ABSTRACT
The Albanian folk tradition is rich in tales and legends. In this beautiful and tragic land, in a mountainous terrain close to the coasts of the Adriatic Sea in the southwestern Balkans, many kinds of impressive stories have flourished. In every region, storytellers have elaborated numerous subjects, motifs, and chimerical elements in their tales and legends. The inexhaustible mines of these ethnocultural traditions are found in the remote mountainous regions, where crystal-clear new fantasies emerged from the rocks, where until the twentieth century the sun, the “beauty of the sky,” was worshipped, and where the local population swears “on the sunlight.” Folk scholars who roam across those areas and meet highlanders who have lived in beautiful landscapes washed in sunlight and blue sky find themselves in the grip of overwhelming feelings.
