Albanian Bee () was a collection by

Thimi Mitko Thimi (Euthimio) Mitko (1820 – March 22, 1890) was an activist of the Albanian National Awakening and folklorist. Mitko was born in Korçë, Albania (then Ottoman Empire), where he attended the local Greek school. His uncle, Peti Mitko, ...

Albanian folklore Albanian folklore is the folk tradition of the Albanian people. Albanian traditions have been orally transmitted – through memory systems that have survived intact into modern times – down the generations and are still very much alive in the mo ...

. Published in 1878, it was the first compilation of oral works designed for the

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 ...

public.

History

The first to collect Albanian folk material were European scholars of the mid 19th century, followed particularly by philologists and linguists concerned with recording a little known

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

language. The

Albanian National Awakening The Albanian National Awakening ( or ), commonly known as the Albanian Renaissance or Albanian Revival, is a period throughout the 19th and 20th century of a cultural, political, and social movement in the Albanian history where the Albanian ...

, aimed at protecting and promoting the interests of the Albanian people, gave rise to native collections of Albanian folklore. By highlighting the long traditions, national affirmation was sought. Thimi Mitko, a member of the Albanian community in Egypt, first showed interest in Albanian folklore in 1859. According to

Spiro Dine Spiro Risto Dine (1846–1922) was an Albanian rilindas, writer and playwright. His most known work "Waves of the Sea" was at the time of its publication the longest book printed in Albanian. Life Spiro Dine was born in 1846 in Vithkuq, in th ...

, by 1866 Mitko was providing Demetrio Camarda with material for his collection. Mitko also had contacts with the European poets Gustav Mayer, Urban Jarnik and

Girolamo de Rada Girolamo de Rada ( Arbërisht: ''Jeronim de Rada''; 29 November 181428 February 1903) was an Arbëreshë folklorist, journalist, lawyer, playwright, poet, rilindas and writer. He is regarded as one of the most influential Albanian writers of ...

. In 1874, he finished his own collection of 505 folk songs, and 39 tales and old sayings. The work, focused mostly on material from southern Albania, was written in

Greek script The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BC. It was derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and is the earliest known alphabetic script to systematically write vowels as w ...

. According to Mitko, the intention was to provide Egypt's Albanian community with information about Albanian origins, customs and character. His view was that the heroic songs collected by him showed that Albanians, by keeping the memory of history through songs, had a love of country and their fellow countrymen, regardless of religion. Mitko preserved the wealth of Albanian folk literature by classifying the content based on genre. In 1878 it was published in

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

under the Greek title ''Albanike melissa'', with the Albanian ''Bëlietta shqipëtare'' placed as subtitle. Mitko also prepared an additional collection of folk literature, the ''Little Bee'' that never got published. A copy of ''Albanian Bee'' is said to have been publicly burned by Greek nationalists in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

. By the time the work was published, the Western European

Romantic Movement Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

was in decline, and interest in folklore was waning. ''Albanian Bee'' gained new popularity after it was published in the modern Albanian alphabet by

Gjergj Pekmezi Gjergj Pekmezi (23 April 1872 – 24 February 1938) was an Albanian linguist, philosopher, folklorist and diplomat. In 1916, he became a member of the Literary Commission of Shkodër, which established the first standard form of the Albanian langu ...

in 1934.

References

{{Reflist Albanian literature 1878 works

History

See also

References