Accursed Mountains and their Legend.
In the flux of expulsion from Ottoman occupation, when refugees fled to the mountains or hid in caves for safety at times of strong winds and rainstorms, a legend about some mountains come to my mind; a legend about Accursed Mountains, or “Bjeshkët e Namuna” as the original Albanian name goes.
The history of a mother with two sons
Once upon a time, far up in northern Albania lived a mother with her two children. The Turkish Soldiers had killed her husband. And she was obligated to leave her house and escape the Ottomans by climbing the mountains “Bjeshket e Nalta” above the flat area of Dukagjin. She was in the middle of nowhere, running and carrying her two little children in her arms.
The forced escape
Oh, poor mother, she had no time to think as the ottoman soldiers could catch them at any time. Fearing the enemies and devastated by the death of her beloved husband, she couldn’t look behind to see that her home, her ‘home, dear home,’ was burning down. She was traumatized and hurt.
In search of water – the source of life
Sadly, as they’re running, her eyes were losing sight, darkened by the thirst, in the rush of the escape she couldn’t get any water, and there were no springs on her path. The more she walked, the more the mountains rose; the more she tried to avoid the sun, the more ruthless seemed the summer blaze. And they kept walking as far away as possible from the invading Turkish soldiers. That July sun was scorching, and thirst was exhausting them all. The water lines at that time, on both sides above the Drin fountain, were dried out.
Even the snow that usually remained until late August, unfortunately, on that July day when they needed it, had melted away disappearing from the face of the earth.
– “Mother…water, water,” – insisted the little boy; now, he wasn’t hungry any more because of the heat.
But there was no water…
-“Mother, please a drop of water, please…” pleaded the little boy, not realizing that this was not in the willpower of his poor mother.
There was not a single drop of water to moisten their cracked lips. The bewildered mother tried to comfort the little one, while the older one did not make a sound, even though his lips did have much bigger cracks from unbearable thirst.
-“We will find water immediately, sweetheart, please try to resist… “Gurrat e Bardha” is not far away,” – said the desperate mother in grief, trying to encourage him.
The “Gurrat e Bardha” passed, but there wasn’t water on those sources either, so they went up to “Mali i Thatë.” Herds of sheep and shepherds were gone as if the land had devoured or wolf had eaten them all, and no bells echoed throughout “Bjeshkët e Nalta,” as they usually did once shepherds call them. It looked like there wasn’t a single person left on earth.
The mother’s course
The children were tired, their lips turned into some char as cinder, their energy was gone, and they could not speak because of thirst and exhaustion, so they began to murmur and talk raving. Mother couldn’t bear it anymore and plunged in despair. Her tears did not fall to get her son’s lips, but she saw in despair how her children were suffering and dying right before her eyes. But before the children were overwhelmed by the agony before the tragedy happened, she cursed in anger:
“Hey, mountains, may you never have water! May flame burn you! May cloud darken you!” And she dropped down on the ground where her children were suffering their last moments of agony.
What happened after the Accursed Mountains?
Others still refer to the Legend that the mother’s curse caught all the mountains above Dukagjini, on either side of the White Drin river.
The fire of that curse burned the Accursed Mountains and the clouds sometimes fulminate in the clear sky, burning whole forests. You couldn’t find two stones together. The anguish grasps you as you watch thousands of acres burned, hillsides ablaze rising to the surface, sparks glistening in the sun. The curse follows these hills to this day: fires repeat every year, at the same time as Mother’s journey: every time that happens, the vegetation and thin shoots begin to fall, lightning hits and burns spruce and fir shoots.
The rock and the ritual
My grandmother used to tell me that in the Accursed Mountains there is a rock, a carved stone, where you can distinguish the mother and her two children, with a bottle and a bucket of water.
The shepherds, as they pass by that rock, pour a stream of water to moisten their lips, the mother’s, and her children.
The Serbian version for the same toponym – Accursed Mountains
A much later Serbian version tells another legend about the curse on the Accursed Mountains. According to this Legend, when the Serbian army, after being defeated by the Rugova Highlanders and those of Dukagjini, were exhausted by the ferocious sun while climbing the Mountains. The Serbian military scorched by sunrays fell bellows into the grassland. Their Legend, coined by military chroniclers, says that their general said, “Be damned!” (Prokleta da si). In their language, “Prokletije” means “Cursed.” It is interesting that on the geographical maps, both toponyms were marked for over fifty years.
Albanian Alps, situated in the northern part of Albania, is part of the Accursed Mountains.
