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) ==References==