dear,\nIf I free thee from the dungeon, and thy Dapple from the hold.\nMarko, unto thy heart\u2019s desire will I gather ducats of gold.\u2019\n\u201cWhen I saw that might was against me, and strength compelling me,\nI took my cap from off my head, and swore to it on my knee,\nA firm pledge to the cap I swore:\n\u2018Thee I will never leave;\nA firm pledge, and moreover, ne\u2019er will I thee deceive.\nE\u2019en the sun is false; he warms not winter as summertide\u2014\nNever will I renounce the pledge; thereby will I abide.\u2019\n\u201cThen thought the Moorish maiden that unto her I swore.\nOne night, at fall of darkness, she opened the dungeon door\nAnd led me out of the dungeon, and Dapple from the hold,\nAnd a better horse for herself. On both were holsters full of gold;\nShe brought a silver-hilted sword. On the horses we laid hand,\nAnd forthwith galloped onward over the Moorish land.\nWhen the dawn shone, my mother, I sat me down to rest;\nAnd the Moorish maid, with her black arms she clasped me to her breast.\nWhen I looked on her, my mother, she was black and her teeth were white,\nAnd it was a thing unpleasing and dreadful in my sight.\nThe silver-hilted saber forth from the sheath I drew;\nI smote her under her silken belt; the blade cut through and through.\nI seized on Dapple; still the head of the Moorish maid spake on:\n\u2018My brother Marko, wretched lad, leave me not here alone.\u2019\nThen, mother, I sinned in the sight of God, but gained much gold and gear,\nWhereby the monasteries and churches fair I rear.\u201d","title":"PRINCE MARKO AND THE DAUGHTER OF THE MOORISH KING","type":"page"}