Marko Tsepenkov

Marko Kostov Tsepenkov (Bulgarian and Macedonian: Марко Костов Цепенков; 1829 – 1920) was a Bulgarian folklorist from Ottoman Macedonia.[1] In his own time, he identified himself,[2] his compatriots[3] and his language as Bulgarian.[4][5][6][7][8][9]

Marko Tsepenkov

After WWII, his native dialect was reclassified as part of the newly codified Macedonian language, and according to the subsequently developed Macedonian historiography, he was an ethnic Macedonian writer and poet.[10] Nevertheless, according to the Macedonian researcher Blaže Ristovski, who was director of the Institute of folklore "Marko Cepenkov" in Skopje, there is no document where Tsepenkov presented himself as an ethnic Macedonian.[11]

Biography

His family moved to the town of Prilep from the nearby village of Oreovec. His father, Kosta, lived in Kruševo for some time before Marko was born in 1829. Since his father was a traveler, Tsepenkov earned the opportunity to travel. He lived in Ohrid and Struga and visited other places in the country by the time he was fourteen. Tsepenkov was educated in small Greek schools. In 1844 he moved to Prilep, where he attended the private school of Hadji pop Konstantin Dimkov and father Aleksa, for two years. He also became a tailor and while working in the shop he met a lot of people who would tell him folk stories. Tsepenkov was also a good narrator and knew a lot of folk stories. Since then he became a collector of folk stories and other folk works. In 1857 Tsepenkov was a teacher in Prilep. After he met Dimitar Miladinov he started collecting more and more folk works: songs, stories, riddles, and others. In that time he knew more than 150 stories and wrote one to two stories per week, as he mentions in his Autobiography. Marko Tsepenkov contacted with other figures of the Bulgarian National Revival period who noted down folklore, such as Kuzman Shapkarev and Metodi Kusev. He was influenced by the works of Georgi Rakovski, Vasil Cholakov, Ivan Blaskov and Dimitar Matov.[12]

He moved with his family to Sofia in 1888, where he was to live the rest of his life.[13] Here he was encouraged by Prof. Ivan Shishmanov, who includes his recordings in several volumes of the “Collection of works of the popular spirit” (SBNU). In this collection, published until in 1900, Tsepenkov publishes many tales and legends, songs, a great number of beliefs and curses, interpretations of dreams, magic formulas, habits and rites, proverbs, riddles and folklore for children. Between 1896 and 1911, he published about 10 of his poems and his play "Cane Voivoda," which confirmed his own creative and literary pledge. He also wrote about a dozen songs with patriotic themes, and his "Autobiography". Tsepenkov was in close relations with his countryman, then Metropolitan of Stara Zagora, Metodi Kusev.

Legacy

The "Institute of Folklore" of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences works today with the complete edition in six volumes of these folk materials. His collected folk works were published in ten books in Skopje in 1972.[10] A selection of his folktales have been published in English, such as 19th Century Macedonian Folktales by the Macquarie University in Sydney in 1991. In his honor, the Macedonian institute for folklore is named after him.[14]

References
  1. Stojan Genchev, "The Ethnographic Interests of Marko Tsepenkov" in "Bulgarian ethnology", 1980, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, issue No: 4, pp. 49-56, Language: Bulgarian. The article paints the picture of Marko Tspenekov, a Bulgarian of the National Revival period, and an indefatigable collector of folk art and folklore. The importance of his work for a complete study of Bulgarian folk culture in the second half of the 19th century is shown. Marko Tsepenkov's relations with other Bulgarians of the National Revival period who noted down folklore, such as D. Miladinov and K. Shapkarev are shown, as is the influence which the works of G. S. Rakovski, V. Cholakov, I. Bluskov and D. Matov had on him and his collaboration with Ivan Shishmanov. In consequence of this research work Marko Tsepenkov's place in the general process of studying Bulgarian folk culture, a process connected with the Bulgarian National Revival is established, as well as his place in the history of Bulgarian Ethnography.
  2. A letter from 1917 signed by M. Tsepenkov as a "Bulgarian book-seller" in: Macedonia. Documents and materials, Sofia 1978, III, N 143
  3. Facsimile from the last poem in his "Autobiography", where Cepenкov wrote: "I will leave an etern remembrance to my kind Bulgarian nation"
  4. "Concise encyclopedia of languages of the world", Keith Brown, Sarah Ogilvie, Elsevier, 2008, ISBN 0-08-087774-5, p.120.
  5. In Cepenkov's tales a Macedonian speaking Christian is a Bugarin, a Macedonian speaking Muslim is a Pomak ... and the Macedonian language is called Nashincki or Bugarcki. "Developing cultural identity in the Balkans: convergence vs divergence", Raymond Detrez, Pieter Plas, Peter Lang, 2005, ISBN 90-5201-297-0, p. 27.
  6. "Еве ми трага од лугье — си рекол сам со себе Сильан. Арно ами що знам, що лугье кье бидат? Ако се[т] бугари, арно, — кье се разберем; ами ако се[т] турци или власи, или арнаути, како кье се разбирам, за да сборуам?" Фолклорно наследство: Вълшебни и новелистични приказки, Марко Костов Цепенков, Institut za folklor (Balgarska akademia na naukite) Тодор Живков, Издател Академично издателство "Проф. Марин Дринов", 2001 стр. 127.
  7. "Си тоарил еден Бугарин еден товар и поминал пред баждарница за да влези во градо. Излегол баждарџијата да му сака баждар, арно ама не знаел по бугарцки да зборува, ами турцки". Simpozium posveten na životot i deloto na Marko Cepenkov, Prilep, 15-17 noemvri 1979, Blaže Koneski, Издател Društvo za nauka i umetnost, 1981, стр. 115.
  8. ..."Од сликовницата за Силјан Штркот, една од најпознатите македонски народни приказни, децата може да научат дека нивниот омилен јунак, прилепчанецот Силјан, е Бугарин. Во изданието на издавачот "Лист", Силјан признава дека неговиот јазик е бугарски..." Силјан Штркот од Прилепско - Бугарин?! Весник "Дневник", Број 1770 од 18 март 2006 год. Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine
  9. Антонова-Василева, Л. Речник на прилепския говор (по материали от М. Цепенков). – В: Марко Цепенков. Фолклорно наследство. Т. I- IV. София. Акад. изд. “Проф. М. Дринов”, 1998 - 2007, 383-496.
  10. Archived copy. Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
  11. The director of UDBA for SR Macedonia Ivan Babamovski reports a conversation between agent "Niko" and Blaže Ristovski (then director of the Marko Cepenkov Institute of Folklore); "On February 28, 1974, I had an interview with the source who informed me about the contact he had with Dr. Blaže Ristovski, the director of the Institute of Folklore of the SRM... In front of "Niko" at the bureau was the 10th volume of the complete "Marko Cepenkov's works" published by "Makedonska kniga"... Ristovski asked him if he was reading the book, to which he received a confirmed answer. Then "Niko" told him that some things were confusing him and read him several works that said: "the inhabitants of Prilep are Bulgarians", "Macedonian Bulgarians" and similar things. Ristovski told him that he deliberately wrote the preface in the presented style, trying to show the historical and socio-economic moment of Cepenkov. There was not a single word ever, where Cepenkov presented himself as a Macedonian. He personally studied hundreds of documents, but never found any other material from the processing. This must not be an obstacle for us to present Cepenkov as a well-deserved cultural activist of Macedonia." For more see: Библиотека и издателство "Струмски". Блаже Ристовски от с. Гърничково, Кавадаречко, Вардарска Македония. "Службена белешка", Скопје, 1974 година.
  12. The ethnographic interests of Marko Tsepenkov, Bulgarian Ethnology (4/1980), Genchev, Stojan; Issue: 4/1980, Page Range: 49-56.
  13. Списание България - Македония, брой 4-5, 2009 г. 180 години от раждането на Марко Цепенков. Мисията: Събирач на приказки, пазител на духовни съкровища.
  14. Historical Dictionary of North Macedonia, Dimitar Bechev, Rowman & Littlefield, 2019, ISBN 9781538119624, 2nd ed., p. 68.
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