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This article seeks to clarify the often confused understanding of the Serbo-Croatian vila and elucidate her position within the archaic South Slavic world view. Through a survey of her functional traits within the Serbo-Croatian epics, the article attempts to typify her actions in the epic sphere, and weigh those against her conception in the folkloric sphere, making a case for the understanding and study of the vila as one distinct figure divided into two typological facets-one mythological in nature, the other a product of folk custom.
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Whether a casual reader or a scholar, anyone who works with Serbo-Croatian oral traditions will quickly learn the name of the vila. Drifting in a sea of Christian symbolism and static, stereotypical female characters, the vila (pl. vile) stands out in the corpora as extremely archaic, pagan, and unique. Yet, for all her appeal, the vila remains one of the most obscure and misunderstood characters in European mythology and folklore. Scholars following in the footsteps of Milman Parry and Albert Lord most often relegate her to footnotes, branding her a South Slavic nymph or fairy. Those who attempt to elucidate her character more thoroughly seem to produce uniformly contradictory opinions. This article will attempt to rectify and clarify the role of the vila in the Serbo-Croatian folk tradition by elucidating the position of the vila as existing in two typologically unique functions. This article advocates the need to split the conception of the vila into two distinct components before appropriate analyses can be performed. Where one figure exists on a folkloric level and deserves the title of nymph, the other vila, the vila of the epics (narodne pjesme/pesme in Croatian and Serbian, lit., folk songs) and ballads, represents a separate and unique figure with mythological implications. This article will act primarily as an outline of the functional traits of the vila as she appears in the Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian epics. By typifying her actions in the epic sphere and weighing them against her conception in the folkloric sphere, it will set forth an argument for isolating the two formats and will suggest opportunities for further enquiry and understanding.
An etymological comparison would be nothing but advantageous to such a study, were...