The Tale of the Eagle - to all our non-albanian friends

Day 1,540, 13:12 • Published in Albania Ireland • by VisarJ


I have dedicated this article to all our non-Albanian speaking friends that would like to know more about us and our spirit.

For those of you that don't know, the Tale of the Eagle is an Albanian folk tale that explains how Albania and Albanians received their indigenous name:

A young man was hunting in the mountains. An eagle flying above him alighted on top of a crag. The eagle was especially large and had a snake in its beak. After a while, the eagle flew away from the crag where it had its nest. The young man then climbed to the top of the crag where he saw, in the nest, an eaglet playing with the dead snake. But the snake wasn't really dead! Suddenly it stirred, revealed its fangs and was ready to pierce the eaglet with its deadly venom. The youth quickly took out his bow and arrow and killed the snake. Then he took the eaglet and started going back to his home. Suddenly the young man heard above him the loud whir of the great eagle's wings.

"Why did you kidnap my child?" cried the eagle.

"The child is mine because I saved it from the snake which you didn't kill," answered the young man.

"Give me back my child, and I will give you as a reward the sharpness of my eyes and the powerful strength of my wings. You will become invincible, and you will be called by my name!".

Thus the young man handed over the eaglet. After the eaglet grew, it would always fly above the head of the young man, now a grown man, who with his bow and arrows killed many wild beasts of the forest, and with his sword slew many enemies of the land. During all of these feats, the eagle faithfully watched over and guided him.

Amazed by the valiant hunter's deeds, the people of the land elected him king and called him Shqipëtar, which is to say Son of the Eagle (shqipe or shqiponjë is Albanian for eagle) and his kingdom became known as "Shqipëria" or Land of the Eagles.The two heads on the eagle represent the north and the south of the ballkan lands.

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It is also said that the eagle gave the young man, half of the egg shell, which the young men used it as a skull cap. In this way the eagle could see him from above and help him in difficult situations. This is believed to be the origin of the PLIS traditional skull cap, which is worn by Albanian men throughout Albania, in Kosova, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, and in the Arbëresh villages in Italy