''Elegy for Kosovo'' ( sq, Tri këngë zie për Kosovën) is an
Albanian
Albanian may refer to:
*Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular:
**Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans
**Albanian language
**Albanian culture
**Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...
novel written by
Ismail Kadare
Ismail Kadare (; spelled Ismaïl Kadaré in French; born on 28 January 1936) is an Albanian novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter, and playwright. He is a leading international literary figure and intellectual. He focused on poetry until the pu ...
.
Historical background
![Ismail Kadare](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Ismail_Kadare.jpg)
In 1389, the
Ottoman army
The military of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nun silahlı kuvvetleri) was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire.
Army
The military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the ...
invaded
Kosovo
Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
, in the
Battle of Kosovo
The Battle of Kosovo ( tr, Kosova Savaşı; sr, Косовска битка) took place on 15 June 1389 between an army led by the Serbian Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović and an invading army of the Ottoman Empire under the command of Sultan ...
. The battle pitted the Ottoman army, under the leadership of Sultan Murad I, against an assortment of
Serbian soldiers, led by the
Serbian Prince Lazar
Lazar Hrebeljanović ( sr-cyr, Лазар Хребељановић; ca. 1329 – 15 June 1389) was a medieval List of Serbian monarchs, Serbian ruler who created the largest and most powerful state on the territory of the disintegrated Serbia ...
. Within two days, the Ottomans had defeated the Balkans and taken Kosovo. The battle has often been used to promote Serbian and Albanian
nationalism
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...
, most famously by
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević (, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the president of Serbia within Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1997 (originally the Socialist Republic of Serbia, a constituent republic of ...
and
Ramush Haradinaj
Ramush Haradinaj (; born 3 July 1968) is a Kosovo Albanian politician, leader of the AAK party, and the third prime minister of Kosovo. He is a former officer and leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), and previously served as Prime Minister ...
.
Kadare's novel is a nationalistic literary re-imagining of this battle. Although based on historical facts the novel is
historical fiction
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...
.
Characters
*
Sultan Murad I
Murad I ( ota, مراد اول; tr, I. Murad, Murad-ı Hüdavendigâr (nicknamed ''Hüdavendigâr'', from fa, خداوندگار, translit=Khodāvandgār, lit=the devotee of God – meaning " sovereign" in this context); 29 June 1326 – 15 Ju ...
: Leader of the Ottoman army during the Battle of Kosovo, where he dies. His body is left buried in Kosovo.
*
Prince Lazar: Leader of the Balkan army during the Battle of Kosovo and prince of Serbia. He is captured during the battle, a fact that despairs the Serbian minstrel, Vladan.
* Gjorg Shrkreli: The Albanian minstrel brought to the Battle to sing Albanian epics. After the battle, he flees Kosovo with Vladan, Manolo, and a group of minstrels and fugitives.
* Vladan: The Serbian minstrel brought to the Battle of Kosovo to sing Serbian epics. After the battle, he flees Kosovo with Gjorg, Manolo, and a group of minstrels and fugitives.
* Manolo: a Walachian storyteller traveling with Gjorg and Vladan, who is invited with them to play in the lord's castle.
* The "Great Lady": an old woman attending the lord's banquet at which Gjorg, Vladan, and Manolo sing. She is very touched by their storytelling and asks that they sing at her funeral. She is found dead the next morning.
Plot
The novel is split into three sections: 1) The Ancient Battle,
2) The Great Lady and 3) The Royal Prayer.
1. The Ancient Battle
This section centers on Kadare's telling of the Battle of Kosovo, and the Balkan defeat. Serbian Prince Lazar leads the Balkan army, a group of alliances and scattered nationalities brought together by the King's strategical diplomacy. The united Balkan army faces the Ottoman Empire, intent on invading and conquering Kosovo. The night before the battle, the many Balkan princes gather together to hear their respective
minstrel
A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer who ...
s sing traditional
epic poetry
An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants.
...
that details the history of each nation. The princes laugh at the minstrels, who sing about past wars against each other. Serbian minstrels, for instance, sing "“Serbs, to arms! The Albanians are taking Kosovo from us!” while the Albanian minstrels sing “A black fog has descended – Albanians, to arms, Kosovo is falling to the damned Serb.”
The next day, the Balkan army is defeated by the Ottoman Turks, although the Ottoman
Sultan Murad I
Murad I ( ota, مراد اول; tr, I. Murad, Murad-ı Hüdavendigâr (nicknamed ''Hüdavendigâr'', from fa, خداوندگار, translit=Khodāvandgār, lit=the devotee of God – meaning " sovereign" in this context); 29 June 1326 – 15 Ju ...
is killed in the battle. Prince Lazar is captured by the Ottomans.
2. The Great Lady
This section portrays the aftermath of the Balkan defeat, through the perspective of two minstrels, one Albanian (Gjorg) and one Serbian (Vladan), forced to leave the battlefield together with the rest of the minstrels who had been at the battle. Despite the past
conflict between Albania and Serbia, the two must unite and come to terms with the breakdown of the Balkan states. Both seem to be aware that failure to unite in the face of a common enemy was the cause of the Balkans' defeat.
The lost battle weighs heavily on both minstrels, Vladan even throwing away his ''
gusla
The gusle ( sr-cyrl, гусле) or lahuta ( sq, lahutë) is a single-stringed musical instrument (and musical style) traditionally used in the Dinarides region of Southeastern Europe (in the Balkans). The instrument is always accompanied by s ...
'' in despair. In their journey, the minstrels pick up a group of
Hungarian fugitives, on the run from the battle. The fugitives ask the minstrels what it was like to sing for the many princes before the battle, and the minstrels respond that their divisive songs garnered laughs. As Hungarians, the fugitives do not understand the immense conflict between Albania and Serbia, and the reasons for this laughter. In a gesture of unity, Gjorg allows Vladan to play his ''lahuta'', the Albanian version of a ''gusla,'' having lost his own instrument.
One fugitive with the group turns out to be a
Turk, who only wishes to convert to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
, without fully renouncing his
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
ic faith. For attempting to have two faiths, the man is burned at the stake.
One day, Gjorg, Vladan, and Manolo are invited to a castle whose lord wishes to hear them sing. Upon hearing their songs, still calling for war against each other, the lord denounces them. But one old lady begs that the guests do not insult the minstrels and instead asks that they tell the room a story, which she enjoys very much. The next morning, she is found dead and the minstrels are asked to sing at her funeral.
3. The Royal Prayer
The final section is told from the point of view of Sultan Murad I, as he lies dead in his grave on the Field of the Blackbirds where the Battle of Kosovo took place. He curses the Balkans for forcing him to rest on their land, rather than the land he calls home. As the centuries pass, the Sultan notes that rather than attempting to unite and "build something together" the Albanians and Serbians continue to wage wars over Kosovo.
Themes
* Call for Western intervention in the affairs of the Balkans
* The immortalization of ancient history through oral traditions like epic poetry
Publication History
Kadare published the original, Albanian novel in 1998, with the title Elegji për Kosovën.
It was translated into
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
by
Peter Constantine
Peter Constantine (born 1963) is a British and American literary translator who has translated literary works from German, Russian, French, Modern Greek, Ancient Greek, Italian, Albanian, Dutch, and Slovene.
Biography
Constantine was born in Lo ...
and published by
Arcade Pub. in 2000.
[Kadare, Ismail, and Peter Constantine. ''Elegy for Kosovo''. New York: Arcade Pub, 2000.]
References
{{Ismail Kadare
2000 Albanian novels
Novels set in Kosovo
Novels by Ismail Kadare
Historical novels
Fiction set in the 1380s
Cultural depictions of Serbian monarchs
Onufri Publishing House books
Arcade Publishing books