A comparative review of the development of Serbian and Albanian folk epic poetry

The paper discusses the continuity of Serbian folk epic poetry since the Early Middle Ages in relation to the discontinuity of Albanian folk epic poetry, in both cases determined by the historical and cultural setting. The research foregrounds the songs of Kosovo Albanians about the Battle of Kosovo, and a cycle of songs about borderland warriors (krajisniks) as well. In terms of motifs and ideological orientation, the former remained on the crossroads between the Serbian-Christian and Moslem-Turkish conceptions, whereas the latter conformed to the Moslem conception. The greatest similarities to the Serbian ?non-historical? epic poetry were demonstrated by the so-called Italo-Albanian songs, brought from Albania to Italy by the Albanian refugees fleeing the Turks. The paper is also an attempt at using scholarly arguments to refute the non-scholarly interpretations of epic techniques, characters and motifs, constructed for the purposes of political pretensions to the territory of the Serbian province as an exclusively Albanian land.