Songs of the border warriors

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The songs of the border warriors ( Albanian  Këngë Kreshnikësh or Cikli i Kreshnikëve ) are part of the cycle of traditional Albanian epic songs. Orally handed down by bards , they found their final form in the 17th or 18th century. The songs were first written in the early 20th century by the Franciscans Shtjefën Gjeçovi and Bernardin Palaj . Palaj was probably the first when he published it in Albanian in 1937 . Robert Elsie was the first to translate it into English in 2004 . The traditional Albanian bards who recite the songs by heart are among the last of their kind in modern Europe.

history

The songs come from the South Slavic environment and were translated into the Albanian environment by bilingual singers - some say back. Studies show that the songs passed down orally by the Albanian bards date from the 17th and 18th centuries. When broadcasting from the southern Slavic milieu of Bosnia , the songs were not simply translated from Serbian , but were adapted independently to the northern Albanian highlands.

Some Albanian scholars deviate from the assumption that the songs date from before the Slavic immigration. Among other things, they address the incursion of foreign peoples into this region.

Pre-war studies

The Franciscan priest Shtjefën Gjeçovi, who was the first to write down the Kanun , also collected and wrote down the songs of the border warriors. After 1919, Gjeçovi's work was continued by the priest Bernandin Palaj. Both Gjeçovi and Palaj traveled through the mountains on foot to find the bards and record the songs. The book Këngë Kreshnikësh dhe Legenda (German: songs of the border warriors and legends ) appeared as the first publication in 1937 after Gjeçovi's death. It was later included in the book Visaret e Kombit ( English Treasures of the Nation ) (German: Treasures of the Nation ).

At the same time, when efforts were being made to collect the songs in Albania , Yugoslav scholars also began to be interested in the bards of the Sanjak and Bosnia, who were ignorant of reading . That piqued the interest of Milman Parry , a Harvard University lecturer specializing in Homer , and his assistant Albert Lord. During a year-long stay in Bosnia (1934/35) Parry and Lord recorded 12,500 texts.

Of the five bards accepted, four were Albanians: Salih Ugljanin, Djemal Zogic, Sulejman Makic and Alija Fjuljanin. These singers, who came from Novi Pazar and Sanjak , could perform their songs in both Albanian and Serbian-Croatian .

In 1937, shortly after Parry's death, Lord traveled to Albania . He started to learn Albanian and traveled all over the country collecting the Albanian hero songs. They are collected in the Milman Parry Collection at Harvard University. Parry said the following about his company:

“When we were in Novi Pazar, Parry recorded some Albanian songs by a singer who performed in both languages. The musical instrument he used to accompany the songs was the gusle (Albanian Lahuta ), but the line is shorter than the Serbian ten-syllable and a primitive way of rhyming is normal. It was clear that studies on the exchange of structure and transitions between these two poems should be fruitful, since it can show what happens when orally transmitted poetry transfers from one language group to another neighboring one. However, in 1935 we did not have the time to collect sufficient material and learn the Albanian language. When I was in Dubrovnik in the summer of 1937 , I had the opportunity to learn Albanian. And in September and October of this year I traveled through the mountains of northern Albania, from Shkodra to Kukës via Boga , Theth , Abat and Tropoja . On the way back I chose a more southerly route. I gathered around a hundred local narrative songs - most of them short, but some between 500 and 1000 lines long. We found that some songs occur in both the Serbo-Croatian and Albanian traditions and that some of the Muslim heroes of Yugoslav poetry, such as Mujo and Halili Hrnjica and Đerzelez Alija, also appear in Albanian. There is still a lot of work to be done in this area before we can say exactly how the two traditions relate to one another. "

Postwar Studies

Research into Albanian literature resumed in the 1950s with the establishment of the Albanian Scientific Institute, the forerunner of the Albanian Academy of Sciences . The founding of the Folklore Institute in Tirana in 1961 was of great importance for the ongoing research and publication on topics of folklore on a high scientific level. In addition, the establishment of the Albanian Institute ( Albanian  Instituti Albanologjik ) in Pristina contributed to the publication of some works on the Albanian epic.

The Serbo-Croatian epic seems to have died out since the time of Parry and Lord, as there are no more bards reciting these songs while the Albanian epic is still alive. There are still significant numbers of Lahutars in Albania, Kosovo and also in the Albanian areas of Montenegro . It is believed that these men will be the last traditional indigenous singers of epic verse in Europe.

Lined up in a row, the songs form a long poem, similar to the Finnish Kalevala , which was compiled and published in 1835 by Elias Lönnrot from Finnish and Karelian folklore .

The songs of the border warriors are considered to be the defining inspiration for Gjergj Fishta's epic Lahuta e Malcis .

Known songs

  • Martesa e Mujit (Muji's Wedding)
  • Fuqia e Mujit (Muji's Power)
  • Orët e Mujit (Muji's hours)
  • Ajkuna qan Omerin (Ajkuna mourns Omer)
  • Martesa e Halilit (Halili's wedding)
  • Muji e tri zanat e malit (Muji and the Zanen from the mountain)
  • Halili pret Pajo Hashashi (Halili is waiting for Pajo Hashashi)

Gjergj Elez Alia

One of the most famous songs in the cycle is that of Gjergj Elez Alia, the warrior who lay in a sick bed at home for nine years with nine wounds on his body. When he received the news that Balozi i Zi (the black knight) had come out of the sea and was killing people, Gjergj rises and kills the Balozi.

swell

  • Robert Elsie , Janice Mathie-Heck: Songs of the Frontier Warriors . Bolchazy-Carducci, Wauconda 2004, ISBN 0-86516-412-6 .
  • Bernardin Palaj: Eposi i kreshnikëve dhe legjenda . Ed .: Donat Kurti. Reprint edition. Plejad, Tirana 2005, ISBN 99943-640-9-X (2 volumes).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Elsie, Mathie-Heck (2004), p. Xvi ("From this and from conspicuous Slavic terms in some of the songs, it would seem evident that we are dealing with the body of oral material which, probably after centuries of evolution, crystallized in a southern Slavic milieu and which was then transmitted by bilingual singers to (some would say back to) an Albanian milieu. ").
  2. ^ Elsie, Mathie-Heck (2004), p. V.
  3. ^ Elsie, Mathie-Heck (2004), p. Xvii ("Despite transmission from a Bosnian Slav milieu, the Songs of Frontier Warriors are by no means simply translations of Serbo-Croatian epic verse.").
  4. ↑ Tirta, Mark .: Mitologjia Santander Shqiptare . Akademia e Shkencave e Shqipërisë Instituti i Kulturës Popullore, Dega e Etnologjisë, Tiranë 2004, ISBN 99927-938-9-9 .
  5. ^ Elsie, Mathie-Heck (2004), p. Xi.
  6. ^ Elsie, Mathie-Heck (2004), p. Xii.
  7. ^ Elsie, Mathie-Heck (2004), pp. Xii – xiii.
  8. ^ Elsie, Mathie-Heck (2004), pp. Xiii.
  9. ^ Elsie, Mathie-Heck (2004), p. Xiv.
  10. ^ Elsie, Mathie-Heck (2004), p. Viii.