Albanian folklore is thefolk tradition of theAlbanian people. Albanian traditions have beenorally transmitted – through memory systems that have survived intact into modern times – down the generations and are still very much alive in the mountainous regions ofAlbania,Kosovo and westernNorth Macedonia, as well as among theArbëreshë inItaly and theArvanites inGreece, and theArbanasi inCroatia.[1]
The most important artistic festival of Albanian folklore – theGjirokastër National Folk Festival – takes place every five years atGjirokastër Castle inGjirokastër, southernAlbania.[2]
Albanian traditions have been handed downorally across generations.[3] They have been preserved through traditional memory systems that have survived intact into modern times in Albania, a phenomenon that is explained by the lack of state formation among Albanians and their ancestors – theIllyrians, being able to preserve their"tribally" organized society. This distinguished them from civilizations such asAncient Egypt,Minoans andMycenaeans, who underwent state formation and disrupted their traditional memory practices.[4]
Albanian traditional practices, beliefs, myths and legends have been sporadically described in written sources since the 15th century CE,[5][6][7] but the systematic collection of Albanian customs and folklore material began only in the 19th century.[8]
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Albanian myths and legends are already attested in works written inAlbanian as early as the 15th century;[7] however, the systematic collection of Albanian folklore material began only in the 19th century.[8]
One of the first Albanian collectors from Italy was theArbëresh writerGirolamo De Rada who—already imbued with a passion for his Albanian lineage in the first half of the 19th century—began collecting folklore material at an early age. Another important Arbëresh publisher of Albanian folklore was the linguistDemetrio Camarda, who included in his 1866Appendice al Saggio di grammatologia comparata (Appendix to the Essay on the Comparative Grammar) specimens of prose, and in particular, Arbëreshë folk songs fromSicily andCalabria, Albania proper and Albanian settlements inGreece. De Rada and Camarda were the two main initiators of the Albanian nationalist cultural movement in Italy.[9] InGreece, theArvanite writerAnastas Kullurioti published Albanian folklore material in his 1882Albanikon alfavêtarion / Avabatar arbëror (Albanian Spelling Book).[10]
TheAlbanian National Awakening (Rilindja) gave rise to collections offolklore material inAlbania in the second half of the 19th century. One of the early Albanian collectors of Albanian folklore from Albania proper wasZef Jubani. From 1848 he served as interpreter to French consul inShkodra,Louis Hyacinthe Hécquard, who was very interested in, and decided to prepare a book on, northern Albanian folklore. They travelled through the northern Albanian mountains and recorded folkloric materials which were published in French translation in the 1858 Hécquard's pioneeringHistoire et description de la Haute Albanie ou Guégarie (History and Description of High Albania or Gegaria"). Jubani's own first collection of folklore—the original Albanian texts of the folk songs published by Hécquard—was lost in the flood that devastated the city of Shkodra on 13 January 1866. Jubani published in 1871 hisRaccolta di canti popolari e rapsodie di poemi albanesi (Collection of Albanian Folk Songs and Rhapsodies)—the first collection ofGheg folk songs and the first folkloric work to be published by an Albanian who lived in Albania.[11]
Another important Albanian folklore collector wasThimi Mitko, a prominent representative of theAlbanian community in Egypt. He began to take an interest in 1859 and started recording Albanian folklore material from the year 1866, providing also folk songs, riddles and tales forDemetrio Camarda's collection. Mitko's own collection—including 505 folk songs, and 39 tales and popular sayings, mainly from southern Albania—was finished in 1874 and published in the 1878 Greek-Albanian journalAlvaniki melissa / Belietta Sskiypetare (The Albanian Bee). This compilation was a milestone of Albanian folk literature being the first collection of Albanian material of scholarly quality. Indeed, Mitko compiled and classified the material according to genres, including sections on fairy tales, fables, anecdotes, children's songs, songs of seasonal festivities, love songs, wedding songs, funerary songs, epic and historical songs. He compiled his collection withSpiro Risto Dine who emigrated to Egypt in 1866. Dino himself publishedValët e Detit (The Waves of the Sea), which, at the time of its publication in 1908, was the longest printed book in the Albanian language. The second part of Dine's collection was devoted to folk literature, including love songs, wedding songs, funerary songs, satirical verse, religious and didactic verses, folk tales, aphorisms, rhymes, popular beliefs and mythology.[12]
The first Albanian folklorist to collect the oral tradition in a more systematic manner for scholarly purposes was theFranciscan priest and scholarShtjefën Gjeçovi.[13] Two other Franciscan priests,Bernardin Palaj andDonat Kurti, along with Gjeçovi, collected folk songs on their travels through the northern Albanian mountains and wrote articles onGheg Albanian folklore andtribal customs. Palaj and Kurti published in 1937—on the 25th anniversary ofAlbanian independence—the most important collection of Albanian epic verse,Kângë kreshnikësh dhe legenda (Songs of the Frontier Warriors and Legends), in the series calledVisaret e Kombit (The Treasures of the Nation).[14][15]
From the second half of the 20th century much research has been done by theAcademy of Albanological Studies of Tirana and by theAlbanological Institute of Prishtina. Albanian scholars have published numerous collections of Albanian oral tradition, but only a small part of this material has been translated into other languages.[10] A substantial contribution in this direction has been made by theAlbanologistRobert Elsie.
Foreign scholars first provided Europe with Albanian folklore in the second half of the 19th century, and thus set the beginning for the scholarly study of Albanian oral tradition.[16] Albanian folk songs and tales were recorded by the Austrian consul inJanina,Johann Georg von Hahn, who travelled throughout Albania and the Balkans in the middle of the 19th century and in 1854 he publishedAlbanesische Studien (Albanian Studies). The German physicianKarl H. Reinhold collected Albanian folklore material from Albanian sailors while he was serving as a doctor in the Greek navy and in 1855 he publishedNoctes Pelasgicae (Pelasgian Nights). The folkloristGiuseppe Pitrè published in 1875 a selection of Albanian folk tales from Sicily inFiabe, novelle e racconti popolari siciliani (Sicilian Fables, Short Stories and Folk Tales).[16][10]
The next generation of scholars who became interested in collecting Albanian folk material were mainly philologists, among them theIndo-European linguists concerned about the study of the then little known Albanian language. The French consul in Janina andThessalonika,Auguste Dozon, published Albanian folk tales and songs initially in the 1879Manuel de la langue chkipe ou albanaise (Manual of the Shkip or Albanian Language) and in the 1881Contes albanais, recueillis et traduits (Albanian Tales, Collected and Translated). The Czech linguist and professor ofRomance languages and literature,Jan Urban Jarnik, published in 1883 Albanian folklore material from the region ofShkodra inZur albanischen Sprachenkunde (On Albanian Linguistics) andPříspěvky ku poznání nářečí albánských uveřejňuje (Contributions to the Knowledge of Albanian Dialects). The German linguist and professor at the University of Graz,Gustav Meyer, published in 1884 fourteen Albanian tales inAlbanische Märchen (Albanian Tales), and a selection ofTosk tales in the 1888Albanian grammar (1888). His folklore material was republished in hisAlbanesische Studien (Albanian Studies). Danish Indo-Europeanist and professor at the University of Copenhagen,Holger Pedersen, visited Albania in 1893 to learn the language and to gather linguistic material. He recorded thirty-five Albanian folk tales from Albania andCorfu and published them in the 1895Albanesische Texte mit Glossar (Albanian Texts with Glossary). Other Indo-European scholars who collected Albanian folklore material were German linguistsGustav Weigand andAugust Leskien.[16][10]
In the first half of the 20th century, British anthropologistEdith Durham visited northern Albania and collected folklore material on theAlbanian tribal society. She published in 1909 her notable workHigh Albania, regarded as one of the best English-language books on Albania ever written.[17] From 1923 onward, Scottish scholar and anthropologistMargaret Hasluck collected Albanian folklore material when she lived in Albania. She published sixteen Albanian folk-stories translated in English in her 1931Këndime Englisht–Shqip or Albanian–English Reader.[18]
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