Ivo Senjanin

Ivo Senjanin (died 1612) was a Croatian uskok and hajduk who led numerous military exploits against the Ottoman Turks. Due to few historical sources, much of what is known about him today is mainly attributed to legend and folklore detailing his life and accomplishments with a medieval romanticism.

Life
Ivo Senjanin was born Ivan Vlatković sometime in the 16th century. As a hajduk captain, he fought against the Ottomans all over the Balkans, including Albania, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Croatia. He fought battles in Lepanto in 1571, in Cyprus, Egypt, Morea, the Battle of Sisak in 1593, the Long War (1593–1606) around Klis and Petrinja, in modern Croatia. He later became an uskok, a type of pirate while in Senj, where he was arrested for stealing and ultimately found guilty and executed in Karlovac.

Legend
Today there are many folk-songs and gusle poems (ballads) written in honour of Ivo due to his heroic legacy as a hajduk and uskok.

Death Ballad
Another ballad recalls how on one occasion he was said to have vanquished fifty thousand Turks with only eight hundred men. His mother envisioned his death in a dream which she relayed to the local priest: while at church, Ivo rode up on his bloodied horse to the door, his severed right hand in his left, and severely wounded in seventeen places. She assisted him off the horse and tended to his injuries, where Ivo recounted how he and his men had been journeying home from Italy with a hoard of treasure when they were assailed by the Turks multiple times. Although they escaped unharmed the first two times, the third proved fatal for all his men. While finishing his tale he was blessed by the priest and soon died in his mother's arms.

The Death of Ivo (A Croat Ballad)

A Dream Has Dreamt the Mother of Ivo.

Darkness she saw fall upon Senj,

The clear heavens burst asunder,

The shimmering moon fell down to earth,

On the church of St. Rose in the midst of Senj.

And the stars were swept across the sky,

And the dawn rose up all red with blood,

And the cuckoo bird she heard a-calling,

In the midst of Senj, on Senj's white church.

When from her dream the dame awakened,

Her staff she took in her right hand,

And went forthwith to St. Rose's church;

And there she told the Archpriest Nedeljko,

Told him all that she had dreamed.

And when the old man had heard her out,

'Twas thus he did expound the dream:

Hear me, O hear me, aged mother!

'Twas an evil dream, and worse shall befall.

That darkness fell on the town of Senj,

Is that desolate it shall remain.

That the clear heavens burst asunder

And the shimmering moon fell down to earth,

It is that Ivo is to die.

That the stars were swept across the sky,

It is that many a widow shall be.

That the dawn rose up all red with blood,

It is that thou shalt be left to weep:

That the cuckoo bird by St. Rose sang,

It is that the Turks shall plunder it,

And me in my old age they shall slay.

(Prof. Seton-Watson)