ALEXANDER THE GREAT ON ALBANIAN LEGENDS
Here I’d like to present some accounts of Rose Wilder Lane (1886 – 1968) from her marvelous book ‘The Peaks of Shala’ (1923) which contains her impressions during she visited Northern Albania. Let’s give a short biography of her.</p>
Rose Wilder Lane (December 5, 1886, De Smet, Dakota Territory October 30, 1968, Danbury, Connecticut) was an American journalist, travel writer, novelist, and political theorist. She is noted (with Ayn Rand and Isabel Paterson) as one of the founding mothers of the American libertarian movement and is also considered one of the seminal forces behind the American Libertarian Party.[1]</p>
ALEXANDER THE GREAT ON POPULAR ALBANIAN TRADITION</p>
It was after the seas that the greeks came. They came in boats across seas, and they were strange peoples that were never seen before, speaking a strange tongue. their boats came to the shores in the south, and our fathers had never seen boats. That was the coming of the Greeks. They came, and cameagain, and stayed, and built cities. the fathers of the Shqiptars stayed in the mountains and watched them, and went down and gave them gifts. We did not kill them, as we might have done when they were few and weak and there were no Five Powers.
“The Greeks were always a soft people- except one tribe of them, whose name I do not remember. There was one tribe of good fighting men. but most Greeks were palinsmen. from the first they loved to sit and think, to talk and write, and read to one another what they had written. That was their pleasure.
” For this reason all mountain men who like to take pleasure in that way went down to their cities and learned from the Greeks how to write, and having learned, they stayed their and wrote, and read what they had written and in this way their days passed and no song was sung about them. But the greeks did not come to the mountains. When at last the mountain men down to Greece behind their king, then there was no Greece, And for these many years of years there would be no Greece if the Five Powers would take their hands from the Balkans.
The old did not speak without interruption. There were promptings and contributions from his listeners, and now and then a question from us. And he had to be brought back to Lec i madhe, for the politics of his own lifetime were fresher in his mind and more stirring to his emotions.</p>
Lec i Madhe was not a wise man like his father, but he was a chief and a fighter, and a leader of great fighters,” said he. “There were twenty-one kings before his father, who were kings of all tribes from the Black sea to the Adriatic sea, north of the tribes of Greeks. The kingdom was made by karanna who was a foreign chief from the Eastern shores of the Black Sea. he came over the sea and made united kingdom and its capital Emadhija(Great city). After him came these kings: Cenua, Trimi, Perdika, Argua, Filip, Ajeropi,and Ajeropi was the first king whose family was of the pure blood of our fathers who came first from the east. After him there were other kings: Alqeti the son of Ajeropi; Aminti the son of Alqeti, who was the ally of Darius king of Persia. Then Lec the son of Aminti: Perdika i dyte(the second), the son’s of Perdika, Arqelloja i dyte, the son of Arqelloja; Armint i dyte the son of Arqelloja i dyte; Pafsania who was a foreiner; Armint i trete(the third), the son of Arminti i dyte; Lec i dyte the son of Arminti i trete; ptolemeoja, who was a foreigner; Perdika i trete, of the family of Perdika; Armint’i katerte(the fourth), the son of Lec i dyte, and Lec i Madhthe son of filip i dyte and after Lec i Madhe was Filip i trete—”
But here the genealogy breaks off, for we wished to hear more of Lec i Madhe, andwe never came back to the story of his successors.
“Lec i Madhe was born in Emadhija in the Mati,” began the old man, and was interrupted by three small shrieks of excitement.
“Alexander the Great born in Albania!” WE EXCLAIMED. “But-but it is written that he was born in Macedonia!”
“There were at the time two capitals of the united kingdom,” said the old man. “There was Pela, between Salonika and Monastir, and there was Emadhija, the old capital, lying in the valley which is now Mati, In Pela and in Emadhija Filip the Second had great houses, and sometimes he was in Pela and sometimes in Emadhija. There was trouble between Filip the Second and his wife, because she loved Emadhija and would not go to Pela. She went it is true but did not want to. And there was trouble between them because of a Greek woman of Pela. I do not know the song, but I think that it was fancy and foolish, for Filip the Second was a good man and a wise king. But this true that before Lec i madhe was born his mother left Pela and came back to Emadhija, and it was in Emadhija that Lec i Madhe was born, and there he lived until he was out of the cradle. He rode a horse on a horse when he first went down to Pela, and Filip the Second came out from Pela to meet him, and it was from the back of a horse Lec i Madhe first saw his father.</p>
And it is said that when lec i Madhe rode down from Emadhija with his mother and many chiefs of the Malsori they passed through the valley of Bulqis, where there are springs of strange waters, and that as they passed through the forest- there was in those days a great forest in the Bulqis, where now there are fields of grain- they rested by one of the springs, in the place where the great rocks are standing in rows. There they heard a sound of singing in a strange tongue, but the end of the song they understood, and the ending of the song was, “long live lec, the son of Filip i dyte, Lec i Madhe, the king of the world!”
“Filip the Second was proud of his son, and pride led him to one great folishness of a good wise king. He said he would make Lec i Madhe king of the world, and that was well enough, but he thought that the king of the world must more learned than himself. Whereas all old men who have watched the ways of the world know that to be strong and ruthless will make a man powerful, but learned makes a man full of dreams and hesitations. in his pride and blindness, Filip the Second sent to Greece for an Albanian who had learned the ways of the Greeks, and to that man he the boy, to be taught books.”
“Really, this too much!” said Alex. “Aristotle an Albanian?”
“Yes continued the old man, taking the amber mouthpiece from his lips and tranquilly answering the sound of the name,”his name was Aristotle, and he was from a family of the tribe of Ajeropi, his father having gone to a village in Macedonia and became a merchant there. Being rich, he sent his son, who was fond of thought rather than action, to learn the Greek ways of thinking. And it was this man who was brought back by Filip the Second to teach his son, though there were many chiefs of the Malsori who could have shown him how to be a man and a leader of men.
“The end of it was that Lec i Madhe became the king of the world. Is that written in the books? Po? is it written that he was made king of the world by the chiefs of the malsori who loved his father, and that Lec i Madhe himself was no man, nor ruler of men? is it written that when the Malsori came back to their mountains after following Lec i Madhe to the ends of the earth they sang a song saying it was good that the eyes of Filip the Second were closed forever, that they might shed tears of shame for his son? Is it written that this harm was done to the Shqiptars by a man who had gone down to the cities to learn from the Greeks to despise his own people?”
“No,” I said.’it is not exactly written so,”
But there were expostulations from some who, as Albanians, were proud of Lec i Madhe and would cry down this attack on their renowned king, and objections from others who contended that the old man was right, and all these we
Per me shume artikuj te ngjashem vizitoni: http://www.albpelasgian.com/?p=140
Here I’d like to present some accounts of Rose Wilder Lane (1886 – 1968) from her marvelous book ‘The Peaks of Shala’ (1923) which contains her impressions during she visited Northern Albania. Let’s give a short biography of her.</p>
Rose Wilder Lane (December 5, 1886, De Smet, Dakota Territory October 30, 1968, Danbury, Connecticut) was an American journalist, travel writer, novelist, and political theorist. She is noted (with Ayn Rand and Isabel Paterson) as one of the founding mothers of the American libertarian movement and is also considered one of the seminal forces behind the American Libertarian Party.[1]</p>
ALEXANDER THE GREAT ON POPULAR ALBANIAN TRADITION</p>
It was after the seas that the greeks came. They came in boats across seas, and they were strange peoples that were never seen before, speaking a strange tongue. their boats came to the shores in the south, and our fathers had never seen boats. That was the coming of the Greeks. They came, and cameagain, and stayed, and built cities. the fathers of the Shqiptars stayed in the mountains and watched them, and went down and gave them gifts. We did not kill them, as we might have done when they were few and weak and there were no Five Powers.
“The Greeks were always a soft people- except one tribe of them, whose name I do not remember. There was one tribe of good fighting men. but most Greeks were palinsmen. from the first they loved to sit and think, to talk and write, and read to one another what they had written. That was their pleasure.
” For this reason all mountain men who like to take pleasure in that way went down to their cities and learned from the Greeks how to write, and having learned, they stayed their and wrote, and read what they had written and in this way their days passed and no song was sung about them. But the greeks did not come to the mountains. When at last the mountain men down to Greece behind their king, then there was no Greece, And for these many years of years there would be no Greece if the Five Powers would take their hands from the Balkans.
The old did not speak without interruption. There were promptings and contributions from his listeners, and now and then a question from us. And he had to be brought back to Lec i madhe, for the politics of his own lifetime were fresher in his mind and more stirring to his emotions.</p>
Lec i Madhe was not a wise man like his father, but he was a chief and a fighter, and a leader of great fighters,” said he. “There were twenty-one kings before his father, who were kings of all tribes from the Black sea to the Adriatic sea, north of the tribes of Greeks. The kingdom was made by karanna who was a foreign chief from the Eastern shores of the Black Sea. he came over the sea and made united kingdom and its capital Emadhija(Great city). After him came these kings: Cenua, Trimi, Perdika, Argua, Filip, Ajeropi,and Ajeropi was the first king whose family was of the pure blood of our fathers who came first from the east. After him there were other kings: Alqeti the son of Ajeropi; Aminti the son of Alqeti, who was the ally of Darius king of Persia. Then Lec the son of Aminti: Perdika i dyte(the second), the son’s of Perdika, Arqelloja i dyte, the son of Arqelloja; Armint i dyte the son of Arqelloja i dyte; Pafsania who was a foreiner; Armint i trete(the third), the son of Arminti i dyte; Lec i dyte the son of Arminti i trete; ptolemeoja, who was a foreigner; Perdika i trete, of the family of Perdika; Armint’i katerte(the fourth), the son of Lec i dyte, and Lec i Madhthe son of filip i dyte and after Lec i Madhe was Filip i trete—”
But here the genealogy breaks off, for we wished to hear more of Lec i Madhe, andwe never came back to the story of his successors.
“Lec i Madhe was born in Emadhija in the Mati,” began the old man, and was interrupted by three small shrieks of excitement.
“Alexander the Great born in Albania!” WE EXCLAIMED. “But-but it is written that he was born in Macedonia!”
“There were at the time two capitals of the united kingdom,” said the old man. “There was Pela, between Salonika and Monastir, and there was Emadhija, the old capital, lying in the valley which is now Mati, In Pela and in Emadhija Filip the Second had great houses, and sometimes he was in Pela and sometimes in Emadhija. There was trouble between Filip the Second and his wife, because she loved Emadhija and would not go to Pela. She went it is true but did not want to. And there was trouble between them because of a Greek woman of Pela. I do not know the song, but I think that it was fancy and foolish, for Filip the Second was a good man and a wise king. But this true that before Lec i madhe was born his mother left Pela and came back to Emadhija, and it was in Emadhija that Lec i Madhe was born, and there he lived until he was out of the cradle. He rode a horse on a horse when he first went down to Pela, and Filip the Second came out from Pela to meet him, and it was from the back of a horse Lec i Madhe first saw his father.</p>
And it is said that when lec i Madhe rode down from Emadhija with his mother and many chiefs of the Malsori they passed through the valley of Bulqis, where there are springs of strange waters, and that as they passed through the forest- there was in those days a great forest in the Bulqis, where now there are fields of grain- they rested by one of the springs, in the place where the great rocks are standing in rows. There they heard a sound of singing in a strange tongue, but the end of the song they understood, and the ending of the song was, “long live lec, the son of Filip i dyte, Lec i Madhe, the king of the world!”
“Filip the Second was proud of his son, and pride led him to one great folishness of a good wise king. He said he would make Lec i Madhe king of the world, and that was well enough, but he thought that the king of the world must more learned than himself. Whereas all old men who have watched the ways of the world know that to be strong and ruthless will make a man powerful, but learned makes a man full of dreams and hesitations. in his pride and blindness, Filip the Second sent to Greece for an Albanian who had learned the ways of the Greeks, and to that man he the boy, to be taught books.”
“Really, this too much!” said Alex. “Aristotle an Albanian?”
“Yes continued the old man, taking the amber mouthpiece from his lips and tranquilly answering the sound of the name,”his name was Aristotle, and he was from a family of the tribe of Ajeropi, his father having gone to a village in Macedonia and became a merchant there. Being rich, he sent his son, who was fond of thought rather than action, to learn the Greek ways of thinking. And it was this man who was brought back by Filip the Second to teach his son, though there were many chiefs of the Malsori who could have shown him how to be a man and a leader of men.
“The end of it was that Lec i Madhe became the king of the world. Is that written in the books? Po? is it written that he was made king of the world by the chiefs of the malsori who loved his father, and that Lec i Madhe himself was no man, nor ruler of men? is it written that when the Malsori came back to their mountains after following Lec i Madhe to the ends of the earth they sang a song saying it was good that the eyes of Filip the Second were closed forever, that they might shed tears of shame for his son? Is it written that this harm was done to the Shqiptars by a man who had gone down to the cities to learn from the Greeks to despise his own people?”
“No,” I said.’it is not exactly written so,”
But there were expostulations from some who, as Albanians, were proud of Lec i Madhe and would cry down this attack on their renowned king, and objections from others who contended that the old man was right, and all these we
Per me shume artikuj te ngjashem vizitoni: http://www.albpelasgian.com/?p=140