The Founding of the Kastrati Tribe
The legend of the founding of the Kastrati tribe in the mountains of northern Albania is preserved, in one version, by the German scholar Johann Georg von Hahn who heard it from a Father Gabriel in Shkodra in 1850. Legend has preserved the name of the ancestral father of the Kastrati. He was called Detal […]
The Founding of the Kelmendi Tribe
The legend of the founding of the Kelmendi tribe in the mountains of northern Albania is preserved, in one version, by the German scholar Johann Georg von Hahn who heard it from a Father Gabriel in Shkodra in 1850. Many years ago, there was a rich herdsman in the region of Triepshi. A young man […]
Revenge Taken on Kastrati— a Legend of the Triepshi Tribe
The following legend of blood feuding between the Triepshi and Kastrati tribes in the Montenegrin-Albanian border region was recorded by the Montenegrin warrior, Marko Miljanov (1833-1901), in his book “Life and Customs of the Albanians” (Život i običaje Arbanasa), Belgrade 1907. “There is a tale about Albanian blood feuding from ancient times. It is as […]
The Boy and the Earthly Beauty
Once upon a time there was a very rich man who had a wife and a son. When he was about to die, he gave his son some advice, the most important part of which was never to go to the village where the Earthly Beauty lived. The boy grew up and lived happy and […]
The Scurfhead
Once upon a time there was a king who had three sons. He also had a beautiful garden with a quince tree in it which bore only three quinces a year. Every time the tree bore fruit, a dragon came by and gobbled them up. The king desperately wanted to eat one of the quinces […]
The Three Friends and the Earthly Beauty
A man died leaving his wife with child. Six months later she gave birth to a son. Though they were very poor, the woman raised the son well. When he turned fifteen, the youth asked his mother if she had any souvenirs to remember his father by. The mother replied that his father had left […]
The Three Brothers and the Three Sisters
Once upon a time there lived three brothers and three sisters. The brothers married their sisters off, one to the sun, one to the moon and one to the south wind. After the sisters had been married for some time, the brothers said to one another, “Let us go and see how our sisters are […]
The Youth and the Maiden with Stars on their Foreheads and Crescents on their Breasts
Once upon a time there was a king who had three daughters. When he died, another man mounted the throne and ordered that no one in the country was to leave a light burning on the night of his coronation. Then the new king put on a disguise and went out into the streets alone. […]
The Shoes
Once upon a time there was a king who had a wife and a daughter. When his wife became ill and knew that she was going to die, she called her husband and said to him, “Order a pair of shoes from the shoemaker, not too big and not too small. Tell him to come and […]
The Girl who Became a Boy
Once upon a time there was a man who had three daughters. When the king called up soldiers for the war, the man had no sons to send. As he sat and pondered what to do, his eldest daughter approached him and inquired, “What are you thinking about, father?” He answered, “Leave me alone, daughter. The […]