Horse Milos Obilica Ždralin

What Aleksandar Makedonski and Bukefal are for Greek history and mythology, are Miloš Obilić and his Ždralin for ours, Serbian.

Milos Obilic was a Serbian knight from the Middle Ages who is often mentioned in epic poems. He is the knight who killed the Turkish Sultan Murat I in the Battle of Kosovo. He was celebrated as a hero of supernatural birth and strength, his mother was a fairy and his father a dragon.

Zdralin, Miloš Obilić's horse, was a hero as well as his master. Together they were followed by fame, and together they perished. It is the only legendary Serbian horse that died in battle. According to epic poems, Zdralin was a tall horse, even so tall that he looked like a giant among other horses. And they were afraid of him. That is why Milos had a few duels and they lasted for a short time, because no one had the strength to fight against such a horse and hero for longer.

Although Zdralin was a powerful horse, he could not fly, but he did not need that, considering his size. Miloš Obilić was an armored man, all in armor and iron, so he put armor on his horse as well. Neither of them was ever scratched, let alone wounded. He simply destroyed everything in front of him with his enormity, so Miloš was unreachable for his opponents. Zdralin is not from the royal stud farm, although Milos Obilic was a court man. He could have chosen horses for himself and his armored men, as the commander of the border units, in the imperial stables, but he did not do that. He had his own stable, as a high-ranking officer and a nobleman. Milos selected horses in it himself. Zdralin was also drawn there.

The chronicles say that Miloš's stable was located on the northern slope of the Cer mountain, on the place where before that, in the time of Emperor Trajan, there was a Roman camp, which is still called Konjuša.

At the time of the Battle of Kosovo, Milos Obilic was forty and Zdralin was ten. They were both in their prime. The work they performed will be remembered for its historical significance and the way it was performed. It is a lie, according to the latest archival data, that Miloš approached Tsar Murat on fraud, pretending to be a surrender, because no one armed could approach the Tsar, and at least one defector from the opposing army. Milos came to Murat on his Zdralin, breaking through the Turkish army with his armored men. Miloš's surrender was invented by the Turks because out of shame they could not admit that someone managed to break through to their sultan. In that way, they wanted to diminish the feat of Miloš and his knights, and thus Ždralin. That miracle of horses and heroes astonished the Turks and their horses, so Miloš used that current Turkish confusion and fear and came to Murat. Zdralin trampled everything in front of him, while Milos cut everything around him.

Both Zdralin and Milos died in the same place, in the most famous place in the country of Serbia - Gazimestan. Thousands of Turkish horses and heroes attacked the two of them, who fell, fighting, both to the last breath. Zdralin died as a man, a knight, which earned him his name in the list of Kosovo knights. It doesn't matter what the horse is, because his death was heroic.