Albanian Songs of the Frontier Warriors

Albanian Songs of the Frontier Warriors (Albanian: Këngë Kreshnikësh or Cikli i Kreshnikëve) are part of the traditional cycle of the Albanian epic songs. They took their definite form in 17th and 18th century and were orally transmitted by the Albanian bards. The songs were first time recorded in written form in the first decades of the 20th centuries by the Franciscan priests Shtjefën Gjeçovi and Bernardin Palaj. Palaj was eventually the first to publish them in Albanian in 1937. The songs were translated into English by Robert Elsie, who published them for the first time in 2004. The Albanian bards' tradition of singing the songs from memory is one of the last survival of its kind in modern Europe.

Songs emerged in the South Slavic milieu and were transmitted by bilingual singers to (some would say back to) the Albanian milieu. Research shows that the songs originate from 17th and 18th centuries, and were orally transmitted by the Albanian bards. Although they were transmitted from the South Slavic milieu of Bosnia, they are not simply translated from Serbo-Croatian, but they independently evolved in the northern Albanian highlands.

Franciscan priest Shtjefën Gjeçovi, who was the first one to collect the Albanian Kanun in writing, also began to collect the Frontier Warrior Songs and write them down. From 1919 onward, Gjeçovi's work was continued by Reverend Bernandin Palaj. Both Gjeçovi and Palaj would travel on foot to meet with the bards and write down their songs.Këngë Kreshnikësh dhe Legenda (English: Songs of Frontier Warriors and Legends) appeared thus as a first publication in 1937, after Gjeçovi's death and were included within the Visaret e Kombit (English: Treasures of the Nation) book.

At this time, parallel to the interest shown in Albania in the collection of the songs, Yugoslav scholars became interested in the illiterate bards of the Sanjak and Bosnia. This had aroused the interest of Milman Parry, a Homeric scholar from Harvard University, and his then assistant, Albert Lord. Parry and Lord stayed in Bosnia for a year (1934–1935) and recorded 12,500 texts.

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