Category: Albanian Legends

Baba Tomor or Father Tomor is the personification of Mount Tomor, a mountain range which includes the highest peak in central Albania at an altitude of 2416 m. Mount Tomor is considered the home of the gods in central Albanian popular belief. The peasants of the region swear by Father Tomor, Alb. “për Baba Tomor,”…

Bektashi holy man and legendary figure, Sari Salltëk, known in Turkish as Sari Saltuk, is said to have been either a dervish at the court of Sultan Orhan (1326-1360) or a direct disciple of Haji Bektash Veli, founder of the Bektashi order. It is more likely, however, that he was a figure of early Balkan…

Aga Ymeri is a well-known legendary figure of northern Albanian oral literature, known in southern Albania as Ymer Ago, among the Italo-Albanians as Konstandini i Vogëlith ‘Little Constantine’ and in Greek Akritic verse as Konstantinos o Mikros ‘Little Constantine.’ Aga Ymeri of the Muslim tradition and Little Constantine of the Byzantine-Greek tradition evince the motif…

The legend of Gjergj Elez Alia is one of the most popular in Albanian folklore. This is a prose rendition, taken from Mitrush Kuteli (1907-1967), of the original recording in the form of epic verse. Gjergj Elez Alia had always been the greatest of heroes. For years he had been the strongest in the land…

The following texts are prose renditions of the Cycle of Mujo and Halili, which was originally recorded in the form of epic verse as part of the Songs of the Frontier Warriors (Këngë Kreshnikësh). The prose versions here are taken from Mitrush Kuteli (1907-1967). Mujo’s Strength Many years ago there lived a mountain man in…

The legend of Rozafat Castle, now the ruins of a no doubt originally Illyrian fortification soaring above the town of Shkodra in northern Albania, involves one of the grimmest motifs of Balkan legendry, that of immurement. The story of a woman being walled in during the construction of a bridge or castle in order to…

Scanderbeg or Skanderbeg (Alb. Skënderbeu) was an Albanian prince (1405-1468) and is now considered the national hero of the Albanians. His real name was George Castrioti (Alb. Gjergj Kastrioti). Sent by his father as a hostage to Sultan Murad II (r. 1421-1451), he was converted to Islam, and after education in Edirne was given the…

This Italo-Albanian legend evinces the motif of the reunification of brother and sister, which exist in several variations in Albanian and Balkan folklore. Action in this version takes place in Koron, now Koroni in the Morea (Peloponnese), under Ottoman rule. A maiden, called Shega, meaning ‘pomegranate,’ is kidnapped by an Ottoman janissary called Vllastar, meaning…

This is a now largely forgotten tale from central Albania, recorded in the late nineteenth century. Nderenje, now Ndroq, is a small town on the road from Tirana to Kavaja. At a time when the towns of Kruja and Tirana were in feud with one another, there lived in Kruja a poor Muslim whose son…

Travelling through southern Albania in 1670, Ottoman traveller Evliya Chelebi (1611-1684) recounts the legend of a holy man venerated in Gjirokastra at the time. When Ali Dost Dede died, the whole population of Gjirokastra, convinced that he had expired of the plague, took to the hills and the villages in the countryside, leaving the blessed…